Das Leben der Landbevölkerung in der Stadt während der Song-Dynastie

Kapitel 68

Yu Guang was very surprised. He couldn't believe that Zhao Lianpu was such a simple and pure-minded person.

"Mr. Zhao, so you just stayed in that country? What happened to that overseas Chinese afterwards?"

“Sigh…” Zhao Lianpu sighed. “The political situation in that country was very unstable, with coups happening every few days, and stray bullets everywhere on the streets. I regretted it as soon as the ship left the shore. But there’s no going back, so I stayed in the lighthouse. Luckily, the old Chinese man had put thousands of novels in the lighthouse, almost all of them detective novels, and in Chinese. From Cheng Xiaoqing’s Hawthorne Detective Stories to Yokomizo Seishi’s Kindaichi Case Files, from Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Poirot to Stephen King’s horror novels. I felt like I had found spiritual nourishment, and I was engrossed in reading novels in the lighthouse every day, reading until I was dizzy and out of my mind. Until one day, when the old Chinese man went out to buy something, he was hit in the head by a stray bullet, and he left without saying a word, forever separated from me.”

Zhao Lianpu paused, his voice trembling slightly. Yu Guang and Shen Tian quickly pressed, "And then?"

Zhao Lianpu lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, but the thick smoke choked his throat, and he coughed incessantly for a while before calming down.

He sat back in his wicker chair and continued slowly, “The old man passed away, and I took over his job, continuing to guard the lighthouse, doing the same monotonous tasks every day. The only pleasure I had was hiding in the lighthouse reading novels. Until one day, I finally finished the novel, even reading it a second and third time. I started to feel bored, and on a whim, I picked up a pen and decided to write a good mystery novel, also for myself. When I got tired of writing, I would take the hunting rifle the old man left me and go hunting on the island to improve my meals. A full year later, my novel was finished, and my marksmanship was perfected. So, I took the manuscript and left that country, returning here. The novel was excellent and quickly became a bestseller. When I wanted to write a second one, I felt I couldn't write anymore, so I wanted to find a place where I wouldn't be disturbed, and that's why I came to Cursed Village. It's so quiet here, a perfect place to write, but I never expected that something like this would happen again…” Zhao Lianpu looked depressed.

Yu Guang quickly advised, "No one could have predicted something like this, and we're not even on the verge of collapse yet. We need to find a way to fight off these bad guys and get out of here!"

After pondering for a moment, Wu Yong asked, "Mr. Zhao, is the country you mentioned...?"

Before he could even utter the name of the country, the dining room door was flung open, and Old Chen, his face flushed and neck bulging, stormed in. He seemed shaken, stumbling and knocking over several chairs around the table. "What's wrong, Old Chen?"

Old Chen wiped the sweat from his brow and cried out, "Something terrible has happened! Blackie is dead! Blackie has been murdered!"

Section Twelve

29

A tremendous fear, like an invisible net, tightly enveloped everyone in the room.

Silence fell; no one uttered a word, only old Chen sobbed softly: "Blackie is dead. I've raised it for three years, and it's just gone like this..."

After a long while, Wu Yong stood up and asked, "Was the weather fine when you fed it last time?"

Old Chen replied, "Yes, it pounced on me as soon as it saw me, it knew I brought it something good. But when I came back and brought it the meatball again, I saw it lying on the ground, motionless. It wasn't excited when it saw me, it didn't react at all. I had a bad feeling, and when I touched it, its body was still warm, but it was already dead."

"Let's go see Blackbeard's body!" Shen Tian shouted, his bloodshot eyes gleaming with steely resolve.

"No! No!" Zhao Lianpu stopped him. "Blackie was perfectly fine just now, and the food it ate was taken from this room, so it couldn't be poisoned at all. But Old Chen was already dead when he went out the second time. The thieves must have come again. They killed Blackie first. Maybe they're still hiding downstairs waiting for us to walk into their trap!" Unconsciously, his voice trembled, and a few beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

“That’s right, Mr. Zhao is absolutely right. Staying in the mansion is the safest place for us right now. The walls are too easy to breach, so this house is relatively safer,” Yu Guang said.

Zhao Lianpu suddenly seemed to remember something and asked urgently, "Old Chen, did you close the front door properly when you came in?"

