Chapter 47: The Evil Monk
February 13th
After thinking about it for a long time without any answer, and after a restless night, Shen Kuo gradually felt sleepy. He lay down on the desk and wanted to sleep, but felt a little annoyed. He got up and found that the locked puppet was looking at him with a smile. The more he looked at it, the more disgusted he felt. So he found a piece of cloth to cover the puppet, and then fell asleep at the desk.
I slept until noon.
The sound of a wooden fish was heard at the gate. Shen Kuo was still in a dream and naturally did not hear it . At this time, a tall monk was standing at the gate chanting. It was none other than Master Huailiang.
Huai Liang followed Shen Kuo's instructions and easily found the locust tree in front of the door and saw the door god on the door. However, he did not rush in as high-profile as Li Cheng'an. He just stood at the door with a wooden fish in his hand, like a monk who came to beg for alms, chanting scriptures attentively and waiting for the owner to open the door.
Xu Chong came to open the door after hearing this, and was naturally delighted to see the monk. He had met the monk once at the Military Head Office that day but had not spoken to him, and he had heard Shen Kuo repeatedly mentioning that the monk was a powerful figure, so he quickly invited him in. He only said that Shen Cunzhong was almost going crazy with anxiety, and it would be great if a master could come to give him some advice.
The monk walked into the yard and saw the bodies lying in the courtyard, so he stopped to chant sutras to pray for the souls to be reborn. Although the five people died violent deaths, they were lucky. In just a short while, the Taoist priests and monks prayed for the souls to be reborn, and Xu Chong stood by their side.
During this time, several spies and coroners were still turning over and checking the back of the corpse. The monk did not disturb them and just circled around the corpse.
A squatting coroner was shaking his head at his apprentice: "Why do all these dead people look the same?"
"Master, this is not difficult because they were all killed by lightning. I heard that it was the Five Thunder Curse from the demon banner that killed these five people. Their bodies are still around Baifan Tower. Those puppets were causing trouble in Baifan Tower last night."
"You know nothing. These people didn't die from lightning strikes. Look at their upper body skin, which is red, swollen, and bruised. There are also purple corpse spots. How did that happen?"
"The book says that it is a scald that does not amount to a burn?"
"Then why is the waist area completely burnt and the skin peeling off? The rest of the area is just red and swollen?"
"That... I don't know."
"So, this is weird. Very weird."
Huailiang walked around several times and finally finished chanting the sutra. The old coroner on the other side shook his head and sighed a few times as he began to write the corpse list.
Seeing that he had finally finished reading the sutra, Xu Chong pulled him into the first floor of the small attic. When he reached the stairs, he saw a pile of paper things brought by Shen Kuo placed there haphazardly. After just a few glances, he roughly guessed what they were used for.
"What are these?"
"Master Shen wants to copy what the hat monster did. However..."
"But you still haven't gotten the point?"
"Yes, he is upstairs right now, probably asleep. He didn't sleep all night last night. He was frightened and caught in the rain, and he was guarding that... Anyway, Master, you should be more careful."
"Okay, let's go up."
"Master, you go up by yourself. I won't go." Xu Chong declined. He really didn't want to see the smiling puppet. It gave him goosebumps all over his body.
Huailiang didn't know the reason, so he went up by himself. He saw Shen Kuo sleeping at his desk, with something drawn on the paper under his head. The monk took a look and knew that Shen Kuo was drawing the "candle shadow horse running lantern" he imagined, but there were still some problems that he hadn't figured out, that is, how to project the image on the screen. Obviously, his old experience of light and shadow came from shadow puppetry, but shadow puppets can only be projected when they are large, and cannot be enlarged. In addition, there was no connection mechanism on the center base of the lamp, which was also a matter of thought.
The monk smiled slightly, thinking about waking up Shen Kuo. After thinking for a moment, he retracted his hand. For him, the worst way to wake someone up was to use words, so the previous two times he used magic plays and ventriloquism to hint at the problem, and this time was no exception.
The sun was shining brightly outside, and it was quite bright through the window paper, so he stretched out his finger and poked a hole in the window in front of the desk. Then he turned and went downstairs, and took out a kite from a pile of paper things that Shen Kuo had made on the first floor.
The policeman downstairs had just moved the body to one side, preparing to measure its length before putting it in the coffin, leaving the courtyard empty.
It was windy at the moment, so he ran in the yard dragging the kite. Everyone was busy with their work and no one knew what this inexplicable crazy monk was doing.
When Xu Chong saw this, he didn't know what to do and didn't know what to say. He only heard from Shen Kuo that this monk was very capable, but a little crazy.
