Several people walked into the bedroom, and Poplar jumped into the gap between the end of the bed and the wardrobe, and opened the mechanism to reveal the cellar entrance.

He jumped in and turned on the lights first, and the others jumped in turn.

Naturally, none of the original antique cultural relics in the cellar have been emptied, and Ding Sicheng did not hide it from Zheng Xiangtai, but told him in as much detail as possible what cultural relics were in the cellar before.

Zheng Xiangtai gritted his teeth again and again when he heard this, and said: "This old thief seems to have been hidden for all these years, not only because he has robbed the tomb of King Su in Shanxi and the Taoist tomb in Weinan, but this old thief is too cunning, and my master and apprentice have not been able to detect his other deeds!"

"Yes!" Ding Sicheng nodded in agreement, "To be honest, we have surveyed this house, especially this cellar, more than once or twice, but we have never been able to find anything of value. Therefore, I thought that Master Zheng had been following Gongsun Xia for more than 30 years, and he must know much more about his temperament than I did, so I sincerely invited Master Zheng to come to this house for a detailed investigation. ”

Zheng Xiangtai nodded, squatted down and went to the corner of the cellar to carefully investigate, and from time to time he tapped with his hands.

Wang Wu didn't need his master's orders, and he also searched carefully around the cellar.

It's a pity that all the things that the master and apprentice have done, Ding Sicheng and others have already done. And with Ding Sicheng's ability, what he can't find, I'm afraid that few people in the world can find it.

So for half an hour, the master and apprentice searched from the outer cellar to the inner cellar, but they never found anything.

"There shouldn't be any mystery in this cellar!" In the end, Zheng Xiangtai could only come to this conclusion.

"Yes, I think so too!" Ding Sicheng replied, "But when I looked closely at an alchemy diary written by this old thief, I always felt that there was something hidden in his house that we didn't find, but I just didn't know where he would hide it!"

"Then can you lend me that alchemy diary?" Zheng Xiangtai said.

"Of course!" Ding Sicheng nodded, stretched out his hand to Xiang Aiguo, and Xiang Aiguo immediately handed over the alchemy diary.

Ding Sicheng took the diary and handed it to Zheng Xiangtai, Zheng Xiangtai opened the homepage and read it carefully.

There are not many words in each piece of the diary, but they were written by Gongsun Xia over time, so the total length is quite long.

Zheng Xiangtai couldn't read it after reading a few photos, so he turned directly to the last few pages. Then I flipped back to the front and read carefully, and seemed to find something.

Ding Sicheng and the others didn't say a word, for fear of disturbing his train of thought.

After a long time, Zheng Xiangtai raised his head and said, "Master Ding is right, this diary does make people feel that there is something hidden in this room. Especially this one......"

He opened the diary and handed it to Ding Sicheng.

Ding Sicheng had already read this diary many times, so he nodded and said, "That's right, I also feel from this sentence that Gongsun Xia still has a major secret hidden in this house!"

Zheng Xiangtai raised his head, looked carefully at the top of the cellar, and suddenly said: "Gongsun old thief has a habit of not storing the most important things in the most secret places, because the most secret places are often the first to be discovered. On the contrary, there are some very conspicuous seats, which everyone can see at a glance, and they do not think that there will be important items stored there. ”

"So, you're going to search the room above?" Ding Sicheng asked.

"Yes, at least I think so!" Zheng Xiangtai nodded.

"To be honest, we have searched the location above and found nothing, but Master Zheng is more experienced, and I hope Master Zheng can find something!" said Xiang Aiguo.

Zheng Xiangtai nodded and walked towards the cellar entrance.

Bai Yang hurriedly moved the wooden ladder, Zheng Xiangtai walked up first, and Ding Sicheng followed. Poplar and the others followed behind and went up in turn.

After searching the ground room for nearly two hours, Zheng Xiangtai even unloaded the door with his disciples and went to carefully inspect the bottom of the door pier, but the result was still nothing.

In the end, Ding Sicheng made a discovery.

Inspired by Zheng Xiangtai's action of removing the door to inspect the door pier, Ding Sicheng lifted the bed board on the old wooden bed in the bedroom, and then removed several cross braces under the bed board, and finally found a wooden plug on the top of one of the cross braces.

The cork was exactly the same color as the crossbrace, and it should have been a piece that was pulled out of the top of the crossbrace.

The plug was removed, and a flat hole appeared in the brace, and a folded piece of paper was stuffed into the hole.

The paper was a withered yellow color, and it was obviously extremely old, and it was an antiquity from an unknown number of years ago.

However, the paper is oil-impregnated batik, which is not only moisture-proof and anti-corrosion, but also insect-proof and rodent-proof. Processes like this were invented thousands of years ago, and paper treated in this way often stays incorruptible for hundreds of years.

It's just that this process is too cumbersome, and there are not many paper documents that have been treated in this way since ancient times.

In addition, the paper has a translucent quality, similar to modern paper that has been soaked in clear oil.

There were simply a few lines drawn on the paper, and there was also some jet-black ink, as if ink had been splashed on it. With Ding Sicheng's eyes, he couldn't understand the meaning of these lines and inks when he turned them upside down.

Ding Sicheng and Bai Yang and the others looked puzzled, turned their heads to look at Zheng Xiangtai, but saw that his complexion had changed greatly.

"Has Master Zheng ever seen this kind of long-preserved oiled paper before?" Ding Sicheng immediately asked.

Zheng Xiangtai had an uncertain expression on his face, as if it was difficult to decide whether to tell Ding Sicheng or not.

