The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 538: I’ll wait for you if you’re alive or dead!
What's in this well?
Shen Le leaned over the well mouth and looked down. The ancient well was not deep. Shen Le's fellow apprentices had measured it with plumb bobs and scanners before, and the answers they got were exactly the same:
The total distance from the ground to the bottom of the well is 4 meters, and from the well mouth to the bottom of the well is only 4.5 meters. Citong City is close to the sea, and the groundwater is abundant, so there is no need to dig a very deep well.

As for the wall of the well, ever since Shen Le's fellow apprentices disappeared at the bottom of the well, the local police station went down to search it. After Junior Brother Ma came back, he also went down to measure it with an ultrasound machine.

The answer is that there is no abnormal space either at the bottom of the well or on the wall. At least, there is no space that can accommodate a person.

The gaps between the stones are so small that even a baby can't fit in, let alone an adult!
Shen Le couldn't see anything unusual with just his eyes. He thought for a moment, took out a new device, and jumped onto the eaves to set it up:
It was an infrared thermal imaging camera. Once it was set up, the entire courtyard changed its appearance on the screen:
Most places are blue-green in color, with only a few places, such as the floor tiles that Shen Le had just repaired and the charred pillars in the meditation world, having a slightly reddish color.

The shape of the lotus on the floor tiles also appears as a light blue pattern under the thermal imaging camera.

Obviously, even if a large amount of earth power was absorbed, it could not stop this force coming from the unknown, which insisted on expressing its existence.

As for the ancient well, the wellhead with cold mist rising from it looked almost dark black under the infrared thermal imaging screen:

"Wow, is it that cold?"

Shen Le exclaimed softly. When the junior brothers and sisters were looking through the materials, they did find the corresponding record:

"There is a cold well in the ancient temple. The water is so cold that even in the hottest days, one's body trembles when touching it. But one cannot drink it, and one cannot sink plums or float melons into it. Anyone who eats it will get sick, and people think it is a sign of resentment."

Regardless of whether there is real resentment or not, there must be something wrong with this ancient well. Shen Le operated the thermal imager, recorded the relevant images, and also noted the temperature of each location.

He jumped into the well and dug hard at the bottom. Surface, 0.3 meters deep, 0.5 meters deep, 1 meter deep...

The earth responded to his request, the soil at the bottom of the well parted softly and contributed what he wanted;

Shen Le even reached out and pulled away the bricks and stones on the well wall and dug the soil behind them. The well wall was very considerate and held up, and did not collapse directly.

He packed the excavated soil one by one, labeled it, took it back to his residence, and handed it directly to his fellow apprentices:

"Help me see what's in this soil!"

"What……"

"I don't know what it is, I just want to know." Shen Le said the same thing without changing his expression, and went back to sleep. The junior brothers and sisters were left looking at each other in bewilderment:

What to do? Party A has money and is willful. The key is that Party A is really willing to pay.

What else is there to say? Let’s get to work!

Shen Le woke up from a good sleep, and was greeted by four pairs of panda eyes. Junior Sister Huang Chuxia couldn't wait and was the first to speak:
"Brother, where did you get this mud?"

"how?"

Shen Le raised his eyebrows slightly. Junior Sister Huang's cheek twitched:
"There are bones in it! There are bones!"

Last night, she spread out the bag of soil, sifted it with a sieve, and then carefully brushed the debris bit by bit on a flat surface with a small brush.

Her original intention was to pick out the debris first and then detect the soil composition. In the end, before she could pick out many pebbles, broken shells, and broken bricks, she first found some broken bones...

"The shape of this bone is very similar to human bones, okay!"

"Oh?"

Shen Le raised his eyebrows. It is not so easy to distinguish between human bones and animal bones. At least, except for a few special bones, it is not something that non-professionals can distinguish at a glance.

"What did you find? A skull?"

"no!"

Junior Sister Huang shrank back, and along with several other junior brothers, all had strange expressions on their faces. If it was a whole skull, it would be fine!

They were also mentally prepared for the intact skull. At worst, they would hand it over to a museum - this was in line with the joke: What's the scariest thing about eating an apple is finding a few worms in it?
The answer is not one, nor ten, but half. Because the other half is already in your mouth...

"We found some bone fragments... but those bone fragments are obviously human bones!"

She took out her phone, opened the photo and showed it to Shen Le. Shen Le glanced at it and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows:
No wonder the junior sister thought it looked like human bones, and he thought it looked like human bones too. Students majoring in cultural relics restoration also need to learn some archaeological knowledge, including the rough identification of human bones;
And this piece of bone is obviously part of the skull, yes, it is one of the bones on top of the head.

Whether it's the shape, the curvature, or the jagged gaps on the edges, it's very distinctive...

"So, someone died at the bottom of the well and was not buried. Or, the well was dredged before, but not completely, and some human bones are left underneath..."

