In the underground prison, He Chenxue had finished reading the contents of the leather shell book, while Hu Sanqian was still busy with his own affairs, and the torture technique had also sorted out some things from the pile of things he found, which could be combined with the content recorded in the leather shell book to judge the age and related general events.

The owner of the leather shell is Russian, and his name is transliterated as Nikolai. Abramovich (hereinafter referred to as Nikolai), a former Russian nobleman who claimed to be a former Russian nobleman, was exiled to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the overthrow of the Tsar, and Nikolai, the baron, fled to Harbin, where he spent his days in resentment and curses.

In his diary, Nikolai wrote that he was imprisoned in 1939 for the failed bear hunt, that is, the assassination of Stalin. He Chenxue said with a leather shell.

Torture was stunned: "Assassinate Stalin? Referring to the Ussuri Tiger incident? ”

"Yes." He Chenxue looked down, "According to what he said, this is indeed the case, but he was not directly involved, he belonged to the logistics personnel, after the group of people who went to Sochi to assassinate failed, the people who stayed here in Harbin were immediately arrested by the Japanese army, because it was the Japanese intelligence department that originally directed and supported them, most of them were killed, but Nikolai and another person were left, because they knew the most things, and the Japanese army felt that maybe they would still be useful later, and they could not die for the time being, But these two people cannot be held with other people, and have been held in solitary confinement in the outer prison of the province. ”

Torture nodded: "These things have nothing to do with what we want to investigate, right?" ”

"Yes, these are just the chronological background, and he wrote about himself in the prison above." He Chenxue said this, pointing to the top, "According to his records, the top of our heads is the former Daowai sub-prison. ”

Xingshu looked up: "The old site of the Daowai Branch Prison is still there, it has not been completely demolished, maybe we can get out from here, you continue." ”

He Chenxue added: "He has been held in solitary confinement in the Daowai branch prison until after the Spring Festival in 1940, and what he wrote on it was Chinese Christmas, that is, the Spring Festival, it should be that he didn't know how to write that word." He and his companion Ivan were then sent alone to another cell, which had only six cells, and here something interesting arose. ”

Torture shifted his position and listened attentively.

"In the six cells, there were six people, except for Nikolai and Ivan, the other four were Chinese, but Nikolai concluded at that time that the four Chinese were definitely not political prisoners or anything like that, because he felt that the Japanese would not let him contact political prisoners and the like, and he was worried that some things would be leaked out." He Chenxue looked down at Pi Keben, "The other 4 Chinese are all men, only one of them is younger, about 30 years old, and the others are older."

The torture technique said next to him: "Four Chinese, one young, three old or middle-aged. ”

"It also said that the young man, surnamed Chen, was a painter, because he painted all day long, and he painted on the walls with stones, while the other older man was always watching him from the cell opposite him and talking to him from time to time." He Chenxue turned the page after speaking, "Nikolai said that he could understand part of the Chinese, and learned their identities from the conversation between the two, and the older person claimed to be ...... This sound is not Russian, it is the Russian transliteration of Chinese, which should be 'pilgrimage'. ”

"Pilgrimage!" He Chenxue suddenly realized something when he said this, "I said before that Xing Renju stayed in this prison, could this court be Xing Renju?" ”

Xingshu opened his mouth slightly and thought there, and said for a long time: "That's right, it's not unreasonable for Shen Dongjun to detain Xing Renju alone in order to investigate Qimen, and the painter surnamed Chen, that peerless painting, do you say it's possible, this painter surnamed Chen is either Chen Wenjing or Chen Daxu?" ”

He Chenxue nodded, continued to read, and then said: "According to this Nikolai's description, this court's worship should be Xing Renju, and when I look at it again, I remember that when I read it for the first time before, I seemed to see that he had specially marked the name of the painter surnamed Chen under a certain corner of the page." ”

He Chenxue rummaged back, and the torture technique also leaned over to look, and when she was turning the page, the torture technique pointed to the bottom of the page on the right side: "Is it here?" ”

He Chenxue nodded: "Yes, the spelling is Chen Daxu." ”

