Distant Mountain Battle Song

Chapter 298 The Seven-Colored Flower Exchange Pavilion

Zhou Situ was a shrewd and calculating man who always adhered to the principle of anticipating defeat before achieving victory in Chang'an.

This style of doing things is a good style in times of peace, when the political situation is clear and everyone is reasonable.

However, neither the emperor nor the Grand Marshal were reasonable people. They used any means necessary to eliminate dissidents. At this point, no matter how much the Grand Minister of Works yielded, he would not have a place in Chang'an unless he completely pledged allegiance to either side.

So he gave up his power and retreated to this two-story building, wanting to be an ostrich with its head in the sand, thinking that this would allow him to escape this great calamity.

The result, of course, was that he died without a burial place.

Zhou Situ died, and his family disappeared along with him.

In fact, the word "missing" has many interpretations in case files. It generally depends on the prefix. Different prefixes result in different interpretations of "missing".

Wu Tong felt that there must be a secret passage in Zhou Situ's house, and it was a secret passage leading to the outside of Chang'an City. As long as they found this secret passage, they, the old, weak, sick and disabled, could leave Chang'an City.

This time, the Grand Marshal unleashed his power. He was determined to clean up Chang'an. The drawbridge was high, there were cavalry and infantry inside the city, crossbowmen on the city walls, and fully armed bandits on the Imperial City Mountain.

Therefore, without exceptional strength, it would be very difficult to escape from Chang'an.

Yun Ce used to have extraordinary strength, but now his arms only have the strength of a thousand catties. This strength is even less than that of a decent Tiger Warrior, and Wu Tong is the same.

The fact that Liu Changsheng did not invite Yun Ce to take refuge in the Divine Dragon Palace and even expelled Wu Tong from the palace shows that Liu Changsheng could only protect a very limited number of people, namely some women and children.

If you lack strength, you lack strength. The Ancestral Fire is the spirit of the Han Dynasty, and Liu Changsheng is merely a worshipper and sacrificer of the Fire Spirit. It is only because Liu Changsheng is now too deeply entangled with the Ancestral Fire that he is not dead. Otherwise, he would have died long ago, perhaps even earlier than Zhou Situ.

Wu Tong was exhausted, Yun Ce was also exhausted, Lei Ming was like a headless fly digging around aimlessly, while Huo Wudi was quite clever, lying on the ground like a puppy, constantly sniffing around.

The chestnut horse behaved normally, no longer sneering or snorting, and stood quietly by the ruins of the small building, occasionally kicking away a brick or stone with its hoof.

The chestnut horse had powerful hooves; any bricks it kicked flew more than ten feet away, but all of them landed precisely in the well.

Yun Ce and his group searched for more than two hours, and the chestnut horse was kicking bricks and stones there for more than two hours.

When Yun Ce finally found the well again, he suddenly stopped and looked at the chestnut horse, saying, "You clearly know that the secret passage is in this well, why can't you just say so? Why do you have to remind me by kicking stones? If I weren't smart, you could kick stones your whole life and it wouldn't make a difference."

Wu Tong, who was standing next to him, glanced into the well and said, "I've already searched this place; the secret passage isn't here."

Lei Ming continued, "I jumped into the well. There was no water below, no hidden passage. I also carefully examined the surrounding well walls, and they are all solid. There are no hidden passages."

Huo Wudi wrinkled his nose and said, "Apart from the moisture, there's nothing else inside."

Yun Ce glanced at the well and said, "The well is no more than two zhang deep and no more than three chi in diameter. I ask you, the chestnut horse has been kicking bricks and stones weighing no less than ten thousand jin into the well. Tell me, where did those ten thousand jin of bricks and stones go?"

Upon hearing this, Lei Ming immediately jumped into the well. This time, he dived to the bottom and came up after a short while. He said to Yun Ce, "The water is no more than ten feet deep, but there are no bricks or stones underwater."

Just as Yun Ce was about to speak, he saw the chestnut horse kick over another brick. This time, Lei Ming jumped into the well along with the brick. After a string of bubbles rose from the bottom of the water, Lei Ming never came up again.

Yun Ce, who had no external injuries, jumped into the well again and dived to the bottom. This time, he saw neither bricks nor thunder.

Yun Ce climbed up the well, came to the chestnut horse, and pinched its chin, asking, "What happened?"

The chestnut horse impatiently shook off Yun Ce's hand and kicked a brick away with its front hoof. This time, Yun Ce fell into the well along with the brick, and then there was no further news of him.

Huo Wudi glanced at the well, then at Wu Tong, and asked, "Do you want to go down?"

Wu Tong shook his head and said, "This is a very powerful trap, and my injuries are not yet fully recovered..."

Before he could finish speaking, Huo Wudi saw the chestnut horse kick over another brick, which fell into the well along with the brick. As a string of bubbles rose, she disappeared without a trace.

Wu Tong stared at the well for a moment, then came to the chestnut horse. Just as the horse was about to kick a brick away, he stopped the heavy brick halfway.

The chestnut horse snorted in frustration, then found another brick and kicked it with its front hooves. The brick spun around and landed precisely in the well.

