18 Confucius Jigsaw Puzzle 4
◎This is Helan Road◎
Zhu Heng glanced around and asked everyone, "What did you dig up?"
Dad grinned and took out a clay pot. He hooked the lid with his little finger and opened it. In an instant, the aroma of meat filled the air, mixed with the smell of the corpse, making people feel greedy and nauseous at the same time.
"This is it, a can of meat sauce, chopped quite finely." Dad held the mouth of the can, and a little sauce accidentally got on his elbow and sleeve. He put it to his nose and sniffed it, and it was still fragrant.
But Dad didn't understand what a can of meat sauce had to do with Confucius' puzzle.
He turned to look at the duck voice and asked, "What did you find over there? It was so loud just now."
The man with the duck voice was suddenly called out. He pushed his glasses, took out a piece of clothing from behind his back, and handed it to everyone: "This is what I dug up."
He was holding a white robe in his hands. It was made of coarse linen with neat folds on the fabric. It must have been folded and buried underground, but was pulled out by the drake like a carrot, so it looked slightly deformed.
Wang Kunshu stared at the duck voice in surprise. A question mark appeared above his head, and then a line of words appeared: "How could it be! Mine are also clothes."
Everyone looked into her arms.
Wang Kunshu took out a set of black clothes from his arms, unfolded them, and placed them next to the white robe worn by Gong Yasheng.
Her outfit was more elaborate, with a single garment made of hemp cloth inside and a black top outside. The two sleeves were spread out side by side, with the right sleeve being shorter. She also wore a fur coat made of lambskin under the black garment, and a hat with long tassels tied on both sides.
Everyone took a deep breath, it was so complicated.
Wang Kunshu glanced at the suit she had dug out, then at the white robe next to it. She unconsciously propped up her chin, tapping her cheek with her fingers. She said, "Although they are both clothes, mine looks more formal, while yours looks more like mourning clothes."
Everyone seemed to be thinking about something.
Dad couldn't help but reach out to touch the exquisite new black suit. He picked up a corner and rubbed it gently with his fingertips, looked at the stitching, smelled the scent of the lambskin, and flipped through the tassel on the hat, looking like he couldn't let it go.
He was so engrossed in watching that when he looked up he found that no one spoke. He then looked down at his old clothes, which were rusty and bleached, and had a slightly sour smell of sweat. He put the clothes down somewhat embarrassedly.
Wang Kunshu didn't notice his father's actions and turned to look at Xu Wenjun: "Sister, what did you dig up?"
Xu Wenjun withdrew his gaze from the two sets of clothes and took out a rubbing of a portrait stone.
Everyone gathered around and looked over.
The picture shows a group of nine portraits. In the middle is a person sitting upright. He is not tall, but is surrounded by people, which shows that he has a high status.
There are also attendants standing on both sides, four on each side. The first one on the left is bowing to the venerable in the middle and reporting his work. He is slightly bending over and behaving respectfully and humbly.
Drake Voice: "What is this...?"
Xu Wenjun explained: "Duke Zhou assisted King Cheng."
"Did I hear correctly, Duke of Zhou Ji Dan and King Cheng of Zhou?" The duck-voiced man showed a surprised expression.
"That's right." Xu Wenjun nodded. "King Cheng of Zhou, Ji Song, was the second king of the Western Zhou Dynasty and the son of King Wu of Zhou, Ji Fa. He was only thirteen years old when he ascended the throne, so his uncle, Duke Zhou, acted as regent. You've all heard of the story of Duke Zhou spitting out food three times after eating one meal, right?"
The duck-voiced man nodded, the historical story of Duke Zhou assisting King Cheng was simply a household name.
Xu Wenjun put two fingers together and pointed at the contents of the rubbing. "This pattern was very common in my time. The slightly younger figure in the center is King Cheng of Zhou. The one bowing to the left is Duke Zhou Dan."
The old man pursed his thick lips and approached Xu Wenjun nonchalantly: "Isn't this a matter of the Western Zhou Dynasty? What does it have to do with Confucius?"
"It does matter. A lot," Xu Wenjun replied seriously. She raised her eyes, meeting all the gazes directed at her. "Duke Zhou, as the founder of the ritual and music system of the Western Zhou Dynasty, was the sage most revered by Confucius."
