Chapter 68 Clue
I reckon the four of us were so moved to tears that we scared Qin Shi Huang, who looked at us with a puzzled face and said helplessly: Are you four all frightened silly?
Cutting to the chase, I asked: Do you know who that person was just now?
Qin Zheng glared at me with a bad temper and said impatiently: How would I know? If it weren't for your disciple asking me to come, I wouldn't have known that the four of you were being targeted.
My disciple? It's Dong Qing Zi again. Has that girl sensed something again? However, I have to say, Dong Qing Zi is quite useful at critical moments every time.
Ying Zheng probably also rushed over overnight, and the five of us didn't say much. Now that Ying Zheng is here, we don't have to worry about that person coming back, and we can finally get a good night's sleep!
Everyone slept soundly except for Zhao Feiyu and Kong Yilei, who got up at 6:00 to attend early class. The other three of us overslept until we woke up naturally.
He told Qin Zheng everything he had seen and heard in the Devil's City yesterday, and the more Qin Zheng listened to it, the more his eyebrows frowned.
One person can control our four people's minds with the nine-character mantra, which is scary to say. However, after hearing that we three people burned the talisman into ashes, Ying Zheng suddenly stood up from his chair, and his face clearly showed that he wanted to get rid of us!
"It's already so serious, and you still dare to use fire! Aren't you obviously trying to make their anger even worse?! What are the three of you doing?! How could I have been blind enough to let you three take the place of the Three Dukes?!" Qin Shi Huang scolded us severely.
It's not easy to wait for Ying Zheng's anger to subside, and only then did he dare to continue speaking. I thought to myself, fortunately it's the 21st century now, if it were two thousand years ago, wouldn't our four heads be gone?
Ying Zheng listened to our words and probably guessed that this matter was not easy to handle. He looked at the four of us, patted his thigh and said: Let's go! Go out for dinner! We'll talk about it after we've eaten our fill!
Now that the emperor has spoken, we can't say no. We just casually found a small restaurant around the hotel to eat. When we were having a good time eating, a man in a suit walked by us. I felt like I had sensed something unpleasant and immediately put down my chopsticks.
The four of them also felt it and put down their chopsticks. Their eyes were all focused on the man who had just walked by.
"Boss, a donkey meat noodle soup." The man casually nodded after ordering, then sat down to one side and started waiting for his meal.
The boss started cooking, and Qin Shi Huang gave us a look. The five of us picked up our chopsticks in unison, but we were just pretending to eat, our eyes never leaving that man.
Soon, the man's food was served. The man furrowed his brow and took a bite, then put down his chopsticks. He shouted loudly at the boss, but we didn't know what had happened.
"Anything wrong?" The boss walked over with a smile and asked the man.
That man pointed at the plate of donkey meat noodles and said: "You dare to sell such a terrible thing? You must be making money too easily! I won't eat this anymore! I'm leaving!"
I've seen people eating Wonton noodles, but I've never seen anyone eat Wonton noodles with such a straight face. But the donkey meat noodles aren't that bad either, so I took another bite of the noodles, and they tasted pretty good.
The boss said: Even if it's bad-tasting, you still have to pay for it, right?
The man walked out without looking back, and the boss chased after him to grab him back into the store. The two argued for a few sentences, and the man was very impatient. In a fit of rage, he directly picked up a bowl of donkey meat noodles from the table that had not been touched at all and poured it onto the boss's head!
The boss was also furious and the two of them started fighting right in front of us.
The customers in the store had all run away, and only the five of us were calmly watching them fight. Some people had originally wanted to intervene, but when they saw that man randomly picking up anything and smashing it at the boss's head, they got scared too.
Ying Zheng looked at him lightly and said casually: The chaotic evil energy, even if it is divided into many shares, but its power seems to be not small.
Zheng said what was on our minds, Kong Yi couldn't take it anymore, walked up to the man and grabbed his hand, shouting: That's enough! Stop hitting him! He didn't do anything wrong!
That man was caught off guard and immediately threw a punch at Kong Yiyi. Kong Yiyi dodged nimbly and easily grabbed the man's hand.
"Let him calm down a bit, it's better for us to ask questions then." Zhao Feiyu gave Kong Yi a sly smile, hinting at what he should do next.
Kong Yī gave Zhao Feiyu a dissatisfied glance, but at this moment, he could only use the method that Zhao Feiyu had mentioned. Kong Yī raised his hand and struck the man's neck with a knife-hand strike, which also made the man completely quiet.
Kong Yat looked at the boss who was beaten until his head was bleeding and his heart was filled with compassion. He took out a handkerchief that he always carried with him, intending to use it to stop the bleeding from the boss's wound.
The boss got a beating for no reason, but it's also a blessing in disguise. However, the good fortune belongs to us.
We took the man back to the hotel and waited for him to wake up.
The man woke up and Ying Zheng was already prepared to ask questions, but before Ying Zheng could speak, the man shouted loudly: What do you want to do? Do you want to fight? I'm not afraid of you!