Old Chen's body jolted, he shivered, and sweat poured down his face: "This...this...I was in such a hurry just now, I don't remember if I closed the door properly."

Zhao Lianpu was furious: "Go check quickly, make sure the door is locked! If a thief gets in, we're doomed!"

Old Chen hurriedly limped out of the dining room. As he went out to check if the door was closed properly, Wu Yong asked curiously, "Mr. Zhao, why would you hire someone with a leg disability as your housekeeper?"

Zhao Lianpu pursed his lips and said, "This old Chen is an old friend of an elderly overseas Chinese I met abroad. The elderly overseas Chinese often mentioned him to me. So when I returned to China, I went to find him. At that time, he had just retired from the Fenglailou Restaurant in the city. Actually, he was fired. He was old, and the dishes he made hadn't changed. He was unwilling to absorb new dishes and reform. Seeing that he had difficulty walking and it was hard for him to find a new job, I brought him here."

"Oh, I see..." "The door was closed." Old Chen entered the house and said timidly with his head down.

"Then I'm relieved." Zhao Lianpu patted his chest.

Suddenly, at that moment, Weng Beibei yawned, which was quite inappropriate.

Zhao Lianpu glanced back with dissatisfaction, probably finding it unbelievable that this pretty girl could yawn at such a critical moment. "We haven't slept all night and have been so frightened, it's no wonder we're not in good spirits," Shen Tian explained quickly, feeling sorry for his junior sister.

Strangely enough, this yawning seemed to be contagious; as soon as one person yawned, everyone around them would feel drowsy. "This won't do! It's only noon, and the thieves will break in tonight. How can you all maintain this level of energy? Go and get some sleep!" Zhao Lianpu said anxiously.

After a moment's thought, Yu Guang said, "Mr. Zhao is right. We should conserve our energy and prepare ourselves. Mr. Zhao, you should also rest. How about this, we'll take turns resting to prevent thieves from sneaking in."

Wu Yong continued, "That's right! Beibei, Chen Tian, and Old Chen, you should rest first. After four hours, the other three of us can take over. Chen Tian, you must get a good night's sleep. You're a martial arts expert here, so you absolutely can't overexert yourself. If we're in danger, we'll need you to rescue us." "I don't need to sleep!" Old Chen shouted. "I'm already old. Haven't you heard? You can't wake up in the first thirty years, and you can't fall asleep in the next thirty. I can't sleep for very long each day. Asking me to sleep now is like asking me to die!"

Zhao Lianpu replied matter-of-factly, "Alright then, I'll go to sleep first. I need to get some rest, otherwise I won't be able to hold the gun steady, let alone aim it."

“Alright, Mr. Zhao, please go and rest first. The three of us will check the windows and doors downstairs again,” Wu Yong said. The doors were tightly closed, and the windows had security bars, so it wouldn’t be easy for a thief to break in. However, security measures are only effective against honest people, not necessarily against dishonest ones, and there are always some loopholes. Therefore, Yu Guang and the others checked very carefully, afraid of missing any oversights.

Back on the second floor, they drew the curtains again and blocked all the windows with furniture, preventing anyone outside from seeing anything inside. Exhausted from the journey, all three of them were drenched in sweat and panting heavily. Yu Guang and Wu Yong hadn't slept a wink all night, and now they felt their bodies ache, their limbs were weak, and sleepiness washed over them like an unstoppable tide.

"No! I can't sleep now!" Yu Guang told himself, but his eyelids felt like they were filled with lead, drooping incessantly. He glanced at Wu Yong, who had already collapsed onto the sofa like a lump of mud, snoring loudly.

Hearing Wu Yong's snoring was like a beautiful temptation, and Yu Guang couldn't resist. He pinched his arm, finally regaining some clarity. "Professor Yu, if you really can't stand it, you should rest. I'm here." Old Chen's submissive voice completely shattered Yu Guang's last line of defense. Hearing Old Chen's words, Yu Guang felt his persistence was futile. With Old Chen there, what was there to fear? Although he was just an old man with mobility issues, in Yu Guang's mind, it was just one sentence from him that could dispel all his reasons for staying awake. After all, the thieves wouldn't necessarily break in during the day.

Anyway, the doors and windows on the first floor were all tightly closed.

