Chapter 627: Fish and Flies Playing with Puppets

Inner Palace Service.

The sun had just risen, and the colors of the scenery turned from gray to bright. The flowing water was not frozen, and the slender stream was sandwiched between white stones on both banks. In the winter of Chang'an, such clear and cold sounds were not easy to hear.

Even though the lotus stems had long withered and fallen, there were still emerald greens dotted in the stream. The cold-natured fish lay in the depths, not moving even when food grains were sprinkled on the water surface, just waiting for them to sink slowly.

In the round pupils of these scaled creatures, the usually empty stone bridge on the water surface had an extra large patch of fluctuating purple shadows. Every time it swayed slightly, the water surface rippled with clear circles.

"Didn't you win both battles? He didn't even leave a scratch on the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】." Another fluctuating shadow walked down from the pavilion and stood beside the purple shadow. "Are you in such a hurry?"

Yu Sicheng threw all the bait in his hand and brushed his palms: "Victory or defeat is always on the line. Seemingly heavy barriers and gullies can sometimes be pierced in an instant."

He looked at the young man beside him, his narrow eyes sunken: "The day before the late Ming Ming Niangniang was assassinated, wasn't there also no omen?"

Traces of the fight could no longer be seen in the mansion. The walls had been repaired, and the floor had been replaced. Only the newer colors told the evidence of what had happened.

Yongji rested his arms on the railing: "Then advance it. Anyway, there's probably only a month or so left."

His two sharp black brows didn't move: "This person is truly charging recklessly. Once he gets some news, his execution speed is astonishingly fast. It's quite like the Crane-character A-one of those years... He seems to have seen the "Luo River Seeking the Crossing". After going down, did he discover anything?"

"What can be used in the "Luo River" has already been used. If he saw it, let him see it." Yu Sicheng looked at the fish that began to swallow the bait. "He has reached the depths of the Twelve Hanging Streams and swallowed the scale flowers. Everything that should be discovered has been discovered. I'm afraid he has already discovered some things I haven't."

Yongji turned his head to look at him: "According to what you said, this person is considered a god."

"But that's useless." Yu Sicheng said indifferently, "I have stood before that water curtain for more than ten years, and I know better than anyone what it is waiting for. To enter it, I used all means... You know what kind of power we used and how much we paid."

Yongji nodded.

"If he is willing to go in, let him go in. If he sees something, let him see it. The Inner Palace Service was never locked, and the South Pool was never covered." Yu Sicheng said, "My biggest feeling in these years is that for things Princess Jinyang wants to know, trying to stop them always results in more losses than gains."

"But he will never be the first to enter the Luo Shen Palace." Yu Sicheng stood still, his large robe swaying slightly in the cold wind.

"Long years and complex steps cannot be surpassed by shortcuts." Yu Sicheng closed his eyes. "He cannot walk my path, and there is no other path in the world... Instead of worrying about him, it's better to focus more on Princess Jinyang."

"Once more, can you still succeed?" Yu Sicheng opened his eyes, and the white mist on his lips drifted away in the winter wind.

Yongji didn't speak and looked up at the sky.

After a long while, he withdrew his gaze but didn't pick up the previous topic: "You said, you are very confident that you can enter the Luo Shen Palace?"

"If not ninety percent, then eighty percent."

"Tell me, is there anything I can help with?" Yongji tilted his head. "Unless it's the last step, no one wants to do it again. The Great Tang is like a boat sailing in dangerous seas; it's not suitable to have too much shaking."

"No. Things in the palace, you can't do, I can do; what you can do, I can do." The purple-clothed Grand Eunuch still looked at the stream. "You just take care of your side."

"You are in the palace, and I am outside the palace. Whatever you wanted, I have always allocated it. I really don't know what you intend to do." Yongji looked at him. "Sixty years are almost up. Why not talk about it?"

"..."

"When I found the Luo Shen Palace back then, you said there was no way to enter it. You said it had no locks, and not even a door, only a circle of walls. Only those who are destined can enter." Yongji said, "Why did you find a ladder now?"

Yu Sicheng was silent for a while: "Because the Ming Ming Niangniang will always leave a way out."

"... Hmm?"

"The Ming Ming Niangniang is that kind of person, I know." Yu Sicheng stood still, his voice as usual. "She would open the window to let the trapped butterfly fly away, even if it let in many mosquitoes and flies."

He looked at Yongji expressionlessly, the pale frost of early morning shining on the purple gold on his left cheek: "I have always been a fly."

Zhu Jing side hall, the same early morning.

Guo You's head was full of needles, but he was holding the purple-gold fragment in his hand, dazed.

"Do you remember this material? It is the dragon gold cast into the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】." Seeing Pei Ye sat cross-legged beside him, drinking porridge while tirelessly whispering repeated information to him according to Qu Xin's instructions. "Can you identify which part it comes from?"

