Chapter 413 Long Live Liuli
When everyone saw Pei Jingyun suddenly calling Xiao Zhuo, they were unable to react for a moment. Even Xiao Zhuo stood there in confusion.
Pei Jingyun said: "The secret is in your father's coffin."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present gasped, their expressions abruptly dawning on them. They had previously scanned the walls and the ground, searching for any clues, but out of respect for the deceased, no one had considered the coffin itself.
Xiao Zhuo was the first to react. He hurried to the front of the coffin, straightened his wet clothes, and knelt in the water to pay homage to the coffin.
Shen Yuexi was overjoyed and pulled Mei Dai and Chen Lan towards Pei Jingyun: "Mother, you...you are not angry anymore?"
Pei Jingyun pressed the jade pendant against her chest with both hands and said with a stern face, "Twenty years of pain cannot be relieved overnight. But considering that you came all the way to return the jade pendant..."
Before she could finish her words, Mei Dai and Shen Lan had already hugged Shen Yuexi on both sides, crying with joy.
Everyone was about to face a catastrophe, but suddenly there was a turn of events and a ray of hope. Even the strongest people would find it difficult to control their excitement, and Shen Yuexi even cheered with joy.
"Chen Yuexi, you can't jump in the tomb. It's against the rules!" Pei Jingyun scolded. "Besides, we're deep underground. This isn't a way to escape."
Shen Yuexi was feeling happy, but she poured a bucket of cold water on her head, so she immediately stopped talking.
After Xiao Zhuo finished kneeling, he stood up, wiped the water from his face, and said to Pei Jingyun, "Mother." Pei Jingyun said, "Now that we have paid our respects, you can open your father's coffin. Hurry, or we won't be able to open it if the water covers it."
During this period, the water level had risen to the middle of everyone's thighs and was less than a foot away from the top of the coffin.
Xiao Zhuo came to the coffin and pushed it, only to find that it was not a separate coffin at all, but was connected to the ground. He pushed the lid open a little, and slowly lifted it up with both hands.
Shen Yuexi and the other two waded through the water to Xiao Zhuo's side, offering their hands to help. Xiao Zhuo said with difficulty, "Don't try to be so stubborn. This deck weighs hundreds of pounds. I can do it alone."
The three of them saw that Xiao Zhuo was strong enough to lift it, so they stood aside.
Xiao Zhuo lifted the lid with great effort and leaned against the side of the coffin. Everyone looked inside the coffin, but did not see Xiao Ming's body. It was covered with pure white linen, piled with jewels and jade, and surrounded by an exquisite ebony square box.
Xiao Zhuo hesitated and said, "Mother, this is..."
"Your father's bones," Pei Jingyun said, "Hurry up and throw away all the jewelry and jade, then lift up the bottom plate. That's the passage down there."
Everyone quickly reached out to scoop up the jewels from the coffin and toss them aside. Gleaming handfuls of jewels, gold, and jade tumbled into the water. They had been filled with despair when they had blocked the sluice gate, but now it was different.
Pei Jingyun stood beside the coffin, silently holding the jade pendant between her palms and whispering to the coffin.
"My dear husband, if you are still alive, I think you would protect your child. From the moment you restored the jade pendant, I knew you no longer thought of Wen Yi... I know that the person in your heart is me, and I have no more resentment in this life."
Everyone threw away their jewelry. Xiao Zhuo personally picked up Xiao Ming's bones and handed them to Shen Yuexi, saying, "Hold them well." Shen Yuexi reached out to take them. Xiao Zhuo took off the linen, grabbed an iron ring at the bottom of the coffin and lifted the bottom plate with force, revealing a dark corridor. Everyone was surprised and delighted, but Pei Jingyun had just instructed them not to make loud noises, so no one dared to shout.
Xiao Zhuo held up the bottom plate and said to Shen Yuexi, "Yuexi, you guys go down quickly."
Mei Dai saw that the passage down was pitch black and she couldn't see anything. Fearing that Shen Yuexi might walk ahead and bump into the wall, she entered the coffin first and carefully groped her way inside along the stone steps. Shen Yuexi followed closely behind, and Shen Lan was third. Shen Yuexi was halfway down when she noticed that the parrot Liuli hadn't followed. She turned back and said to Xiao Zhuo, "Husband, remember to let Liuli in too."
