Chapter 18: Danger (3)

Wu Xun became more and more angry as he spoke. Finally, he glared at Pan Dazhong angrily and shouted: "I tell you Old Pan, if there is no movement in a few days, you will go back to Tingzhou, and I will send you to your master to argue with you!" Pan Dazhong said repeatedly, and withdrew with a bitter face.

When Pan Dazhong's footsteps were far away, Wu Xun jumped up from the couch, rushed to the front of the cabinet, opened the door, and said hurriedly: "Why are you here? What happened?" The person inside stepped out of the closet and grabbed Wu Xun's hand tightly, and shouted: "Person Wu!" He then burst into tears.

Just as it was almost time, Li Yuanfang ran for two nights and two days, and had just arrived at the cottage on the banks of the Asuguer River. It usually takes at least four to five days to get from Tingzhou to this place, but Li Yuanfang almost never sleeps along the way, exhausting the horse he rode until half dead, and then arrived at the banks of the Asuguer River in the evening of that day.

As soon as he arrived at the hut beside the riverbed, he drank clear water from the well in the hut to drink the horse. The horse drank enough water quickly, ate a few sips of the forage brought by Li Yuanfang, and then lie on the ground of the hut and fell asleep. Li Yuanfang settled the horse and breathed a sigh of relief. When he returned to the hut, he found a candle and lit it. He sat at the table of the big stump. He was so tired that he didn't even have the strength to move.

Although his body was extremely tired, his mind was still clear and active. Along the way he came, he had already considered all the steps of action, and now he had to implement it in an orderly manner as planned. With the faint light of candles, Li Yuanfang quietly scanned the room, with a faint smile on his face. Someone had come. Not only were there candles, fire pleats and other necessary items on the table, but the man also carefully left some fresh food, including a small jar of wine, a large bag of dry cakes and cured meat.

Li Yuanfang opened the jar of wine and drank several large sips of the marinated meat. The wine was choking and the fire ignited in his heart. He felt that he had recovered his energy, so he walked to the earthen kang and squatted down, reached in and fumbled carefully. Soon a small bamboo tube was pulled out of it, and a small roll of paper fell out of the bamboo tube. Li Yuanfang did not rush to see it, but lit the fire pleat and lit the hole of the kang. This was their agreement in advance. If someone accidentally entered this place, as long as he lit the fire kang, he would burn the message he passed, and would not find the secret.

Just as the fire in the kang hole, Li Yuanfang hurriedly read the contents on the note, thought for a moment, picked up the bow and arrow on the table, ignited the arrows in the kang hole, and walked outside the house and put three rockets in the air. After a while, he put three more rockets, which were repeated three times in total. After the rockets, he looked at the silent blue sky from afar, and the rocket's meteor-like beam fell into the shadow of the sand dune at the distance, and behind it was Yi Botai.

Now I have to wait. Li Yuanfang knew that at least one night would have to wait for one night, and someone would come here to meet him tomorrow morning. So what should I do this night? Although I was very tired and couldn't rest for the time being, there was a very important thing he had to do now. If I missed tonight, I don't know when I would come back again in the future. Li Yuanfang looked out in front of the door of the cottage. The riverbed of the Asuguer River was still flat and dry, with no trace of water storage. He walked along the riverbed, and even the small pond made of snow melted when he came here last time had dried up, and the silence of the desert was revealed. Li Yuanfang remembered the well in the thatched hut. When he fed water to the horses just now, he seemed to find that the water level had dropped a little. What was going on?

Li Yuanfang returned to the small earthen house. The desert was still as cold as winter in the middle of the night. He drank and drank some wine. He gradually felt warm all over his body. He then raised the long rope with his left hand and held the fire pleat in his right hand, and slowly came to the cottage. The horses slept very sweetly on the haystack. Li Yuanfang found a hole in the wall of the cottage and inserted the fire pleat. He tied the long rope to the pillar of the cottage and tied the other end to the waist. He lit the small candle he brought with him, bit it horizontally in his mouth, moved the black cast iron manhole cover, and climbed down step by step carefully.

This well was very deep. When they came here for the first time, Li Yuanfang dug a lot to find water. Although he couldn't remember the exact depth, he estimated that it was at least less than twenty meters. He climbed again now, and it was indeed deeper than what he felt in his vague consciousness at the time. The well wall was still dry and hard soil at first, but the more he climbed down, the more gloomy and cold it became. There was a faint stench coming from the depths of the bottom of the well. This time, unlike the mood when he was rushing to dig for water the previous time, Li Yuanfang had the time to observe carefully, and then he found that the well walls of the well were rough and different, and the size of the well was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow. He secretly speculated in his heart that this well seemed to be more like a natural crack, and someone just dug it a little.

Li Yuanfang continued to look down. He could already see the traces of his digging on the well wall. Looking down, the water surface was not too far away, but it was obviously lower than the last time. Li Yuanfang sighed in his heart. If the water level was so low last time, it would be difficult for him to persevere until the moment he dug out the water. It looked like they were really lucky. He clearly remembered that when water was pouring out from the well last time, he seemed to have touched a loose place on the well wall, but he had already lost his strength and almost fainted. He couldn't check it out in detail, but he was always thinking about this matter. Today he went down the well again to see what was going on.

