"Watch your step, it's slippery here. After Hongping reminded Hong Bingying, she took the lead in stepping on the stone steps.

Yao Chi has not always been calm, especially since the beginning of the night, the wind and waves around the island in the middle of the lake suddenly became stronger, rolling up layers of waves, in the time when the moon has not yet risen, so that the island around the lake is like surging layers of black shadows.

The waves crashed against the black rocks of the island in the middle of the lake, and then dispersed into a pile of mist, which scattered on the stone steps like a light rain on a spring day, making the already smooth stone steps even more slippery.

Only on both sides of the stone steps, iron chains embedded in the stone walls act as handrails. Hong Bingying followed Hongping's example, stretched out her hand and grabbed the iron chains on both sides, and it took a lot of effort to reach the bottom of the stone steps.

At the end of the stone steps, less than half a meter above the surface of the lake, there is a small boat in the waves, the boat is covered with a canopy, but it seems that only one person can hide in it, in the back of the boat, one on each side, there is a pair of oars hanging on the side of the boat, Hongping stretched out her hand, reached through the rope that tied the boat, pulled the boat back that deviated slightly from the shore, and then jumped on the boat lightly, turned around and stretched out her hand to Hong Bingying: "Don't be afraid, I'll pull you, come up!"

Hong Bingying nodded, reached out to hold Hongping's hand, and then jumped lightly and landed firmly on the boat. Two more people were on the boat, which shook in the wind and waves, and sank a full fifteen centimeters.

Untying the rope, Hongping pointed to the canopy in the middle of the boat: "It's windy and rough outside, you can go and hide inside for a while." ”

As she spoke, Hongping sat down on the boat, holding the oars on both sides with two hands, one left and one right. Hong Bingying sat down opposite Hongping: "No, I can stay outside." ”

"That's fine. Hongping nodded: "If you feel that the wind and waves are strong, you can go in and hide for a while, and it will take a while to row from here to the shore." ”

After speaking, Hongping shook the oars, and with the sound of squeaking, the boat slowly left the shore next to the island in the middle of the lake, and headed in the direction of the overlapping black shadows in front of her.

"By the way, I heard what you said during the day, and I take the liberty of asking, is your mother really in the palace?" While rowing the boat, Hongping opened her mouth and asked: "Ah, I don't mean anything else, it's really the palace, there are not a few intrigues and frames, although I don't know in what capacity your mother left the palace, but as far as I know, as long as the woman who leaves the palace, she never comes back, whether it is a princess or a palace maid." So I was thinking, if your mother really left the palace, maybe she didn't come back to the palace in the end. ”

After a pause, Hongping continued: "Our family Niangniang is the person in this palace who is second only to His Majesty the Emperor, and His Majesty the Emperor has handed over all the personnel in the palace, including palace maids and eunuchs, to our Niangniang. So, if anyone leaves the palace, or if anyone enters the palace, no one knows these things better than our mother. ”

After listening to Hongping's words, Hong Bingying was silent for a while and nodded: "...... Well, I see what you mean, I'm afraid my mother really didn't come back to the palace, so I'm going to go home and see if I can find any other clues. ”

Hongping seemed to breathe a sigh of relief: "It's good that you understand, by the way, where is your home?"

Hong Bingying was stunned for a moment before she said, "I'm from Wenyang Mansion." ”

He had been thinking about it just now, what should he do if he left the palace, he would definitely go back, but whether he could find a way to get more things, or more clues, before going back, was what Hong Bingying hoped for the most now.

"Wenyang Mansion, isn't that going to cross most of the country? I remember that Wenyang is close to the northern land of the Great Qin Empire!"

Hong Bingying nodded: "That's right, from Wenyang Mansion, a little further north, there is a large wasteland." ”

"I heard that there are barbarians there, is it true?" Hongping asked curiously while rowing the boat: "I also heard that those barbarians have infinite manpower, and each of them is a natural warrior, but they are also extremely ferocious, and it seems that they can eat people!"

Hong Bingying was dumbfounded when she heard this: "Uh...... I've never seen barbarians near Wenyang Mansion, and I've never heard of what you're talking about. ”

"Well, if only I could see the barbarians with my own eyes. Hongping looked a little disappointed, but Hong Bingying would not have such an idea, he had already heard of barbarians, even if it was not as cruel and terrible as Hongping said, Hong Bin didn't want to meet them in the wild, but fortunately, he had never heard of such a thing, even from his father, there was no such news, even if there were really barbarians, they would not appear near Wenyang Mansion.