Shen Le murmured. As for more, he couldn't see it. He turned his head and looked at his junior sister:

"Has it been sent for identification?"

"It has been delivered, and the queue is still there." Junior Brother Ma, who also came out from the bottom of the well, stared at the photo of the bones with a bad look on his face.

If his senior brother had not come to save him, if his mentor did not have such a senior brother, would it be possible that he and his junior sister would be swallowed by the ancient well forever?
After several years, or dozens or hundreds of years, when it is dug out by someone, only this piece of bone will be left?
"Brother, should we dig this ancient well again?"

He stared at Shen Le with a bit of fear. Shen Le pondered for a moment, took two steps back, and turned to the instructor who had heard the noise and came over at some point:

"Boss, what do you think?"

"It's up to you! To pacify this ancient house and make it quiet, should we dig it again or just let it sleep like this? We don't know!"

I said it as if I knew it - the only thing I was sure of was that no matter whether it was noisy or dormant, I had the ability to suppress it.

Or, I could simply absorb its aura and seal it into the model to prevent it from hurting anyone. However, from the perspective of ancient building restoration, I can’t say for sure…

"Boss, when we are repairing ancient buildings and come across human bones, how do we deal with them?"

Shen Le sincerely asked for advice. Unexpectedly, this sincerity did not bring any guidance, but a lecture instead:
"You ask me? Why do you ask me? How old am I? I'm about to retire. How many more years can I teach you?
You should find the answers to these questions yourself. Why do you expect me to check everything for you?"

Shen Le and his fellow apprentices ran away in panic. They ran out of the corridor and gathered at the door. Shen Le then began to give orders:
"I will purify this house first. Wang Jun, go contact the workers to dismantle the ancient well, dig up the soil from 0.5 meters around the ancient well to two meters below, and fill it with soil again;

Junior Brother Ma, collect all the soil you dug out and sort it out to see if there are any other bone fragments in it;
Sister Huang, please contact the laboratory to test these bone fragments. It would be even better if we can tell how many people they belong to, their age, gender, and generation.
Junior brother, check the Huang family genealogy again to see if there is anyone who can match the name of someone who jumped into the well or was buried in the well..."

The junior brothers and sisters dispersed and went to work. Shen Le teleported back to his old house, picked up the model, captured the breath again, and put it back into the model:
"Tsk...some of these floor tiles are particularly special..."

Grabbing it, in the southeast corner of the yard, on the floor tiles of 1/4 of the yard, a light bluish-white aura rose up and was photographed by Shen Le into the model.

Looking from the perspective of spiritual power, most of the floor tiles were already clean, and only five or six tiles still had a half-green and half-white scent lingering, floating up and down, like phosphorescence.

If we compare the photos taken by the infrared imaging camera, we can see that these floor tiles are the center points of the lotus pattern, supporting the core of each pattern:
"What's wrong with these bricks? Could they be made of clay containing human bones? That shouldn't be the case. They are all carved out of stone, not clay bricks. There's no reason for them to contain bones..."

Shen Le squatted beside a floor tile, holding the X-ray diffractometer and scanning back and forth. Well, a very small amount of apatite was detected, but no bone fragments were found...

No matter what, let's pick them out first. Shen Le took out a piece of chalk, marked them one by one, and then tried his best to capture the aura above and photographed it into the model.

When the junior brothers and sisters come to dig wells, give them tasks:

"Come on, dig out all the bricks and stones I marked and retest them - I always feel that there is something different about them!"

Shen Le just drew the marks while his juniors pried the bricks, sealed them, packed them for shipment, and tested them using all kinds of methods, even using carbon 14.

Finally, it was the instructor who found the difference between these bricks and stones:

"There are different things in the gaps between these bricks. You see, a lot of incense ash and tar have accumulated in their pores. Maybe they were used as pads under the incense burner before:

Under the incense ash and tar, there is a layer of substance, which we guess is blood. Because it is sealed by tar, it has not deteriorated and some can still be detected.

Perhaps these bricks were left behind after the old house was destroyed, and were used in the reconstruction as a memorial?"

Shen Le estimated that the answer was this. This also explained why these bricks had accumulated such a strong aura:

They must have experienced the destruction of this ancestral hall, when all the people inside were killed, the hall became deserted, and may have been occupied by others.

A hundred years later, when the country is restored, it will return to its original owner and be rebuilt again, right?
He sighed deeply, touched the bricks in front of him, and felt heavy-hearted. After thinking for a while, he turned to his fellow apprentices:
"Have you found anything about the bones at the bottom of the well?"

"They are all human bones!" Junior Sister Huang rushed to answer:

"We sent them for testing. The forensic doctor said at a glance that the large pieces were definitely human bones. They also said that some of the smaller pieces were sliced and put under a microscope to observe the tissue structure, and they were definitely human bones!"

