ashes
When Qin Lan returned to the Youguan Mansion, he found that Xiao Yingzhu and Ai had arrived earlier than him.
It's like going out to handle some business and then finding that the rest of the family seems to have never been out and is just lying there.
He nodded in disbelief at Ai, who was reading a storybook at the side, then turned around and looked at Xiao Yingzhu, who was drinking tea and listening to Mo Qing's report.
"No? How come you're faster than me?"
"Xiao Yingzhu, how about you?" Qin Lan wanted to reach out and tap Xiao Yingzhu, but he didn't dare, so he retracted his hand. "How could you travel back and forth from Cangjun to the capital in such a short time, and even visit the old man and visit his grave?"
Qin Lan was so surprised that he changed the name he had changed earlier back to where it was.
Xiao Yingzhu glanced at him, said nothing, and just drank her tea.
Time was running out, so Qin Lan put away his playful nature after complaining a few words. The line he was responsible for was not the most closely related to the current epidemic, so he looked at Mo Qing first.
"What information did you get from Zuihualou?"
Mo Qing turned around and briefly explained the cooperation between Jiang Nian and You. He even mentioned the underground passage: "Based on the goddess's current condition, she shouldn't take the initiative to do something so big."
"I infer that it was Lu who arranged it."
At some point, the walls of those underground passages were filled with flammable materials such as sulfur and saltpeter, and minerals such as realgar that can produce poisonous smoke were also added.
The tunnel is very complicated. If the person who started the fire is not found when the time comes, the entire underground passage will be destroyed on a large scale.
Qin Lan didn't understand the disputes between Lu and the goddess. His focus was entirely on Jiang Nian. "If she hadn't found out about the plague and the minerals, she wouldn't have planned to leave from there, right?"
Mo Qing nodded: "Miss has always wanted to complete these tasks perfectly, so she has been looking for a way to sneak into the Goddess Pavilion these past few days."
"..." Qin Lan scratched his face. Somehow, he always had a bad feeling. "I guess the goddess will choose to launch the plague in these few days?"
"Yes." Xiao Yingzhu put away the letter that the secret guard ambushed in Zuihua Tower gave him when he first arrived in Cang County yesterday. "Within the next few days."
There are unknown white flowers growing on the trees in the courtyard. It has rained frequently at night these days, and the petals have been blown to the ground and fallen all over the floor.
The faint fragrance of flowers mixed with the scent of wet soil diffused from under the tree, slowly winding around the entire courtyard like a snake, until every inch of the land and air was tainted with its scent.
Qin Lan sat down on the stone chair, his fingertips resting on the table thoughtfully.
"How does she intend to produce the plague?"
Past epidemics were often caused by weather changes, wars leading to population movements and uncollected bodies, or by reliance on witchcraft and its use in treating illnesses.
Apart from these, there are also the visits of the evildoers, which lead to the inexplicable outbreak of epidemics in the urban area.
Xiao Yingzhu lowered her eyes and looked at the letter in her hand for a while.
The letter had been folded many times, and even if he didn't cover it up, the paper would slowly close along the folding marks.
"Those sacrifices were her first step in preparing for the plague."
"What do you mean?" Qin Lan perked up all of a sudden, "Are there still others who haven't been rescued?"
He quickly recalled the missing persons list he had received from the government. There should be no mistakes on it. How could this happen?
"They came from Donglan. The Goddess had already planned this three years ago." Xiao Yingzhu held the teacup lightly and glanced at Qin Lan with a sidelong glance. His expression was hard to discern in the mist. "Now they are just placing those carrying the plague in some special locations."
"...How is this possible? How can someone survive a long period of poisoning?"
The information came so suddenly that Qin Lan was unable to process it for a moment. He paused for a few seconds before continuing, "Or were those people poisoned during this period to spread the plague?"
Xiao Yingzhu lowered his eyes. Most of the time when he was deep in thought, he didn't want others to see the emotions in his eyes.
"We don't understand much of Donglan's witchcraft, so we can't jump to conclusions."
"Mo Qing."
Suddenly being called by his master, Mo Qing immediately came over from the side: "Here!"
"Go ask Jiang Nian if she has ever come into contact with anything related to the plague in Zuihualou?"
"yes!"
After receiving the order, Mo Qing did not stay here any longer and immediately headed towards Zuihualou.
The cool breeze was blocked by the buildings beside the courtyard. Qin Lan looked up at Mo Qing's figure disappearing behind the eaves in the night, then turned to look at Ai.
"What about you?"
The sun was setting behind the mountain, and the light outside was too weak for Ai to continue reading. She looked up at Qin Lan, and after a few seconds of silence, she stared at him, "I found several letters in the village, most of which were written in the year the statue collapsed."
She silently placed a few yellowed and worn letters that would almost shatter into pieces if touched on the table.
"See for yourself."
