The Secret of the Empty Room
There was nothing here except a nail in the wall. Hui Zifeng went over to take a closer look and discovered that the nail had been driven directly into the wood. This house was made of wood; how could the owner be so careless? Mingyan had said there was a new treasure and asked Shuixi to bring him to see it, so why did he bring him to this empty room? Was there something he hadn't discovered? Hui Zifeng opened his eyes wide again and looked carefully.
He could smell the refreshing fragrance of wild chrysanthemums after the rain, a wisp of it slowly fading away. If he waited a moment longer, it would disappear. There was a wet spot on the floor. Strange, the roof wasn't leaking, so where did the water come from?
After spending too long in this overly bright room, Hui Zifeng felt a slight discomfort in his temples. It was as if spider silk had suddenly sprouted from all directions, piercing his head and weaving the room into an impenetrable web. He fought back the discomfort, opened his eyes again, and looked around. Sure enough, he saw spider silk, gleaming silver.
A torch. A group of people holding torches. A rainy night. A chill that blows in.
A girl in green clothes climbed up the mountain and saw a round bronze coin. She showed it to her teacher with a smile.
"Little Deer!"
The sound reached Hui Zifeng's ears, and he shuddered all over, as if he had been pricked by a needle.
Deer? Where are the deer? I was still wondering in the last second, and the next second a deer had already poked its head out from the woods. It was a cute sika deer with round eyes.
In the cave, a woman with torn clothes and round eyes.
In the river, the girl I had seen in the painting was digging in the sand...
These images and sounds weren't seen or heard through his eyes or ears, but were transmitted directly to his nerves. Hui Zifeng's head was splitting with pain. He touched the wall and turned off the light, and immediately felt much better. The empty room was exactly the same as when he first entered, leaving only a warm and free feeling. Hui Zifeng didn't want to take another step forward, no, he didn't want to stay even a second longer. He immediately pushed the door open and walked out, closing the door of the empty room behind him and sighing with relief.
Downstairs, Ming Yan was putting the last piece of fish into his mouth when he suddenly heard a rustling sound coming from upstairs. He held his breath and listened for a while, then waved to Shuixi who was tidying and wiping the vase.
"Did you hear any sound?"
"I heard it," Shuixi said, not caring at all, not even trying to lower his voice. "It was the sound of a rat."
"It's a mouse, why don't you go check it out?" Ming Yan was almost furious. He grabbed Shuixi's ears and said, "Mice are our natural enemies! If they bite so many treasures, can you afford to pay for it?"
Shuixi lazily flicked the feather duster and walked upstairs. "You talk as if you care. Rats, what I fear most is rats. Let me go? Don't you do rat control every month? Mr. Chen, your trusted childhood sweetheart, is unreliable?"
Unable to bear Shuixi's nagging, Mingyan grabbed Shuixi's waist and pulled him back, snatched his feather duster, and headed upstairs. While hunched over and carefully examining the situation, he suddenly saw a pair of round, snow-white things nestled at the corner of the stairs. Frightened, Mingyan instantly straightened up and fell backwards. Fortunately, Shuixi caught up from behind.
"Have you finished reading?" Shuixi's round objects were actually Hui Zifeng's shoes. He was standing in front of the two of them, apologizing profusely for scaring Mingyan.
"Isn't that just an empty room? What do you want to see? Ming Yan, are you mistaken? Your so-called new treasure is just a nail?"
"Nail?" Ming Yan's face suddenly changed. She didn't even care about the mouse anymore and ran to the empty room. Sure enough, there was nothing there. She turned and questioned Shui Xi, "Our paintings were stolen! Didn't you notice anything just now?"
Shuixi held onto the door frame with both hands, peered inside, and flipped on the light. The blinding light shone down again, and Hui Zifeng turned around from behind. "Really? I didn't notice it just now, Si Tan. There used to be a painting here. The boss loaned it out especially for you. How did it disappear in the blink of an eye?"
Si Tan is Shuixi's private nickname for Hui Zifeng. It all started when Hui Zifeng, as a child, lived in a dormitory for a period of time, sharing a room with a sick classmate. Hui Zifeng took great care of him, always helping to clean the spittoon. Such a disgusting thing: this young man waited on someone else for over two months, and then he himself contracted a serious illness. Consequently, Shuixi had no choice but to care for Hui Zifeng, complaining about him daily, and to mock him, she gave him this nickname. Hui Zifeng didn't object, even thinking it was a "nickname of endearment," no big deal.
