Chapter 5 - The first puzzle

At this time, the entire underground palace was extremely dark. Looking up, the flashlight spot illuminated the arhats looking down, and hundreds of eyes were staring at Chenpi Ah Si. The pupils of the arhats showed a ferocious expression for a moment because of the change in light, and the atmosphere suddenly became very weird.

Chenpi A Si cursed the bald monks in his heart a few more times, thinking that these monks must have done it on purpose. At this time, he didn't care about so much and searched a few more times, but still couldn't find where a statue was missing.

A light flashed in his mind, and he slowly realized what the problem was. He moved the flashlight towards the location of the white-faced Arhat who had cracked his eyes.

Only this arhat statue is obviously different from the others, and the problem must lie here.

It is possible that someone pushed down one of the Arhats above and then placed the white-faced Arhat with its face facing upwards on top, so that Arhat is so different from the others.

Who on earth would be so bored to do this? And knowing exactly where he would come down and aligning the head of the statue with where he would fix the screws, it would be impossible for someone other than an expert to do that.

Is this my second time in prison? Someone has been here before, and they are putting something like this here to irritate me?

Chenpi Ah Si shone his flashlight on the fat white-faced Arhat, and weighed the heavy eight-layer treasure box in his hand. If he was in the palace for the second time, why didn't he take this thing away? Impossible, people leave without leaving anything behind, I must have overthought it, this is a trap set by those bald donkeys to make them think in the wrong way.

Chenpi Ah Si calmed down. At his age, he had reached his limit after all the trouble. He coughed a few times and wanted to move the flashlight away from the Arhat to look around and see how to get back with the least effort.

At this moment, a horrifying scene happened.

The moment the flashlight moved away from Luohan, Chenpi A Si suddenly saw that the pale face suddenly turned around.

The flashlight moved too fast, and the scene disappeared in an instant, but Chenpi Ah Si saw it clearly. He was not the kind of person who would doubt that he had seen it wrong, and his brain immediately exploded, and he almost fell to the ground. In the flash, he roared to give himself courage, and at the same time, he flipped his hand and threw out the iron bullets like a machine gun.

He fired more than a dozen bullets in a row based on his memory. A dozen iron bullets bounced around above his head, and he thought it was the demon-like white-faced arhat jumping down. He lost his composure in panic and took out a tortoise box that he had hidden in his early years.

He was really scared. He had never used the gun in the years after liberation, and he didn't dare to take it out easily. Now he took it out, knowing that it was useless, but he still used it to give himself courage. Is that really a shame ?

After decades of digging in the sand, the chances of encountering zongzi are few and far between. Even if my grandfather were alive, it would be difficult for him to handle such a situation. Although Chenpi Ah Si is a veteran among veterans, his main experience lies in life and death situations. When he encounters something beyond his control, he still panics.

In a panic, he saw an inconspicuous low stone door on the other side. It was impossible to climb up and go back through the tunnel, so he might as well find a way to run!

He crouched down and crawled through the low door. Inside was a stone room. A mountain of Rehmannia glutinosa nests grew all the way up the wall. It was really quite large. He didn't know what was originally placed in the stone room. He ran a few steps and his foot got stuck in the nest. He fell flat on his face. The flashlight flew far away. He didn't bother to pick it up. He picked up the box and rushed forward.

After the stone chamber was the path, which was the formal entrance to the underground palace. It was pitch black and he could not see anything. He gritted his teeth and took one step deep and one step shallow. He did not know what he stepped on. Finally, the ground began to rise. He ran for more than ten steps and bumped into something in the dark. He heard a sound of falling and crashing. He had already rushed out and rolled to the ground.

There was a blazing fire outside. He stood up and looked around. He actually crashed out of a broken wall. It seemed that the entrance to the hidden pagoda underground palace was actually in a wall. While he was wondering, several Miao knives of the Miao people were clamped on his neck, and the things in his hands were taken away by someone.

Chenpi Ah Si's strength had reached its limit and he could no longer resist. He was kicked in the back of his knee and fell to the ground. He looked up and saw the Miao guys he had tricked holding torches and surrounding him. The leader looked at him angrily. It seemed that they had found nothing after searching around and realized that they had been tricked.

Chenpi A Si was panting heavily, and it was not fake, but in order to paralyze others, he exacerbated his symptoms and kept coughing. When the Miao people asked him questions, he kept waving his hands, pretending to be very angry.

Seeing him so exhausted, the Miao people looked at each other, not knowing what to do. A few other Miao people were curious about where he came out from, so they lit torches and poked their heads inside to take a look.

Chenpi Ah Si took a few minutes to calm down, but when he saw that the demon-like white-faced arhat did not come out, he began to wonder. At this time, his physical strength had recovered to a certain extent, and he suddenly pulled out a handful of iron bullets, jumped up, and in an instant, all the torches fell to the ground.

