Mystery

  Under the sky filled with dark clouds, a group of monsters wearing tree-bark armor and masks, riding ferocious dragon skulls, flew over from afar, filling the entire space with an aura of slaughter.

  Whoosh! A purple light flashed by.

  Immediately, a warrior clad in dragon bones, grasping a purple light sword, and stepping on a five-colored phoenix came flying towards him. Both sides began to fight fiercely, and suddenly blood flowed like rivers. The dragon-boned warrior was thrown off the phoenix's body and fell straight down the cliff...

  Ah! A shrill cry startled Oufei awake.

  It was just a nightmare, Ou Fei sat up from the bed, feeling his heart racing. He covered his chest with his hand and touched the jade, which felt slightly warm to the touch. He took it out of his pocket and looked at it - it was a translucent jade, pale greenish-white in color, with threads of blood seeping through it, looking particularly eerie and as if it had a spirit. He clearly remembered that before his grandfather passed away, he had hung this jade around his neck, saying it was a protective charm that should not be easily shown to others. So he had never let outsiders see his jade, but every time he had a nightmare, the blood-red jade would start to heat up, causing his heart to beat faster for no reason.

  He glanced at the wall clock, usually at this time he was in a tense and exciting surgery, but now he lay lazily on the bed, not wanting to move.

  Recently, the hospital director had a casual conversation with him and told him to take some rest days, saying that he could go find his father with peace of mind. In fact, he himself knew what the reason was. Recently, because of his father's disappearance, he often lost focus at work, and even for the last important city-wide medical skills exchange conference, he didn't prepare his speech well, which made the hospital lose face. After the meeting, when he came back, his superior's expression wasn't very good. Originally, he was the best candidate for this vice president election. It seems like it's not going to happen now.

  Maybe it's good this way, he thought, as he hadn't had a chance to rest in a long time. He realized that he hadn't done so in years, always busy with work and rarely having time to stay at home. So he hadn't spent quality time with his father either. Thinking of his father, his heart felt a pang of bitterness, wondering if he would ever see him again from now on.

  Ou Fei lay on the bed, lost in thought, and didn't feel hungry all day until he suddenly remembered his appointment with Weng Lan in the afternoon and hastily got out of bed.

  When he arrived at the Weng's house, it was exactly three o'clock. Fortunately, he wasn't late, otherwise that strange woman, Weng Lan, would have come up with some other weird trick to deal with him.

  As he walked into the living room, he saw that Old Man Weng and his daughter were already seated on the sofa, as if waiting for him. Old Man Weng's expression was slightly serious, but despite being nearly seventy years old, there was still a hint of elegance in his eyes, giving off an aura of quiet authority. Weng Lan, on the other hand, wore a pale blue casual outfit, with her hair tied up in a simple knot, looking like a gentle housewife. Sometimes he felt that she was like a shape-shifting witch, always giving him a different impression each time, making it impossible to discern which one was the real her.

  As soon as she saw Ou Fei, she immediately made eyes at him, signaling him to come over.

  "Dad, he's here." she said to her father.

  Weng Haobi's gaze slowly fell on Oufei's body, coldly saying: "Young man, you're one minute late!"

  If it weren't for his need for him, Ou Fei would have probably turned away with a flick of his sleeve as he usually did, but this time he said with a sincere face: "Sorry, Mr. Weng, it was my fault."

  "Hmm!" Then he looked at Oufei's gaze and softened a bit, stood up and said, "Follow me to the study." Weng Lan also stood up wanting to follow him in.

  "You stay here, otherwise I'll ask Mr. Ou to take you home." He gave Wong Lan a stern look, as if he was commanding her rather than speaking to her.

  Weng Lan looked unwilling, but still stayed behind obediently. It can be seen that the Weng family's discipline is very strict.

  Ou Fei walked into Weng Ha Bi's study, only to see a wide study with row upon row of bookshelves, the shelves could be stacked on top of each other. Upon closer inspection, they were all classical books, folk legends and some professional archaeological books. It didn't feel like a study, but rather a library.