Wu Tong smashed open the bricks, but there was nothing inside. Then, he sat down next to the chestnut horse and watched it meticulously kick bricks into the well.

Before we knew it, the red sun had set, and Chang'an was once again shrouded in a light drizzle.

The chestnut horse continued kicking stones, and Wu Tong refused to take shelter from the rain, watching the chestnut horse kick stones.

Suddenly, a loud gurgling sound came, and Wu Tong was surprised to see that water was actually gushing out of the well. Then, with a "plop," Yun Ce, Lei Ming, and Huo Wudi were sprayed out of the well along with the water column.

The three of them seemed to be alright, except that they were soaking wet and not suffocating.

"Where did you go?" Wu Tong asked hurriedly.

"An empty house filled with bricks and stones." "Is there no way out of the house?"

"No, there is only a mechanism that keeps opening and closing, accepting bricks and stones, with no way out."

"Couldn't you have taken advantage of the brickwork..."

Wu Tong stopped talking after only getting halfway through his sentence. He felt that someone as smart as him shouldn't ask such a stupid question.

Yun Ce said, "The opening and closing time is very short..."

Yun Ce stopped halfway through his sentence, not because he was being pretentious, but because he was surprised to find that the ruins of the small building in front of him seemed to be slowly sinking.

After the dilapidated building crumbled into pieces, a new two-story building slowly grew out of the ground, pushing aside the ruins on the roof. In just a few breaths, a brand new two-story building reappeared on the ground.

However, it is an exquisite two-story wooden building.

Yun Ce glanced at the white gauze fluttering in the wind on the window of the small building, then turned back to look into the eyes of the chestnut horse, grabbed its ear and said fiercely, "Why didn't you tell me?"

This time, the chestnut horse did not struggle, but the disdain in its large eyes that were close to Yun Ce was clearly visible even to Huo Wudi.

"It looks down on you!"

Yun Ce ignored Huo Wudi's provocation and looked into the chestnut horse's big eyes, saying, "You've been acting very strangely lately. If you've become a spirit, what's wrong with telling me?"

"We have plenty of sentient beings in our house, one more won't make a difference, will it?"

Just as Yun Ce was eagerly waiting for the chestnut horse to speak, the horse snorted loudly, spewing out a large amount of snot. Yun Ce dodged it, but the snot landed right on Huo Wudi's face, who was sneaking over, and covered her face in it.

Seeing that the chestnut horse still didn't reveal any information, Yun Ce stepped into the wooden building in front of him.

The owner of the small building must be a very refined person. Yun Ce leaned back on the soft couch by the window, with a light drizzle outside and a gentle evening breeze. It would be perfect to recite poetry, drink wine, and brew tea here.

After washing her face, Huo Wudi carried a desiccated infant skeleton from the bed inside and placed it in front of Yun Ce, saying, "This child is at most one year old."

Yun Ce glanced at him and said, "His mother must have left in a hurry."

Huo Wudi said, "Her mother is dead. She's in the cabinet inside. Only her upper body is there."

Yun Ce didn't have time to pay attention to these trivial matters. Seeing Wu Tong standing in the hall looking thoughtful, he called out, "Just say what you're thinking."

"It's nothing, I finally know where Zhou Situ's money went."

You mean this small building?

"Yes, the Seven-Colored Flower Pavilion."

"What do you mean?"

"It means that if we burn down this building, another building will grow up underground. It will grow up seven times in total and then stop. Oh, it can grow up five more times, after all, the brick building in front has been destroyed."

Yun Ce regretted not bringing Gouzi here again. Otherwise, he would have noticed something amiss earlier. The timing of discovering this building was not good. The priority was to get these people out of Chang'an first. Once the Grand Marshal's army started searching the city, survival would be extremely difficult.

"Let's find a tunnel first."

Wu Tong shook his head and said, "No need to look anymore. Let's rest and recover in this building until the riots in Chang'an are over before we go out."

Yun Ce ignored Wu Tong's words and turned to look at the chestnut horse. He found it circling the well and kicking the well opening with its hooves, making the heavy well opening shake.

Yun Ce left the small building and came to the well. He found that the well was constantly overflowing with water. With a strong kick from the chestnut horse, the well opening was finally kicked aside, revealing the wide well wall.

The chestnut horse kicked the clear well water with its hoof, and Yun Ce, carrying Huo Wudi and pulling Lei Ming, jumped into the well. Immediately afterwards, the chestnut horse also plunged headfirst into the well.

Upon seeing this, Wu Tong hurriedly called out, but unfortunately, the three people and the horse quickly disappeared into the well.

Wu Tong looked back at the small building in the spring rain, then at the bubbling well, and finally sighed before jumping headfirst into the well.

There wasn't much water in the well; it was being pushed upwards by the air. Yun Ce was the first to break through the water and then fell downwards. He adjusted his body in mid-air, preparing to land forcefully, when his feet were already on solid ground.

The chestnut horse was better prepared; when it landed, it landed on all fours and stood firmly.

Just as Yun Ce took out a torch to move forward, Wu Tong also fell down.

(End of this chapter)