Anyway, Shen Tian and the others will wake up soon. What's the harm in sleeping a little earlier? Yu Guang reassured himself.

Finally, he closed his eyes. Now he realized how precious sleep was. Back in the city, he often couldn't sleep. Like Old Chen had said, "The first thirty years of life are spent in a state of constant sleeplessness, the next thirty insomnia." He was well past thirty, and every night he tossed and turned, unable to find peace. Even the slightest sound was enough to wake him. Insomnia was a terrifying wakefulness—opening his eyes in the dark, staring at the stark ceiling, clearly hearing the dripping faucet and the soft nibbling of mice on a table leg. A sense of unease and panic washed over him. This feeling was especially intense when he had important work the next day and remained wide awake late at night. He felt uneasy! He desperately wanted to sleep, but he just couldn't. In his most desperate moment, Yu Guang resorted to sleeping pills, specifically diazepam. At first, one pill was enough to put him to sleep, but gradually, the medication lost its effectiveness, so he increased the dosage. Two… three… four… Now, even taking six diazepam pills before bed, he still couldn't fall asleep.

Today, in this most dangerous place, he actually fell asleep, and slept so soundly—it was unbelievable. He felt like he was floating on a vast ocean, drifting with the current, his body completely out of his control. One moment he was on the crest of a wave, the next he was tumbling to the bottom. It was the most exhilarating feeling, a long-lost pleasure. In an instant, he was submerged in this world of extreme comfort. He didn't know how much time had passed when he felt someone shaking his body, and he woke up. This sleep, even if it had lasted an eternity, felt like only a second to Yu Guang; he still felt utterly exhausted.

He opened his eyes and, out of the corner of his eye, saw Wu Yong standing in front of him, staring intently at him with bloodshot eyes.

After seeing that Yu Guang had woken up, Wu Yong said to him, word by word, "They're gone! There are only the two of us left here!"

30

Yu Guang's body jolted suddenly, and he almost fell off the sofa he was lying on.

"What did you say? They're gone? Beibei and Shen Tian are gone? Where's Mr. Zhao? Go ask him!" Wu Yong said, "They're all gone. There are only the two of us here! There's no one else."

"Where did they all go?"

"I don't know," Wu Yong said, sounding quite dejected. "What time is it now?" Yu Guang asked.

"It's ten o'clock at night." Wu Yong said as he walked to the window, kicked aside the furniture blocking the window, and pulled back the thick curtains. A full moon hung high in the sky, and moonlight poured into the room like water.

"Don't open the window! Watch out for thieves!" Yu Guang shouted. He was still somewhat conscious, but he never imagined that he would sleep for so long.

Wu Yong turned around and gave a cold smile: "Teacher Yu, do you really think there are any thieves?" "What do you mean?" Yu Guang was shocked.

"After we arrived at the Cursed Village, did we hear from anyone else that there were bad people growing opium in the back mountains?" Wu Yong asked rhetorically.

"No."

“Yes, we only heard it from Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen, it’s all one side of the story. We’ve never seen or heard of these so-called thieves in the back mountain. It’s all a fabrication created by those two in our minds,” Wu Yong analyzed.

"But why would they do that?" Yu Guang still didn't understand.

"They fabricated something that doesn't exist to instill fear in us. When we guard against something that doesn't exist, all our attention is focused on a fictitious target, needlessly wasting our energy and effort, so that they can carry out their conspiracy!"

"What conspiracy?"

“I don’t know yet. Maybe someone is really growing opium in the back mountains, and maybe Zhao Lianpu is the mastermind. After all, this stuff is easier and more lucrative than writing books, and it doesn’t take much effort,” Wu Yong guessed. “Then what’s their purpose in kidnapping Beibei and Shen Tian? Why didn’t they kidnap us?” Yu Guang’s mind was filled with questions.

"I suspect that Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen subdued Beibei and Chen Tian while we were asleep and forced them to go to an unknown place. The reason they didn't touch us is because they didn't have enough confidence to subdue us, and since we were under the influence of sleeping pills and were fast asleep, they had no way to get rid of us."

Upon hearing this, Yu Guang was stunned: "Wait a minute, you're saying we were drugged by sleeping pills? How is that possible? You know I've had insomnia for a long time. Even with tranquilizers, six pills only barely put me to sleep. How could I have been drugged by sleeping pills?"