Xiao Zhuo nodded in agreement. The water was almost reaching the edge of the coffin, and it was difficult for him to stand still in the water. He said to Pei Jingyun, "Mother, you should get in quickly too."
Pei Jingyun shook her head and said, "I'm not going down. Going down will only delay my death a little."
Xiao Zhuo was startled and asked quickly, "Isn't there a passage down there to get out?"
"It's a tunnel, but it's only been dug for a month," Pei Jingyun said. "It doesn't lead to the surface at all."
Xiao Zhuo said, "Mother, even if there's no path to the surface, we can still live a little longer. Besides... Yue Xi has already taken our father's remains down there. Don't you wish you could be with your father?"
As soon as these words came out, Pei Jingyun immediately stopped arguing, stepped into the coffin, and walked down. Xiao Zhuo saw the water rippling on the edge of the coffin, and it seemed that it was about to fill the coffin, so he hurriedly stepped into the coffin to pull the lid.
The parrot Liuli stood on the cover and quacked, "Oh no! The master is vomiting again. Oh no! The master is vomiting again."
Xiao Zhuo knew that Shen Yuexi loved this parrot the most. He reached out and grabbed Liuli, throwing it into the corridor. Liuli squawked and flew in. Then Xiao Zhuo pulled up the cover, carefully aligning it with the edge of the coffin. He slowly squatted down and closed the cover. Suddenly, the scene was completely dark, and it was pitch black. Then he walked down the corridor and pulled down the bottom panel.
He was worried that the water would flow through the cracks like it had just at the gate, so he stood there and listened. Pei Jingyun's voice came from a little distance behind him, saying, "Come down. This coffin is different from the crude gate. It was handcrafted by dozens of craftsmen. It fits perfectly, and not a single leak will leak."
Xiao Zhuo was still a little skeptical. He waited a moment longer, figuring the water had already passed the top of the coffin. He listened carefully, but still heard no drops of water. He realized Pei Jingyun was right, so he felt his way down the wall, whispering, "Mother, I'm coming down."
He had always valued etiquette, and even when he was being hunted by Ji Zhong, he never forgot the etiquette between master and disciple. Now, everything was pitch black, and he was afraid of accidentally bumping into Pei Jingyun, so he walked while talking.
Pei Jingyun's voice rang out from the distance, "You go ahead. I'll go find them first."
Xiao Zhuo slowly moved forward, feeling the walls of the passage. This passage was much cruder than the one they had previously used to enter the tomb. The walls were still made of hard earth and stone, the ground was uneven, and there were only a dozen steps leading down, followed by a dirt road.
He walked forward for more than fifty steps in the dark, and the terrain gradually began to rise. Unfortunately, the passage was too dark and he could not see anything clearly. The tinder in his arms had long been soaked by water and could not be lit. He was worried about Shen Yuexi and asked, "Yuexi, are you in front?"
Shen Yuexi's voice came from the front, "Husband, I'm here... Oops, Liuli's claws stepped on my face!"
Liuli's squawking sound mixed with the flapping of wings. Chen Lan said, "There's a dead end ahead... Ouch, who's stepping on my foot?"
Mei Dai smiled and said, "It's me. It's too dark to see clearly."
Pei Jingyun snorted and said, "Queen Xiliang, you stepped on my foot, didn't you?"
Mei Dai asked in surprise, "Then who stepped on Chen Lan?" Chen Yuexi said, "Ah, it was me. I was the one who grabbed Liuli. My face hurts a little, maybe I scratched it."
Everyone escaped death, and although everything was dark before their eyes, they spoke more easily.
Mei Dai said, "It's a pity that the fire starters I brought are all soaked. Does Prince An have anything to start a fire?"
"Everything I brought with me is soaked in water," Xiao Zhuo stopped a distance away from the others, "Is there really no road ahead?"
Pei Jingyun said: "Of course not, I just said that I only dug a section."
After a pause, Shen Lan's voice rang out: "I've touched it, and there are hard rock walls everywhere. What should we do now?"
Pei Jingyun asked, "Can you feel around on the ground to see if there are any shovels, pickaxes, chisels, or other items left behind by the craftsmen?"
The corridor was quiet for a while, and then Mei Dai's voice was heard: "I can't feel anything on the ground. It's a bit high above my head, so I can't touch it."
