There are probably two kinds of things in the world, one is to do with a purpose, and the other is to do without a purpose. The former has a clear purpose and motives, and everything he says and does is traceable, and it is easy to do. The latter has to get by, and some people can find a purpose in the process of doing it, and some can not even find a purpose in their whole life.

Yan Mu, who let his mind roam in the night sky to his heart's content, stared at Gu Changqing vigorously, all that came to mind was this sentence, he thought that Gu Changqing was the same as himself, he had to get by in this life, just eat and drink happily, in fact, he was the one who "took every step for the camp", every step had its own purpose, and every step was moving towards the ideal.

From the initial choice of the imperial examination, to the prefect's case three years ago, to eating wine and chanting poetry with Lord Yun in the tavern a few days ago, every step has been chosen by him.

"You've decided. You know, once you're on this path, you may not be able to turn back! Yan Mu finally couldn't help but say.

"Some things are actually not things that you choose not to choose, as if they were born predestined!" Gu Changqing didn't refute Yan Mu's words, just one sentence, but Yan Mu couldn't find the words to refute it anymore.

"You also know that if I want to go to Yong'an, I must find an opportunity, and now the palace mystery is this opportunity, and I can't let it go."

"But you are so sure that the truth of the year is in Yong'an City?" A trace of pain flashed in Yan Mu's eyes, "That note may have been designed and framed by someone with ulterior motives?" ”

"Even if it's a design by someone with ulterior motives, I have to go, even if it's just a hair-like clue, I won't let it go." Gu Changqing's eyes were bloodthirsty red, and even his voice became hoarse, "There are some things you don't understand, even if there is no hope, you want to do your best to get the truth!" ”

"But sometimes it's better not to know the truth than to know?!" Yan Mu stood up, his body hidden in the darkness, only the slightest fluctuation in his voice.

The silence suddenly amplified between the two people, and for a while, the two of them couldn't find anything to break the silence in front of them, so they simply went back to the room, but they both looked at the stars and the moon in a daze.

Early the next morning, Yan Mu was still in a state of half-asleep and half-awake, when he heard something coming from outside, he casually put on a shirt and went out, and saw Gu Changqing and the great eunuch Gao Gong beside the emperor talking very happily.

I don't know what to say, but from time to time, Grandpa Gao handed him another thing, turned around and left.

Gu Changqing, who was just about to return to the room, was startled when he saw Yan Mu in the corner, and said, "Woke up so soon and had breakfast?" ”

Yan Mu pursed his lips and said angrily, "I can help you, although I can't do anything, I can't let you do such a dangerous thing by yourself!" ”

Yan Mu thought about it for a long time last night, the two of them grew up together, they know each other the best, and they are the most intimate, if they don't even help him and don't trust him, then how can they be good friends?!

"You want to help me?" Gu Changqing smiled, but there was no surprise at all, he just said, "Then you go downstairs first and help me settle the meal money!" ”

Yan Mu laughed angrily, but this was the most normal way for them to get along, so he ran downstairs quickly, happy like a child!

However, when he went downstairs, he found that Gu Changqing had already paid for the meal, so he returned upstairs angrily and found that Gu Changqing was fiddling with something, and when he got closer, it was a dragon-patterned jade pendant.

"Grandpa Gao gave it to you?" Yan Mu thought about the appearance of Grandpa Gao when he gave him something just now, and forgot his anger for a moment, and said curiously!

"Father-in-law Gao said that we can go into the palace to investigate the case with this! However, you have to come out before the palace gate is keyed, and you can't walk around the harem at will! Gu Changqing said.

Yan Mu sat down across from him, just glanced at the jade pendant and said, "What's the matter!" When you go to the palace to judge the case, you are not allowed to go privately, so how do you find evidence? ”

"The harem is the place where the royal concubines are located, and I, as a foreign minister, are naturally not allowed to walk at will, but the emperor did not say that he was not allowed to enter, but just said that he could not be at will!" Gu Changqing said, taking advantage of the situation to put away the things in his hand.

"Then what are you going to do, since this case has been followed, you must find the real murderer to have a chance, and now you have a clue!" Yan Mu said worriedly.

