Placid Chang'an

"My lord, my lord..."

The yamen servants called for several times before Su Cen came to his senses. Su Cen stared at Cao Wei in the corner, feeling a little dazed for a while.

"My lord, what's going on? We've been guarding the door, and no one has ever come in." The yamen servants also panicked, and followed Su Cen carefully to ask.

Su Cen collected herself, rolled up her sleeves, and went to check in person.

"Could there really be ghosts?" Several people whispered, "It's really evil ghosts seeking revenge, otherwise how could people die inexplicably?"

"He admitted just now that he killed 32 members of the Shen family. Can Shen Cun's ghost let him go?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, no wonder I'm so frightened, it turns out I really have a ghost in my heart."

Su Cen ignored the gossip, first carefully checked his pulse to make sure that the person was indeed dead, then he looked at Cao Wei's face, his face was blue and his brows were tightly frowned, it could be seen that he was quite scared when he died.

When the candle flame flickered, something seemed to lighten slightly at the corner of Cao Wei's mouth.

Su Cen's eyebrows moved, and he ordered, "Bring the lamp."

The yamen servant behind him immediately handed over the lamp, and when the light came on, Su Cen immediately recognized what looked like a string of saliva hanging from the corner of Cao Wei's mouth.

The yamen servant pointed out: "My lord, there are also on the clothes."

Su Cen nodded, twisted a little and put it under his nose to smell it.

"My lord, this..." The yamen servant holding the lamp behind him was a little surprised. He knew a little about this master Su who was so popular in Dali Temple. Putting on airs at them, but every move can tell that he is a top-notch person.I never thought that such a precious person would not be particular at all, and he would directly conduct an autopsy, not even dislike the vomit of the deceased.

Naturally, Su Cen didn't know the twists and turns in the yamen servant's mind, and looked at Cao Wei's body and fell into deep thought.Turning blue and vomiting, these are all signs of poisoning, but Cao Wei has not eaten for more than half a day, this room is surrounded by people from Dali Temple, no one has come in, so how did Cao Wei get hit poison?

After a while, Su Cen suddenly asked, "Do you smell anything?"

"Ah?" The yamen servant was taken aback, and stretched out his nose to sniff the air, "It seems... like the smell of garlic? Did Cao Wei go home and eat garlic?"

"He was in the yamen all afternoon, and we came as soon as he got home. He didn't have time to eat at all," Su Cen said coldly. I'm afraid it's just my own fingers."

Su Cen suddenly remembered something, and immediately took Cao Wei's hand to check under the lamp.All ten fingers were ragged by him, and there seemed to be something faintly between the fingers.

Su Cen's heart skipped a beat, and he turned around and said, "Turn off the light."

The yamen servant immediately obeyed the order and turned off the lights.

The room became pitch black again for a moment, and after everyone got used to the darkness in front of them, the green light in the painting came out faintly again.

When these people came in, they panicked for a while before, and they didn't notice that the lights turned on when the painting was painted. Now, watching a painting slowly turn into several dead heads, everyone present except Su Cen was terrified and screamed. Step back, "Ghost, it's a ghost!"

Su Cen ignored the commotion and carefully observed the changes in Cao Wei's body.After a while, I saw the vomit on the front of Cao Wei's mouth slowly glowing faintly, and when he pulled Cao Wei's hand, there was also vomit between his fingers.

Su Cen got up slowly, and slowly walked in front of the painting against the direction of the crowd. Under the horrified expressions of the crowd, he reached out and touched the painting through the shadow of the dead head.

Su Cen twitched the greasy touch of her fingertips, took out a handkerchief and wiped her hands clean, then turned around and said, "Hold the lamp, I already know what's going on."

Su Cen rushed back to Dali Temple overnight with the painting and Cao Wei's body. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Ning Santong approaching him with a happy smile, and said happily, "Brother Su, I know how they died!"

It was rare for Su Cen not to resist the title, nodded, and said to Ning Santong, "I know, it's white phosphorus."

"You..." Ning Santong was in disbelief, "How do you know?"

"It is said that during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Li Shaojun, an alchemist, was able to 'turn alchemy into gold'. After a certain alchemy, he found a piece of white wax at the bottom of the furnace. It can glow cold at night, is flammable, highly poisonous, and has a garlic smell." Su Cen sighed, "We should have discovered it a long time ago. Someone painted white phosphorous on the painting. Xu Youhuai, Liu Kang, and Cao Wei all thought that the treasure of the Shen family was hidden in the painting, so they would inevitably jump on the painting to study it carefully. White phosphorus will naturally rub on the surface, and it will burn quickly when it encounters an open flame, which also explains why Xu Youhuai and Liu Kang can burn it so thoroughly."

