The old man made up his mind and led the other farmers to take Hao Dong to the ancestral hall. Here, Chang San and Duan Tingxuan breathed a sigh of relief at the same time. Chang San said to the others, "Someone must go back to report to the master when something like this happens. I think we should let Liang Shou go back. This kid is smart and young, so it's reasonable for him to run more errands."
The others all laughed. It was almost noon. Who wanted to run errands in the hot sun? Since the manager was "putting justice above personal interests", what else could they say? So they all agreed. Chang San took out the oil cake from his package and handed it to Duan Tingxuan, saying, "Go quickly and come back soon. Don't eat on the way. This oil cake was made by your wife this morning. I'll give you this one too. If you get hungry on the way, you can have a few bites."
Duan Tingxuan seemed a little reluctant, but did not dare to object. He had to take the oil cake with a frustrated look on his face, and then went to the ancestral hall of Xiaowangzhuang dejectedly. The horses they rode when they came were all there, and they were asked to be taken care of by two villagers.
The others laughed and chatted for a while, then continued on their way to Dongning Village, and soon disappeared.
Let’s talk about Duan Tingxuan. He rode his horse along the official road towards Suzhou. However, when passing a cliff, the horse suddenly fell down due to some illness. Fortunately, he saw the opportunity early and turned over quickly the moment the horse fell. Otherwise, he would not know what would have happened. Even so, he fell down and was covered in dirt.
The big horse fell to the ground gasping for breath. Duan Tingxuan walked forward and pretended to check it out. He muttered a few curses and ignored the horse. He sat on a big rock and ate a few bites of oil cakes. His eyes wandered around, secretly looking at the environment here. This was the place where Long Pingzhang was killed.
After a few days, he locked the eyes that had been secretly watching him on Hao Dong. After a secret investigation, it turned out that this person's origin was not clear. Anyway, he was just a servant, and Su Donglou didn't care much that day. He even knew that there must be spies arranged by Lu Fengyu in the mansion, but he just pretended not to know. After all, spies are sometimes also a good tool for passing messages. Unexpectedly, it was the negligence at that time that almost caused Duan Tingxuan a big trouble.
Fortunately, Hao Dong was an extremely greedy person. So when Duan Tingxuan heard Chang San say that there was a priceless ebony box in the Xiaowangzhuang ancestral hall, he immediately had an idea and quietly dug a trap for the other party. Sure enough, with the ebony box as bait, Hao Dong almost couldn't wait to jump into the pit and was buried immediately.
Duan Tingxuan finally got a chance to come here alone to investigate. He had excellent hearing and keen sense. If someone was following him secretly, he would definitely know it. The reason why he acted like this was to be cautious. In case someone was looking at this side from the opposite mountain, he had to pretend. Even if they suspected him, they would not be sure that he was here to investigate Long Pingzhang's death.
So after eating the oil cake, Duan Tingxuan went to check the situation of the horse. The big black horse had been pulled by him with a heavy hand, so how could it recover in a short time? Naturally, it groaned and said that it needed to rest for a while. So Duan Tingxuan pretended to be bored. He walked around in the mountains and suddenly touched his lower back. He was stunned, and then he looked around anxiously, as if he had dropped something.
After this act, he began to search seriously. But just as Su Donglou said, things had changed, so how could there be any clues left for him to find?
After searching for a long time, he still didn't find anything. Duan Tingxuan sighed in his heart and said to himself, Pingzhang, if you are still alive, please give me some guidance. What did you find out that made you be silenced? I know you must have found out something, but what is it?
While muttering to himself, he habitually put his hands on his hips, his eyes unconsciously sweeping slowly from a distance. Suddenly, something seemed to flash in his mind. Duan Tingxuan was stunned, then quickly turned his gaze back. This time he looked carefully and soon found that under a big maple tree, there seemed to be a round white stone exposed in the lush green grass.
Duan Tingxuan's heartbeat suddenly quickened a few points, and he hurriedly pretended to continue looking for something and walked over. When he got under the tree and pushed aside the grass, he saw two stones standing upright, one of which was a white round stone lying across the two stones, arranged in the shape of π. Because it was blocked by the grass and they were just stones, no one noticed it, and it was probably preserved in this shape until now.
In an instant, the young marquis felt his mouth become a little dry, his heart beat faster, and even his palms were sweating.
He recalled that when he and Long Pingzhang were in the prefectural school, several good classmates often carved words on white jade, arranged them in random shapes, and then used the words to guess riddles based on the situation at the time. The answers were either poems or sentences. Wu Qinghu was an expert in this; Duan Tingxuan was quick-witted and often had his own masterpieces; but Long Pingzhang was the least proficient in this. He was always the last one in every game and was often punished to host the game.
Recalling the funny things in the past and thinking that the upright and bold guy had passed away, Duan Tingxuan couldn't help but feel a piercing pain. He stretched out his hand tremblingly and grabbed the white stone. He had just discovered from a distance that the white stone was oblate in shape and should not be taller than the grass, so he came over to check it out. He didn't expect that he would find something. If this was really the clue left by Long Pingzhang at the risk of his life.
The white stone was very smooth. Duan Tingxuan tried his best but couldn't find any words on it. He quickly picked up the two stones that were underneath the white stone. This time, he saw a vague pattern in the lower right corner of one of the stones. It was not words, but just a few undulating lines. Duan Tingxuan was very familiar with this pattern. Almost every piece of clothing he wore had this pattern on the cuffs and lapels. It was a cloud pattern.
Looking up at the maple tree in front of me, there is a white stone below, and there is a cloud pattern mark on the lower right corner of another stone. Could it be... this is the secret code that Pingzhang left for me? But what could it be? Maple tree, white stone, cloud pattern... just from the literal connection, it is easy to remind people of Du Mu's "Mountain Travel" in the Tang Dynasty that has been passed down through the ages.
"The stone path is slanting up the cold mountain, and there is a house deep in the white clouds. I stop the car and sit to enjoy the maple forest in the evening, the frosted leaves are redder than the flowers in February."
Duan Tingxuan could not help but mutter the poem aloud, then looked toward the vast mountains in the distance and said to himself, "Pingzhang, is this the clue you left for me? Could it be that the answer to the mystery you found is in this poem? What are you trying to tell me? A name? A place? Or an event?"
After pondering for a long time without any solution, Duan Tingxuan had to put the stone in his bag. He looked around again and confirmed that there were no clues. It was a pleasant surprise to receive this hint from Long Pingzhang, so he took a deep breath, looked up at the white clouds in the sky, and said in a deep voice: "Pingzhang, I always feel that you are beside me. I think you must die with your eyes open, so your spirit will never leave. Then you just watch me, watch me chase the real murderer, avenge you, and then expose the shocking conspiracy of King Xiangyang to fulfill our common wish. Pingzhang, you must watch and wait, I believe this day will definitely come."
The big black horse over there had stood up at some point. Duan Tingxuan stepped back a few steps, then jumped on the horse and rode away towards Gusu City.
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