Volume 1 Chapter 43: Thoughts on the Unknown Dao: Tangled Silk is Hard to Cut, Spring Breeze and Greenery
Lin Jianlan felt it was inconvenient to stay out late at night, so he just stood at the door. Lu Man walked back and forth inside for a while before coming out and saying, "Brother, can I ask you one more question, what are your plans after you arrive in Sanyuan?"
Lin Jianlan thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, my parents died when I was young, and my uncle raised me and doted on me. This time he wanted me to travel on my own. My uncle's sister, my aunt, accidentally hurt her body while practicing martial arts. I heard that ginseng from Liaodong is a good tonic, so I plan to go there and buy some."
Lu Man nodded and said, "You are a very filial child, unlike me, who only causes trouble." But he was absent-minded for a while, then walked out of the house, saying, "Brother, have a good rest. We will meet again if we are destined." After that, he left gracefully. Lin Jianlan leaned against the door and watched the touch of tender yellow disappear into the opposite house. Then he went back to the house and lay on the bed, falling asleep in a daze. He heard a rooster crow beside his ears. He opened his eyes and felt a dazzling sunlight outside the house. It was already ten in the morning. Lin Jianlan rubbed his eyes, got up and opened the door. He saw the waiter busy in the yard. When he saw him push the door out, he hurried to meet him and said, "Young master, are you awake?" But he did not answer. He looked at the opposite door and smiled, "The female Bodhisattva and her senior brother left early. Before leaving, they told me to answer my question well. Breakfast is ready. I will bring it to my room now."
Lin Jianlan did not expect Lu Man to leave in a hurry without waiting to say goodbye in the morning. He suddenly felt a little disappointed, as if the sweet fragrance was still lingering in his nose. He returned to his room in a depressed mood, picked up the wrapped sword and walked out. The waiter had already brought in the food. Seeing that he was leaving, he was puzzled, but did not dare to ask more. He hurriedly led the horse out. Lin Jianlan silently took the reins and said, "Is it okay to go to Sanyuan and go straight north from here?" Seeing the waiter nodded, he turned over and got on the horse, shouted "Go", and galloped away.
After riding for about an hour, Lin Jianlan could already see the Sanyuan city gate from afar. When he arrived in front of the city gate, he saw that the city gate was densely populated by soldiers and the inspection was very strict. There were many civilians crowded in front of the gate. He felt very strange. He slowly squeezed to the city gate and saw two soldiers coming to him. Just as he was about to search him, he heard the leader of the government army behind him said, "There are so many people. Can you two use some brains? The thieves are a man and a woman, and this one is obviously a little kid!" The two hurriedly turned around and went to search others. Lin Jianlan hurriedly walked up to the leader and said, "Sir, what happened?" The leader was very impatient and waved his hand and said, "Go away, who has time to care about you, a little kid?"
Lin Jianlan hurriedly took out a few coins and stuffed them into the soldier's hand. The soldier shook his head and then changed his face and said, "You know the Dongdu Yukousi, right? Alas, you won't understand even if I tell you. People like us are not even qualified to guard their gate! There are so many experts inside, but there are some who are so bold as to touch the things of the Dongdu Yukousi!"
Lin Jianlan hurriedly said, "Sir, what valuable things can a group of people who are fighting have? How could anyone get into trouble?"
The soldier hushed and said softly, "That thing is what the Dongdu Yukousi wants to present to His Majesty. It is a golden crown clam that has been raised for hundreds of years. I heard it is very strange. There is a Buddha statue on the shell that emits Buddha light, and there is also a pearl inside!"
Lin Jianlan was surprised and said, "Ordinary people can't afford such a precious thing!"
The soldier said with disdain, "What treasures are there in the palace? It is said that this clam was presented to His Majesty so that the meat inside can be eaten to preserve one's youth. If the pearl is ground into powder and eaten, it can not only cure all diseases, but also make one's appearance many times more beautiful."
Lin Jianlan said: "The Dongdu Yukousi should be well guarded, how come it was stolen?"
The officer said, "What else can we say if we send it to the Dongdu Yukousi? The golden crown clam was lost on the way, and the two old men escorting it can't explain how it was lost, so we don't know either. The higher-ups asked us to search for a man and a woman, and I heard that the woman is pretty good-looking."
