Lamp Flower Smile

After the Qingming Festival, it rained more and more.

The water rose overnight, half of the horn lanterns attached to the railings of Luoyue Bridge were submerged. It had been raining for days, and the spring embankment was full of mud. Horse-drawn carriages passed by on the road, bringing up bursts of muddy water.

In the hall of the Si Li Mansion, Jin Xianrong was sitting on a chair reading the household register.

Jin Xianrong was in a very good mood.

Jin Xianrong's mood became much calmer after the doctor at the medical hospital was replaced by Dr. Lu.

The superficial symptoms of renal cystic carbuncle have improved to some extent. He took the medicine according to the prescription given to him by Lu Tong, and applied the medicine diligently every day. In addition, Lu Tong came to give him acupuncture every now and then. I wonder if it was Jin Xianrong's illusion. , his area was gradually improving, and it was no longer a pool of stagnant water, and he finally had some consciousness.

I think in a few months, it will be time to show off again.

Jin Xianrong picked up the tea cup and took a sip.

A carriage stopped at the door of Si Li's Mansion.

It was a carriage with a red wheel and canopy, more than twice the size of an ordinary carriage, and it looked extremely gorgeous. The curtain of the carriage was opened, and a young man wearing an indigo jade silk robe stepped out.

This man was of medium build, not too tall, with a fair face. At first glance, he looked very gentle, but his cheekbones were a little bluish-white, and his eyes were red, making him look a little tired upon closer inspection.

Jin Xianrong put down the tea cup, squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "Yutai is here."

The person who came was Qi Yutai, the young master of the Qi family of the Imperial Palace.

Today, Grand Master Qi Qing has a son and a daughter. His legitimate daughter Qi Huaying is a well-known lady in Shengjing, with beautiful appearance and outstanding talents. Although the eldest son Qi Yutai is not as good-looking as Qi Huaying, he is also proficient in poetry and calligraphy, has a good character, and is especially good at handwriting. He is praised by everyone in Shengjing. He does not have the bad temper of the aristocratic children, and is as well-behaved as a daughter. .

Of course, this is only apparent.

Qi Yutai walked into the hall, raised his hands to Jin Xianrong, and said very politely, "Jin Xianrong."

Jin Xianrong stood up from the chair, hooked Qi Yu's shoulder and walked in, saying affectionately: "A few days ago, someone in your house said that you caught a cold. Brother, I was worried for a while. Without you in the Si Li Mansion, I'm alone, I can't even attend to official duties, and my servants don't know what's going on. I won't refill the teapot even if it's empty. Just come back..."

"I'll send someone for more tea immediately..."

"Hey, what I said is like I'm waiting for your tea in Yutai..."

"..."

After saying a few more polite words and dismissing Jin Xianrong, Qi Yutai entered his room, closed the door, and sat on a chair.

There are some scattered official documents on the table.

It was accumulated during his absence, but it wasn't much in total. Nowadays, the Ministry of Household Affairs has no real power, so it is just a false position for him to save trouble. In the Ministry of Household Affairs, he is just messing around and collecting salary, and it makes no difference whether he is there or not.

Looking at those scrolls, Qi Yutai was a little irritable.

This job in the household department was arranged for him by his father Qingqing.

Qi Yutai didn't like this job.

As the only legitimate son of the Taishi Mansion, his father was worth more than ten thousand people, so he could not get any official position. Those children from official families who were not as good as him could still rise to the top by virtue of their family status, but his father arranged such a job for him.

A idle job, boring, with an end in sight and no future at all.

You also have to put up with annoying colleagues who like to take advantage of you.

He once expressed his dissatisfaction to his father, hoping that his father could arrange a more dignified official position for him. With His Majesty's reliance on his father, this was not difficult at all.

But Qi Qing seemed to be unable to see his complaints and flatly refused.

He could only stay in Si Li's Mansion.

The official documents on the table became more and more dazzling. Qi Yutai brushed them aside, picked up a fragrant pill from a jar on one side, lit it and threw it into the gilt double moth pattern incense burner on the table.