Wu Yong explained, “You’ve been taking diazepam, which is the only prescription drug we can buy on the market. But in fact, there are many other psychotropic drugs for treating insomnia, such as methadone, ketamine, ephedrine, etc. These drugs are far more effective than diazepam, but because the ingredients of these drugs can be used to make various new types of soft drugs, the state strictly controls their production and sales. Since we now suspect that Zhao Lianpu is the mastermind behind the opium cultivation and drug manufacturing, it’s not surprising that he has access to certain controlled drugs.”

“But if it really was a new type of sleeping pill, we couldn’t have only slept for such a short while, could we? It’s only been a few hours,” Yu Guang asked again.

“I reckon the dosage wasn’t heavy, or maybe it was drugged, but our bodies didn’t absorb much,” Wu Yong thought for a moment, then slapped his thigh and exclaimed, “That’s it! It must be the meatball in the braised lion’s head meatballs! Because Beibei vomited, we didn’t have any appetite for the meatballs, we only ate some vegetable leaves. The sleeping pills must have been mixed in with the meat filling!” “By the way, the first time we came here, which was when Wang Mingsheng disappeared, Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen were with us the whole time. How could they have spared time to kidnap Wang Mingsheng?” Yu Guang still couldn’t figure it out.

"This is also easy to explain. Don't forget, Zhao Lianpu left his seat in the middle of the meal."

"Wasn't he going to make a phone call? We all heard him talking on the phone."

"Yes! We only heard him talking on the phone, we didn't see him actually making a call."

“You mean…” Yu Guang asked, but the answer was almost obvious.

“He must have used recording techniques. He knew we were going to attend the night burial and that Wang Mingsheng was one of the pallbearers. We would immediately find out about Wang Mingsheng’s disappearance, so he tried to create an alibi in front of us.” The more Wu Yong explained, the more convinced he became of his reasoning.

"Xiao Wu, you're really smart! How did you come to that suspicion?"

"My suspicions began with Zhao Lianpu's phone call. When we first entered his study, he was working on a novel called 'Night Burial' on his laptop. I noticed the scroll bar on the right side of the document; it had about 50,000 to 60,000 words, far from enough for a book. I've read many of Zhao Lianpu's books; he doesn't write short stories, and almost every book is around 150,000 to 200,000 words. So I'm certain that if he was talking about a manuscript, he was referring to a completed one. Don't forget, when we visited him that morning, Old Chen said he went to the internet cafe in town to send the manuscript. If he really was on the phone, why would he only start arguing with the publisher after sending the manuscript? If there was an argument, he wouldn't have sent the manuscript. So, if this phone call really happened, it could only have been made before sending the manuscript."

After listening, Yu Guang exclaimed, "Yes, I understand now! Zhao Lianpu must have recorded the phone call from the previous day and played it back during our meal to make us believe he was on the phone the whole time." After a while, Yu Guang asked a new question: "How do we explain the dog named Hei Bei? Where did they take Bei Bei and Shen Tian? How should we proceed with this?"

"Blackie? We didn't see Blackie anywhere. We just heard Zhao Lianpu and Old Chen talking about it. Don't forget, Zhao Lianpu said they've only been here for about half a year, but Old Chen said he's raised Blackie for three years. How could a frustrated chef raise a wolfhound for three years in a big city? Since they can use recordings to make us give them alibis, they can also use recordings to make us believe there's a fierce wolfhound in the mud-walled house!"

"What's their intention? Why do they want us to think there are wolves in that mud-walled house?" "It's simple," Wu Yong replied. "It means they don't want us to enter that mud-walled house. There must be some unspeakable secret hidden in that house. Maybe, the place where Beibei and Shen Tian are hiding right now is related to this house!" A hint of determination and courage appeared on Wu Yong's face.

He knew that the opportunity for the decisive battle was approaching, and he and Yu Guang still had a chance to defeat their opponent.

Section Thirteen

31

Looking out at the deep, endless darkness of the night, Yu Guang couldn't help but feel his palms sweating and a chill creeping down his spine. Faced with the impending fierce battle, he hesitated.

Wu Yong handed over a flashlight and half a steel pipe, saying, "These are what I found inside the house just now. Let's go there now."

