3. Carved wood with silk, carved with flowers and leaves, exquisite workmanship

"Your master, the master when you were still in the shadow guard camp?

"Yes, he..."

The two walked out of the house to let Pei Nianzhen rest well, and then Lou Yefeng entered a memory state.

"My master...he is almost fifty years old now. He was the leader of the late emperor's shadow guards at the beginning. When he was thirty-five years old, he resigned smoothly and went to the shadow guard camp as a teacher."

"The batch of shadow guards he brought with him at that time was me and Li Han's group. After our batch of shadow guards were refined and taken away by the master and His Majesty, the situation became tense again at that time. The late emperor once againCalled the master back to continue to work, and let him secretly follow around——by then he was almost forty."

"Although the late emperor has a new shadow head, he is not as easy to use as master Shao Yan. Therefore, he still has a unique position among the late emperor's shadow guards."

Pei Nianyu understood, this is another kind of Lou Yefeng.

"So when Old He entered the Shadow Guard Camp, he had already returned to His Majesty's side, so he never learned from him."

Pei Nianyu was a little curious:

"Judging from your tone, it seems that you still miss him a little bit?"

Lou Yefeng paused.

"That's not true, it's just that Master is indeed a very powerful shadow guard. A shadow guard who can survive to thirty-five years, experience, intuition, skills, martial arts, and... the holy family are naturally first-class.”

"The subordinate just said that he taught me all my skills. This statement is absolutely not false. Master Shao Yan is extremely strict with us. Although I was punished at that time, after all, I practiced the skills used by these shadow guards. LaterThe refinement of those martial arts is what I have gradually pondered, including the Wuying Sword's swordsmanship."

Pei Nianyu couldn't help turning over Byakugan:

"You are always punished and you still think of him? I think he is deliberately torturing you."

Lou Yefeng sighed softly:

"The life of the Shadow Guards is like this, and it is commonplace to be punished. But Master let us engrave the skills of concealing assassination and detection into our bones, so that we can survive mission after mission."

Pei Nianyu reluctantly accepted this statement.

"But... Master has never liked me."

"Why? You are so strong, talented and willing to endure hardships. Aren't you always number one in the shadow guard camp? Why doesn't he like you?"

"Because... I'm not very obedient."

Pei Nianyu was silent for a moment.This is indeed a big truth.

"Master always feels that I am too sharp and assertive. Although it is sharp, it is not a good knife. I am afraid that it will hinder the master in the future."

Lou Yefeng pursed his lips, he still remembered what Shao Yan said to him when he was eighteen years old——

"Take your temper! In the future, if you choose a master, either you will plot against and kill the master, or you will be executed by your master. I will give you four words, and it is easy to break."

At that time, Lou Yefeng had never experienced the life of having a master or getting along with him, so he thought that his master was telling him the truth, so he was covered in cold sweat at that time.

But now...

Pei Nianyu couldn't help rubbing his head:

"I know what your master means, indeed... If the master you choose is tyrannical and innocent, I'm afraid you won't be convinced, and it's not uncommon to kill the master with your backhand. But if you really admire the master, they usually won't tolerate you like this."Temperament—for example, Xiao Sheng, if you followed him, you might not be able to survive now."

Lou Yefeng didn't make a sound.Both of them knew very well that it was a predestined fate and a reward from heaven that the relationship between the two masters and servants could go so far.

Pei Nianyu took the opportunity to make a joke:

"Then I have to pay attention in the future, I must not provoke you, or I will be chopped off by your sword..."

Lou Yefeng's face turned dark instantly:

"Master has no time to think about these things that will never happen, why not think about what to eat tomorrow."

Pei Nianyu laughed out loud:

"Okay, okay, I won't bother you anymore. Then what happened to your master? I only know that the second child was killed by him seven years ago. You don't seem to have told me about the rest."

Lou Yefeng nodded:

"Because after that, the master was established as the prince to assist the government, and I didn't have time to inquire too much information that was a bit redundant for the master. During the mutiny that year, although the situation was urgent, the master was ordered by the late emperor to arrest the second prince on the spot.Beheaded, but that was the late emperor's favorite prince after all..."

"So during the later years of the late emperor, he became more and more suspicious of his master. During the years when the late emperor was lingering on his sick bed... he acted like that again. The master was always around, and he was always to blame."

"When I went to inquire about the late emperor's office in those years, I could often see him beating and scolding the master wantonly. Another time I hanged him under the roof of the upper study room for a day and a night. In the study room on that day, there were still ministers of civil and military affairs.Coming and going, entering the memorial..."

Pei Nianyu was so angry that his seven orifices smoked:

"I knew this bastard didn't do anything human! That's the shadow guard who has been with him all his life, how could he treat him like this? But why didn't you tell me about it back then?"

Lou Yefeng looked at him quietly, with silent tenderness in his eyes:

"...Peach Blossom Gu. I know that the master will be as violent as he is now when he hears about this. I'm afraid that your mood swings will cause the Gu insect to attack. Naturally, you can not talk about this kind of thing."

"Later, on a certain day one year before the late Emperor died, I don't know how he was tormenting Shao Yan. Anyway, according to the information I found - he finally drove him into a hurry. Shao Yan was about to be driven crazy by him.Suddenly, it stopped working.”

"Under the siege of the shadow guards in the palace that day, Shao Yan said something to the late emperor... probably because his subordinates have never failed you in this life, why should they treat them like this."

"Then he cut off his own arm in front of the palace, saying that the relationship between master and servant was broken, and he would never see each other again in this life, so he escaped from the palace and disappeared since then. I didn't expect...he is still alive."