The monk slowly let go of the thin string, and the kite slowly flew up with the help of the wind.
When the monk saw the kite flying, he happily recited a nursery rhyme:
"In the daytime, a kite flies, its body in the east, its shadow in the west. The light is like an arrow, peeking through the gap, it illuminates the head and the tail, but in reverse..."
Shen Kuo was startled by the voice in his dream. Just as he was about to get up and open the window, he saw a light shining on him from the small hole in the window. It seemed to be a flying bird. He quickly moved aside to avoid the light, but saw the reflection of the bird on the wall behind him again, several times larger than the one on him just now. He listened to the nursery rhyme sung by the monk again. After listening to it several times, it suddenly triggered his thoughts: "Could this be the principle of the 'candle shadow revolving lantern' to reflect images?"
Before, he had been thinking about the use of light and shadow in shadow play, but it did not match the problem he was facing. The characters in the shadow play would not be enlarged. Now he suddenly realized that it was not that the light could not enlarge the shadow of the illuminated object, but that there was a lack of such a hole.
Through the window paper, he could vaguely see the direction of the kite outside, which was always going south and north. Huailiang was running around the yard with the kite, singing the lyrics he made up. However, when the kite outside went south , the shadow of the kite on the wall went north. The kite went south, but the shadow went north.
"Yes, it's because of this hole! Because the light goes straight like an arrow, it crosses at the small hole, so the shadow on the wall is exactly the opposite?"
Another unsolved question in my mind suddenly became clear. From the remaining parts of the revolving lantern, there was no base to install the hairpin-shaped parts. Now that I think about it, if the principle of the small hole to let light pass through and form a shadow is valid, the hairpin that can bloom can only be installed on the top of the revolving lantern, not on the base.
He suddenly opened the window and shouted excitedly: "Master, I understand."
Huailiang put the kite string in his hand into the bewildered Xu Chong's hand, and then hurried upstairs. He was probably a little excited, and the stairs made a banging sound as he walked.
When I got upstairs, I saw Shen Kuo opening his notebook and writing down his thoughts aloud: "If a kite flies in the sky, its shadow moves with it; if it is bounded by a window, its shadow and the kite will be at odds, the kite will be west and its shadow will be east. Master Huailiang, you have enlightened me."
"Haha, I always say that everything in this world has its own logic, and tricks can only confuse people temporarily."
After Shen Kuo finished recording the text, he began to modify the blueprint. He had already figured out the secret of the rotating part of the palace lantern, but he was puzzled about how to display the enlarged text. Now the last link has been solved.
"I told you last night that when things are out of the ordinary, there must be something fishy going on. This fishy thing may be invisible or confusing, but if you find a way to crack it, you can capture it."
"However..." Shen Kuo suddenly became dejected, "Even if we capture one monster, hundreds more monsters will appear."
"Hundred demons?"
Shen Kuo walked towards the puppet dejectedly and pulled away the cloth covering it.
"This..." When Huai Liang saw the puppet, he took half a step back.
He must have been frightened by the puppet that was locked up with iron chains, but he quickly calmed himself down and walked quickly to take a closer look.
"How did you get this enemy?"
"Last night, my master and I said goodbye and headed for the Imperial Street. At that time, the east wind was blowing strongly and lightning was flashing. I saw a group of puppets flying around the roof of the Baifan Building . It was really a group of demons dancing wildly."
"I have heard about this matter. I also heard that there were fires everywhere in Baifan Building. I didn't know that there was even one left..."
"The lightning struck and set the roof on fire, and also struck down one of the puppets."
"Is this it?" He squatted down and looked at the puppet that was lying crookedly against the wall at eye level, then slowly lifted the talisman on its forehead.
"Zhengyi Tianshi Mantra? This is not the Northern Sect Alchemy inheritance of Yang Chunguan. It must be the talisman cast by Taoist Li Cheng'an."
"It is indeed Taoist Master Li. Master, do you know these?"
"Although I am a Buddhist, I also know a little bit about Xuanzong Taoism."
"Master, I think there must be some tricks in this puppet, but it is tied up with chains and cannot be disassembled."
"The monk turned the puppet over and saw a gap at the back. He could indeed disassemble it from there."
"It is indeed a family heirloom of the Yu family. This is the interlocking mortise and tenon joint that Yu Silang is most proud of."
"Interlocking mortise and tenon joints?" Shen Kuo was obviously hearing it for the first time.
