Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 182

In the final summary, the author states that the reason people after the Han Dynasty failed to replicate the seismograph was because they lacked a material called "qingsi," which was only produced in—this is followed by a very vague and elusive word.

"Mr. Feng, I've consulted many ancient books, but I still can't figure out the last character. Can you tell me what it is?"

I think it's the letter "Alpha". Judging from the shape of the strokes, it should be that. It's a pity that this is in an ancient book, and it shouldn't exist here in any way.

Xiao Keleng likely meant that the bronze warrior statue was a device similar to a "seismograph," capable of remotely detecting certain weather phenomena over long distances.

I closed the booklet, temporarily setting aside all distractions, and concisely explained my next steps: "Xiao Xiao, I need to dismantle the main building of the villa. If necessary, I will excavate the entire yard and carefully search every inch of suspicious land. As you know, the former builder, 'King of Tomb Raiders' Yang Tian, wouldn't have simply set up a 'Nine-Headed Bird Life-Struggling Trap'; his every move must have a deeper meaning."

Xiao Keleng remained calm, a helpless smile playing on her lips, as if she had long anticipated this outcome.

She probably misunderstood my intentions and thought I was making excuses to please Guan Baoling. But that doesn't matter. When you're doing something big, you don't have to worry about trifles. If you want to do something different, being misunderstood is inevitable.

“Mr. Feng, should we discuss this with Sister Su Lun? This villa is what Mr. Scalpel values most, so perhaps we should really consult Sister Su Lun’s opinion. Don’t take it personally, of course I know that you and Sister Su Lun have the same influence and both have the right to dispose of the villa, but most importantly, uncovering the secrets of the villa is our common goal. It’s always beneficial to listen to other people’s opinions, isn’t it?”

Xiao Keleng's words were very polite, but she did not agree with my actions.

I nodded deeply. "Yes, everyone's wisdom is limited, and I'd love to hear your and Suren's opinions." As I spoke, I dialed Suren's number. The samurai statue was too heavy; only a crane could be used, and the roof had to be removed first to extend the crane arm. I could imagine that when my elder brother built this villa, he must have hoisted the samurai statue in first before putting the roof back together.

Xiao Keleng put the booklet back on the bookshelf and stood in the study doorway with her arms crossed. It was already late, but she showed no signs of fatigue, her gaze constantly sweeping across the living room, bedroom, and staircase. Clearly, she had a deep affection for this place, and the thought of demolishing it would be incredibly difficult for her.

Suren answered the phone: "Brother Feng, let's proceed with the dismantling of the villa as you planned. Anyway, Big Brother has already conducted an extremely detailed investigation of the building's surface. If we still can't find anything, it can only mean that the secret is hidden inside. I support your idea and hope you succeed."

She is not only intelligent and wise, but also has the ability to assess the situation and make the most reasonable adjustments in the shortest time.

Xiao Ke shrugged, leaned against the door frame, looked up, and her short hair swayed gently.

I suddenly felt speechless. My recent phone conversations with Suren had been limited to business, without a single casual chat. If we were truly a couple in love, this kind of communication would be very abnormal.

"How are you feeling? Is the living environment there good? If you can wait any longer, once things in Hokkaido have a clear outcome, I'll fly to Xi'an immediately to meet you, okay?" This was perhaps the gentlest thing I could say. When facing Su Lun, her toughness and sharpness often limited my desire to express tenderness, unlike the feelings I had every time I saw Guan Baoling.

Suren's mood improved slightly: "It's alright, it's just that spies from the Southwest caravan are occasionally showing up, probably because they've smelled some treasure. But I've already asked some underworld figures to send out 'Green Arrows,' giving away tens of thousands of RMB to ward off trouble, so it shouldn't be a problem. The weather isn't great right now, but I expect three sunny days next week with winds exceeding level three, which will be suitable for crossing 'Lan Valley.' So, I'll be leading the team out in a week. Wait for my good news!"

She is always full of confidence in the face of unknown challenges, a quality that often puts many established heroes in the martial arts world to shame.

