Chapter 99: The Abandoned Imperial Mausoleum
June 13th, Mao time
At daybreak, the two set out from the dilapidated house and went into the mountains to look for Yong'er.
Shen Kuo had never expected the outcome of this matter. Maitreya had always been known for its treacherous ways. Even if it hid in Kaifeng, it was not easy to find its whereabouts. Now that it was hiding outside, it was naturally like a bird flying in the sky. Would it be so easy to find its trace? He had never thought of a reason why Maitreya might hide here.
Xiao Ping released the eagle named Lao Liu and let it soar in the sky to see if it could discover anything with its eyesight.
The nearby mountains were not high, but there were many small hills stacked one on top of the other. If there really was a small group of people hiding in this area, even if the government sent thousands of soldiers to search the mountains, they might not be found, not to mention there were only two people here? He had reason to think that Xiao Ping and Yong Er were just abandoned by Yan Shu and Wen Yanbo, who were just trying their luck based on hearsay information.
Full of doubts, they wandered around the mountains for the whole morning, but found nothing.
Old Six, who had been circling nearby, had flown away to who knows where. The old donkey was tired and began to slack off, barking and making noises. The two had no choice but to stop. Xiao Ping took out her hawk whistle and blew it a few times. Soon the hawk was overhead, and it flew down a few moments later. It seemed that it had also gained nothing.
They found a rock to sit on, and let the horses and donkeys go, letting them find grass to eat on their own. They could only eat some dry food with the mountain spring water.
Shen Kuo couldn't help but speak out his confusion. But he had to be very careful, because he didn't want to hurt Xiao Ping's heart and let her realize that this search was actually meaningless.
"This Beimang Mountain is indeed beautiful, but I wonder why the Maitreya Church hid here? Their method of bewitching people requires a crowded place to work. You and I haven't seen a single person this morning. If they came here, what on earth are they trying to do? Could it be that Mr. Wen made a mistake?"
He chewed his dry food and looked around. He suspected from the bottom of his heart that Wen Yanbo's information was wrong.
"We didn't come to this place without a purpose. This is indeed a place that Wang Ze values." Xiao Ping said.
"Does Wang Ze value this place?"
"Well, when I was a saint in that church, he prepared to come here several times to do a secret thing, but what it was, only he and the saint knew. When Beizhou City was broken, the saint escaped by chance because she was not in the city, most likely because she was sent here. As for what she was planning, I don't know. Wen Xianggong sent Yong'er here, probably because of these reasons. But she disappeared again."
"That is to say, Wang Ze had some plans in Beimang Mountain before his death?"
"Um."
It seems that Wen Yanbo probably just randomly guessed that there might be remnants of Maitreya here, so he sent Yong'er here to try his luck, but the real useful information is that Yong'er disappeared here. This is a more strange thing. Maybe it was just an accident, or maybe there are really remnants of Maitreya in this area?
But even with this reasoning, the clues were weak. Shen Kuo felt that the most likely possibility was that Yong'er had met with an accident in this area, but he couldn't say that in front of Xiaoping. Because Yong'er was almost one of the few reasons for Xiaoping to continue living. If she wanted to believe it, then let her believe it.
"There is one thing I don't understand. Your eagle whistle is not very loud when you blow it, how can you summon the old six from a distance?" Shen Kuo decided to talk about irrelevant things and not continue to talk about Yong'er, so as to prevent Xiaoping from realizing too early that her search was just a fantasy. As for what the reality is, he believes that Yong'er has been missing in the mountains for a long time and probably died in various accidents. This is the biggest possibility that reason tells him. As for cold-blooded old guys like Yan Shu and Wen Yanbo, they may also think so. For them, whether Xiaoping can find Yong'er and the remnants of Maitreya is nothing more than an investment that they can afford to lose.
"The hearing of an eagle is different from that of a human. To you and me, this 'eagle whistle' is not very loud, but to them, it is very clear even from miles away."
"I'm confident that I have good hearing, but it's still far behind Old Six. I can't hear this eagle whistle from a distance."
"How can you compare yourself to an animal?" Xiao Ping said with a smile, "Sir, do you know that there is an object called a 'dog flute'?"
"'Dog whistle'?" Shen Kuo asked blankly , obviously not knowing.
"Like this eagle whistle, it is something that only exists in the North Country. That young master used it to find my eighth son."
"Is Lao Ba the dog?"
"Hmm..." Xiao Ping nodded. "The eagle whistle can still make some noises that you and I can hear. The dog whistle makes no sound at all. But Old Eight can hear it."
Xiao Ping's unintentional words suddenly touched Shen Kuo's mind.
"No sound at all?"
"Yes, there was no sound at all. I just blew it with one breath, and the dog heard it even though it was half a mile away and came running back. It works every time I try it."
The eagle flapped its wings and flew off to look for Yong'er again. Xiao Ping then realized that Shen Kuo was still lost in thought and had not woken up.
She waved her hand in front of Shen Kuo, which awakened him from his deep thought.
"Sir, what's wrong?"
"I was wondering, there is such a thing in the world?"
"What is it?" Xiao Ping had already forgotten the previous topic.