Shen Yuexi let Mei Dai hold the parrot Liuli, while she held the box in one hand and touched the wall with the other, walking and touching all the way until she grabbed Xiao Zhuo's clothes and whispered, "Husband, it's me." Xiao Zhuo reached out and hugged her in his arms.
Mei Dai asked, "Mrs. Pei, how did this passage come about?"
Pei Jingyun said, "That's what I came up with, of course. Since we have nowhere else to go anyway, I'll tell you. I had the craftsmen build a city on this island and the farmers cultivate crops. I thought if my husband couldn't defeat Emperor Yongde, we could come here to live, and it would be a place for us to stay."
Shen Yuexi said, "Who would have thought that in order to conceal the Crown Prince's affairs, Emperor Yongde killed many people, causing him to be deserted by his relatives and friends. The Second Prince issued a proclamation to suppress the rebellion, causing chaos throughout the country, which in turn helped my father."
Pei Jingyun said, "That's just how unpredictable life is, but I didn't think of that at the time. I was thinking that whether it was the Iron Pagoda, the fleet equipped with cannons, or the musketeers, although they were all rare in the world, they were still a small force. If we couldn't resist the enemy, I could hide in the tomb with your father, lower the gates, and then flood the tunnel with seawater. That way, even if the enemy had thousands of troops, they wouldn't be able to touch my husband and me."
Everyone fell silent. They thought Pei Jingyun was so calculating, she'd even thought of what to do in the event of defeat. She'd even used these traps against them. Luckily, Shen Yuexi had given Pei Jingyun the jade pendant, prompting her to reveal the secret. Otherwise, everyone would have drowned by now.
"As for this passage... if the gates fall, the seawater will flood into the tomb, and there's no way to stop it. We have to find another way," Pei Jingyun said. "After a month of digging, the craftsmen asked me for instructions on what to do next. It was still autumn in the north, and your father was at the Anzhou hunting grounds recruiting Heng'er and Zhuo'er... I didn't expect Heng'er to... so I let this matter go."
Xiao Zhuo said, "Mother, my brother just values the throne too much."
"This is all my fault," Pei Jingyun said calmly, "I taught him to be ruthless and to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. It was this approach that ruined him. I want to confess my sins to Heng'er, but I can't."
Shen Yuexi said: "Mother, don't lose heart. We will definitely find a way to escape."
She wasn't just imagining things. She'd experienced despair many times before, and had narrowly escaped death. Just now, she'd even given up, yet still managed to escape. She believed that God would not abandon those who struggled to survive.
Chen Lan said, "Sister, how are we going to escape? We're so deep underground, and without any food or water, we can only hold out for a few days at most."
Shen Yuexi said, "There's no way out here, and the way in is completely blocked by the sea, so how come we haven't suffocated to death?"
Pei Jingyun said, "Isn't this obvious? If the craftsmen were to dig here, there must be air holes in the wall that connect to the ground for ventilation."
Shen Yuexi stood up and said, "Sister Mei, please feel around carefully to see if you can find any pores."
There was a moment of silence in the darkness, and Mei Dai said, "Sister, I really can't feel any holes. The only thing I haven't touched is the top of my head."
Shen Yuexi put the box in her arms on the ground and said to Xiao Zhuo, "Husband, lift me up and let me touch it."
Xiao Zhuo agreed and gently lifted her up. Shen Yuexi felt the top of her head and found it was all rocks, so she said to Xiao Zhuo, "Let's move to another place."
After changing several places, Shen Yuexi finally found a square hole on the top of her head, only about a foot long and wide, with air flowing out of it.
"I found it," she cried excitedly, "Mom, where does this hole lead to?"
After a while, Pei Jingyun said, "This blowhole should be connected to the blowhole in the tomb chamber, and the two share the same exit. But the blowhole in the tomb chamber should now be blocked by seawater. Even if it can lead to the ground, we can't climb out through the blowhole."
Shen Yuexi said: "It's not us, it's Liuli."
She estimated that no one present could climb out of the blowhole, but the parrot Liuli could.
Mei Dai immediately understood what Shen Yuexi meant. She came to Shen Yuexi with Liuli in one hand, lifted Liuli up and said, "Sister, Liuli is here."
Shen Yuexi hugged Liuli, lifted her into the air vent, and said, "Liuli, Liuli, quickly fly up and find your brothers. You're such a smart baby, you must know to find your original owner."
