The water of Jian Lake shone with amber light, and Su Chen stood in front of the Qu room of "Yunji Wine Shop". Tang Ren opened the seal of the wine jar, and the strong smell of wine was mixed with a hint of sweetness: "Why does this twenty-year-old wine have a rusty taste?"
"It's blood." Qin Feng inserted a silver needle into the wine, and the tip of the needle turned black instantly. The old shopkeeper of the wine shop sat paralyzed on the ground: "Last night, we opened the altar to offer sacrifices to the god of wine, and all 20 'Nürhong' pots were... all soaked with blood!"
Su Chen's fingertips skimmed across the bluestone wine tank and touched sticky moss in the southeast corner. He pried open the stone slab and found half a tin wine tray with jagged marks in the dark channel, which matched the gap of the tea tray on the Longjing tea table perfectly.
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The old warehouse sealed with yellow mud was covered with mold spots. When Tang Ren kicked open the wooden door, he was startled by moths all over the room. Qin Feng covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief: "This, this is the hot waterleaf used for making koji?" Su Chen pushed away the spider web, and the pottery jar in the corner of the wall suddenly cracked, gushing out dark red liquid.
"Dang 뀞 the bottom of the jar!" Tang Ren used a bamboo pole to pick up the debris. The bottom of the jar was engraved with "Records of the Clouds in the 20th Year of Guangxu". Su Chen dipped the liquid in the liquid and smelled it: "The wine koji is mixed with crane-top red, and it must have been stored for at least 20 years."
At midnight, a strange noise was heard from the cellar of the winery. The people followed the sound and found the secret cellar. Twenty children's corpses were arranged in the shape of a Big Dipper, each with a tin wine pot with the letter Q in its mouth.
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The black-sailed boat passed by the Qianlong Imperial Monument, and Su Chen stared at the shadow under the water. Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the stone arch bridge: "There is something tangled on the bridge pier!" Qin Feng picked it up with a bamboo pole, and it turned out to be a swollen swaddling cloth with the word "birthday" embroidered with gold thread.
"The beginning of the month of Bingshen..." Su Chen counted with his fingers, "It was exactly twenty days ago." The wooden window of the riverside house creaked open, and the old woman handed over the "Daughter's Red" to the altar: "The guest bought a bar and buried twenty days..."
When Tang Ren broke the mud seal, the wine jar suddenly exploded. The flying porcelain pieces cut through the dusk, and on the bluestone slabs, a bloody picture of the old site of Shaoxing government office was formed.
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In the abandoned gaoziqiao yamen, Su Chen lifted the plaque in the main hall. Behind the dusty "mirror hanging high", the secret compartment was filled with moldy criminal case files. Qin Feng turned to the 20th volume of Guangxu: "This, this is the case of the yellow wine poisoning case..."
Tang Ren overturned the case and was surprised to find a secret passage on the floor. At the end of the secret passage was a bronze Xiezhi statue, and on the jade tablet on the beast's mouth was a list of past prefects written in red ink - the last one was the current prefect of Hangzhou.
"Look at the back of the tablet!" Qin Feng used a candle to heat it, revealing the tide chart of Ningbo Port. Su Chen touched the dent in the left eye of the Xiezhi, which was embedded in the tin wine pot found in Anchang. The sound of the mechanism turning shook the dust off the beam.
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The salty sea breeze carried the fishy smell. Tang Ren squatted in front of the ruins of the "Baoshun Ship" and ate a moss cake. Su Chen used a compass to check the position. The pointer suddenly turned wildly at 5 p.m. Qin Feng opened the oyster shells on the breakwater, revealing the cast iron anchor chain with teeth marks.
"This, this is the old anchor of the Zhenhai Customs!" the old sailor at the dock said drunkenly, "a British ship sank during the Guangxu period..." As soon as he finished speaking, twenty wine jars suddenly floated on the river, and the cinnabar print of "Yun Ji Ji" on the jars was glaring in the twilight.
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The celadon fragments from the Yue kiln ruins pierced the sole of his shoe. Su Chen bent down to pick up a piece of broken pieces. Tang Ren looked at the sunlight carefully: "The color of this glaze is very strange..." Qin Feng suddenly stuttered: "The fragments can be pieced together to form a hexagram!"
The people found the abandoned dragon kiln, with newly fired porcelain pieces piled up in the kiln. Su Chen soaked the porcelain pieces with water from the Jianhu Lake, and the glaze gradually revealed dark patterns - it turned out to be the complete last volume of the "Heavenly Manuscript". Tang Ren kicked open the altar of the kiln temple, and twenty secret-colored porcelain jars were arranged in the Big Dipper formation, and the name of the drowned boat was engraved on the bottom of each jar.
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The hurricane blew up the remaining flags of the Zhaobaoshan Fort, and Su Chen stood at the site of the old Weiyuan City. Qin Feng unfolded the "Heavenly Book", and the red dot on the sea chart was facing the mouth of the Yongjiang River. Tang Ren pried open the bricks of the city wall, and in the dark cave, a whole box of opium paste wrapped with celadon fragments was found.
"So that's it!" Su Chen pressed the secret colored porcelain piece into the base of the turret, and the rusted iron cannon suddenly turned. In the morning mist, twenty ghost ships came with the tide, and on the mast of the leading treasure ship, the blood-stained flag with the word "Cheng" echoed.
As the rain poured down, Su Chen threw the "Book of Testaments" into the raging waves. Tang Ren chewed a fish and muttered, "This broken book should have been fed to the king long ago!" Qin Feng stared at the beach after the tide receded - on the newly exposed Jiajing Sea Ban Monument, the bloody scratches were spelling out a new hexagram...