Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 423: The Strange Wooden Man
Although he was not hung up with his hands and feet tied behind his back, but was lying on his back with his face facing the roof like a fat pig with its four hooves upside down, the hung man was still in great pain, especially when he realized that someone had entered the house. He was already in unbearable pain and could only make groaning sounds, silently begging for people to let him down.
Fortunately, after a while, he heard a voice that made him ecstatic: "A Liu, untie the man first."
"Oh." With this simple word, he felt the rope that was originally hanging his hands and feet suddenly lighten, and before he could feel happy, he fell down suddenly. This time, he was immediately scared to death, but just when he thought he would fall heavily to the ground, he was kicked in the buttocks, and then he fell flat on the ground.
He should have fallen flat on his face, but he didn't feel much pain when he fell to the ground. Instead, the kick on his butt was quite severe.
However, he soon stopped caring about the severe pain in his buttocks, because when he fell to the ground, the ropes that bound his hands and feet suddenly broke, and he felt countless muscles all over his body were numb and painful as if pierced by needles, and the pain was so severe that even tears came out. Fortunately, his mouth was still blocked at this time, so he wanted to scream but couldn't, and could only toss and turn desperately, trying to offset the pain of being hung for too long.
After waiting for the torturous pain to subside, he saw the young man who had captured him approach and took off his gag with one hand. But at this moment, he didn't even have the strength to shout, and was even more afraid that if he behaved inappropriately, the other party would torture him in various ways. He didn't dare to move at all, but just tried to beg for mercy with a hoarse voice.
"I was just confused for a moment, and my heart was blinded by greed, so I wanted to steal something. I beg you gentlemen to forgive me this time..."
Before the man could finish his words, Lu Sanlang came forward with a gloomy face, looked down at him for a while, and suddenly stepped heavily on the five fingers of his left hand. However , before the man could scream, he saw Ah Liu stuffed the gag cloth back into his mouth like lightning, blocking the man's voice.
Lu Sanlang was naturally very happy about this exquisite cooperation. He nodded to Ah Liu, then lowered his head and said word by word: "You are still saying these foolish words... Do you think I am so easy to fool? This is the Imperial College. No one is allowed to enter without permission. From the school officials to the school clerks, and then to the servants and doormen, I know them all, but I have never seen you."
"It's already a strange story for an outsider to sneak into the Imperial College to steal. But you found my cell with such familiarity and unlocked it so easily. Now you say it was just a moment of confusion? Do you think I'm a three-year-old child?"
The man took advantage of the youth of Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang, and thought that the boy who captured him was just good at martial arts. He wanted to beg for mercy sincerely in order to get away with it. Even if he was sent to Shuntian Prefecture to be charged as a thief, he would at most be beaten with a stick. He never thought that Lu Sanlang was so sensitive.
He felt bad in his heart, but when he wanted to beg for mercy, he couldn't utter a word because of the cloth gag.
Seeing that the man could only make a groaning sound after trying his best, Lu Sanlang smiled and said to Ah Liu, "Ah Liu, you are proficient in martial arts, but you probably only know the eighteen martial arts. You haven't heard of the eighteen tortures, right?"
Ah Liu blinked his eyes and shook his head seriously: "I haven't heard of it."
Zhang Shou discovered for the first time that Lu Sanlang and Ah Liu could actually have such a good rapport, so he simply folded his hands and watched the two of them perform a duet. Sure enough, the next moment, he only heard Lu Sanlang grinning and then began to talk nonstop.
"The first one is that during the Tang Dynasty, the cruel official Lai Junchen tricked another cruel official Zhou Xingshi into throwing someone into a urn. They stripped a person naked, put him into a large urn, and then placed firewood around the urn and set it on fire. If you don't confess, the fire will naturally burn more and more fiercely, and in the end it will almost cook you. Even if you are made of iron, you will turn into juice under such a fierce fire. Do you say you will confess or not?"
Ah Liu's face twitched for a moment, and then he glanced at Lu Sanlang: "I don't have much education, don't try to coax me."
"How could I fool you? This story first appeared in the Chaoye Qianzai, and was later included in the Zizhi Tongjian by Sima Guang."