"It's a dog whistle that dogs can hear."
"Still thinking about that dog-finding device?"
"The dog flute you mentioned does involve some past events. Master Huailiang and I racked our brains to crack the paper man's clone trick. Although we failed to crack it, we found that the strings can vibrate against each other through the air. Some of the sounds are audible, but some are inaudible to human ears."
"So what?" Xiao Ping was also confused and couldn't follow his train of thought.
"I have been wondering how the hat monster could fly in the air. At first I thought it might be pulled by a thin string that was hard for the human eye to distinguish. But how could it fly in the busy city of Bianjing without being cut by the string between the eaves?"
"I don't know how to perform the hat monster. After Yu Jing's death, I'm afraid this miraculous skill will be lost."
"I think I seem to have found some clues."
"What does this have to do with the eagle whistles and dog flutes we just talked about?" Xiao Ping was unable to keep up with Shen Kuo's unfocused thoughts and was completely confused.
"The reason behind this..."
Suddenly, there was a cry of an eagle overhead. They both looked up at the eagle and saw it flying eastwards, as if it had discovered something.
"Let's go, what did Lao Liu see?"
The two of them rode on their horses and donkeys and followed the eagle.
After going around several hills, Lao Liu was always leading the way in the sky, constantly making calls, and no one knew what it saw.
Just as Shen Kuo was wondering, he heard the melodious sound of a piano coming from afar.
"It's Yong'er!" Xiaoping almost screamed out.
"Is it her?"
"It must be her. Listen! She is playing the 'Ten Stages of Bodhisattvas'. All those who know this music score in the world are in that religion."
The two of them rode their horses (donkeys) to chase the sound.
Shen Kuo quickly thought of possible scenarios in his mind, and his previous rational judgment that Yong'er died in an accident collapsed in an instant. Maybe Yong'er did find the Maitreya Sect when she came here, maybe she was trapped by the believers and couldn't get out? Maybe she saw a red rope on the feet of an eagle flying in the sky today, and guessed that Xiaoping was here? Maybe she couldn't get out at the moment, but she could play a song, so that Xiaoping could find her by following the sound of the music? This is the most reasonable inference pointed out by all the information at present.
At 3 p.m. in the afternoon, the melodious piano music in the empty mountain disappeared. It was a pity that the donkey was too slow and slowed Xiaoping down.
They followed the direction of the sound of the piano and finally saw the eagle landed on the top of a small hill. So they climbed up the hill together. Fortunately, the hills in Beimang Mountain were not high, and they reached the top in a short time. But there was no one there, only a pile of excavated rocks and a long-collapsed wooden shed, as if it had been a quarry?
Xiao Ping looked around anxiously and saw that the eagle was perched on a laurel tree on the top of the mountain. A piece of the branch had been broken off. When she got closer, she found three marks on the broken branch, as if it had been scratched by fingernails not long ago.
She lowered her head and searched in the mud under the tree. It had been raining all day yesterday, so it was easy to find many footprints on the ground.
"Look, it's Yong'er's."
She pointed to a dozen or so footprints on the ground, some large and some small. It was obvious that there was more than just Yong'er , there were also several men with big feet here. The strange thing was that there were actually two wheel tracks, which didn't look like wheel tracks of a big car, and were not that wide. I don't know how they were left there.
"Just now, she was clearly playing the piano on this hill? There were quite a few people around her. Did she want to leave something for us?" Shen Kuo speculated.
"She drew three lines to tell us that she will have a third verdict." Xiao Ping said in despair.
"What is the Three Judgments?"
"It was a method Wang Ze came up with to eliminate dissidents. He wanted to put someone to death to prove his innocence. Especially when he wanted to kill that person and it might cause other believers to be dissatisfied, he would use this trick to rely on God's will to convince the others."
"Is it the water trial and the fire trial?"
"Yes, we sisters have all gone through the first two trials. So, this time it must not be a water or fire trial, but a third trial."
"Since she is a saint, why does she need to prove herself?"
"Because a leader, a saint lady, and a fortune teller lady all died in accidents, but every time Hu Yong'er was there, she was fine. If you were the new leader, would you not be suspicious?"
"I will definitely be suspicious." Shen Kuo said frankly.
"But she is a saint, and the new leader doesn't dare to kill her directly. The simplest way is to use the trick left by Wang Ze to prove her innocence on the surface with the will of heaven, but in fact it is a method of life and death. No, she is in trouble now, we have to find her quickly. It will be too late..."
"What exactly is this three-judgment like?"
"I've only heard of it being called a corpse verdict. Because no one before my sister and I have gone through the previous water and fire verdicts, so no one has ever seen what a corpse verdict is." Xiao Ping shook her head frantically, "Yong'er is too stupid. She came here even though she knew she would be suspected. It's all my fault."
"Who is this successor to the leader?"
Shen Kuo squatted on the ground, studying the two tracks that were less than two feet wide. They didn't look deep, so it wasn't heavy. If it was heavy, it wouldn't have been possible to push the cart up the mountain. It looked like a wheeled chair for a person with a foot disability who couldn't walk.
