The Royal Merchant of the Red Chamber

It is different from the bright colors and bright lights in the front yard.As soon as they stepped into the gate of the side courtyard, everyone suddenly felt cold and lonely. Although the courtyard was still planted with lush pines and cypresses, under the sunlight, it looked even more desolate.A discerning person can tell at a glance that this is a place where few people walk around.

Xue Pan led the people straight through the backyard, and quietly came out from the corner door. It turned out to be a deserted alley.Xue Pan poked his head around and took a look, then led the three of them away in awe, closed the corner door with his backhand, and locked it smoothly.Then he said to the three of them: "The place I'm leading you this time is outside the city."

"Outside the city?" Zhen Baoyu repeated subconsciously, raising his eyebrows, not knowing what Xue Pan meant by that. "What good things are there outside the city that make you so mysterious?"

Xue Pan responded with a smile, and said, "Of course it's a great thing, I'll take you to learn more."

Zhen Baoyu rolled his eyes and asked, "But you want to take us to your resort?"

"That place is dusty and dusty, what's the point?" Xue Pan curled his lips disapprovingly.He stretched out his hand and slapped him twice, only to see Zhaocai and Jinbao walking over in awe, leading the horse.

"Has the arrangement been made?" Xue Pan raised his eyebrows and asked.

"Don't worry, sir! Those people were all drunk by the two brothers, and they are sleeping in the guest room now!" Zhao Cai said with a smile.

"That's good!" Xue Pan nodded, glanced at Fourth Master Long who was suddenly hesitant and silent, and said with some dissatisfaction: "You don't need to look like this, if you really suspect that I am cheating on you, you don't have to." went."

If it weren't for Fourth Master Long's performance today, and the master insisted on ordering him again, he wouldn't want to lead him there!

Fourth Master Long was a little hesitant at first, but he laughed out loud after being so stiffened by Xue Pan. "What am I afraid of? You put it out, and I will wait for it."

"Alright then!" Xue Pan nodded reluctantly, and said, "Get on your horses! Let's get out of the city as soon as possible, and be careful not to be followed."

"Master, don't worry!" Jin Bao replied with a smile, "All arrangements have been made."

Xue Pan responded, stretched out his hand and said, "Let's go."

Zhaocai and Jinbao responded repeatedly, and they got on their horses and galloped out of the city.

Thirty miles east of Jinling City, there is a shady and overgrown forest.I don't know when it started to exist. The trees inside are tall and strong, covering the sky and the sun.No matter what season, there is a thick fog, which makes people unable to see the direction, and even lost people several times.So after a long time, everyone called it the ghost fog forest.

At this moment, Xue Pan and the others stopped in front of Ghost Mist Forest.Zhen Baoyu said a little uneasy: "Xue Pan, this is not a good place to go, why did you bring us here?"

"Here is the good thing for you to see." Xue Pan pointed to the thick fog-covered ghost fog forest and said with a smile.

"Ah?" Zhen Baoyu was shocked, and his face immediately became embarrassed. "Don't make fun of us! It's getting late, I want to go home."

As Zhen Baoyu said, he was about to beat the horse and pick the head.But Xue Pan stopped him in one gulp.

"Stop!" Xue Pan said with an unhappy face, "When did I ever hurt you? You don't believe me at all. If you leave today, don't come to play with me again!"

He was really angry. At the beginning, he begged his grandpa to sue his grandma's master to agree to him. When the situation came to an end, Zhen Baoyu actually wanted to back down, so he didn't treat him as a brother too much.

Zhen Baoyu hesitated for a while when he heard the words, and finally gritted his teeth and said: "If you fight hard, just think that I am giving up my life to accompany the gentleman."

"That's right!" Xue Pan nodded in satisfaction, got off his horse and said, "Let's go in!"

After finishing speaking, he grabbed Zhen Baoyu with one hand, while staring at Fourth Master Long with burning eyes.

Seeing this, Fourth Master Long laughed lightly.He moved ahead of Xue Pan.Xue Pan rushed forward and said, "Wait, you are all walking behind me."

After speaking, he hit his head first.

Everyone walked into the thick fog step by step.Zhen Baoyu tightly clenched his fists, it was impossible to say that he was not afraid.After all, he is only an eight-year-old now, but compared with this, he is more worried that he will be far away from Xue Pan, especially after having such a weird dream yesterday...

Just as he was thinking about it, his eyes suddenly brightened.It turned out that Xue Pan took out a fist-sized bead from his bosom and held it in front of his chest. The bead was all blue in color, and it was emitting a soft light at this moment.After meeting this ray of light, the fog that covered the sky seemed to be blown away by the wind, and the surrounding places were clearly visible in an instant.

