Neverland

"Indeed." Xu Muzhou agreed, "When the court lady heard that we were going to investigate Song Xueyao, her first reaction was to stop her. Logically speaking, her identity is as good as Song Xueyao's. If Song Xueyao is killed for no reason, yes For her, no matter from which point of view it is reasonable, it is better to find out the situation—”

"—But her first reaction was, let us not 'disturb the peace of the empress'." Yan Cen laughed softly: "It seems that she is sure that Song Xueyao left peacefully."

Xu Muzhou turned his head to look out the window, the bell outside hadn't stopped, and Song Xueyao's youngest son was still crying while leaning on the coffin.

Can Song Xueyao really "rest in peace"?

Xu Muzhou walked back to Song Xueyao's bedside, and while putting all kinds of objects scattered on the bed back as they were, he asked casually, "But having said that, do you believe that she just came to do the daily cleaning and express her condolences by the way?"

"What do you think?" Yan Cen asked back.

"I don't believe it." Xu Muzhou said: "First, the things in this room are neat and tidy, and there is nothing to tidy up. Second, even if she is a big court lady, she doesn't have to bend down to sweep or wipe the floor with her own hands, and she can't do it empty-handed." Clean up the house, she at least brought in a basin or a rag."

As Xu Muzhou spoke, he raised his chin and tapped a small golden basin in the corner of the room, and said, "Unless she wants to use Song Xueyao's washbasin to wash the rag... and there is nowhere to fetch water."

The dowry maid next to the queen was described by him as like a primary school student who cleaned the sharing area during the centralized cleaning.

Yan Cen smiled, and then asked: "Then what do you think she is here for?"

"I think..." Xu Muzhou pondered for a moment, and he recalled the appearance of Xin Yi walking under the window just now.

Xin Yi was dragged in by Yan Cen. There was not much room for thinking about this forced behavior. Xu Muzhou skipped this short paragraph like a frame, and focused more on her after entering the door.

——Xin Yi seemed to have a very subtle movement of looking towards the bedroom.

"I think she came looking for something." Xu Muzhou said uncertainly, "Or... to get something, but I'm not sure."

"Why do you think so?" Yan Cen asked.

"First of all, she didn't really come to clean up, that's for sure." Xu Muzhou said: "We infer from common sense, what is an ordinary court lady sneaking into the master's room for? In Gongdou drama, usually in this situation, you either have to take things out, or you have to put things in."

Yan Cen was still listening to his analysis carefully, but he went astray after listening.

After Xu Muzhou put his things back, he flattened the wrinkled bed, making it look like no one had ever touched it, and after confirming that everything in the hidden compartment was the same as before, he walked back to Yan Cen's side.

"The former steals, and the latter plants it. It's that simple." Xu Muzhou said: "Song Xueyao is dead, and she has been dead for several days. If you put things in her palace at this time, you can't plant anything. But if it is Stealing is also impossible, Xin Yi is her grand maid, and she will guard the palace for Song Xueyao in the future, so she will not be short of money to spend—so I wonder if it is possible that she is just looking for something."

"If it is, it must have something to do with Song Xueyao." Yan Cen tilted his head to look at him, and then said: "Or, this may be an order that Song Xueyao gave before his death."

"Yes, so—" Before Xu Muzhou finished speaking, he suddenly stopped talking and looked up.

Yan Cen wanted to follow his gaze and turn back, but he held his shoulder.

"Someone is coming again." Xu Muzhou said quickly: "Not too fast, just passed the small gate."

It's winter now, and the window paper on the door is thin, Xu Muzhou can clearly see a thin girl with her head bowed and her back hunched, walking through the small door, towards their bedroom.

"It's really strange, one or two came here today." Xu Muzhou patted Yan Cen's shoulder, and said in a low voice, "Look at the clothes, it's the foreign girl I saw in the Xiaolingtang last time."

Yan Cen turned his head and glanced out the window.

While speaking, the girl had already walked over, less than half the distance from the sleeping hall.

Yan Cen made a decisive decision. He stood up, picked up the small round stool at hand, gestured to Xu Muzhou, and left the bedroom area first, and walked to the reception room on the other side.

Xu Muzhou followed his footsteps knowingly, only to realize that there was a cave behind the reception area. A small screen separated a small area of ​​three or four square meters, and inside it was a slightly narrower desk, several books, etc. Thin books and some oddball boxes.

Unlike Xin Yi, the foreign girl doesn't seem to be able to speak Chinese, and when she met her in the Xiaolingtang earlier, she couldn't understand Xu Muzhou's question.

In the case of a language barrier, the interrogation is meaningless.In addition, this girl didn't discover them in advance like Xin Yi did, so Yan Cen changed his mind and planned to see what she was going to do.

The other party obviously didn't come to Changqiu Palace often, and she didn't know what the bedroom was supposed to look like. She stood at the door facing the half-turned lock and hesitated for a while before pushing the door open.

To Xu Muzhou's surprise, the little girl didn't look like she didn't know much about Changqiu Palace, she walked into the door without looking up, just like turning into the bedroom on the left.

