When Chenyuan once again crossed the top of a pine tree, there was no other tree higher than it, reaching the top. Chen Yuan stood on the top of a palm-sized pine tree, not disturbing the pine trees picking pine cones under his feet, just swaying in the wind, looking at the scene in front of him. A circle of pine trees almost as tall as the top of the mountain surrounded the smooth mountain top. In the flat open space, there is only a square courtyard with four simple houses. There is a big room to the north, with a small room on the east and west sides side by side, and a wing on the west side. To the left of the door is a small kang with a messy quilt on it. On the east side is a kitchen room. Various small objects such as spoons, colanders, and pot brushes are hung on the wall next to the door. Two water tanks stand on the wall. Opposite the water tank are two earthen stoves, a large one and a small one. The pots on the big stove are nowhere to be seen. The small stove is smoking, the lid of the small pot is half-covered, and sparks are exploding from the stove mouth with crackling sounds. son. Steam was coming out of the half-open pot lid, and Chen Yuan could hear something gurglingly cooking in the pot. The soup must have been very thick, but the person watching the stove didn't know where he was.
From the west wing, an old man opened the door and came out. He was not tall, slightly hunched over, and was wearing a pair of broken hemp shoes. The heels of the shoes had been stepped on so hard that he could no longer stand up. There were many cracks in the heels.
"Dan baby! Dan baby! Ha--bah!" The old man shouted twice. I don't know if it was because he was too loud, but a mouthful of phlegm came out from his throat. He spat it towards the door of the kitchen from a long distance away. The vegetable patch was firmly attached to an eggplant, and the old phlegm slowly slid down, connecting a sticky thread between the eggplant's butt and the soil.
"Where are the people! Their meat is all mushy! The blind boy is running around all day long!" The old man cursed and entered the kitchen.
The sound of "creak, creak" came from Chen Yuan's side. He turned around and saw a teenage boy running towards the east side of the yard from the path on a pole. Chen Yuan looked at him interestingly. The doll was about the same size as Taimo, even a year or two younger, and not as tall as Taimo. There were two buckets of water hanging on the pole. Even though the baby ran very fast, it didn't sway and not a drop was spilled. If you look closely, you can see that although the doll's legs are moving back and forth quickly on the bumpy road, there is no movement above the waist, and there is no ups and downs at all.
"Exerting force fiercely, releasing force skillfully, retracting force lightly, keeping calm and steady, and breathing evenly." Chen Yuan commented silently in his heart, whether it was internal or external skills, he would not be able to master them for seven or eight years.
"Master! I'm here!" Before the baby entered the yard, he started shouting across the east wall. His feet were still not slow at all, and his voice didn't tremble at all.
"Coupled with this voice, this skill has not been improved for more than ten years." Chen Yuan added another comment.
"I asked you to fetch water a long time ago, but you have to wait until the shit is in the ditch before looking for thatch! Look! The meat is not a little burnt! I want to help you add some water, but the tank is empty!" The old man came out to polish the baby. There was a bang on his forehead.
"Master, you don't understand, these are burnt-scented pig's trotters! Think about how dirty the pigsty is. The pig's paws are walking around in their own feces and urine, and they are pickled while they are alive. Give it a little burnt-scented pork trotters, and they will be gone. That faint smell." Wawa said.
"Fuck you! How many years has your father eaten pig's trotters? How long have you ever heard of the smell of burnt meat?" the old man laughed and cursed.
"Ha! Master, please try it later. I'm sure you'll live for another two years after eating it." Wawa said.
"I just don't want to eat. I also want to live for another two years. Stop talking nonsense and bury more ashes in the stove. When the fire gets too high, the skin of the chicken will be burnt and the mud will be thin." The old man said.
"Okay, Master, you can lie down on the kang and boil your teapot. When it's cooked, I'll bring it to you." The doll entered the kitchen carrying a pole.
"Let's see if the kitchen is big enough. Let's put two chickens in if there are guests." The old man shouted without looking back as he entered the main house.
"You can put one in, but if you put two in, there will be no place to add firewood." The doll also shouted.
"Then bake two steamed buns." The old man entered the room, and only his voice came out.
"Okay." The doll responded, while pouring two buckets of water into the water tank, and asked: "Who is coming? How many people?"
"Three, one has been here for a while, and the two are still on the mountain road. They will arrive in another half-quarter of an hour." The old man said.
"Then let me make two more dishes," the baby shouted.
"You can do whatever you want if you don't mind the trouble," the old man said.
Chen Yuan swayed in the wind on the top of the pine tree and chuckled. The old man didn't even look at this place from beginning to end, but he had already discovered him. I also knew that there were two people behind me, and I even knew how long it would take to arrive. It was really strange.
"Should I go through the main entrance?" Chen Yuan shouted towards the main room with a smile.
"It's up to you to get into the dog hole." A lazy voice floated out slowly.
Chen Yuan lightly stepped on the top of the tree, and he reached the door of the main house in a whoosh. The treetops can even be swayed by the wind, and can even be tilted by the force of a bird's kick when it takes off. How can it provide Chen Yuan with such strength?
