gnovel Chapter 005: Wooden Bird
Chapter 005: Wooden Bird
Yue Yinping did not answer Zhao Bocong's question directly, but instead raised her shackled hand and pointed to the corner of the cell.
Zhao Bozong looked in the direction she was pointing. The corner wall was made of blue bricks with white lime filling the gaps between them, and it looked no different from the other walls.
But he soon discovered that it was the third row from the top and the fifth brick from the left.
The white mortar grout on that brick was slightly wider and newer than the grout lines on the other bricks, as if it had been refilled.
"Behind the brick, there's a wax pellet," Yue Yinping said, looking at Zhao Bozong. "Inside the wax pellet is the letter my father left for you."
Zhao Bozong stood up, walked to the wall, squatted down, and touched the edge of the brick with his fingers. The mortar filling was indeed looser than in other places. When he dug his fingers in, mortar dust fell off in a rustling sound.
Pull the whole brick out, and behind it is a fist-sized hole. Inside the hole is a piece of yellowish coarse cloth, and on the cloth is a wax pellet.
The wax pellet was about the size of a thumb, sealed with beeswax, and covered with fine dust.
Zhao Bozong took out the wax ball and ran his fingernail along the seal. The wax shell cracked, revealing the paper rolled into a thin tube inside.
The paper was thin and had a worn yellow tinge. There were only twelve characters written on it.
"Young friend Bo Cong: If you see the silver bottle in the future, please believe her."
It is Yue Fei's handwriting.
Zhao Bocong had seen Yue Fei's handwriting. He had looked through a photocopy of "Eguo Jintuo Zuibian" in the ancient books department, which included Yue Fei's surviving letters and memorials.
Yue Fei's calligraphy is mainly in running-cursive script, with a broad and spacious structure, steady brushstrokes, and a composure rarely seen in a military man. Each of these twelve characters is a testament to his hand.
Zhao Bocong turned the paper over again. There were no words on the back, only a tiny vermilion fingerprint in the lower right corner.
"When did your father write this letter?"
"The night before Fengbo Pavilion." Upon hearing Yue Yinping's reply, Zhao Bozong's fingers twitched slightly.
"That night, Zhou Sanwei interrogated my father for the last time. After the interrogation, Lord Zhou left. My father asked him for a piece of paper and a pen, which Lord Zhou gave him."
Yue Yinping's voice remained calm, but Zhao Bozong noticed that her hands were tightly gripping the iron chains.
"He cut the paper in half. He wrote these twelve characters on one half, sealed it in a wax ball, and entrusted Lord Zhou to hide it behind the bricks of this prison cell. The other half—"
She paused, then continued, "The other half wrote a letter to my older brother."
Zhao Bocong recalled the historical record of Yue Yun. On the 29th day of the twelfth month of the eleventh year of Shaoxing, he was killed on the same day as Yue Fei, at the age of twenty-three.
"Your older brother—"
"Big brother has received the letter." Yue Yinping interrupted him, her voice showing emotion for the first time.
"On the day of Fengbo Pavilion, he wasn't escorted in; he walked in on his own. Because he received a letter from my father, which contained only five words."
She didn't say what those five words were, and Zhao Bozong tacitly refrained from asking.
"Your father wants me to believe you, and I believe him." He looked up at her. "Tell me, what exactly are you going to do?"
Yue Yinping's gaze passed over him and landed on the iron gate. She listened to the sounds outside the gate, then looked away and lowered her voice.
"I went to the Dali Temple not to collect a corpse, nor to find any letter, but to put something inside."
Zhao Bozong frowned. "Put what down?"
"Evidence of Qin Hui's collusion with Jin."
Zhao Bozong's expression changed slightly.
"The evidence of Qin Hui's collusion with the emperor has always been in my father's hands. Before he was arrested, he divided the evidence into two parts. One part is with me. The other part—" She looked at Zhao Bozong, "is with you."
"I?"
"In the second year of Shaoxing, on the day you were selected to enter the palace, my father came to see you. But he didn't just come to see you; he hid the other half of the evidence on you."
Zhao Bozong was startled, somewhat taken aback, and his mind went blank for a moment.
Nine years ago, in the second year of Shaoxing.
On the day he was selected to enter the palace at the age of seven, the original owner's memories were torn open at that moment, and those blurry, blurred, water-soaked images suddenly became clear.