The Truth of the Sixth Tomb of the Gods

— Chapter 3 - Dismantling Xunfuyuan —

After saying "take care" to Su Lun, I hung up the phone. Xiao Keleng hadn't said a word the whole time, but now she sighed sadly, "Mr. Feng, I guess Su Lun's intention is to wait for you to join the search team. We've been good friends for years, and I can guess what she's thinking with my eyes closed."

I didn't dare to continue her conversation, afraid that I would be distracted again by wavering between Su Lun and Guan Baoling, so I quickly changed the subject: "Xiao Xiao, please take care of arranging the demolition workers for the villa—by the way, I haven't seen Hawke yet, where is he? Where did he go?" In these turbulent times, the command system of the Divine Gun Society, relying solely on Wang Jiangnan's efforts, will inevitably struggle to cope in the end.

Xiao Keleng shook off his gloom and replied seriously, "Mr. Sun Long sent Hawke to Tokyo by phone. He's probably going to search for some information. He'll be back soon."

She headed towards the stairs to say goodbye, but then turned back and asked, "Mr. Feng, would you be interested in knowing who the original owner of that booklet was?"

Before I could answer, she directly stated the name of the previous collector: "Konosuke Watanabe".

She quietly went downstairs, leaving me alone, stunned by the name. When the important figure spoke of "mermaid lungs," he also mentioned Watanabe Konosuke, a learned and talented elderly Japanese man. I had a vague feeling that this person was no ordinary person, and perhaps he was somehow connected to my search.

The clock hands were pointing to two in the morning, but I suddenly found myself wide awake.

Tomorrow the house will be dismantled. If, after breaking it down brick by brick, we find nothing, nothing at all, then it will prove my decision was completely wrong. Furthermore, all the incredible events that occurred in the room will lose their context and never reappear. For example, the intermittent sound of bubbles, Guan Baoling's disappearance and hallucinations, some of my strange dreams, the meaning of the nine-headed bird's struggle for survival…

I wandered into the study once more, looking up at the crossbeams overhead. In my dream, when my elder brother was searching this room, I felt he was looking for something very important; otherwise, he wouldn't have used a compass to hide it. "Perhaps I should try harder to find that compass? Is the secret in the book?"

That book, belonging to the ancestors of Xiang Hui of Henwanju, lay forlornly in a corner. I could imagine the reason it left its homeland and came to Japan: it was probably looted by Japanese soldiers during World War II, then sold at a very low price to a Japanese collector of cultural relics, and its value increased tens of thousands of times over before finally ending up in the hands of Watanabe Konosuke. Every page of it should be stained with the blood of Chinese people.

If the bronze warrior statue exists to signal the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, what practical significance does it hold? At least for now, it seems to have no value.

I turned to the last page of the booklet, and that word was definitely the symbol for "Alpha." This was incredibly perplexing; the appearance of a modern symbol in a Chinese version of an ancient book would be unbelievable to any archaeologist or antiquities dealer.

As I lay back on the sofa, the "Alpha" symbol kept replaying in my mind. Its handwriting was identical to the previous text and graphics, clearly from the same person, not some later joking forgery.

"What does it mean that 'Qingsi' is produced by 'Alpha'? Does the symbol represent a place with a fixed name, like Hokkaido, Hong Kong, or Bangkok? In the past, was there ever a place in China called 'Alpha'?"

Throughout Chinese history, many scripts have existed with extremely limited circulation and narrow reach, such as the Tangut script and the Jin dynasty script, some parts of which are completely undecipherable. This symbol appears to be "alpha," so could it be an ancient Chinese script we've never discovered before? It must refer to a specific location on the Chinese mainland, within the Qin and Han dynasties' territory; otherwise, how could Zhang Heng have found that "thread of affection"?

I dozed off on the sofa in a daze. I felt shadowy figures moving in front of me, and the sunlight was shining directly onto the sofa from the window, making my eyes hurt.

