Chapter Fifty-Four Encounter

  Because he left in a hurry, Qin Feng didn't have time to tell Lin Ruochen and Fang Yu. It wasn't until they got on the train that Qin Feng called Lin Ruochen. Fortunately, Lin Ruochen had a good temper and was gentle, otherwise she might have scolded him loudly.

  The distance from Liaoning to Shanxi is quite far, and the train took more than a day's journey to arrive in Taiyuan.

  。

  According to the appointment with Zhou Qin, Zhou Qin took a plane and arrived yesterday. Qin Feng came to the entrance of the train station, and Zhou Qin had been waiting for a long time. As soon as they met, Qin Feng asked eagerly about the jade.

  On the way, Zhou Qin detailed the process of this matter to Qin Feng and handed over the results scanned by the scanner for him to see.

  Qin Feng looked at the image on the paper, the rugged mountains, and the markings of forests and rivers. At a glance, it was a treasure map. "Is this thing carved on that piece of jade from Xuyang Old?"

  Listening to Qin Feng's question, Zhou Qin nodded and responded with a sound.

  Then Qin Feng said, "If it's really Wuzhai, then the thing is hidden on a nearby mountain. I've checked, and at that time, the head of the Shanxi warlord was Yan Xishan, who had always been friends with Guo Songling. It's possible that Liu Qifang borrowed Yan Xishan's protection to hide the thing in such a secluded place."

  "This Liu Qi Fang is really thoughtful, he actually hid the things in the Loess Plateau, now we are going to have a wonderful journey." This was also true, Zhou Qin still didn't know the danger he was facing.

  But Qin Feng was in a different mood from Zhou Qin, and the mysterious and suspicious cause of Wang Lao Han's death made Qin Feng feel that an unknown force was also looking for the painting.

  They stopped at a business hotel on Liu Street, the most prosperous street in Taiyuan City, and Zhou Qin led Qin Feng to the roadside.

  "Qin Feng, let's just stay here for tonight and take the 7am train from Taiyuan to Wuzhai tomorrow morning. We'll have to get up early then."

  Qin Feng put down his luggage, and didn't mind these issues. The weather on the Taiyuan side seemed to be somewhat depressing, the stagnant air had been cold for a long time, making him sneeze from time to time.

  After taking a bath, Qin Feng put on the amber-colored sweater he had prepared earlier. With nothing to do, the two of them began studying the treasure map.

  Although Zhou Qin didn't know Old Man Wang, Qin Feng still told him about what happened to Old Man Wang and his own experience of descending into the underworld.

  "What? Someone would actually kill an old man who's already blind?" Zhou Qin had just finished listening and was so angry that he stood up straight away, his eyes wide with rage.

  Qin Feng said: "This matter is very suspicious, it's probably been subjected to some kind of evil spell"

  。”

  "What kind of evil technique is this? Who would do such a thing?"

  Qin Feng shook his head, these were completely clueless, let alone what people did. For now, Qin Feng just wanted to take a step ahead and find that painting first, the enemy was in the dark, and he didn't know what would happen next.

  On the second day, early in the morning, the two of them boarded the train to Wuzhai.

  Wuzhai is a mountainous area in the northern part of Shanxi Province, within the jurisdiction of Xinzhou City. Due to its remote location, the economy in this region is relatively backward. As soon as I got off the train, I saw several old earthen houses with tiled roofs.

  "Damn it, this generation is really cold!" As soon as Qin Feng got off the train, he was suddenly blown by a gust of cold wind and shivered.

  This place is located on the plateau, belonging to the temperate continental climate. Moreover, their Lüzi Mountain is just at the wind mouth, so the temperature is also relatively low. It's precisely because of this that there is a saying "May trees sprout, September snowflakes".

  After leaving the train station and walking for a while, Qin Feng found a mountain villa in front of him. He decided to find a local resident's home to rent a room and settle down before continuing his search.

  It's said that the people in this mountain are very kind, coincidentally Qin Feng and Zhou Qin arrived at the village head's home. The village head saw two outsiders coming and naturally warmly welcomed them, and vacated a western-style room for Qin Feng and Zhou Qin to stay in.

  "Village chief, thank you so much. This is a little something, take it."

  Two people came before the village head, Zhou Qin took out a thick stack of banknotes and stuffed them into the hands of the village head.

  The village chief, who looked almost fifty years old, saw so much money and his eyes sparkled for a moment, as if telling Qin Feng and Zhou Qin: "My dear mother, I've never seen so much money in my life, now..."

  The village chief was embarrassed to accept it, but Zhou Qin still forced him to take it. At this time, the sky had already reached noon, but the weather here was indeed very cold and oppressive, looking like it was going to rain.

  As soon as Qin Feng finished speaking, the village chief said: "Now it's all snow here, look at the mountain in front of you, the grass is still yellow. If it's going to rain, we'll have to wait until May at least."

  Qin Feng looked at the scenery on the mountain, and indeed it was a vast expanse of withered yellow, stretching for thousands of miles. It really lived up to what the poem said: "A thousand gullies and ten thousand ravines, icy frost in sight, the sound of cattle lowing never-ending."

  。

  "By the way, Village Chief, where's your wife and kids? We haven't seen them." Out of concern, Qin Feng started chatting with the Village Chief about family matters.

  At this time, after hearing Qin Feng's question, the village chief seemed to have been splashed with cold water, took a deep breath and said: "Ah, don't mention it, our family is unfortunate..."

  "What's wrong?" Qin Feng asked with concern.

  The village chief looked like he had a burden, the originally blurred wrinkles on his forehead also became clear at this moment, sighed and told Qin Feng and Zhou Qin about his hardships and sufferings over the years.

  The village chief originally had a son named Zhang Dalei, who was seven years older than Qin Feng. This family used to live happily and harmoniously, but five years ago, Zhang Dalei suddenly contracted a strange illness and inexplicably went mad. Later, the village chief ran to various hospitals all over the country to treat his illness, but it was said that there was no way to cure him. Unable to bear Zhang Dalei's appearance, his mother took the money for medical treatment and returned to her hometown, later remarried and moved away.

  It's been five years just like that, and during this time, the village head also didn't hesitate to ask him for medical treatment, but it was incurable, saying that the disease was strange and rare.

  "What's wrong with your son then?" Qin Feng asked.

  The village chief shook his head and replied that he didn't know. He just said, "Alas, I've been racking my brains all these years, but heaven is still unfair to me. Leizi's illness is still the same, sometimes he's crazy and sometimes he sleeps. Now he's asleep, when he wakes up, it'll be my turn to suffer again..."

  After hearing this, Qin Feng comforted the village chief and said that he knew a bit of medicine and hoped to take a look at what kind of illness it was.

  But Qin Feng's words made Village Head shake his head without hesitation and sigh, "It's no use, even the famous doctors in the provincial city can't figure it out..."

  After a moment of silence, snowflakes began to fall from the sky, landing on everyone's body, highlighting the heavy stillness.

  The snow is getting heavier and it looks like a big snowfall. The surroundings are desolate and silent, except for the sound of the three people's breathing, and the sound of the snow falling.

  "Ah!..." Suddenly, the original silence was broken by a sorrowful wail coming from inside the house. Qin Feng followed the village chief quickly into the inner room and found that Zhang Dairen had fallen ill.