Cloud of the Qing Dynasty

This is a detail that many people don't pay much attention to. After discussing with each other for a while, the iron guards came to a unified conclusion: There are three places where pomegranate flowers are planted in Jinghong Villa, and the closest one is A flower garden connected to the inner courtyard.

"Then take me there to have a look." Zhang Chi demanded.

The iron guards also hoped to discover something, so they took Zhang Chi and others with the mood of giving it a try.

It seems that few people come to this garden, and even the gardeners rarely come to trim the branches and leaves and clean the road. Many bright red petals just fell on the mud or stone bricks, forming a shallow layer.

Zhang Chi easily found a few flower petals that had just been stepped on, and he reproduced in his mind the scene of the fake Iron Guard hurriedly passing by here - one of his feet stepped on the stone bricks covered with fallen flowers, One of the petals stuck to the sole of the fake Iron Guard's shoe, and the others stuck to the ground.

After a careful search, Zhang Chi found another fresh footprint in the nearby grass. The place where the grass stem was broken was still oozing dark green juice.

"It seems that I'm lucky." Zhang Chi whistled happily.

Immediately afterwards, according to the approximate direction estimated by these two footprints, he found the third and fourth footprints.

There were also some people who noticed what Zhang Chi was doing, and they all moved towards this side with interest. Even Qin Wuqi was attracted by his actions, and he did not forget to remind the onlookers not to get too close, so as not to trample on him. There were traces on the ground, so martial arts masters flew to the room one after another, trampling on many glazed tiles without mentioning it.

Finally, Zhang Chi followed his footprints and found a well platform. Stone bricks were paved around the well platform. It was midsummer, and the tenacious weeds did not let go of any gap between the stone bricks. Although they were very low, they had nowhere to go. not there.

Zhang Chi carefully inspected every tuft of weeds that grew from the gaps between the stone bricks, and there was no sign of being stepped on recently.

Perhaps it was because the fake iron guard had the habit of stepping on stones every step of the way, or maybe it was because he had never been to this place before, and the investigation reached a deadlock.

Zhang Chi thought for a while, but still felt something was wrong. He stood at the mouth of the well and stretched the torch down as far as he could, but he could only see the fire reflected on the dark water, and the walls of the well were covered with smooth moss.

He asked Qin Wuqi: "Master Qin, generally speaking, the wells in private courtyards are built near the kitchen or where it is convenient for everyone to get water, but why is this well drilled here?"

Qin Wuqi shook his head: "I don't know what the original designer thought. This well was already here before I was born. I remember that the well water is not very deep, and you can see the bottom at a glance. Usually gardeners' flowers Craftsmen have been drawing water from this well to water the flowers and trees, and have not found anything suspicious."

Zhang Chi couldn't find anything unusual for a while, so he wanted to continue looking for clues in other directions, and Lu Xiaomi had been by Zhang Chi's side since just now. When Zhang Chi looked into the well, he also stuck his head in the well, trying to help find What happened? When Zhang Chi was talking to Qin Wuqi, he still stuck his head in the well. It wasn't until Zhang Chi was about to leave that he straightened up and said, "Chizi, I think this well smells a bit wrong."

"Oh? What's wrong." Zhang Chi knew that Lu Xiaomi's sense of smell was different from ordinary people since he was a child, so when Lu Xiaomi said this, he immediately paid attention to it.

"I can't tell." Lu Xiaomi rubbed his nose, "I just feel that the smell of this well is different from other wells. There is some other smell mixed in, and I'm not sure what it is."

Zhang Chi thought for a while, put down the bucket by the well, brought up a bucket of water, and handed it to Lu Xiaomi: "Look, is there something wrong with the water?"

Lu Xiaomi sniffed it carefully, and even tasted it: "The earthy smell is a bit stronger, but there is nothing wrong with it. It shouldn't be because of the water quality."

Zhang Chi looked at the well again, and the structure of the well looked like an elongated "convex" from the side section.

He suddenly had an idea, why did a lot of manpower and stone materials be spent on a useless well deep in the garden to make it into such a shape with a small opening and a big belly, would there be any problems in the blind corner of the line of sight?

Thinking of this, Zhang Chi decisively said to Lu Xiaomi: "Come and hold the well rope, I'll go down and have a look."

The mouth of the well was not big, and only one person could go down at a time, so a group of people gathered around the well, watching Zhang Chi, with a torch in his mouth, slowly hoisted himself down by pulling the well rope.

At the section below the mouth of the well that suddenly widened, Zhang Chi bit his torch and looked up, feeling a little disappointed.

There is nothing unusual in the dead corner above the head, only some uneven long strips of stone slabs stand on the edge of the well, one end is buried deep in the well wall, and the other end protrudes a distance of more than one person's width, carrying the bricks and stones at the well head. To the effect of reducing the wellhead.

Although such a design is indeed nonsensical, it doesn't look suspicious.

But Zhang Chi still didn't give up, he reached out his hand to tap and push on those stone slabs, and as a result, something unexpected happened.

There was a bluestone slab that was slightly recessed compared to the other slabs around it, but it loosened a bit when he pushed it.

It was not easy for Zhang Chi to hang on the rope. After pushing up a few times, the stone slab was pushed away a little bit, revealing a dark hole—the back of the stone slab was actually empty.

At the mouth of the well, Qin Wuqi could only see him dangling on the rope and pushing something, so he couldn't help asking anxiously, "Did you find anything?"