"If you talk about clues, there are not only a lot, but also the painting, the five deceased, and all kinds of strange scenes around the deceased, all clues, all clues!" Gu Changqing smiled bitterly, "It's just that sometimes the messy clues and clues are useless, it's better not to come!" ”

"Something is better than nothing!" Yan Mu propped his hands on the table and said casually, "Otherwise, there is no clue, you always have nothing to do, I think our head is about to move!" ”

Gu Changqing smiled and said, "If everyone thinks like you, wouldn't there be no one who eats vegetarian food." Everyone is afraid of moving their heads, and everyone is doing their best to do things in their positions, isn't this a vision of the world! ”

Yan Mu snorted coldly, "Then what are you going to do!" With so many clues, which one do you look for first? ”

"I'm not looking for any." Gu Changqing thought for a while and said, "Let's go to the Palace Criminal Division first, there are records of the scene at that time, we haven't seen the scene, and it won't help to simply listen to others!" And ......" Gu Changqing looked at the exquisitely crafted Longwen jade pendant in his hand, "The emperor has already given us all this jade pendant, why can't we wait like this!" ”

After that, the two of them asked the little two in the inn to hire a carriage, and swayed towards the palace, this palace city looks like a misty illusion at night, wonderful and abnormal, but it looks majestic and majestic in the daytime, majestic and prominent, so that people dare not violate, but they can't think of what kind of person is the person who caused such a trick in this palace city, what kind of person is it, and what is the purpose.

When he arrived outside the palace gate, Gu Changqing showed the jade pendant to the guards, and after being resolutely released, he was guided by the palace people all the way to the palace punishment department.

The Palace Criminal Division was founded when the Holy Grandfather, in short, it is the Ministry of Justice that is in charge of the cases of the palace prison, and the Ministry of Justice is in charge of the world's criminal prisons, which is different from the Ministry of Justice, what the Palace Criminal Department does is only to deal with the emperor's family affairs, but this matter seems easy, but in fact it involves a lot.

On the one hand, the palace criminal department is directly under the control of the emperor, and the loyal nature is only the emperor, but on the other hand, the palace criminal department is in charge of large and small cases in the palace, which are more or less related to the interests of the palace mothers.

So after coming and going, this palace criminal department no longer has the original intention of only finding out the truth for the emperor, and everything he says and does depends on people's faces.

If you can turn a big thing into a small thing, if you can't find the murderer, you can't find the murderer, and it's better to do nothing than to inadvertently offend any master.

But if the master wants to get any other news, they can do it, and they don't hide it at all.

Therefore, in recent years, the palace criminal department has become a wall grass driven by the atmosphere in the palace, and it can be crooked as much as it wants, but those substantive methods of investigating the case have long been forgotten, and the five successive murders in the palace have not had a result after half a year, and they are naturally responsible.

At this time, Master Li of the Criminal Division of the palace glanced at the Long Wenyu pendant in Gu Changqing's hand, knelt decisively, and kowtowed a few times in the direction where the emperor was before getting up and looking at Gu Changqing and greeting, "I heard yesterday that the emperor sent someone to investigate this case, and now that you are here, my heart can be regarded as letting go!" ”

"We are all the emperor's courtiers, and we all got together for the purpose of investigating the case, so there is no need to say much about flattering each other, I came today to learn about all the files of these five cases." Gu Changqing hated Lord Li's flattery, and said with a cold face and a businesslike look.

This Lord Li has been dealing with those ladies in the palace who like to listen to good words for a long time, even if he is not used to seeing it in his heart, he has a smile on his face. Now that he met a cold-faced person like Gu Changqing, he also heard it, and changed his normal appearance and said, "Yesterday, the emperor sent someone to let us cooperate with you in investigating the case, so I already sent someone to sort it out early!" ”

After that, Master Li asked the little eunuch beside him to take Gu Changqing and Yan Mu to a room, the room was not big, but it was clean and tidy, and a dozen files had been placed on the table in the middle of the room.

"That's all the files for the five cases?" Yan Mu pointed to the file on the table and said.

"Yes, all five case files are here."