Lin Jianlan smiled and said, "Thanks to the officer, I have learned a lot. I will not delay you from doing your job!" The officer waved his hand and stopped looking at him. He turned around and shouted at the other soldiers. Lin Jianlan led the horse into the city. It did not take much effort to find the inn. After packing up, he used the money given by Lin Longqing to buy a carriage. He moved all the books left by Lin Longqing in the inn into the carriage, then whipped the horse and rushed towards the east gate. However, he began to wonder in his heart. From what the officer said and what Bai Zongping said that day, he knew that the golden-crowned clam was most likely stolen by the two of them. But he didn't know why they stole it. It was said that there were many experts in the Dongdu Yukou Division, so they shouldn't have been able to get it easily. He also didn't know who was escorting them.
After the melee outside the Hangzhou headquarters, Lin Jianlan had no good feelings towards the people of the Dongdu Yukousi. Therefore, although he was worried about Lu Man and the others all the way, he was still quite happy in his heart. When he arrived at the east gate, he was still checked. The soldiers saw that he was an ordinary coachman, and casually flipped through the pile of books in the carriage, and then let him pass.
The East Gate of Sanyuan originally led directly to the official road. Along the way, there were still a few soldiers who were casually checking. Lin Jianlan thought: "These soldiers don't really believe in the Imperial Guards. Anyway, if something is lost, they will be blamed. Even if they really find it, it will still be their credit to present it to the emperor, so they don't pay much attention to the search."
Along the way, he traveled during the day and practiced martial arts at night. After more than ten days, he finally arrived at the official road to the east of the Yellow River. There were more and more people coming and going. In order to avoid missing the place to stay, Lin Jianlan bought some dry food and dried meat and piled them in the car every time he came across a village or town. In the past few days, he had to spend more than half of the time in the woods. After traveling on the road for several days and nights, he finally saw a city in the distance with the words "Jinzhou" written on it. Lin Jianlan was very tired these days, and he was delighted. He hurriedly urged his horse forward and went into the city to find He settled down in an inn. Although he was no longer as weak as when he was kidnapped to Jiangnan, he still felt sore all over after traveling for days. After wolfing down a meal, he immediately lay down on the bed and stretched his limbs. Then he began to understand that Lin Hongfeng was not a completely heartless person. He would find an inn to rest well every night. Maybe he was thinking of his youth and weakness, and thinking of Yin Yin's stubborn appearance that was as cold as frost and snow, he could not help but be absent-minded and said slowly: "The severe cold of frost and snow was not intentional. Where can the spring breeze melt the ice?"
But then he heard someone sigh outside the window, and a figure flashed and disappeared in an instant. Lin Jianlan hurriedly jumped out of bed and pushed open the window. There was a bright moon outside and no one was around. He thought that if it was a thief, there would be nothing to steal. But he was worried about the books in the carriage, so he jumped out of the window and quietly came to the backyard. He heard someone inside say, "Junior sister, didn't I ask you to watch him? Why did you come here?" The woman chuckled and said, "I told you to ask him directly, but you refused and insisted on looking for it yourself. I heard everyone's lovesickness clearly outside the window. How embarrassing it is, brother, don't you think?" After that, a figure flashed and came to the door of the backyard. She was wearing a light green dress and smiling coquettishly, like a spring breeze. It was Lu Man, who met and left without saying goodbye on the stormy night more than ten days ago.
Lin Jianlan was stunned for a moment, looking through Lu Man and seeing Bai Zongping standing next to the carriage with one leg on it, looking very embarrassed. Seeing Lin Jianlan, he quickly put his leg down and patted the dust off his leg. Seeing him panic, Lin Jianlan calmed down and smiled at Lu Man, "Sister Man, did you leave something here with me?"
Lu Man also smiled and clapped her hands, saying, "Brother is really smart. If I ask for it back from you, I'm sure you won't refuse."
Lin Jianlan said: "Fortunately, I am an ordinary teenager, otherwise if the things were searched out, I would be implicated, but it would be bad if I lost Sister Man's things." He already understood that when he met Lu Man in the village store that night, she acted like that and tried to get close to him just to take the opportunity to transfer the stolen things to her own place and get out of Sanyuan, so he laughed it off calmly.
Bai Zongping regained his composure at this moment, and rushed to Lin Jianlan and said, "Where is that thing? Just hand it over, otherwise don't blame me for being rude."
Lin Jianlan did not answer him, but looked at Lu Man with a questioning look in his eyes. In his heart, he also wanted to know whether Lu Man and he were just pretending to be sister that night. He also had a glimmer of hope, hoping that Lu Man would not let Bai Zongping do anything to harm him after taking advantage of him.