  Weng Habai pushed open one row of bookshelves, and inside was a small living room. The four walls were glass cabinets, with various totems hanging inside, colorful and varied in shape, mostly ferocious beasts that made the atmosphere eerie and terrifying. He pulled back the bookshelf with his hand, and the living room immediately closed up. Only the two of them remained in the small room.

  Weng Haobi turned around and sat down in a rattan chair, saying to Ou Fei, "Sit down!"

  Ou Fei sat in a rattan chair opposite him, his eyes still attracted by all sorts of totems.

  "Where did you get that picture?" asked Weng Haobi, his tone light.

  "It's my family heirloom." Oufei shifted his gaze away from the totem, feeling that there was something unfathomable and profound about this old man. It was as if he had stumbled into one of those ancient martial arts dramas from his childhood, where the protagonist seemed ordinary on the surface but actually hid a deeper complexity.

  "Is that so?" Weng Ha's tone was skeptical, then he said: "If this thing is really your family heirloom, there are only two possibilities: first, your ancestors stole it; second, your family can only be one of the four surnames: Lan, Pan, Lei, or Zhong. And you're a Ou, even if your ancestors changed their Han surname, it's impossible to have such a unique map in hand."

  "Which one do you belong to?" Wong Ha's words implied that Ou Fei's ancestors were tomb raiders.

  Ou Fei was momentarily speechless, and to be honest, these were like stories from another world to him. He had never thought about what kind of identity he had in this aspect, only knowing that he was a person living in modern times, and his profession was a doctor.

  "It's not just me who has this kind of picture." Then he took out the photo that Weng Lan had secretly taken. In fact, he wanted to know more about the truth behind it, whether this picture was related to his father's disappearance or not.

  Weng Habai took the photo from his hand, only to see him take out something like a magnifying glass from his bosom and look at the photo, his face suddenly changed in an instant.

  Ou Fei was confused about what had happened.

  "Quickly show me your map too." He seemed a bit tense. Ou Fei took the map out of the wooden box he had brought with him.

  Weng Haobi opened the picture and carefully touched the embroidery on the fabric, his voice trembling as he said, "It's really it!" As he spoke, he looked up at Ou Fei's puzzled face and pointed to the two strange characters, asking, "Do you know what 'Liao Qu' means?"

  Ou Fei smiled helplessly and shook his head in ignorance. If he had known, he wouldn't have come to find this collector of totems with a big name either.

  "'Liao Quan' is the ancient Xianbei tribe's term for 'spider', meaning to live and guard in a web, not avoiding wind and rain, working hard, shouldering heavy burdens. This actually reflects the ancient Xianbei country's reverence for women. And this embroidery pattern is clearly from the imperial court of the ancient Xianbei country, if I'm not mistaken, it comes from several thousand years ago.

  Beyond Oufei's expectations, Wenhao Bi was no longer in his usual haughty demeanor, possibly due to being extremely interested in this unique totem, he finally opened up and spoke."

  "This painting has a distinction between male and female, the male is called Feng Qi, and the female is called Long Lin," said Weng Ha Bi.

  "Can pictures also be divided into male and female?" Ouyang Feiyue listened more and felt more strange.

  "Yes." Wong Ha said: "Qilin also has a distinction between male and female, Qilin is the male with a single horn, Lin is the female without horns, your painting should be Fengqilin."

  "When it comes to the origin of this map, I'm afraid we have to trace back to ancient times." Weng Ha suddenly fell into a certain memory, "It is said that more than 6,000 years ago, the Gaoxin Kingdom was invaded by the northern Rongqu Kingdom, and the war continued, with the people's lives in dire straits. King Gaoxin of the Gaoxin Kingdom chose famous generals to go to battle, but they were defeated one after another. Seeing the enemy army approaching step by step, the Gaoxin Kingdom was about to be occupied. King Gaoxin had no choice but to post a royal proclamation, announcing to the world that if anyone led the army to victory and brought back the head of the vassal king, they would be rewarded with millions of gold and appointed as a son-in-law."

