The Golden Hairpin

Huang Zixia, guided by Luo Pei, went to the kitchen to look for calamus.

Changpu is still working on the menu for Tomorrow’s Mansion, and he is instructing several cooks and handymen: "The princess is unwell, the taste must be light, the chicken, duck and fish must be reduced, and there must be four types of blood and qi-I said the day before yesterday. The princess loves wolfberry sprouts, why haven't you seen you go shopping?"

The handymen are only loyal, and some people are annoyed: "The wolfberry buds are only delicious in season. Now they are old and hard to find for a while."

Changpu sighed, patted the table and said, "I don't care, what the princess says I want, if you can't get it, I will scalp you one by one tomorrow!"

Luo Pei called her outside: "Aunt Changpu."

She looked back and saw them, and waved to signal that the few people had dispersed. While standing up, she smiled reluctantly on her face: "Daddy Yang, are you coming to me again?"

Huang Zixia walked into the room, sat down across from her, and said, "I came to ask my aunt a few things last time, and now I still have one or two questions, and I ask my aunt to explain her doubts."

Changpu looked depressed: "It's still Wei Ximin's business? I was really not there at the time. I just quarreled with him once. I was not the only one who had quarreled with him in the mansion. Didn't I have a quarrel with him the previous month when I fell in jade... "

"No, I'm not here to ask about this."

"Then... I wonder what the father-in-law wanted to ask this time?"

Huang Zixia looked at her squarely and asked, "Aunty, can you tell me the origin of the Lingxiang last time?"

Changpu was stunned and asked, "What does it have to do with that Lingxiang...?"

"I'm inconvenient to say about this. I also came here for questioning by the order of Shaoqing Cui Shaoqing of Dali Temple." Huang Zixia said in a high-sounding voice.

Changpu can only lower his head and say, "Yes... it was given to me by someone outside the princess's house."

"I don't know who it is?" Huang Zixia asked.

Changpu bit his lip, but finally said, "The owner of the Qianji Car and Horse Shop, Qian Guansuo."

Huang Zixia didn't expect that the pudgy boss Qian Guansuo was actually related to the cook in the palace, and her eyebrows frowned.

Wei Ximin quarreled with the cook lady calamus for asking for Lingling incense; Wang Yun smelled the scent of Lingling incense in the house where Sun Feizi died; and Qian Guansuo happened to be the one who smashed the door of Sun Feizi’s room; at the same time, he was the one who sold it. The man who made the black horse hurt by the consort...

What is the connection between all this? What was the clue that was still invisible during the period?

She asked again: "Aunt Changpu, please forgive me for your privacy. You are in charge of the princess's mansion, and Qian Guansuo is in the cart and horse shop. It seems that the wind and horses are not related to each other..."

"Yeah... We also met at the beginning of the year." She bowed her head and drew on the table with her fingers, dazed and shy. "At that time, a group of his men repaired the sewers in the princess mansion. Because the kitchen has the most water channels, I and him After discussing the distribution of the waterways, he got acquainted. He...he was a little fatter, shorter and shorter, but he was very good. When they were working here, I once walked accidentally and stepped on the mud Here, he fetched water to help me wash my shoes and sent them back."

Huang Zixia looked at her slightly flushed face, and couldn't help reminding her: "Boss Qian's age, there should be a wife and son in the family."

"Yes, he has a wife, a concubine, and three sons."

Huang Zixia didn't say anything any more, just asked: "Boss Qian gave you Lingling incense, and then you offered it to the princess. Who knew the princess gave it to Wei Ximin?"

"Yeah, it turned out that Wei Ximin was insatiably greedy. I was just that. He thought I must have some of it, so he came to ask for it. I said no. He actually asked me for the address of the money boss and said...what to say. It's the same if you find me a friend!" Changpu said this, his face flushed with anger, "What the **** is this! If you know, you think I really have something to do with Boss Qian!"

"Aunt Changpu, don't be too angry. In fact...I think Duke Wei's guess is also reasonable." Huang Zixia explained, "Ling Lingxiang is very precious. Who would know that Boss Qian is so generous and will give you so precious. Things."

"Nonsense, I helped him so many times, and I took the risk myself..." At this point, she got stuck in her throat and seemed to feel that she shouldn't have declared this matter, but the words have been exported and can no longer be said. Withdrawing, had to sit there in annoyance and stopped talking.

Huang Zixia looked into her eyes, did not speak, but kept looking at her.

Changpu sighed under her gaze, and had to say: "Boss Qian once told me that he had a daughter in his early years, and if she is still there, she will be seventeen or eighteen years old. It's a pity that he took it with him. When his wife and children fled the famine to the outskirts of Chang'an, the family was hungry and cold. There was nothing to do. They had to sell their seven-year-old eldest daughter at the time and exchange them for five yuan of money. With the five yuan of money, his family was able to do so. To survive, he also started his business by selling fodder. Later, he met nobles and contacted several big horse farms outside the customs. Now the business is getting bigger and bigger, and his three sons have grown up one after another. Unfortunately... he said that he owes the most in this life. My own daughter, but I am afraid I will never be able to find it again."

Huang Zixian nodded and asked, "I should go to the Ministry of Households to find out about this matter. Why would I find you?"