Xiangwan is the best Lingxi incense. Ever since Qi Yutai became a child, this scent has always been burning in his house. After he came to the Ministry of Revenue, his father had many more prepared for him to light in the Si Li Mansion.

However, when he left last time, the jar of Lingxi Incense was still full, but now there is only one left. It seems that Jin Xianrong took it away. Jin Xianrong has always loved to take advantage of this kind of thing.

Green smoke gradually emerged from the incense burner, and the familiar fragrance penetrated the tip of the nose, soothing the manic depression just now.

He took a deep breath and suddenly felt calm. He simply leaned back and closed his eyes to collect himself.

…

"Master Qi."

"Master Qi..."

Someone seemed to be talking in my ear.

Who is calling him?

Qi Yutai wanted to open his eyes, but found that his eyelids were heavy and he could not lift them up.

Is it a dream?

The voice was still calling him: "Master Qi..."

She vaguely looks like a woman.

The woman seemed to come up from behind and whispered in his ear, gently and mistyly, like an intermittent dream: "...do you remember Fengle Tower?"

Fengle Building?

He was still stunned when he suddenly felt something cold pressed against his neck.

Qi Yutai instinctively felt the danger. He wanted to shout and stand up, but he felt that his whole body seemed to be bound by invisible ropes. He had no strength to struggle. Even the words he spoke were soft. He said: " ……Who are you?"

The cold touch traveled on his neck, but the other party didn't answer.

"Master Qi," the man asked again, "do you remember Fengle Tower?"

As he said these words, the coldness on his neck deepened.

Qi Yutai convulsed.

He didn't remember Fengle Tower at all.

He wanted to leave, wanted to wake up from this inexplicable nightmare, but when he opened his mouth, he could only send out a weak "Help——"

The man's movements stopped.

After a while, Qi Yutai heard her speak, and she said, "Mr. Qi, don't you remember?"

"In the thirty-seventh year of Yongchang, you met a woman in Fengle Tower..."

"You killed her."

What is she saying?

What woman, what killed her, he had no idea, so he could only struggle weakly.

The voice said slowly: "In the thirty-seventh year of Yongchang's Jingzhe, you were enjoying yourself in Fengle Tower and met a woman."

"The woman went to give her husband sobering soup. When you saw her beauty, you took her by force..."

"Later, when the woman became pregnant, you committed acts of destruction and exterminated her family of four..."

"Master Qi..."

The voice was gentle and gentle, like a thin needle quenched with poison, suddenly inserted into the hidden depths of his heart.

"You really don't remember?"

Qi Yutai froze.

There was deathly silence all around, as if there was no other sound between heaven and earth. Suddenly there was a bustling sound. He raised his head and encountered a piece of warmth with fragrant wind.

It was a woman wearing a peach-blossom blouse with a flying fairy bun. She was dressed very charmingly. She reached out to hold his arm and said with a smile: "Is this your first time coming to Fengle Tower, sir? You have such a handsome face tonight. You must have fun..."

Fengle Building...

He suddenly remembered that today was the day he came to Fengle Building for the first time.

His father always restrained him and refused to let him go out.

Yuxian Tower, the best building in Shengjing, is full of my father's acquaintances. On weekdays, it's okay for him to hold a birthday party or something in Yuxian Tower. Once he wants to do something, he will be reported back to his family immediately.

As the son of a grand master, I have to pay attention to my behavior and speech everywhere, and I am always not free.

Fengle House is his newly discovered restaurant. Although it is not as luxurious as Yuxian House, it is still attractive to him. The best thing is that there is no father here. No one is watching what he wants to do, so he has rare freedom.

He followed the enchantingly dressed woman up to the attic and into the back room of the attic. Naturally, a person of his status cannot enjoy himself in the hall like those untouchables.

There was a strange fragrance exuding from the room. On the low couch inside, two singers were playing the piano with their heads lowered. The sound of the piano was long and sweet, which was intoxicating.

Qi Yutai walked in and sat down in front of the low couch.

On the table are a blue and white jade pot, two white jade bowls with lotus petals, and a small oil paper envelope.

