Chapter 55 Investigation of the Thousand Silk Mound
Shao Yanzhe put down his brush and watched as his exam paper was swept away by a green willow branch.
As the tree roots and willow branches around him receded, he glanced around and saw the other scholars sitting expressionlessly, seemingly emanating a faint sense of death.
He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He often saw this kind of scene in modern times, and he was one of them.
Mr. Liu read the exam papers rather slowly, and it took him quite some time to finish reading them all.
He forced a smile at them: "It's alright, barely acceptable."
After he finished speaking, he waved his sleeve at them and said, "It's about time, you can all leave now!"
Shao Yanzhe only had time to throw a small, elegant character at Mr. Liu with his jade hairpin pen before everything went black.
He suddenly opened his eyes and found himself back.
"Ouch! My face hurts so much!" Zhou Jiming's voice rang out first.
Shao Yanzhe turned his head and saw that Zhou Jiming's right cheek was red and looked a little swollen.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked, puzzled.
Zhou Jiming was also bewildered. He didn't know why his face was swollen when he woke up: "I don't know either!"
His speech was somewhat unclear due to the pain.
Xuan Yao, who was squatting to the side, guiltily looked away, then turned back and looked at him with disgust.
It's all because those two legs were too useless; he only hit them a few times!
Shao Yanzhe gave him a wet cloth to use to reduce the swelling, since it was still dark and it wasn't convenient to find a doctor to see him.
He stared at Zhou Jiming, who was grimacing, and said, "It seems that even if the body is injured, we can't feel it."
Wen Yanqing frowned, immediately grasping the key point: "So, even if someone kills our bodies, we won't be able to wake up and save ourselves?"
“Yes.” Shao Yanzhe nodded firmly.
Xuan Yao, who was standing to the side, suddenly uttered four words: "Lonely souls and wandering ghosts!"
Shao Yanzhe looked over, and the words "lonely souls and wandering ghosts" flashed through his mind, and he understood what Xuan Yao meant.
"You mean to say that wandering ghosts and spirits want to possess our bodies?"
Xuan Yao nodded vigorously: "Meow!"
Upon hearing this, Wen Yanqing and the others turned pale. They didn't want to return after going through countless hardships and passing the test, only to find that their bodies were alive and kicking, possessed by other wandering ghosts, and that they themselves had become wandering ghosts.
Shao Yanzhe smiled gently and reached out to give Xuan Yao's fluffy head a good pat.
He praised, "You're really amazing! You protected our bodies, didn't you? I'll buy you some dried fish when it gets light, okay?"
Xuan Yao raised his head high, narrowed his eyes, and meowed, "Meow!"
"Brother Cat! You're truly my dear Brother Cat! Just you wait, as soon as it gets light, I'll have someone deliver the freshest and most delicious dried fish to you! From now on, I'll take care of all your dried fish!"
Chen Yunhe immediately rushed to Xuan Yao's side, wanting to hug him, but Xuan Yao pushed her away with his cat paw in disgust.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at the cat paw prints Xuan Yao had left on Chen Yunhe's face, and it seemed that Zhou Jiming's swollen face also had the same cat paw prints.
He looked away as if he hadn't seen anything, and coughed lightly to draw everyone's attention: "With him here, our bodies are temporarily safe. However, we still need to resolve this matter as soon as possible, after all, not everyone can successfully pass the test."
Su Yuheng and Wen Yanqing nodded, their gazes drifting towards Liu Mingyuan and his companions, their hearts filled with unease.
Shao Yanzhe broke the somewhat somber atmosphere: "Alright, it's getting late, everyone go and rest first, we can talk about the rest tomorrow."
"good."
Only then did they realize that they were physically and mentally exhausted. They yawned and left to rest in their rooms.
Zhou Jiming covered his face with a wet towel and glanced at Xuan Yao.
Xuan Yao noticed the gaze, shifted his position, and turned his back to him.
Upon seeing this, Zhou Jiming was both amused and annoyed. He snorted coldly at him and then left.
Shao Yanzhe awkwardly touched his nose and tapped his forehead: "Why did you hit me so hard! Now you've been found out!"
Xuan Yao let out a soft cry and tilted his head to rub against his hand.
Shao Yanzhe immediately softened, picked him up, and turned to go back to his room.
Never mind, Brother Zhou didn't say anything, so it's not right for him to overstep his bounds, is it?
I slept without any dreams.
When Shao Yanzhe woke up, he found that it was already bright daylight. He checked the time and it was almost 11:00 AM. The others were still asleep.
Fortunately, Mr. Liu did not require them to go to the academy to study today, otherwise they would probably all be late.
After washing up, he carried Xuan Yao out the door.
It's not early anymore; the morning market has long since closed.
He then took Xuan Yao directly to a general store to select dried fish. After buying enough dried fish, they strolled leisurely down the street.
He was very curious about Mr. Liu's background, but he didn't know anything about the woman's head.
It seemed that only the government office could record Mr. Liu's information. After thinking for a moment, Shao Yanzhe turned around and decided to go to the government office to find Han Yuzhang and see if he could solve the problem.
Unexpectedly, just as he turned around, a man wearing a black robe with a touch of vermilion at the hem walked towards him. Fortunately, he stopped in time and they didn't collide.
"I'm sorry!" he quickly apologized.
The man didn't even look at him and walked straight away.
