Everyone paused, then Wei Dong looked hesitantly at Mu Yiran: "The ominous sign means..."
"It means the original work has no seal or signature," Mu Yiran said.
Everyone froze again.
"No seal, no signature, then what are we looking for inside the painting?" Wei Dong panicked, glancing at Mu Yiran, then at Ke Xun, and finally at Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen.
"So, the difficulty level of the 'painting' has increased?" Zhu Haowen remained calm.
"The difficulty has increased quite a bit," Qin Ci smiled helplessly, "It's put us in a dead end. The only way to get the painting out is to find the seal, but this painting doesn't have a seal."
"I don't think it's a dead end, but the difficulty has definitely increased," Zhu Haowen said. "Even without a seal, it might be like 'Anthropology' and 'Shadow,' where the characters in the painting provide the seal for us."
"Haowen is right," Ke Xun patted Zhu Haowen on the shoulder, "Don't lose heart at any time. I think we should hurry up and search the entire ship, inside and out, while we still have a long time before dark. Yi Ran and I will search the second floor, and the three of you can search the first floor and the deck. Is that okay?"
"No problem, let's hurry!" Wei Dong clenched his fist.
Zhu Haowen watched Ke Xun withdraw his hand from his shoulder and whispered, "You...be careful."
"Don't worry." Ke Xun glanced at him a few times. "I must say, you look quite handsome in Hanfu."
After entering the painting, everyone's clothes had changed to ancient style attire, all white robes with wide lapels and narrow sleeves.
Zhu Haowen also looked at him; this man wore a coarse white robe with a wild and untamed air.
"Let's go." Mu Yiran said calmly from not far behind.
He was also wearing a coarse white robe, but on him, it looked otherworldly, like a gentleman.
Ke Xun turned and strode towards Mu Yiran. Zhu Haowen withdrew his gaze from the slightly upturned tufts of hair on the back of his head and also turned and walked away.
Going up the wooden stairs to the second floor of the ship's cabin, Ke Xun and Mu Yiran opened the doors of each room to check them.
The cabin was small, containing only a simple wooden bed, low to the ground, and a few toiletries.
Nothing else; all the rooms on the second floor were the same.
The two quickly came down from the second floor and saw Zhu Haowen and the others had finished checking the first floor and were now searching the deck.
"How's it going? Any findings?" Ke Xun asked.
"There's a kitchen over there," Wei Dong pointed to a door at the far end of the first floor. "The large room in the middle is a hall; the other rooms only have beds. We didn't see anyone else, and there's nothing suspicious."
In fact, the deck was flat and uneven.
"There should be a lower level below deck; let's look for the entrance," Mu Yiran said.
"Over here!" Qin Ci waved from the stern, pointing to a large open cover on the deck, revealing a staircase leading down below.
The group descended the stairs. The lower deck was completely dark, so everyone pulled out their phones for light. They discovered another room below deck, filled with food, clothing, medicine, farming tools, and other daily necessities, but no one else was there.
"There's a lot down there; searching everything will probably take several days," Qin Ci said, looking at everyone. "Shall we start now?"
"Let's start! Make the most of every moment," Ke Xun said, glancing around. "Let's look for lamp oil or something similar to light things up. We can conserve phone battery."
Just as he was about to search the room filled with daily necessities, Mu Yiran stopped him. "Let's divide the work. Ke Xun, you and Wei Dong go find something to light things up. Dr. Qin and Hao Wen, start by looking for clues in the room with the books and scrolls. I'll go up to the upper deck to monitor the ship's movements and bring the people who entered later here."
Without further delay, the group split up to begin their search.
Ke Xun and Wei Dong searched the room filled with everyday items for a long time before finally finding seven or eight bronze lampstands. However, after searching all the boxes and corners, they couldn't find any candles or lamp oil, so they took the lampstands to the room where Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen were.
This room contained more than a dozen boxes, filled with bamboo slips, wooden tablets, and silk scrolls, all inscribed with small seal script.
"I can't understand them," Qin Ci shook his head, putting down a scroll of bamboo slips. "These boxes are full of these things, but there are no paper books. I suspect this ship dates back to at least before the Han Dynasty."
"It's the Qin Dynasty," Mu Yiran's voice rang out at the doorway. Behind him were four or five people, their faces showing bewilderment and confusion; they were all newcomers to the painting.
"The large flag hanging on the mast has the character 'Qin' written in small seal script on it." Mu Yiran stepped into the room, casually picked up a scroll of bamboo slips, and glanced at it. "Back then, writing was mostly recorded on bamboo slips, wooden tablets, and silk. Even this 'Burning Rhinoceros at Sea' painting was painted on silk."
"So, this 'Burning Rhinoceros at Sea' painting could very well have been painted during the Qin Dynasty?" Zhu Haowen asked.
"Not necessarily." The one who spoke was one of the newcomers following behind Mu Yiran. He was quite tall, almost the same height as Mu Yiran, with his black hair neatly combed back, cold eyebrows and eyes, fair skin, and an unexpectedly calm expression.