Sure enough, without going down much further, Li Yuanfang found the loose rock on the well wall and looked down. The water he had dug out last time was surging under his feet, and it was still a short distance away from the rock. He tried to push the rock, but actually pushed it away. He picked up the candle and took a photo, and saw a narrow path that could be about to bend forward, and it was pitch black again.

Li Yuanfang quickly untied the rope tied to his waist, and bent down and drilled into the secret passage. The secret passage was sometimes wide and sometimes narrow, sometimes up and down, and touched the four walls. The hard soil was very dry. Li Yuanfang followed step by step, and gradually a faint light appeared in front of him. The breeze was blowing on his face, and the smell of fishy smell became heavier. He cheered up, accelerated his pace, and almost ran along the wider tunnel. He walked dozens of steps again, and the secret passage reached its head. Li Yuanfang found that a huge underground cave suddenly appeared in front of him, and the entrance of the secret passage was on the rock wall.

The cave is unfathomable, but there is a dark light in the depths that cannot be seen at first sight, and the gentle breeze, which shows that there should be an exit in front of it. The sound of gurgling water came from the bottom of the cave, which was about meter away from the secret passage where Li Yuanfang stood. Li Yuanfang raised the candle in his hand and looked outward, and a slight swaying red light reflected from the deep water surface. He understood that the mysterious underground river flowing below was unknown where he came from and did not know where he led.

A strong stench came, and Li Yuanfang was dizzy because of the smoke. He squatted down and leaned against the rock wall. The candle in his hand was about to burn out. Li Yuanfang lit a new candle and threw the remaining candle heads down the dark river. Unexpectedly, the candle with flames drew a red arc in the air. As soon as it touched the dark river water, a fiery red flame appeared on the water surface. Li Yuanfang widened his eyes and stared at the subtle and strange red line in the dark depths, and was stunned.

Yang Lin has been living in Di Mansion for three days, but everything is calm. Di Renjie has never summoned Yang Lin since the first night talk, and seems to be busy with other things. Yang Lin stayed honestly in his comfortable small yard to review his homework. Under Di Chun's instructions, the servants served Yang Lin's clothes and their faces were fresh, and their faces began to turn red. Chen Huai looked at it with a hint of ridicule. What exactly did Di Renjie think, and how did he plan to deal with the folding fan? More importantly, did he believe Yang Lin's words and Yang Lin? Chen Huai intuitively thought that the answer was no. But obviously Di Renjie was unwilling to give up any clues related to Xie Lan, and emotional factors prevailed here.

Since the last time Huachao visited Tianjue Temple, Chen Huai hasn't seen Zhou Jingyuan for a while. That day, he had just gone out to Di's mansion and was rushing to Di Renjie's study as usual to meet him. Di Renjie's study was in a side courtyard, separated from the main hall and the second hall, and what he wanted was this quiet and elegant environment. Chen Huai walked all the way through the stone path in the garden, with a small bridge and flowing water, willows and green bamboos, and birds singing and flowers in the spring garden, but he was not in the mood to enjoy the spring. As soon as he walked onto the small bridge, he called out a delicate call: "General Chen, don't be fine."

Chen Huai looked up and Zhou Jingyuan stood at the top of the small stone bridge. The charming spring light set off the snow-worn hair. Under the shade of green willows, the pink skirt and the transparent moon-white gauze made the young and beautiful woman look brighter and white teeth, and she looks so beautiful. Chen Huai stopped in front of the bridge and was stunned. Zhou Jingyuan was waiting for Chen Huai to answer, but saw that the other party was just staring at her foolishly, for a moment, shy and ashamed, lowered her blushing cheeks, and called again: "General Chen..." with a slight anger in her voice.

Chen Huai suddenly came to his senses, rushed to the bridge, and clasped his fists at Zhou Jingyuan with a smile: "Ms. Zhou, why are you free to visit Di Mansion today?" Zhou Jingyuan's black gem-like eyes flashed with joy, but her cherry lips were pouting cutely, and she deliberately hummed: "What? I don't seem to welcome me very much after General Chen's tone." Chen Huai said calmly: "Miss Zhou misunderstood, Chen Huai didn't mean this." "What do you mean?" "Nothing." "You!"

Zhou Jingyuan was defeated in one round, but she was helpless with Chen Huai's lukewarm attitude. She couldn't help feeling a little aggrieved. She bit her lip while tearing the silk handkerchief in her hand, and didn't even notice that Chen Huai passed by herself. Chen Huai walked to the bottom of the bridge and turned around and said, "Miss Zhou, are you going to meet with me?" "Mr. Di?" Zhou Jingyuan stumbled and said viciously: "I won't go, I'll stay here. General Chen ignores me, go ahead and go!"
Chapter completed!