In the sixth year of the Republic of China, December 4, 1917, before noon.

Everyone didn't understand, only Qin Beiyang knelt down and kowtowed: "Inspector Ye, you saved my life for the fourth time." ”

Ye Ke is difficult to count, from the Tianjin German Concession extermination case eight years ago, to the assassination case of Biyun Temple in Xiangshan two years ago, and then to the Beijing prison restored by Zhang Xun this summer, today is not the fourth time!

"If I send you to the patrol house or the Tilanqiao, you will definitely not get out alive, and you may die tragically in the bars tonight - then didn't I save you all the three times before?"

"Beiyang is ashamed, and the grace of saving lives cannot be repaid." Qin Beiyang paused again, "Inspector Ye, I want to tell you something, maybe it will be useful for solving the case - two days before the destruction of Dharma Mountain on the sea, a Japanese named Haneda Taishu came to visit and wanted to buy the tomb beast of the young Qilin Town at a high price, which is the treasure that Xiaomu, the tomb robber who was robbed by the Hongkou Patrol House Massacre, and dug up from the tomb of the Tang Dynasty with his own hands. ”

"I have already checked this matter, and the Ouyang family has everyone's entry and exit records. Taiki Haneda, the president of Haneda Kisen Co., Ltd., returned to Japan by ship on the afternoon of the crime, and did not have the time to commit the crime. ”

"He couldn't have done it himself, maybe he was behind the scenes? If the Assassins had anything to do with him? ”

"The Bureau of the Ministry of Public Concession has issued a request for investigation through the Japanese Consulate." Ye Ke looked at his pocket watch and said, "I don't have much time for you!" I have one more request, can you take me with me on the airship? ”

Qin Beiyang and Qian Ke were both surprised: "Inspector Ye, you are also going to Dharma Mountain?" ”

"Yes, I'll tell you why." Ye Kenan looked at the airship's huge airbag, "Plus I'm not a crowd as a passenger, right?" Before the patrol house comes to search. ”

So, Qin Beiyang, Ah You, Ye Kenan, plus the nine colors that turned into big dogs, all climbed onto the airship pod. The American technician gave the order, and dozens of workers let go of the cables. The hydrogen-filled hull rises by the Suzhou Creek, bearing the copper coin symbol of the round sky, gradually surpassing the tallest chimney of the factory, and soaring through the clouds and fog in the black smoke.

Qin Beiyang looked down through the pod glass, and Qian Ke waved his hand in the air to bless, but soon he couldn't tell who was who.

The airship opens the propeller and adjusts it to a little south-east. Skimming the rooftops of the Far East's largest metropolis and almost down the Suzhou Creek to the Bund and Huangpu River. Countless people looked up to the airship, the British patrolling and eating lunch in India, and the beggars and coolies on the docks all became spectators of the "Mr. Sai".

Qin Beiyang identified the Hongkou wharf, on the deck of a steamship with the flag of an unknown country, many foreign sailors poured up to watch the excitement. Ah You also lay down beside him, the monstrous Huangpu River was like a small stream, and Jiuse also brought the "dog head" over to see the scenery.

The airship entered the sky over the fields of Pudong and soon reached the meeting point of the Yangtze River and the East China Sea. The Yangtze River is covered with turbid yellow-brown sediment, while the East China Sea is a vast blue-gray, and the two colors collide and merge at the apex of the Yangtze River Delta. American technicians adjust their course while looking at charts. God helps, today the west wind overwhelms the east wind, just riding the wind.

Finally, the "Mr. Sai" defected to the angry sea.

Qin Beiyang turned back again, Chinese mainland had become distant and small, and he could only vaguely distinguish the curved bow-shaped north and south coastlines, and he was in the position of the arrow of this bow.

On the train back to Shanghai from Hangzhou the day before yesterday, Qin Beiyang chatted with Qian Ke and learned that after the First Sino-Japanese War, Xie Zhangtai, an overseas Chinese born in Sydney, designed and manufactured the "China" airship by himself, and successfully flew the Yellow Dragon Flag of the Qing Dynasty, making China one of the first countries to have an airship. Xie presented the blueprint to the Qing government, hoping for mass production and the establishment of the first Chinese air force, but the Qing court did not respond to it. Later, the famous "Map of the Current Situation" was written by Xie Jintai, showing that China was divided between Russian bears, English bulldogs, French frogs, American eagles, Japanese suns, and German sausages.

"Inspector Ye! If in the future, China's skies can be filled with such airships, 50, 500, or even 5,000. If there are as many airships in the sky as there are camels on the ground, why worry that China will not rise if it is not rich and strong. ”

"What a sweet dream!"

"Mr. Sai is a panacea! At least let us have a dream. ”

This conversation on the airship reminded Ye Kenan of eight years ago, when he had just arrived in Tianjin to find Qin Beiyang, and secretly observed the nine-year-old boy outside the German school, he felt that if he grew up, he would be able to accomplish great things that others could not accomplish.

