From Desheng Gate to the south, through Shichahai, turn through two alleys, is the cotton alley. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info cotton alley to the east is Prince Gong's mansion, not far to the south is Huguo Temple, there is an old house in the north, according to legend is the former site of Zheng He in the early Ming Dynasty, it is a quiet place in the middle of the noise. It's just that this alley is not wide, and the quadrangle houses on both sides look a little dilapidated after wind and rain. But along the address given by Zhou Cheng, I found a fairly large courtyard in the alley at the southern end of the alley. The courtyard walls are taller and thicker than the surrounding ones.

When I entered the alley, it was already the beginning of the lanterns, and the children in the alley all laughed and returned to their respective yards, and the old man took the chessboard and slowly dispersed with the bench. The deeper you go down the alley, the dimmer the street lights become. When they arrived at the door of the mansion, there were no pedestrians around.

I stopped in front of the courtyard and looked at the house number, and yes, this is it. I stepped forward and patted the courtyard door, which was hidden, and slowly opened. I waited for a while, listened attentively, but when there was no answer, I walked into the courtyard gate and came to the courtyard.

Stepping into the courtyard gate, facing a very high shadow wall, look at the regulations, it should have been a large family of the house, it is estimated that the old house was renovated after the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the structure of the house was changed again, it was originally a second courtyard, the outside building may have been demolished, and the wall and gate repaired directly outside the second courtyard have become a single courtyard.

Bypassing the shadow wall, there is a small courtyard, there is no light in the courtyard, but dozens of candlesticks are placed in the courtyard, and the candlesticks are burning with white wax, although the flame is not high, but it can barely illuminate the pattern of the courtyard and the house. It was only when I took a closer look at the candlestick that I realized that the seemingly random placement was actually a very complicated array. I carefully compared the directions again, I am not a stranger to this array, there are many introductions to this array in the family tree, and I have also laid it myself.

The name of this array is called the Nine Turns Single Gate Array, which is a kind of leading array used to guide ghosts and identify the direction and location of the underworld. But this formation of people can not break in, it seems, there is no barrier to step through the lampstand, or along the gap between the lampstands, but in fact, the path in the nine-turn single-door array is varied, but there is only one way to cross, hard to break in, this formation will be broken, the lonely soul and wild ghost can not find the way, only follow the intruder, and there is no peace.

When I observed the nine-turn single-door array, I suddenly noticed that in the northeast corner of the courtyard, there was an old man's figure, bending over to light the candles on the candlestick. But he didn't care about my admission to the hospital, he was just busy with his own business.

I searched hard in my brain for the records of the nine-turn single-door array in the genealogy, and carefully identified it, and I was already sure in my heart, first along the outer circle, then inward, eastward when encountering a loop, first to the south when encountering a fork, half a circle around the double platform, and a low platform to turn back first, and it didn't take much effort to walk to the old man's side.

"The second son of the Chang family, Chang Wanli and I are old acquaintances, it seems that Qingqing is blue, stronger than me, stronger than me. The old man straightened up and looked me up and down. The old man couldn't tell his age, and said that he was fifty and some people believed him, saying that he looked like him in his seventies, he was not tall, and his back was a little hunched, but his eyes were shining, so that people did not dare to look at each other.

Hearing the three words "Chang Wanli" from the old man's mouth, my body still shook, this name has not appeared in my ears for more than 20 years, it is a little unfamiliar, but this name is the most closely related to me. But judging from the array placed at the old man, and my father's attitude towards this person before, the relationship between our two families may not be so friendly.

"Uncle Xiang, my father didn't mention you to me, but if I made a mistake in the nine-turn single-door formation outside, wouldn't you see me anymore?" With this in mind, I had no scruples about speaking.

When the old man heard this, he laughed and didn't care, "Xiao Chang, you and your father are really the same temper, you are really a descendant of the Chang family, and you came to me to ask about things, you will definitely not go wrong, besides, this formation is really not for you." Let's go, come into the house and talk. "Beckoned me to the old man and entered the main house.

The old man's house is much higher than the ordinary bungalow, but the furnishings in the house are very simple, a table and four chairs, a pair of wooden sofas, and a small bookcase with a glass door. But there are a lot of frames hanging on the wall, and the photos are a little yellow and wrinkled, but they are taken all over the country.

"Uncle Xiang, you used to be a railway soldier, and the background on the photo seems to be a railway project?" I sat on the couch and asked, looking at it.

"It's not really, I didn't enlist in the army, I guess it's a geological surveyor, but before the nineties, I basically went to the places where our country built railways. He handed me a cup of tea and sat down next to me. The cup of tea is bright in color, but the aroma is as restrained as an orchid, and the leaves of the tea are rolled up, up and down in the tea soup, up and down, and rotating, as if they are dancing freely, and it looks like it should not be an idle mortal.

Seeing me holding the tea in a daze, Xiang Lao ignored me, picked up a cup by himself, took a sip, and said leisurely: "Xiao Chang, it seems that you still have a lot of things that you don't have your father's true inheritance, such as this tea ceremony, your father was famous in the capital back then." ”

I thought about it carefully, and I really didn't think that my father liked tea very much, but why was he so sure of the old man? I quickly asked him what kind of tea this was? Why didn't my father usually drink tea at home?