Chen Yuan crossed the threshold that was almost knee-high and entered the main room. Opposite the door was an offering table and incense case, with two imperial chairs beside it. There is a painting hanging on the wall in the nave, in which an immortal with fluttering sleeves is riding the long wind and breaking thousands of miles of waves on the vast sea. The two couplets respectively read: Without desire, you will be strong; if it is too strong, it will break easily. Chen Yuan couldn't laugh or cry. The article didn't address the topic, and the two sentences had no connection. He didn't know what to express, so he simply stopped thinking about it. The old man on the kang had not spoken since Chen Yuan came in. He was smoking a dry cigarette and half lying on the kang, leaning against the folded bedding. The exposed mat surface was slightly yellowed by the smoke from the kang. There was a copper brazier placed on the mat. The charcoal in the basin made a "crackling" sound every now and then. The small sand pot simmering in the gray charcoal ash was slowly simmering. Bubbly. The main room was very quiet, and the sound of the tea cans and the old man smoking a cigarette seemed to have a hypnotic power at this moment. Chen Yuan shook his head, found the banging head shrouded in smoke, cupped his hands and said with a smile: "You're here to visit me, empty-handed, but you still have to eat."
"It doesn't matter, just give me the money." The old man said without moving, and the clicking sound became louder.
Chen Yuan was stunned for a moment, then smiled and put his hand into his arms. After touching it for a long time, he frowned.
"Where are you taking a bath?" the old man said with a smile.
Chen Yuan smiled naively and took out his hand from his arms, spreading his hands as he was about to say something.
"Is it gone? It was very frizzy, and it jumped up quite quickly." The old man sat up and knocked his cigarette bottle on the edge of the kang twice.
The old man's face leaked through the smoke. He was about seventy or eighty years old, with few wrinkles and a mouth full of neat teeth, unlike an old man's teeth. No wonder he had both pig's trotters and a beggar's chicken. The eye sockets are slightly sunken, and the eyes are restrained. Except for the smooth top of her hair, the rest of her hair was quite thick, and it was a normal white color. His neck was as loose as chicken skin with two folds, and he was wearing a white cloth shirt, which was now yellow cloth - he was just an ordinary old country man in good spirits.
"Did my father-in-law see me going up the mountain?" Chen Yuan said.
"I didn't see it," the old man said.
"Then how do you know I can run very fast?" Chen Yuan asked.
"I saw you climbing up the tree." The old man said.
"..."
"I don't know why I'm in such a hurry, and the rice is not yet cooked. It's a hundred taels! Four more! The wind may have blown it somewhere at this moment." The old man said with some sadness.
Chen Yuan was inevitably a little frightened. To be honest, the old man could hear that he had arrived just now, and he could do it. He could even hear that two people were approaching, and he could hear it even if he was still and calm. He could see the banknote falling out of his arms when he was going up the mountain, and he could still understand it, although he really didn't feel when it fell. However, knowing how many banknotes there are and how many taels each one costs, this is a bit nonsense, right?
"Why are you so stunned? Get on the Kang." The old man said, pulling out a tea can from under the brazier, grabbing a handful of tea leaves and throwing it in, adding water and simmering it next to the charcoal fire.
Chen Yuan remained silent, silently took off his shoes, climbed onto the kang, and sat cross-legged in front of the teahouse prepared by the old man.
"What are you still stunned for?" Seeing that Chen Yuan was silent, the old man filled the cigarette bottle with tobacco leaves.
"Old man, how did you know I had a banknote in my arms..."
"have witnessed."
Before Chen Yuan could finish his question, he was interrupted by the old man.
"So far." Chen Yuan said.
"Shen Ling, don't you know how?" the old man said disapprovingly.
Chen Yuan's heart was filled with turmoil.
Didn't dad say that he was the only one who knew Shen Ling? What's the meaning? What other people did he teach? But this old man looks much older than his old man, right? They are still worlds apart, so there is no way they should be related! Or is it that the old man also understood this technique on his own? Then it’s impossible to understand even the names to be the same!
"You young man seems to be too smart! Why are you always in a daze?" Now the old man was a little dazed.
"Old man, this Shen Ling..."
"Oh, when he taught you, didn't he tell you that he was the only one who could do it?"
The old man interrupted Chen Yuan again and smiled, revealing his yellow teeth that had been affected by drought and smoke for many years.
"It is precisely because of this that I..."
"Hahaha! He thought he was the only one who understood it."
The old man seemed not to want to see Chen Yuan finish what he said, and waited for Chen Yuan to speak in the middle of his sentence.
"Old man, what on earth is going on..."
"Listen to me and tell you in detail."
The old man remained the same, not letting Chen Yuan say a complete sentence.
Chen Yuan trembled his lips. He tried his best to close his mouth tightly, not wanting to speak again before the old man finished speaking.
"Among all the people who were sitting quietly in front of the Enlightenment Monument, he was indeed the first to stand up and leave. But that doesn't mean that those who didn't stand up and leave didn't understand, right? There are also people who really can't understand. The one who stood up and left cannot be thought to have understood it, right? Right? Hahaha!" The old man grinned with yellow teeth.
