Dong Lang

  In the midst of the bustling city, pedestrians come and go, vendors on the side of the road are still loudly hawking their wares. Adorable children being led by adults walk by, the sugar gourd in their hands brushing against Yan Sanbai's hem, leaving behind a bit of sticky sugar residue.

  No one noticed the fleeting killing intent, and the world remained as it was. Yan Sanbai turned his head back, with the hand holding the book naturally behind him, slowly continuing to walk forward.

  This time the assassin is more skilled than last time, and extremely patient. If one strike doesn't hit, he immediately retreats far away. Moreover, in their recent encounter, he must have discovered that Yan Sanbai was already on guard, so it's uncertain whether he will make another move or not.

  Yan Sanbai was in no hurry to get rid of this killer, because he knew that even if he killed this one, the next would soon arrive.

  The other party obviously didn't seem to be in a hurry either, until Yan Sanbai walked into the Wang Fu, and then Dousha didn't appear again.

  Yan Sanbai picked up the book again and started reading.

  Li Yan let Ling Ding go investigate Qin Sang's social connections, but he himself went to the morgue first and saw Qin Sang in the mortuary.

  Beauty fades quickly, and in the blink of an eye, it has become a red-powdered skull. Li Yan stood quietly beside her for a while, suddenly remembering the scene when they first met.

  Li Yan actually thought Qin Sang was pleasing to the eye, not because Qin Sang's qin skills were exceptionally high, but because he rarely saw someone who liked wearing red clothes as much as he did, and wore them so well.

  She always liked to paint herself up beautifully, wearing a red dress, and was considered the most beautiful flower in Luoyang City. Li Ye asked her why she liked the color red, and she said - because the wedding dress is red, one day, Dong Lang will come back to marry me.

  Actually, Li Yan had already sensed it at that time. Qin Sang seemed to be ill. She often sat alone in her room, with half of her face exposed to the sunlight and the other half hidden in the shadows, sometimes looking angry and sometimes foolish, wearing a wedding dress and waiting for a character from a book.

  "Dong Lang..." She sighed faintly, calling out that person's name again and again. The book scrolls scattered at her feet, and her gaze unknowingly passed through the curtains to somewhere else.

  "Dong Lang......" Day after day, she gradually became seriously ill.

  But at that time, no one believed it, because after all, it was a character in a book who would never appear.

  It's useless to think more, Li Yan looked at her one last time and turned around to leave. The Luoyang Magistrate who was waiting outside the door suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, thinking: Ah, my god, which scoundrel dared to cuckold the King of Luoyang and even killed him? Are you going to kill me too...

  An eagle swooped down, flapping its wings, and dived into the courtyard of the government office, landing on Li Yan's arm. Li Yan read through the letter from Ling Ding, took his horse, and rode out of the city gate.

  A fine steed galloped across the flower fields, and the flower girls couldn't help but gaze at the figure on horseback. Instantly, their hearts burst into bloom. Someone picked up a basket of petals and scattered them along the road, this was their way of expressing joy to their beloved. However, Li Yan didn't have the heart to accept it now, and instead rushed straight to the lakeside pavilion in the outskirts of the city.

  Someone stood in the flower field, wearing a conical hat and smiling at him.

  "Your Highness!" Ling Ding hurriedly went forward to hold the reins of the horse and said, "Qin Sang's daughter is indeed here having a secret meeting with other men, this is the boat you gave her!"

  Li Yan suddenly stopped and narrowed his eyes at him, "Ling Ding, what are you trying to say?"

  Every month, King Luo Yang would have a few days when he wanted to strangle his long-following attendant.

  "There's nothing, Xiaode didn't say anything." Lingding quickly shook his head, but he thought to himself - actually, he was too concerned about Wang Ye, now in everyone's heart, Wang Ye must be the man with the greenest brain under the sky, it's really pitiful.

  "What about him?" Li Yan decided to temporarily spare his long-following servant, and wait for a windy and sunny day to throw him into the river to feed the fish.

  "In there." Ling said.

  Qin Sang usually stayed in the Shallow Red Building, and his second most frequent destination was this painting boat. So Li Yan let Ling Ding come here to take a look if there were any clues. Unexpectedly, he really found a shadowy figure lurking on the shore, caught him and asked the old boatman to identify him, and it turned out that he had a connection with Qin Sang.

  Then Ling Ding asked the boatman, and the boatman was afraid of trouble, so he explained it clearly.

  Qin Sang rarely received guests in the building, but in this secluded painting boat, there were often young men coming and going. Although the old boatman did not want to pay attention to these people, he still remembered one or two faces.