Outside the main hall, a man in armor crouched down, his hands calloused, and spoke in a low voice. "Your Highness, I have something for you. Please keep it safe." He then tucked something into a lining of his robe.
It's not a wooden bird.
The wooden bird was added later.
What the man stuffed in was a roll of paper.
The general said, "Your Highness, I have something for you. Keep it safe, because one day someone will come to ask for it back."
Zhao Bozong closed his eyes. The original owner's memories, like silt at the bottom of a river, were stirred up by this sentence and surged up in a turbid manner.
He was seven years old and didn't understand what it was. Who took that roll of paper later? Or did the original owner of this body lose it himself?
Or—is it hidden somewhere?
A wooden bird. The wooden bird's belly is hollow. But at the bottom of the wooden bird, there's an extremely fine slit—
"The wooden bird," Zhao Bozong's voice was hoarse, "You took the things out of the wooden bird?"
Yue Yinping shook her head. "I didn't take it, it was Zhou Sanwei. Three days ago, you were outside the palace, and he went into the Duke of Jianguo's mansion. I sent him there."
Zhao Bocong's expression changed again. He recognized the name Zhou Sanwei, the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review, the official who presided over the trial of Yue Fei in the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era. Historical records state that he had submitted a memorial to the throne to plead for Yue Fei's innocence, but it was suppressed by Qin Hui.
Three days ago, before he had transmigrated.
The original owner, Zhao Bozong, was still in this body, completely unaware that the wooden bird that had been with him for nine years under his pillow had been dissected and then put back together.
Zhou Sanwei, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, entered the Duke of Jianguo's mansion, dissected the wooden bird under a boy's pillow, and took what was inside.
Then Yue Yinping knelt outside for three days, knocking on secret signals for three days, using him as bait to force him into the Dali Temple—just to tell him face to face: the item is in your hands, and from beginning to end, it was all a scheme she set up.
Zhao Bozong held the wax pellet in his palm; the wax shell had softened slightly from his body heat.
"Tomorrow at Chenshi (7-9 AM), Zhou Sanwei will release me, and I will leave Dali Temple with a coffin." Yue Yinping lowered her voice even further.
"Qin Hui will have Qin Xi stop me at the door and search the coffin under the pretext of inspection. Qin Xi will find a secret box inside the coffin, and inside the secret box is evidence that the two parts have been combined."
Zhao Bozong was somewhat incredulous. "You—you're going to expose Qin Hui in public?"
"It wasn't me who exposed it, it was Qin Xi who exposed it."
Qin Xi didn't know what was in the secret box; he only knew that Qin Hui had ordered him to search the coffin and bring the secret box back once he found it.
But I will make sure the secret box is opened in full view of everyone.
The moment it's opened, the evidence of Qin Hui's collusion with the emperor will be revealed to the world.
"Qin Xi isn't stupid. He found the secret box, but he won't open it in public."
"He will," Yue Yinping said, "because I'll make him have no choice but to open it."
"How do I do it?"
Yue Yinping's gaze fell on him. "This is what you need to do."
Zhao Bocong frowned. "Is Zhou Sanwei one of your men?"
"He's one of my father's men," Yue Yinping said. "The third name on the list."
Zhao Bozong was silent for a moment, then said, "I'm at the Dali Temple."
Yue Yinping shook her head. "If you're not in the Dali Temple, Qin Hui will let you out before Chenshi (7-9 AM).
"What do you mean?" Zhao Bozong asked.
"He won't let you stay in the Dali Temple to watch over me—he let you in so you can interrogate me."
"If you can't get anything out of him, he has no reason to keep you around," Yue Yinping replied.
"So you will be sent out of the Dali Temple before Chenshi (7-9 AM). At that time, you will need to stand outside the Dali Temple, in the crowd."
Zhao Bocong also shook his head.
"After Qin Xi finds the secret box, he won't open it himself. He'll take it back to Qin Hui. Unless—"
Yue Yinping paused, "Someone in the crowd will shout. They'll shout what's in the secret box, and that it should be opened so everyone can see."
One person shouted, two people shouted, three people shouted. With so many people shouting, Qin Xi had no choice but to open it.
"You want me to arrange for people to shout in the crowd?"
"It wasn't someone I arranged," Yue Yinping said. "You called for it yourself."
Zhao Bocong remained silent.