I opened my eyes and saw Xiao Keleng sitting on the sofa opposite me, staring at me. I immediately threw off the covers and jumped up. Actually, my mind was still hazy; I hadn't fallen into a deep sleep at all. On the coffee table was a white soup pot, emitting a slightly astringent aroma of ginseng soup.

“Mr. Feng, you haven’t been sleeping much lately. Sister Su Lun told me to take good care of your diet and daily life. This pot of Korean ginseng and blackfish soup is at the perfect temperature. Drinking it will help you replenish your energy.” Xiao Ke, who was not wearing any makeup, looked very pale, but seemed to be in a good mood.

At the other end of the coffee table were two black folders, both open.

"Finish your soup before you read this! This is the investigation report on last night's car accident, and the other is the conclusion report from when Mr. Scalpel investigated the villa. Mr. Feng, dismantling the villa is easy, but restoring it is extremely difficult. I advise you to think twice before you act." She smiled wearily, still offering her final words of advice.

After drinking the ginseng soup, I felt much less tired, but it still felt like a heavy weight was pressing on my heart. I figured I should receive a call from Gu Zhijin before noon, ready to unleash his fury. He'd suddenly lost a younger sister for no reason, and he might fight me to the death, taking all his anger out on me.

The police accident report stated that the car was traveling smoothly at 100 kilometers per hour. The explosion occurred in the trunk. Two young men in a nearby villa witnessed a large fireball rise from the car, followed by a loud bang. The car was then sent flying into the air, shattering into pieces, with debris scattered everywhere. The explosion and fire destroyed all traces of the occupants; only steel fragments and shattered stainless steel wheel rims were visible at the scene.

"No traces were left. The police determined that the fire was caused by an unidentified type of bomb, and there were no obvious clues that any violent organization was involved—" Xiao Keleng helplessly spread his hands. The dozen or so pictures in the folder clearly reproduced the scene of the car accident. One of them was a charred steering wheel, with only a strange iron ring remaining.

I looked up to the sky and sighed, "Gu Qingcheng died tragically and inexplicably. Gu Zhijin must be so furious that he'll vomit blood." We were friends, and I'm being unfairly blamed for this. I have no way to defend myself.

The scalpel's detection report was over a hundred pages long, and I flipped directly to the conclusion: "There are no hidden passages in the walls, no basement under the main building, and no spring mechanisms in the metal components of any room." This concise conclusion, which he had paid nearly $20,000 to hire a professional detection team for, did nothing to help him in his guesses.

Xiao Ke patted the statue's shoulder and smiled helplessly: "The results of the X-ray detection are really strange. We knew that the statue would change direction on its own, but we found that its interior is a solid structure with no electromagnetic power or any mechanism. Mr. Scalpel once joked that to crack the secret of Xunfu Garden, we had to disassemble it piece by piece. I never thought that his wish would be fulfilled by you."

I gazed at the watchtower outside the window, its surface bathed in the red glow of the rising sun, and smiled silently: "Yes, the mysteries of the world always need someone to step forward and solve them, or someone to have the courage to bear the infamy. I just hope that after this dismantling operation yields nothing, you and Suren won't laugh at me for the rest of your lives."

Xiao Ke tossed her short hair, her eyes regaining their youthful brilliance: "How could that be? If I have to bear the stigma of being a pioneer and innovator, I'd rather share the burden with Mr. Feng."

Xiao Keleng's efficiency was top-notch. The forty strong workers he quickly recruited moved all the furniture, books, and decorations out of the main building within two hours and transported them to the villa called "Water Mist" on the east side using four extended trucks. He properly arranged rooms for everyone, and everything was in good order.

There was a tea table, a few small stools, a kettle, water cups, and Longjing tea in the pavilion, which served as my temporary command post.

From this perspective, the murderous intent of the "Nine-Headed Bird Fighting for Life" is clearly revealed. Of the three rooms on the second floor—the bedroom, living room, and study—only one wooden window with a nine-square grid on the south wall of the living room is left, like nine menacing ghostly eyes staring angrily southward.