Xu Wenjun added cautiously, "How this relates to the puzzle is still debatable."
Everyone nodded, turned to look at Helan and said, "Then it's your turn. Yours is..."
Before he could finish his question, Helan Dao took out a small bronze bell, the size of two palms, which should be the smallest one in a set of chime instruments.
He Landao placed the bronze bell alongside the items everyone had unearthed and told them, "It's nothing special. There's nothing useful to find."
His expression was dull and he looked a little absent-minded.
Zhu Heng glanced at him.
He was thinking, a man from the unknown, a man who had scouted the area in advance and seemed to know the world like the back of his hand, a man who threw away Confucius' map as if it were unimportant, a man who could easily allow everyone to successfully dig up something by just randomly designating 6 areas.
What kind of existence would such a person be?
"What are you thinking about?" A hand waved in front of Zhu Heng's eyes, and a slightly teasing look fell on him.
Zhu Heng came back to his senses and realized that Helan Dao had finished his speech at some point, and now five pairs of eyes were staring at him without blinking.
He Landao raised his chin, pointed at the coffin on the ground, and asked him, "What is this? Why don't you introduce it to us?"
Zhu Heng stared at Helan Dao for a long moment. After a while, he slowly typed out a few words: "Just a coffin, with a young male corpse lying inside. His body was rotten beyond recognition."
After saying that, he looked at Helan Dao again.
He Landao responded with an elegant smile: "If you keep staring at me because I'm pleasing to the eye, then please continue. I don't mind."
“…” Zhu Heng was too lazy to pay attention to him.
Everyone frowned when they heard this. Why did a coffin containing a dead person suddenly appear out of nowhere?
They looked at the coffin and then at the five things on the ground: meat sauce, two sets of clothes, a stone rubbing of the portrait of Zhou Gong assisting King Cheng, and a bronze bell.
With so many things placed in front of them, everyone was dazzled and had no idea what to do.
At this moment, the system's cold voice rang out: [Ding! Congratulations to everyone who has found all the pieces of the Confucius puzzle.]
The duck-voiced man was stunned. "This is a puzzle? Are you kidding me?"
The system explained to everyone: [This is the puzzle! When the six beads meet the soil, they will transform into six objects closely related to Confucius. You're lucky, and by some chance you've skipped all the intermediate steps and found the initial state of the puzzle in one go, directly triggering the next plot. Congratulations.]
A coincidence?
Zhu Heng lowered his eyes and sneered. Perhaps someone did this on purpose.
Even throwing a bead casually can lead them to the right path by accident and directly into the subsequent plot. All of this is too smooth.
It was so smooth that it was strange.
He didn't believe that there could be such a coincidence in the world that was so accurate and without any omissions.
After congratulating everyone, the system began issuing tasks: [Now, please find the appropriate content in "The Analects" to match the objects these beads will transform into when they fall to the ground. If a match is successful, it will be upgraded to a puzzle piece. Good luck.]
Everyone suddenly realized it, but why did they make it so complicated? Was there something wrong?
As soon as the system prompt finished, Xu Wenjun waved his sleeves and sat down, looking at the six things in front of him, with a strange light in his eyes.
"I see." She had an idea, and her pale complexion gradually turned a little rosy. She looked full of confidence, and inexplicably made people want to rely on her.
Everyone looked at each other, and a hint of joy appeared on their faces.
The so-called super teammate is just like this!
Xu Wenjun first pointed to a rubbing of the painting "Duke of Zhou assisting King Cheng." "Take this painting as an example," he said. "Confucius lived during the Spring and Autumn Period, when rituals and music were in decline. He yearned for the Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou dynasties, especially the Western Zhou. What he most desired was to revive ancient rituals, the Zhou rituals. Essentially, he wanted to rebuild a world order imbued with benevolence and virtue."
"So, this painting should correspond to the sentence in the third chapter of The Analects of Confucius: 'The Zhou Dynasty supervised the two previous dynasties, and was full of culture. I will follow the Zhou Dynasty.'" Xu Wenjun quickly came to a conclusion.
Dad asked, "What does this mean?"