"What? What's the Enlightenment Monument, my father-in-law!" Chen Yuan simply couldn't bear it anymore and shouted. Didn't you tell me in detail? What does this say? he? who is he? Monument of Enlightenment? What is that?
"What? You don't know anything? Then how could he teach you this technique?" The old man was finally stunned again.
"You shouldn't! Ever since you went up the mountain, just look at your physical skills and your internal strength. Then look at your appearance. Tsk, tsk, tsk... you're just like him back then! Why did you even hide this from your own son?" the old man clicked. He said with a smile.
"Oh no, are you his son or grandson? It's been forty or fifty years. If you pay close attention, it would be just right to have a twenty-year-old grandson!" the old man continued.
"Old man, who are you talking about?" Chen Yuan finally finished his sentence, which was better than being brief.
"Hua Liu, who else could it be? Not your father?" the old man said matter-of-factly.
Chen Yuan shook his head blankly and said, "I don't recognize it."
"Impossible, what's your last name?" The old man was also stunned and asked.
"The boy's surname is Chen, and his single name is Yuan." Chen Yuan said respectfully.
"Chen... that's okay, that's okay." The old man touched his chin and thought for a long time, then took a closer look at Chen Yuan's appearance, and even opened his mouth to look at his teeth and said.
"You can call it whatever you want!" Chen Yuan was really driven crazy by these nonsensical words. He was pinched in the mouth and shook his head from side to side to look at his teeth. He didn't resist as if he was trying to buy a dog. He just waited. Say this.
"It doesn't matter. You know everything you should know anyway, so you don't want to eat anything." The old man said, putting the cigarette bottle into the charcoal fire and lighting the tobacco leaves.
"..."
"Hey, speaking of eating, have you ever eaten roast chicken wrapped in mud? Pheasant." The old man said.
"Old man, I really have a forehead problem." Chen Yuan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Hey, I know, I know. When you were at the bottom of the mountain, didn't you just want to know how to open the door of the Earth Temple?" the old man said.
"So far away..." Chen Yuan was stunned. The opponent, Shen Ling, was so much higher than himself! How terrifying is this man's inner strength? Why can't I feel anything when I sit across from him?
"Hey, did you see it? That well." The old man ignored him and pointed to a well in the courtyard through the window.
Chen Yuan tilted his head and looked out the window, and saw the edge of a well built with stones in the courtyard, and two circles of iron chains wrapped around a copper pulley.
"You can't keep up with that person at this point. If that person were to come in, the first thing he would say is - there is a well in the house, why do you let the boy go out to fetch water? Is there anything weird in the well?" the old man said with a smile.
"I do find it weird. The heavy buckets are actually made of iron chains, and even the wheels are made of copper." Chen Yuan said.
"Haha! It's just a show!" the old man laughed.
"As long as that kid from the Ran family pulls that thing and makes a sound, I will know that he is going in, and then - boom!" the old man said and slapped through the window. The window paper did not move, but the copper windlass at the mouth of the well moved very fast. After turning around for more than ten times, the iron chain in the well was lifted up and wrapped around the windlass.
"At this moment, the Earth Temple is open." The old man said, picking up the tea can and adding half a cup of tea to the cup.
"Then, when you all come out, then - wow!" The old man said and waved back to the window, as if there was someone in the yard, beckoning him to come in and sit down. Chen Yuan only felt a gentle breeze blowing on his face, and the copper wheel turned back with a clatter, returning to its previous position.
"In this way, the temple will be closed again." The old man said, picking up the tea cup, taking a sip of strong tea, and then smacking his lips as if he had taken a sip of strong wine.
After watching this display, Chen Yuan marveled at the old man's deep inner strength and finally understood how the mechanism worked. It turns out that it is controlled by humans. The knife on the neck is just a cover. As long as you discuss it with the old man, any movement or sound will be fine. Anyway, he is here to control it. The answer to the mystery was revealed so happily that Chen Yuan also picked up the tea cup and drank it in one gulp. Then a loud smacking sound was heard, even the five senses were slurping together - what kind of tea is this? It's sour and bitter, and it's so thick after cooking.
"What a generous move, my father-in-law! The mechanism that controls the portal at the bottom of the mountain is actually on the top of another mountain. Who would have thought that." Chen Yuan praised.
"What a big project this is! At least a passage from here to the bottom of the mountain must be opened to accommodate such a thick iron chain. It is really an ingenious work!" Chen Yuan praised again.
"Is this also called a big project? Haha..." The old man hesitated and stopped talking.
"Whose handiwork is this?" Chen Yuan asked.
"It's been around since ancient times, and I didn't know about it," the old man said.
"Then how do you..."
"I'm just like that kid from the Ran family. He has a place he wants to guard and things he has to do. I have a place I want to guard and things I have to do." The old man said.
"But, he was assigned to guard the Martial God Pavilion. Aren't you the Martial God Pavilion?" Chen Yuan said.
"Hmph... Since that man didn't even tell you Shen Ling's origin, you must have never been to that place, so - I won't tell you this either." The old man smiled with his yellow teeth.
Chen Yuan was struck by lightning for a moment. He came here to solve the riddle, but now he has solved one of the riddles and has a lot of sub-riddles...