The little eunuch said cautiously, bowed and withdrew!

"So much, what are you going to think?!" After the little eunuch withdrew, Yan Mu picked up the top one and said in surprise.

"There are a total of five people's files, not many!" Gu Changqing picked up a book and sat down, "Compared to the medical skills you memorized when you were a child, it's really a small thing!" ”

Yan Mu thought about the scene when he was a child, and couldn't help but shudder, sat down opposite Gu Changqing, and watched it with him.

After all, the Palace Criminal Department is not a court department with a strict system like the Criminal Department, and it is impossible to turn a blind eye to the achievements of the Criminal Case and Prison Law, and the case file is even more disorganized, and there is no key to the investigation between the upper and lower levels, and there are many logical loopholes in the words.

Gu Changqing only turned a few pages, and then he felt full of depression, threw the case file on the table, and half-leaned on the chair to pretend to sleep.

"What's wrong?" Seeing his appearance, Yan Mu raised his head and asked.

"It's nothing, it's just that some people don't even do superficial work now!" Gu Changqing sighed, "I thought that this palace criminal department was directly under the control of the emperor, even if this case could not be found out, there would be some available clues, but now that I look at it, I am actually lazy and foolish under the emperor's nose, how can I not be angry!" ”

"I see you, you're just worrying. What do they have to do with you, anyway, you came to investigate this case in order to get a reward from the emperor so that you can go to Yong'an City, now you just need to find out the case, no matter how many things you want to manage, you can't manage them! ”

"If everyone in this court is like this, I'm afraid it will be the sorrow of the dynasty!" Gu Changqing sighed, sorted out his thoughts, and continued to read the dossier.

Yan Mu didn't have too many thoughts, he knew that he was different from Changqing, he had an inner pursuit, he wanted a clear dynasty and officialdom, and what he thought of was very simple, three or five friends, it was enough to travel in the mountains and rivers!

The two of them looked at it for more than half an hour, except for communicating with each other during the period, there was nothing else, in the open window, there was occasionally a wind blowing, but there was also a sense of peace and quiet.

Gu Changqing flipped through the case file of the fourth case in his hand one after another, raised his head and looked at Yan Mudao, "Have you read Xu Meiren's case file?" ”

"I'm done, what's wrong?" Yan Mu said curiously.

"Can you see the scene map inside?!"

"Nope!" Yan Mu shook his head, his eyes innocent, "When I just looked at it, there was no scene map in it!" ”

"It's strange, the scene map of this crime scene is in every case file, why is this Xu beauty alone gone!" Gu Changqing put down the file in his hand, and unsure took out the other books to check them, and after making sure that only the scene map of the Xu Meiren file was gone, he called the little eunuch who had just brought them in.

The little eunuch didn't say where this thing went for a long time, Gu Changqing couldn't help but say, "Before that, someone had come to see this case file?" ”

The little eunuch thought for a while, and Nuo Nuo replied, "Some time ago, the queen mother came, and Princess Changshan also came!" ”

"The queen and the princess?" Yan Mu looked at the little eunuch curiously, "What are they doing here?" ”

The little eunuch shook his head, "I don't know about this, but just like you, I read the file here for a long time before leaving!" ”

"The queen and Princess Changshan are the two of them coming together?"

The little eunuch shook his head, "Princess Changshan came first, and the queen came the next day!" ”

The queen mother and Princess Changshan had both come to see the file, which was really a bit unexpected by Gu Changqing, but looking at the appearance of the little eunuch, they knew that they couldn't ask anything, so they simply let him out.

After the little eunuch left, Gu Changqing took out the scene diagrams from the several case files he had just read one by one and put them side by side on the table.

The first scene picture is a dry well, and at the edge of the dry well is a little eunuch who has leaned over into the well, and the whole picture is not too much retouched, and the case file behind the scene map writes that the cause of death of this little eunuch is poisoning!

The second scene is Zhongli Palace, a woman was tightly dropped on the tree by her long black hair, the whole person's body is like a board, hanging straight down, the painter in order to be more vivid, the ice cube wrapped in the woman's body is rendered with white powder, and the cause of death is written to be suffocation.