Unconsciously, the boat rowed to the shore, Hongping let the bow of the boat swing onto land, and then pointed to the shadow in front of her: "I'll send you here, next, I hope you want to do something smooth sailing." ”

Hong Bingying thanked Hongping, pushed the boat that was on the shore back into the water, and watched the boat disappear into the thick night, Hong Bingying turned around and walked in the other direction.

......

The imperial palace of the Great Qin Empire was a large labyrinth, and this feeling was even more obvious in the dark night, when Hong Bingying left the range of Yao Chi, the moon and stars rose into the sky together.

Relying on the stars in the sky, Hong Bingying continued to move in one direction, but found that she still fell into the maze. Those horizontal and vertical alleys not only covered half of the sky, but also made Hong Bingying unable to distinguish between the front and the back, and when she came to the end, she realized that the end was actually a dead end.

After a few dead ends, Hong Bingying finally felt that he was lost, left and right, there were the same buildings, the same lanes, the same walls, and the same sky, and finally, Hong Bingying finally saw a towering minaret, just like the mentality of most lost people, he wanted to climb this tower, stand on the top of the tower, and see if he could find a new way.

Without too much hesitation, Hong Bingying directly climbed over the wall and the palace in the middle, and went straight towards the tower, with the light skills practiced by his father when he was a child, he finally played a role here, he easily crossed one wall after another, and ran wantonly on the roof of the palace, quite a feeling of dark moon and high night, killing people at the right time.

Of course, there is no one here, and Miss Hong Bingying has no idea of killing people and setting fires, but such an action makes Hong Bingying seem to have finally realized her martial arts dream.

Finally, at the bottom of the tower, Hong Bingying found that the tower was even taller and bigger than she imagined, and she couldn't see the spire when she looked up.

There are no guards around the tower, the door on the first floor is open, and when you look through the gate, you can still see the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall, and the square table in front of the calligraphy and paintings. Hong Bingying walked in to take a look, only to find that there were only a few bottles and cans piled on the square table, except for an incense burner, and the bottles and cans were empty, and she didn't know what was in them.

Fortunately, Hong Bingying found a candle on the table, and there was a fire fold next to it.

opened the fire fold and blew the fire, Hong Bingying lit the candle in her hand, and finally, the light replaced the darkness, so that Hong Bingying, who had been vaguely worried all night, regained her stability.

After checking that there was nothing extra on the first floor, Hong Bingying took a candle in her hand and walked down the wooden stairs to the second floor. The tower didn't know how long it had been here, and its feet creaked when it stepped on the wooden staircase, as if the next moment, these fragile planks would break off from the middle, so Hong Bingying's steps up the stairs became more careful.

On the second floor, the contents were even more lackluster than the first, except for a few wooden plaques scattered on the ground, there was nothing in the second floor of the tower, even the windows, which were a little less than the windows on the first floor. The moonlight and stars outside don't shine in, which adds a bit of weirdness to the place.

The same was true for the third and fourth floors, and it wasn't until the fifth floor that Hong Bingying was stopped by a door.

This is a heavy iron door, the red rust extending from it, like a wanton abstract painting, covers most of the area above the iron door, and in the center of the iron door, there is a concave palm print standing there abruptly, as if someone has printed a palm on the iron door.

Of course, Hong Bingying knew that it was impossible, even a figure like her father could not imprint her palm print on a whole iron ingot. This iron door is obviously very thick, and the imprint of this palm is still very deep, Hong Bingying thought about it carefully, if someone can really imprint this palm print on the door, it will not be a problem to collapse a building.

Blocked by this iron door, Hong Bingying couldn't move on, but he was a little excited, the reason is very simple, on this iron door, except for a palm print in the middle, there is no key jack or anything like that, obviously, if you want to open this iron door, you must use some mechanism.

Hong Bingying put the candle in her hand aside, stretched out her hand and groped carefully on both sides of the iron door, after nothing was gained, the scope of the groping expanded outward, Hong Bingying hoped to find the mechanism to open the door nearby, so, even if she didn't find any clues about her mother in the end, Hong Bingying felt that it was worth the trip.

Although I think so, I seem to be very sorry for my mother.