Xing Shu took a deep breath: "Xing Renju and Chen Daxu originally met here, so that the matter of the peerless painting makes sense, and everything can be connected together, but now there is a trouble, that is, now there are both the pair of chopsticks and the painting, is the real clue hidden in the chopsticks or in the painting?" Or do you need to merge to find it? ”

Torture got up and walked back and forth: "What else did this Nikolai write?" ”

"He didn't understand much of the conversation between the two of them, as if the two of them were studying painting, ancient Chinese painting, and the other Nikolai didn't understand either, and the reason why he was interested was completely because he was bored, and he felt that he couldn't live long, but later, the other two people in the sub-prison also made Nikolai have a strong interest." He Chenxue continued to flip through the leather shell.

Torture asked, "What do you mean?" ”

"There is an engineer, an old engineer, captured by the Japanese army from Shanghai, this person has studied in Germany before, knows German, Russian and British Chinese, is the most fluent in German, but can communicate with Nikolai normally in Russian, which makes Nikolai and Ivan very happy, because someone has spoken to them." He Chenxue raised her head and said, "According to the transliteration, the old engineer's name is Qian Fang, and the remaining person is called 'Ou Ding', the name is very strange, how can it be called ......?"

When He Chenxue said this, she trembled all over, and raised her eyes to look at the torture technique: "It's not called 'District Determination', but Ju Ding!" ”

As he spoke, He Chenxue wrote those two words with a pen on the leather shell, pointed to the word "Ju" and said: "This word is not pronounced ju in the surname, but read qu, the same as the word 'Xuan', in fact, this person's name should be called Xuanding!" ”

"Do you know this person?" Torture looked puzzled.

"There is no one in the Jade Casting Society who does not know him, he is the most famous leader of the Jade Casting Society in several generations, and it can also be said that he is the leader of the Jade Casting Society." He Chenxue looked down at the name, "Xuan, specifically refers to the ring-shaped jade ornaments made of jade, which are all symbols of the previous royal and aristocratic status, which gave rise to the surname Xuan, which was later simplified with homophonic characters, and became the word Ju, which is actually the same surname, but Xuanding still uses the previous name, and the most important thing is that the leaders of the previous generations of the Jade Casting Society are all from their Xuan family." ”

Torture shook his head: "What do you mean?" ”

"In the early years, it was the Jade Casting Society founded by a person surnamed Xuan in the Broken Golden Gate, because this word is related to jade, and the Jade Casting Society is studying jade, so later, the leader of the Jade Casting Society, no matter what his previous surname was, once he became a leader, he would change his surname to Xuan, but as far as I know, counting from my parents' generation, all the leaders are the real Xuan family, and they have never let outsiders take on the role, and they are ......" He Chenxue paused when he said this, and then said slowly, "And I heard my mother mention it, The Xuan family was originally a big family, and since the establishment of the Jade Casting Society, it seems that they are intermarriages within the clan in order to ensure the purity of the so-called bloodline. ”

Xingshu was surprised: "Close relatives married? ”

"It's not too close to be a close relative, the big family, they are all looking for distant relatives, or looking for the surname Xuan, I don't know why, this is very weird." He Chenxue shook her head, "I don't know the specific situation, but this Xuan Ding is indeed a capable person and a legendary figure, it can be said that he is both civil and military, with a very high IQ and EQ, in the puppet Manchukuo period, he did go to prison, but he was released not long after, as for the reason for going to prison, no one knows." ”

Xingshu looked around: "The purpose of Xuanding's entry into the inner and outer prisons of the Dao may be to find the underground cave built by the Khitan Kingdom back then, don't forget, the deep well stone pillar is under the peerless building, and the people who hinted at me coming down are your mother and Professor Fan, they may also want to find out something, and this must be related to the casting of jade." ”

He Chenxue nodded, and then shook her head again: "This is obvious, but I can't figure it out, are the peerless paintings of Xing Renju and Chen Daxu really related to the Jade Casting Society?" ”

Just as the two were analyzing, Hu Sanqian's voice came from a distance: "There is something!" Torture, come and help! ”

Hearing the sound of torture, he immediately led He Chenxue to run towards Hu Sanqian, Hu Sanqian had been exploring something in the center of the entire dungeon, walking back and forth for many steps, and after measuring, Hu Sanqian inserted the coffin nail into the center point, and when he inserted it like this, he immediately felt that there was a layer of stone slabs in the underground soil layer.

