Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 237 Circular Pattern

In the middle of the night, Shui Furong woke up in a daze and saw Ji Anni sitting on the bed wrapped in a quilt.

But Shui Furong felt dizzy at that time, so she fell asleep again without asking anything.

In the dream, Shui Furong was still thinking about how to comfort Ji Anni the next day, but she didn't expect that the next day, Ji Anni herself would be back to normal. She would laugh when she should laugh, and make noises when she should make noises, without any shadow of last night.

Seeing the lively and energetic Ji Anni, Shui Furong could hardly tell what was reality and what was a dream.

But it's a good thing that she can recover. Since Ji Anni has finally cheered up, Shui Furong doesn't need to poke her wound.

So Shui Furong acted as if nothing had happened and started her life in Taoyuan with Ji Anni.

From today on, the two of them were officially under house arrest by the Queen Mother.

Outside the gate of Taoyuan, two guards stood upright on the left and right like two door gods.

The only space for Ji Anni and Shui Furong to move around is the small courtyard in Taoyuan and the room they live in. They are both active and lively people, and they feel bored if they don't go out for a day.

Having just been confined for half a day, they were like tigers that had just been locked in a cage, and they wanted to bite the iron bars and grind their teeth.

Fortunately, they were both confined together, so at least they had a companion. If they were confined alone, they would have gotten sick long ago. Except for the palace maids who regularly delivered meals at mealtimes, Ji Anni and Shui Furong could no longer see any outsiders.

I finally got through half a day, but it felt like half a century.

During this half day, the word that Ji Anni and Shui Furong said the most was "Ah...", this long sigh of sorrow.

#

It was a sunny afternoon.

The following voice came from Ji Anni and Shui Furong's room:

"Two little bees, fly into the flowers, fly, flutter, fly, ah ah..."

"How boring!" Shui Furong couldn't stand it anymore, slapped the table, stood up, and walked to the window. Looking at the birds flying in the sky outside the window, he really wanted to fly away from here.

"You're bored, but you've been playing all day..." Ji Anni was actually bored herself, but other than that, she couldn't think of any other way to kill time. If it were modern times, at least there would be computers, televisions, and video game consoles, so she wouldn't have to worry about entertainment even if she was alone at home, but now she was in an era where she couldn't even see wires, so what could she do?

"No, no, I will go crazy if this goes on. Let's go and apologize to the Queen Mother and ask her to release us as soon as possible." Shui Furong admitted defeat after being locked up for only one day. It seemed that the Queen Mother made the right choice. For Shui Furong, the most painful torture was house arrest.

Ji Anni sighed with great sorrow and said, "Alas... If confessing guilt would work, the Queen Mother would not have locked us up here. It's not even a day yet, even if you confess guilt, the Queen Mother will definitely not even look at you. We have to wait at least three days before the Queen Mother can believe that we have really reflected on our mistakes."

"What? Three days?" Shui Furong's soul left her body and she fainted on the bed.

"Sui Congfei, let's have a chat."

"Chat? What are you talking about?"

"Let's talk about the clues you found after entering the palace. I can also help you analyze it." Ji Anni brought a chair and sat beside Shui Furong's bed, with an expression as if she was listening to his long speech attentively.

"What can you help me analyze..." Shui Furong didn't think highly of Ji Anni at all and glanced at her with contempt.

"As the saying goes, three cobblers are better than Zhuge Liang." Ji Anni was determined to pry open his mouth today.

Shui Furong thought about it and seemed to think that chatting was a better way to pass the time than being in a daze. Although he didn't think Ji Anni could help him figure out the problem, he just thought of it as a way to pass the time and shared with her the clues he had so far.

Shui Furong raised two fingers and said, "I only have two clues now, one is the Calendar Palace, and the other is the Xian Palace. There must be a book in the Calendar Palace that records what happened three years ago. Even if it doesn't directly record who the murderer is, there must be some clues from it. For example, what strange things happened in the palace at that time, who was suspicious, etc. However, only people with the rank of imperial concubine or above can enter the Calendar Palace, so it is difficult to track down this clue now."

Ji Anni had heard Yizhen talk about this before. Yizhen said that Shui Furong had tried every way to sneak into the Li Palace some time ago, but failed. It seems that the clue of Li Palace has reached a dead end. Unless Shui Furong is named a concubine, she will have to give up.

Shui Furong continued, "The second is Xian Palace, but now Concubine Yu's condition has worsened, and it is difficult to get anything out of her. She said before that my sister was killed by a fox demon, and she also said last night..."

The words stopped abruptly here. Shui Furong suddenly realized her slip of the tongue and quickly closed her mouth.

"What else did Concubine Yu say last night?" Ji Anni asked curiously.

