Chapter 79: Heavenly Gangs and Earthly Evils
February 23 midnight
Shen Kuo thought for a moment, and finally lost his composure and rushed into the darkness. No matter what, he couldn't let Xiao Ping disappear from his life. He had two questions in his mind that would become regrets in his life if he didn't ask them. First, he wanted to ask loudly which side Xiao Ping was on. This problem had troubled him for a long time. As for the second question... he hadn't figured out how to ask it without making himself look like he had a one-sided love.
After chasing for a few steps, how could he find Xiaoping's trail? He heard the roar of the lion cage gradually rising. He glanced at the iron gate of the cage and saw that it had been opened at some point. A white thing was tied to the iron gate. It was the silk scarf that was used to bandage the wound on Xiaoping's arm. There was also something inserted diagonally on the iron gate. He held his breath, walked over quietly, slowly closed the iron gate and gently closed the bolt, then untied the silk scarf. Wrapped in the silk scarf was a six-hole thread-bound book named "Wood Classics". It seems that Xiaoping always had a plan to escape every time they met. Last time, she used an umbrella that could produce smoke, and this time, she relied on a wild beast. This silk scarf and this book were probably the last things she left for him.
He was overwhelmed with emotions and had no time to look at the book.
He just hid the scarf and the book in his arms and walked back. When he reached the gate of Yujin Garden, he saw Xu Chong standing there. This time he did not hide in the shadows, but stood in the middle of the road, in the blue moonlight.
"Xu Jieji, are you following me again?"
"I'm afraid you'll fail."
"I am extremely careful, how could I fail?"
"If you were careful, you wouldn't have let me follow you here without knowing it."
"This..." He found that he had no way to argue. "Did you see her just now?"
"Of course I did. However, this time she didn't notice me hiding in the shadows, and I didn't show up. I was just waiting for you to finish talking."
"Hey, you heard it too. She said we don't have to see each other anymore."
"Of course I heard it. I'll say what a brother should say. I heard her words were cold and indifferent, as if she didn't miss you at all. Just go if you want to."
"You also heard that she has no interest in me? I wanted to shine my heart on the bright moon, but the bright moon only shines on the ditch."
"Why are you complaining? There are many kind and loyal women in the brothel. Why bother to marry such a heartless woman?"
Xu Chong's words were a bit blunt, which inevitably made Shen Kuo a little embarrassed. He wanted to change the subject quickly.
"You are very patient. You have overheard so much. Did you hear her say that Yu Jing might have a helper, the last of the four hexagram masters? Do you have any plan to deal with it?"
"I heard what she said, but I couldn't make out the underlying meaning. She just said that this person probably died with Wang Ze when the city was broken, but she didn't know it. In fact, whether it was Yu Jing or the Maitreya Sect, they were probably beasts without a nest and frightened birds, and they have probably already scattered." Xu Chong said.
"There is no point in saying more of these things. We should think about how to pursue them relentlessly."
The two of them returned together, leading the donkey. On the way, Shen Kuo kept pondering the last few words that Xiao Ping left behind: praying is difficult, blessing is misfortune, auspiciousness is disaster, and good fortune is also calamity.
No matter how you think about it, it's all irrelevant nonsense, without any clear message. It seems to be very depressed and retreating, but it also means that fortune and misfortune are reversed and a comeback is coming.
The two returned to Old Crow Lane and went back to their rooms to sleep.
February 23, noon
When Shen Kuo woke up, everything in the city was peaceful and stable. The good news was that there was no bad news, and the bad news was that there was no good news. The thing that was secretly transported out by the Maitreya Sect just magically disappeared from this world, and maybe it will never appear again?
Most of the spies in the yard were out, some were on routine street searches, and some were assigned by Xu Chong to various places to keep a close eye on anything that suddenly appeared somewhere in Tokyo Bianliang. Nowadays, the city of Bianjing is already full of spies, which is probably why Xiao Ping chose the fishy and smelly Yujin Garden instead of a place under the moon and flowers for her final farewell. In short, if you want to transport such a large object, whether it is placed vertically or horizontally, it will inevitably arouse suspicion.
What Shen Kuo still felt bad about was not Yu Jing and Maitreya, nor the last hexagram master who had only been mentioned in a few words by Huai Liang and Xiao Ping. It was Xiao Ping's sudden farewell, saying that she was leaving with her beloved and would never come back. Who was this beloved? Was she the owner of those coarse cloth clothes in the closet? This person was more distressing to him than the fourth hexagram master of Maitreya. His disappointment was that Xiao Ping was too strange last night. If the heartless words she said were sincere, then the ambiguous words she said to him before were just a show to take advantage of him, which was what he could not accept the most.