He picked up the flask and poured a bowl full of fermented rice. The wine was still hot and the aroma was fragrant and strong. He then opened the oil paper bag placed aside and drank the contents of the oil paper bag with the hot wine. It was hot. The hot wine flowed down his throat, gradually spreading a burning heat in his belly.

Qi Yutai closed his eyes and sighed comfortably.

This product is cold food powder.

Hanshi Powder is magical. After taking it, you will feel energetic and cheerful, and you can also experience a pleasure that you can't normally experience, making you feel ecstatic.

However, Hanshi Powder is poisonous, and long-term use of Hanshi Powder is harmful to the human body. When the late emperor was still alive, he ordered the whole country to ban this drug. However, many noble children still took it secretly behind others' backs.

Qi Yutai is also one of them.

He was addicted to this substance when he was young, and got out of hand. Later, Qi Qing caught him, and his father punished all the servants around him, locked him in the house for half a year, and forcefully forced him to quit using this substance.

But addiction can only be cut off at its head but not at its roots.

Qi Yutai always finds several opportunities every year to take Hanshi Powder behind Qi Qing's back.

He liked the feeling of being in a state of ecstasy. He was no longer the obedient Grand Master in the eyes of everyone. He seemed to have turned into a bird, flying high in the jungle to his heart's content, getting rid of his father's shadow and holding on to what he had been asking for. free.

It was a way of expressing his anger towards others who were teasing him for being "well-behaved" behind his back.

It was his silent rebellion against his father.

The body gradually becomes hot and dry, and Hanshi Powder begins to take effect.

Qi Yutai took off his outer clothes and walked around the house naked.

If Qi Qing saw this scene, he would definitely be punished severely. The Grand Master's Mansion attaches great importance to rules and etiquette. From childhood to adulthood, he cannot make a wrong step outside.

Qi Yutai felt an inexplicable sense of joy, as if he was deliberately retaliating against that bright stereotype. He shouted and walked around the elegant room, as if a fire was rising in his heart. This fire was held in his belly and was difficult to dispel. The comfort in his heart was difficult to reconcile with the suffocation in his body. In that crazy state, He suddenly opened the door of the private room.

There was an exclamation from the door.

She was a young woman, followed by a maid, holding a mahogany food basket in her hand. It seemed that someone suddenly opened the door, and they turned around. When they saw him naked, the maid screamed in fright. The woman blushed and took the maid to run away.

His mind became hot and he dragged the woman into the house.

The maid shouted for help and stretched out her hand to drag the woman, but she was also dragged in.

Qi Yutai felt that his body became very light, and there were faint sounds of screaming and crying in his ears. The sounds made him more comfortable, like a bloodthirsty beast tasting the first bite of flesh and blood. He became crazy and omnipotent. , relying only on instinct to gnaw at weak prey, everything around it becomes far, far away.

He couldn't see the other person's face clearly, and the effect of the cold food powder had begun to take effect. He only felt the ultimate happiness, the freedom gained from this brutal plunder.

As for weeping and tears, struggle and pain...

What does it have to do with him?

He didn't care, he had done this kind of thing many times.

Not worth mentioning.

The fragrance burning in the sapphire stove in the elegant room was as fragrant as a dream, and through the fuzzy smoke, someone sighed.

This sigh was long and loud, making people lose their souls, and Qi Yutai suddenly came back to his senses.

"You killed her..."

The voice said so.

"No...I didn't..." Qi Yutai defended: "I just..."

The words in his mouth suddenly stopped.

Just what?

He never killed anyone because he didn't have to.

No matter what he did outside, no matter how big a mistake he made, someone would finish it off for him and deal with it cleanly.

The matter of Fengle Tower had never been on his mind. She was just a woman of low status, and he didn't even need to know her name.

He didn't remember the other person's appearance at all. He only knew that when the housekeeper came to find him, he opened his eyes in confusion and saw a mess. The woman was lying on the couch, and he had no intention of looking at it. The soup was broken on the floor at the door of the attic, and a mahogany food basket was trampled beyond recognition. It was mixed with the skirt of the dead maid, making it especially dirty and sloppy.

