The tea in front of him was cold, but Su Shi just stared at the cup, motionless like a puppet.
Pei Xuan drank tea leisurely, quietly enjoying the tranquility of this moment.
The room was very quiet, so quiet that you could hear the breeze blowing through the sea of flowers outside.
A burst of floral fragrance hit, and Su Shi finally let out a long breath.
"God's will is unpredictable. If everything is attributed to God's will, it will never be convincing, at least I won't believe it."
Pei Xuan was not surprised. He just said lightly: "I'm just telling the truth. I don't care whether you believe it or not."
Su Shi didn't want to dwell on this issue any longer, so he immediately asked the second question: "Why did you plan the incident of being haunted in the Red Plum Pavilion?"
Pei Xuan said: "You should be able to guess the reason."
"But I don't know what you're looking for?"
"a book."
"what book?"
"A book left by the prince before his death."
Seeing that Pei Xuan refused to reveal the truth, Su Shi sighed and changed the question.
"The prince had so many properties under his name at that time, why are you so sure that the book is in the Hongmei Pavilion?"
Pei Xuan said slowly: "Because of Hui Niang."
Su Shi's eyes lit up: "Is it because Huiniang asked to be placed under house arrest in Hongmei Pavilion?"
"That's just one of the reasons."
Su Shi blurted out: "Handkerchief, another reason is the handkerchief embroidered by Hui Niang."
Pei Xuan said: "Yes, it is that handkerchief that allows me to confirm that the prince hid the book in the Red Plum Pavilion."
"What's the secret on the handkerchief? What do those strange patterns mean?"
Pei Xun thought deeply: "I studied that handkerchief for a day and a night, but I didn't find any secrets on it."
Pei Xun's words couldn't help but make Su Shi frown. It wasn't that he didn't believe Pei Xun's words, but he felt very strange.
With Pei Xuan's intelligence, he couldn't find any secrets on the handkerchief, so there was only one possibility: there was no secret left on the handkerchief at all.
Then why did Hui Niang spend three months embroidering such a pattern?
Thinking of the pattern, Su Shi couldn't wait to ask, "What does that strange pattern mean?"
Pei Xuan said: "Those four patterns are actually four characters."
"Four words? What are four words?"
"Bi Yi Lian Zhi." Pei Xuan said: "Those four characters are Bi Yi Lian Zhi."
"Bi Ying Lian Zhi" is a love saying, which means loyalty and perseverance between lovers.
Hui Niang embroidered these four words on the handkerchief to express her affection for the prince. After the handkerchief was embroidered, Hui Niang followed the prince without hesitation.
Su Shi smiled bitterly and rubbed his forehead. Could it be that everyone had guessed wrong? There was no secret at all on the handkerchief.
But Su Shi suddenly looked at Pei Xuan suspiciously and asked curiously: "Why does the old gentleman think that the strange pattern is a kind of writing, and it is still the four characters "Bi Yi Lian Zhi"?
After all, even the people closest to the prince had never seen this strange pattern, let alone what it meant. Su Shi couldn't figure out why Pei Xuan knew it and was so sure about it.
This sentence seemed to hit Pei Xun's mute point, and he became silent for a while.
Su Shi frowned involuntarily, not because he doubted Pei Xun's words, but because he suddenly felt that this text-like pattern seemed to hide some kind of secret.
Su Shi sighed: "Does the old gentleman have something to hide about this kind of writing?"
Pei Xuan finally said: "This is indeed a kind of writing, but it has been lost for a long time. There are not many people in the world who know this kind of writing. I just happen to know it."
Hearing this, Su Shi smiled and said, "If the old gentleman doesn't want to say it, I won't force him, so why use this excuse to deal with me."
Pei Xun looked at Su Shi quietly and said, "Master, why did you say this?"
Su Shi sighed: "Since you said this is a kind of writing, as a teacher, you should know that if there is no one to teach writing, I'm afraid no one can master it without a teacher. Since you said this kind of writing has been lost for a long time, But I don’t know who taught you and the prince?”
Even after being exposed by Su Shi, Pei Xuan's expression did not change at all. He just said lightly: "I didn't perfuse you, but there are some things you'd better not know."
Su Shi was very willing to accept other people's advice, so he immediately changed the topic.
"Since there is no secret left on the handkerchief, why are you so sure that the book must be in the Red Plum Pavilion?"
Pei Xun said: "Although there is no secret on the handkerchief, the writing itself is a secret."
Su Shi thought about it, but still didn't understand, so he had to ask, "What do you mean?"
Pei Xuan explained: "Do you think Hui Niang knows this kind of writing?"
Su Shi hesitated and said, "I probably don't know her. These words were probably taught to her by the prince when they were deeply in love with her."
Pei Xuan said: "I believe that no one except Huiniang knows that this is a kind of writing."
Su Shi nodded. Even his eldest brother Su Zhou had seen it by chance and had no idea what it was. Zhou Jin asked everyone around the prince, but no one else had even seen it.
Pei Xuan continued: "Since Zhou Xuan is willing to teach Huiniang such writing, it means that Huiniang has won his trust, so Huiniang should know that the book is hidden in the Hongmei Pavilion, but Zhou Xuan probably did not tell her the details. The location, so Hui Niang didn’t find it before she died.”
Su Shi sighed: "So the book ended up in your hands."
Pei Xuan said slowly: "We have been looking for three months, but found nothing."
"Not found?" Su Shi was really surprised at this, because in his opinion, with Pei Xun's ability, not to mention finding a book, even finding a needle in the sea was not enough for him. Difficult matter.
But the look on his face didn't seem to be lying.
"That book is important to you?" Su Shi couldn't help but ask.
"It used to be, but it doesn't matter now."
Su Shi asked in confusion: "Why?"
Pei Xuan smiled: "For a dead man, nothing in this world is important to him."
A book that could arouse Pei Hyun's covetousness must not be an ordinary book. Su Shi was really curious about what was recorded in this book.
So he couldn't help but ask again: "What kind of book is this?"
Pei Xuan didn't answer him, just shook his head and said, "If you find that book, you will naturally know."
Su Shi smiled bitterly and said, "I can't even find you. I'm afraid no one can find it. I'm afraid that when I read this book, I'll never have the chance to see the light of day again."
Pei Xuan suddenly fell into silence, with regret, sympathy and a hint of awe on his face.
"Zhou Xuan is a person who does not believe in fate." Pei Xuan said slowly: "He believed that he could change his destiny against the will of heaven, so he left this book, and he must have left some clues."
Su Shi asked calmly: "He is already the prince, and your majesty has great trust in him. He may pass the throne to him at any time, and the entire Daqian will be his in the future. In this way, he still needs to change his destiny. , where does this leave others?”
Pei Xuan said: "If Zhou Xuan wants to change his destiny, it is not his own destiny, but the destiny of Da Qian."
"The fate of Daqian?" Su Shi said with a smile: "Now that Daqian is in its prime, singing and dancing, why should it change?"
Pei Xun said: "As the saying goes, the great Qian dynasty seems to be prosperous and prosperous on the surface, but in fact it is full of crises and is in danger."
Su Shi poured tea for him and said with a smile, "Isn't that too alarmist?"
"Really?" Pei Xun said with some regret: "Although I can't see Daqian going from prosperity to decline, you will definitely see it, and it will be in half a year."
Su Shi smiled bitterly and said: "I didn't expect that the old gentleman can not only predict the good or bad luck of people, but also the fate of the country."