This type of house, facing south, was originally intended to absorb the yang energy of sunlight through its doors and windows, like mouths and noses. However, the doors and windows on the main building violate the feng shui taboo of "a large belly and a small mouth," causing stagnant energy to accumulate and become impossible to expel. The people living in the house, whether in terms of intellect or career prospects, are blocked within the nine-square grid of windows. To escape, they must find themselves in nine separate channels, requiring considerable effort and energy. Even those with lofty ambitions are wasted in futile struggles.

The tycoon was very low-key, having moved to the Water Mist Villa early on. Last night's in-depth conversation hadn't yielded the answer he'd hoped for. Anyone else, upon hearing that the stunningly beautiful Guan Baoling was the tycoon's daughter and could become his son-in-law, would probably be overjoyed, forgetting even their own identity. Why would they hesitate and need to consider things repeatedly?

Based on this, I'm afraid I've already offended him.

As the yellow and black construction crane drove into the villa, Xiao Keleng approached the water pavilion and asked me, "Mr. Feng, can the formal dismantling process begin now? The main challenge is hoisting the samurai statue. Would you like to personally supervise the workers' operation?"

I shook my head. I trusted Xiao Keleng's ability to handle things. I hoped that during the disassembly process, I could gain a detailed understanding of the overall situation from the external structure.

Xiao Ke nodded and ran towards the Komatsu crane, whose lifting capacity was eight tons. Japanese-made construction machinery is of top quality and extremely efficient, earning praise from engineering experts worldwide. The samurai statue would be removed from the villa in about an hour.

“What kind of discovery am I hoping to make? Secret passages, hidden walls, basements… It shouldn’t be such an ordinary concealed structure. Could it be that my brother deliberately built Xunfu Garden with such a strange exterior to attract attention? To deliberately give people an unpleasant feeling? If so, the fate of the villa is obvious: it will be demolished quickly, no matter who its current owner is.”

So, did the elder brother build the villa so that the later owner would demolish it? For example, after he left it to the scalpel, his real purpose was to hope that the scalpel could understand this meaning, then demolish it and obtain the secret beneath the villa—"No, perhaps as the plague said, the elder brother has been trapped since he jumped into the 'Well of Spirits' fifteen years ago and has never been able to return. As a result, the villa was naturally left to the scalpel."

The plague brought me both great hope and great distress. For the past fifteen years, has my elder brother been trapped in a mysterious space? Like the hallucinations Guan Baoling once entered, or the glass box we both experienced—

"Excuse me, Feng." Guan Baoling's voice suddenly rang out, breaking my reverie.

Lately, I've been like this all the time. When my mind is distracted, I can't even notice when someone is approaching. This is a major taboo for martial arts masters.

Guan Baoling held a roll of paper in her hand, still wearing the sportswear Xiao Keleng had prepared for her, her hair casually draped over her shoulders. After changing out of her black clothes, her mood seemed to have improved, and her appearance became even more fresh and charming.

“Feng, I drew a picture of the sparrow pattern that appeared in the ‘Well of Spirits’ that day. I hope it will be helpful for the work ahead.” She pushed aside her teacup and spread out the A4-sized white paper on the table. Sure enough, it was the sparrow pattern that appeared on the water’s surface, exactly as I remembered it.

After last night's confrontation with the tycoon, seeing Guan Baoling again suddenly made all my previous worries vanish like snowflakes in the sunlight, disappearing without a trace. She was so beautiful, like a radiant peony blooming in the sun, possessing an alluring charm that captivated the heart. If I wanted, all I had to do was nod to the tycoon and submit to his side, and I could have this beauty before me for life.

Guan Baoling raised her arms and suddenly spun around. Her long, fine, and smooth hair resembled a classical and gorgeous Jiangnan silk umbrella that slowly opened, captivating anyone who saw it.

"Feng, I hope that after things are settled here in Hokkaido, we can be best friends, okay?" As she spoke, her long eyelashes fluttered alluringly, casting deep shadows on her cheekbones. She certainly knew about the tycoon's talk to me, which had completely untied the most difficult knot in her heart. However, her appearance was quite different from the tycoon's; she should have resembled her mother more.