Ming Yan smacked Shui Xi's arm with a feather duster. "You idiot, how long has it been?" Ming Yan glanced at his watch with extreme seriousness. Hui Zifeng noticed that it looked like an old gold watch, which didn't match her temperament at all. "Only an hour! Hey, brother, our house was robbed. Shh... that sound just now... maybe the thief hasn't left yet. Shui Xi, Lao Hui, surround them, let's surround them."
Shuixi went downstairs, closed the doors and windows, and stood guard in the hall. Hui Zifeng went upstairs, opened all the doors, and stood guard in front of the door leading to the balcony. Mingyan found a roll of what looked like firecrackers in a drawer in one of the rooms, disassembled them into cylinders, and after tearing something off, the cylinders began to smoke. Mingyan threw the objects into the room one by one.
The smell of smoke spread quickly. Hui Zifeng smelled the unusually sweet smell, but he began to feel dizzy and just wanted to open the window to breathe in some fresh air. He stood at the door and opened it with his backhand. He felt something rush out from beside him and knocked him aside. The smoke rushed out and his vision became blurred, but he still saw a figure running forward, turning over and jumping down the stairs. This is the second floor! Besides, it is higher than ordinary buildings. Will he get hurt if he jumps down? Hui Zifeng heard Ming Yan shouting downstairs, "Here! He ran down, catch him quickly! Shuixi!"
Where on earth is it? Hui Zifeng felt dizzy, and he got up to look at the place where the figure he saw just jumped down, but there was nothing there. Beside the building was a lush sycamore tree. If someone jumped from this place, there should be traces, but now there is not even a branch broken on the tree. Looking at the road on both sides, there was nothing in sight, not even a single person in sight. He was sure that he had been hit by something just now, so how could there be no trace? Hui Zifeng wanted to find a reasonable explanation for this matter, and as he thought about it, he began to suspect that he was hallucinating.
In the smoke, Shuixi accurately aimed at a snow-white "rat", perhaps a ferret, that jumped down from the upstairs but had no way to escape because the doors and windows were closed, so it ran around everywhere, running over the eaves and walls.
At this time, Ming Yan ran over and stood with Shui Xi. The two of them were as calm as a pair of statues, watching the animal running around helplessly.
"How about I go get the bow and arrow?" Ming Yan suggested, causing Shui Xi to look sideways. She looked at her suspiciously, as if wondering what kind of head this woman had.
"Bring some food over to lure him over," Shuixi said.
Food? I've never heard of a frightened animal being able to calmly eat. Although he didn't believe it, Ming Yan still gave him face and obeyed. He took the remaining large chicken drumstick, put it on a plate, and kicked it to Shuixi's feet.
Amidst the thick smoke, Ming Yan watched Shuixi step back a few steps. The white, fluid creature actually slid down the pillar and snatched the chicken leg. Then, she heard the dull sound of something being nailed into the wood. The creature suddenly screamed and fell from mid-air.
Got him? Ming Yan thought, groping through the fog. Just as he grasped Shui Xi's arm, he felt Shui Xi turn and leave. He heard him walk towards the door and opened the heavy door. Fresh air suddenly rushed in, and the fog quickly dispersed. Everyone regained clear vision. Hui Zifeng was walking downstairs to meet the two of them.
"What happened? Didn't we catch it? Where did it go? I heard it hit the pillar and fell down." Ming Yan looked everywhere but could not find any trace of the animal. There were only scratches on the pillar and a few pieces of chicken on the floor.
"We couldn't catch him," Shuixi said regretfully. "We only had food, no tools, and we lost both the wife and the troops."
"Then why did you open the door suddenly?"
"If we don't open the door, we'll faint here too." Shuixi retorted bluntly, looking at Hui Zifeng and asked, "Are you okay?"