Zhang Chi didn't push anymore, took the torch he was biting into his hand, raised his head and said to Qin Wuqi: "There is a hole here, but it is covered by a stone slab."

"You go up first." Qin Wuqi made way for Xiaomi to pull Zhang Chi up, and asked someone to bring a long ladder into the well, and climbed down the well himself, luck completely pushed the bluestone slab to the side, revealing a place that could accommodate The hole that the next person has to pass through.

Qin Wuqi put the torch into the hole to have a look, and found that it was a passage, like a horizontal chimney, except that the top was supported by stone slabs, the other three sides were made of green bricks, and there was a downward opening at each end. The head is connected to the well, and the other end is not known where it is connected.

The design of this hole is really ingenious. The outlet is in the dead corner of the well, facing the water. When the light is bad, you can’t see anything from the top of the well. Even at noon when the light is bright, you only need to cover the stone slab You can only see a few normal stone slabs from the reflection. Who would have thought that there is a hole in the sky behind one of the stone slabs?Even Zhang Chi, who is so careful, almost missed it.

Not to mention where this passage leads to, just judging from this well-hidden entrance and this small passage paved with bricks and stones, it is impossible for such a project to be dug out secretly without anyone knowing. Yes, but even Qin Wuqi, who grew up in Jinghong Villa, didn't know that there was such a mystery hidden under the villa.

Considering that the fake iron guards probably sneaked into Jinghong Mountain Villa through this passage, Qin Wuqi did not enter rashly, but explained the situation to a large number of martial artists waiting at the entrance of the cave, and asked his subordinates Fu Jinglei and Jiang Shi He took a small group of iron guards to enter first, and among the other nine sects, each sect only selected a few representatives to go in and investigate, and most of them still guarded the mouth of the well in case there was any change.

***

Zhang Chi naturally wanted to go in. He stepped on the ladder and climbed into the entrance, bending forward while looking around.

This passage was obviously made artificially, it was about twenty feet long, and it could only accommodate one person hunched over at a time. At the end of the passage was a section of steep steps, leading to a rather spacious stone room.

At the end of the stone room is a staircase extending downwards, which can accommodate two or three people walking side by side.

What is even more astonishing is that there are sealed pots stacked in this stone room. Except for the passage in the middle, such jars almost fill up the entire stone room.

One of the jars was broken, leaking a dark oil stain, and a large series of footprints stepped on the oil stain and disappeared at the end of the downward staircase.

From such obvious traces, it is not difficult for Zhang Chi to imagine that there were at least a dozen people crowded in this room. After Zhang Chi found the entrance, these people saw that the situation was not good, and left in a short time in a panic.

Zhang Chi squatted down, dipped some oil on the ground, smelled it, frowned and said, "It's kerosene, everyone, be careful with the torches in your hands, and retreat to the entrance!"

Everyone hurriedly followed suit. If a fire was caused in such a place, it would be no joke.

Lu Xiaomi was crawling in through that entrance, and he slapped his hands and suddenly realized: "That's the smell. What I smelled before was the smell of kerosene, because I didn't expect there to be kerosene in the well, so I didn't distinguish it."

Qin Wuqi frowned: "That fake iron guard is carrying a lot of thunderbolts, it seems that he intends to create chaos elsewhere, divert the defense force away, take the opportunity to transport the fire oil, and set the entire Jinghong Villa on fire. .”

"Yeah, the weather has been dry and dry these days, which is a good time to set fires." Zhang Chi said, "Fortunately, the iron guards' defenses are tight enough. The fake iron guards were discovered before they left the inner courtyard. People come and go, they dare not act in such a close place, so they just let it go."

"If the two of you hadn't discovered this secret entrance, even if they died down today, they would still have a chance to come out and set fires in the future." Qin Wuqi said to Zhang Chi and Lu Xiaomi, "When this matter is over, Qin will definitely thank you two. "

***

The members of the Nine Great Sects who have already entered are now temporarily staying on the downward extending steps, gathering together in groups of threes and twos to chat with each other. Send it out, and find another way to deal with it, while Jiang Shi and Fu Jinglei are taking the lead and slowly groping down the stairs.

Many people in the Jianghu have heard that Qin Wuqi has four generals of "Poems and Songs", namely Jiang Shi, Yin Ci, Xu Changge and Fu Jinglei, but in fact the term "Poetry and Songs" is just more fluent Just for fun, their strength and status are not arranged in this order.

Fu Jinglei, who is at the bottom of the list, is the leader of the Iron Guard, and the one with the highest martial arts among the four, while Jiang Shi, who is ranked first, is average in martial arts and has only one unique skill, which is that he is particularly good at making and detecting traps and the like. Things, it is said that the sophisticated concealed weapons produced by Jinghong Mountain Villa, which are comparable to those of Tangmen in Sichuan, are all made by this person and several of his apprentices.

There is obviously air flowing in the passage, blowing the flames slightly tilted, so there should be less likely to be traps such as smoke and poisonous gas, and the danger of suffocation. Jiang Shi carefully groped forward at the front, holding his unique door The weapon - an iron rod with a seemingly complicated structure knocked here and there. When he hit one of the steps, he stopped, knocked carefully twice, and knocked on the surrounding walls and the top of the passage. Just ask Fu Jinglei to come forward and solve it.