In a utility room on the top floor of the castle, Ruan Qing held a knife in his hand and carefully scraped the paint layer on the oil painting.
It was painful to give up the first oil painting, but in order to buy himself some time, Ruan Qing could only throw the first oil painting away. Not only did he throw it in Shi Qiu's room to play a trick of blaming him, but he also cut several scars on the painting. He guess Mr. Si, who is furious now, is either questioning Shi Qiu angrily or trying to repair the painting ba.
"Tsk."
Ruan Qing was struggling to dismantle the frame, which was a bit hard for someone who had never done this kind of work.
Fortunately, he had blocked this small room with a card, it would be ignored. Even if Shi Qiu found out that he had framed him, he would not be able to find his location for a while.
In fact, when he was cutting the painting, he had already discovered that there was no problem with the painting itself, but with the canvas.
The canvas is two layers. The upper layer is painted with oil paintings, and the lower layer is written with other contents. In order to cover up the fact that there are two layers of canvas, it is deliberately painted in a very rough style to show a heavy feeling.
No matter how troublesome the work is, as long as you work hard, you will always finish it quickly. The canvas hidden under the two oil paintings was torn off smoothly by Ruan Qing.
Throwing the oil paintings aside, Ruan Qing carefully looked at the two pieces of linen, which were densely written with clear regular script in indigo ink.
First is the diary.
[March 3, 1938.
The first shipyard was built in the seaport, and the Bei Family Shipyard began its own legend. I believe I can do it well, and can only do well too.
March 12, 1938.
My head began to ache severely, the hand holding the pen kept twitching, making it difficult to write. It shouldn't be so soon. I know, it's urging me.]
Ruan Qing stroked the lines of handwriting with his fingers. They were clear and neat. It seemed that they were copied twice, not the original diary. Deliberately copying and hiding here must have other purposes. Ruan Qing thought so and continued to read.
[July 1, 1938.
This is the first time I have done this. I am very scared, and very excited. If everything goes well, I can get rid of this curse forever.
October 23, 1938.
Nothing happened during this period, no nightmares, no pain, no sudden shudders. I can be sure that it likes the sacrifice very much, it let me go. The price is fifteen lives. I use other people's lives to exchange for my own life. There is no way, I don't want to die.
June 7, 1939.
I sent another group of people on board. According to the agreement, fifteen people will be sent every once in a while. Why fifteen, it didn't say. Just like I don't know why my father and grandfather will get married and have children at the age of twenty-three, then suffer from pain for the next seven years, and finally must be emaciated at the age of thirty before dying. I only know that it is revenge.]
Ruan Qing silently wrote down the number and continued to read.
[January 27, 1940.
I saw her, God, I met her, my beloved, my true love, from the moment I saw her I knew I could never love anyone else, I wanted to marry her, I must!
February 18, 1940.
I got married, with her. I was rich, very good-looking, I gave her gold, silver, and silk, she liked it very much. We got married.
After getting married, I suddenly remembered, I'm 23 years old this year.
May 1, 1940.
I never touched her, I spent every day in fear and worry. She was very angry, but when I said that I was a little unwell, she was silent for a long time and got me a lot of Chinese medicine. It was so hard to drink, but every time I drank it, she would look at me with a smile. There was no way, even if I guessed this might be the curse at play, I still loved her damn much, as long as she didn't leave, let alone the hard-to-drink Chinese medicine, even if she gave me chronic/toxic medicine, what would it matter.
July 18, 1940.
We went to bed. When she invited me, I couldn't help it. I am a man, a normal man. She was pregnant. She is very happy, but I'm getting more and more scared.
February 1, 1941.
Her belly is getting bigger and bigger, I'm too scared, even though I had been offering sacrifices all the time and I didn't feel any discomfort. I don't remember how many people I sent there. Originally, most of them were ordinary people, but later they were people without families or wanderers. After all, I run a shipyard, if there are too many missing people, they will come to my door. It won't do, I have to go to sea myself, bringing more sacrifices and gifts.
April 2, 1941.
I'm back, I'm relieved, it promised that I won't be tortured by illness and die. But the curse of getting married and having children at the age of 23 has not been lifted, it needs me to have children, it needs more sacrifices. It doesn't matter, I don't care about this, whether love is true or false, isn't it enough to feel happy ma? I don't know if it was because of what I said, but when it looked at me when I left, it smiled very kindly. It was the first time I saw it smile at me. It may also be that it liked the imported goods and gold and silver I brought, so I decided to send a batch from time to time. Anyway, I don't care about the money now.]
