The "Welcome" inn at the west end of the town looks particularly deserted in this continuous autumn rain. Su Muyun opened two adjacent upper rooms and led Lin Fu to one of them.
The room is not big, but it is clean. There is a thick porcelain teapot on the wooden table by the window, and the spout is still steaming. The rain meandered down the window lattice, leaving dark traces on the window paper, and in the direction of the blacksmith shop in the distance, there was no light in sight.
"You sit for a while, I'll go ask the store to boil some hot water, you scrub it, change into clean clothes." Su Muyun's voice was very soft, with a soothing power. She saw that Lin Fu was still tense and still carrying something in her arms, so she didn't ask any more questions, turned around and gently took the door.
The moment the door panel closed, Lin Fu's tense nerves relaxed slightly. He walked to the table and sat down, but did not dare to touch the teapot, but carefully placed the black wooden box in his arms on the table.
The wooden box was cooler than just now, as if it could absorb the warmth around it. Lin Fu stared at it with complicated eyes. It was this thing that caused his father, who regarded him as his own, to lose his life, and to completely shatter his peaceful life for more than ten years. He hated this wooden box, but he knew that it contained the secret that his father had bought for his life, and perhaps his life experience - the piece of brocade embroidered with cloud patterns, and the "cloud pattern" mentioned by the man in black before his death, must be inseparable from this wooden box.
He took a deep breath and gently brushed his fingertips over the surface of the box. The wooden box is made of peculiar material, neither wood nor stone, and the surface is as smooth as if it has been polished by running water for thousands of years, but it has a fine texture that cannot be detected without careful looking. The box mouth is tightly sealed, and there is no keyhole, but it seems to be a whole.
Lin Fu tried to pick it with his fingers and slap it with his palm, but the wooden box didn't move at all, and not even a single gap was exposed. He remembered the ingenuity his father used when he struck the iron, so he tried to squeeze the two ends of the box into the middle, and tried to twist it diagonally, but there was still no response.
Is there any mechanism?
He got closer, the tip of his nose almost touching the surface of the box, and carefully examined the fine lines through the faint light coming in from outside the window. The lines were messy, and at first glance they looked like they were naturally formed, but Lin Fu stared at them for a long time, and suddenly found that the direction of several of them was faintly similar to the cloud patterns on the brocade outside his swaddling clothes!
His heart moved, and he quickly closed his eyes, trying to remember the appearance of the brocade. Ten years have passed, and the details of the brocade have long been blurred, but the posture of the cloud pattern hovering and entangled is deeply imprinted in his memory - it is not an ordinary flowing cloud, but more like several dragons entangled with each other, but the dragon's head is hidden in the clouds, and it is not really visible.
He opened his eyes and followed the direction of the cloud pattern in his memory, using his fingertips to outline the lines on the surface of the wooden box. When his fingertips scratched a very slight bulge in the lower right corner of the box surface, the wooden box suddenly vibrated slightly!
Lin Fu's heart jumped, and he quickly stopped his movements and held his breath.
After a while, there was no movement in the wooden box.
He calmed down and pressed his fingertips on the bulge again. The bulge is smaller than a grain of rice, and you can't feel it without touching it carefully. He tried to press gently, but there was no response; A little harder, still no response.
Is it my own delusion?
Lin Fu frowned, and suddenly remembered what his father said when he taught him to make iron: "Strength is not fierce, but coincidental." Iron has iron, and you have to follow its temperament to make good objects. "
He slowed down his breathing, straining his fingertips slightly, and at the same time rotating gently around the bulge.
"Click."
There was a very light crisp sound, like ice particles falling on the glass.
Lin Fu's eyes lit up, and he saw that the lines on the surface of the wooden box suddenly lit up with a faint silver ray, like a sleeping snake waking up, wandering around along the lines, and finally converging at the junction of the box lid and the box body. Immediately afterwards, the lid of the box automatically lifted up half an inch, revealing a dark gap.
It's done!
Lin Fu suppressed his excitement and carefully lifted the lid of the box completely.
The box was covered with a layer of dark red flannel, and two things lay quietly on the flannel.
The same is half a jade pendant, the jade pendant is bluish-white, the texture is warm, and half a mutilated lotus flower is carved on it, and the break is flat, obviously it was deliberately broken. The other is a neatly folded roll of parchment, the edges of which have been yellowed and look a little old.
Lin Fu first picked up the half of the jade pendant. The jade pendant is warm to the touch, which is completely different from the coldness of the wooden box. He rubbed the lotus pattern on it, wondering in his heart: What is the use of this half jade pendant? Where is the other half?
