Placid Chang'an

Su Cen took the jade pendant from Ning Santong's hand, wiped off the dust on the surface, revealing a milky white corner.This jade pendant was about half the size of a palm, and the jade pendant was engraved with a picture of flowing clouds and hundreds of blessings. Su Cen picked it up and exposed it to the sun. He saw that the jade was delicate and moist, like creamy fat, with a faint translucent luster.

Su Cen said, "Suet white jade?"

Ning Santong nodded, "The one I found under him should have been burned off when it was on fire, and it was accidentally crushed under him when it was rolling."

Su Cen frowned, "No one will carry something that can identify people when they are assassinated, and this jade pendant is of high quality and valuable."

"These are the affairs of Mr. Su," Ning Santong ordered the people to carry the body back to Dali Temple, and cupped his hands at Su Cen, "I will take my leave first."

Su Cen called a small official and gave him the jade pendant, "Take it down according to the pattern, focus on checking the merchants and officials in Beijing, and find out the source of the corpse as soon as possible."

The little official took the jade pendant and bowed back. Su Cen looked at the Suzaku Street, which was still very lively just now. Now the crowd scattered and left. or be called in for questioning.Because of offering sacrifices to the heavens, the stone pavement was cleaned so that it was spotless. Looking up, the scorched spots on it were particularly conspicuous.

Su Cen walked back slowly along this road. The autopsy hadn't been completed yet, and the source of the corpse hadn't been found yet. He couldn't do anything now.There are some ideas in his heart that are ready to come out, and he wants to find someone to help him sort them out.

When he stopped walking, Su Cen looked up and saw the three large characters of Xingqing Palace shining brightly in the sunlight.

Li Shi entered the palace and hadn't come back yet, but Su Cen didn't see him, he regarded Xingqing Palace as a free restaurant, after he went in, he ordered a table of food by himself, and waited for someone to come back while eating.

This waited until night.

When Li Shi came back, he saw that the man was dozing off by the table, holding a wine jar in his arms, and he had already bottomed out.

Alcohol addiction is not young at a young age, and I don't know who got used to it.

Hearing some movement, Su Cen immediately raised his head, his face was slightly drunk, his eyes became brighter and frightening, and when he saw Li Shi, he immediately stood up and said, "You're back? Have you eaten yet?"

It seemed that he should have been here in the first place, waiting for someone to come back every day.

"I used it in the palace," Li Shi walked closer, his eyes full of night light narrowed, "but seeing you is very hungry."

"What wine did you steal from me again?"

Before Su Cen could open his mouth, Li Shi had already leaned over with his sharp chin.

Lips and tongues exchanged, this man was like a swift and fierce beast, constantly pushing forward, going deeper and deeper.Su Cen tried to confront each other for a few rounds with his neck stuck, but neither side had the upper hand. After several sieges, he was forced to retreat, so he could only frowned and whimpered a few times.

Li Shi didn't withdraw until he had eaten and drank enough. Su Cen's alcohol was forced out. There was a coquettish blush on his originally fair neck, and his eyes glowed. It was quite pleasing to watch.

Li Shi licked his lips with a satisfied face, "Xinghua Village, good wine matches beautiful women, you are suitable for drinking."

Su Cen gasped and glared at the person, "I am more suitable for the altar where the west wind is strong, the wind knows the strength of the grass, and the overlord bows hard."

Li Shi narrowed his eyes, "It turns out that Zixu likes the overlord to force his bow."

Su Cen: "..."

Well, what does it mean to lift a rock and shoot yourself in the foot.

As soon as Li Shi came back, he still hadn't changed out of his ceremonial attire, so Su Cen dismissed the serving maid, and when Li Shi opened his arms, he went forward to help him change his clothes.

Originally, only the Son of Heaven was eligible to wear the Twelve Crowns and Twelve Emblems of the Daqiu Mian, but because Li Shi had a special status, in order to be different from ordinary princes, he could also wear the Twelve Emblems Miancloth on the day of offering sacrifices to heaven. , but the sun and moon patterns on the left and right shoulders are interchanged to distinguish it from the emperor.

Su Cen untied the big belt around his waist and asked, "How is the little emperor?"

"Scared," Li Shi pressed his eyebrows, "An ordinary person would have heart palpitations for a few days looking at it from a distance, not to mention that it happened right under his nose, he cried for a whole day, and I came back after coaxing me to sleep of."

Su Cen handed the changed clothes to the maid and brought a cup of brewed tea, "I think this case is a bit strange."

Li Shi sat down and sipped his tea, and asked, "What's so strange?"