"You all come closer." Xue Pan turned around and said. "Actually, the dense fog around this forest is a kind of miasma. If you smell it too much, you will have hallucinations. But this bead can avoid this miasma, so you don't have to be afraid."

Zhen Baoyu nodded silently, while Fourth Master Long frowned suspiciously and said, "Xue Pan, where are you taking us?"

"Go and see my master." Xue Pan said vaguely. "Hurry up, everyone, we'll get there earlier, every time I walk through this forest, I panic."

Zhen Baoyu nodded happily, and followed closely behind Xue Pan.

After walking for about a stick of incense, a house with blue walls and red tiles suddenly appeared in the sight, with a vermilion gate, and two red paper lanterns were hung on the left and right of the gate, on which were written two big characters of "underworld", abruptly. Built in the depths of the forest, there is a strange feeling.

Zhen Baoyu's face instantly turned livid.Xue Pan shook his head, dumbfounded, and said, "Don't worry about that, my master just likes to play tricks, but he's actually a very nice person."

With that said, he pushed open the gate and entered the courtyard.After everyone entered the courtyard, Xue Pan turned around and closed the door, and led everyone into the hall.Turn around the hall and come to the bedroom at the back.The inside is very elegantly decorated.Xue Pan walked to the shelf against the wall, stretched out his hand and twirled an emerald unicorn placed in the center of the shelf, only to hear a sound of "gragga", and the shelf in front of him suddenly moved away, revealing a secret passage three feet high and wide. , everyone looked more and more hesitant and surprised.

"Come in with me. This is a secret place, you can't tell it in the future." Xue Pan turned around and said, and took the lead in entering the secret passage.Zhen Baoyu and the others looked at each other and followed without saying a word.

The dark passage is very spacious and tidy, every ten steps there is a shelf made of gold, and a fist-sized luminous pearl is dragged on the shelf, emitting an orchid light.Against the background, the dark passage became more and more deep and gloomy.Zhen Baoyu stared at these decorations with wide eyes, and murmured, "Good guy, how much does this cost!"

Even Fourth Master Long, although he was silent, looked at the long dark passage with a gloomy expression.

After about a cup of tea time, I reached the strength of the secret passage.Blocking in front is a painted stone wall.The wall is carved with complicated patterns and gorgeous colors. The style is quite different from the landscape paintings I have seen before, and it does not look like the handwriting of the Central Plains.Zhen Baoyu couldn't help but asked, "Xue Pan, where are you leading us?"

"That's it." Xue Pan turned his head and responded softly, raised his index finger to his lips, and said, "Hush!"

He turned around and raised his arm to knock on the stone wall.The strength is not great, three long and two short, and then he raised his voice and shouted: "Master, I am coming."

Zhen Baoyu and Fourth Master Long were looking at it strangely, when they saw a crack in the seamless stone wall, and a very dazzling light came through the gap, Xue Pan and the others subconsciously closed their eyes, and took another When he opened it, he was stunned by the sight in front of him.

In front of him is a huge underground palace, the entire ground is paved with jet-black marble, on which mountains, rivers, sun, moon, birds, animals, flowers and plants are carved out of gold.On the top of the head is an unknown material of jade, deep and dark.It is firmly inlaid with the luminous pearl that I have seen in the dark passage before, emitting a blue light, which looks like a bright starry sky from a distance.

Every ten steps there will still be a golden shelf with candles on it.There are countless boxes piled up messily on the ground, some of these boxes are closed, some are open, some are placed upright, and some are inclined.Countless gold, silver and jewellery, precious stones and jade pendants, and silk and satin were piled up on the ground scatteredly, emitting a dazzling light.

But the most eye-catching thing is a chair above the steps at the end of the underground palace. A man is lazily leaning on the chair. He is wearing a bright red satin, which is embroidered with colorful gold thread and a hundred birds. Feng, on the hem of the clothes are large blooming peonies, and her hair, which looks like black satin, is scattered casually, making her face white as jade and her eyes like lacquer.Sword-shaped eyebrows set into the temples, narrow and long eyes, and under the high bridge of the nose is a thin and bright red lips, slightly raised with a disdainful arc.

The ten fingers were long and slender, exuding a unique charm under the candlelight.Holding a piece of silk in his left hand, he raised the lotus flower in his right hand very naturally. At this moment, he was dexterously...embroidering needlework.

Everyone was shocked for a moment.Xue Pan smiled obsequiously and said, "Master, I brought the man here."

Hearing the words, the man turned his head slightly and looked in the direction of several people.When those pitch-black eyes casually glanced over everyone, everyone's hearts suddenly trembled. The previous amazement and obsession seemed to be blown away like a bubble, and they only felt a burst of killing intent rushing towards their faces.

All of a sudden, except for Xue Pan who seemed to be fine, everyone felt a chill rising from the tailbone, sweating like rain.