Ying Zheng looked at the man with dissatisfaction and turned to Zhao Feiyu, saying: "Draw a talisman to calm him down. Otherwise, how can I interrogate him?"
Zhao Feiyu didn't say much, and with a few quick strokes, he drew a talisman and casually stuck it on the man's body. The man's mouth was still unstoppable, but after the talisman was applied, it could be said that his fiery temper had been somewhat subdued.
"Who are you?" The man seemed to have calmed down and looked at us five people and asked.
Ying Zheng nodded in satisfaction at Zhao Feiyu, then said: "Can you tell me where you've been recently and what you've done? As long as you answer these questions, I'll let you go immediately."
The man reckoned we five weren't easy to mess with, so he told us what had happened over the past few days.
He was a tourist, came to Dunhuang for sightseeing. Yesterday he happened to visit Mogao Caves. But after returning from Mogao Caves, he felt that everything he saw was not pleasing to his eyes. Last night he had a quarrel with his girlfriend who came together, and this morning they had another quarrel. Moreover, he even hit his girlfriend, all because of some trivial matters.
At noon, he came out to eat and felt that the donkey meat noodles were too difficult to eat. He inexplicably quarreled with the boss for a few sentences. Then what happened next we all know.
After learning about these things, we let the man go. Before he left, Zhao Feiyu was kind enough to think of a way to eliminate the evil energy on his body.
"In recent days, no matter what happens, don't get angry. Otherwise, today's events will happen again. Take these symbols with you and carry them on your person."
Zhao Feiyu's action undoubtedly shocked the man. After taking Zhao Feiyu's token, he weakly asked: You're not going to charge me, are you?
Zhao Feiyu gave the man a white face, pointed to these symbols and said: I'm looking at you and me have fate, this is why I give you these symbols. Do you know that if these things are taken out, it's worth tens of thousands!
The man heard this and honestly put away the talisman paper.
After the man left, we all knew one thing: the evil aura on his body came from Mogao Caves.
Ying Zheng glanced at his watch, it was now 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Without Ying Zheng saying anything more, we also knew what to do next.
"Keep watch here. If that person comes again, inform me at once." Qin Shi Huang said.
We completely obeyed Ying Zheng's words unconditionally, and the four of us drove to Mogao Caves.
Mogao Caves is a famous historical site, but now it's the off-season, so there aren't many tourists. Before entering, all of us silently recited the incantation to calm our minds several times. If any one of us accidentally got possessed by evil spirits, that would be a troublesome affair.
Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, are located at the western end of Hexi Corridor in Dunhuang. It was first built during the Former Qin period of the Sixteen Kingdoms and has been expanded by successive dynasties including the Northern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Western Xia and Yuan, forming a huge complex with 735 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals and 2,415 clay sculptures. It is the largest and most richly endowed Buddhist art site in the world that still exists today.
If it were leisure time, Kong Yi would definitely take the time to observe carefully. However, at this moment, I'm afraid he can't be allowed to look closely. Seeing Kong Yi's slightly disappointed expression, I comforted him: After this matter is over, we'll come and watch for three days and three nights.
The Mogao Caves are now open to the public, and we visited them one by one. The tour guide was talking non-stop on the side, and also introduced the discovery process of the Mogao Caves' hidden scriptures.
"In the same year, Wang Daoshi discovered the Scripture Cave. At that time, British scholar Stein traveled through Xinjiang to Mogao Caves. Stein found the Scripture Cave and wanted to buy out the scriptures for money. As a guardian of Buddhist culture, Wang Daoshi was even more impoverished at the time, so he sold some of the scriptures..."
"How ridiculous." Zhao Feiyu sneered and said in a tone that was not very pleasant.
The tourists who were quietly listening to the tour guide's explanation suddenly focused their attention on Zhao Feiyu.
"It's not all Wang Yuanlu's fault. Besides, Wang Yuanlu has done his best to protect the Mogao Caves. The Qing government didn't care about the Mogao Caves at that time, and Wang Yuanlu was forced to buy the scriptures from the cave. Moreover, the money he spent on buying the scriptures was all used for rebuilding the Mogao Caves, not a single penny was taken for personal gain. Why do you want to put all the blame on him?"
Zhao Feiyu's loud and clear voice echoed in the cave, everyone fell silent, and the tour guide's face turned red and white.
"You're not from that era, how would you know what happened back then?" The other commentator standing next to the tour guide chimed in.
"You're not me, how do you know I don't know?" Zhao Feiyu coldly hummed back.
Throughout the entire process, Ying Zheng didn't say a single word. Perhaps among the five of us, only he knew what was going on in history.
The winds and clouds change, the smoke and moon are quiet, and the imperial flags are changed. In a person's lifetime, there are many rights and wrongs, and merits and demerits will be reassessed after death.
(The story of Monk Wang from Mogao Caves, if you're interested, you can watch a documentary called "Dunhuang".)
