A piece of Japanese incense

As Zhi Yihe and Yutuan just walked out of Jiuqu Pavilion, a group of guards suddenly rushed out and surrounded them.

"Take him away!" The leading guard had dazzling armor, sharp eyes and a cold voice.

Zhi Yihe immediately took out the token: "Wait! I am..."

"Stealing palace property! Take him to the Four Treasurys!" The leading guard spoke with conviction and his tone left no room for argument.

Yu Tuan stood in front of Zhi Yihe and said, "How dare you! Open your eyes and take a good look! This is the tooth card of the Eastern Palace! This belongs to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince..."

The guards looked stern and murderous. Without giving her a chance to explain, they snatched Pipa away with cold expressions, handcuffed the two women's arms behind their backs, escorted them to prison, and pushed them roughly into the cell.

They were stunned by this sudden change and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"You are so bold! His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will not let you go! Let us out!" Yu Tuan yelled.

The whip flew through the air with a "whoosh" sound, and then hit Yu Tuan with a "snap" sound.

"If you keep talking too much, you'll get more than one whip!" The jailer said "Pooh" contemptuously.

"Yutuan!" Zhi Yihe and Yutuan held each other tightly. Their originally bright and beautiful clothes were now covered with dust and blood, which was out of tune with this dark and damp environment.

Surrounded by cold stone walls and iron bars, the rats in the corner had no interest in the new prisoners and were busy looking for food.

"Girl, how could this happen!" Yu Tuan covered her wound in pain, her eyes red.

"This Hefeng! We were probably used by him! He took away our Pipa and locked us up here, how despicable!" Zhi Yihe was furious. She tore off the corner of her skirt and simply bandaged Yutuan.

"But... the prince doesn't know why we are looking for the Pipa."

Zhi Yihe smiled coldly: "Humph! Even if he doesn't know, he can guess that my purpose is not pure when we use him to enter the palace. Harm!"

"No, I don't think...he is..."

"Let's wait and see." There were still unknown stains on the hard bed board. Zhi Yihe resignedly took out the handkerchief and sat down at the corner of the bed with his legs crossed.

In the cold cell, time seemed to stand still. Yu Tuan leaned on her, sleeping and waking up, waking up and sleeping again. Zhi Yihe couldn't sleep well and dared not move. She had to close her eyes and think of a way to escape.

My greatest value now is to find the national treasure and hand over the leadership of the organization. But once I hand it over, I'm afraid he won't let me go, and it might even implicate my grandmother.

Only when you have all these in your own hands will you be qualified to negotiate with him. It seems that the best solution now is to crack the secret of the pipa first.

So...what's so special about that pipa? The material? The workmanship? Or the tune it plays?

Damn! If I had known earlier, I should have learned to play the pipa. Now I don’t know anything!

Zhi Yihe felt a rustling noise beside her and looked down to see Yutuan holding the hem of her skirt and comparing it with the hem wrapped around her arm.

"What are you doing?" Zhi Yihe asked.

Yu Tuan lay on her lap and answered nonchalantly, "Miss, why didn't you tear the outer layer of the palace maid's dress, but tore the inner Huanhua brocade? There is only one piece of this material in the whole of Sanchuan. It's a pity. I have to compare them and ask Yu Yi to sew them back for you later."

Zhi Yihe added casually, "Then you have to compare carefully. If there is a flaw in the silk thread, the pattern won't match perfectly."

"That's right. Look, young lady. These seemingly different patterns of falling flowers and flowing water can be completely pieced together to form a new pattern. This is the ingenuity of the Longxi embroidery ladies. Every inch of the embroidery is worth its weight in gold."

Zhi Yihe suddenly had an idea, and he kept muttering: "No matter how I try, it will work? No matter how I try, it will work..."

The light in the cell was dim. She strained to observe her own dress, and thought of the more than one hundred ivory ornaments on the back of the pipa.

Is this a puzzle? Just shuffle them all and then rearrange them to create a new pattern.

Zhi Yihe recalled the more than one hundred hexagons, and new puzzles kept appearing in his mind.

"Zhi Yihe!" The iron gate suddenly opened, and the jailer's thunderous voice made his eardrums hurt.