"There is no evidence now, and I can't say it well, but I just feel that this matter is not in line with common sense." Su Cen pulled a chair and sat down opposite the person, "Look, if today's matter is an assassination, but who He would set himself on fire to assassinate, and he was the only one from the beginning to the end. Even if he didn't set himself on fire, he wouldn't be able to reach the imperial court, let alone that appearance. But if it wasn't, the matter was too coincidental. He burned up there? The perpetrator was thoughtful and the timing of the arrangement was just right. I don't believe that he spent all his time doing this just to scare the little emperor, and it must have some special meaning."

"So, I think this matter may not be aimed at the little emperor. The key is that the person who was burned to death may be wanted by someone to die in public."

"You mean that the one burned to death was not an assassin but a victim." Li Shi was quite interested in this new statement, and looked up at Su Cen. "Who found the deceased?"

Su Cen shook his head, "Still investigating."

Li Shidao: "Dare to kill people in front of Yujia, you are so daring, this matter must be investigated and found out, otherwise it will damage the emperor's prestige."

Su Cen laughed, "That's why you can't hold up the people of the Ministry of Criminal Justice and Jingzhao Prefecture, just to hand over the case to me for investigation?"

"My Zixu is so powerful," Li Shi scratched his chin, "I said at the beginning, I will make up for the grievances I suffered—how does it feel to be the Shaoqing of Dali Temple?"

"You mean to bring me up again?" Su Cen's eyes lit up, and then he felt a little embarrassed, "Is it too fast? Mr. Zhang just raised his grade from the position of Shaoqing. I'm a fledgling It’s so fast, I’m afraid that some people will not accept it.”

Li Shidao: "Delay in offering sacrifices to heaven, despise the imperial power, and intimidate the emperor, isn't this case enough to convince the public?"

Su Cen narrowed his eyes and asked, "Aren't you afraid that I won't be able to solve the case in three days?"

Li Shi asked back: "Then did you break it?"

Su Cen smiled, "I will definitely live up to my lord's expectations."

The night was dark, Su Cen heard a noise around her while she was half asleep, closed her eyes and touched her side, her body temperature was still there, but the person was gone.

Su Cen squinted his eyes, only to realize that Li Shi had already woken up, and a group of servants were changing his clothes. Except for the unavoidable slight rustling sound of the clothes, the servants held their breath for fear of making any noise.

Seeing Su Cen wake up, the expressions on everyone's faces were rather ugly. It must be that someone specifically told him not to disturb the sleeping person on the bed.

Fortunately, Su Cen didn't care, and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

There was a bit of hoarseness in this voice - one was that he had just woken up and hadn't opened his voice yet, and the other was that he had been tossing hard last night, Master Su sang in a soft voice for half the night, now he still Did not recover.

Li Shi must also feel that the hoarse voice has a special charm. After being woken up in the middle of the night, his temper has mostly improved, and he said softly: "Zhuo'er had a nightmare. She woke up crying and wanted to see me. I will go to the palace."

Su Cen frowned and reacted for a long time before he figured out that the "Zhuo'er" Li Shi was talking about was the little emperor Li Zhuo. His brows furrowed, and he thought that the relationship between uncle and nephew was not as tense as the rumors said—the little emperor didn't care about this emperor's uncle. How dependent, when he had a nightmare, he immediately wanted to let the emperor comfort him, Li Shi was also very indulgent to this nephew, otherwise he would not have gone to the palace at this hour.

Li Shi went on to say: "What if you can fall asleep after being scolded by me? Or do you want to fight poison with poison? Let's see who is more terrifying, me or the person in the dream?"

Su Cen: "..." What kind of uncle, loving nephew and filial piety, he is thinking too much.

Su Cen raised his eyelids to look at the sky, and asked, "What is the time?"

"Choushi," Li Shi said, "Go on to sleep."

Su Cen nodded with his eyes closed. He had just fallen asleep for a few hours, and his whole body seemed to be falling apart. He didn't even bother to move a finger at the moment.

Wrapped in the quilt, Su Cen said in a low voice, "Respectfully send off the prince." Then he went back to meet Duke Zhou in his dream.

Li Shi asked the servants to light the incense for calming the spirit, and then ordered the servants to be woken up when the time came, lest Mr. Su sleep until the sun rises, and sleep for half a day in three days.

After sleeping soundly and soundly this time, Su Cen left Xingqing Palace refreshed early in the morning, and rushed directly to the Yamen of Dali Temple.

Ning Santong said that the results would be given to him this morning. Su Cen went straight to the mortuary when he arrived at Dali Temple, and just met Ning Santong coming out of it. There were two obvious bruises under his eyes.

Su Cen's impression of this person changed slightly, and then he saw a few more people coming out of the mortuary, some Su Cen knew, the yamen servant, the jailer, the clerk, the grandson who brought tea and water in the front yamen, and a few others called I don't know their names, but they are all from Dali Temple.Ning Santong sent people out of the door chatting and laughing, and said with a smile: "Our champion Lang Su will come to me later, let's fight again some other day."