  "There's another one I've sent someone to look for. The one we have now is named Tang Xiawen, the son of Tang Yuanwai from Beicheng."

  On the other hand, Yan Sanbai was so engrossed in reading that he had never read a romantic novel like this before. He was familiar with classics and history books, but now he realized that each type of book has its own strengths, no wonder they were selling well in the market. The book Yan Sanbai was reading was actually Qin Sang's favorite "Butterfly Dream".

  This book tells the story of a young scholar from a family of scholars and an official's daughter. The scholar is Dong Lang, a xiucai with a handsome face, elegant manners, and excellent writing skills. The girl is also beautiful, but her father was an official in the previous dynasty, which was overthrown, and he refused to surrender, ultimately leading to the downfall of their family.

  The young lady fell into a life of prostitution, singing about other people's joys and sorrows on stage, experiencing the coldness and warmth of the world. Then she met a scholar, and the two almost instantly fell in love, but the scholar's family would not accept such a daughter-in-law.

  Under various difficulties and framing, the two were forced to separate. The young scholar was watched by the old servant and set out on the road to Beijing for the imperial examination, and the two secretly agreed that when the young scholar returned home as a high-ranking scholar, he would definitely take the young lady away.

  However, the time it took to rush to the capital for the exam was too long. By the time the scholar returned, the young lady had been forced to flee to a distant land. Of course, in the end of the story, after going through countless hardships and dangers, the scholar finally found that young lady, and the two lovers were reunited.

  This is a story of bitter to sweet, but after Yan Sanbai read it in one breath, he still felt empty and uncomfortable in his heart. Qin Sang must have put herself into this story, and there was also a Donglang in her heart, but the ending of her story was too tragic.

  City suburbs, lakeside.

  A young man was 'invited' into the painting boat, with a bookish appearance, his expression although already restrained, still had some tension. This person was exactly Tang Xiawen, whom the leader had mentioned before.

  "Bang!" The door was closed behind him.

  His heart skipped a beat as he looked up and saw Luoyang Wang sitting at the piano desk inside the painting boat.

  "Clang——" The sound of the guqin suddenly rang out, and Li Ye raised his head to glance at them, his eyes cold and piercing. In those slender phoenix-like eyes seemed to be a hidden intent to kill, "Speak, how did you get acquainted with Qin Sang?"

  "I...this..." Tang Xiuzhen stuttered and found it hard to speak.

  Li Yan suddenly curled up the corner of his mouth and smiled, his fingertips gently stroking the strings of the zither. "Not answering... I'll throw you into the river to feed the fish. Or do you want me to play a tune to help you?"

  "Your Highness, I'm terrified." Upon hearing that he was going to feed the fish, Tang Xiuren became somewhat anxious. "I and Qin Sang are merely acquaintances, we absolutely did not do anything improper."

  "Did I say you did anything?" Li Yan sneered, "You're so clever, should I praise your cleverness or scold you for being book-smart but brainless."

  Tang Xiawen's face changed instantly, and he became anxious in his heart. No matter what, his private meeting with Qin Sang was equivalent to peeping at the wall of Luoyang Wang, this sin was too great!

  "Your Highness has misunderstood! The student, the student really only had tea with Miss Qin Sang a few times..."

  "That's enough, I'm not interested in knowing what you've all done. You're clear about your own actions, anyway. Now that Li Qian is dead, it won't be long before you follow in his footsteps. Why should I bother with a dead man?"

  "Li, Li Qian?" Tang Xiawen was still completely unaware of Li Qian's death when he went out in the morning. Moreover, he was not familiar with Li Qian, but Luoyang Wang mentioned it at this moment, could it be...

  "I dare ask, Your Highness, is Li Qian's death... related to Qin'niang in any way?" Tang Xiawen asked with a quivering heart.

  Li Yan lowered his head and stroked the guqin, a cold and cruel smile playing on the corners of his mouth. "Yes, he too had once boarded this painting boat, but now he was dead with his heart cut out. With my blood, I will take your life. Qin Sang's words were indeed correct."

  Tang Xiawen's cold sweat suddenly broke out. He actually hadn't been in contact with Qin Sang for a long time, he didn't have the guts to compete with Luoyang Wang for a woman, so he could only give up. But when he learned about the blood letter that day, his heart became uneasy again.

  He didn't think his affairs were enough to be guilty of being careless, but he remembered that he had left something on this boat. What if it was discovered and misunderstood? Wouldn't that be a great injustice? So he secretly returned here, hoping to retrieve the item, but unexpectedly got caught red-handed.

