When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Lin Lezhi pretended not to notice and slowly moved the fire starter towards the direction of the breathing sound, watching the direction of the flame.

Sure enough, the fire flickered more obviously.

You're here without making a sound, trying to play tricks, right? Lin Lezhi's lips curled up into a smile, and he turned around quickly, accurately and without any pause, and swept the fire in his hand across the other person's face.

The other party reacted quickly as well. When Lin Lezhi swept over the fire source, he quickly blew out the light source.

The only source of fire went out, and his eyes, which had adapted to the light source, fell into darkness. Lin Lezhi wanted to blow the fire starter in his hand again, but the person who came did not give him any chance at all.

The other party found the opportunity and snatched the fire starter from Lin Lezhi's hand. Lin Lezhi wanted to get it back, so he could only wrestle with the other party.

But Lin Lezhi only knows a little bit of Sanda Kung Fu. He is okay against ordinary people who don't know Kung Fu, but he is naturally at a disadvantage when facing masters.

No matter how Lin Lezhi attacks, he will be defeated.

Lin Lezhi felt it was boring because he couldn't gain the upper hand.

"Xiao Fox, are you sick? You're not sleeping and you're running here to act like a ghost." Lin Lezhi said angrily.

A low laugh came from his ears, and the person moved away from Lin Lezhi, and then the fire starter was lit again. Looking at the familiar face in front of him, Lin Lezhi couldn't help rolling his eyes.

Lin Lezhi snatched the fire starter from Xiao Yihuo's hand and continued to look for clues in the room.

"How do you know it was me?"

Lin Lezhi learned his lesson this time. He walked to the door and closed it. The room instantly became dark. Lin Lezhi responded unhappily, "Except for you, who else walks like a ghost without making any sound?"

"I'm not the only one who can do this in the martial arts world. I think your kung fu is not bad either."

Lin Lezhi snorted coldly, thinking it was just a joke.

Lin Lezhi moved the candlelight to Xiao Yihuo's face. The light of the candlelight flickered in the eyes of the two. Lin Lezhi stared into Xiao Yihuo's eyes and said firmly without leaving any room for excuses, "Yes, but there are not many people who drank with me tonight and know kung fu."

The osmanthus wine that Yang Hancai sent was of high quality, mellow and fragrant. There was a faint smell of alcohol on his body, including his own.

Not to mention that when Zhao's mother was toasting the deceased, the wine spilled onto the ground and inevitably splashed onto her body.

It may be hard to smell it outside, but in a narrow space, the body's movements will give off a faint aroma of wine, which is still easy to capture.

A trace of surprise flashed across Xiao Yihuo's eyes, but he quickly returned to his normal expression. It was not a compliment, but he said truthfully: "As expected of you, Detective Jiang, your observations are so meticulous."

Xiao Yihuo looked at the furnishings around him and continued, "So, you came here and found other clues."

"Then tell me, why did I come here?"

Although Xiao Yihuo knew that Lin Lezhi was asking this on purpose, hoping to embarrass him by not being able to answer, he smiled and said, "Why did you come here? Didn't you explain it back at Yaren Village?"

"Oh?"

Lin Lezhi gestured to Xiao Yihuo to continue speaking with interest.

"Ya Ren Zhuang faces north, and Fei Zhai faces south. But no matter which direction it faces, the east-west direction will not change. I guess... this house is exactly where the banyan tree is. They are both on the west side. I wonder... am I right?"

Lin Lezhi did not answer, but moved the tinder in his hand to the side. The light source of the tinder was limited, but fortunately the room was not big, so he could barely see the furnishings in the entire room.

"So what do you think of this place?"

How about here...

Xiao Yihuo paced in the room and looked around carefully. The windows were not big and could barely let in some light. The furnishings around could not be simpler: a simple bookshelf, the four treasures of the study on the table, and a wall of calligraphy and paintings. The lengths of the calligraphy and paintings varied according to their styles, with decorative brown tassels hanging under the paintings.

Apart from this, there was nothing else to say. After reading it, Xiao Yihuo responded with a fair evaluation: "It can barely be considered a study room. If I'm not mistaken, the paintings on the wall are all from Xing Haocang's hand."

reluctantly……

Lin Lezhi felt that Xiao Yihuo's ability to show off his wealth invisibly was not forced at all.