"This is the ingenuity that Yu Hao often boasts about when he's drunk. He doesn't use glue or nails, but he makes the wood fit together perfectly, overlapping and intertwining each other layer by layer, making it impossible to take it apart."
"Since it can be assembled, must it be disassembled in the opposite way?"
"That being said, only someone who has assembled it once and knows the ins and outs of it can dismantle it in reverse. If you don't know the sequence and the essentials, it's useless to have a thousand tricks. If you act rashly, you can only use an axe, a chisel, a hammer, and a saw. In this way, the thing will inevitably be dismantled and will no longer serve as evidence."
"If there is no lock, can you do it, Master?"
"Probably?" said the monk. He had just said that it was useless to have a thousand tricks if you didn't know how to use them. He was probably talking about others. He himself was very confident and seemed eager to try.
"Master, why don't we break the lock and try to take it apart first? After we have a look, we can put it back together. Then Taoist Li won't know about it."
"I would love to try to break the interlocking mortise and tenon and disassemble the puppet, but what about the lock?"
"What's wrong with the lock? It's just an ordinary lock."
"Although it is an ordinary lock, it is not easy to open. You see, the keyhole is sealed with glue and paint. The paint is light yellow and very rare. If you move, the seal will fall off and it will leak. You and Yang Chunguan are teacher and student, and he and Taoist Li are brothers. If you open it without telling me, I am afraid it will be difficult to explain."
"This level is like this, but what can we do about it?"
"You need to find bee lacquer of the same formula, melt it with fire first, then insert two curved needles, one straight and one bent, through the keyhole, slowly test the spring to open the lock, and after everything is done and restored to its original position, seal it with glue and lacquer of the same color as your own, so that there will be no flaws."
Shen Kuo was surprised. He thought that the monk could carve fake stamps but he didn't expect that he could also pick locks. He spoke very convincingly and no one knew where he learned it.
"So when can you unlock it?"
"Pingseng will go outside to find some materials for making this rare propolis and shellac. He will come back early tomorrow morning. Then we can dismantle this puppet and see what's inside his stomach."
"Then we can only give up today."
"There is one more important thing to do today."
"Is it... to find out about Xiaoping?" Shen Kuo asked warily. He had always been resistant to the monk's presumption of guilt against Xiaoping.
"I knew you didn't want to believe it. It's actually very simple. I said last night that given her position at the time, if the puppet spoke, it could only be her ventriloquism. Although it's absurd, there's no other way to make sense. Since you already have this puppet, why not use it to test her."
"How to try?" Shen Kuo became more alert.
"I think this puppet fell from the sky, something must have gone wrong. At this moment, the mastermind behind the scenes may not know about this mistake. So you just need to lead Xiaoping here, let her see this object suddenly, and then observe her expression carefully from the side. If she is involved, she will be terrified."
"If she has nothing to do with it, anyone would be frightened if they suddenly saw this thing." Shen Kuo quickly expressed his objection.
"Fright and panic are very different. How can you not tell the difference? If you can't tell the difference, don't worry about it. Just do this. I will know the difference when the time comes."
"Master, please don't keep me in suspense. If you have any further questions, tell me now."
"Well, if she is involved in this matter, she will be afraid that the evidence will fall into your hands, and she will send someone to destroy it tomorrow. Then, we can set up a trap here and wait for her."
"Is this okay?" Shen Kuo felt that the monk was being a little unreasonable.
"I'm just saying that. You don't have to believe it. However, if you want to clear her suspicion, this is indeed a shortcut." This sentence has some appeal.
"Let me think about this matter." Shen Kuo said helplessly.
"Well, without further ado, monk, I will go and mix this pale yellow glue paint. Maybe I need beeswax. Now most of the merchants in the city have fled the city, and half of the shops are closed. I am afraid I will have to go to a few more places. In addition, you have to hide this puppet. It is better to cover it with cloth. When the time comes, when you uncover it, you can suddenly make her lose her color and reveal her true expression."
After Huailiang came up with this bad idea, he seemed very satisfied and went downstairs happily.
Shen Kuo sorted out his thoughts. If he believed the monk's plan, perhaps this really was a shortcut to clear Xiao Ping of suspicion?
He thought about it and called Xu Chong to ask him if he had any way to find Xiao Ping. He said that the government still had some questions to ask her and he would not force her. Besides, he had a donkey to return to her, which was another reason.
Xu Chong volunteered to agree. On such an unlucky morning, it would be more interesting to go out for a walk and meet Jin'er than to face five corpses with burnt faces and a puppet spirit that might come back to life at any time.
He immediately took the order and went out.