Ning Santong nodded, "I found some phosphorus powder on the three pieces of cloth on Xu Youhuai's body, so I deduced that they died of white phosphorus, but it's a pity that the armpit and crotch are not easy to scratch with foreign objects. It took a lot of effort." Turning his head to look at the corpse that was brought in again, "This one was also burned to death?"

Su Cen shook his head: "He died of poisoning."

"Poisoned?" Ning Santong was taken aback, and couldn't help laughing: "How did he get poisoned? Could it be that he lay down on the painting and licked it?"

"Knowing that both Xu Youhuai and Liu Kang were burned to death, he has deliberately avoided the source of the fire, but it's a pity—" Su Cen shook his head, "This man has the habit of chewing his nails when he's nervous. White phosphorus is highly poisonous. He gnawed off all ten of his fingers that day, and the white phosphorous left between his fingers entered his body, and he died of poisoning."

"This murderer is really deep in his thoughts. He even thought of painting white phosphorous on the painting, and only this kind of person who coveted the Shen family's treasure would be tricked. He was not greedy enough to kill himself. "Ning Santong looked at Su Cen, "What clues does this murderer have?"

Su Cen bit his lower lip and thought for a while, "The old man in Huazhai said that the butler of the Shen family who escaped by chance asked him to sell the paintings. Just now Cao Wei himself admitted that they killed 32 members of the Shen family, so it seems that the butler should Knowing the inside story, he is also the biggest suspect in this case. It’s just that the old man said that the butler died two years ago, and these things have yet to be verified.”

"They killed 32 members of the Shen family? Just for these few paintings?!" Ning Santong took a long breath, "No wonder they knew it was Shen Cun's relic and wanted to buy it back home. They had ghosts in their hearts! "

Su Cen nodded, and ordered the servants to carry the corpse to the mortuary, and patted Ning Santong on the shoulder: "Brother Ning, please help me do this autopsy overnight."

Ning Santong stood there blankly, no wonder this person is so talkative today, it turned out he was asking for something!Seeing that Su Cen was going to leave Ning Santong, he came back to his senses, and complained: "Didn't you say he died of poisoning? What else is there to check!"

"Just in case something changes." Su Cen waved the scroll in his hand, and went to the valet room without looking back.

Now that the three "Peaches of Peach Blossoms" are complete, Su Cen spread the three paintings on the table one by one. Because he was afraid of open flames, Su Cen specially placed the candlestick far away, and carefully looked at it by the weak candlelight.

The three painting brushes are dragons and snakes, and the azimuths and angles of the paintings are all the same. The inscriptions on the paintings are respectively Wuwu Jichun, Wuwu Zhongxia and Wuwu Mengqiu, which correspond to peach blossoms, fruits, and leaves respectively. It looks like It is painted from spring to autumn against a peach tree.

Could it be that Shen Cun hid the Shen family's treasure under such a peach tree back then?Thinking about it again, something like a peach tree changes every year, and there is no guarantee that the branch will still be there next year. Shen Cun does not seem to be hiding treasures, but rather wants to bury things in the ground forever.

If the source is not on the painting, could it be in the inscription?

The three poems are all from the "Book of Songs". There is nothing strange about it. The inscription is in the year of Wuwu, which is the 20th year of Yonglong.

Thinking about it again, Su Cen couldn't help shaking his head, no matter what, he followed Xu Youhuai's example and spied on other people's treasures.

Someone knocked on the door at the right time, Su Cen came in with a loud voice, and saw Qu Ling'er came in with a food box, and smiled and leaned forward, "Brother Su, you haven't been back for several days, you won't pay much for working so hard." Why bother when you hand out money?"

Seeing the food box, Su Cen remembered that not only Cao Wei hadn't eaten tonight, but even himself hadn't eaten a grain of rice.I didn't feel it when I threw myself on the case before, but now I saw this food box and realized that my already hungry chest was stuck to my back.

Su Cen took the food box over, thinking that this little bastard is quite conscientious, he piled the paintings aside, opened the food box, and couldn't help being dumbfounded.

After a while, Su Cen roared "Qu Linger!", and stopped Qu Linger who was about to slip away quietly.

Qu Ling'er turned her head resentfully, "Su, Brother Su, I just dropped by to bring food to Brother Qi... I really don't know that you haven't eaten at this hour? Your yamen is too ugly, It's fine if you don't pay more money, why don't you care about the food, hehe...hehehe..."