"Folding Shovel!" Hu Sanqian slowly pulled out the coffin nail, and the torture technique immediately took out the folding shovel hanging there from the back of the backpack and handed it to Hu Sanqian.

After Hu Sanqian picked up the coffin nail, he looked at the bottom of the nail and said, "It's a sea reef!" Here's a dry coffin! ”

"What's that?" Torture frowned and asked, "Dry coffin!?" ”

He Chenxue was also puzzled, this word was unheard of.

Hu Sanqian put the coffin nail back, grabbed the shovel and began to dig down: "The dry coffin is the burial method of a small country called 'Tim' between the neighboring Wofu State of Bohai after the founding of the Bohai State in the past, in fact, it should be regarded as a tribe, and the name of the tribe should be called." Tianhai', they originally lived in a place near the sea of the Wofu country, when the Wofu country was established, this tribe was unwilling to submit and was driven away, but they could not go to the Bohai country, so they had to survive in the mountains between the two countries, because they lived by the sea in the era of their ancestors, the way of burial was water cremation, that is, at low tide in the seaside to cremate the body, and when the tide was high, let the sea water roll the remaining things into the sea, and later after leaving home, their witch god, also equivalent to the shaman, came up with a way, hollowed out the reef, put people into the ground and then buried in the ground。 ”

Torture asked, "Reef!?" Where did they get the reef inland? ”

"That's the problem." Hu Sanqian continued to dig, "Therefore, only the so-called royal family of Tianhai Kingdom will use this method, but only the real leader will use the reef after death, and the reef is really knocked down from the sea and transported back as a whole. ”

He Chenxue helped on the side: "Why are you sure that this is the following?" ”

Hu Sanqian said: "Because of the stone slag brought up by the tip of the coffin nail, only the people of Tianhai Country who made the coffin with the reef stone, there was no one else, we coffin openers have relied on the coffin for a lifetime, and we make coffins when we don't open the coffin, so no one is more familiar with the types of coffins than us." ”

The three of them dug down no more than a meter, and immediately dug out the reef head of the dry coffin.

"This is the head of the state, this is the mouth of the coffin." Hu Sanqian said and began to dig around, "The coffin is divided into the head of the state, the tail of the state, the left and right baffles, the lid of the coffin and the bottom of the coffin, according to the rules of our Han people, the head of the state is the place where the deceased puts his head after sleeping, the position of the head of the state will be a little wider, and the position of the foot, that is, the tail of the state should be narrower, normally the height of the head and tail is the same, because it will be unlucky if it is inconsistent." ”

He Chenxue asked, "Why is it unlucky?" ”

Hu Sanqian explained: "In our line, many words are clearly divided, for example, the words lying and sleeping must be distinguished, lying means that it can be convenient to lie down, then sleeping is not getting up in a short period of time, generally speaking, the recliner is a kind of object with a slope, if the coffin head and tail are inconsistent, it will become lying, if the body is lying in the coffin, there will be ' Curse the corpse', so it will never be made to lie down, but some large families will deliberately make it lie down, but not to cheat the corpse, but to hope that the ancestors will live forever, or to come back from the dead, but that is very rare, even if it is done, the coffin is made into a slope, but when the grave is excavated, it will be deliberately dug out at a certain angle, so that the coffin looks like it is placed at the bottom of the grave with a slope, as long as this is done, when the coffin is put down, the head and feet of the deceased in the coffin will be flat. ”

After a long time, the three of them finally dug up the soil around the dry coffin standing below, but they faced another problem - the three of them had no strength or suitable tools to hang the coffin, so the only feasible way at the moment was to continue to plane the side of the coffin baffle and dig out a wide deep pit, so that the lid of the dry coffin could be opened directly below without hanging the dry coffin.

