Chapter 73: Minotaur
February 21st, 12:00 PM
Shen Kuo couldn't get rid of the random thoughts in his mind, and he rolled around in bed until the morning before he fell asleep. He didn't go out with Xu Chong during the day, but stayed upstairs to catch up on his sleep. He planned to get enough rest and wait under the pagoda at night.
Xu Chongze wandered around the streets for a hundred days, and also went to the Military Headquarters to ask Shen Kuo the question he wanted to know, which was why the portrait of Xiaoping posted at the city gate was so unlike her. Unexpectedly, Lao Bao said that this was Wen Yanbo's idea. Wen Yanbo said that posting a real portrait might scare Xiaoping and make her stay dormant, so it would be better to post a portrait that didn't look like her, so as not to alert the enemy. It was a barely acceptable answer.
It was relatively peaceful during the day, and nothing strange happened.
At night, Shen Kuo got up and sat on the bed playing with the copper bell, wondering what Xiao Ping meant by her last words. Whenever he recalled Xiao Ping's words: This bell is a token of our love, his heart would be moved. It was a pity that she didn't say it was a token of love.
But what is the use of this broken and lost bell? After looking at it over and over again, there is nothing special about it except that it is very dirty. I just hate that Xu Chong showed up so abruptly last night. Xiao Ping clearly had a lot to say, but was interrupted by this guy. It was really hateful.
He hung the bell on the head of the bed. Thinking back to how Xiao Ping escaped, it couldn't be some kind of underground escape technique. There must be a mechanism on the other side of the wall, and she took advantage of the smoke to get over the wall. She came out alone at night, so she must have prepared to escape. Not only was she on guard against Xu Chong and other spies, but she was probably also on guard against me. So she found such a place when we met last time, and she was especially careful not to touch her umbrella, which was obviously a prop for her to escape.
The night watchman outside had reached midnight. He stood up and went downstairs. Xu Chong was already waiting there, with a look of impatience on his face. He must have been waiting for some time.
The two men went out quietly, without riding horses, and walked to Kaibao Temple in the northwest of the city.
After Shen Kuo arrived in Beijing, he was surprised to see that Kaibao Temple had been razed to the ground. He also asked Yang Shaoqing and some others why the Kaibao Temple, which was so popular when he was a teenager, was now in ruins with only a lonely pagoda standing there.
Yang Weide said that the temple was burned down by lightning and eventually abandoned, leaving only the wooden tower. As for why the lightning only destroyed the temple and did not hit the higher pagoda. Old Yang said that when Yu Hao built the tower, he spent some time, investigated the geography in detail, and made some arrangements to resolve the original fire-shaped evil spirit. This arrangement included deliberately tilting the tower a little. He also went there to see the geographical advantages. It was the place where yin and yang met, and the nine underworlds were connected below. In fact, the location was not suitable and it was a bit dangerous. But it couldn't be changed, so Yu Hao placed the tower just above the intersection of yin and yang, and used a seven-treasure pagoda to suppress evil spirits. As the saying goes, it is better to transform evil spirits than to fight them. So the tower was deliberately made a little tilted, which not only suppressed the ghost gate, but also catalyzed the circulation of the five elements, and resolved the fire-shaped evil spirit. In this way, Yu Hao killed two birds with one stone. His wisdom is beyond words.
As for the fire that happened later, it was because the abbot saw that the pagoda was leaning and not solemn and upright enough, so he invited Huai Bing to straighten the pagoda, breaking the pattern set by Yu Hao.
Of course, Shen Kuo also asked other people, who said that when Huailiang was repairing the tower, he removed the original tilted central column and replaced it with a copper column. The copper column was surrounded by ladders in the tower, and the base of the column was deep underground. Therefore, this tower was actually the tallest in Kaifeng City, much taller than Baifan Tower, so it was often struck by lightning. Every time it was struck by lightning, sparks could be seen flashing from the gilded top of the tower, but this wooden tower would not catch fire. The low temple under the tower was only struck by lightning once, and then it caught fire.