"So……"

"Whether it's a boy or a girl, or how many there are, I don't know." Junior Sister Huang shook her head sadly:

"After all, it's too old, and the bones are too old. Without iconic bones, such as the pelvis, it's hard to judge.

We sent these bones to another laboratory, hoping that experienced archaeology teachers could give us a conclusion, but they said there was little hope..."

Shen Le shook his head helplessly. Seeing these junior brothers and sisters standing in a row, looking at him eagerly, he had no choice but to comfort them:
"It's okay, we'll rebuild the well, and leave the rest to me. At least, I will definitely not let it make trouble again after the well is repaired!" The junior brothers and sisters cheered quietly. Shen Le watched them restore the entire ancient well to its original state according to the image given by the scanner, and even returned the bricks and stones of the well wall to their original positions, and immediately drove them out.

I sat cross-legged beside the well, from the time when the sun was at its zenith until the time when the moon was at its zenith:
"If you still remember your past master, if you still remember your past experiences, then please tell me..."

While whispering to the ancient well, he silently gathered the power around him. The power of the earth moistens everything silently, strengthening all the bricks and stones, and all the stone foundations;

The power of water calls upon the nearby groundwater, which gathers together little by little and rises from the bottom of the well little by little.

Finally, when the moonlight shone into the bottom of the well, the cold mist rose from the well again, and the world in front of Shen Le finally changed:

It’s still Qitong City.

Or an ancestral hall.

However, the entire ancestral hall was filled with people, and everyone had a panicked look on their faces. A middle-aged man, his long robe fluttering, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, kept calling out:
"Hurry up! Hurry up! Take this box away!"

"Idiot! Be gentle! This bronze gui was handed down from the Tang Dynasty! It has been offered before our ancestors for hundreds of years!"

“May our ancestors bless us…May our ancestors bless us…”

The two young men looked exactly like him, also wearing long gowns and gauze crowns on their heads, looking like scholars.

However, the hem of the long gown was lifted directly to the waist, one corner was pressed into the belt, the sleeves were rolled up, and he stood on the ladder to work:

"Grandfather, we are unfilial descendants and have no choice but to disturb the spirit tablet. I hope you can forgive me... Please bless our Huang family..."

While muttering to himself, he took down the portrait of ancestors from the highest shelf, rolled it up carefully, and passed it down.

The two rooms on the left and right of the ancestral hall were also full of busy people, some were packing up the altar, some were packing up the family tree, some were packing up the sacrificial utensils...

Are you trying to escape?

Shen Le walked around the ancestral hall and saw this chaotic scene.

Turning to the back door, the back door facing the Women's Temple was already open, and a constant stream of people carrying boxes and shouldering loads were walking along the alley to the back.

When they arrived at the gate of the women's shrine, they found a convoy waiting there. The driver took the boxes, quickly tied them up and loaded them onto the cart. When the cart was full, he cracked the whip and drove off.

Wait, the things in the ancestral hall need to be packed up and taken away, but where are the people?

What about people? !
The front and back doors of the female temple were all closed, as if no one was there. Shen Le leaned against the door and listened, and felt that he heard crying, or maybe a small scream?

He leaped onto the roof of the shrine, walked a few steps along the ridge, and looked down.

Sure enough, a group of women shivered and gathered together. Some were quickly changing into ragged clothes, some were tying their skirts tightly, some were smearing stove ash on their faces, and some were tying skirt knives on their skirts.

There’s more…

There’s more…

Shen Le turned around the main hall and walked upstairs. His footsteps in memory landed silently and did not alarm anyone.

In the small room upstairs, several old women calmly arranged their dresses and combed each other's hair, without any intention of pretending to be ugly or poor;
However, Shen Le saw that there were long ribbons hanging from the beams of the room where they lived...

Has it become this dangerous?

Shen Le closed his eyes reluctantly, wanting to reach out to them, but then he let his hand drop. He turned around, jumped out, and walked slowly around the perimeter of the ancestral hall:

The memory of the old house had definitely not landed him here in vain. What did it want him to see?

Where are the girl named Shanshan and Aying?
Is it near this ancestral temple?
Just now he walked around the shrine, but he didn't see Shanshan...

Shen Le walked around the ancestral hall and then walked outside, but still didn't see anyone.

The streets were in chaos, with people riding in cars, driving donkey carts, walking with luggage on their backs, and carrying the elderly and children.

Shen Le listened attentively, and could barely make out the whispered complaints among the strange local dialect:
"Why did they suddenly start fighting?"

"Didn't you say it could be defended?"

"I heard that the Pu family rebelled... opened the city to surrender, and brought in the Tartar soldiers..."

"Hush...are you trying to kill yourself? What are you talking about at this time? If they hear me, I'll kill them with a knife!"