"No, no, she didn't say anything." Shui Furong shook her head and waved her hands in panic. She knew something was wrong. In fact, Concubine Yu said last night that Ji Anni was the murderer, but that must be because Concubine Yu remembered it wrongly. Ji Anni had just entered the palace and it was impossible for her to kill her sister three years ago. Concubine Yu must have mistaken Ji Anni, who was possessed by a fox demon, as the murderer.

Seeing that Shui Furong was unwilling to tell her, Ji Anni curled her lips and said, "Forget it, do you have any other clues besides this?"

After talking for so long, it seems that all the clues have reached a dead end and it is impossible to conduct further investigation.

"And that's..." Shui Furong thought for a moment, her eyes becoming deep.

Seeing that he was about to get to the point, Ji Anni quickly pricked up her ears excitedly.

At this time, Shui Furong jumped off the bed, spread a piece of white paper on the desk, and picked up a pen to draw a pattern.

Taoyuan is actually the dormitory for students of Wenhua College, so the rooms are fully equipped with study supplies such as pens, ink, paper and inkstones.

Ji Anni came behind Shui Furong and watched him draw a very strange circular pattern on the paper.

The circular pattern was about the size of a teacup coaster. It looked a bit like the Bagua and a bit like the star map, but it was a bit stranger than the Bagua and the star map, so it was impossible to tell what it was. Ji Anni felt that it should be a pattern related to magic. She had seen the spell used by Yun Zhen several times, and also saw some similar patterns on the big lock of the mysterious room in the Demon Temple, but they were only somewhat similar, not exactly the same.

After Shui Furong finished drawing the circular pattern, she spread the whole piece of paper in front of Ji Anni and asked, "Zhao Congfei, have you seen this pattern?"

Ji Anni looked at it carefully again and again, and finally shook her head and said, "I've never seen it... but I think it should be a curse of some kind of spell."

"I also know it should be a curse seal, but what exactly is it..." Shui Furong stared at the strange pattern in silence.

Unfortunately, neither of them understands Taoism, and they are complete laymen when it comes to these strange and bizarre talismans.

Sigh, if only Yun Zhen were here, I could just ask Yun Zhen and he would probably know what this spell is...

"Shui Congfei, where did you see this pattern?" Ji Anni felt that this was the crux of the problem.

Shui Furong had already considered Ji Anni as her own, so no matter what she asked, Shui Furong told her everything: "It is in the room where my sister once lived. Do you still remember the day when Xuantian Palace held a night banquet for all the concubines?"

The day when the Xuantian Palace held a night banquet for the concubines was also the day when the concubines’ training was completed and their name tags were formally submitted to the emperor.

That day, Ji Anni lost her name tag, and she returned to the Concubine Palace early, and accidentally ran into Shui Furong who had just come out of the haunted room. The haunted room was originally occupied by Yizhen. Shui Furong wanted to exchange rooms with Yizhen on the first day she entered the palace, but she failed to achieve her wish due to Ji Anni's obstruction. Later, Yanniang entered the palace, and the room was sealed up and no one lived there anymore.

But Shui Furong didn't give up. She sneaked into the room during the night banquet of the concubines in Xuantian Palace. Ji Anni knew that Shui Furong was very good at prying the door open. It turned out that she had developed this skill when she was prying the door open in that room.

Shui Furong said: "This pattern was found on the pillow in that room."

Three years ago, Shui Furong's sister died while sleeping in that room. If the pillows had not been changed, then the pillow Yizhen slept on might be the same one Shui Furong slept on three years ago. Further speculation is whether Shui Furong's bizarre death is related to this strange curse?

The pillow in the Concubine's Palace is made of wood, and the wooden pillow is covered with a layer of leather. This strange pattern is printed on the wooden pillow through the leather, so there is nothing unusual when looking at it from the outside. Only when the leather is cut open can the pattern on the wooden pillow be found.

#

At this moment, there was a creaky sound and the door was pushed open from the outside.

There were no outsiders in the peach garden, so Ji Anni and Shui Furong had no intention of closing the door, and the door opened as soon as someone pushed it.

Ji Anni and Shui Furong were discussing confidential matters. When she heard the door open, Shui Furong hurriedly crumpled up the paper with the spell on it and threw it on the desk. But her action was a little slow and still caught the visitor's attention. The visitor was Yizhen.

"Yizhen?" Ji Anni waved to Yizhen with some surprise. She didn't expect Yizhen to come to see her.

Yizhen's eyes quickly swept over the paper ball. As she was a little afraid of Shui Furong, she didn't dare to ask more questions. She just pretended that she saw nothing and smiled at Ji Anni.

"Yizhen, why are you here?" Ji Anni pulled Yizhen into the room.

Yizhen pointed to the medicine box on her arm and said, "I'm here to help you change the medicine."

Only then did Ji Anni remember that the sword wound on her shoulder had not yet healed. Yizhen was so thoughtful that she came personally to help her change the medicine.