Volume 1 Zhangqiao Iron Coffin Chapter 28 Xu Laoyu
Qijiawu, Changsheng Temple.
It was daybreak, and the valley was filled with fog, making it particularly cold.
“Oh…”
Huo Anu, a woman from the Western Regions, walked out from the leeward side, yawned, and stretched.
Due to years of practicing martial arts, my bones crackle when I stretch.
The next second, she wrapped her clothes tightly, held up an iron umbrella, lowered her head and went into the small room of Changsheng Temple, looking for the dark doorway and entering the innermost secret room.
Seeing the situation in the secret room, she couldn't help but be surprised for a moment.
But Xu Zun was seen sitting in the middle of the room, motionless as if he was meditating.
There was a clean white paper in front of him, and with a samurai sword on it, it looked like he was about .
Looking at the whole room again, the charred black on the wall had long been wiped off, revealing its original appearance.
But the walls and the roof were all covered with densely written words!
The words are vigorous and powerful, but unfortunately a large part of them have been deliberately scratched, and some have even been chopped by axes and chisels, making them difficult to recognize.
Last night, the head constable Zhao Yu and his men searched Changsheng Temple several times again, and finally left after finding nothing more.
In the end, no one knew whether they discovered the words on the wall.
After they left, Xu Zun impatiently found moss and other things and began to wipe the charred marks, making the words appear one by one.
Then, Xu Zun began to study these texts, and he studied them for the whole night!
"Oh..." Huo Anu looked at the motionless Xu Zun and couldn't help but say, "Have you passed away? Oh... no... How do you say it in the Central Plains dialect, comprehending of heaven, comprehending the truth through meditation?"
Seeing that Xu Zun didn't respond, Huo Anu moved closer, thinking that Xu Zun might have fallen asleep.
But just as she approached, Xu Zun suddenly spoke:
"This room... is made of granite. It may have been the base of a huge Taoist stone statue!"
"Oh my god!" Huo Anu was shocked.
“The words engraved on it are not easy to erase. Perhaps the murderer did not want to waste the effort and simply set it on fire!
"Cover it up with soot so we won't find it."
"From what you said..." Huo Anu asked thoughtfully, "Can these words give us the answer? But, I can read, and it seems that what is written here are all meaningless Chinese characters, right?"
Indeed, carved on the wall were Chinese characters of different fonts and meanings, with no phrases or sentences. Moreover, the characters were carved in all directions and at different distances.
Among them, there are many obscure words, a bit like scriptures.
"Oh," Xu Zun smiled slightly, "If the answer is right here, how could the murderer let it stay? No matter how much effort it takes, it must be erased!"
"Then what do you mean?" Huo Anu asked impatiently , "Did you find out? Don't play tricks here, it's like you're possessed!"
"I'm not possessed," Xu Zun said seriously, "I just think it's a little cool! Because I've discovered that there's a secret hidden in these words!"
"Oh?" Huo Anu became interested. "Where's the secret?"
Xu Zun calmly replied with four words: "I am contemplating!"
"You!?" Huo Anu waved his fist, "Although Master Shen asked me to accommodate you, you'd better not challenge my bottom line!"
"Look," Xu Zun suddenly stood up and pointed at the grooves on the doorway and said, "Do you know what these grooves are used for?"
"Ah?" Huo Anu obviously couldn't keep up with the rhythm.
"If my guess is correct, this is it!" Xu Zun pointed to the secret room, "It should be a granite prison cell! Someone was once imprisoned in it!"
"Hmm?" Huo Anu was getting confused. "Who? The Taoist priest?"
"These words should be written by the prisoner," Xu Zun continued, "He wanted to seek help from the outside world through these words, or he wanted to explain the truth, but he was worried about being discovered by those who imprisoned him, so he could only use these words all over the room to cover it up!"
"..." Huo Anu stared at Xu Zun and muttered, "You said it as if it were true, as if you saw it! Since you can't understand it, then don't talk so arrogantly, hum!"
"Who said I can't figure it out?" Xu Zun said seriously, "Last night, I spent the whole night trying to arrange various combinations, and the result was..."
"What was the result?"
"The result... failed!"
"Oh my god!" Huo Anu almost fell to the ground and quickly used the iron umbrella to support himself.
"But later I realized that I was overthinking!" Xu Zun suddenly turned over the white paper on the ground, pointed at it and said, "It turns out that the answer is not as complicated as I thought!"
"oh?"
Huo Anu looked over curiously, but saw four big characters written on the other side of the white paper, which were:
“【女】”, “【方】”, “【纸】”, “【非】”, and there is a radical “【亻】” at the end.
"This..." Huo Anu thought, "Female house fly? There's a person behind, a female flyer? What does it mean?"
"These words carved on the wall," Xu Zun explained, "are in different fonts and directions, but they all have the same pattern, which is that most of the words are about the same size, except for these few words, which are slightly larger than the others!"
After saying that, Xu Zun waved his arm and found the corresponding words on the wall, which were exactly the four words "woman", "square", "paper" and "fly".
As for the “亻” at the end, the character has been severely damaged and only this radical can be recognized.
"I don't understand. These words still don't make any sense!" Huo Anu shook his head and said, "Don't bully me because I'm a foreigner. I also learned Chinese when I was young. I think you are mistaken!"
"Haha, the mystery in the words cannot be understood by the wise. Only by understanding the author's state of mind can one succeed. However..." Xu Zun suddenly showed an air of detachment from the world and said faintly, "I really hope that I am wrong!"
"You..." Huo Anu's eyes showed strangeness. She could no longer understand this man who had been beaten by her to the point where he couldn't get out of bed.
"But if I'm not mistaken," Xu Zun said again, word by word, "then we are in big trouble!"
"Hey, I'm a straightforward person, can you explain it more clearly?" Huo Anu asked impatiently, "If you really understand the mystery, then tell me quickly, what is going on? If you don't know, then don't pretend!"
"I can only tell you when I can truly trust you!" Xu Zun turned around and said very seriously, "Before that, I won't tell you even if you kill me!"
"You!? You..." Huo Anu became more and more irritable, stamping his feet in anger, "Why don't you just change your nickname? Don't call me Xu Xiaopan anymore, call me Xu Laodiao!
"I think you are just pretending. The last word has only one radical and you don't even know what it is. And you say you have figured it out? You are kidding!"
"That word is no longer important!" Xu Zun said with narrowed eyes, "The most important thing now is that we must find out all the truth before the disaster happens!"
"Crazy, crazy, absolutely insane!" Huo Anu said anxiously, "Didn't you say you understood the mystery? Why are you still looking for the truth?"
"That's wrong. Understanding the mystery and finding out the truth are two completely different things!" As he said that, Xu Zun actually put the piece of white paper on the torch and burned it!
"Okay, then tell me," Huo Anu asked, suppressing his anger, "what should we do now?"
"Hmm..." Xu Zun thought for a moment and asked, "Do you have any good connections with the bandits?"
"..."Huo Anu was completely speechless.
Xu Zun added: "Robber, liar or thief or something will do!"
Unexpectedly, this time, without waiting for Huo Anu to respond, Xu Zun answered himself: "I almost forgot that I am the county lieutenant..."
