Chapter 298: Seven-colored Flower-changing Tower
Zhou Situ is a shrewd and calculating person. This man has always adhered to the style of considering defeat before victory in Chang’an City.
Such a style of doing things is a good style in peaceful years, when politics are clear and everyone speaks reason.
However, the Emperor and the Grand Marshal are not reasonable people. The two of them eliminate dissenters by any means necessary. At this time, no matter how much he, as Situ, yields, unless he completely surrenders to one of the two sides, there will be no place for him in Chang’an City.
Therefore, he abandoned the power in his hands and retreated to this two-story small building, wanting to be like an ostrich with its head buried in the sand, thinking that this way he could escape this great calamity.
The result, of course, was death without a burial place.
Zhou Situ died, and his family disappeared along with him.
Actually, the word “disappeared” has many interpretations in the files, which generally depends on the prefix. Different prefixes mean different interpretations of disappearance.
Wu Tong believes that Zhou Situ’s house must have a secret passage, and it is one leading outside Chang’an City. As long as they find this secret passage, their group of weak, sick, and disabled can leave Chang’an City.
This time, the Grand Marshal is showing his power. He is determined to clean up Chang’an City thoroughly. The suspension bridge is raised high, there are cavalrymen and infantry in the city, crossbowmen on the city walls, and fully armed albatrosses on the Imperial City mountain.
Therefore, without exceptional strength, it is very difficult to escape from Chang’an City.
1 Yun Ce previously had exceptional strength, but now his arms only have a thousand jin of power. This bit of strength is even less than a decent Tiger Guard, and the same goes for Wu Tong.
1 Liu Changsheng did not invite Yun Ce into the Divine Dragon Hall for shelter, and even drove Wu Tong out of the Divine Dragon Hall, which shows that the people Liu Changsheng can shelter are very limited, merely some women and children.
1 No strength means no strength. The Ancestral Fire is the spirit of the Great Han. Liu Changsheng is merely the fire spirit’s offering priest. Otherwise, with how deeply entangled Liu Changsheng is with the Ancestral Fire nowadays, he would have died long ago, even earlier than Zhou Situ.
1 Wu Tong has no strength left, Yun Ce has no strength either, Lei Ming is like a headless fly digging everywhere randomly, but Huo Wudi is quite clever. She lies on the ground like a puppy, constantly sniffing around.
1 The red date horse behaves very normally, no longer skewing its mouth or snorting casually. It just stands quietly by the ruins of the small building, occasionally lifting a hoof to kick away a piece of bricks and stones.
1 The red date horse’s hooves are very strong. The bricks and stones it kicks out casually fly more than ten zhang away. However, all those bricks and stones accurately fall into that water well.
1 Yun Ce and the others searched for more than two hours, and the red date horse kicked bricks and stones there for more than two hours.
1 When Yun Ce searched the wellhead again, he suddenly stopped, looked at the red date horse and said, “You clearly know the secret passage is in this water well. Why couldn’t you just say it directly? Why use the method of kicking stones to remind me? If I weren’t smart, you could kick stones for a lifetime and it would be useless.”
1 Wu Tong, following by his side, glanced into the water well and said, “I’ve searched here early on. The secret passage is not here.”
1 Lei Ming added, “I jumped into the water well. There’s nothing below except water, no secret passage. I also carefully checked the well walls around, all solid, no secret passage.”
2 Huo Wudi wrinkled her nose and said, “Inside there’s only water vapor, nothing else.”
2 Yun Ce glanced at the water well and said, “The water well is not more than two zhang deep, with a circular diameter of no more than three chi. Let me ask you, the red date horse continuously kicked no less than ten thousand jin of bricks and stones into the water well nonstop. Tell me, where did that ten thousand jin of bricks and stones go?”
2 Upon hearing this, Lei Ming immediately jumped into the water well. This time he dived to the bottom. After a moment, he came up and said to Yun Ce, “The water is not more than one zhang deep, but no bricks and stones under the water.”
2 Yun Ce was about to speak when he saw the red date horse kick another piece of bricks and stones over. This time, Lei Ming leaped into the water well along with the bricks and stones. After a string of bubbles rose from the bottom, Lei Ming never came up again.
2 Yun Ce, with no external injuries, jumped into the water well again and dived to the bottom. This time, he not only didn’t see any bricks and stones, he didn’t even see Lei Ming.
2 Yun Ce climbed out of the water well, came in front of the red date horse, pinched its chin and said, “What’s going on?”
2 The red date horse irritably shook off Yun Ce’s hand, lifted its front hoof again to kick away a piece of bricks and stones. This time, Yun Ce went into the water well along with the bricks and stones, and then there was no more news.
2 Huo Wudi glanced at the water well, then at Wu Tong and said, “Do you want to go down?”
2 Wu Tong shook his head: “This is a very powerful mechanism. My injuries haven’t…”
2 Before he could finish speaking, Huo Wudi saw the red date horse kick another piece of bricks and stones over, and she fell into the water well along with it. After a string of bubbles rose, she also disappeared.
3 Wu Tong stared at the water well in thought for a moment, then came in front of the red date horse. Seeing it about to kick a piece of bricks and stones away, he casually intercepted the heavy bricks and stones midway.
3 The red date horse irritably snorted loudly, found another piece of bricks and stones, and kicked it out with its front hoof. The bricks and stones spun and accurately fell into the water well.