"That's roughly what I found out, and I don't know the details. What happened that day later, the late emperor ordered people to block the news, so no one except the shadow guards who were present at that time knew about it."

Pei Nianyu heaved a long sigh.

"It's good to run away. But why is he coming back now?"

"...I'm afraid I can only wait for Pei Nianzhen to wake up and ask him. But, he was able to run back then, and I think he might as well..."

"What is it?"

Lou Yefeng sighed, with a bit of vicissitudes in his tone:

"The first emperor acquiesced and let him go. Otherwise, no matter how good Shao Yan's martial arts are, the shadow guards in the entire imperial city would not be able to surround a shadow guard with a broken arm and an injury that has passed his prime."

…………

The two went back to rest for a few more hours, and Pei Nianzhen just woke up in the afternoon of the second day.

Several people sat together and exchanged intelligence information with each other. Lou Yefeng recounted Shao Yan's deeds when he ran away in anger. Pei Nianzhen emphasized the two questions Shao Yan asked him——

"Fourth brother, do you still keep the wood carving I gave you back then?"

Pei Nianyu was not a person with an extraordinary memory, but this wood carving was given to him by Pei Nianzhen for caring for his younger brother.Later, in the years of seizing the throne, the brothers gradually drifted apart, and there was a tendency to fight against each other. He even took it out to secretly mourn for a while, so he remembered it clearly.

Pei Nianyu called Xia Yao and asked her to search for it in the cage in Hanqiu Pavilion, put it on the table, and the three of them looked at it together.

The wood carving is not known to be made of some rare wood, it is as hard as iron, and it will not rot for several years.It was a long cube with unusual and complicated patterns engraved on both sides, depicting the prosperous street scene of Capital City Long Street.

Pei Nianyu and Pei Nianzhen looked at each other in dismay:

"—what is he looking for?"

Only Lou Yefeng stared at the wooden carving intently, and suddenly a drop of cold sweat fell on his forehead after a while:

"I think this thing... is a bit weird. In short, it doesn't look like a real sculpture."

Seeing that he was suddenly nervous, Pei Nianyu couldn't help observing. After a while, his brain suddenly opened:

"You said, could this be a kind of... key?"

Pei Nianzhen wondered, "Key, what key?"

"Then how do I know?"

Lou Yefeng continued:

"Indeed, as the master guessed, the keys to organs, secret boxes, and secret rooms are all possible. In many secret organs, in order to hide the key itself, the key will be made into other things."

Pei Nianyu nodded and continued:

"And this key is likely to be a pair, and the two must be put together to make it work."

After that, he raised his hand and pointed to one side and said:

"Brother, look here, why is the engraved pattern not on four sides but on two sides, and the pattern on the side is very similar to... spliced card slots? And the picture on the front is only one side of the long street, and the scene on the other side is according to the drawing.In theory, it shouldn’t be missing.”

Pei Nianzhen couldn't help sighing: "Calligraphy and painting miscellaneous studies, after all, you are more proficient."

Pei Nianyu frowned, then turned to look at Pei Nianzhen:

"Are you sure he only gave you this one back then, where is the other one? And...he didn't say what kind of key it is?"

Pei Nianzhen smiled bitterly: "I was only eight years old at the time! What secrets could he tell me? He just asked me to keep it if he liked it, and nothing else. Besides, he really only gave me this one."

Thanks to the various strange reasoning adventure novels and movie dramas he had read in his previous life, Pei Nianyu's imagination in this aspect was particularly strong.A flash of inspiration flashed in my mind, and suddenly said:

"The other...couldn't be at Shao Yan's place?"

Pei Nianzhen thought for a moment, then nodded:

"It's not impossible. When I was young, that is, before I was established as the prince, "he" loved and admired me very much. The relationship between father and son at that time is undeniable. If another person can make him trustOnly Shao Yan can be the only one."

And later... the crown prince stood in the court, and that was the beginning of mutual suspicion.And, the second prince has also grown from a boy to a young man, and all of this has gradually turned into a series of disasters.

The prince was placed under house arrest, and Shao Yan was also rejected for killing the second prince.Perhaps it was because of this that the pair of wood carvings fell silent, and the late emperor never mentioned it again.

Pei Nianzhen's eyes dimmed.The master and servant in front of me didn't know what happened to the second prince back then, so it's better not to tell them.The fourth younger brother has always been glorious, so he didn't have to let this dirty thing stain his ears.

"So he came back to find the other half of the key? Is this what he said "leaving Beijing in a hurry and leaving behind some personal belongings"..."

Lou Yefeng nodded slowly, then shook his head:

"It's probably true that he's looking for this key, but it's not necessarily the case later. As long as we don't know what mechanism the key corresponds to, we won't be able to know his purpose..."

Pei Nianzhen was a little familiar with court battles, but he was at a loss as to what was going on behind the scenes of the shadow guards.

Pei Nianyu quickly grabbed a pen and paper, briefly described the matter, and handed it to Lou Yefeng:

"Ye Feng, go to the palace yourself and hand it over to Xiao Sheng. It's a confidential matter. Shao Yan's purpose is unknown and his whereabouts are uncertain. I'm afraid that other people will be stopped halfway."

"How to deal with this matter, let him decide, maybe we are worrying unnecessarily?"

"Yes, master, I'm going right now."

………

How Pei Niancheng reacted, the two brothers in the palace still don't know.However, the next day, Capital released a piece of lace news.

"——You said that the Baweilou branch will hold a cooking competition in Capital City, inviting gourmets from all walks of life to taste, one comparison per day, ten days in a row?"