Xiao Ping left, and the monk left too. He felt empty inside, and inevitably a little discouraged. He didn't want to go out on the street, so he took out the "Wood Scripture" that Xiao Ping left for him.
It's a pity that Xiaoping left such a thing for me in the end. If it was a piano score or a poem, it would have left me with a little bit of memory worth remembering.
The "Wood Classic" was originally circulated in the world. Huai Liang had it at hand, and Yang Wei De also had it at home. It was actually not rare.
He flipped through the Wood Scriptures and found that it was slightly different from what he had seen at Yang Chunguan's house. It was not about civil engineering, but various small-scale wood works, which contained various tricks and secrets. He was shocked and realized that this was not an ordinary Wood Scripture. Could it be that the monk mentioned that Yu Jing kept the second volume of the Wood Scriptures secret? How did Xiao Ping get it?
He flipped through the pages again and immediately became interested. There were all kinds of objects in the book, from women's hairpins to combs, long tables and folding chairs in the hall. Of course, all of these were different from the ordinary, each with a strange function and amazing ingenuity. The flower-blooming hairpin that the monk had instructed him to buy was also included, and it was even more complicated, with three flowers. It can be seen that the book was written later. However, the focus of the book was not on these, but on the weapons in the military formation, including the crossbows that were specially used to restrain cavalry, the caltrops that blocked the road, and even several kinds of military tents that could be quickly disassembled. He was about to take a closer look when there was movement in the yard. It seemed that the spies had returned. He put the book in his lapel and planned to study it when he had time. It seemed that Xiao Ping might not have feelings for him, but she at least had feelings for him. After such a spiritual victory method to comfort him, his mood was much brighter.
Sure enough, those people downstairs had returned. Shen Kuo did not go downstairs, but just eavesdropped from behind the window upstairs, listening to them talking in the yard downstairs.
However, there was no progress regarding Yu Jing, because the spies were talking about the Three Religions Dharma Assembly, saying that the court intended to let the Great Nuo Master come to clean up the mess. Some were indignant, wondering how someone would finally get away with it after a month of investigation, but others felt that the Nuo Master left Beijing in December to exorcise evil spirits, leaving only a few disciples in the palace to pray for the imperial concubine, and unexpectedly the Hat Demon appeared in the first month of the year, indicating that the Maitreya sect was probably still hiding from the Nuo Master.
At 3 pm in the afternoon, Xu Chong also came back, bringing a bottle of wine and a roast chicken. He was attentive and knew that Shen Kuo was in a bad mood, so he went directly to the second floor to drink with Shen Kuo. Drinking is always better than being jealous of someone who has nothing to do with him.
Of course, Xu Chong was also full of grievances, and he wanted to pour them out with the wine in his cup. So he chatted for a while and then turned the topic to his job today.
"In such a big city like Tokyo Bianliang, I don't know if that gang of thieves is still there. Try to send me and my brothers to run around the city like headless flies. If we had caught Xiao Ping yesterday and interrogated her carefully, we would have found a place to track her down."
"She didn't say anything, it must be because it's useless for you and me to go to those places. As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows . Those thieves are afraid of everything. They either fled or hid in various places in the city. There must be no place where they can gather together like the tunnel under the pagoda." Shen Kuo said. He still habitually protected Xiao Ping.
"Alas, I am helpless. I can't find any clues. I searched all over the capital for that thing, but I don't know whether it is square or round, how tall or how big it is. There was a funeral in the west of the city, so I opened the coffin to take a look. In the south of the city, there was an imperial physician Zhang who built a new alchemy room at home. People from the Imperial City Bureau saw it and opened the roof to look at it. There was a lot of gossip and he is now protesting in Kaifeng Prefecture. Now that the Maitreya Sect has been scattered, we are afraid of enemies here."
"It is very difficult to hide a large object that is several meters square and was just moved out of the city canal yesterday morning. I think it is most likely to be disassembled and moved by water."
"Will it be shipped out of the city and never come back? If so, we will feel at ease if it disappears from the scene." Xu Chong tore off a chicken leg and said.
"I also think this is possible. However, how can we feel at ease if we don't track down Yu Jing and find the mechanism that fulfills the prophecy and restores Wang Ze?"
"I went to the Military Headquarters this morning and heard Minister Wen comforting Minister Bao, saying that they would suffer heavy losses if they destroyed the Maitreya sect's lair. If nothing happened from now on, the people would soon forget about those prophecies and nursery rhymes. So he also petitioned the government to take this opportunity to hold a Nuo ritual. Regardless of whether it was true or not, it would put an end to this strange incident and give the world peace of mind."