"Alas, it's all because of that Lord Zhang. He insisted on taking the Pu family's boat and going to war with the Tartar soldiers... Who wouldn't feel resentful if their good boat was taken away?"

"Even if you have grievances, you cannot betray your country! Humph! Those who are not of our race must have different hearts! We should not have allowed them to stay here in the first place! We also let them serve as officials and manage the Maritime Customs Office!"

"I hope they won't attack the people..."

"Those members of the royal family escaped the fastest. They have already boarded the boats and fled. Only the common people in the city are left..."

Shen Le stood there in a daze. He had already remembered which period of history he was currently in:
Pu Shougeng rebelled against the Song Dynasty and surrendered to the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the Pu family joined forces with the Yuan army to purge the Song Dynasty forces in Citong City. It seems that all the royal family members in the city were massacred...

not good!

That Ah Ying seemed to be from the royal family! I remember when he won a lantern for Shanshan at the Lantern Festival, someone at the top of Qingfeng Tower praised him, saying that he was the son of a dragon and a grandson of a phoenix!

Shen Le was startled. He rushed out a few steps, wanting to find the couple and tell them to hurry up, but he stopped in an instant:

Not to mention that this is just a memory, the people here can't see or hear him, and he can't affect anything. Even if he could intervene, he doesn't know where the two children are!
It seems... the last time they met was not far from the back door of the ancestral hall. What about this time?

Can we find them where they are?

Shen Le looked around, trying hard to search for the place in his memory, looking for the place and the person at the same time.

Every street corner around him looked a bit like it, but every street corner was not quite like it. He searched for a long time but found nothing. Turning a corner, he suddenly stopped:

In the midst of the rushing crowd, a young man and woman were pulling each other. Aren’t they Shanshan and Aying?
"Come with me! Come with me quickly!" Shanshan had changed out of her silk and satin clothes and put on a coarse cloth. Her hair was tied into a man's bun and wrapped in a piece of coarse cloth.
Her red face was covered with sweat, which flowed down one by one, washing away the dust on her face. She pulled Aying and said in a low and hurried voice:

"We are about to leave the city! We have a way to escape before the Tartar soldiers arrive. Once we escape, we won't be afraid anymore!

I heard from them that the first people the Tartar soldiers want to kill are the royal family of the Song Dynasty. If you don’t follow me, you will die!"

"Shanshan, go on your own." No matter how she pulled, Aying stood still, just took out a golden hairpin from her hair and gently inserted it into Shanshan's bun:
"I am a descendant of the royal family of the Song Dynasty. I must contribute to the country... My father, my grandfather, my uncle, and my cousin have all gone to the war. I cannot escape!"

"But……"

"Be good and go with your family." Ah Ying carefully adjusted the position of the golden hairpin, untied the coarse cloth on Shanshan's bun, and wrapped the hairpin head inside:

"If this battle can be won, or if I can survive, I will come to you again. If I can't survive... forget me and find another lover..."

He pushed Shanshan against the wall and turned to run. Shanshan ran after him, holding her skirt in her hand. After running two blocks, she tripped and fell to the ground with a thump.

She fell to the ground, struggled to get up, and ran two more steps, only to feel severe pain in her ankles and knees. She could only hold on to the wall and shouted:

"I'll wait for you! I'll wait for you in the ancestral hall! I won't leave until you come back!!! I'll wait for you whether you're alive or dead!"

People were coming and going, no one even looked at her. Shanshan stood still for a long time, then she held onto the wall and walked back step by step.

Shen Le couldn't help but follow her. When they were near the ancestral hall, someone grabbed him and said:
"Girl! Why are you still here? Your family has gone on their way, leaving me to watch over you. I'll take you back as soon as you get here!"

Shen Le looked closely and saw that the man had gray hair and a wrinkled face. He was probably an old man guarding the gate. Shan Shan took a step back and shook her head vigorously:

"I'm not leaving! We agreed to wait here, I'll wait until he gets here!"

She dodged and jumped into the ancestral hall in two steps. In the women's ancestral hall, the majority of the troops had already left, leaving only a few elderly women, who were sitting quietly on the steps basking in the sun.

Shanshan bit her lip, quickly got herself ready, hid beside the gatehouse of the ancestral hall, and listened attentively:

"Aying! Survive! Survive! - You must come! I'm waiting for you to pick me up!"

Shen Le didn't know whether the young man would come. He walked around the courtyard of the ancestral hall twice, then jumped onto the roof and looked around:
The entire Citong City was noisy at first, then quiet, and gradually fell into tension.

Day and night rotated, and when the second night arrived, a huge noise suddenly broke the silence.

In the southeast of the ancient city, overlooking the river, the tall and beautiful Qingfeng Tower is burning like a huge torch!

(End of this chapter)