However, this room is indeed a little small and the lighting is not good. It is fine to use it for writing and painting, but it would be very inconvenient if you want to live there for a long time.

“But…” Xiao Yihuo’s eyes darkened, and he looked at the table beside him and said, “It seems that other people have been here besides us. It doesn’t look like a house that has been uninhabited for years.”

Xiao Yihuo looked at Lin Lezhi and told him his guess, "Xing Tianqi."

"Okay, it seems you are not blind."

Xiao Yihuo smiled and said, "You are quite good at praising people."

Lin Lezhi turned his gaze back to the calligraphy and paintings on the wall, and said jokingly with a smile: "How about I give you the reputation of a cunning detective, what do you think?"

Xiao Yihuo didn't even think about it, and directly refused: "No."

Xiao Yihuo followed Lin Lezhi's gaze and looked at the calligraphy and paintings on the wall. There were paintings of the Four Gentlemen - plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, as well as many ink-splashed landscape paintings with exquisite composition.

Through the blank space in the painting, the mountains and trees in the painting seem to be hidden in the clouds, which shows the painter's superb painting skills.

In addition to landscape paintings, there are many animal paintings on other walls, including horses, deer, cows and birds. The bird holds an unknown white flower in its mouth, which is full of charm and lifelike.

On the wall opposite to the animal paintings are some pastoral paintings, which are also beautifully painted, not only depicting the scenery but also expressing the ideas.

Lin Lezhi looked at the exquisite paintings on the wall and said, "In fact, most of the paintings on this wall are just tricks. As long as we can distinguish which ones are useless and which ones are useful, it will be easy to crack them."

Xiao Yihuo looked at the paintings on the wall and said, "So... you can already tell which paintings are useful?"

"Of course." Lin Lezhi looked proud, paused and continued: "The answer is in Lan Mo's formula."

Xiao Yihuo looked at Lin Lezhi, waiting for Lin Lezhi to continue speaking.

Lin Lezhi had no intention of keeping the secret, and said truthfully: "The process of making ink blocks is not simple, and the process of obtaining materials is also very rigorous and meticulous. Only in this way can we make high-quality ink for people to use."

"The two most common materials used to make ink blocks are pine soot and glue extracted from animal skins. Rich families may also add gold foil and pearl powder to make the ink shiny and thicker."

"And the ink developed by Xing Haocang is even more special. Orchid essential oil is mixed into the ink, making the ink emit a light orchid fragrance that lasts for a long time. Many literati and scholars do this, so it's not surprising."

"But this blue ink is not only ink, it is also a key."

Lin Lezhi glanced at the paintings in the room and said calmly, "If someone who doesn't understand the meaning enters this room, no matter if they destroy the paintings or use them for other purposes, if they get the meaning and sequence wrong, they will never know the secret of this room."

Lin Lezhi's eyes darkened, and then he said, "Xing Haocang had already handed the key to the decryption in this room to Zhao Tinglan, but it should not be to leave clues, but this Lan Mo can only be used as ink in Zhao Tinglan's hands, and there is no other way."

"Zhao Tinglan said that she made graphite strictly according to the formula of Lanmo, but the ink she made always tasted stronger."

"So you suspected that there was one ingredient missing from the recipe Xing Haocang gave Zhao Tinglan, so you asked Zhao Tinglan to find the recipe for Lan Mo."

"That's right." Lin Lezhi said slowly: "It's not that Zhao Tinglan did something wrong, it just happened that she did the right thing, but it was just not enough."

Xiao Yihuo inspected all the calligraphy and paintings on the wall and asked, "But there are so many paintings on the wall, how can we identify the last material?"

Lin Lezhi looked at Xiao Yihuo and said, "Do you remember the birthday gift that Ren's mother received at Chunhua Tower? Zhao Tinglan smelled a different scent of flowers every time she went to her room."

"According to Zhao Tinglan's description of the symptoms before death, the flower fragrance should have been mixed with a small amount of Datura flowers, which caused the previous mother to gradually go crazy and die. However, there was no smell of musk in that room."