  It has come to this, he had no choice but to lay out the whole story, “...That’s how it is, Your Highness, you must believe me!”

  Ling Ding imitated Yan Sanbai's manner and carefully observed Tang Xiuwen's expression, nodding: "Your Highness, his eyes are firm, I think he didn't lie."

  "Do I need you to teach me?" Li Yan glanced at him, and since running into Yan Sanbai, Ling Ding had become more and more annoying.

  Li Yan looked at Tang Xiwen again, "I'm asking you, what did you drop here? If it can be found, I'll believe you."

  Tang Xiawen hastily agreed, remembering that it was a small fan pendant that had fallen behind the screen. He rushed over to look for it and felt around for a while before finding it behind the screen.

  "Found it!" He raised his head with joy, but as soon as he saw the object in front of him, his eyes suddenly widened.

  "Ghost! Oh ghost!" Tang Xiu exclaimed in shock, his buttocks landing squarely on the ground.

  At this moment, a folding fan flew over and hit the screen frame heavily, pushing it several feet away. It shook back and forth a few times. Li Yan stood up, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, "Where is the ghost?"

  Tang Xiawen's eyes widened as he raised his hand to point at the screen behind him, which was now facing them due to the collision with the folding fan. On the screen, there were no flowers, birds, or landscapes, but instead a painting of a scholar holding a book volume. The brushwork was impressive, indicating the painter's exceptional skill. However, this was not the main point - the main point was that this scholar had no face.

  Just now, Tang Xiuren raised his head and saw a faceless scholar standing in front of him. The light on that side was dim, no wonder he was so scared.

  "Dong Lang! It must be Dong Lang!" Tang Xiawen's soul was still unsettled, and he suddenly shouted again, "I had always felt that Qin Sang was not quite right, and kept calling me Dong Lang Dong Lang, but I don't even have the surname Dong!"

  Upon hearing this, Li Yan walked to the screen and examined the "faceless man" from top to bottom. This was indeed Qin Sang's handwriting, without a doubt. But then there was Dong Lang again, first Li Qian and then Tang Xiuren, perhaps more people would appear later. What did Qin Sang want to do before she died?

  At the same time, amidst the blooming flowers, a muffled struggling sound was stifled in the mouth.

  "Ugh! Waaah!" The bound man writhed on the ground like a pathetic worm. His eyes were wide open, his pupils constricted in fear that spread endlessly within him.

  A sharp sickle reflects the dazzling sunlight, cutting down mercilessly. One knife after another, blood splashes on the leaves of flowers and seeps into the soil.

  The man had completely lost his voice, and everything seemed to be proceeding in silence. Soon, a pair of white hands emerged from the chest and carefully placed a heart into a flower basket, with movements that conveyed a sense of reverence.

  The wind passed, the flowers fell, filling the empty cavity in the chest of that corpse. The people on the flower field, carrying flower baskets, walked quickly and hummed a song as they went far away.

  Luoyang Wangfu

  Yan Sanbai lay on the bed for a while, but couldn't fall asleep well. He had a dream that he hadn't had in a long time. The pipa sound in the dream was persistent and unyielding, with a hint of worldly desolation, as if it took him back to the distant past. The woman sat by the creek in front of the broken house, about to turn her head around.

  Suddenly, a knock at the door woke him from his dream.

  "Open the door. Outside is Ah Mong, another long-serving attendant of Prince Wang who stayed in the mansion. 'Yan Daxia, there's been another death outside the city. The prince requests your presence.'"

  Amon spoke at a moderate pace, with a smile still on his face. If you observed carefully, you would find that the curve of his smiling mouth was always the same, as if it had been measured and calibrated to be forever identical.

  "Someone else is dead?" Yan Sanbai furrowed his brow, "What's going on?"

  "It was this official who came to inform us." Ah Meng smiled and pointed behind him.

  The officer behind him was at the other extreme, in a great hurry. "Your Honor, the young master of Zixiang Hall, Cheng Rui, has been murdered in the flower field outside the city! Just now, he had his heart cut out just like Li Qian. The princes are all there right now, Your Honor, please hurry up and go with me!"

  Excavate heart? Is this a series of connected murders?

  "Don't rush, don't rush, Lord Yan, wouldn't you like to have lunch first? The king ordered that your stomach..." Ah Meng said calmly, but Yan Sanbai had already floated away like a gust of wind, "...seems not too good."

  "Hehe." Amun smiled and turned his head towards the official, "Do you want to stay for dinner?"

  The official hastily shook his head and turned around to chase after Yan Sanbai, "Lord Yan, wait for me!"

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