"Mr. Shao, we've definitely found the New Year picture!" Li Xiaochun followed behind Shao Ling, his face full of disappointment.
Shao Ling felt this newcomer wasn't very quick-witted, so he patiently explained, "Yes, we even found the original woodblock for that New Year picture, but that woodblock is also missing a piece."
"I know that, isn't that the missing piece we're looking for?" Li Xiaochun hurriedly said.
"Hmm." Shao Ling felt there was no need to explain further and continued walking forward.
"Mr. Shao, Mr. Shao," Li Xiaochun followed closely, "Do you think the missing character 'Zhu' might be related to this place?"
Shao Ling stopped. "We should be in Zhuxian Town right now."
"I know Zhuxian Town New Year pictures are the ancestor of Chinese woodblock New Year pictures. Maybe we'll meet some master woodblock makers here." Li Xiaochun remained optimistic.
Zhuxian Town New Year pictures are the ancestor of Chinese woodblock New Year pictures—didn't I just tell you that? Shao Ling glanced at Li Xiaochun, then heard a "beep" in his ear.
"Mr. Shao, it's four o'clock!" Li Xiaochun glanced at his phone hastily. "We've only found half the clues!"
"Xiaochun," Shao Ling said earnestly, "we don't have a single clue yet."
"We...we know this is Zhuxian Town, right? And we know the fragment we're looking for has the character 'Zhu' on it." Li Xiaochun's voice started softly, then gradually grew louder, seemingly encouraging Shao Ling.
"Alright." Shao Ling stared at the endless road before him. To the left were rows of New Year's picture workshops, filled with dusty paintings, but not a soul in sight. To the right was a large graveyard, with only crows on the branches and foxes lingering among the trees.
Shao Ling suddenly felt an overwhelming longing for Mu Yiran, Qin Ci, Ke Xun, Zhu Haowen, and even Wei Dong and Luo Bo. Even though these old friends couldn't give him clear guidance, they always offered suggestions and ideas, always leading him to new paths and more discoveries.
The newly discovered woodblock print depicts the most common door god theme in Zhuxian Town's New Year paintings. The door gods carved on the woodblock are Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong. Zhuxian Town has a very long history of New Year painting production, dating back to the Tang Dynasty.
Shao Ling is considering whether he can start with the door gods or the Tang Dynasty, and even speculate that this ancient woodblock print might actually date back to the Tang Dynasty, possibly even being the oldest New Year painting work in Zhuxian Town.
Li Xiaochun wasn't affected by Shao Ling's slightly downcast mood. He kept muttering to himself, "Two clues, one is Zhuxian Town, the other is Zhu; two clues, Zhuxian Town, Zhu; Zhuxian Town and Zhu; the common point is one character, Zhu..."
Shao Ling: "..."
Li Xiaochun quickly walked alongside Shao Ling. Because of his broad shoulders, long legs, and strong physique, coupled with his confident and optimistic demeanor, he seemed to outshine Shao Ling in terms of presence. "Mr. Shao, why is Zhuxian Town called Zhuxian Town? Is it because 'Zhu' is a common surname in this town?"
Shao Ling had no choice but to explain, "Zhuxian Town got its name because it was once the fiefdom of General Zhu Hai during the Warring States period."
"What is a fiefdom?"
"It's roughly the meaning of a fiefdom."
Li Xiaochun frowned, lost in thought, adding "fiefdom" to his existing two clues.
Shao Ling, however, hadn't expected Li Xiaochun's question to spark his thinking. He gazed at the cemetery on the right side of the road: "Xiaochun, what kind of people are buried in this cemetery?"
Li Xiaochun, interrupted, paused, then replied, "People from the village."
"Which village?"
"We've been looking around for a while now, and it's basically people from various villages in Zhuxian Town." Li Xiaochun's mind raced. "It's strange, why are all the graves here concentrated in one place? Our villages are scattered; no two families are adjacent." "
At first, I thought these people might be related to the New Year picture shop across the road, maybe they're all deceased New Year picture masters buried here, but..." Shao Ling paused.
Li Xiaochun was stunned by Shao Ling's words: "Mr. Shao, you've thought so far ahead! How come I didn't think of that before? They're all New Year picture masters, that's why they're buried here!"
"No, no, I take that thought back now." Shao Ling dismissed the guess and walked towards the cemetery, Li Xiaochun following closely behind.
Li Xiaochun wasn't without his merits; at the very least, he was brave. As a newcomer to the art world, maintaining such composure was quite remarkable. Even walking into a graveyard teeming with crows and foxes, he remained unfazed.
"Aren't you afraid? These might all be wandering ghosts," Shao Ling said.
Li Xiaochun retorted, "What's there to be afraid of? I haven't done anything wrong. By the way, Mr. Shao, why did you say these people were all wandering ghosts? If these people were all widowed, orphaned, or beggars who had wandered into the village without relatives, why would anyone erect tombstones for them? These days, even when our closest relatives die, we don't erect tombstones anymore. Since cremation was implemented, there are very few tombstones in our village's cemetery."
Shao Ling's gaze lingered between the tombstones. He was surprised that Li Xiaochun, who claimed to have not even graduated from junior high school, could actually pronounce the words "widowed, orphaned, orphaned" correctly. Shao Ling pointed to the tombstones: "These tombstones weren't erected 'in these days.' Don't you think the world we live in is a bit ancient?"