Hui Zifeng shook his head. Ming Yan pouted behind Shuixi, then shook his head. Meeting Hui Zifeng's gaze, he immediately greeted with concern, "Sorry, I forgot you had no protection. Are you feeling okay? This smoke bomb is specifically used to repel insects and rodents, but it's also effective on people. Just like you've experienced, you'll feel dizzy and can't help but try to escape. Of course, as soon as you show up, you'll be caught. What a pity... what a pity for this useless person..."
"Is it legal to use this stuff?" Hui Zifeng worried. "It looks very powerful."
Ming Yan chuckled cheerfully, avoiding the question. Just then, the phone rang. Ming Yan glanced at the caller, his entire demeanor suddenly becoming respectful and serious. As if mentioning something borrowed, Ming Yan looked at Shui Xi with a plea for help.
"Don't worry, Mr. Zhao, I will definitely return it as soon as possible."
"That painting?" Shuixi immediately understood what was going on. He sighed softly and looked at Hui Zifeng with a hint of disdain. It was all because of him that this trouble happened.
"Wait!" Ming Yan suddenly noticed something. Quick-witted, she found a painting from a corner. Surprised, she exclaimed as she brought the flowers over to show them.
"Isn't this the painting that was lost from the attic? Could it be that little mouse stole our painting? Shuixi, you didn't let that little thing go because you were afraid of mice, did you?"
"How could a mouse steal a painting? Boss, you've obviously missed the point. Perhaps someone deliberately let the real thief go."
There was something else behind his words. Hui Zifeng admitted, "It seemed like someone bumped into me just now, but when I ran out to chase them, I didn't find any trace. Thinking about it carefully, it shouldn't be possible. Maybe I was hallucinating." Hadn't he seen so many hallucinations in that empty room?
"Okay, okay, come and take a look, Lao Hui." Ming Yan was particularly interested in Hui Zifeng's search for someone in the painting, and later he tried every means to find a painting that might contain clues for him.
In the center of the painting is a valiant woman in ancient costume, bowing and shooting an arrow. The man next to her is dressed in modern clothing. In the distant mountains and forests, tall buildings stand tall. The direction the woman's arrow points to is a tower. While ordinary towers would have bells hanging from the eaves, this tower has lanterns hanging from its eaves, a truly bizarre sight. In the upper left corner of the painting are four lines of inscription. The first and third lines are in characters Hui Zifeng cannot understand, while the second and fourth lines are:
"Whose husband is in front of the pavilion this morning?"
"The lion roars and plays with love, but the moon is not hidden in the coffin."
The four lines of poetry weren't neatly matched. After reading these two lines, Hui Zifeng understood. Wasn't the tower in the painting with lanterns hanging from its eaves the Chaolai Pavilion? It was the only one in the world decorated in this way. Shihou Lane was the name of the area surrounding the Chaolai Pavilion. It was only ten miles from North and South Chongning Street. Looking closely at the scene in the painting, wasn't the woman in ancient costume standing exactly where they stood—Ming Yan's "Mountain Has Fusu"?
What did "Whose husband" and "The moon is not hidden in the coffin" mean? Hui Zifeng didn't understand and asked. Shuixi said nothing, just staring at the painting and admiring it. Mingyan took over the conversation and explained it with confidence.
"The first line is 'Bow to the Magpie Bridge at the Yunsheng Temple,' and the third is 'A deer riding a mountain god is not as wise as you.' Now you understand why I borrowed this painting back, don't you?"
Yunsheng Hall was the first name of the present-day Chaolai Pavilion after its construction in ancient times. Luqi Mountain was also the site of the Chaolai Pavilion over 2,000 years ago. Hui Zifeng first grasped the hidden meanings of these two place names from an erhu piece that captivated him as a child, a task that took him over a decade. He then came here to attend university, hoping to find something here.
Why is this such a coincidence? Why else would someone, besides him, deliberately choose these two ancient names and place them here? And how did the inscriber know these ancient characters that most people can't read?
"Lao Hui, look, this painting was created twenty-five years ago." Ming Yan frowned. "But Chaolai Pavilion and Shihou Lane were only renamed ten years ago. That's a full fifteen years between the two! And the artist has never shown this painting to anyone. It was only recently that he was about to make his debut and hold an exhibition that I was able to take a look ahead of time to see if there was anything good."
"Is the painter you are talking about Mr. Zhao Yuwei?"
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