Wang Kunshu held his chin in his hand, his eyes gleaming. "These are Confucius' words praising the Zhou Dynasty's ritual and music system. He said that the Zhou Dynasty learned from the evolution of the systems of the Xia and Shang dynasties, integrating the best of the three dynasties. Therefore, its rituals, music and literature are the most beautiful and grand. Therefore, Confucius said, 'I advocate following the ritual and music civilization of the Zhou Dynasty.'"
At this moment, the system popped up with a beep: [Keywords from the Analects detected. Are you sure you want to match the Han Dynasty stone rubbing of Zhou Gong assisting King Cheng with the third (14) chapter of the Analects?]
Xu Wenjun nodded without hesitation: "Confirmed."
【Confirmation completed】
[Matching in progress, please wait...]
[Match successful, congratulations]
After the system finished speaking, the stone rubbing in front of everyone changed its appearance. A white light flashed, and the rubbing on the ground disappeared, replaced by a puzzle piece the size of an A4 paper.
There is a white background with a few black lines drawn on it, some of which look like Chinese character strokes.
You should spell out the other contents as well to see what is written on it.
With the positive feedback, everyone was immediately motivated and brought the jar of meat sauce that Dad had dug out to study.
"What about this?" everyone asked.
Xu Wenjun pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "That's not difficult. Confucius had etiquette for eating, advocating that rice should be finely pounded and meat should be minced with great care. If these puzzle pieces are primarily about etiquette, then this jar of meat sauce corresponds to the entire paragraph from the Analects, Chapter 10, 'Fine food is never too fine, and minced meat is never too fine.'"
The system detected the keyword again and asked everyone to confirm it.
Xu Wenjun nodded after careful consideration.
【Confirmation completed】
【Match successful】
Next is the bronze bell of Helan Road.
Obviously, it represents the "music" in ritual and music.
"I know that." The duck-voiced man raised his hand and pushed up his glasses. "It's about music. 'When a man in Qi hears the Shao music, he will not know the taste of meat for three months!' Is that right, system?"
He announced the conclusion without any discussion, and everyone was shocked.
These two idiots are too reckless. What if it’s not true?
Fortunately, the system quickly gave a "ding dong" sound, giving me a reassurance: [Match successful]
"Yeah!" The duck-voiced man jumped up and spun around on the spot, glancing at everyone with a sly look.
Now everyone has three puzzle pieces with a white background, all with strokes on the front. By guessing, they can vaguely make out that the word on them is "ritual and music".
Xu Wenjun was stunned for a moment, then suddenly blurted out, "I understand."
Everyone was confused, and the duck-voiced man asked, "What do you understand? Do you understand?"
At this time, Xu Wenjun remained calm, unlike Helan Dao. Helan Dao was at ease and completely relaxed, as if nothing in the world could threaten him, while Xu Wenjun's composure was absolute rational, a calmness that remained unchanged even when facing a crisis.
She silently typed out a conclusion: "Ritual and music. Confucius' ideal was to revive ritual and music. These puzzle pieces represent a civilization of ritual and music. This is the ideal world he wanted to create."
Helan Dao raised his eyebrows, seeming to be interested.
Everyone was delighted by the smooth progress, but Zhu Heng, who had been silent the entire time, was out of his mind and in a trance.
He thought of the clothes on the dead body again, looked at the coffin on the ground, and felt a little uneasy.
I always feel that something is wrong.
No, I still have to look outside.
Fortunately, he was careful when he pushed the coffin lid back up and did not close it tightly, so he could now investigate without anyone noticing.
Taking a look at the people who were still talking, Zhu Heng lightly stepped back into the darkness, quietly let out his sight, and dived into the gap along the edge of the coffin.
Inside the coffin, the male corpse was still the same as before, lying motionless, his whole body rotten. Only the black combat uniform, made of unknown material, was not rotten at all and wrapped the male corpse intact.
As for the face...
The dark eye sockets and swollen skin all interfered with Zhu Heng's judgment, but fortunately, the male corpse's skeleton was extremely good, with the lines of the brow bone, nose bridge, and jaw still smooth and clear.
Although it is highly decayed, it can still be vaguely identified as the Helan Road.
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