Shen Kuo knew the reason, which was nothing more than not leading the lightning into the ground, which was exactly the same as Yu Jing's method of killing the Saint. When the lightning in the clouds in the sky accumulates too much, it will connect with the ground and generate lightning. If something is blocked between the lightning and the earth, it will be struck by lightning. If it hits a tree, the tree will be destroyed; if it hits a person, the person will die; if it hits a house, it will inevitably catch fire. The solution is like dealing with floods, it is better to dredge than to block. The more you block, the easier it is to catch fire. The strategy of dredging is to use gold to attract lightning. So he believed that Huai Liang had this consideration when he used a copper pillar to repair the tower.
But thinking about this, he could not help but feel some thoughts. In this capital city, the only person who could instruct Yu Jing to create various wonders and then kill the Saint Lady with the technique of attracting thunder was Huai Liang. And Huai Liang and Yu Jing did have some connections. Just before the New Year, Yu Jing brought wine and meat to ask him about astronomy. And Huai Liang also mentioned several times that he wanted to read the "Wood Scripture Part 2" in Yu Jing's hand.
Although there was no evidence and it was just a cruel thought, the matter had been churning in his mind for a whole day. The only thing that comforted him was that he could not find a reason why Huai Liang would help Yu Jing. This made all the speculations become castles in the air. Huai Liang had no reason to help the Maitreya rebels, so what benefit would this bring to him?
Perhaps the reason was actually there, but Shen Kuo's subconscious mind deliberately avoided it.
The two arrived at the northwest corner of the city. It was already midnight. A waning moon hung feebly in the sky. The two looked around. Apart from some broken walls left over from the fire, there were no intact houses or people in sight.
Actually, let alone these days, even before the Maitreya sect became popular, no one dared to come to this haunted place at night. Because at that time, it was said that there was a ghost in the dark month, that is, on the days when there was no moon at the end of the month, ghosts could be seen near Kaibao Temple. Of course, there were also rumors that some thieves would choose the nights without moonlight to sell stolen goods, so there was also a saying that it sold mules and horses during the day and a ghost market at night.
"It seems we have to find a place to hide first." Xu Chong said.
"Yes, I think there's a place to hide under the low wall over there."
"It's good, but it's also not right."
"What's wrong?"
"This place is so big, and the moonlight is so dim. We are hiding together, so we can't see far. If the thief came from somewhere else, wouldn't he be invisible?"
"You want to split up and hide?" Shen Kuo said in panic, "If you leave me alone , I don't have a sword or a knife, and I don't know how to wrestle. How can I resist the thieves if I meet them?"
"Hey, there's no need to fight. Didn't you follow those two thieves to the Gu Liugang Villa last time?"
"Yes, I was almost caught and killed by the soldiers that time."
"You don't have to be afraid. Although this place is remote, it is also the imperial city. If you see the thieves, don't make a sound, just follow them and see where they go. Find their lair and catch them during the day. If they find you, shout and I will be there immediately."
"Where are you hiding?"
"I'll go behind the tower. There's a street there, too. In my opinion, if there's a thief coming, he can definitely catch up with me if he doesn't come from your place. If he comes from in front of me, I won't scare him away. I'll just follow him and see where he goes. We can meet up in the morning and discuss a solution."
"That's the only way. You should be careful too."
"Here I have a short knife dipped in dog blood. You can carry it with you to guard against any evil things."
Shen Shen took the seven-inch long knife, thought for a while, and finally expressed his gratitude.
Seeing that everything was arranged, Xu Chong turned around and left, disappearing into the darkness in a moment. He was right. In such a dim night, it was hard to see far, and if two people were crowded together, it would be easy to miss the target.