After Li Xianfang was in the hall, there was finally no need to worry about the food sent by the Imperial Kitchen. Seeing Pei Ye didn't know if Li Xizhou had the intention of keeping her, but he hoped that during the days he stayed, this dancer would be better to stay all the time.

Guo You didn't speak, just turned the fragment over and over. Sometimes his mouth opened, but it was some strange sounds that didn't form words.

"Yesterday, I only unlocked his mental barrier, allowing him to perceive the outside world again." Qu Xin sat on the side, also eating a small bowl of porridge with a porcelain spoon. "But the knowledge in his brain is still chaotic, mixed phases connected, unable to distinguish between new and old. He can only answer subconscious inquiries. It seems the questions you asked are too deep and require inference and thinking, which he cannot do yet."

Seeing Pei Ye sighed softly and lowered his head to drink porridge intently.

When swallowing with a slurping sound, he glanced sideways at the young girl's desk and said: "Then what are you doing?"

It was still the desk from that day. The thirty-two fine lines inserted into Guo You's brain were pulled out and displayed on it in an orderly manner. And on the other part of the desk, there were seven extremely exquisite small wooden puppets.

Palm-sized, with all five limbs and joints, they were very precious craftsmanship at a glance. At a glance, there were twenty or thirty kinds of materials used, and the turning points were smooth and fit, almost no different from real people.

Seeing Pei Ye had set his eyes on this rare toy as soon as he entered. It was a thousand times better than the rough little men he had played with when he was young. He didn't doubt at all that if Qu Xin was willing to lend them out, and equipped with a few finger-swords, he could use them to perform a good play like "The Four Pei Brothers Beat the Three Qu Sisters".

"Tie the puppet." Qu Xin said vaguely. "The second step of treatment is to find out the traumatic things he has experienced, let him recall and accept this scene again under emotional peace... Only by exposing the wound can it be sutured. If it is left to rot in the dark corners of memory, then the healed part will collapse again. This is why such illnesses recur."

"Then what does that have to do with these little people?"

"The Ling Shu Heart-Knocking Needle combined with the puppet can convey thoughts and meanings to a certain extent. It can not only make his memories more detailed but also allow the physician to glimpse the traumatic event through this." Qu Xin looked at him. "It can also allow you to see some things you want to know."

There were indeed many things Seeing Pei Ye wanted to know in Guo You's brain. He couldn't help but nod slowly: "I didn't expect these little people to be so magical... How much is one?"

Qu Xin looked at him: "What for?"

"If it's not expensive, I want to buy two to play with." Seeing Pei Ye said. "True Xuan cannot be manifested outside here, but when outside, let it hold a finger-sword, isn't that a little swordsman? It feels quite interesting."

Qu Xin thought for a while, lowered her head and drank the last mouthful of porridge, and said nothing.

Seeing Pei Ye was stunned: "I'm asking you a question."

Qu Xin put down the bowl: "The porridge is not bad."

"... Are you deaf?"

The gray-clothed young girl looked at him plainly: "According to my past experience, you are both poor and stingy, and the cost of the puppet is over two taels of silver. It's a waste to report it, so I'm too lazy to waste my breath."

"..."

Seeing Pei Ye was momentarily unable to refute. He really couldn't take two taels of silver to buy such a little person, but at this time, the four words "poor and stingy" from the young girl accurately stabbed him. His brows twisted deeply, and he was really prepared not to steam buns but to fight for breath: "Who said I wouldn't buy it if it was over two taels? How many more than two taels? I'll buy however much it is!"

Qu Xin raised her head and thought: "Two taels and eighteen thousand wen."

After speaking, she lowered her head and began to tie the first puppet.

"... That's twenty taels." Seeing Pei Ye said earnestly.

Qu Xin nodded: "It was twenty taels to begin with."

"Then you said two taels."

"I said over two taels."

"..."

"Because two taels is your upper limit for paying, that's why I said that." Qu Xin tied the silk thread and said in a flat voice, "These puppets are all carved and assembled by myself. The cost is fifteen taels. I didn't ask for more from you—so, are you buying?"

Seeing Pei Ye hugged his arms and sat by her desk, leaning forward to look: "So you made it yourself. You made this little person quite well."

"If you can't afford it, why pretend?"

"... Who spends so much money to buy a little person? Isn't that sick?"

"Can you call it a puppet?"

"No, I can't remember."

Seeing Pei Ye watched quietly for a while and suddenly said: "Hey, Qu Xin, I suddenly have an idea. You said, you have already made the core trunk and five limbs, so on this basis, repairing the body shape, carving the face, and making some small clothes for it to wear, it must be even less of a problem. After such a set, I think your little person can be sold for thirty taels. Do you know why?"