  Ou Fei listened intently, his refined and dignified face revealing a stern expression unique to military men.

  "It just so happened that the Dragon King's son, Panzhu, was touring the mortal realm when he saw the imperial edict. The Dragon King's son had a dog's head and dragon body, and this is where his nickname 'Quan Zi' originated." Weng Haobi suddenly inserted this sentence like an advertisement in a news broadcast, leaving Oufei, who was deeply engrossed in the story, somewhat perplexed. However, he still nodded cooperatively.

  "The lord of the plate turned into a majestic general, tore down this imperial edict, and single-handedly fought bravely on the battlefield, beheading the king's head. King Gaoxin was overjoyed." He continued, "But when he learned that the majestic General Panzhu was actually Dog Head Dragon, he was shocked and even regretted agreeing to marry the third princess to him."

  Weng Habai stood up and walked around the hall, then continued: "In order to prevent him from being with his daughter, Gao Xin Wang came up with a reason for him to practice becoming a human. If he could practice for 49 days, he would be recruited as an attached horse, but during this time, he was not allowed to see his daughter, otherwise the practice would fail. Who knew that the third princess had already fallen in love with this hero who fought bravely for her country? Just when Pan Zhu was practicing on the 48th day and was about to succeed, the third princess couldn't bear the longing and secretly ran to see him. From then on, Pan Zhu became a dog-headed human. The third princess's mind was made up, no matter what Pan Zhu looked like, she would follow him in life and death. Gao Xin Wang had no choice but to agree to their marriage. Later, he bestowed the Xiangfeng Mountain as the territory of the Pan tribe and appointed Pan Zhu as the king of the Pan tribe." He added, "This is also why in ancient times, women's status was respected in the Pan tribe, all because of the third princess, this female ancestor, who had a noble position and a kind heart."

  "Xiangfeng Mountain?" Oufei's heart skipped a beat, this Xiangfeng Mountain was exactly where his father had gone missing. Could it be that his father's disappearance really had something to do with the Totem?

  "Yes, Xiangfeng Mountain is the old site of Gu Yan State and also the birthplace of the Yan tribe." Weng Habai nodded, "Later, the princess and the dog-headed man had four sons and one daughter. King Gaoxin gave surnames to the four sons: Pan, Lan, Lei, and Zhong. The surname Pan has now disappeared, while the surnames Lan and Lei are still the main surnames of the Yan tribe."

  Because the Third Princess liked embroidery when she was young, the Emperor, who doted on her extremely, bought some exquisite embroideries from other countries for her. Then, the Third Princess studied and developed her own needlework techniques based on others' styles, and unexpectedly created a unique type of embroidery called "Xiū". He paused for a moment, "It's said that at that time, two old men appeared out of nowhere with two pictures, one was 'Qí' (a mythical creature) and the other was 'Lín' (another mythical creature). The Princess liked them very much, so she personally embroidered these two pictures using Xiū embroidery, naming them 'Fèng Qí' and 'Lóng Lín'".

  Weng Habai said this, Ou Fei couldn't help but take a serious look at his own family heirloom. Although it sounds like a story, it seems to be true as well, so he didn't understand how this map became the treasured heirloom of his family?

  "The owner of the plate was very fond of the two pictures embroidered by the third princess, and often carried one of them, the Phoenix Riding Picture, with him. Once, when the owner went hunting in the mountains, he disappeared on the Soaring Phoenix Mountain. The third princess cried bitterly and sent people to search everywhere, but no body was ever found. Therefore, the death of King Ou became a great mystery in the country of Ou.

  There was a hint of mystery in Weng Haobi's eyes. 'And now you actually have the Phoenix Riding Picture? I'm also very surprised! It's really impossible to solve this mystery.'"

  "So what you're saying is that the picture in Lan Yuguang's hand is the legendary Dragon and Unicorn Picture?" Ou Fei asked.

  "Yes." It's unclear why, but at this point, Weng Ha's eyes suddenly had a fierce anger in them.