11 The mysterious map in the scabbard is three meters from the bathroom door to the mirror on the opposite wall; from the south wall on the left to the northernmost window, the distance is about eight meters. The ground is covered with a 60 cm square green
The slate is extremely clean and tidy. The walls of the bathroom are not decorated with paint or plaster, and are exposed to the original blue shale. Like the ground, they are made of white cement joints.
The roof is a flat slab cast from reinforced concrete, coated with white rubber paint, and a rectangular white plastic shell ceiling lamp is installed in the middle.
This is the general appearance of the bathroom. There will be no darkroom, secret passage, or cabinet that can accommodate an adult hiding. The big star Guan Baoling disappeared here.
I turned the faucet on and off, and drained half of the water. I didn't see any "water backflow". I angrily cursed the plague in my heart for seven or eight times, walked out of the bathroom, and went upstairs.
Bedroom. I didn’t sleep well for two nights in a row, and I was extremely tired. Especially before I came to Xunfu Garden, I also had a long flight from Cairo to Hokkaido.
The bedroom was very clean. The large Simmons bed was covered with snow-white sheets, pillowcases, and quilts, with a fresh aroma. I didn’t have time to take off my clothes, so I rushed to the bed, pulled the quilt to cover me, squirmed a few times, and immediately
Fell into a sweet dream.
This time, I stopped dreaming and fell into a deep, sweet sleep.
When I woke up, the sun was dazzling my eyes and it was already noon.
I turned over and looked out the door sideways. I could just see the statue holding a clock in my sight.
"Huh? Something seems to be wrong! The clock hasn't rang since Guan Baoling disappeared last night, right?" I scratched my hair hard. I had just woken up and my mind was very flexible. Indeed, I was nervously looking for Guan Baoling.
, during the dialogue with the plague, the existence of the clock has been ignored. Before Guan Baoling disappeared, it made a strange noise of ringing eight times in a row.
With a sudden jolt, I jumped up from the bed and threw the quilt to the ground.
At this time, there was enough light in the living room. From five or six meters away, I could see that the dial of the clock was open, and the lotus key was still inserted in the winding hole, blocking the minute hand of the clock, so the clock
It actually stopped long ago.
I walked to the statue and looked at the clock.
I remember that it was eleven o'clock when I inserted the key and left in the morning, and the key was inserted at eight o'clock. At this moment, after the minute hand was stuck, even the hour hand stopped at eleven forty.
"If the bells heard last night were eight times, it would at least mean eight o'clock, right? Why did the hands of the clock stop between eleven and twelve o'clock, but the ringing of the bells was random and irregular?"
This was a huge doubt. I walked back and forth in front of the statue four or five times, took out the key, looked at my watch, and set the hands to 11:50, which is the normal time for walking.
At this time, I couldn't help but suddenly thought of something like this: "Last time, one of the watch and the desk clock stopped at eight o'clock in the evening and resumed at eight o'clock in the morning, and the other stopped exactly at eight o'clock in the morning - what about this time? Unintentionally
It stopped at 11:40 yesterday and resumed operation today, with twenty-four hours lost in between... Is there some strange connection between everything?"
Time is really a strange thing. Twelve hours run repeatedly on the circular dial. In fact, the outside world is changing rapidly all the time. There are absolutely no two identical twelve hours.
In the old school textbooks, there was such a philosophical statement: Movement is absolute, rest is relative.
Imagine that if there is a "person" or an animal, the living area is on the hour or minute hand of this circular dial. He has no chance to contact the world outside the dial, and cannot escape from the hand for the rest of his life. Then, his
Will the world be repeating monotonically all the time, from twelve o'clock to twelve o'clock, and then to another twelve o'clock, and it will continue in an infinite cycle until the end of life - I shuddered again, if that kind of
If the situation does exist, it is simply... terrible! Starting and ending your life in a meaningless "circle" is more terrifying than death no matter how you think about it.
I seemed to have found some clues to something on the statue, but the inspiration deep in my mind was fleeting and I couldn't capture it for a while.
"Mr. Feng, can you eat now?" An Zi's polite voice came from the stairs.
She also changed into new clothes today. Coincidentally, it was also a suit and skirt that highlighted her ladylike temperament, but the color was an elegant and quiet smoky gray, extremely light and elegant, which just right showed off the young girl's slender waist. Her dark hair was
With her hair tied up in a classic Japanese bun, she looks more mature and stable than yesterday's hanging hair.
I have never had any special likes or dislikes towards Japanese girls. I neither like nor dislike them, it's just as ordinary as water.
"Okay - Oh, Anzi, I want to ask you, can the sword worn by this statue be pulled out?"
I pointed to the bronze sword and asked her politely.
Anzi took a few steps forward, made a typical Japanese bow, and replied softly: "Mr. Feng, Miss Xiao has tried many times, but she can't pull it out. Maybe it's cast together with the scabbard."