Someone tugged at Ning Santong's sleeve, Ning Santong frowned and said, "I told you to fight another day, and it's not that I won't admit my defeat." When he raised his head, he was facing Zhuangyuan Lang's iceberg-like face, Qing Tian Bai Ri shuddered, and immediately fell silent.

The others walked away despondently under the pressure, leaving Ning Santong looking at Su Cen in blank dismay. Su Cen closed his eyes and went straight to the mortuary. Cen entered the room.

I saw that the corpse that was supposed to be on the mortuary bed was moved to the ground, and there were dice, dice cups, and dominoes on the mortuary bed, and there were even a few copper plates missing on the ground.

This group of people just played around all night in front of the corpse.

"Master Su, don't get me wrong," Ning Santong hurriedly took a rag to put away the objects on the table, "I called them to help with the autopsy."

"Autopsy?" Su Cen glanced at the neglected corpse in the corner, "The corpse is so innocent."

"..."

Ning Santong smiled awkwardly, "Master Su doesn't know that after death, the muscles will shrink, stiffen, and the joints will close, resulting in the inability to open the mouth, bend the neck, and stretch the limbs. It is called rigor mortis. And this People were burnt to death, the corpse was curled up, and the heat accelerated the formation of rigor, the adults were in a hurry, and I couldn't untie the rigor by myself, so I called someone to help. After we finished our work, it was already past the curfew time, and we only played a few games when we couldn’t go back.”

Su Cen looked at the corpse again, and the state had indeed changed from the crouched state yesterday to being stretched out, Su Cen's expression eased, and he asked, "What did you find?"

Ning Santong raised his eyebrows and smiled, and pulled Su Cen to squat down in front of the corpse, "Look, this person's body is burned to a degree of [-]%, and his skin and flesh are already charred. If it is simply burning, people cannot be burned like this. It was even extinguished after a few rolling fires on the ground. But this person did not extinguish the fire until he was burned to death. He did not resist, and even struggled to the front of the imperial court. This shows that the fire was already quite serious at that time, and it was not easy to extinguish it. I have a bold idea, the reason why he rushed to the little emperor was not to assassinate, but to ask for help."

This coincides with what Su Cen thought.

Ning Santong paused and continued: "I've seen a few burnt like this, but it was in a fire place, the fire was huge, and the surrounding temperature was high. It's not surprising that it burned like this, but there are no other fire sources around This is the first time I have seen it burned like this.”

Su Cen frowned and glanced at Ning Santong, "Get to the point."

Ning Santong grinned, "My lord still understands me. I suspect that this person should have some flammable items on him, such as books and paper, or something wrong with his clothing."

"I heard from the passers-by that the man was burning from the sleeves, but..." Su Cen frowned deeply at the charred corpse. Whether it was books, paper or clothes, they had been burnt long ago.

"It's all burnt out, right?" Ning Santong smiled knowingly, stood up and stretched, with a warm smile facing Su Cen, triumphantly took out three strips of cloth from the table behind him, " That's why I asked them to come over to help, although the body was severely burned, the underarms were not easy to be burned due to the tight skin, so I still found these few fish that slipped through the net."

Su Cen took the cloth strip from Ning Santong's hand and thought about it carefully. The material was high-quality brocade satin. It is true that the jade pendant came from the deceased.

"Is there a problem with the material?" Su Cen asked.

Ning Santong shook his head, "I haven't seen any problems yet, give me some time."

Su Cen looked at the three pieces of fabric over and over again, rubbed them, sniffed them, and finally found something wrong: "You said that the fabric was taken from the armpits, and the left and right armpits are one piece, so the third piece is Where did it come from?"

Ning Santong smiled embarrassedly at Su Cen, took two steps back and said cautiously, "...hip|lower."

Mr. Su who was sniffing the cloth between his nose: "..."

Su Cen wanted to hit someone, but Ning Santong had already withdrawn from the attack range, Su Cen gritted his teeth bitterly, and immediately looked for Zhang Jun when he went out.

Ning Santong continued to ask without fear of death: "Master Su, did you smell anything?"

Su Cen stared at him coldly, and Ning Santong shrugged despondently, and said helplessly, "I don't mean to let you smell this...well, well, if I didn't say it, I mean you can still smell it when you stand here. Is there any smell?"

Su Cen shook his head with a dark face.

"It's weird, they also said they couldn't smell anything," Ning Santong frowned and said, "I suspect that the deceased may have eaten garlic before he was alive. There is a faint garlic smell in the air, can't you smell it?"

Su Cen frowned and tried her best to sniff the room. The smell of corpses mixed with burnt smell made me want to vomit...but I still wanted to vomit.

In this kind of atmosphere, he still has to subdivide other flavors, and he doesn't have the ability of Ning Santong.

Ning Santong sighed, and said softly, "Maybe I'm worrying too much."

A small official came hurriedly outside the door and shouted, "My lord, the source of the corpse has been found!"