"Colored silk paintings existed in almost every dynasty after the Qin Dynasty," the man continued calmly. "In fact, Qin Dynasty paintings are even rarer. The subject matter of the painting depicts events from the Qin Dynasty, but that doesn't necessarily mean the artist lived during the Qin Dynasty.
"Before painting this, I glanced at it briefly. Although it's a copy, it has tried to faithfully reproduce the original's quality and even the details of its damage.
"Based on the degree of damage and the clarity of the image, this painting should date between the Qin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty."
After saying this, seeing everyone in the room looking at him, the man nodded slightly and calmly said, "My surname is Shao, Shaoling."
"Qin Dynasty to Yuan Dynasty, that's a bit too broad a range," Wei Dong scratched his head.
"Moreover, if this painting depicts events from the Qin Dynasty, then all the written materials on the ship can only reflect events from the Qin Dynasty. If the artist wasn't from the Qin Dynasty, we probably wouldn't be able to find any clues about his name in these texts," Qin Ci said.
"If it's not too much trouble," Shao Ling calmly looked at the veteran members, "could you recount your experiences with the first few paintings in detail?"
"Brother Qin, this task is yours," Ke Xun said.
Among their group, only Qin Ci had that kind of patience.
Qin Ci simply switched tasks with Mu Yiran, taking a few newcomers to the deck, explaining the experiences and rules of the paintings while waiting for the remaining newcomers.
Mu Yiran stayed in the room below, and seeing Ke Xun and Wei Dong still using their phones for light, asked Ke Xun, "Didn't you find a lamp?"
"We found a lamp, but we didn't find a candle or lamp oil," Ke Xun handed the lampstand to Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran took the lamp in his hand and examined it for a few moments, saying, "The goose-foot lamp was a popular type of lamp during the Qin and Han dynasties, usually used in the palace as an ornament to decorate the royal palace halls. The three candle holders in the lamp dish were used to hold candles, but the candles of the pre-Qin period were different from the candles we use now
. They were made by binding small torches together with thin branches of easily flammable reeds or oily pine and bamboo, wrapping them with strips of cloth, and then filling them with animal fat." "Then I'll go look for it again," Ke Xun said, and walked out. Mu Yiran followed him out the door.
However, even with the big boss Mu by his side, Ke Xun still couldn't find the so-called "candle."
"Isn't this too strange?" Ke Xun turned off his phone to save battery and stood in front of Mu Yiran in the darkness. "This ship has clothes, medicine, food, and books, clearly indicating it's intended for a long voyage at sea, but there's nothing for lighting. We can't all be groping in the dark at night, can we?"
Mu Yiran remained silent in the darkness. Ke Xun knew he was deep in thought, so he didn't disturb him, simply standing quietly before him. After a long while, he heard Mu Yiran speak calmly: "Perhaps, this painting is a hint for us."
"Oh? What hint?" Ke Xun asked.
"The painting is called 'Burning Rhinoceros at Sea,'" Mu Yiran's clear, magnetic voice sounded even more resonant in the darkness. "There's no candle in the painting, yet it's called 'Burning Rhinoceros.' I think the painting is trying to suggest that the focus is on 'burning rhinoceros.'"
"Yes, if we remove the flammable elements from the painting, we'd naturally wonder why it's called 'Burning Rhinoceros' when there's nothing flammable." Ke Xun easily found Mu Yiran's hand in the darkness, took it, and shook it, as if praising her boyfriend.
Her boyfriend's slender fingers moved slightly, intertwining with his, but his words remained calm and steady: "Burning rhinoceros can be used for lighting, but there's a strange story behind the term."
"Tell me about it." Ke Xun couldn't help but wrap his arms around Mu Yiran's waist, resting his chin on his shoulder.
Dating doesn't interfere with business, does it?
Mu Yiran's voice rang softly in his ears: "Legend has it that there was a man named Wen Qiao who came to a place called Niuzhuji. He heard music coming from underwater and looked down to observe, but found the water to be unfathomably deep.
He had heard rumors that there were many ghosts and monsters in the water, so he lit a rhinoceros horn to illuminate the underwater scene.
Before long, he saw many strange and grotesque ghosts and monsters surging towards him, some even riding in carriages dressed in red, trying to extinguish the flames from the rhinoceros horn.
That night, Wen Qiao dreamed that a very angry and fierce person rebuked him, saying that the realms of Yin and Yang are separate and should not interfere with each other, so why did he use the fire of the rhinoceros horn to illuminate the water?"
"The next day, Wen Qiao suffered a stroke after having a tooth pulled due to toothache, and died less than ten days later."
"...Damn," Ke Xun tightened his arms, "So, is 'Burning Rhinoceros Horn at Sea' also a case of this..."
Mu Yiran raised his hand and gently patted his back: "Legend has it that burning a rhinoceros horn can illuminate another world. Some people use this method to communicate with 'people' or 'spirits' in the other world, while others use it to avoid misfortune or disaster, or even to achieve different purposes. And the purpose of burning the rhinoceros horn in this 'Burning Rhinoceros Horn at Sea' painting may be the key for us to find the seal and leave the painting."