Shen Kuo shook his head helplessly: "What does Mr. Bao say?"
"My lord, you said that the prime minister is wrong. It's settled, it's settled, but if it's not settled, how can it be settled? He also said that since the beginning of this prophecy, every time I think that the thieves should retreat, it is often the eve of the thieves' rebellion. As the old saying goes: bees and scorpions are poisonous and want to sting people, and jackals will bite back after escaping from a trap. Now you see that they are at the end of their rope , but what they see is that the prophecy has fulfilled eight sentences except for the last one. If you were them, why don't you make one last effort? So if we don't force them into a desperate situation now, they will drive us into a desperate situation."
"Prime Minister Bao is still very perceptive. I always feel that Prime Minister Wen Shu's fighting spirit has waned, and his desire to win is not as strong as before."
"That being said, however...now that Huailiang and Xiaoping are gone, where can we find clues? If the thief doesn't move, we can't move around," Xu Chong complained.
Shen Kuo realized that he had gone in circles and still blamed himself. He had indeed thought about these things countless times, but he had no regrets so far. Xiao Ping certainly had her ability to escape. In fact, if Xu Chong really showed up last night to catch her, he would probably not be able to catch her. Of course, he was willing to let her go. He did let the monk go at the risk of his life, and he would never regret it. In fact, he now knew where the monk had gone, but he would not tell her.
He firmly believed that everything Huailiang said to him was true. If he was just obsessed with appearances and controlled by resentment, he would never watch the world turn upside down and the people suffer. However, now that he has withdrawn from the sea of karma and left, the remaining problems are left to himself.
"Brother Xu, as long as they make any unusual moves, I think we will be able to foresee their moves since we occupy so many high places in the capital."
"They are in the dark and we are in the light, where can we find any unusual movements?"
Shen Kuo was just thinking about how to respond when he heard the sound of Buddhist instruments outside. He stood up and looked out the window by the street. Xu Chong ignored him and just drank his wine.
On the street in the distance, a group of monks wearing straw hats were walking on the empty street, striking their instruments.
"Those masters seem to be going to the Northwest Jinshui Gate?"
"Are you a monk from some temple again? You were taken out of the city by a grain ship yesterday, so there are some things you don't know. The emperor was persuaded by the Prime Minister and many others to hold a three-religion ceremony to calm people's hearts."
"Hasn't this already happened once in the palace?"
"That's just to get rid of the evil spirit. In addition to getting rid of the evil spirit, we have to go out of the palace to bury the evil spirit. What happens in the palace cannot be seen outside, so the emperor wants to use the opportunity of burying the evil spirit outside the palace to announce to the world that the evil spirit, whether it is evil or evil, will be suppressed."
"I have heard Shi Yaban mention that the so-called burying of evil spirits is that the Nuo master with a broken finger used the copper bell to attach the evil spirits in the palace to his body, and then took it to a deserted place in the suburbs and buried it. So wherever the great Nuo master went, everyone stayed away from him, for fear of being contaminated by the evil spirits."
"That's probably true, but this year is different. Not only do we need to exorcise the evil spirits in the palace, we also need to exorcise the evil spirits in the surrounding areas, so the great Nuo master stayed in the capital for six days."
"Mie Sha? What kind of Sha?" Shen Kuo found it funny.
"In fact, these evil spirits are all ominous creatures. It's not that the nursery rhymes recited by the puppets on the Baifan Building are not powerful enough - there are 72 evil spirits on earth, so the great Nuo master must kill them all at once. And then bury them all together."
"If this goes on, there will be no end to it. If I were the Maitreya Sect, even if I originally wanted to stop, seeing that the court is so controlled by me, wouldn't I fight for another battle at the risk of my life?" Shen Kuo said.
"You talk so lightly, but you don't know that people who are dying of thirst in the desert are willing to drink even poisoned wine." Xu Chong's words were very insightful.
"I am just taking a long-term view. Think about it, by confronting Maitreya with such a big fanfare, it is actually strengthening its momentum. Since they want to destroy the Disha, doesn't the nursery rhyme have another line: There are thirty-six Tiangang? Isn't there another Tiangang to catch?"
"Brother Shen, you are right." Xu Chong suddenly laughed, "Tian Gang does exist, but there is no need to catch it."
"Why don't we catch him?" It was Shen Kuo's turn to look confused. He had just made an analogy, but it seemed to have led to some story.