“I don’t know who the successor is either…”
"If Yong'er plays it again, maybe we can find it."
"I don't think she will have the chance to play the piano again. The reason she was allowed to play was just to fulfill her last wish before the verdict. The new teacher is not stupid and will not let her play the piano casually and reveal her location. Maybe he has noticed it, so he left."
Xiaoping could only worry.
Shen Kuo calmed down and looked around. There were no buildings on the mountain, but there were exposed rocks, which showed that someone had been quarrying stones not long ago. Although the nearby shed had collapsed, there were still square stones piled inside. Some of them had dragon and phoenix patterns carved on them, but no words were engraved. Inside the shed, there was also a half-carved stone horse.
"Look at these rocks. They clearly have traces of axes and chisels. This shows that this is a quarry. However, the stones on the ground are all covered with mud, but the upright stones are not."
"What does this mean?" Xiao Ping asked puzzled.
"You just mentioned that before Wang Ze was destroyed, he sent the Saint Lady here to look for something? But you don't know."
"Yeah, they didn't talk about it much."
"This Beimang Mountain has the best feng shui, and it is the location chosen by many emperors throughout the dynasties for their mausoleums. Since we are going to build an imperial mausoleum, we must select stones. So this is where the stones for the imperial mausoleums are taken. You can see there are stone statues and horses, which is why the Maitreya Cult found this place."
"Sir, I still don't quite understand."
"I think I guessed what Wang Ze was looking for at the beginning." Shen Kuo said with sudden enlightenment.
"What are you looking for?"
"Do you still remember the day we met at Gu Liugang's villa?"
"Of course I remember."
"That day I broke into Mr. Yan's house and heard him mention that when he was young, he also believed in the Heavenly Book and bribed the eunuchs to steal the characters from it to study. Later, after he understood the Xixia script created by Xixia using the radicals of Chinese characters, he found that the so-called Heavenly Book characters were most likely created by Wang Qinruo sent by the previous emperor to deceive the world. Maitreya came here to find the Heavenly Book."
"But the Heavenly Book is still in Yuqing Zhaoying Palace?"
"But I heard that Empress Zhangxian carved the Book of Heaven on the stone slab of the previous emperor's mausoleum."
"However, the tomb of the late emperor is not in Beimang Mountain."
"No, there is an anecdote. I heard from my father that the late emperor had chosen this mountain as a lucky place for eternity. After the late emperor passed away, Empress Dowager Zhangxian ordered the eunuch Lei Yungong to be the supervisor of the mountain mausoleum and build the mausoleum here. As a result, groundwater was dug up and flooded the mausoleum. Lei Yungong was sentenced to death for this."
"You mean, although the mausoleum here is abandoned, it is possible to find the heavenly book in the abandoned imperial mausoleum?"
"That's right. So the Maitreya Sect is looking for the stones that were chiseled here in order to find the words in the Heavenly Book."
"That's not right. Wang Ze is good at deceiving people and cheating people. It's impossible for him not to see that the Heavenly Book is a forgery. Why would he come here specifically to look for it?"
"Mr. Yan has the clearest understanding of this matter. I hid under the window that day and overheard his brilliant remarks, which revealed the truth. Thinking about it now, I really admire him."
"What did he say?"
"He said that the former emperor borrowed the Heavenly Book to implement his benevolent policies, and the people of the world believed it, so the fake book had the Mandate of Heaven. However, no one can understand the words on the Heavenly Book. It was originally just a trick, but for those who are interested, since no one can understand it, he has room to interpret it at will. Who gets the Mandate of Heaven is not up to the original creator of the characters."
"This... sounds a bit hard to understand?" Xiao Ping admitted that she could not deduce Shen Kuo's conclusion.
"Let's deduce it. You see, if Maitreya spreads the text of the Heavenly Book everywhere and then randomly interprets it, saying that the Heavenly Book says that our dynasty has no virtue and will end. How will the Great Song respond?"
"Of course, we should make the real heavenly book in Yuqing Zhaoying Palace public to set the record straight?"
"Well, if we make the heavenly book under the caisson of Zhaoying Palace public, and see that the text is the same as that spread by Maitreya, but no one can understand it, what will people think? You want to use the oracle to bring peace to the world, and he wants to use the oracle to bring chaos to the world. He came first and you came later. How to interpret this will be when he is no longer with you. By then, you will not be able to explain it even if you have a thousand mouths."
"Very vicious."
"Alas... At the beginning, the late emperor did all these things, seemingly deceiving the world and solving the problem once and for all. However, there is no such thing as eternal deception in the world. If you want to solve the problem once and for all, you will definitely suffer backlash."
"How can we save Yong'er now?"
The Maitreya Sect must be near the collapsed imperial mausoleum. When I come to find it, wherever the ruins of the imperial mausoleum are, Yong'er must be there.
Shen Kuo walked to the top of the mountain where Yong'er played the piano just now and looked around. It was summer now, and although it was late in the sky, it was still possible to see in all directions. He looked carefully and saw a stone general standing not far away, which looked very much like the stone statues in front of the imperial mausoleum.
"Look, there it is."