Qu Xin paused and looked at him.

Seeing Pei Ye smiled, quite proud of his idea: "Because you can carve the faces of powerful people, such as Yan Feiqing, Yang Zhenbing, Zhu Gaoyang... There are many people in the capital who like them. Think about it, if there is such a little Yan Feiqing who can use 【Infinite Self and Other】, how many people would be willing to pay for it?"

"However, you cannot make Miss Ming's." He added.

But Qu Xin was silent, just looking at him quietly. That gaze made the young man feel inexplicably uneasy. He frowned and said: "... What are you doing?"

Qu Xin lowered her head, actually picked up a brand-new puppet beside her hand, and handed it to him: "It's yours."

"...?"

"Regarding this puppet thing, I decided to adopt your idea." When Qu Xin raised her head, she was again a cold and indifferent face, earnestly tying other wooden puppets to the thread. "However, the examples you gave are not very good. I am not familiar with Yan Feiqing, Yang Zhenbing, or Zhu Gaoyang, and I can't beat them."

"Then whose are you making?"

"Don't worry about it."

Seeing Pei Ye was slightly dazed, but it was quite good to get such a precious wooden puppet for nothing. He smiled and waved his hands: "You really gave it to me?"

"Hmm."

"... Sorry Qu Xin, I have always felt that you are quite black-hearted." He said somewhat embarrassedly, "Yesterday in the hall, you said you didn't accept high salary. I thought you were acting. It turns out you are really so generous... Just don't lie to me and Piaoqing like last time."

"Hmm."

Seeing Pei Ye treasured the puppet, sat cross-legged with his ankles supported, and looked at Guo You, who had already tied six puppets. The old man seemed to have entered that state where he couldn't perceive the outside world again.

Still driven by his Chi fire, the six puppets actually stood up in his astonished gaze. Seeing Pei Ye immediately tilted his head and said: "Little Cat, hurry up and call Li Xizhou over."

Li Xizhou arrived later than expected. It was clear she had just risen from the bed, but there was no major problem because the main show of the six puppets was even later than expected.

They sometimes moved on their own together, sometimes others collapsed on the ground, and only one or two were doing inexplicable actions. Except for Qu Xin who kept recording, they couldn't understand the old man's memories... until the sky outside the window turned dim yellow.

Guo You's body suddenly trembled slightly, his lips kept opening and closing, and emotions that were difficult to vent seemed to be surging in his heart.

And on the desk, all the puppets jumped down, and only one puppet began to run wildly on it.

The tabletop was clearly flat, but it kept lifting its legs toward the high place, leaping over non-existent obstacles. After about half a quarter of an hour, it suddenly stood still. In front of it, another puppet suddenly jumped onto the table.

And behind the new puppet, the third puppet hung on the edge of the table in a beautiful and dying posture, motionless, ready to fall at any time.

Li Xizhou's gaze condensed first, and Seeing Pei Ye followed closely, raising his eyebrows.

The two looked at each other. No words were needed; they both realized which scene was about to be reproduced before their eyes.

Being able to witness the fight between the two sides, even from the perspective of a third party, even if it was chaotic memory conduction on these unarmed little puppets, was also a rare and precious material.

Guo You's emotions also seemed to reach a certain extreme. He stared at the two puppets, his eyes almost splitting, and then the two wooden puppets really started to fight under his gaze.

But in the next few breaths, Seeing Pei Ye was unexpectedly stunned, and Li Xizhou also slowly frowned in slight surprise.

This fight was too short.

When the first puppet suddenly punched and hit, Seeing Pei Ye recognized this posture—only when the 【Mercury-Glazed Gonghua Gonghua Gonghua Fucha】 steam exploded would people exert force like this, because that power did not come from muscles but was conducted from the depths of the bones.

Then this punch smashed down, and the second puppet didn't dodge or evade, raised its head and caught it with a punch.

The next moment, this puppet raised its other hand and swept—there should have been a spear in that hand—and the first puppet was blasted away with a bang.

Then it climbed up, revealing an incomparably painful posture. Even though the puppet had no face, everyone present seemed to hear anger and painful hissing.

'Did the Qilin fire take effect?' Seeing Pei Ye thought.

It rushed up again, fought for two rounds, and was blasted away by a spear again. This scene repeated three times. This puppet collapsed on the ground, its body bones seemed damaged, and it couldn't stand up again.

From start to finish, there were only six breaths in total.

Guo You trembled violently. Qu Xin stood up extremely fast and pointed at several acupuncture points on his head. And in the sight of Seeing Pei Ye and Li Xizhou, following the collapse of the first puppet, the third puppet hanging by the desk also fell, making a crisp sound on the ground.

It was as if the curtain-closing sound of the play had ended. ===== CHAPTER 628 =====