Qin Lan glanced at the three or four pieces of letter paper on the table and exclaimed in admiration, "That's quite a harvest. Who was the kindhearted person who gave them to you?"
"..." Ai's gaze shifted slightly, then returned to normal. "She's dead. The old woman."
"When I found the letters and wanted to inquire about them, she fell asleep in the bamboo chair."
—
village
The room was kept clean, or perhaps because there were only a few items in it, they all looked gray, old, and rustic, and the colors didn't look messy when placed together.
Ai's eyes immediately fell on the wooden table with many scratches on it.
A cup with a tube-shaped mouth and a candlestick that is almost burned out.
Apart from that, all that was left was a letter pressed under a bronze mirror.
The room is not big, and the desk is next to the bed. The dining table and chair are shared by the desk and chair. Standing in front of the empty desk and looking back, I can see that the chair has been pulled under the dining table and there is nothing else on the table.
Ai retracted his gaze, moved the bronze mirror away, and looked out through the torn window paper. The old woman had her head tilted, as if she was asleep, her posture only slightly tilted.
The letter on the desk looked like it had been written for some time. Judging from the signature, it seemed to be written by the old woman's son.
Ignoring some words of condolence, Ai fixed his gaze on those simple and easy-to-understand lines.
The statue on the mountain says that we can offer young boys and girls as sacrifices to the mountain god. This will bless us with good weather and no natural disasters in the coming year.
[...He's smart and clever, and he's cute. Maybe he can please the mountain god and bring more blessings to our family?]
Most importantly, I heard from others that the statue actually blesses families who sacrifice young boys and girls, giving them firewood and rice!
......
Ai lowered his eyes and turned the letter over.
There is no more content on the rest of the page, so it ends here.
Is the son the letter writer was talking about the grandson the old woman was talking about just now?
It seems that the grandson was raised by the old woman since he was a child, so the old woman's son asked the old woman in a negotiating tone.
Did the old woman agree in the end?
Seeing that there was no one in the place except the old woman, Ai thought that even if the old woman did not agree, her grandson would be taken away as a sacrifice by her son.
His thoughts stopped here, Ai lowered his eyes, reached out and opened the drawer.
Seeing that there were several well-preserved letters in the drawer, she was surprised for a moment, then reached out and took out all the envelopes.
When holding the stack of letter papers in her hand, Ai felt something was wrong. She paused for a moment and looked out the window again.
The old woman was still sitting in the chair, in the same position she had just fallen asleep in.
“…”
After saying "I'm sorry" in his heart, Ai raised his hand to take the opened letter out of the envelope, turned a page, and continued reading.
The content of this letter was simpler than the previous ones, but because the handwriting was a little messy, Ai barely read it with the limited knowledge in his head.
"Those who sacrificed our child have harmed us! Passersby told us that the statue in the mountain is a fake! Now, if that child grows up, we might even get some extra money and won't have to endure this hardship."
[Mom, we're going to the mountains to round up that guy who's playing tricks on us!]
Ai's eyes stayed on the letter for a moment.
Someone told the villagers the truth about the statue, which was that the people on that side were working against the Wumi people.
Thinking back on their involvement with the Wumi people, their love-hate relationship with them, and the fact that they were still able to stay in Huandu, they must be the remnants of the bishop.
Perhaps it was because these letters were written so long ago, but as a later visitor looking back at the series of events, Ai felt no emotion at all.
After putting the letter back into the envelope, she opened several more. Most of them were about how business outside the mountain was not doing well, and the old woman's son had run out of savings and was preparing to go home to farm. The timestamps were before the one she had just seen.
The torn paper page that was pressed at the bottom of the letter fell out. Looking at the content, it seemed that it was written after the statue collapsed.
The above roughly describes how he escaped.
[…The statue suddenly shattered, and I ran away. The people running with me said the statue's collapse meant the mountain god was angry and that I would be cursed by him.]
"I don't want to burden my family, so I'm taking some food with me to escape the disaster. I've recently struck up a conversation with a merchant at the border. I'll return to the village once I've earned some money!"
......
Ai sighed and put the three letters containing useful information into the bag he carried.
He rubbed his neck, stood in the empty room, and looked around.
There is nothing to refer to as a clue.
The sky outside was gradually getting dark. She had stayed in this room long enough. If she didn't go out, the soldiers would probably come looking for her in a hurry.
Ai put the rest of the letters back into the drawer and then walked out through a door at the side.
Thinking of taking away these things that belonged to other people, he just made a sound. When he saw the old woman still sitting in the yard, Ai called out a few words.
But unlike before, the old woman did not give her any response.
"?"
She grabbed the letter and took a few steps forward. Before she reached out to touch the old woman's shoulder, she realized something and changed the direction of her finger to under the old woman's nostril.
The old man in front of him closed his eyes, leaned against a bamboo chair, and left silently.
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