Dingjiangshan

Jiang Ling managed to shake off the tail behind him, and took a few steps up the stairs.

A little girl was waiting at the corner of the stairs, he was relieved to see her coming up alone, and hurriedly led her inside.

"Our shopkeeper is waiting for you inside." The little girl led Jiang Ling to the door of a private room separated by a bamboo curtain, and then blessed her body slightly: "You can go in yourself."

Jiang Ling hummed, opened the bamboo curtain and walked in, and found an old man with white beard and white hair sitting inside. Seeing her enter the room, he stood up tremblingly, intending to salute her.

Jiang Ling supported the other party, and said, "You don't have to be polite, old man—are you the shopkeeper of this Huaiyu pawn shop?"

"Exactly." The old man twirled his long beard and smiled, "I used to be the old housekeeper of Prince Gong's mansion 20 years ago, sir, just call me Liu Cai."

Jiang Ling respected the old man who could be her grandfather, so she couldn't call him by his first name, so she politely helped him and said, "Uncle Liu, do you know me?"

"There was a letter from the Luzhou Mansion." Uncle Liu sat back behind the tea table, motioned for Jiang Ling to sit down too, and then said, "Your Excellency was entrusted by our shopkeeper."

"Yes." Jiang Ling said, "Your shopkeeper said that if you don't understand anything, you can ask for help."

"Yes, yes, yes." Liu Cai twirled his beard and asked, "I don't know what kind of problem my lord has encountered?"

Jiang Ling cut to the chase and said, "I want to ask the shopkeeper, how much do you know about Princess Changle Shen Tinghe?"

"Shen Tinghe?" Liu Cailue thought for a while, and said: "The Shen family is in Anqing Mansion, and it can be regarded as a family of officials. It's just that the family is not rich and the number of people is small. Compared with the capital, it must not be enough. .”

"This Miss Shen is quiet and timid, she doesn't leave the door, she seldom goes out for a stroll on weekdays, the old man doesn't know much - only once, Miss Shen once came to the pawnshop to pawn a golden lucky bag .It’s just that she covered her face with a bamboo hat, took the servant girl with her, and left without saying a few words after finishing her work.”

"She is short of money?" Jiang Ling asked.

"That's not true." Liu Cai smiled and said, "My lord is from the capital. Maybe I don't know, but our place is a bit particular about the way of life. If you go to a temple or Taoist temple to ask for something, if you get someone's lottery, If the wish is not fulfilled by the beginning of spring next year, this lottery will be useless and must be dispersed."

Jiang Ling had heard about this kind of rule. In the past, Ning Yan used up the safety amulets every year and sent them back to the National Teacher's Mansion, where Jing Zhan burned them himself.

"But why did you send it to the pawn shop?" Jiang Ling asked, "Isn't it okay to lose it?"

"No." Liu Cai said: "This thing must be placed in a suitable place. It is unknown whether to give it away or throw it away at will. The old man guessed that Princess Shen was afraid that it would be inappropriate to distribute it to others, so she lost it, so she made it. come over."

This is a way, Jiang Ling thought, the pawn shop's warehouses are strictly numbered, and idlers are not allowed to enter, it is indeed a good place to store things.

From this point of view, Shen Tinghe is not like the pedantic and old-fashioned person she imagined, and his mind is very active.

"Does she believe in ghosts and gods?" Jiang Ling asked again.

"I probably believe it." Liu Caidao: "In the past, on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year and a few big days, Concubine Shen would go to the gymnasium outside the city to burn incense, worship God and add sesame oil. go again."

Jiang Ling nodded, she pondered for a moment, and said, "Can you show me what Shen Tinghe pawned?"

"Of course." Liu Cai said, calling the little girl who came to serve at the door, and sent her to pick up things from the warehouse.

The little girl walked very fast, but she turned back in less than half a cup of tea and handed Jiang Ling a small golden blessing bag.

Jiang Ling didn't shy away from it, he picked it up and took it apart, tearing off the fragile gold embroidery thread on the lucky bag, and picked out a small lottery paper from inside.

Jiang Ling originally thought that people like Shen Tinghe were either looking for a child or for the wealth of the family, but when the paper was unfolded, she realized that what she was looking for was the safety and prosperity of her youngest son and a long life.

What a humble and simple wish, Jiang Ling thought.

No wonder this signature was discarded as an "unfulfilled wish". Ning Zheng had already reached this point, and Shen Tinghe probably also realized that once Ning Zheng was defeated, she and her child would not be able to survive alone.

Jiang Ling was silent for a while, already having a plan in mind.

She folded the signature paper in her hand and put it into her sleeve, sighed in her heart for the first time, and reflected on herself for the immoral thing she was about to do.

After a while, Jiang Ling collected himself and asked calmly, "Uncle Liu, do you have any incense and cinnabar here?"

Following Jiang Ling's two guards wandered around downstairs twice, and no one came down after drinking two cups of tea. His heart was a little beating. The older one had been entrusted with an errand by Ning Zheng, so he paid special attention to Jiang Ling. , I couldn't sit still, and wanted to go upstairs to see the situation.

It's just that as soon as he got up, he heard footsteps upstairs - it happened that Jiang Ling came down.

Behind Jiang Ling was a young girl who brought Jiang Ling to the stairs, smiled and handed Jiang Ling a heavy purse in her hand, and said, "Guest officer, these are your things, please put them away and walk slowly. "

Jiang Ling glanced at the people behind him out of the corner of his eye, and seeing the two men staring at the things in his hands as if they were enemies, he simply went to the counter, tore open the bag, and poured all the money inside on the counter, Then pretended to be counting, and stuffed them back into the empty purse one by one.

Anyway, Jiang Ling knew in his heart that if she didn't take the initiative to show it, the two of them would definitely find a way to investigate, so it's better for her to take the initiative to save herself from being suspicious.

