Chapter 179 Night Exploration (Part 2)
After watching the scene, Pei Xingju took Zhuang Wan back to the carriage, and Zhuang Wan sat aside in a depressed mood.
Pei Xingju asked, "Are you scared?"
"No," Zhuang Wan shook her head. "I just think the lives of ordinary people are worthless. When you fight in the court, innocent women and children die."
Pei Xingju raised his eyebrows: "How do you know it's a court fight?"
Is there any need to guess? In a previous life, the book mentioned the collapse of the Guangji Temple Buddha statue. It was this incident that caused the estrangement between Duke Xin and the Queen Mother. This incident became a raft for various factions, who fought openly and covertly for their own interests, but no one cared about the dead mother and daughter.
When she first read the book, she had only briefly mentioned the death of the mother and daughter, and hadn't felt anything deeply about it. But today, seeing someone being crushed to death, she couldn't feel any better. It was clearly New Year's Day, and the little girl, happily dressed in new clothes, had come to the temple with her mother to burn incense, only to find herself the victim of a conspiracy.
"Will Prefect Feng get to the bottom of the case?" she asked.
Pei Xingju stared at her: "Do you pity that mother and daughter?"
"Of course." Zhuang Wan nodded.
"Don't worry!" Pei Xingju said, "The case will be investigated and the truth will be revealed to the people. The perpetrators..."
His eyes darkened: "There must be a price to pay."
"What about this mother and daughter? I heard she has a bedridden husband and young child." Zhuang Wan asked.
"I'll have someone go to Jingzhao Prefecture and tell them to take good care of the deceased's relatives. As you said, they are indeed innocent."
He paused, then continued, "But the innocent are more than just this mother and daughter. The court is a bloody court, and the country has never been clean. Beneath the prosperous times are countless withered bones and decayed souls."
At that moment, Zhuang Wan seemed to see deep hatred buried in his eyes. Perhaps the experience of this mother and son brought back painful memories. After Pei Xingju finished speaking, he was actually silent.
Zhuang Wan felt distressed, so she sat over and touched his cheek soothingly.
Pei Xingju raised his eyes: "What are you doing?"
"It's nothing. I can't bear to see you sad, so I'll hug you."
"Why do you know I'm sad?" His eyes were clear and calm, and he was unwilling to show any vulnerability.
Zhuang Wan laughed: "Ah, did I see it wrong? I thought you were sad."
Forget it, just fulfill the wish of this face-conscious man.
Thinking of something, she added, "The Buddha statue collapsed in a strange way. If it were to break, it should have broken at the narrowest part of the waist. Why did it break at the feet?"
The Buddha statue's feet are connected and not thin, and are covered by an outer robe. The whole Buddha statue is shaped like a gourd, becoming more solid towards the bottom.
"Did you discover it too?" Pei Xingju asked.
"Yes," Zhuang Wan nodded. "That's why I think the Buddha statue's collapse is no simple matter. Someone must have done it on purpose."
Pei Xingju looked at her with more and more admiration.
Zhuang Wan raised her chin with a proud expression: "Am I smart?"
"Smart." Pei Xingju smiled. The dark emotions in his heart just now disappeared suddenly after being interrupted by her.
After a moment, he said, "I have something to do tonight and won't be back. You don't have to wait for me to eat."
"Do you want to come and check on the Buddha statue at night?"
"I can't hide anything from you. I really mean it."
Zhuang Wan came over and said, "Take me with you."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to confirm something."
"What's up?"
"You'll know when you get there."
.
That night, in the stillness of a snowy night, two men approached stealthily from the southwest corner of Guangji Temple.
Zhuang Wan looked at the high wall, feeling rather embarrassed: "I have never learned how to climb a wall, what should I do..."
Before she could finish, she felt a tightness around her waist. Pei Xingju carried her up to the top of the wall, and then from there to the roof.
Zhuang Wan was hanging high up, terrified, fearing that Pei Xingju would slip and throw her down, so she wrapped her arms around Pei Xingju's neck.
"Will this be discovered?"
"No, I'm walking in the dark."
Then I heard him say, "Don't let go."
