They slowly turned around, and an ancient painting came into view.
The painting was full of dust, but it could not hide its unique charm. It hung quietly on the back of the stone tablet. If you didn't look carefully, it would be difficult to find that there was another painting hanging here.
In the painting, an old Taoist priest with white beard and white hair is riding a donkey upside down on a mountain trail, with a leisurely and contented expression, drinking wine and admiring the scenery along the way.
A dozen meters away, a simple-looking young Taoist boy carrying a big wine gourd followed closely behind.
I was out of breath, as if I had been traveling for a long time.
The wine gourd is shining with golden light and is particularly eye-catching. It is something extraordinary at first glance.
The ancient trees in the mountains are towering and their branches are luxuriant. The breeze blows and the leaves seem to be swaying slightly.
The painting style of the whole painting is childish and quaint, with a transcendent interest.
Xiao Chang looked at the painting carefully and admired secretly in his heart. Every detail of this painting is exquisite, from the white hair and beard of the old Taoist priest to the innocent expression of the Taoist boy, and from the posture of the donkey and the texture of the gourd.
One does not show strong painting skills.
The same is true for Lin Yian and Li Jinyong.
The three of them were like children who had just entered school, squatting stupidly in front of the painting, looking at it dreamily.
My mind is spinning rapidly, analyzing the purpose of this painting appearing here!
Why does it appear here?
Is it a treasure collected by the tomb owner during his lifetime, or does it have a special purpose?
What are the old Taoist priests and young Taoist boys going to do? What is the meaning of the golden wine gourd?
A series of questions swirled in their minds, making them confused.
Time passed quietly, and a full ten minutes passed, but still no doorway could be seen.
Because this painting has no signature, it is an unknown painting.
None of the three of them were experts in appraising ancient paintings. At this moment, they could only stare with helplessness and confusion on their faces.
"What does it mean to hang this painting here?" Lin Yian broke the silence first and asked softly.
Xiao Chang pondered for a moment and said: "Perhaps this painting was the favorite work of the tomb owner during his lifetime, or it may contain some special meaning. But in any case, there must be a reason why it appears here, otherwise it would not be possible to hang it here.
Here."
Li Jinyong nodded, "Young Protector is right. This painting is related to Taoism. Although I don't know who the old Taoist priest riding the donkey is, it looks like he is a Taoist celebrity.
"
However, after he finished speaking, the three of them felt that something was wrong. They looked at each other a few times, and they all felt a hint of embarrassment in their eyes.
After talking for a long time, I basically said nothing, not a single useful word!
"Perhaps this painting is used to suppress evil spirits?" Li Jinyong's words made the atmosphere in the stone hall suddenly become solemn. He pointed at the ugly statue on the altar and said: "Is it possible, this statue with a big head
Although the statue like Dou, with a skeleton under its neck can deter tomb robbers, it also brings with it an evil spirit. Only by hanging this picture of a Taoist priest can the negative impact of this statue be suppressed?"
Lin Yian didn't speak, but Xiao Chang seemed to have caught something. He looked at the confession and said thoughtfully: "The wood used for this table, if I read it correctly, should be peach wood. Judging from its texture, it should be quite high."
Thousand-year-old peach wood.
"The peach tree has been around for thousands of years, and I don't know how many times it has been struck by lightning. This confession alone is a rare treasure to ward off evil spirits! Brother Li, Brother An, what do you think?"
Lin Yian's focus at this time was not at all.
This tomb of maritime merchants has a history of at least six hundred years, but it is difficult to say which dynasty the ancient paintings are from.
It does not mean that the ancient tomb is 600 years old, but the ancient painting must be 600 years old. This painting may be a Tang Dynasty painting, or even from the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
"Young protector, why don't you let Brother Li take care of this painting first?" Lin Yian suggested. Xiao Chang had not thought about this issue at first. Hearing this, he was stunned at first, but he quickly nodded in agreement, "Brother Li
, why don’t you try hard enough to take this painting off the stone tablet?”
Li Jinyong did not refuse, but pointed to the confession case and motioned to the two of them to move it away.
The stone tablet is under the confession. If the mahogany confession is not moved, the painting will be difficult to remove.
Even if you force yourself to take it, you will probably damage the drawing paper. Xiao Chang and Lin Yian naturally saw the trick. One on each side, they moved the confession to the side with great effort.
The ancient paintings were picked with great ease, without touching any mechanism.
However, while Li Jinyong was rolling up ancient paintings, his eyes were fixed on the stone tablet.
Lin Yian and Xiao Chang noticed something strange about Li Jinyong. They followed Li Jinyong's gaze and saw a round groove on the stone tablet, surrounded by about twenty obscure ancient inscriptions.
In addition to the seal characters, there are also some runes that look like ghostly drawings, like a heavenly book, and I don’t know what they mean.
Lin Yian asked in confusion: "Brother Li, what's so special about these ancient seal characters and runes?"
Li Jinyong did not answer immediately, but continued to carefully observe all the words and runes on the stone wall. After a while, he suddenly loudly said: "You two, the main tomb chamber should be here!"
His voice echoed in the silent stone hall, carrying a hint of nervousness and expectation.
Before Xiao Chang and Lin Yian could ask questions, Li Jinyong explained directly: "These seal characters have a total of twenty characters, which read: 'Small mistakes can be forgiven, but big mistakes cannot be violated. Those who rob my tomb will die without a burial place.
'."
After saying this sentence, he repeated it again, "Small mistakes can be forgiven, but big mistakes cannot be violated. Those who rob my tomb will die without a burial place."
His face was a little pale, and his voice was a little trembling.
It seems that he cares about this curse very much!
Seeing this, Lin Yian and Xiao Chang looked at each other. Not only were they not frightened this time, but they both had smiles on each other's faces!
Especially Lin Yian, as if he saw something funny, he laughed until he was out of breath. It wasn't until his throat became hoarse that he showed a trace of disdain, "Brother Li, you are really worrying too much!
"The ancients always regarded death as life, and expected to live a good life after death, and to enjoy a good life of glory and wealth, so they must have a generous burial.
"Good things that can be taken to the tomb should never be left outside.
"You may understand if I say something. There are so many antiques on the market. How many of them are passed down in an orderly manner or collected by ancestors and passed down from generation to generation?
"Except for calligraphy and painting, where did those bronzes, Tang Sancai, gold and silverware, ancient jades, middle-aged jades, rare ancient coins, porcelain, pottery, and bronze mirrors come from? They were not dug out of the tombs of the dead!
“It’s just that the ancients were superstitious and greedy, and wanted to take all the good things they had during their lifetimes into their tombs!
"Rather than letting these treasures rot in the tomb, it would be better for us.
"Just like this painting, if we hadn't discovered it earlier, it would have become a pile of shredded paper in tens or hundreds of years!
"If we can bring it back to light, we can be considered a blessing!"