The third picture is on a road, the sky is covered with heavy snow, and a person who is integrated with the snow scene is highlighted by the red plum blossoms, Gu Changqing looked at it carefully, and couldn't help but feel that something was wrong, so he asked Yan Mu, "What do you think is the meaning of the murderer to make this plum blossom like this?" ”

"I don't know! But it looks like there's an inexplicable weirdness! Yan Mu looked at the third scene in Gu Changqing's hand, and couldn't help but shudder, "Originally, the heavy snow in winter with red plums was a beautiful scenery, but now it seems that it feels creepy!" But I'm more curious about why the murderer would put out such a thing! ”

Gu Changqing took the piece of paper, looked at it closely, looked at it from a distance, and finally stopped at a proper distance from Yan Mu, pointed to the scene and painted, "Yan Mu, you look at it like this, you look closely, what do these petals look like?" ”

Yan Mu didn't take it seriously, but because it was different from the perspective just now, he still saw it at once, and pointed to the scene painting and said with some excitement, "I said, I feel weird and numb when I look at this painting, this flower looks scarlet from a distance, more like a pool of blood!" ”

"The use of such a wonderful thing to represent death is no less than real blood, if not more!" Gu Changqing put away the painting, but he inevitably felt chills like Yan Mu, "But in my opinion, this murderer seems to be painting, he treats heaven and earth as a picture scroll!" ”

Yan Mu shuddered, "Then this murderer is too perverted, but what is he doing this, it's not easy to kill people?" ”

Gu Changqing smiled, but there are such people who want to kill people, but they don't want to kill them well, and make some messy things to attract attention.

It's just that what is the purpose of this murderer's killing?

Why did he make this around the corpse?

Is this the end of these five people?

……

Gu Changqing had countless questions in his heart, and all of these questions and unknowns were as frightening as death.

Yan Mu saw that something was wrong with him, and stretched out his hand to shake it in front of his eyes, "What do you think, so fascinated?" ”

Gu Changqing returned to the chair and sat down, gently rubbed his somewhat astringent eyes, like an extremely distressed child who couldn't get out of the recitation left by his master, and muttered, "Every murderer will have something he wants in the process of committing the crime. Some people enjoy the pleasure of killing, some people want to release their hatred, and some people just want to show their superb criminal ability, but I am thinking, what does this murderer think of by carrying out such a complex and redundant act around the corpse? ”

Yan Mu snorted coldly, "I think it's just to satisfy his perverted heart!" ”

"If it's just to satisfy such a heart? Why did you bring in the picture of the palace night banquet? ”

Yan Mu stared at the place, "Didn't you say that the palace night banquet plan to eat people is a rumor, what, you admit it now that it's true?" ”

"The rumor I said refers to the painting eating people, but its relationship with the case is definitely not a rumor, maybe this painting will become the most important clue for us to solve the case!"

"Maybe this painting has nothing to do with the case in the first place?" Yan Mu saw that Gu Changqing was a little dull, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, and said nonsense, "Maybe there is such a possibility, this painting is a host, and there is a group of people under it, and those people who specialize in raising this painting, what they have to do every day is to feed it to all kinds of people who are looking for all kinds of essence and blood are good enough and good, ancient legends, aren't all like this!" ”

Gu Changqing had long been accustomed to Yan Mu's messy rhetoric, but he still couldn't help but sarcastically say, "I think you don't need to inherit Uncle Yan's family business in the future, just go to the library to tell stories!" ”

"I think this is a good idea, with my three-inch incorruptible tongue, I should be the first book in the world!" Yan Mu raised his head, naturally he was overjoyed!

After reading the case files, the two did not stay long in this palace criminal division, most of the day flickered, and both of them were a little hungry, so they returned the case files to the little eunuch and left in a hurry!

It's just that the doubts in my heart are getting farther and farther away from the Palace Punishment Division, but they are getting more and more prosperous.

If the queen and the princess came to see the file for the case, it is understandable, but is the scene of the disappeared Shexiangyuan related to the two of them?

And what is it that murderer is killing in such an abnormal way?