Liuli stepped on her palm with her claws, and cried out in a voice that seemed to understand, "Beiheng, you're sorry for me."
"That's right, we're looking for this person. Go quickly and fly out along this ventilation duct," Shen Yuexi encouraged Liuli, "Come on, baby."
Liuli called out a few times, then suddenly spread its wings and left Shen Yuexi's palm.
Shen Yuexi withdrew her hand and said, "Now, all of our hopes are pinned on Liuli."
Xiao Zhuo laughed and said, "I never thought that one day I would have to rely on a parrot." Mei Dai also said, "It's a pity that none of us can climb out of that blowhole. Only Liuli can do it with her small body."
Chen Lan said: "Sister, what if Liuli can't find the exit?"
Pei Jingyun said, "This vent has only one exit. If the tomb chamber hadn't been flooded by seawater, it might have been able to fly into it. Now it can only go to the surface; that's its only way. Let's wait and see."
After going through so much, everyone was very tired and sat on the ground with their eyes closed to rest.
After an unknown amount of time, Shen Yuexi slowly woke up from Xiao Zhuo's arms. Her clothes were dry when she touched them. She quickly sat up and listened carefully. Just as she began to listen, a gurgling sound came from the darkness.
"Whose stomach is growling?" Shen Yuexi asked.
Chen Lan said: "Sister, it's me. I'm so hungry... I don't know how much time has passed. Has Liuli not come back yet?"
Shen Yuexi then realized that her mouth was dry and her stomach was ravenous, but she didn't want to say it out loud and discourage her, so she said, "Sister, hold on a little longer. Since Liuli hasn't come back, we can only fly away."
"Maybe it's stuck somewhere," Shen Lan said nervously, "I can't hear it at all."
Thinking of this possibility, Shen Yuexi became nervous and said, "If that's the case, then..."
She was still hesitating when she heard Liuli's familiar voice faintly above her head, seemingly not far away. Shen Yuexi was overjoyed and shouted, "Everyone, Liuli is here, Liuli is here!"
Pei Jingyun said with surprise in her tone, "Did it really go out? Could it be that it couldn't fly out and came back?"
Mei Daixi said happily, "I've been calculating the time since we released it. Two and a half hours have already passed. It should have flown away long ago, so why did it come back?"
Everyone was filled with surprise and joy, looking up at the sky. Although they couldn't see anything in the darkness, their hearts were filled with hope.
After a while, Liuli croaked and fell from the blowhole, landing right on top of Shen Yuexi's head. Shen Yuexi ignored the pain and excitedly hugged Liuli, kissing her twice.
After the kiss, I realized Liuli had two long ropes tied to her feet and a thick oil-paper bag on her back. She couldn't fly. But she only needed wings to fly upwards, not downwards. She stumbled all the way here.
It took quite a while to unpack the package in the dark. Inside it were dry tinder, candles, paper, pen and other items.
Xiao Zhuo lit the tinderbox. Everyone was used to staying in the dark, so the light was so bright that they couldn't open their eyes for a moment. When they could open their eyes freely, Shen Yuexi couldn't wait to open the faith inside.
"Sister-in-law, Master Xu has instructed the craftsmen to dig along the air vent towards you. Keep pulling on one side of the rope and food and water will be pulled to your side. Hang in there, Beiheng and I will definitely rescue you. This is written by my sister-in-law Su Mo."
After she finished reading it, she jumped up excitedly: "Long live Liuli." Not only her, but Mei Dai and Shen Lan also cheered, and even the steady Xiao Zhuo smiled and hugged her tightly.
Pei Jingyun said with a straight face, "What nonsense! 'Long live the emperor' can only be used to address the emperor, not a parrot. You are a good kid in every way, except that you are a little unruly."
Although the words were a rebuke, the tone was completely the opposite, like a loving mother scolding a naughty child.
When everyone pulled the rope, they discovered that Su Mo had cleverly tied the rope into a loop. As long as they kept pulling one side, food and water would flow down continuously.
Shen Yuexi was so happy that she was flying.
Although she was underground, her loved ones were by her side, and her mother, Pei Jingyun, had forgiven her. Above ground, countless craftsmen were digging day and night, and her younger brother, Xiao Beiheng, and his sister-in-law, Su Mo, were waiting to see her.
Such a wonderful result is worthy of all the bumps and turns along the way.
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