Shen Kuo squatted in the dark, found a comfortable position and leaned against the wall, not looking out. He just pricked up his ears to listen, and if there was any movement, it would not be too late to poke his head out. He had been studying since he was young, often studying under the moonlight. After a long time, his eyesight was not very good, but his hearing was still good.
After waiting for a long time and nothing happening, he began to wonder if the information Xiao Ping had given him was wrong.
As I was thinking, I couldn't help but get distracted. I began to think, how did Monk Huai Bing use a copper pillar to straighten the tower? I still remember that he and Huai Bing went to the top of the tower together that day , and threw down two iron balls, one large and one small, but they went up on the outside scaffolding and didn't go into the tower to see. At that time, the top of the tower was blown off, but I didn't see a copper pillar lying nearby as a spare. If there was one, I would definitely see it. Also, if the tilted pillar inside was removed first, the tower would fall down immediately. How could they calmly replace a pillar?
Just as he was thinking deeply, he heard a rustling sound in the distance. After careful consideration, he realized that it was not the sound of the wind, but the sound of footsteps. Shen Kuo guessed that the sneaky footsteps were from Xu Chong. Perhaps he had discovered something and came back to find him. But why didn't they agree to meet again in the daytime?
He poked his head out from behind the ruins and saw a tall figure walking by about ten feet away. He saw this figure was familiar, and it was not Xu Chong. He was taller and fatter than Xu Chong.
The terrible answer that I had been avoiding in my heart was about to come out. What's more, the black shadow had a white bag on his shoulder, just like the one on Huailiang's shoulder that I saw in the carriage yesterday.
Suddenly, his mind was struck by thunder, and he wondered if Xiao Ping was deliberately trying to frame him. He just watched the shadow walk towards the Kai Pagoda.
He was so angry that he wanted to run up to the monk and ask him why he did this, and he forgot his agreement with Xu Chong. After he stood up from the ruins, he calmed down a little and did not really go up to grab the monk, but just secretly followed him towards the tower.
Huailiang didn't seem to plan to go anywhere else, just headed towards the tower. Eventually, the dim back figure merged into the dark tower and disappeared. But a noise was heard from the tower, and a group of birds were startled on the top of the tower.
Shen Kuo chased to the bottom of the tower and was sure that Huai Liang must have gone in. He put his ear to the tower wall and listened, and he could still hear the creaking sound of the wooden stairs, obviously the monk had gone up.
After waiting for a while, there was no more movement inside. He walked around to the front door, wondering whether to go in. It was very quiet inside, so there wouldn't be seven or eight Maitreya bandits hiding there. Maybe Huailiang was just here to do something else? This place actually had nothing to do with Maitreya? For some unknown reason, he pushed open the door and quietly entered the tower.
The ladder to the seven-story pagoda was in the middle, winding up around the central pillar, but there was no handrail. He stepped on it carefully, without making much noise. It was obvious that he was much lighter than the monk and would not make much noise.
He walked up carefully. He thought, if Huailiang came down, at least he would be able to hear him from a few floors away, so it wouldn't be too late to hide. Now he really wanted to see what Huailiang was doing hiding here. Was it just a routine inspection of the quality of the construction of the pagoda that he had supervised?
He carefully went to the second floor of the pagoda, walked around and didn't see anything strange, so he went to the third floor. He went to the second to last floor in one breath, but still didn't see Huailiang. Now he was a little unsure, because since entering the pagoda, he had been searching for sounds with his decent hearing, but he didn't hear Huailiang's voice, not even coughing. There was only one floor left, but he still didn't see the monk.
He paused and calmed his heartbeat. Although he could not hear any movement from Huailiang, he could already hear his own heartbeat.
"Okay, let's go up slowly and take a look."
He stepped up with the lightest steps, and finally walked all the stairs. He slowly poked his head out from the bottom of the floor, but still did not see a single person. He only saw a waning moon outside the window, which looked distant and dim. He walked up to the pagoda and walked around it. He was sure that there was nothing here.