3 Wu Tong smashed open the bricks and stones; there was nothing inside. Next, he sat by the red date horse’s side, watching it meticulously kick bricks and stones into the water well.
3 Unknowingly, the red sun set, and Chang’an was once again shrouded in fine drizzle.
3 The red date horse was still kicking stones, and Wu Tong refused to shelter from the rain, watching the red date horse kick stones.
3 Suddenly, a violent gulu sound came. Wu Tong was surprised to see water actually starting to overflow from the water well. Immediately after, with a puff sound, Yun Ce, Lei Ming, and Huo Wudi were sprayed out of the well along with the water column.
3 The three looked fine, just drenched all over with no signs of suffocation.
3 “Where did you go?” Wu Tong hurriedly asked.
3 “An empty house piled full of bricks and stones.”
3 “The house had no exit?”
4 “None, only a mechanism that kept opening and closing, accepting bricks and stones, no other exit.”
4 “Couldn’t you take advantage of the bricks and stones…”
4 Wu Tong had just said half of it when he closed his mouth. He felt that someone as smart as him shouldn’t ask such a stupid question.
4 Yun Ce said, “The opening and closing time is very short…”
4 Yun Ce had only said half when he stopped. It wasn’t that he was deliberately playing coy, but he was surprised to discover that the ruins of the small building in front of him seemed to be slowly sinking.
4 After the broken small building shattered into pieces, a new two-story small building slowly grew out from underground, pushing aside the ruins on top. In a few breaths, a brand new two-story small building reappeared on the ground.
4 However, this was an exquisite wooden two-story small building.
4 Yun Ce glanced at the white gauze fluttering in the wind on the small building’s window, then turned back to look into the red date horse’s eyes, grabbed its ear and viciously said, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
4 This time the red date horse didn’t struggle, but the contempt in its big eye close to Yun Ce was clear even to Huo Wudi.
4 “It looks down on you!”
5 Yun Ce ignored Huo Wudi’s provocation, stared into the red date horse’s big eyes and said, “You’ve been acting very strange lately. If you’ve become a spirit, what could I do about it?
5 Our family has plenty of spirited things, not lacking you one, right?”
5 Just as Yun Ce was full of anticipation waiting for the red date horse to speak, this guy let out an extremely loud snort, spraying a large amount of mucus from its nostrils. Yun Ce dodged it, but it landed squarely on Huo Wudi’s face, who had sneaked over, covering her face.
5 Seeing the red date horse still not revealing any news, Yun Ce walked with lifted foot into the wooden small building in front of him.
5 The owner of the small building must be a very elegant person. Yun Ce leaned back on the couch by the window. Fine rain misty outside the window, gentle evening breeze. Reciting poetry, drinking wine, brewing tea here would all be excellent.
5 Huo Wudi, having washed her face, came over from the bed inside holding a dry infant corpse skeleton, placed it in front of Yun Ce and said, “This child was at most one year old.”
5 Yun Ce glanced at it and said, “Presumably his mother left in a hurry.”
5 Huo Wudi said, “Her mother died, in the cabinet inside, only the upper body is there.”
5 Yun Ce had no time for these small matters. Seeing Wu Tong standing in the hall with a thoughtful look, he called out, “If you’ve thought of something, just say it.”
5 “Nothing, I finally know where Zhou Situ’s money all went.”
6 “You mean this small building?”
6 “Yeah, the Seven-Colored Flower-Changing Tower.”
6 “What does that mean?”
6 “It means, if we burn down this building, another one will grow underground. It will grow a total of seven times and no more. Oh, it can grow five more times now, after all, the previous brick building has been destroyed.”
6 Yun Ce once again regretted not bringing Doggy here. Otherwise, he would have discovered the anomaly here long ago. The timing of discovering this building now is not good. Escaping Chang’an with these people first is the hard truth. Once the Grand Marshal’s army starts searching the city, surviving will be extremely difficult.
6 “Let’s find the tunnel first.”
6 Wu Tong shook his head: “No need to search. We’ll rest in this building, recover from injuries, and go out after the chaos in Chang’an ends.”
6 Yun Ce ignored Wu Tong’s words, turned his head to look at the red date horse, and found it circling the water well, still forcefully kicking the wellhead with its hooves. The heavy wellhead was kicked to shake by it.
6 Yun Ce left the small building, came to the side of the water well, and found water continuously overflowing from the water well. With the red date horse’s forceful kick, the wellhead was finally kicked aside, revealing the wide well wall.
6 The red date horse kicked the clear well water with its hoof, and Yun Ce hugged Huo Wudi, pulled Lei Ming, and jumped into the water well. Immediately after, the red date horse also dove headfirst tail-up into the water well.
7 Seeing this, Wu Tong hurriedly called out, but unfortunately, the three people and one horse quickly vanished into the water well.
7 Wu Tong looked back at the small building in the spring rain, then at the water well gushing water, and finally let out a long sigh before throwing himself headfirst into the well.
7 There wasn’t actually much water in the water well; it was pushed upward by air. Yun Ce broke through the water first and fell downward. He adjusted his posture in mid-air, and when preparing to force a landing, his feet had already landed on solid ground.
7 The red date horse was more prepared than him; it landed with all four feet solidly.
7 Just as Yun Ce took out a torch to proceed, Wu Tong also fell down.