Lu Man gestured to Bai Zongping, "Second Senior Brother, don't be so anxious. Wait for me." Then she stepped forward, took Lin Jianlan's hand and walked aside. After a moment of silence, she stared at Lin Jianlan and said softly, " Brother , do you blame me for using you to take the things out and putting you in danger?"
Lin Jianlan thought for a while, then shook his head and said, "Sister Man, I don't blame you. It's just that even if you had told me directly that night, I would have definitely helped you. I don't have a good impression of the people from Dongdu Yukousi. If you want to get the golden crown clam back, you can just ask me directly. There's no need to act like this."
Lu Man smiled and bowed her head, saying, "Brother actually said the name of the golden crown clam. You are really smart. When the Yukou Division lost something like this, although they ordered an investigation, they kept it a secret. Except for the leaders with some official titles, the small soldiers under them didn't know what was lost."
Seeing her two strands of black hair hanging down from her temples, revealing a snow-white neck, and her every move was quite graceful, Lin Jianlan admired her in his heart and said, "Sister Man, you don't have to praise me. Money can make anything possible. You don't even need to pay half a tael of silver to get this information. Since you want to take it back, just take it back yourself. I still don't know where you put it."
Lu Man's face lit up with joy, and she waved to Bai Zongping at the gate of the courtyard, saying, "So it's still in your room. We've been looking for it in your carriage for so long!" After that, she went straight to the guest room. Lin Jianlan followed her and saw Lu Man go into the room, open the package, and take out a small wooden box. When the wooden box was opened, a clam-shaped object half the size of a palm was revealed.
Lin Jianlan was surprised and said, "There is such a big clam!"
Lu Man chuckled and said, "It's not that big, take a closer look!"
Bai Zongping's face was full of displeasure, and he hurriedly stopped her and said, "Junior sister, why do you want to show it to him?" Lu Man pouted and said, "Second brother, I've never seen you so suspicious. We put the things in my brother's bag and took it out of the city. If it was searched out, his life would be in danger. Now my brother doesn't blame me, but lets us take the things back. What's the harm in letting him see it?" After that, she walked to Lin Jianlan with the clam.
Lin Jianlan took a closer look and found that the object, which was half the size of his palm, was actually a green jade container shaped like a clam shell. Lu Man slowly opened the clam shell, and there was still shallow water inside. A small golden clam was placed inside. The clam shell was golden in color, with layers of folds spreading out and emitting a faint golden glow.
Lu Man called out softly, "The water is almost gone, Second Brother, bring some water!" Bai Zongping hurriedly scooped some water from the basin and filled the container again. The little clam got the love water, shook lightly, spit out a few bubbles, and then opened the clam shell. The three of them held the lamp and looked over, and saw a pearl not much bigger than a mung bean in the clam shell, which was slightly shiny. There were some lines inside the open shell, and a closer look revealed that it was somewhat similar to a human's facial features. I'm afraid it's a bit far-fetched to say that it was a Buddha statue, but it was just presented to win the emperor's favor.
The little clam took in some water and then closed its shell again, not moving again. The three of them were fascinated by it, and after a long while they closed the outer container shell in admiration, which was so tight that not a drop of water could leak out.
Lu Man put it back into the wooden box, raised her hand to smooth her hair and said with a smile: "This time it's all thanks to my brother. We took it back for your own good. Don't you know that hiding something is a crime?"
Lin Jianlan smiled and was about to answer when he heard a commotion outside, footsteps and the store owner's shout: "Sir! Speak politely and don't scare the customers!" As soon as the words fell, there was a shrill scream and a man shouted: "Listen up, everyone inside! The Dongdu Yukou Division is here to arrest two fugitives, two men and one woman. Stay inside and wait for us to search each room. Those who run around will suffer the same fate as this person just now. Did you see it?"
The three men pushed the window open a crack, and Lin Jianlan looked down, only to see dozens of soldiers standing below, holding lanterns, lighting up the store like daylight. Several people stood proudly in front, two old men, one holding a carved-head stick, and the other holding a weapon like a scale, but they looked familiar. Who else could it be but Ding Lei and Ding Shui who attacked him and Yin Yin that day? There was a pool of blood under the feet of the two men, and one of them was lying in a pool of blood. It was obvious that he was an ordinary civilian who had just run in panic, but now he was killed. Lin Jianlan clenched his fists and was about to speak, but Lu Man closed the window. Bai Zongping stared at Lin Jianlan and said, "Why did they chase here? I think this kid is not a good person!"
