Deep Palace past events

After a group of people walked quickly in the heavy rain for a while, they came to the big square that Yang Fan saw last night.I saw three eunuchs wearing bamboo hats walking towards this side quickly. Everyone recognized that the person on the left was Wang Dakang, and they stopped in unison, watching the three of them silently.

Yang Fan and Zhang Xiaomao saw that the two young eunuchs who were traveling with Wang Dakang were very strange, they were not eunuchs from the cleaning department, they looked at each other silently, feeling an ominous premonition in their hearts.

After the three eunuchs walked in front of everyone, Wang Dakang asked, "Where are you going?"

Yang Sanhe said: "I heard that An Datong was killed and the murderer hid his body in the icehouse. Everyone wants to take a look."

Wang Dakang said with a wry smile: "Yangsan Hema wrote books, you are all veteran eunuchs, and you still don't know the rules? Can anyone go in to watch the excitement at the murder scene? Such a heavy rain will lead everyone to run around!"

Yang Sanhe and Ma Shushu blushed, and were about to lead the crowd back when Wang Dakang suddenly said: "Yang Fan, Zhang Xiaomao, don't leave, we are going to find you."

The two young eunuchs were in charge of the investigation in the palace, and the eunuch on the left with thin lips and dark complexion glanced at them, and asked Wang Dakang with a serious face, "Which of the two of them is Yang Fan? "

Wang Dakang pointed at Yang Fan and said, "That's him."

When Yang Fan saw that the other party asked him specifically, he was even more uneasy.

The two young eunuchs looked at each other, and the thin-lipped man said to Wang Dakang, "Since we met them here, we won't go to the cleaning place, let them come with us."

Wang Dakang is the chief eunuch, and his status is actually higher than that of the other party, but the cleaning office in the palace is a place with a lot of work and little power, and it is thankless, so Wang Dakang has always had a face to the inside and a face to the outside. He was tall, but he didn't dare to put on the airs of the chief eunuch.Hearing what the eunuch said, he said flatteringly, "Okay, okay!"

Then he said to Jiang and Zhang: "You go with them and explain everything you know in detail. Don't come back until the Great Neifu asks you to come back."

After Wang Dakang led the crowd to leave, although Yang Fan and Zhang Xiaomao were terrified, they knew they couldn't escape, so they braved up and walked in the opposite direction with the two eunuchs.

After the four of them walked through the square silently, they walked into a straight and narrow alley.After walking through the high walls and deep alleys like a secret palace for a while, we arrived at the icehouse.

The ice house is just behind the imperial dining room. It is a place in the palace to refrigerate perishable food. Although it is under the management of the imperial dining room, it is a relatively independent large courtyard. Seven or eight willow trees are sparsely planted around the courtyard.The doors of each wing room are closed and no one lives there.

There are more than a dozen empty large jars in the compound, which seem to be used to hold pickled vegetables or vinegar.

The real ice store is actually built underground, separated from the store door by more than ten bluestone steps.

I saw three guards with knives standing in front of the gate, their faces were as frosty, and they pressed the handles of the knives at their waists. That kind of cold look was colder than the ice in the icehouse.

After Yang Fan and others walked outside the gate, one of the guards pushed open the heavy iron door of the ice storage and walked into the warehouse without asking any questions.

Yang Fan and Zhang Xiaomao waited anxiously for a while, only to see three old eunuchs with stern expressions coming out following the guard just now.

The three old eunuchs were all over [-] years of age, and all wore yellow palace uniforms. Judging from their demeanor and the color of their clothes, they should be eunuchs of higher status.

After the three of them looked at Yang and Zhang coldly, the tall and thin old eunuch at the head asked, "Which of you two is Yang Fan?"

"I am." Yang Fan felt more guilty when he saw the old eunuch asking himself again.

The old eunuch said calmly: "Well, you stand in the yard and wait for a while, let's ask Zhang Xiaomao some questions first."

After speaking, regardless of other people's opinions, he walked into the innermost room of the row of wing rooms on the left side of the yard.

Another old eunuch with white hair, childlike face and a fat figure followed in without saying a word.

The pale old eunuch cleared his throat twice, and said to Zhang Xiaomao in a hoarse voice, "Go in."

Zhang Xiaomao glanced at Yang Fan, followed him into the house with his head down.

After entering the room, the three old eunuchs sat in three side-by-side cool chairs, and asked Zhang Xiaomao to stand at a distance of two feet from the opposite side, asking him to tell what happened last night like a prisoner.

Zhang Xiaomao had already made up his mind, and he still said what he said to the two eunuchs who were chasing them last night.Originally, there were some loopholes in his words, but for some reason, the three old eunuchs seemed to believe them completely.

After Zhang Xiaomao left the house, Yang Fan was immediately called into the house.The three old eunuchs didn't ask any questions for a while, and the six old eyes were like six "ice swords", looking at him quietly.

Seeing their sharp eyes, Yang Fan felt more uncertain in his heart, and dared not look at each other, so he lowered his eyes to look at his new cloth shoes that were soaked by rain.

The room was silent for a while, and the old eunuch finally broke the silence: "Please tell me what happened to you last night."

"Yes, last night, Zhang Xiaomao might not be able to sleep, so he asked me if I would like to go to the imperial dining room to see Gao Zhaohui who entered the palace with us..." So he repeated Zhang Xiaomao's words.

After hearing his words, the three old eunuchs exchanged glances quickly for some reason.Then the old eunuch who hadn't opened his mouth asked aloud: "Listen to Eunuch Chen—that is, the pudgy old eunuch you met on the road last night—he said: At that time he stopped you for questioning, you said your name is Yang Fan is in the cleaning department, because he went to the imperial dining room to find Gao Zhaohui, but he couldn't borrow an umbrella, so he had to come back in the heavy rain, is that what you said?"