"Oh." Zhuang Wan hurriedly hugged him tightly.
The moonlight was half dark and half bright. Pei Xingju was nimble and swift, and he and Zhuang Wan effortlessly navigated the shadows beneath the eaves. In just a moment, they arrived at the Bodhidharma Hall.
Zhuang Wan had been here just in the daytime, and the tragic scene was still fresh in her mind. She felt a little timid, walking sideways next to Pei Xingju, like conjoined twins.
Pei Xingju was helpless: "Why did you follow me if you were obviously afraid?"
"I thought it was strange, so I came to take a look. Maybe I can discover some secrets."
"Then hide behind me." Pei Xingju said.
"No, what if there's a ghost behind me?"
"...How could there be ghosts in the temple?"
"People can die in temples. There are so many strange things in this world." Zhuang Wan stood next to him and refused to move.
Pei Xingju simply held her lightly and hid her under his arms.
After the two entered the hall, they quietly closed the door. After a moment, Pei Xingju took out a tinder from his sleeve and lit a candle that was already in the hall.
He held a candle and approached the collapsed Buddha statue. It was enormous, hollow inside, easily large enough to conceal two grown men. Zhuang Wan, feeling uneasy, squatted down beside him to investigate.
"What exactly do you want to confirm?" Pei Xingju asked.
Zhuang Wan said, "When I came here during the day, besides the smell of blood, I also smelled a scent of rust. Of course, I'm not sure, so I need to investigate further."
She leaned in closer to observe the statue by candlelight and saw that the inside of the statue was a different color from the outside. She touched it and realized that it was made of a layer of iron.
"I thought the golden Buddha statue was made entirely of gold, but it turns out it's just an iron statue plated with a layer of gold," she said.
Pei Xingju listened and explained, "If it were pure gold, it wouldn't be possible to cast a Buddha statue. Gold is too soft and not as hard as iron."
Zhuang Wan nodded: "That's right."
"Huh?" She twisted her fingers, wondering, "Why are they still wet?"
Thinking she had touched blood, her face turned pale. However, when she shone the candlelight on her fingertips, there was no blood, only a layer of rust and water.
"There is water inside the Buddha statue." Pei Xingju said.
"No wonder, with so much water, it must have rusted." Zhuang Wan said, "So the Buddha statue collapsed because it was rusted inside."
She was a little disappointed, as she had originally thought she could discover some secret.
"So, what happened today was not a natural disaster but a man-made disaster."
"Not necessarily." Pei Xingju said with certainty.
"Why not? Otherwise, why would such a large Buddha statue collapse for no reason?"
Pei Xingju asked, "Have you ever thought about why there is water in the Buddha statue?"
Zhuang Wan’s eyes widened.
Pei Xingju stared at the water in her hand for a moment, then looked up and suddenly jumped onto the beam.
Zhuang Wan held her breath and waited attentively. Not long after, Pei Xingju came down.
"There are no tiles directly above the Buddha statue, and there are water marks on the beams," he said.
"But this doesn't make sense," Zhuang Wan said. "If it was human-caused, why did they calculate it so accurately, and why did it rust and collapse at this very moment?"
This is exactly what Pei Xingju finds difficult to explain.
Pei Xingju drooped his eyelashes and pondered in silence.
If the Buddha statue's collapse wasn't caused by human error, the strangeness of its collapse is evident, as it happened to be a golden statue donated by the Empress Dowager. If it were caused by human error, the evidence is insufficient, and the best we can say is that someone deliberately caused the roof to leak, causing the statue to rust.
But this reason is really far-fetched. Not to mention that it is a long process for the Buddha statue to rust, no one can even accurately predict the timing of its collapse.
He was certain in his heart that this must have been man-made. Was there something missing?
He squatted down again, carefully examining it with the candlelight, and murmured thoughtfully, "A statue made of gold and steel would take years to rust, but this one is only three years old, and it's already covered in rust."
"Ah! I understand!" Zhuang Wan said suddenly.
"Know what?"
At this time, there was a noise outside and someone was coming here.
"Hide quickly." Pei Xingju pulled her up.
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