The west gate of Chang'an City is not open for leisure, but now it is spring.

After the restoration of Zhongzong, for the first time, the candidates of the Tang Dynasty gathered in the capital, and all the temples were ready to fight.

The guards of the four major city gates are strictly checking the road guides.

"Stop! What do you do!? The guard stared fiercely at a dodgy man.

The man tried to sneak in and follow behind a caravan, but was caught by sharp-eyed guards.

The man began to plead: "My road is lost in the middle of the road, beg the official to ......"

The guard was expressionless: "Without a guide, dare to enter Chang'an City?" Throw it out. ”

The man struggled desperately, "Official! I'm really here to catch the exam! I really...... Yes! The voice was terrible, and he was still thrown out of the city gate mercilessly.

The people lining up behind them to enter the city were all panicked.

Those who entered Beijing to take the exam, who are not ten years old, were thrown out before the exam, and it is really chilling.

You must know that it is far away to come to Chang'an Road, and some bandits even ambush on the side of the road, specifically robbing the money and silver of passing candidates.

Just when everyone is in danger. There was a sound of horses' hooves.

Outside the city, a team of light horses, rolling up smoke and dust, about a dozen dressed in the clothes of the Tang Dynasty Qianniuwei, all the way to the city gate.

The people who were originally waiting to enter the city changed color and avoided it when they saw this.

The leader reined in the horse's head, swept his eyes over the guard with a cold and arrogant gaze, and took off the waist card.

An arrogant voice sounded: "Qianniuwei is ordered to patrol the city, and the idle people will get out of the way immediately!" ”

As soon as the guard saw the waist card in the palace, he was submissive at the moment, and after glancing back, his face changed.

"Dare to ask, ...... in that coffin"

Behind these thousand cow guards, the things that were pulled into the city gate. A coffin.

Qian Niu Wei continued to say coldly: "That's the charred corpse we found outside the city, what's the matter, do you want to check it?" ”

The guard's face changed, and he lowered his head: "Open the city gate." ”

Qianniuwei raised his head, and saw that the whip was suddenly raised, and a line of chariots and horses poured in from the city gate.

Needless to say, when the people saw the coffin, they could hide and hide, and these Qianniuwei were able to drive straight into the streets of Chang'an, carrying this thin coffin all the way through the streets of Chang'an City, regardless of the riots caused by the places.

After passing a few streets, Qianniuwei came to a solemn mansion, and the leader raised his hand: "Stop." ”

All the Thousand Niu Guards, including the thin coffin, slowly stopped in front of this door.

The cold man at the head looked up and glanced at the plaque of the mansion, Dali Temple.

Qianniuwei was finally reluctant to get off the horse, and the man looked at the official at the gate of Dali Temple: "Please pass through the temple, Qianniuwei is ordered to see." ”

The guards of Dali Temple glanced at each other, and the Qianniu Guards were all emperors, and such a battle was also a little discolored.

After a stick of incense, Pei Tan changed into an official uniform and was sitting in the lobby.

I saw four or five people, carrying a crumbling thin coffin, and put it under the hall with some difficulty.

Since ancient times, the coffin went to the court, which is not very auspicious, even in Dali Temple, it is rare to see such an unusual scene.

Pei Tan glanced at the face of the leader of Qianniuwei and recognized this person as the brother-in-law of the Boling Cui clan, all the big and small officials in Chang'an City were related to the five major families.

"What's in the coffin?" Pei Tan naturally looked at Qianniuwei and asked.

Hearing this, the leader of Qianniuwei arched his hand: "Recently, there have been a lot of candidates who have entered Chang'an, and we were ordered to go out of the city to inspect the surroundings of Chang'an, and this body was found on an official road in the morning. ”

Pei Tan's eyes couldn't help moving.

The big exam every three years is not unfamiliar.

The Qianniuwei continued: "When I found it, the corpse's face was already decomposed and I couldn't identify it, so I waited according to the process and could only send the corpse to Master Pei's Dali Temple for care. ”

Dali Temple is in charge of the prison murder case, and a nameless corpse appeared outside the city, which is indeed in accordance with the regulations.

The Criminal Department will not take care of this.

Pei Tan couldn't help but walk down the lobby and glanced along the coffin a few times.

This coffin was as simple as a few wooden planks put together casually, and Qian Niuwei obviously wouldn't prepare any decent decoration for a nameless corpse.

Could it be a candidate who died halfway through?

Pei Tan pondered for a moment and said, "Is this corpse on the official road?" ”

There are so many cars and horses coming and going on the official road that it is unlikely that a dead person will be left on the road......

Qian Niu Wei paused and said, "This person is in the grass on both sides of the official road, and he was found without anything. ”

The face is rotten and there is no body, which means that the person has no identities at all.

Sure enough, only this kind of tricky thing will come to Dali Temple.

"I don't know Lord Siqing, do you have any other interrogations?" Qianniuwei asked faintly.

Pei Tan's hand, seemingly unintentionally, stroked it at the bottom of the coffin, and at that moment, the depths of his eyes suddenly deepened.

"Nope." He said slowly.

Qian Niu Wei arched his hand, "Since this is the case, then I will go back to the palace first and return to Your Majesty." ”

With that, the group all left the lobby, leaving the coffin and leaving. The royal guards are like this.

——

In the public hall, Pei Tan stared at the coffin that was placed upright, and after a while: "Carry the coffin to the autopsy room first." ”

Several officers immediately moved to the task of carrying the heavy coffin into the autopsy room.