"At the beginning, his daughter, the buyer was a father-in-law, and it is said that he came out of the palace to buy the palace ladies. He wondered that the daughter probably was either in the palace or in the mansions of the kings. Unfortunately, he told merchants that he could have a relationship with the palace and the palace. What is the intersection? But I am a member of the princess's mansion anyway. I can talk to the maids around the princess. Sometimes they enter the palace or go to the king's house. They may be able to inquire about some news. Although the hope is slim, it is also There is always one way."

"My aunt is eager to help others, so she must have inquired for him?"

Changpu looked strangely embarrassed, and said: "This...it also happens to be that he is looking for his daughter, and it just so happens that... he found it in the princess's mansion."

Huang Zixia was also surprised. In the palace, the kings, and the princess's mansion, there were so many maids and maids, no less than 10,000. How could it be such a coincidence that this person was in the princess's mansion when he asked them to find it.

"Perhaps this is also... his heart is sincere, and his fate is destined, so it's a coincidence." Changpu said.

"Then his daughter is now in the princess's mansion, who is it?"

Changpu's expression was even more strange, and his eyes wandered for a long time before he finally said, "I think it might be... It's a weeping pearl."

"Chuizhu? How did you identify it?"

"Oh...Chuizhu is seventeen years old. She was bought into the palace at the age of seven. At home... It is said that there are also two younger brothers, and there is a mark on her right wrist, exactly the same as Boss Qian described. ."

"Two younger brothers?"

"Yes, Boss Qian has three sons. One of them was born after he sold his daughter and developed."

"This is a coincidence. Boss Qian must be very happy, right?"

"Yes, this is a good thing from heaven. I am happy for them. But please keep the matter secret. Don't mention it to others if it is not necessary." Changpu sighed and said, "After all, this is me. By taking other people’s property privately, and doing things for others in the mansion without the princess, as usual, he will be expelled from the princess mansion."

"Auntie, don't worry, this is also your virtue and deeds. As long as it is not involved in this case, I will never mention it!" Huang Zixia promised.

Changpu nodded, but still had that worried expression on his face.

Huang Zixia thought for a while, and then asked, "Auntie is the family member brought over by Ma Ma?"

Changpu said quickly: "Oh, we are all from the princess mansion now, how can there be anyone from here or there."

"I didn't mean that." Huang Zixia smiled, "I just think the name Auntie is very elegant, and I heard that there are cardamom, iris, etc. in the mansion. I think you should be the same group of sisters."

"Yeah, we are all about the same age. When the horseman was young, we always worked in his house. Mrs. Meng valued it. I was in charge of meals, Iris tube daily life, and Yuzhu tube pen and ink books... how good it was then. "

"Where is the cardamom?" she asked.

Speaking of cardamom, Changpu's face was covered with a layer of sorrow, and he sighed, "Cardamom is farther away from us. She was the first to come to the cohort. At that time, when the cohort was three or four years old, she was thirteen years old. This year... It should be thirty-three."

"Where is she now?"

"Just a month ago, I fell into the water in Zhijin Garden... and died."

Huang Zixia suddenly remembered what Chuizhu had said about the haunted legend in Zhijin Garden. She tentatively asked Changpu: "I heard that Zhijin Garden was closed by the princess?"

"Yes... I heard that after the death of Cardamom, someone was crying in the middle of the night in the Zhijin Garden. Taoist practices were useless, so the princess ordered someone to close the Zhijin Garden and not open it again."

"Is the crying male or female?" Huang Zixia asked.

"I don't know about this. The princess said there was crying. Since she heard it, can it be wrong?"

Huang Zixia nodded and asked, "Then...Did Cardamom live there before?"

Changpu shook his head and said, "No, she lives in Suwei Garden. When the husband married, the old lady said that he would also help Cardamom find a good family to marry, but the husband insisted that she was used to taking care of her since childhood, and she must come over. Cardamom Later, I was in charge of Suwei Garden, where the horses lived. I was very busy in the dining room. Although Iris was a little free, there were a dozen embroiderers under my hand, who also supervised the embroidery work every day. Yuzhu was also busy in the study. We are also busy in the study. The four of them had their own affairs, and occasionally they couldn’t say a few words. Then I heard that Cardamom had passed away. I was really sad. I went to Iris and asked them, but they only said that they didn’t know. It was the ghost of Zhijinyuan who got lost and pulled her in. Otherwise, if Su Weiyuan is not close to Zhijinyuan, why did she die in it?"

Huang Zixian thoughtfully asked, "So...the horse has a deep affection for cardamom?"

"Yes, Cardamom is ten years older than her husband. He has been taking care of him since he was a child, so her husband has always loved her very much. Sometimes my wife joked that Cardamom has been around him for many years and is closer to her mother than her mother."

Huang Zixian nodded and said, "That's how it is."

Seeing that she was no longer questioning, Changpu opened the account book and checked the accounts again.

Huang Zixia saw that her **** was a little slow when she was about to turn, and knew that she was uncomfortable by her side, so she stood up and said, "In this case, I will say goodbye to my aunt first."

"Father-in-law, go slowly." She breathed a sigh of relief, and said casually, "It's better to have dinner before leaving. I'll let someone prepare some dishes that father-in-law likes."

"No, Lord Kui is still waiting for me over there."