Ding Sicheng didn't urge him, and made a look to let Bai Yang and the others keep quiet, and let Zheng Xiangtai think about it.

Wang Wu also looked at his master with his mouth closed, and the room was so quiet that he could hear a needle on the ground.

After a long time, Zheng Xiangtai finally sighed and said to Wang Wu: "Fifth son, you go to our residence and bring the piece of oil paper I hid in that lattice cabinet." ”

Wang Wu agreed, and immediately turned around and went out.

Ding Sicheng was happy in his heart, but his face remained calm, and he said with a smile: "Could it be that Master Zheng also got such a piece of oiled paper?"

"Yes!" Zheng Xiangtai nodded, "That was seven or eight years ago, my disciple and I tracked down the residence of the old thief Gongsun in Tongchuan, and we dug three feet inside and out of the cave where he lived, but we couldn't find anything useful. It wasn't until my disciple stumbled upon that there was something unusual about the two piers of the cave gate, that the two of us removed the gate and moved the piers, and found a small stone box under one of the piers. The stone box also contained a piece of oiled paper, just like this oiled paper, with some simple lines drawn on it, and some traces of splashed ink. I've been carrying that piece of oiled paper with me for years, but I've never been able to figure out what the lines and splashes of ink mean on the paper. ”

Poplar and the others looked at each other, and everyone's eyes showed surprise.

"If that's the case, then I guess these two pieces of oiled paper have to be put together to understand what these lines on them mean by splashing ink!" Ding Sicheng said.

"I think so too," Zheng Xiangtai replied, "This is also the reason why the old thief Gongsun divided the two pieces of oil paper into two collections. He knew that the two pieces of oil paper had to be combined to be understood, so he divided the collection, and if an enemy searched for one of them, it would be of no use at all. ”

Although his words were reasonable, Bai Yang couldn't hide his doubts and said, "But the problem is that we found a lot of cultural relics in this cellar of Gongsun Xia before, and most of them should have fallen into the hands of Gongsun Xia seven or eight years ago. In other words, since Gongsun Xia had time to remove all the treasures from the cave where he lived before Master Zheng found him, why did he leave out one of the two pieces of oiled paper?"

"Poplar is right, I also find it difficult to figure it out!" Xiang Aiguo answered, "If these two pieces of oiled paper are really extremely important items, then he should first take the two oiled papers with him." If the two pieces of oil paper were not important, he should not put other treasures together, but these two pieces of oil paper were deliberately stored separately. ”

"This ...... To be honest, it's also something I'm having a hard time figuring out!" Zheng Xiangtai replied, and quickly turned his head to look at Ding Sicheng, "Master Ding, what do you think?"

"I don't really want to understand it either!" Ding Sicheng shook his head, "Could it be ...... He was afraid that he would take the two pieces of oil paper together, and if he was caught up by the enemy, he would inevitably put the two pieces of oil paper together, so he would not be able to keep the secret hidden by the two pieces of oil paper? So he took one with him first, and when he came back to get the second one, Master Zheng had already chased him to his residence, and naturally he could not take the two pieces of oil paper together. ”

It made sense for him to think about it, so Zheng Xiangtai nodded and said, "Master Ding's idea is very reasonable, but ...... I think there's another possibility!"

"What is possible?" Ding Sicheng immediately asked.

"It is possible that he himself figured out the secret of these two pieces of oil paper, these two pieces of oil paper are useless to him, but he is reluctant to destroy the two pieces of oil paper, so after realizing that I have tracked his whereabouts, he left the other oil paper and did not take it with him, anyway, there is only that oil paper, even if I get it, I can't understand it. ”

This idea is also reasonable, Ding Sicheng quickly nodded and said, "I think Master Zheng's idea is more likely!"

Zheng Xiangtai was not modest, and nodded directly and said, "I think so too......!" To be honest, the piece of oil paper I got had already been torn into several pieces, and I guess the old thief tried to destroy the two pieces of oil paper, but these two pieces of oil paper were so precious that he couldn't get his hands on them in the end. ”

"That's how it should be!" Ding Sicheng nodded repeatedly.

Bai Yang looked at Ding Lingling, but saw that Ding Lingling's face was still full of doubts.

As a girl, she was reluctant to express her opinions when outsiders were present, but at this time she finally couldn't hold back and said: "But I still have doubts! The reason why these two pieces of oil paper are particularly precious is because of the secrets hidden in them! If Gongsun Xia has already figured out this secret, then the value of these two pieces of oil paper will naturally decrease correspondingly, and even if they are already dispensable to him, then why would he be reluctant to destroy them? Can he still cherish the historical value of these two pieces of paper very much like us archaeologists?"

She had actually thought of this question just now, so Poplar immediately nodded and said, "I think what Lingling said also makes sense!"

Ding Sicheng nodded and said, "If you have any other ideas, say them all!"

"I don't have any ideas, only doubts!" Ding Lingling shook her head, "Unless...... Could it be that Gongsun Xia never figured out the secret hidden in the two pieces of oil paper, and he couldn't figure it out for decades, so he tore it up in a fit of anger, and he simply couldn't see it out of sight and forget it?"

Ding Sicheng thought about it again and again, and finally shook his head with a wry smile, and said: "The assumptions of several of us are reasonable, but they also have loopholes! Now it seems that we can only wait until Master Zheng's collection of oil paper is brought over, and then see if we can figure out the secret!"

Zheng Xiangtai nodded, and couldn't help but bury his head in looking at the oil paper.

(Please see Chapter 491 "Inverted Bucket Map")