Putting down the jade pendant, he unfolded the roll of parchment. The parchment is about the size of a palm, and a map is drawn with a dark red pigment on it, with simple lines marking the outlines of several mountains and rivers, and in the center of the map, there is a small word "hidden".
Other than that, there is no other handwriting.
Lin Fu stared at the map for a long time, but he couldn't recognize where it was at all. He couldn't be more familiar with the terrain around Bluestone Town, but the direction of the mountains and rivers on this map did not match anywhere he knew.
"What the hell is this?" He muttered to himself, folded the parchment again, put it back in the wooden box with the jade pendant, and closed the lid. The silver light disappeared instantly, and the wooden box returned to its ordinary appearance.
He put the wooden box back in his arms and pressed it close to his chest, as if this was the only way to feel a trace of stability. No matter where this map points or what the purpose of this jade pendant is, this is what his father exchanged for his life, and he must keep it well, and he must find out the truth behind it - not only for his father, but also for himself.
At this moment, there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Lin Fu, the water is boiled, I asked the store to send some clean clothes, you can see if it fits." It was Su Muyun's voice.
Lin Fu quickly took back his thoughts, got up and opened the door.
Su Muyun was followed by a shopkeeper, holding a copper basin containing steaming hot water, and holding a set of gray coarse cloth clothes in the other hand.
"Wipe it quickly, warm up." Su Muyun took the copper basin, put it on the low stool in the room, and put his clothes on the edge of the bed, "I'm next door, you call me if you have something." "
She didn't ask much about the wooden box, nor did she explore what Lin Fu was doing just now, only pure concern in her eyes.
Lin Fu looked at her, a trace of warmth welled up in his heart, and he whispered, "Thank you, Miss Su." "
Su Muyun smiled: "You're welcome, you clean up first, I'll go see how Senior Qin and Shen Qing are doing." After saying that, he turned around and took the door and left.
Lin tied the door tightly, took off his old clothes stained with blood and dust, and scrubbed his body with hot water. The hot water burned his skin a little, but it dispeled a lot of chill and cleared his chaotic mind.
Change into clean coarse cloth clothes, although a little wide, but very comfortable. He walked to the window and looked at the still dripping rain outside, thinking about what to do next.
Qin Zhengshan and Shen Qing are members of the Zhengqi Alliance, and the Zhengqi League is a famous and decent family, and it stands to reason that they can be trusted. But the rivers and lakes are sinister, people's hearts are unpredictable, and his father's death made him understand that he could not trust anyone easily. The secret of the wooden box must not be easily revealed.
But he is a fifteen-year-old boy, helpless, and powerless, let alone track down the Black Wind Hall for revenge, I am afraid it will be difficult to survive in this river and lake. Following Qin Zhengshan and the others may be the only choice at present.
"Black Wind Hall ..." Lin Fu whispered these three words, his fists clenched tightly, and his nails deeply embedded in his palms. The appearance of those three murderers has been engraved in his bones.
At this moment, Shen Qing's voice suddenly came from next door, as if he was talking to Qin Zhengshan, and his voice was very low, but Lin Fu listened carefully and still heard a few words clearly.
"... Senior Qin, the funeral of Blacksmith Lin has been entrusted to the village chief of the town, and he will be buried early tomorrow morning. I found this ... under the back wall of the blacksmith shop."
"This is the token fragment of ... 'Shadow Pavilion'?" Qin Zhengshan's voice was a little surprised.
"It should be. Heifengtang and Yingge have always been well water that does not violate river water, how can they get together? "
"It seems that things are more complicated than we thought. The man in black is probably from the shadow pavilion..."
Lin Fu's heart jumped suddenly.
Shadow Pavilion? What is that place? Is it more powerful than the Black Wind Hall?
He was about to listen again, but the voice next door was even lower, and he could no longer hear half a word clearly.
Lin Fu returned to the table and sat down, his mind in a mess. The Black Wind Hall, the Shadow Pavilion, the Righteous Qi Alliance, and the map and jade pendant in the wooden box were like a mess, entangled him breathlessly.
He knew that he had stepped into this muddy water and could never go back.
The rain outside the window seems to never stop.
As the night deepened, Lin Fu lay on the hard bed, but he didn't feel sleepy. The wooden box in his arms was hunched against his chest, like a heavy stone. He opened his eyes and looked at the beams of the roof, until there was a hint of fish belly white on the horizon, and then fell asleep in a daze.
He didn't know that just as he was asleep, under the eaves opposite the inn, a black shadow in a raincoat quietly stood, rainwater dripping down the edge of the raincoat, and the eyes hidden under the hat were staring at the window of his room, cold and sharp.
The people of the Black Wind Hall really didn't leave.
(End of Chapter 2)