Bar?"
The scabbard is engraved with flying dragons, phoenixes, unicorns, giant snakes and other rare birds and animals from traditional Chinese culture. They are exquisite and colorful. I really don’t believe that such a gorgeous handicraft can be crudely cast together with the sword? That’s simply...
Cows chewing peonies are a waste of natural resources.
Seeing the auspicious animals that only appear in Chinese culture, I can be sure that this statue was cast by the Chinese, or even shipped from China.
According to the usual explanation by patriots: 99% of the Chinese cultural relics detained in Japan were forcibly plundered from China during World War II. The remaining 1% was the incompetent late Qing government, which watched Japan helplessly
People "borrow" it.
If we can figure out where the statue came from, it will definitely help to reveal the secret of the clock time. My hand subconsciously held the sword hilt again, and the filed part was rough and pricked my hand. I really don’t know what happened before.
Collectors, why do they have to renovate fine antiques like this?
I pulled my hand out, and suddenly, a bright white light flashed through, and I pulled out the sword...
"Ah? Ah -" Anzi screamed in surprise, was stunned for a few seconds, and immediately turned back and ran downstairs. As soon as he turned the corner of the stairs, he shouted: "Miss Xiao, Miss Xiao, sword..."
…The sword is drawn! The sword is drawn!”
This result is both reasonable and a bit unexpected. After all, I have tried to pull it out many times before without success.
The sword is one meter long, with a bluish-gray body and a faint moon-white edge. It is heavy in the hand and weighs about ten to twelve kilograms. Most ancient warriors were strong and fierce.
Therefore, the weapons carried in his hands are beyond the ability of modern people to use flexibly.
There were only three beeps on the stairs, and Xiao Kereng had already arrived. He must have raised his Qinggong to the limit in desperation, no longer caring about the image of a lady.
"How... how can you pull it out?" She looked at the sword in my hand as if she didn't believe it.
There was an obvious cold air on the sword's blade. Even though it was under direct sunlight, it didn't emit any reflection at all. It was just filled with an eerie cold air that stung the hairs on the back of my hands.
Xiao Ke gasped coldly and praised: "What a sword! Only ancient famous swords that have killed thousands of people can have such a fierce murderous aura. The top ten famous swords listed in the ancient genealogy are probably like this
The level of swordsmanship is almost the same, right?"
According to ancient records on swords, famous swords kill people without leaving any blood, and often take away the soul of the slain. Therefore, a sword that kills too many people will naturally have a sinister murderous aura.
"In the eyes of people, a sword will be accompanied by many ghosts surrounding it.
"I have tried to pull out this sword countless times, but unfortunately I have never succeeded. Congratulations, Mr. Feng! It seems that you are its real owner." Xiao Kereng deliberately avoided my eyes.
I was also puzzled: "How could it be pulled out suddenly? What happened to cause the mechanism in the scabbard to fail?"
Xiao Kereng took the sword and held a few sword flowers in his hand. Immediately, the whole room was filled with chills.
"Mr. Feng, this sword is very weird and has a strong negative energy. Pulling it out seems... not a good thing!" Xiao Kereng's face suddenly darkened and he handed the sword back to me, sighing worriedly.
As if to match her words, the sunshine outside the window was suddenly covered by a thick cloud, and the light in the room suddenly dimmed. At the same time, a dark wind blew through the room, rushing into the study, and blew ten people away.
The covers of several books blew open, making a "chi la chi la" sound.
Xiao Kereng and I looked at each other, both secretly frightened.
"What should I do? Put it back?" I smiled. Although I insisted on not believing in evil, the wind was so weird that I couldn't help but feel a little creepy. I looked down at the sword in my hand, and I actually felt like I couldn't put it down.
exclamation.
"Mr. Feng, ancient swords hide evil, especially the empty scabbard, which is the most taboo thing among swordsmiths. I think we should return the sword to this general -" She looked up at the statue
He looked very respectful.
Japanese people worship gods and are extremely pious. Xiao Kereng has lived in Japan for a long time and has inevitably been affected by the spread of Japanese influence from the west.
When it comes to kendo, the Japanese don't know anything at all. They can only make stupid samurai swords that can be used to chop horizontally and vertically with both hands. Unlike the ancient Chinese, they not only know how to make swords, but also know how to discuss swords.
Xiao Keleng is right. Ancient warriors went into battle to kill enemies. After a fierce battle, they often had no time to wipe the blade of their swords. The swords were returned to the scabbard directly with the enemy's blood, which would inevitably bring the enemy's blood into the scabbard countless times.
Dirty blood gives birth to dark ghosts, and over time, the scabbard will indeed become unclean.
I decided to return the sword, regardless of whether I believed in ghosts or gods. But I accidentally glanced into the scabbard, and there was something like a thin cloth attached to the inner wall of the scabbard. I couldn't help but be surprised: "What is this?"