Shao Yanzhe narrowed his eyes. He seemed to have seen a spider mark inside the man's robe. He was very familiar with this mark; it was the one he had seen on Shen Moyuan's arm before.
This bothered him, and after thinking about it, he followed.
Knowing he wasn't a professional, he didn't keep staring at the person. Instead, he pretended to be a shop shopper and occasionally went into a store to take a look.
The street was long and led straight ahead, so he wasn't worried about getting lost.
The man in front seemed completely unconcerned about being followed, and continued straight ahead towards the city gate of Jiangzhou.
Shao Yanzhe stood at a distance and did not follow. He then saw the man rent a horse at the city gate, mount it, and ride away.
He slowly approached the city gate and discerned that the direction the man had left was the same direction they had come from.
He couldn't continue following them. Not only did he not know how to ride a horse, but even if he did, he would definitely be discovered if he followed that person.
Shao Yanzhe turned back and headed towards the government office, where he soon arrived.
Coincidentally, he happened to run into Han Yuzhang, who was out of town, which saved him a lot of trouble.
"Lord Han!" he said hurriedly.
Han Yuzhang, who was about to get into the carriage, stopped when he heard the sound, turned around and saw Shao Yanzhe.
He twitched his brow, pondered for a moment, then stepped forward and pulled him to a secluded corner.
"You've come at the right time; I happen to have something to discuss with you."
"Please speak, sir."
"The Heavenly Decree has sent someone down. He is investigating the cause of death of those two people. I have not mentioned you. I only said that it was caused by ghosts. Be careful. If anyone asks you about this, just say that you didn't know anything."
Shao Yanzhe's eyes flashed, and he couldn't help but connect the person sent down by the Heavenly Decree mentioned by Han Yuzhang with the man he had just met.
He cupped his hands in thanks and said, "Thank you, sir!"
"Nothing. By the way, what brings you here?" Han Yuzhang asked.
Shao Yanzhe then told him about the willow tree demon outside the city and asked if there was any solution.
Han Yuzhang looked at him sympathetically and said, "I have no choice. I was also unintentionally involved back then. Fortunately, I was lucky and passed the tests. I passed the provincial examination, the metropolitan examination and the palace examination, and finally got a score of fifteen in the palace examination."
After he finished speaking, he reached out and patted his shoulder: "This is actually an opportunity for you. Otherwise, with your commoner status, it would be very difficult for you to pass the exam. You have high aptitude, so the willow tree spirit's test is not difficult for you. You should seize this opportunity."
"As for the others, they are complacent and unambitious. They don't want to seize such an opportunity, and it would be difficult for them to continue scientific research. You just need to take care of yourself."
"Alright, I have other matters to attend to, so I'll be leaving now."
Seeing that Han Yuzhang was about to leave, Shao Yanzhe quickly made his request: "Sir, I would like to see the government records."
He smiled and said, "After all, we were classmates, and the students don't want to just watch them die."
Han Yuzhang glanced at him with a complicated expression, then took out a token from his sleeve and handed it to him. "Here you go!"
Shao Yanzhe quickly accepted the gift with both hands, bowed, and thanked him, saying, "Thank you, sir!"
Before leaving, Han Yuzhang patted him on the shoulder again and said, "I have high hopes for you. I hope we will meet again in the Golden Palace."
Shao Yanzhe was taken aback for a moment, then nodded seriously: "Okay!"
He watched Han Yuzhang leave, told Xuan Yao to wait outside, and then went into the government office to find the place where the government records were kept. After showing his token, he entered.
Upon seeing the vast collection of books inside, he felt a chill run down his spine. He stepped back and asked the guard, "Excuse me, could you please tell me about the large willow tree outside Jiangzhou City? Where are the relevant books stored?"
The person guarding this place was an elderly man. After thinking for a moment, he said, "In room C, the fifth row of the thirtieth bookshelf."
"Thank you!" Shao Yanzhe bowed and expressed his gratitude.
He went back inside and found the place the old man had mentioned. There he saw a bookshelf as tall as a person with five rows of books, about a hundred books in each row.
He took a deep breath, rolled up his sleeves, and began to look through the pages.
I read from 9 am to 5 pm, and only managed to finish half of it.
There's no way I can finish watching the rest today, so I plan to come back tomorrow.
After saying goodbye to the old man, he walked out of the government office, and Xuan Yao jumped from the wall onto his shoulder.
A human and a cat walked in the warm yellow light of the setting sun, surrounded by the aroma of food.
Shao Yanzhe was already hungry. He randomly found a small stall by the roadside and ordered a bowl of shredded pork noodles. While waiting for the noodles, he put the dried fish he bought for Xuan Yao on the stool.
The black cat, equally hungry, jumped onto the stool and began to eat.
The shredded pork noodles were alright, but not as good as the wontons I had last time.
Shao Yanzhe carried Xuan Yao back, reminiscing about the wontons he had eaten that morning, and planning to go back for another meal sometime in the future.
He walked down a street and, as he turned a corner, saw a house with a soul-guiding banner hanging outside, flanked by white cloth soul-binding ribbons.
He paused, but there was only one way back, so he continued walking forward, hugging the wall.
As soon as we got closer, the house suddenly became noisy, and it looked like a fight had broken out.
Several people carried the coffin out, but many others cried and tried to stop them. In the struggle, the coffin somehow fell to the ground and overturned, causing the body inside to roll out and land right in front of Shao Yanzhe.
Instantly, the surroundings fell silent.
Shao Yanzhe: ...
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