Without even looking at the man trembling like a sieve on the ground, Lu Sanlang spoke confidently, "The second is the punishment of brushing and washing. During the reign of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Huan Yanfan, a famous minister, offended Wu Sansi. After he was exiled, Wu Sansi still refused to let him go. He sent people to tie him up, and then sharpened bamboos and tied them together to make a bamboo raft. He used this bamboo raft to brush off the flesh on his back layer by layer. When the flesh was gone and the bones were exposed, he was beaten to death."
This time, even Zhang Shou couldn't help but feel horrified. Was Lu Sanlang too suppressed by Lu Wan in the past, so he had nothing to do but study torture? When Lu Sanlang described castration vividly, even Ah Liu looked at Lu Sanlang as if he was looking at a monster, and the man on the ground was even more terrified, as if he would faint in the next moment.
Seeing that the man looked strange, Ah Liu suddenly stepped forward without saying a word and picked him up. Then he walked to the door in two or three steps, opened the door and threw the man out. Almost as soon as the man landed, he smelled a foul odor because of his good nose. Not only him, but also Lu Sanlang who followed him and reacted a step slower, smelled it and immediately covered his mouth and nose.
"You're actually scared to death? You look at this tall and big guy, but he's actually so useless?"
Zhang Shou was simply laughing and crying. You're using tortures here and there to scare people, even using castration, and now you're still complaining that he's not strong enough? However, after laughing, he realized that if this person wasn't really flexible, then he wasn't really an important person, but just an ordinary bully.
So, he winked at Ah Liu, and when Ah Liu stepped forward and took out the gag again, he asked in a deep voice, "Tell me, why did you sneak into the Imperial College? Who ordered you to do that?"
The man had been rubbed into a pile of mud by Ah Liu and Lu Sanlang. At this moment, he said in a crying voice: "I really just take money and help people get rid of disasters. They gave me 20 strings of money and a map, and asked me to hide something in a secret place in the room..."
As soon as these words came out, Lu Sanlang, who had just pried open the thief's mouth and was feeling somewhat smug, suddenly changed his expression. He rushed forward and asked in a stern voice, "Where is the thing?"
"Before I could put it down, I was caught by this guy! The thing in my arms is a wooden figurine. Maybe someone wants to frame you for stealing... I was really confused for a moment..."
Without waiting for the guy to beg for mercy again, Ah Liu knocked him unconscious with a single blow of his hand, and then he searched the man at the fastest speed. His technique was so skillful that it was obvious that this was not the first time he had done this.
However, neither Zhang Shou nor Lu Sanlang had time to care about Ah Liu's talent. At this time, they were outside the dormitory. Although there were no students or school officials here, there was no guarantee that someone would come. Therefore, Lu Sanlang did not wait for Ah Liu to find the things. He hurriedly said: "I will go in and take a look. If someone hides something here, it will be terrible! "
"You go ahead." Zhang Shou naturally knew the importance of the matter , and after a pause he reminded, "I didn't leave many important things in the dormitory before, because most of them were moved back to Zhang Garden. Look through it carefully and pay attention to whether there are any suspicious papers mixed in."
Lu Sanlang nodded with a gloomy face, and then ran back to the house. At this moment, he was very glad that he had nothing important besides a pile of math problems and calculation papers. But even so, he couldn't help but think in his heart that even here someone has their eyes on him, it seems that this house can no longer be lived in!
Ah Liu's body search was very effective. The things he found on the man, such as money bags, sweat towels, ear picks, etc., were piled up on the ground, but the small wooden figure was particularly eye-catching. When he took it and brought it to Zhang Shou, and then went to check other items, Zhang Shou took the wooden figure and looked at it carefully.
At a glance, he felt that the exquisitely carved and lively wooden figure looked like the emperor. Of course, not the emperor of his current age, but the young emperor. Although he was dressed in casual clothes, he had one hand behind his back and the other holding a sword, his eyebrows were raised, and his mouth was slightly open, as if he was cursing someone. If it weren't for the extraordinary thing, he would even have the urge to give it to the emperor to appreciate the carving.
He turned it over and over to look at it carefully for a while, and finally found some extremely fine words on the base. Even if he squinted his eyes, it was difficult to see clearly without a magnifying glass and in the extremely strong light outside.
So, without thinking, he went back to the room, and without looking at Lu Sanlang who was rummaging through the boxes, after getting used to the change in light, he held the wooden man upside down, squinted his eyes again and concentrated on distinguishing the words. However, when he basically saw the words clearly, his expression suddenly became strange.