"Wuyi Yanlan, in recent years, the water and soil in the mountains have been badly damaged, there are fewer rock tea trees, and a lot of them have died, the yield is lower, it is even rarer to have the fragrance of this orchid, your father is the most particular one among our brothers, you rarely see him drink, probably because he never makes do, and if there is no good tea, then simply don't drink it." ”

Xiang poured me some more tea, and then said: "It seems that your father never mentioned to you about knowing me, no wonder, more than forty years have passed, things are not people, otherwise you would not have turned a big corner and came to me through Dr. Zhou." ”

I nodded, didn't talk, but I regretted coming to the old man with some regret. Since they knew each other so well, my father didn't tell me everything about the Xiang family, and he deliberately concealed it, so there must be a reason for him, but I sent it directly to the door.

Seeing that the old man was silent, he smiled again, and then said to me: "Xiao Chang, why did you come to me, I know, is it the 360 bus incident? In addition, you have to find a way to get the investigation team to withdraw the case and not investigate it again. ”

"Old man Xiang, I have no official position or position, how can there be a way to get them to withdraw the case?

"I still know the origin of your Chang family and the police team, and you will definitely have a way, but I can assure you that this case does not mean to harm people at all, but to save people. Old man Xiang stared into my eyes and said word by word, but the tone gave people an invisible sense of oppression.

Seeing that the old man didn't speak, he patted me on the shoulder, "Xiao Chang, you don't have to answer me immediately, I can tell you the story first, and then you can judge whether you agree to my conditions." ”

Looking at his insight into the world, I had to nod helplessly, what is hidden in a person's heart is always seen through, and it is undoubtedly very frustrating at times.

The beginning of the story of the old man is like Wukong's stick, just one moment, which is enough to make people out of the soul and not know where to go.

Xiang Jiaben is not surnamed Xiang, in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Jia Rudao was in power for more than 20 years, when the Yuan army went south, the superintendent fought a decisive battle, and the army was defeated in Anqing. On the way to Guangdong, he was killed by the enemy. After the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, because Jia Rudao was a well-known main battle faction, his descendants were worried about being retaliated by the Yuan court, and changed their surnames in seclusion, and one of them moved back to Shanxi, the birthplace of the surname Jia, changed their surnames to Xiang, and multiplied.

In other words, the Xiang family is a branch of the Jia surname among the five surnames of Wuzhu. The family study of the surname Jia is the study of the emperor, but after the Xiang family was separated from the surname Jia, he deeply felt that he could not put his eggs in one basket, and it was also due to fate that he met Zhang Jiucheng, a generation of talents who were born in Baiguandao. Baiguan Dao has just experienced a major split, forming a pattern of seven sects and eight factions, but each sect and each faction is difficult to become a big climate, and the strength is much weaker than before the split. Zhang Jiucheng adhered to the original teachings of Baiguan Dao, and did not take the birth of the world to worship the prime minister or gather people to rebel as the direction of development, insisted on the guerrilla style of punishing evil and promoting good, and after getting acquainted with Xiang Jia, his sensitivity to politics was greatly improved, and he created the most glorious legend of Baiguan Dao in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. And Xiang Jia has always been a staunch supporter of Zhang Jiucheng and the implementer of many plans.

Whether the Xiang family is the source of the Jia family or a branch of Baiguan Dao is impossible to verify, but the Huang Juren in my genealogy is just a pseudonym, and no one knows his true identity, but he does have a real surname Xiang.

This fact from the mouth of the old man still shocked me enough. There is a figure surnamed Lijia surnamed Wuzhu in Baiguan Dao, which is really hard for me to believe. After thinking about it, Baiguan said that the Jiang Xiang faction and a group of powerful politicians represented by Liu Bowen emerged, which seems to be no accident. But the story of the old man is too jumpy, jumping for 500 years, what does this have to do with the case of the 360 bus?

Old Man Xiang seemed to see through my mind again, stopped talking, and asked me: "Xiao Chang, you have also walked through the line of 360, do you know where the haunting is?"

"Just between the Ruiwang Tomb and the Wan'an Cemetery, I followed it once a few days ago, but before the bus disappeared, it was from the direction of the Ruiwang Tomb to the Wan'an Cemetery, and soon after the accident, it became the direction from the Wan'an Cemetery to the Ruiwang Cemetery, I have not figured out the origin of this change. I respectfully answered the old man's question.

But the old man didn't answer, just smiled and looked at me.

"Is it a problem with the topography?" a shocking thought flashed through my mind, like a sharp sword, cutting off the tangled messy head with a sword.

(When the Buddha was alive, he received other bodhisattvas.) There is the virtue of godliness. According to the ruins of Kunlun. The treasure hall of the palace where Slong lived. The source of the five rivers is a classic. There are eight flavors of pond and seven colors. Those who take this water know fate. --"The Five Hundred Disciples of the Buddha Say the Book of the Beginning") (To be continued.) )