On rainy days, the slopes are slippery and walking is difficult.
Chen Chun leaned on tree trunks and branches to stabilize his body, walked in front to lead the way, and explained the reasons for the case to Qin Yuesheng.
Chen Chun lost both his parents when he was young and was adopted by his uncle.
My uncle is a porcelain craftsman. A few days ago, the mayor asked him to go to the ancient temple in Dongpo Linshang to repair the porcelain inside.
He was accompanied by four other masters from the town, a total of five people.
It is said that the mayor wanted to restore the porcelain in the ancient temple because he wanted to use it to please Guangzhao, the eunuch who had just been sent from Chang'an to Yangzhou Prefecture.
Nowadays, the status of the eunuch party is growing day by day. If a mayor can win the appreciation of a eunuch, he can easily be reborn as a county magistrate in a certain place.
The temptation here is huge.
Five porcelain craftsmen worked in the ancient temple for several days, but suddenly disappeared without a trace the night before yesterday. There was no sign of a fight at the scene. Their families searched for them in the ancient temple and Dongpo Forest for a long time, but found nothing.
The current situation is that no one is seen alive or dead.
Chen Chun had no choice. His uncle raised him and showed great kindness to him. He could not bear to see his uncle disappear, so he went to the Qingyang City government office alone to report the matter.
As they walked further and further away, Qin Yuesheng could already see the towering ancient temple located halfway up the Dongpo Forest mountain.
As expected of a building built with funds allocated by the previous emperor, even after so many years, it still retains its breathtaking grandeur.
Arriving at the entrance of the ancient temple, Qin Yuesheng folded his umbrella and walked in. Because there was a corridor to shelter from the rain, he no longer needed to use the oil-paper umbrella.
"Officer, come this way." Chen Chun led Qin Yuesheng to the main hall with ease.
I saw that the Buddha statue in the hall was no longer there, and a layer of dust had accumulated on the broken and chipped stone platform.
There were dead cockroaches, dead moths, and even mummified rats on the ground, and no one knew how they died.
"Sir, this is it. This is the white porcelain screen wall that my uncle and his colleagues built." Chen Chun said, pointing to the wall.
It was a screen embedded in the mud wall. It was quite large, no smaller than two carriages, and no one knew how many years it had.
On the screen wall is a horizontal view of a palace, with pavilions, towers, winding corridors, ponds and gardens, groups of maids, and female officials sitting in the hall drinking, all of which are made with colorful materials.
There is no doubt that this is definitely a precious and rare antique, but the multiple cracks on the edges have greatly reduced its original value.
"This screen wall is nice." Qin Yuesheng praised.
Chen Chun: "Originally, there were many treasures in this ancient temple, but many were stolen by robbers. Now only this one, which is not easy to take away, is preserved."
The entire white porcelain screen wall is so large that if it cannot be pried off and taken away as a whole and is instead broken into pieces, it will have no value.
If you want to take the whole piece away without enough people to help, it is absolutely impossible to do so.
"Did he disappear here?" Qin Yuesheng asked.
"My second uncle and his family stayed here every day during those few days. Their families brought them food. If nothing serious had happened, my second uncle and his family would never have left this ancient temple without repairing this screen wall."
Chen Chun said seriously, "They must have encountered some misfortune."
Qin Yuesheng reached out and touched the surface of the screen wall. It was cold and smooth like jade.
"I see."
There are still traces of burning bonfires in the hall, as well as some scattered repair tools, which are the tools used by the porcelain craftsmen to make a living.
At that moment, Qin Yuesheng made three guesses.
①Those porcelain craftsmen were captured.
②They encountered some danger and ran away.
③When they encountered danger, they were unable to escape and were eaten completely.
If it were in the past, Qin Yuesheng would naturally not consider the third guess, but now, after seeing so many sneaky and weird things, he deeply felt that this was a possibility.
"I already know the situation. I will stay to investigate this ancient temple. If you can't help, go back first." Qin Yuesheng said.
If there really were some sneaky monsters here, ordinary people like Chen Chun would be cannon fodder, without even the ability to resist before dying.
Seeing that he lost both his parents when he was young and now even his uncle who raised him is missing, his fate is really unfortunate. So Qin Yuesheng asked him to go back to avoid losing his life due to bad luck.
Chen Chun naturally had to listen to Qin Yuesheng's words. In his opinion, Qin Yuesheng was an official, a person who even the mayor had to respect. How could he, an ordinary citizen, go against his wishes?
So Chen Chun immediately said goodbye to Qin Yuesheng and returned to Jingci Town.
After Chen Chun left, Qin Yuesheng took out the evil-repelling toad from Tianmo's waist bag and then patrolled the entire ancient temple to see if there was any place with particularly obvious hostility.
But after spending half an hour walking through the entire ancient temple, the evil-warding toad didn't react at all. It was obvious that this place was very normal, not to mention there was any sneaky or weird existence.
"Isn't it related to sneaky things?" Qin Yuesheng wondered.
If this is not the reason, then it must be someone's fault, but who would come to Dongpo Forest specifically to capture five porcelain craftsmen?
This is completely meaningless. Even if you want to earn ransom, you won't make much. Its value is not as good as robbing a merchant's goods.
"It seems I have to stay in this ancient temple tonight. I shouldn't have booked a guest room in Jingci Town earlier." Qin Yuesheng put away the evil-warding toad.
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