"We must rescue Beibei and Shen Tian safely."

He took the steel pipe, feeling its weight in his hand. Yu Guang looked puzzled: "You found it inside the house?"

"Yes, it was found under Zhao Lianpu's bed. Luckily, he didn't hide it very well, otherwise I don't know how I would have dealt with them unarmed."

Yu Guang asked, "I feel like something's not quite right. Your reasoning is plausible, but there are still many doubts. Why would Zhao Lianpu put steel pipes and flashlights under the bed in the house? It seems like they were prepared specifically for us. Also, if they really were growing opium in the back mountains, why would he tell us? He could have easily fabricated something else; why would he mention opium to arouse our suspicion?"

Wu Yong thought about it and agreed with Yu Guang's assessment, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what was going on. He waved his flashlight and said, "Let's put these questions aside for now and go check out the mud-walled house next to the villa. Let's see what mysterious thing it is!" In the darkness, the mud-walled house stood out like a shapeless monster next to the villa, right next to the wall, surrounded by clusters of small-leaved boxwood.

There was only a wooden door with a lock on it.

With a loud bang, Wu Yong kicked open the wooden door. The beam of a flashlight shone in, illuminating the dark room. There were indeed no wolfhounds, but there was a faint, fishy smell.

A familiar fishy smell! Yu Guang sniffed deeply and asked, "Wu Yong, can you smell it? There's a very faint fishy smell in this room."

Wu Yong nodded: "Yes, I smelled it. I also smelled it in a few other places, but seeing that no one else seemed to care, I thought I was just smelling something wrong."

Yu Guang said, “That’s right, I’ve also smelled it in other places. The first time was at Wang Mingsheng’s house. The second time was on the way to the night burial. I almost collapsed from heart failure on that road, but luckily I recovered after hearing the sound of Wang Laomo’s clapper. The third time was when Lü Tugen appeared next to the tomb.”

Wu Yong was surprised to hear Yu Guang's words: "On the way to the night burial, I also had that feeling of almost dying from heart failure, but I didn't pay attention to it because I saw that others didn't seem to have any unusual symptoms. I thought it was just my hallucination."

Yu Guang nodded and said, "I guess we encountered something unknown on that mountain road, which caused physical discomfort and that's why we felt this way. But for some reason, Wang Laomo knew it was a power to control the mind, and he used the sound of the clapper to resist the danger. Perhaps it's a method passed down from generation to generation. In this remote place, there are too many things that we can't explain with known science."

"But we didn't see anything strange when we went back the way we came during the day."

"This means that the unknown thing is only effective at night, and is useless during the day."

"What could be so strange?" Wu Yong asked.

Do you know what night-blooming jasmine is?

"Know."

"This is a typical flower that only blooms at night and emits a peculiar fragrance. Perhaps the one we encountered on the road is also a plant that releases some kind of toxin only at night, confusing our senses," Yu Guang speculated.

Wu Yong slapped his forehead: "I get it! The toxin in this plant is a neurotoxin. When you smell it, it causes our nerves to go haywire, our heart rate to increase, and we almost go into shock. The way to overcome it is through sound! As long as you keep making a sound that matches your heart rate, you can overcome the toxin! This is truly unheard of!"

"Indeed! The world is vast and full of wonders. There are still many things in this world waiting for us to discover and explore." The mud-walled house was empty, devoid of anything, and the faint fishy smell gradually disappeared in the night breeze. The walls inside the house were plastered with mud, but the floor was incongruously covered with a layer of beige square floor tiles.

Wu Yong said, "Teacher Yu, if Beibei and Shen Tian were really taken away from this room by them, then there must be a secret passage in this room!"

Yu Guang nodded and said, "Yes, and this secret passage must be under a floor tile, otherwise they wouldn't have laid floor tiles in a dilapidated mud-walled house." After saying that, he and Wu Yong slowly tapped the ground with a steel pipe inside the house, searching for a hollow spot. Sure enough, in the corner, the steel pipe made a thumping sound when it hit the ground.

"There's a hidden compartment here!" Wu Yong exclaimed excitedly. They placed their flashlights on the ground and used their hands to pry open the edges of the floor tiles, trying to pry them up in one go.