I tried to calm myself down, picked up a pencil, and used extremely fine strokes to draw a nine-square grid on the surface of her drawing. I also used black dots to represent the eight trigrams of the sparrow's body parts: Rest, Injury, Life, Block, View, Death, Shock, and Open.

This "Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Sparrow Killing Formation" evolved from the "Eight Trigrams Formation" of Zhuge Liang, the strategist of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms period. After repeated research by masters of divination during the Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, it was finally finalized in the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties by the famous anti-Yuan rebel Mu family. The key to the formation is to rely on the changes of the odd and even in the three points of celestial timing, terrain, and human destiny, supplemented by the burning power of the Vermilion Bird of the Southern Fire element (丙丁火), to accumulate all the offensive power and deliver a devastating blow.

Guan Baoling didn't understand my intention; she just stared intently at the pencil in my hand.

Under Xiao Keleng's command, the crane had already approached the main building, with its boom extending out, just waiting for the workers to dismantle the roof before the lifting operation could begin.

My mind was racing, but unfortunately, with the divination master Zhang Baisen gone and the Shao brothers both dead, I had to figure out the potential effects of this formation myself. Leaving aside whether demolishing the villas and building the irrigation canals could counteract the "black magic" curse within the tycoon's scheme, just looking at the modified formation, the Vermilion Bird in the south directly piercing the "arrow through the heart" formation was definitely not a good thing.

The "arrow" formation from Fengge Temple is the nemesis of all bird formations. If the two formations face each other, they will be like fire and water, and it will only be a matter of who can kill the other.

My gaze instinctively fell on Guan Baoling's neck. The shocking teeth marks immediately drew my attention. The more they appeared, the closer she would get to death. The red teeth marks carried an evil and eerie power, arranged neatly, each one as clear as a classic tattoo.

“These things—” Guan Baoling noticed my pain and reached down to touch the area below my neck.

"Mr. Ye has already told me the truth, and he telegraphed Helen at seven o'clock this morning to prepare 1.5 billion US dollars to be transferred to the extortionist's Swiss bank account before ten o'clock this morning. Don't worry, I will be fine. The fortune teller once said that I will always be happy and blessed because I have a 'worry-free line' on my palm, which is passed straight through by the life line. Therefore, happiness will accompany me for life."

She smiled happily and confidently, like a joyful little girl, having long since forgotten her superstar persona. Seeing her like this in front of the paparazzi, I doubt anyone would associate her with the glamorous superstar Kwan Po-ling on stage.

The tycoon finally took a crucial step, which relieved me greatly. Of course, the tycoon's close cooperation with Xiao Yan also provided effective support for the operation to track down the extortionists' hideout. The tycoon would never let anyone who dared to challenge his authority get away with it.

The workers removed the roof very quietly, raising very little dust or dirt. There was none of the loud "thump-thump" noise or dust pollution over a radius of nearly 100 meters that is common in other countries. This demonstrates the dedication of the Japanese.

"Miss Guan, according to your idea, once the irrigation canal is built, will Mr. Ye's illness be completely cured?" I have always been skeptical about this.

Guan Baoling answered without hesitation, “Of course, that was a divine decree from heaven. Heaven wouldn’t fool mortals, right? Feng, you really should listen to the teachings of Christianity. Every believer says, ‘Those who believe in God will have eternal life.’ Even if we’re not Christians, we should still have our own faith, right? Holding onto an unchanging faith makes people happier. If we firmly believe that the light will surely come, it will come and not disappoint our prayers…”

The tycoon only glossed over the history of her and her mother being seduced and abandoned by the tycoon. Literary novels are rife with such tropes: a rich young man falls in love with a poor girl, and when that love fades, it's the girl's final act, a bitter end. I can imagine that Guan Baoling experienced a very unhappy and impoverished childhood, which is why she yearns for light so much today.

I nodded and smiled at her. If rebuilding the canal could break the "black magic" in the tycoon's world, it would be a great deed. I also hoped that the oracle of the "Well of Spirits" would produce some strange power.