Xiao Kereng used a knife to pick out the piece and spread it out on the coffee table. It turned out to be an oval piece of sheepskin. It was extremely thin and was carefully tempered, so the words written on it showed no traces of deformation or stain.
Such parchment was generally used in ancient times to record very important information, such as the emperor's oracles, family legacy, or pirate treasure maps. Treasure maps are definitely every adventurer's dream, of course.
Including me. So, I hurriedly put the bronze sword back into the scabbard, and lay on the table with Xiao Kereng, concentrating on the piece of parchment as big as two palms.
There are four paintings painted on the paper, and the writing and ink used are very fine and black. This alone is enough to surprise us. No matter whether it is an ancient Chinese brush or a modern Western quill, it is impossible to leave such a detailed
's handwriting.
The first painting is of three islands in the vast ocean. With only a few simple strokes, the vastness of the ocean and the arrogance of the islands are vividly depicted.
The second painting is a series of steps, distributed in a zigzag shape, starting from mid-air, going all the way down, and after many circles back and forth, all the way to the waves of the sea. The painter wanted to express "extreme extremes"
The concept of "many" actually has many dots that can be regarded as "ellipses" between the upper and lower steps.
The third painting is a square room with a bald Buddha statue in the middle. The Buddha statue is holding a sparkling gem in its hand.
The fourth painting is a separate portrait of the gemstone. The size is enlarged more than ten times, and the strokes representing the light are also painted extremely densely. Of course, it expresses the meaning of "extremely bright and dazzling".
"What is this?" Xiao Kereng pinched a corner of the parchment and twisted it, frowning and smiling bitterly.
The most ready-made answer is the three words "treasure map", and that radiant gem is the "treasure" that the author wants to guide others to grab.
There was a sound on the stairs again, and Xiao Kereng and I looked at each other. She immediately got up and went downstairs with a clear understanding, and went to stop Sister Anzi from going upstairs. Of course, the fewer people who know about such strange and weird things, the better.
"Mr. Feng, I have a lot of ideas. I'll send them away later to discuss it..." She turned around at the top of the stairs, whispered this to me in a low voice and quickly, and then quickly went downstairs.
There is no text on the parchment, just these seemingly coherent sketches.
From the meaning of the picture, we can naturally make the following explanation: There are three islands on the sea. Go to the island, go through countless stairs, and reach a place below the water, perhaps a room with a Buddha statue, and you can see the star.
Sparkling gems.
The key question now is: "Who would build so many stairs leading below the sea level? When was this drawing recorded? What is the relationship between the drawing, the sword, the general, and the clock?"
After lunch, Xiao Kereng arranged for the Anzi sisters to go back to the villa where they lived to clean up the financial accounts for this year, and successfully sent them away.
We sat on the sofa in the living room, spread out the parchment for the second time, and placed two notebooks and two pencils next to it.
The first thing Xiao Kereng said was enough to shock me - "I can make a rough estimate of the age of this parchment and determine that it should be around 200 BC."
Her expression was very serious, she bit her lip hard, and her short hair hung down from her forehead, covering her eyebrows. When she was concentrating on thinking about the problem, she had long lost the ladylike temperament she had when she first came here in the morning. In front of such a capable girl like her
, I often ignore the gender of the other person and regard her as a comrade who can share weal and woe and work together to forge ahead.
"Are you...sure?"
She nodded, her short hair bouncing a little.
The afternoon sun shines through the door glass, creating mottled light and shadow on the ground.
"Two hundred years BC? What kind of concept is that..." I pondered, that was the time when Qin Shihuang ruled the world and all barbarians were in uniform. If the parchment comes from the Qin Dynasty - "Isn't it possible? Xiao Xiao, can you
Can you confirm further?"
The reason why I say this is because in the Qin Dynasty, even the production technology of brushes and ink was not complete enough, and it would never be possible to leave such detailed handwriting. Also, the perspective of the first painting is from mid-air.
The sea surface can be understood as a workflow similar to "aerial photography". No matter from which aspect, it is impossible for paintings from the "aerial photography" perspective to appear in the Qin Dynasty.
Xiao Kereng stretched out his hands at the same time, held the parchment in the air, looked at it carefully for five minutes, and then sighed heavily: "Mr. Feng, I come from a family of painters, and I have been learning to frame paintings and make rubbings since I was seven years old.
, especially the texts before the Han Dynasty, I have to read, read, trace and copy them almost every day. So please don’t doubt my judgment. This piece of parchment with a thickness of 0.4 centimeters is made from the Loess Plateau of China.
Made of the skin of a kind of "fish-tail sheep" - this type of sheep is recorded in "Historical Records" and "Zizhi Tongjian". It was Qin Prime Minister Li Sim who ordered two kinds of sheep from Qin and Yan