He only glanced at it and turned away in disgust, avoiding the blood on the ground to avoid getting the silk shoes on his feet wet.

The housekeeper followed behind, a little embarrassed: "Sir, that woman is a good housewife."

He didn't take it seriously: "Just give me some money to spend."

Everyone in this world is measured by price.

One tael of silver can't buy a cup of fine wine in Yuxian Tower, but it can buy a servant of humble origin.

They are cheap.

He straightened his clothes and went back home.

Later, he vaguely heard that the other party was pregnant, but he actually didn't take it to heart. The woman's husband was looking forward to getting a ride in the Grand Master's house and wanted to lick the mud from the soles of his shoes. His petty anger really couldn't arouse any splash.

It was the woman's brother who really made him panic.

News came from the other end of the trial court that the woman's brother had gotten the truth from nowhere, and the complaint was handed over to the official, and Qi Yutai became afraid.

It's not that he's afraid of the Liang Dynasty's laws, or the other party's hatred.

He was just afraid that his father would know.

Qi Qing's reputation is the most important. If this matter is handed over to the government to make a big fuss, his father will definitely not be able to spare him.

That's why Qi Yutai asked the housekeeper to negotiate with the Court of Punishment, and the other party agreed to handle the matter thoroughly. Later, he heard that all four members of the woman's family were gone, and he was relieved.

but……

Father still knew.

After learning about this, Qi Qing locked him up in the mansion and was not allowed to go out. His father's disappointed eyes became his nightmare, making him toss and turn in sleep for a long time. Thanks to those spiritual fragrances, he could soothe his emotions.

He thought that this matter was over. In the past twenty years, this kind of thing had happened countless times. He did not expect that anyone would mention it today.

The voice that came to my ears was as cold as smoke: "Master Qi, you killed someone..."

He subconsciously retorted: "No, no, I didn't kill anyone..."

"You sent your servants away and went to Fengle Tower just to kill people..."

Dismiss the servants?

Qi Yutai was stunned for a moment and said subconsciously: "No, I just don't want my father to know that I am taking medicine... She broke in on her own..."

"I didn't...I didn't mean to kill anyone!"

There was silence all around.

Lu Xu lowered his eyes and looked down at Qi Yutai, who was sitting on the chair with a confused look on his face, his eyes cooling down little by little.

On the red sandalwood screen inlaid with gems at the door, the bright rubies gave the green smoke in the incense burner a layer of pale red. Those lingering smoke were vaguely like gray shadows, existing vaguely and quickly dissipating, leaving no trace behind.

Take powder.

Lu Yan silently recited these two words.

Qi Yutai on the chair had his eyes closed and murmured something in a low voice, as if he was asleep. Only by getting closer could you hear what he said.

Lu Zhuo's eyes fell on him.

The red fragrant catkins in the Hongfang Garden of the Royal Pharmacy were originally used by Empress Roufei to treat insomnia. However, the raw materials are poisonous and will cause dizziness, brain swelling, and bleeding from the mouth and nose after long exposure.

She went to the imperial medicine hospital and asked He Xiu for some leftover broken branches and leaves of Hongfang wadding. When He Xiu heard that she wanted to use it, he sent her half a bundle overnight without asking what to do with it.

She slightly processed the residual branches, soaked them in a silver pot, mashed them, boiled them with other medicinal materials, and finally kneaded them into the fragrant pills Jin Xianrong handed her.

Lingxi incense can soothe the mind and tranquilize the mind, but with just a few changes, it can make people talk nonsense and make people unable to distinguish dreams from reality...

A sweet dream turns into a nightmare.

The person on the chair was still immersed in his dream. Lu Tong looked down at him from a high position, took two steps in front of him, and the silver needle in his hand gradually slid from his neck to his cheek, and finally stopped on his less plump temple.

Pierce it from here, thrust it all in, and he will die instantly.

Qi Yutai was still muttering: "It's not me...I didn't..."

Lu Zhuo stretched out his hand.

The tip of the needle is pressed against the skin and slowly pushed in.

Qi Yutai seemed to be aware of it, with a look of pain on his face.

"Squeak——"

At this moment, there was a sudden noise from behind.