Jiang Ling's candid attitude seems to have convinced the tail behind her. At least on the way back, the two of them didn't say anything to make Jiang Ling unhappy, they just stayed behind her not too far away, as if they were really here to protect her the average.

It was already dark when he returned home, Jiang Ling said "I want to rest" and went straight back to the small courtyard, closed the front and rear courtyard doors tightly, and took out a small box of incense and the damaged lucky bag from his cuff.

Jiang Ling didn't have time to slowly find out Shen Tinghe's temper and prescribe the right medicine. She didn't know how long Ning Zheng would go to the front and when she would return, so she had to act as soon as possible so as not to delay Ning Yan's affairs.

Jiang Ling lives in the outer courtyard of the palace, while Shen Tinghe lives in the inner house farther away, and he has to go around two inner doors to enter the main courtyard.

She closed the door, changed the cumbersome overcoat, stuffed the lucky bag and incense into her waistband, and walked around the small courtyard, patiently waiting for the dark.

Shen Tinghe in the inner courtyard didn't know anything about the upcoming changes. As soon as it got dark, she had an early dinner, washed up and carried her son to the couch.

Ever since Ning Chengyi's death, she was always uneasy and flustered when she saw everything.She refused to go out, and she refused to hand over her child to the nurse. She took the child to stay in the house from morning to night, as if that was the only way she could feel at ease.

Shen Tinghe's personal maid helped her put the gauze curtain in place, and moved the soothing incense that was lit earlier to the outside of her bed curtain, and extinguished the candle.

"It's getting late, does the princess want to rest?" the maid asked through the gauze curtain.

Shen Tinghe hugged his son and was shaking a small rattle in his hand. Hearing this, he hummed and said, "You go watch the night yourself, and I will call you if I have anything to do."

The maid responded, spread out the quilt, and sat at the door of the inner room, guarding the warm tea stove.

Shen Tinghe teased the child for a while as usual, held him in his arms, and taught him how to speak in a low voice.The child was born less than one year old, and he only babbled and smiled at his mother, making muffled whining sounds from his mouth.

Shen Ting's eyebrows were somewhat melancholy, she stroked the thin clothes on the child's body, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"My mother." Shen Tinghe said.

It's a pity that the child didn't know how much fear and uneasiness was in his mother's heart, so he just giggled and reached out to grab a pearl flower button on Shen Tinghe's neckline.

The beaded buckle was not tightly sewn, Shen Tinghe was afraid that he would break it and stuff it in his mouth, so he quickly hugged him to the bed and sat up, while getting out of bed he called the maid, wanting to change his underwear.

But she called twice but no one answered outside, Shen Tinghe felt that something was wrong, her maid was the most clever, and it was not late at night, so it stands to reason that she wouldn't sleep like this.

So Shen Tinghe thought for a while, carried his son back to the crib, hung up the surrounding fences, and stepped on his shoes to go out to check the situation.

However, the maid who was supposed to be guarding the tea stove disappeared inexplicably. The tea stove was beeping on the fire, and there were traces of someone sleeping on the bedding on the floor, but the person had indeed disappeared.

Shen Tinghe thought about it carefully, but he didn't remember hearing the sound of someone going out, so he couldn't help feeling a bit puzzled, subconsciously gathered his clothes and walked out of the room to check the situation.

However, Shen Tinghe was stunned as soon as he opened the door, a large thick fog rose outside at some point, the moonlight was almost gone, the whole yard was dark, and no human voice could be heard.

Shen Tinghe's heart trembled inexplicably, and subconsciously shouted: "Come on!"

—no one answered.

There were at least a dozen maids inside and outside the room, but no one answered her. Shen Tinghe's heart was pounding, and she walked out in a panic.Although the two maids who were watching the night in the porch were still there, they were already asleep, and she couldn't wake up no matter how much she called.

Shen Tinghe was a little scared.

She didn't know where the change came from, but she also felt that something was wrong. She wanted to go out to call the night guards outside, but she didn't have the courage to walk into the mist.

While she was hesitating, a very light sigh suddenly came from the mist, Shen Tinghe was startled, and asked in a trembling voice: "Who is it!"

The voice didn't answer, but sighed again.The voice sounded neither male nor female, rather ethereal, as if it came from the void.

"—Turn back in time, so I can do it myself."

The voice stopped, and suddenly a gust of wind passed, and then the crying of the youngest son came from inside the room.The voice was too sharp, Shen Tinghe's heart trembled, and he subconsciously turned around and rushed back into the house.

The young child was crying fiercely with his arms outstretched in the small crib, Shen Tinghe rushed to the bed and hugged the child up.

"What's the matter, Yao'er." Shen Tinghe hurriedly wiped away the tears on the child's face, looking at him anxiously, wanting to see if there was any discomfort on his body.

The child couldn't understand what the mother said, so he just kept crying, sobbing so much that he threw himself on his mother.

The sleeve on the youngest son's arm was rubbed open, Shen Tinghe glanced at it, but suddenly saw a little red mark on it.

Shen Tinghe was slightly taken aback, and subconsciously wiped it away, but the red mark did not move at all.Shen Tinghe rolled up his sleeves, but saw the red marks stretching all the way up from his wrist, the red marks did not look like blood nor wounds, the color was so bright that it looked extremely ominous.

At that moment, Shen Tinghe almost went crazy.

She hurriedly put the child back on the crib, tremblingly untied the child's clothes, trying to see where the red marks extended.But as soon as he unbuttoned the child's skirt, Shen Tinghe saw several extremely bright red spots appeared on the child's chest for no reason, the same color as the red mark.

The red dots are regularly distributed on the child's chest, forming a map of the Big Dipper.