He walked to the window and looked out. The only possibility now was that the monk might have hidden outside. He stuck his head out, but there was nothing on the eaves of the tower except piles of bird droppings.
Thinking back to the time when Huailiang and I were standing at roughly this height, throwing down those two balls together, we witnessed how ridiculous our own vicious common sense was. It was hard not to sigh for a moment.
But it startled the crows that built their nests on the top of the tower. The crows croaked and flew away. He was so scared that he quickly retracted his head, but it startled a group of bats on the top of the tower and they fell down and swarmed out. Some of them almost brushed his face when they flew away.
He was so scared that he waved his hands to scare away the bats, fearing that he would be bitten. However, the bats were extremely agile and he could not swat them at all, and they did not bite him either.
Maybe the ugly stuff doesn't bite?
He felt relieved and temporarily forgot about the mystery of Huailiang's disappearance. Turning around, he saw a cloud of mist rising outside the window, with a green light flickering in the mist like a ghost fire.
The hat demon was just outside the tower, facing him. Shen Kuo turned around subconsciously and ran to another window, where he saw the hat demon had already arrived. He went to the next window, but the hat demon had arrived first. One man and one demon, one inside and one outside, chased each other.
This was a kind of fear he had never experienced before. He once thought that if he had the chance to get close to the Hat Monster, he would not run away crying, but would definitely walk up to it and expose its tricks. However, he was obviously overthinking at the time. He truly felt the terror and was unable to control himself.
He rolled and crawled down the stairs, shouting for Xu Chong to come and save him. This time he was really convinced that there really were ghosts and evil spirits in this world that could not be driven away. On each lower floor, the hat demon was flying outside, making shrill screams.
But suddenly everything was quiet. There was no more terrible noise.
He finally reached the bottom floor of the pagoda. It was pitch black outside the broken window frame, and he could not see Xu Chong coming. He hid in front of the door and listened carefully for a while, making sure that he would not run into the hat demon face to face after pushing the door open. Although no one mentioned that the hat demon would scream in many previous confessions, he heard it with his own ears this time. Maybe he was really close, so close that he was within a few feet.
After making sure there was no sound outside, he carefully pushed open the tower door. Sure enough, it was quiet outside. There was no hat demon, but there was no Xu Chong either. He remembered that he had shouted when he ran down the stairs, probably on the fourth or third floor. It seemed that it was that shout that scared away the hat demon. But why didn't he call Xu Chong? Was he asleep?
When Shen Kuo walked out of the tower gate, he found himself surrounded by darkness. The waning moon that had just been in the sky had also quietly disappeared.
He couldn't see the road clearly, it was pitch dark. There was a faint light in the distance. He walked forward slowly, and there was the sound of wind whistling in his ears.
He remembered that after exiting the pagoda gate, he walked due south, and in front of him was the broken wall of Kaibao Temple. He stumbled towards the light. Looking again, the red light was not just one point, but two. It was swaying, like a lantern hanging high up?
However, he remembered that there were no tall buildings in the poor streets and alleys near the abandoned temple, only one-story houses.
There was a sound in his ears, which seemed to be the sound of wooden fish being struck and chanting, but it was very vague and not clear. He realized that something was wrong, and recalled that when he entered the tower, the ground was soft, covered with horse manure and grass, but now there was a hard stone slab under his feet.
He suddenly realized something was wrong and wanted to shout for Xu Chong to come over, but he was afraid of disturbing something strange. He took a few steps forward and saw a person standing under the two red lights. This tall man had his back to him. He didn't think about it, but just quickened his pace and stepped on gravel, and fell to the ground. This dog-eat-shit fell hard, and he felt pain in his hands and knees, probably broken and bleeding.
He looked up again, and the tall background under the red light in the distance moved a little, probably hearing the sound of his fall. But when the back figure turned around, he saw clearly that it was not Xu Chong, or even a person, but a bull-headed monster with horns on its head, holding a steel fork in its hand.