The man who had been waiting for a long time immediately stepped forward and wanted to open the coffin for an autopsy.

"Everybody out." Unexpectedly, at this moment, Pei Tan said lightly.

He was shocked: "My lord, the corpse already smells of decay, so it's better to let the villain perform an autopsy as soon as possible." ”

Especially if this coffin is of such inferior quality, it can't stop the decay of the corpse for a long time. The smell had been heard all the way from the lobby.

Pei Tan's eyes cooled for a moment, "This official has his own plans." ”

He wanted to say something, but he was stared at by a pair of cold eyes, so he could only withdraw with his head down.

Pei Xian stared at the official coldly: "Your Excellency ordered you to bring the door of the autopsy room." ”

This is even more surprising, but adults are adults, and the officials closed the door without saying a word.

The autopsy room was windowless, dimly lit, with only two oil lamps, which trembled from time to time like ghosts.

Pei Tan slowly raised his eyes, his eyes were meaningful, and he glanced at the cold guard beside him.

Pei Xian immediately walked to the coffin with a blank face, and pressed one hand on the coffin board. After a puff of white smoke, the coffin lid was torn apart in his energy.

In the stench of the sky, the narrow coffin can be seen at a glance.

Even the cold-faced guard, who seemed to be immovable, had a split on his face for a moment.

In the coffin, there was a young girl with red lips and white teeth.

The girl's breathing was steady and clear.

——

When he was in the court, as soon as the Qianniu guards put down the coffin, Pei Tan noticed that there was something unusual about this coffin, and he vaguely felt that this coffin was heavier than ordinary.

Later, Pei Tan stroked the coffin with his hand, and found that this thin layer of coffin board was actually a little warm.

You must know that the dead do not have temperature.

Pei Tan had suspected that Qianniuwei did it on purpose, but he tried a few words and found that Qianniuwei had no reaction.

That's why he retired from everyone and opened the coffin in this unmanned autopsy room to find out.

Even though he was completely prepared, the moment he saw the face of the girl in the coffin, Pei Tan was almost sluggish.

At this moment, the girl's eyelashes moved, and she slowly opened her eyes as if she had just woken up from a long sleep.

At that moment, the eyes of her and Pei Tan, as if they were destined, were just opposite.

The coffin stenched, but it was as if no one had noticed it.

After a long time, the girl's lips moved, and a smile appeared on her delicate face, and she said, "My lord." ”

Pei Tan didn't know when he pinched his clenched hand, gradually let go, stared at the girl and paused: "Jing Wan'er? ”

Jing Wan'er's hands and feet moved, and she sat up with some difficulty holding on to the coffin wall. Her hands and feet were stiff because she had been lying down for a long time, and the space in the coffin was narrow, so it was difficult to even turn over.

When she sat up, she saw the real corpse beneath her. Wrapped in a white cloth, it was already stiff underneath.

She had been lying on top of the corpse.

Pei Tan finally asked, "Why are you here?" "Shouldn't she have been gone long ago, at least not again?

Seeing that it was Jing Wan'er was shocking enough, but she still appeared so shocking.

I saw that Jing Wan'er kept looking down and patting her dress, and slowly smiled: "I wandered outside the city for many days before I saw Qianniuwei passing by with this coffin, so I thought of a way to hide in this coffin." ”

She said lightly, it is not easy to deceive the elite Qianniuwei of Datang. But at that time in Wuzhou, everyone had already seen the cunning and intelligence of this girl.

The current Chang'an City is absolutely impossible to enter without a road guide, just look at the candidates who are thrown out every day. There are only Qianniuwei's carriages and horses, and absolutely no one dares to check it. Only then can Jing Wan'er fish in troubled waters and enter the city smoothly.

But when Pei talked about that sentence, he obviously didn't ask this.

"Why did you come back to Chang'an?" Pei Tan's voice was already somewhat suppressed.

It's clear that they've been freed, and who would be stupid enough to go back to the cage.

Jing Wan'er stood in the dimly lit autopsy room, her skin showed an unhealthy pale, and in the past six months, you can imagine how much wind and frost she has endured.

But she didn't care at all on her face, and there was a smile on the corner of her mouth: "Thank you for opening up to Wan'er in Wuzhou, but Wan'er still has unfinished business in Chang'an, so I have to live up to my kindness." ”

Looking at what she said lightly, an unfinished sentence explained her audacity to sneak into the coffin escorted by Jin Wuwei and escape back to Chang'an.

Isn't this a little moving?

"Are you kidding?" Pei Gongzi, who was as gentle as jade, had a somewhat gloomy face.

Jing Wan'er looked at Pei Tan, this familiar face,

She felt a little stunned, and she smiled.

"Thank you, sir."

It is precisely because of this half a year that she has walked thousands of miles of mountains and rivers in the Tang Dynasty, seen the beautiful mountains and rivers, and even thought about going to Lingnan to reunite with her exiled family?

But all of these finally laid the foundation for her to return to Chang'an.

Mixed into a coffin, who would have thought of such a way.

I'm afraid that just sleeping in the coffin with the dead can already frighten ordinary people.

But Jing Wan'er is different, she is in the palace and has been with the corpse for five years. The smell of the girl's body has long been unbearable for others, but she is at ease.

From Jing Wan'er, Pei Tan couldn't see a trace of regret, what could be the matter that could make her come back with all her efforts.