Li Xiaochun glanced at the New Year picture shop over there: "I thought it was deliberately decorated like that, that an antique style would attract more tourists."
Shao Ling stopped being mysterious: "Judging from the years the tombstones were erected, the era we live in might be the late Ming Dynasty."
"The late Ming Dynasty?" Li Xiaochun's eyes widened, as if his and Shao Ling's "time travel" was even more bizarre than "entering the painting." "I don't understand. In your words, aren't we entering a branch world within the painting? This world is fake, but the Ming Dynasty is real. So, is this world real or fake? Is the Ming Dynasty in this world real or fake?"
Shao Ling smiled faintly: "There's no standard answer to your question; it's like 'Schrödinger's cat.'"
Li Xiaochun: "I don't understand what you're talking about, but I know Schrödinger. It means an unsolvable problem. I read in a book: 'The ultimate problem troubling the middle class is Schrödinger's wealth.'"
Shao Ling was surprised that the other person was quoting from a book: "What book said that?"
"Story Club."
"..." Shao Ling nodded, "There must also be Reader's Digest and Youth Digest, right?"
"Yes, Mr. Shao, how did you know?" Li Xiaochun was happy to talk about his reading materials, "And Selected Folk Tales!"
"Okay."
"Mr. Shao, what books do you read? Do you read foreign works like *Yilin* magazine?"
"Now is not the time to talk about books." Shao Ling had to become serious.
"Oh..." Li Xiaochun nodded firmly, "Then we'll talk about it after we get out of here alive."
Shao Ling's train of thought was almost disrupted: "From now on, don't say a single word unrelated to the clues. We don't have much time left."
"Okay!"
The other party's sincere attitude momentarily silenced Shao Ling's temper. What was he about to say?
"A cemetery?" Li Xiaochun cautiously reminded him. "Tangmuyi? General Zhu? Zhuxian Town?"
"Yes," Shao Ling nodded. "I suspect the people in this cemetery are all 'guardians' of General Zhu."
"So, General Zhu is also buried here? Is there a large tomb here where General Zhu is buried?" Li Xiaochun asked.
Shao Ling nodded: "That's very possible. Unfortunately, I've never been to Zhuxian Town in the real world, let alone visited General Zhu's tomb, so I don't know if my judgment is correct—however, this world itself is a combination of reality and illusion, and it's very likely that real things will be dramatized and distorted."
Li Xiaochun said somewhat apologetically, "What did you say General Zhu's name was again? I've forgotten."
"Zhu Hai, according to some accounts, Zhu Hai has already been granted immortality, which is why this place is named Zhuxian Town," Shao Ling looked at the tombs in front of him, thinking that if Zhu Hai was granted immortality, then his tomb would be very difficult to find. "The 'Records of Bianjing Relics' states: Zhu Hai's tomb is in Zhuxianbao, commonly known as the Butcher's Tomb."
"What is the Butcher's Tomb?" Li Xiaochun asked whenever he didn't understand something.
"It is said that before Zhu Hai became a disciple of Lord Xinling, he was a butcher."
"Lord Xinling?" Li Xiaochun tried hard to search his memory for this familiar term.
Shao Ling continued, "Many ancient people have written poems about Zhu Hai's tomb, such as Huang Shu, Wang Wei, and Su Shi. I still remember Su Shi's poem 'Zhu Hai's Tomb: Commonly Called Tueryuan'. That poem is very objective. It praises Zhu Hai with words like 'Young Master Zhu of yesteryear, his heroism is beyond compare,' but it also makes ambiguous comments like 'He was cautious and did not resent the world, yet he did not suffer the same fate as Confucius.'"
"How is it ambiguous?" Li Xiaochun pressed.
"These things can't be explained in a few words, after all, it's from the Warring States period, but the record that 'Zhu Hai hid a forty-pound iron hammer in his sleeve and killed Jin Bi' is probably quite accurate."
"Why did he pursue that person?"
"It's hard to say, but it can be understood as being for the greater good of the state. At that time, Lord Xinling took the stolen tiger tally to lead the army, and the guard general Jin Bi was suspicious and refused to send troops. So Zhu Hai then raised the forty-pound iron hammer hidden in his sleeve and killed him on the spot. Only then did Lord Xinling seize military power, send troops to save the state of Zhao, and thus consolidate the position of the state of Wei."
"But I think it's not wrong for the man named Jin Bi who was guarding the city to be suspicious of them. That's what it means to be loyal to one's duty." Li Xiaochun expressed his opinion.
"According to you, that seems to make sense." Shao Ling had never thought about this issue carefully before. He had only read "The Tiger Tally Saves Zhao" since he was a child and thought that Lord Xinling's decision was correct and that everyone should work hard for this decision. But they never considered that Zhu Hai's actions were out of loyalty to his master, Lord Xinling, and Jin Bi's suspicion of him was also an act of loyalty to his master, King Wei.
Thinking of this, Shao Ling said, "I always felt that if we could find General Zhu Hai's tomb, we might find some answers."
"Then let's look! We haven't seen it along the way anyway, maybe it's ahead!"
But ahead lay darkness.
Neither of them dared to imagine that the world had fallen into night so early.
It was as if someone had suddenly poured a bucket of black paint from the sky, and within seconds it was dark.
The cemetery at night was naturally different from the one during the day.