After the torture technique said his thoughts, Hu Sanqian shook his head and said, "No, it's not right. ”

"Why?" "There's only this way." ”

Hu Sanqian shook his head, pointed to Bangtou and said: "The lid of this dry coffin should not be in the position of the coffin lid of the coffin that we look at on weekdays, but in Bangtou, because if this is a sarcophagus, generally speaking, the sarcophagus is laid flat, and the upper end of the coffin lid is sealed with a thousand catties of stone, unless you have a large machine, it is impossible to push it open or lift it, but this mouth is put down vertically, so that as long as the soil around the coffin lid is squeezed open, the coffin lid will fall down immediately, but now the coffin lid does not move at all, There are also no gaps around. “

Torture slapped his head: "I forgot such a simple thing." ”

He Chenxue stepped forward, squatted down and looked carefully at the ground with both hands: "Then how do you open it?" ”

Hu Sanqian got closer and sniffed: "The sarcophagus can't be sealed, if it is nailed with a coffin, even if it is made of hematite, the stone will be broken as soon as it is forced, so if it is a dry coffin buried vertically, it is a heavy stone, but this has been moved, and the head of the state is sealed with wax, and this practice is not like the practice of the ancients, it seems that someone is ingenious." ”

"Someone?" He Chenxue looked at the torture technique.

Xingshu looked at the position of Bang Tou: "Maybe it's Pan Feng, three thousand, open it and take a look." ”

Hu Sanqian used the coffin nail to slowly remove the wax around, and then with the help of torture, one person stood aside and lifted the stone in Bangtou, when the two of them lifted it up, He Chenxue took the flashlight to shine it, because her eyes couldn't see clearly, she only felt a golden light below, and immediately asked: "What is shining below?" ”

"Golden body." Hu Sanqian looked at a corpse standing in the coffin that looked like a mummy, but the surface was brushed with a layer of gold dust, "The gold body is made professionally, and it costs a lot of money, it uses gold dust, not ordinary gold leaf, if this is made by Pan Feng, then someone must be pointing him out." ”

Torture took a deep breath: "Who could it be?" Where is Pan Feng now? ”

Hu Sanqian glanced around: "There are 200 sitting caves here, in addition to ours, there should be other passages, we have only found less than half of them, let's study this golden body first, this golden body must not be an ancient." ”

Golden body? Corpse? Torture thought of these two words, followed by the next word - murder.

Xingshu nodded at Hu Sanqian, the two of them wore gloves, clasped the shoulders of the golden body with tiger claws, lifted it from the inside, and after lifting it, they found that it was lighter than expected, and then laid it flat on the ground.

After putting it away, Hu Sanqian, Xingshu and He Chenxue burned incense and paper according to the rules, and worshipped, and then Hu Sanqian put the coffin nail in front of the forehead of the golden body, slowly pressed it down, and then used the coffin nail to pull it downward, and easily peeled off the layer of things that wrapped the golden body.

The torturer was surprised: "How can it be so easy?" ”

"It's too professional." Hu Sanqian shook his head, "It is ice silk, that is, silk, from the cutting surface, there are pieces of charcoal in it, a total of five layers of silk are wrapped, this method is not simple, it has long been lost, and you smell it, there is a strong smell of Chinese medicine in it, which means that this corpse was soaked in medicine before it was put in." ”

"Come, peel them all off, I want to see who it is." Torture said and Hu Sanqian grabbed the side that was set aside, and slowly pulled it to the sides, and after pulling it away, the two got up and looked at the face of the person wrapped in silk, and found that it was a woman, and she was very young, and most importantly, except for the skin that was a little yellowish, the others looked like living people.

"Who?" He Chenxue asked on the side.

Xingshu shook his head: "I don't know, it's a woman, very young, looks like she is in her early twenties at most, and she is very beautiful." ”

When he said this, the pencil drawing of Pan Feng immediately flashed in his mind, sitting in the painting room, with his back to the woman outside.

Could it be her?

...