"Beiyang, this big dog reminds me of something."

Ye Kenan squatted down and looked at the nine-colored eyes, it took a few steps back and hid behind Qin Beiyang.

"What?"

"Seeing it, it's like I'm back in Xiling's underground palace, the day I brought you to your father."

"If I told you that it was the Tomb Beast of the Young Qilin Town, would you believe it?"

"The Grave Beast is a living creature?" Ye Kenan was amazed, "It has lived for more than a thousand years in the underground palace of the Tang Dynasty tomb? ”

"Well, it has different forms, and now it looks like this, but few people have ever seen it."

Seeing that the scenery on the sea became more and more monotonous, Ye Ke dusted off the sleeves of his long shirt, took off his top hat and said, "I'll show you something." ”

He pulled a delicate leather bag from his waist, untied the rope, and took out a dagger.

Qin Beiyang's eyes were straight, and the dagger had a simple leather sheath, a snow-white ivory handle, and a luodian inlaid with a comet hitting the moon.

"That's it! The murder weapon of eight years ago! ”

"Well, I made it myself."

Ye Kenan carefully drew his dagger, and the sharp cold light flashed, and Jiu Se's eyes widened. This is an important evidence of a murder case, which has never been cleaned for eight years, so that there is still a very faint blood scale left - this is the blood of Qin Beiyang's adoptive mother, seeing this, Qin Beiyang's tears are about to fall.

"The comet strikes the moon......" He looked at the ivory inlaid hilt decoration, his mind spun rapidly, and suddenly remembered an ancient text, "The thorn of the husband and the king, the comet strikes the moon!" ”

"Nie Zhengzhi's assassination Han puppet also, Bai Hong Guanri; To leave the thorn Qingji, the goshawk struck the temple. ”

Flying in the sky to discuss this makes people's blood run high. Ye Kenan had a little ink in his stomach, and immediately picked up this famous sentence of Tang Ju in "Warring States Policy".

"These three sons, all of whom are clothed in cloth, have no anger, and Hugh descends to the sky, and the ministers will be four. If the soldier will be angry, the corpse of the two, bleeding five steps, the world is vegetarian, today is also. "Eight years ago, Qin Beiyang was confined in the underground palace for a year, and in addition to a spike of wicks, he spent underground time with countless ancient books, "Zhuzhu, Nie Zheng, and Yao Li-these three people are all famous assassins of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and they are also so-called scholars. ”

"A man in cloth is also a taxi, or a purer and cleaner taxi."

Ye Kenan stuffed the dagger back into the leather sheath and leather bag: "The man in cloth is a purer and cleaner taxi. At times, the line between an Assassin and a Warrior was blurred. ”

"Eight years ago, the two assassins who killed my adoptive parents, the two assassins who caused the Hongkou Patrol House massacre, the fourteen people who killed the Dharma Mountain on the sea, and the bastards who planted a false accusation against me, they are all assassins, because I have a secret hidden in me?"

Tens of thousands of feet in the air, Qin Beiyang lowered his head dejectedly and touched his nine-colored red mane.

"Therefore, I must not let you fall into the hands of the patrol house or the green gang, let alone let you die without knowing it! Once you die, all clues are interrupted, and I'm afraid those murders will become headless cases. ”

"So, as long as I live, there will be bloody storms in the world? The assassins and their daggers will still attack from all sides, bleeding thousands of miles? ”

"It's a pity, it's true, but you have to live."

"Gotcha! This time I'm a broom star! Where will there be a great calamity? The broom star is a comet, and I am the comet hitting the moon! ”

"Now that you're going up to Dharma Mountain again, I don't know if it will bring disaster to that isolated island."

Qin Beiyang looked at the vast sea and sky due east: "Inspector Ye, why do you want to go to Dharma Mountain?" Can you answer it now? ”

"Okay, the chief of internal affairs of the Beiyang government sent me to Shanghai, ostensibly to assist the public concession patrol house in handling the case, but in fact to investigate the Damo Mountain pirate case." Ye Kenan looked down at the sparkling sea, and was still a little afraid of heights, holding his forehead and saying: "After the Gengzi rebellion, the East China Sea was not very peaceful, and there were many shipwrecks - every time a shipwreck was robbed, countless people were buried at the bottom of the sea. Legend has it that the pirates obtained countless gold and silver treasures, hidden on an isolated island in the East China Sea, most likely on Mt. Dharma, the halfway point of the Sino-Japanese route. ”

"Gengzi indemnity?" Qin Beiyang remembered the date at the scene of the Hongkou Capture House Massacre, "Ten years ago, on September 2, 1907, one million taels of silver disappeared in the East China Sea!" I think that the goal of the destruction of the Dharma Mountain on the sea is not me, but ......"

The American technician pointed to the sea directly ahead and shouted, "We are arriving in Bodhidharma Island."

Bodhidharma Mountain has arrived!