Qu Ling'er felt that she was in the wrong, and pointed embarrassingly: "Brother Qi didn't eat much tonight, so why don't you make do with it..."

"I'll take him?" Su Cen sneered, seeing the leftovers on the plate full of indifference. When did the second young master of the Su family eat other people's leftovers and suffer such grievances? He immediately buckled the food box viciously. Said: "They can't afford food in Xingqing Palace, can they? They still need my Su family to help!"

"Isn't it?" Qu Ling'er smiled flatteringly, and the more she said, the softer she said, "Brother Su, can you give me some more money, I have spent all my money preparing meals for Brother Qi this month... "

"Qu Linger, don't you count the white-eyed wolf? Are you addicted to sticking your hot face to someone's cold ass?" Su Cen was furious, "Why don't you build a city wall if you have such a brazenness? You can't get in. Do you have the face to ask me for money, and you have the face to rush to Qi Lin and ask him how the sword was calculated?"

As soon as the words finished, the person who had been standing outside the door cleared his throat, stepped forward, and put a food box in front of Su Cen: "Master asked me to deliver food to Master Su."

Su Cen: "..." Empress do not want to say that you are short, because it is easy to slap your face when you meet in the future.

This is indeed true, he just said that Xingqing Palace has no money to take care of food, and then Li Shi proved to him that Xingqing Palace can afford food.

Qu Ling'er was the most shocked. The two of them had never stood face to face since they came back from Yangzhou that day. Although he ran over to peek at her every now and then, after all, they never paid him any attention.

Su Cen still had a bit of a temper with Qi Lin, so he said in a nonchalant way: "Xingqing Palace really doesn't care about food?"

Qi Lin didn't change his face: "It doesn't matter."

"Our Su family's food is better than your Xingqing Palace's food?"

Qi Lin glanced at Qu Ling'er, and nodded without hesitation: "It's not bad."

"Of course that's good," Su Cen said sternly, "I have to eat what's left of you."

Qi Lin cupped his hands: "I dare not do it."

No matter how wronged you are, you can't wrong your stomach, Su Cen picked up the chopsticks and ate while saying: "Then I will go to the prince's place to settle the meal payment for these few months."

That means: I want to wear small shoes for you, and report black!

Qi Lin: "My lord also said that Mr. Su took good care of me on weekdays, and I was thinking of thanking you in person."

The meaning of the words: Just go, and see if you can get up from the grandfather's bed when the time comes.

Su Cen gritted her teeth angrily, a plate of fresh bamboo shoots crackled, thinking how a Turkic person could be so quick-spoken.

Qu Ling'er was terrified when she saw it, and she thought to herself, if there was a fight, who would he help?Resigned resentfully: "Su, brother Su, then I'll go first..."

Qi Lin: "Slow down."

Su Cen: "Stop!"

The two spoke at the same time, Su Cen glanced at Qi Lin, he made people stop because he didn't want Qu Ling'er to lose ground in front of this person again, what does Qi Lin mean by this?

I saw Qi Lin calmly said: "The curfew is over, I will take you back in a while."

Su Cen: "?"

Qu Linger: "!"

Su Cen pointed at the door: "Hurry up!"

Qu Ling'er didn't know where she was for a long time, she sat down on the stool dazedly, blushing and said: "I, I'll wait a little longer."

Su Cen almost didn't come up in one breath, but he still wanted to help this little white-eyed wolf get back the scene!

Su Cen buried her head in her meal and didn't bother to talk to these two anymore.Qu Ling'er picked up the painting on the table to hide it, from time to time she raised her head from the scroll to take a look at Qi Lin, and when Qi Lin saw it, she hurriedly lowered her head.

After a while Qu Ling'er couldn't help scratching her head and said, "Brother Su, what's the point of writing on the painting?"

Su Cen rolled his eyes, "That's called signing."

"Oh," Qu Ling'er nodded, "Then this painting is called Yu...gui? Is that how the word is pronounced? Is this the person who painted it?"

Su Cen suddenly stopped chopsticks.

Picking up the painting in Qu Ling'er's hand, she looked at it against the firelight, and saw that among the layers of green leaves, the veins criss-crossed, and the word "Yu Gui" was vaguely drawn.

Look at the other two pictures and find similar traces in the stamens and branches.

Before, he only paid attention to the composition of brushwork and ink rhyme, but he ignored the details!

Su Cen put the painting on the table and said silently, "Yu Gui... Li Yunxi."