"What are you doing? Who are you? Do you know who you have captured? Let go of our girl! Let go! Where are you taking our girl?"

Yu Tuan argued with several jailers at the top of her lungs, but Zhi Yihe was completely defenseless and let them drag her out of the prison.

While being escorted, she was still brainstorming and piecing together the pattern.

It was not until she was forced to the ground that she woke up and looked up. Inside the magnificent palace, huge dragon pillars supported the towering dome, a dragon throne stood on a high platform, and behind it was a magnificent screen with a picture of mountains and rivers.

(Xuanzheng Hall?)

She had been here once before, but compared to the past, it was even more luxurious now.

Following a long eunuch's shout, "The Emperor has arrived!"

The emperor was wearing a bright yellow dragon robe and a pearl curtain hung from his crown, which made slight colliding sounds as he walked.

The emperor walked steadily towards the throne, his hands on the armrests, his body slightly leaning forward, and looking down at Zhi Yihe in the court with a sharp gaze.

Zhi Yihe was forced to kneel down and salute the emperor.

"What are your thoughts? Is there anything unique about them?" The emperor's voice echoed in the hall.

The pipa was thrown in front of Zhi Yihe. She looked up at the emperor sitting high on the dragon throne and was shocked to find that his face was distorted to a terrifying degree, as if he was possessed by a demon.

The horrible dark red skin was rough and full of pits, and the twisted scars were like evil vines, climbing and spreading wantonly on the cheeks. The outlines of the eyes seemed a little crooked in the wrinkles, and the lips were like the ruins of a building that had been melted by a fierce fire, with jagged edges.

Zhi Yihe was silent, and a chill rose in his heart.

“Why don’t you speak up!”

With a loud shout, a brush flew towards her. Before she could dodge, it hit her forehead squarely. The brush fell from her shoulder to the ground, and the bright red ink spread across her light-colored dress like dazzling blood beads.

Zhi Yihe's body shook, and he stared at the emperor on the stage with wide eyes, full of astonishment and confusion.

"How dare you not answer your majesty's question!"

Zhi Yihe was kicked to the ground. She got up in a somewhat embarrassed manner and straightened her wrinkled dress.

"you!"

The people behind her were about to attack her, but the emperor stopped them: "Hey! Forget it! Little girl, hand over the ring."

Zhi Yihe said calmly, "I don't know what your majesty is talking about."

"What did you talk about with Feng Weichu?" the emperor continued to ask.

"We were just chatting about some past events." Zhi Yihe replied.

"Little girl, if you don't answer honestly, you will suffer!"

Zhi Yihe was nervous. She didn't want to be tortured, but on the surface, she pretended to be calm and composed: "What does your majesty want to know?"

The emperor waved his hand impatiently, and just when Zhi Yihe was confused, a person was dragged and fell beside her, making a "hissing" sound in his throat, like a balloon with a hole in it leaking air.

He looked miserable and miserable. His face was covered in bruises, his left eye was so swollen that he could hardly open it, a long bloodstain stretched from the corner of his eye to his cheek, and the corner of his mouth was also broken.

There was not a single intact spot on the exposed skin, with whip marks and bruises crisscrossing the area. On the arms, purple bruises were deeply embedded in the skin, and some places were oozing with blood, as if they had just been pierced by countless fine needles.

Although Zhi Yihe couldn't recognize the person in front of him, his temples couldn't help but throb.

The person who caught him stepped on his leg, and he just gasped. Zhi Yihe then noticed that the wound on his knee was the most serious, with skin and flesh turned inside out and large areas of bruises around it. Every time he moved, he was in great pain.

"What does your majesty mean?" Zhi Yihe asked.

The emperor simply changed his sitting position, and the person lying on the ground was suddenly pulled by his hair, revealing his entire face.

"Yu...Yuzhu?" Zhi Yihe called his name uncertainly.

The man became excited and kept "wooooing".

“Yuzhu!” Zhi Yihe hurriedly supported the shaky Yuzhu and cried out miserably, “Yuzhu!”

"These naughty guys make a lot of noise day and night, disturbing my peace. So I ordered people to cut off their tongues, and only then could I have a moment of peace." The emperor said in a relaxed tone.