Never lose or forget, and you will live forever. Never leave or abandon, and you will live forever...
At this moment, he really hoped that he had read less, so if he had not read "Dream of Red Mansions", he would not remember that this was the origin of the golden marriage between Jia Baoyu and Xue Baochai - wasn't it the words on the jade and the gold lock? He originally thought that the words under the wooden man must be something like a witchcraft curse, but now it seems that it is a fart curse!
This is clearly a beautiful blessing, and coupled with the emperor's expression that is so lifelike that it can be used as an emoticon, he even suspected that some master craftsman used the emperor as a model to carve it, or perhaps it was carved by a skilled craftsman who could remember a person's divine demeanor at a glance! As for why these sixteen words are so coincidentally the same as in Dream of the Red Chamber... God knows if it has anything to do with that magical Taizu!
At this time, Lu Sanlang, who had been searching through boxes and cabinets but had not yet found any trace of someone's tampering, finally noticed Zhang Shou coming into the room. He also saw the wooden man in his hand and quickly came over: "Young sir, what's so mysterious about this wooden man... Eh?"
Lu Sanlang suddenly opened his mouth wide, took a breath, and began to stutter.
"Isn't this...isn't this the Emperor?"
It was not until Zhang Shou gave him a glare that the little fat man suddenly realized what was going on, and he quickly reached out to cover his mouth. When he saw Zhang Shou holding the wooden man tightly with an expressionless face, he put his hand down and asked anxiously, "Young sir, there won't be any words carved on this wooden man, right?"
If there were any curse words engraved on it, it would definitely be a major case that shocked the court and the public! If that happened, no matter if he was framed or not, it would cause a huge trouble! Even though he had a powerful father who didn't retire after leaving his job, and even though Zhang Shou had a teacher who was the best in the court, and a father-in-law who was favored by the emperor, they couldn't handle it!
Zhang Shou glanced at the fat boy who was sweating profusely. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the door open and Ah Liu came in empty-handed. He asked, "Have you checked all those things?"
"I checked everything. I even burned the hand towel and the purse over fire, and wet them with water, but there was no trace of writing."
Knowing that Ah Liu was a meticulous person, Zhang Shou naturally believed that the remaining things were unimportant, so he immediately handed the wooden man over and said, "The words carved on the bottom of this wooden man are too small. Can you identify them for me?"
Ah Liu took it without thinking, and when he turned it over, he immediately read it out with his good eyesight and hearing: "Never lose, never forget, and your immortal life will last forever. Never leave, never abandon, and your youth will last forever... Hey, what does this mean?"
Not to mention Ah Liu who looked up with a puzzled look on his face, even Lu Sanlang was dumbfounded. Then, the latter shouted: "I know, this must be..." He suddenly covered his mouth again, and then rushed to Zhang Shou and said in a very low voice, "Young Master, this must be an old thing in the palace, or even an old thing from the emperor's side. Someone wants to frame me for stealing things from the palace!"
Before he could finish his words, Zhang Shou glared at him again: "Can you enter the Palace of Heavenly Purity?"
Lu Sanlang was speechless. Not to mention him, even his father Lu Wan had only been to the Qianqing Palace a few times, and he would leave after saying something every time. It was impossible for him to steal anything, let alone touch anything! So, he thought hard for a while, and then said angrily: "Maybe it's to slander Miss Zhu for stealing the emperor's things?"
Although this is indeed a guess, Zhang Shou thought about the idiot who was bribed to sneak into the Imperial College to frame him, and he felt that this was a joke. Such a crude design, was the mastermind behind it a sudden whim, or was he crazy? Even a fool like the second prince would not be so stupid, right?
Zhang Shou shook his head slightly, then suddenly laughed: "Instead of guessing, let's just be simple and rough. Ah Liu, go out and tie up the person, and we will send him to Shuntian government office together. Lu Sanlang, you go to Zhaoguogong Mansion and send a letter to Yingying first to tell her about this matter."
He snorted and said without question, "Now that things have come out, it's better to expose them to the public rather than hiding them. Although Wang Datou is no longer in charge of Shuntian Prefecture, and Zhang Chen's father seems to be ruling by doing nothing, he is the Duke of Qin, and he is no pushover. At least expose the fact that someone has framed you!"