Xu Muzhou and Yan Cen hid behind the screen in the other room. Xu Muzhou leaned against Yan Cen's chest, and could clearly hear his slow heartbeat beating beside his ears.

Accompanied by the sound of Yan Cen's long and steady breathing, Xu Muzhou's thoughts paused for a moment before refocusing as if returning to his senses.

There was a slight rustling sound from the other side of the screen, Xu Muzhou bit the tip of his tongue, forcing himself to calm down.

He carefully poked half of his head out from the screen, bent over and observed the scene opposite Yan Cen up and down.

Most of the girl in foreign costumes turned her back to him, and she was hunched over and searching for something on Song Xueyao's dressing table.She seemed to respect Song Xueyao very much, even if she was doing such a sneaky thing, she only dared to do it when she knelt down in front of the dressing table.

The girl didn't seem to find what she was looking for in front of the dressing table. She took a few anxious steps and opened the small wardrobe beside her.

Soon, Xu Muzhou discovered that she had returned without success again.

She rummaged carefully in that small cubicle for a long time but couldn't find what she was looking for, and finally had no choice but to cast her eyes on Song Xueyao's bed.

The little girl hesitated for a moment, first knelt on the head of the bed and kowtowed three times, then stood up, knelt down on one knee again, put her right hand on her shoulder, and bowed deeply.

Xu Muzhou looked puzzled, and turned his head to look at Yan Cen.

Yan Cen's lips moved slightly, and he said softly: "She is from the grassland, and after performing the Han ceremony, they performed their own ceremony again."

——The rules are too big, Xu Muzhou said in his heart.

He turned his attention back to the little girl, and after seeing that she had finished saluting, he stretched out his hand tremblingly and opened Song Xueyao's hidden bedside compartment.

Although the little girl's back was completely turned to Xu Muzhou now, Xu Muzhou just saw her trembling and wished she would not touch anything, and felt that what she opened was not a drawer, but the gate of the capital of subjugation.

Xu Muzhou clicked his tongue, a little worried that the little girl would find that something was missing in the dark compartment at the head of the bed.He looked up at Yan Cen who had taken away the hairpin, but saw that the other party was calm, as if he was not worried about it at all.

There are not many hidden compartments on Song Xueyao's bedside, and there are few things inside, as long as they are opened, they can be seen at a glance.The little girl poked her head and looked for a long time, then reached in and searched around without giving up, but still couldn't find what she was looking for.

Her shoulders collapsed visibly, she lowered her eyebrows and walked away in a daze, without even looking at Yan Cen and Xu Muzhou the whole time.

"Interesting." Xu Muzhou came out from behind the screen, and thoughtfully said: "One is the maid of honor of Empress Miao Hong, and the other is the cronies of the poor little Concubine Shu who came here with her relatives. They came to the Changqiu Palace almost at the same time... Only a fool would believe it was a coincidence.

Xu Muzhou rubbed his chin, and asserted: "I reckon, the two of them are probably looking for the same thing."

Yan Cen took out the wolf bone hairpin from his bosom, and reflected it in the sunlight. When Xu Muzhou turned his head, he happened to see the red lines in the hairpin under the sunlight.

— lines like blood.

"It seems that this concubine Shu has nothing to do with Song Xueyao's death." Yan Cen said, "A little girl of a foreign race with no one to rely on... is interesting."

"But Concubine Shu may have died earlier than Song Xueyao." Xu Muzhou said realistically, "You see, Wei Wenxuan doesn't pay much attention to her, so it's hard to say whether to arrange a mourning hall for her immediately. And we saw that little girl that day When we were in the mourning hall, a thick layer of wax oil had accumulated on the temporary altar in front of the coffin, and no one cleaned it up, it seems that it has been at least five or six days."

"Death early does not mean that there must be no connection, and Concubine Shu may not necessarily be the murderer." Yan Cen put the hairpin back into his arms and said, "But having said that, look at the appearance of the foreign maid who came to the Changqiu Palace. Obviously she's used to it. And she and Xin Yi came to Song Xueyao's bedroom to look for things at the same time, which means that there must be something in Song Xueyao's bedroom that is related to both empresses."

"Do you think Song Xueyao has a relationship with Concubine Shu other than being a concubine?" Xu Muzhou asked.

"...can't be sure." Yan Cen said: "It needs to be investigated carefully."

"I suddenly thought of a question." Xu Muzhou said.

Yan Cen looked sideways at him.

"These two maids came to Changqiu Palace to find something." Xu Muzhou turned his head, looked directly at Yan Cen, and said, "But the man in black we saw in the mourning hall last night is obviously not...then What is he here for?"

"Xin Yi was subordinate to the dead Song Xueyao, and the girl of the foreign race was subordinate to the dead Concubine Shu, and the man in black was working for Concubine Lu without accident." Xu Muzhou said: "Three people, three forces... look at the foreign race. The girl came to the Changqiu Palace with the familiar vigor, let me count her and Xin Yi as one side, that is two forces."

Yan Cen understood what he meant.

"You mean, one pair and two." Yan Cen smiled: "You think these two murders are actually killing two birds with one stone."