When I think of "black magic," I inevitably think of Resika, the mysteriously vanished "Silver Dandelion" who became famous throughout the Middle East. The Maple Temple has presented me with many perplexing mysteries, which I can only solve step by step, making it almost certain that I'll miss my reunion with Suren.

The crane arm had already reached the roof of the open-air main building's living room, and workers were busy binding the bronze warrior statue with steel cables. Then, they gave the signal that "lifting can begin."

The weight of the warrior statue was roughly estimated to be less than half a ton, so lifting it would have been an easy task. But something strange happened: as the crane arm continued to rise, the four-meter-long steel cable was taut, but the bronze statue remained motionless, and all the workers gathered around.

I suddenly stood up, sensing that something was wrong.

Xiao Keleng had already climbed up the crane arm to the second floor like a nimble monkey. He glanced around briefly, then turned back and waved to me.

A crane with a rated working limit of eight tons can easily lift at least five tons, so why couldn't it lift this warrior statue? I dropped my pencil and went straight to the main building, leaving Guan Baoling alone in the water pavilion.

“Mr. Feng, the steel cable is stretched to its limit. It seems the weight of this warrior statue is not as light as we thought, or perhaps it is connected to some mechanism at the bottom?” Xiao Keleng looked down at the warrior statue, his brows furrowed. I jumped onto the boom arm and stood next to Xiao Keleng, able to clearly see the top of the warrior statue’s head.

“It definitely doesn’t weigh five tons, and the insulation between the two floors is only fifty centimeters thick. It’s impossible for it to fit some kind of giant mechanism—” After a moment’s thought, I immediately instructed Xiao Keleng: “Bring over a more powerful crane. We must get it out no matter what. Also, find a lightweight mobile X-ray vehicle. After we get the bronze statue, we should immediately conduct repeated detailed monitoring on it to see what’s inside!”

In my opinion, even if the statue of a samurai is connected to some kind of track or counterweight, as long as a large crane with a lifting capacity of more than 20 tons can easily break those intricate things.

Xiao Keleng quickly took out his phone and began mobilizing vehicles. After a few brief words, the arrangements were easily completed. The advantages of the commercial world were once again evident: as long as you have money, nothing is a problem. Not only can you mobilize any engineering vehicle, but if needed, you can also mobilize a tank division within an hour, provided you have a lot of money.

An hour later, a crane with a rated lifting capacity of thirty tons entered Xunfuyuan and, with the help of six steel cables, successfully lifted the samurai statue. The crane arm looked to be struggling, and after rotating out of the ruins, it slowly lowered the statue to the ground.

"Judging from this, the warrior statue must weigh at least fifteen tons. Mr. Feng, in your knowledge, what material could be used to make a statue of the same size to achieve a weight of fifteen tons?" Xiao Ke shook his head in astonishment and jumped onto the study floor with me.

Surprisingly, the original location where the samurai statue was placed had no metal fixtures at all, just an ordinary marble floor.

Xiao Keleng pointed to the ground and loudly ordered the workers around him, "Break through there, all the way down." Immediately, the clanging of hammers and chisels filled the air. In just fifteen minutes, the workers had broken through the reinforced concrete slab, and the ground floor was already visible.

The floor slab structure was also ordinary, without any particularly thick steel mesh or metal rails. The specifications of all building materials conformed to the general standards of the Japanese construction industry. Xiao Ke was somewhat discouraged, but she had overlooked one point from the beginning: if the weight of the samurai statue really reached fifteen tons, then the floor slab she saw so far could not bear it.

Based on the diameter of the reinforcing bars and the thickness of the concrete slab, it can be roughly estimated that the load-bearing capacity of the slab is about five tons. If a bronze statue weighing fifteen tons were dropped on a local area, the only consequence would be that the slab would be crushed and the statue would crash into the ground floor, penetrating about one meter into the ground under the influence of gravity.

The only conclusion is that the statue is not overweight, but rather held in place by some mysterious, powerful underground suction force. This suction force is far greater than the lifting capacity of a small crane.