"Yes."

The old eunuch with white hair and childlike face asked sharply, "But we have already asked Gao Zhaohui just now, and he said that no one came to him last night. May I ask which of you two is lying?"

Yang Fan couldn't help complaining secretly when he heard the words, in fact, he already regretted that he shouldn't give his real name last night.Said: "I, I didn't find him, because I didn't know where the imperial dining room was at all, so I didn't borrow an umbrella."

The three old ladies did not make a sound while listening. After a long silence, "Hefa Tongyan" sighed and said, "Be honest, who is the murderer of the two of you?"

"None of us are murderers!"

"I think you are the murderer."

"Why do you say that, Eunuch An? I have no grudges or enmities with Eunuch An..."

"Whether there is no resentment or enmity, you know best in your heart."

Seeing that Yang Fan didn't intend to "bring it from the truth", "Hefa Tongyan" sighed: "Okay, let me point out a few loopholes in your confession."

"........."

"First, if you really just want to find Gao Zhaohui, you should borrow an umbrella before you go out. In addition, you can also ask the other eunuchs in the cleaning office where the imperial dining room is. But from your conversation just now, Neither of you mentioned these two points. It was late at night, and it was your first day in the palace. Without borrowing an umbrella or asking for directions, you went out with your bare heads looking for someone. Do you think it is credible? "

Yang Fan was speechless for a moment.

Seeing that Yang Fan's expression was changing, "Hefa Tongyan" looked serious, "Also, even if you didn't tell others where you are going, it's not a big deal. If you have no ghosts in your heart, why are you so afraid of people? When you see Lan Jingjing and Gaoliu, Run away like a mouse seeing a cat! You said you were looking for a lost copper plate, but according to Lan Jingjing and Gao Liu, they saw that you did not shine your lantern on the ground, but on the wall Photo, could it be that the copper plate flew to the wall? What's more, Gao Liu didn't find the copper plate on the wall, but found those seven characters! You said: is there really such a coincidence in the world?"

"..."

Seeing that Yang Fan was speechless and sweating profusely, the old eunuch at the head took the words and said, "What's more coincidental is that Eunuch An's name was written on the wall, and Eunuch An died strangely last night! Isn't this too much?" Coincidentally?

"Also, after Gao Liu saw the words on the wall, he immediately reported to our Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also sent Eunuch Chen to investigate. When Eunuch Chen went, two days had passed since Zhang Xiaomao was caught. It's time for incense sticks, but he meets you halfway!

"According to him, you didn't have an umbrella or a lamp. You walked alone in the heavy rain like a murderer. When you asked where you came from, you answered that you went to the imperial dining room. You said to yourself: so many loopholes, You want us not to suspect that you are the murderer, but to suspect who is the murderer?"

Yang Fan took a deep breath, "Okay, let me tell the truth—last night, Zhang Xiaomao went to clean the room, and suddenly... he found that someone had written the words 'An Datong is a fake eunuch' on the board wall. He was very surprised and scared, and ran away. I came back and asked me to see it. I was also very surprised after seeing it, but I also suspected that someone was playing a prank and making a public joke with Mr. An. So I suggested: Let’s look elsewhere. As a result, we were on that wall again Also found those seven characters!

"At this moment, the two eunuchs found us. When they asked, we... We didn't know why, but we turned around and ran in fright. After we parted at a fork in the road, I suddenly realized that there was no need for us to run away. I thought that those characters were not written by us, and we couldn’t write them even if we wanted to, because we only knew his name was Mr. An, but we didn’t know his name was An Datong. We didn’t run away to make people misunderstand Are we scribbling?

"So I turned back. Unexpectedly, at this time... when I reached a crossroads, I saw a court lady with a green lantern running quickly into an alley. Seeing her sneaky look, I suddenly became suspicious. : Could it be that she is playing tricks? I became curious, so I followed her quietly.

"I kept chasing to a big square, because the square was too big and empty, and it was not easy to hide like in the alley. I was afraid of being discovered by him, so I didn't dare to follow too closely. I just hid in the dark. I saw him walking quickly. Run across that square.

"I waited for him to leave for a while before I ran across the square, only to find that there was a forest on the other side of the square. It was dark and it was raining heavily. I couldn't see her because I didn't bring an umbrella or a lamp. Green Lantern, so had to go back.

"After meeting Eunuch Chen on the road, I wanted to tell the strange thing just now, but I felt that I didn't have any real evidence, and I was afraid that he would think I was meddling, so I didn't tell.

"I didn't know that Eunuch An had died at that time. It was only when I heard Eunuch Yang and the others chatting that I realized he was missing. The eunuch at the pharmacy learned that Eunuch An was killed."

These words were actually what he had thought up when he was standing in the yard waiting for interrogation just now. The main purpose of deciding to tell the story of the murderer was actually to divert the attention of the three old eunuchs.

——If Eunuch An didn’t die in the freezer, he might not have dared to tell the story of the murderer he witnessed. Now that he has learned that Eunuch An was killed in the freezer, he is buried in the clean room The dead person under the bamboo forest in the back is not Eunuch An.Since the murderer didn't kill Eunuch An, he wasn't the one who changed his name, and he wasn't the one who saved him, so he had no reason to keep her a secret.

What he said was half-truth and half-false, so naturally he wouldn't weave a lie full of loopholes like Zhang Xiaomao did.Sure enough, after the three old ladies listened to his words, although they hadn't completely dispelled their doubts about him, they mostly believed them.