The Miao people panicked all of a sudden. Chenpi Ah Si sneered, and the murderous intention was already rising. He took out the tortoise box with his other hand and wanted to kill someone. At this moment, he heard a cold wind blowing beside him, and his hand felt cold. He touched it and found that the finger that pulled the trigger was gone.

Chenpi Ah Si had never suffered such a loss before. He was horrified, but before he could react, another cold wind blew. The last thing he saw was the calm eyes of the Miao leader and the dancing Kirin tattoo on his body. This was the last thing he saw, because the next second his two eyes were blinded by a knife. The Miao leader's earth knife slashed in the middle of his left eye, cut off the bridge of his nose, and cut through his right eye, destroying both eyes in an instant.

It's over, I've met an expert. Chenpi A Si sighed inwardly, fell to the ground, and fainted from the pain.

Lao Hai said, "Those Miao people handed Chenpi Ah Si over to the local joint defense team. One of his comrades who had revolted happened to be in charge of the joint defense there in those years and saved him, so he was not shot. Later, the treasure box was sent to the museum. When the people there heard about it, they sent people to take a look, and no one knew whether there was any result. However, when the treasure box was opened, the last layer was not a relic, but this bronze fish." He knocked on the newspaper, "Isn't it strange? This was a matter of thunder and lightning at the time. When Master Chen Si found out, he cursed and said that he had been tricked. The treasure box might have been opened several generations ago and the things inside had fallen out."

I was listening to Lao Hai's story. I had already drunk a cup of wine without realizing it. I felt a little dizzy, so I asked, "What is his basis?"

Lao Hai sucked on the snail and said, "I don't know. Chenpi Ah Si later became a monk and stayed in Guangxi. I got all this information through my old connections, brother. This information is not cheap, so don't expect me to do you any favors in the future."

I cursed inwardly and asked him what was going on with the auction in Hangzhou this time.

Lao Hai finished the last snail, smacked his lips, and said, "It was a mess back then, and no one knew where this fish ended up. Now, someone is auctioning it off. I often attend auctions, and I'm a bit famous in the industry, so they sent me a brochure and an invitation. You see, this fish is on the auction list, and I saw that you're quite interested in it, so I sent you an invitation. Regardless of whether it's useful or not, it's a good thing to go and see who wants to buy this fish."

When I saw the starting price, I laughed. Only a lunatic would buy 10 million. I still have two more. If someone buys them, I will have 20 million. Auction houses are too self-hyping nowadays. They also need others to believe them.

Although Lao Hai's news was good, it was not what I wanted to know. We were speechless for a while. We each lit a cigarette and thought about our own things. The waiter saw that we were reluctant to leave and came up to collect the plates. I had to ask him about his business again. Lao Hai said that he also wanted to go and see it with me, but I couldn't tell whether he was sincere. I said forget it. I don't plan to go to the fields anymore, so you, an old man, should not get involved, so as not to drag yourself down and drag me down.

I had almost finished my drink, so I asked him to get the invitation and let him rest first. In the evening, Qin Haiting insisted on going out to play. I was the host and couldn't refuse, so I drove them around and had some snacks. But the weather was too cold, so they went back to bed early.

I drove home, but before I went upstairs, I suddenly felt that my home was very desolate. I had never felt this way before, and I thought it was very strange. Could it be that these experiences have made me old? I thought it was funny, so I drove straight to the teahouse run by my second uncle and went to have evening tea.

While drinking in the teahouse and reading my grandfather's notes, I was still confused as to what had happened. The main problem was that these three fish were not from the same dynasty, and their geographical locations were so far apart. Regardless of the purpose of these three fish, there was no clue at all about where they were discovered.

The ancients must have had a purpose for doing this, otherwise it would be too big a deal for ordinary people to afford. I thought about it and felt that the key was that we didn't know what his purpose was. As long as we knew the purpose, we would have more directions to investigate.

It would be great if grandpa were still alive, I sighed. Or if Third Uncle were still alive, at least I would have someone to discuss things with. Now I'm alone and I'm really getting tired of thinking about these issues.

Suddenly I smelled a burnt odor, looked down, and saw a tourist map of China in the magazine I borrowed. I drew on it with my cigarette while thinking, and subconsciously burned holes in three places. By the time I realized it was too late, I quickly put out the cigarette butt and looked around. The waiter didn't notice my vandalism, and I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Although my second uncle is my relative, he is a very capricious person. He will get angry if you break his things, especially the magazines here. Each one is very precious and is his collection. If you break them, he will be scolded for more than a few years.

I pretended nothing happened and returned the magazine. As soon as I put it down, an old man took it and started flipping through it. I was afraid that he would find out that I was destroying it, so I didn't dare to walk away. I sat on the sofa at the side and watched the old man flip to the page that I burned. When he saw it, he couldn't help but hum.

I was shocked and thought he had discovered me. I was about to run away when I heard him chuckle, "Who set up this Feng Shui bureau here? How wicked."