The content hidden behind the second oil painting was only these. Ruan Qing threw the canvas aside and looked at the last one. What surprised him was that this canvas was no longer a diary content, but a person's self-narration.
[You found the content I hid. I don't know who you are. Maybe you're the person sent by our Bei family, or maybe you're it. If it's the former, I hope you can solve all this thoroughly. If it's the latter, then it doesn't matter if you solve me now, or solve my offspring? It doesn't matter.
In short, I will treat you as a poor person who was sent here, and tell you everything I know.
My name is Bei Zhongren, the owner of the Bei Family Shipyard. I heard from my father that we should not be surnamed Bei, but Si. In order to avoid the curse, we changed our surname and fled here, but still couldn't escape it.
But my father solved the curse, and he made a deal with the one who cursed us. Fifteen lives were sacrificed, and they were delivered once in a while. The sacrifices could not stop, and once they stopped, it would curse all of us. I didn't want to die, but I wasn't afraid of death. But I was afraid that my mother, grandmother, and my best friend would be implicated, so I did despicable things and continued the sin. Then I weakly handed the decision to you, who I didn't know who it was.
I gave you the clues, and it was up to you to choose whether to escape or end it all.
It's true that there are treasures here. We occasionally send a batch of things here, including gold and silver utensils and jewelry antiques in addition to food. If you have the ability to take them, they are all yours.
There is only one thing, my father gave it a pair of rings, pure gold, with a special mark engraved on the back of the rings. Bringing it back can prove that you solved all this, and we are willing to spend a lot of money to exchange for this pair of rings as a reward for you. As long as the Bei family still exists, this promise will remain valid.
I haven't been here, so I don't know the situation here. All I can do is copy down the relevant contents of my father's notes, hoping it can help you.
I once did something that made me regret for the rest of my life.
The curse would make me fall in love with a woman at the age of 23, desperately want to marry her, give birth to a child, and it must be a boy. Then I would wait until I was 30 years old and suffer and die. The curse of death has stopped, but the spell of love has always existed. I told my friend about it and asked him to lock me up and send the woman I loved to the ship.
I wanted to use this to completely break the curse.
Every day she was away, I missed her desperately and tried every way to go out to sea to find her, but it only lasted for ten days. After ten days, all my feelings for her disappeared, I was afraid to go to that island. Because I knew that she was dead. So I didn't love her anymore.
On the third day after she died, I fell madly in love with another woman. I gave up struggling and got married.
Her name was Yue Hongjuan. I once gave her a red scarf, which she always cherished.
I don't really love her, but I know that she loves me and trusts me.
If you can see her bones, please help me bury her. If you can see her soul, please tell her that I will fall into hell forever.]
Ruan Qing put down the canvas and covered his face silently.
He thought that the first painting would not have important content, so he threw it away. Now it seems that the content hidden in the first painting is crucial!
And he has no way to take the painting back now.
Ruan Qing touched his chin. It was already gravelled that the treasure was in the castle. He just doesn't know if 'it' refers to Mr. Si, Lady Maud, or both?
The ring and the treasure must be near where they live.
Ruan Qing was in high spirits. The time for the ship to pick them up was getting closer and closer. He would definitely pass this copy.
***
"I really didn't take this painting. It was Ruan Qing!" Shi Qiu tried desperately to defend himself.
Bai Leshui sat silently on the side, without saying a word, perfectly interpreting a victim.
Rong Zheng told Hong to detain Shi Qiu first: "Whether it is true or not, we will discuss it after finding the other two paintings."
Shi Qiu looked depressed. Well, at least he was not kicked out. This result was not bad.
"Where are the others?" Rong Zheng asked Hong.
Hong shook her head: "Nothing was found."
Rong Zheng frowned: "Search all the rooms today. If you can't find the painting, you have to find the person."
Hong: "Yes."
Third Sister stepped forward and said: "Mr. Si, I can assure you that the painting must not have been taken by Shi Qiu. We are willing to find the suspect Ruan Qing for you."
Rong Zheng glanced at her: "I want to see the result at dinner."
Third Sister calculated the time, nodded and agreed, left the living room with Hong Feng.
Since his whereabouts have not been discovered for such a long time, Third Sister believes that Ruan Qing must have used a card, and card can only be dealt with by card.
Seeing that everyone had left, Rong Zheng took the painting in his hand and whispered to Bai Leshui: "Lady, let's go back and rest ba."
"Okay." Bai Leshui nodded, stood up next to Rong Zheng, and asked quietly, "What did you find?"
Rong Zheng: "The cut of the canvas is two layers glued together. Let's go back and take a look."
The author has something to say:
Huang Pi: Great a, could it be I'll be starved to death ma.