"It's not easy to do this unless you have mastered the fragrance of flowers to the extreme." Without any intention of offending, Lin Lezhi simply said truthfully: "Xing Tianqi can't do this."

"Xing Haocang mixed the mandrake flower into it and then covered up its smell, making the killing invisible. I think since Xing Haocang is good at extracting the fragrance of flowers, there is a high probability that the flowers he used to cover up the smell were also flowers."

Lin Lezhi walked to a painting nearby and said to save his face, "But I'm just guessing. I might be wrong. Don't hold your hopes too high."

"Whether it's right or wrong, you have to give it a try."

"You're right." Lin Lezhi nodded in approval, and then took out the Lan Mo formula sheet from his arms.

Apart from the complicated production method, the order on the recipe list is beef glue, pine smoke, and orchid essential oil.

The cow glue corresponds to the buffalo picture hanging in the house.

The pine smoke corresponds to the pine trees in the mountains that are hidden in the fog and appear and disappear.

There is only one painting of orchid on the wall.

The only one left to be solved is the last one. Fortunately, there are not many paintings of flowers on the wall. Apart from the plum and chrysanthemum among the four elements of plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum, the only remaining flower is the nameless little flower in the bird's mouth.

Although there are not many, we cannot try them casually. After all, no one knows what will happen if we make mistakes.

The fragrance of plum blossoms and chrysanthemums is not easy to cover up, and Lin Lezhi's intuition tells him that it can only be that nameless white flower.

Lin Lezhi and Xiao Yihuo looked at each other, and Lin Lezhi handed the fire starter in his hand to Xiao Yihuo. Then Lin Lezhi walked to the front of the buffalo painting, wondering what the starting mechanism was. After looking around, his eyes focused on the brown tassel at the bottom of the painting.

Lin Lezhi raised his hand and pulled gently, and sure enough, the painting was able to move.

After pulling it down about three centimeters, a slight "click" sound was heard, and Lin Lezhi let go of his hand, and the painting stayed at its current position.

Lin Lezhi walked to the front of the pine smoke and orchid pictures and pulled them down one by one.

Finally, he arrived in front of the nameless little flower. Lin Lezhi reached out his hand unsurely to pull the tassel, but just pulled it out about one centimeter.

"Wait a minute." Xiao Yihuo suddenly spoke up to stop him.

Lin Lezhi didn't have much idea in mind to begin with, and was startled by Xiao Yihuo's shout. He quickly let go of his hand, and the painting slowly rose to its original position.

"what happened?"

Xiao Yihuo looked at Lin Lezhi and said, "I think this painting should have been hung somewhere else."

Xiao Yihuo raised the fire starter in his hand closer to the painting, or to be more precise, the wall. Xiao Yihuo lifted the painting slightly, and then lifted up the painting next to it for comparison.

Although the difference is small, if you look closely, you can see that the mark on the wall is obviously thicker than the painting next to it, but the room is very dark and it is difficult to notice.

Xiao Yihuo calmly analyzed: "If animals, ink splashing and four gentlemen paintings all correspond to a lock, then pastoral paintings should also correspond to a lock. If birds are also classified as animals, wouldn't that be redundant?"

Fortunately, Xiao Yihuo reminded him that if he had pulled the wrong person, he might have lost his life here.

Lin Lezhi patted Xiao Yihuo on the shoulder and praised him, "See, I told you that you are not blind."

Xiao Yihuo lowered his eyes and smiled, "I'll just take it as you're praising me."

"I was complimenting you."

However, to be on the safe side, the two of them carefully checked the other canvases and found that the only painting that was almost the same size as the animal painting was a pastoral landscape hanging on the other side of the wall.

There is indeed one painting among the four pictures, and the mark left by the painting is darker than the ones next to it.

Birds fly out from the mountains with flowers in their beaks, and there are farmhouses and water hidden below, which is indeed more suitable for pastoral scenery. Moreover, these four pictures seem to be depicting the same scene.

There really is a sense of leisurely enjoyment in the mountains, rivers and countryside, which makes one feel relaxed.

The replaced painting looks like a pastoral scene with dogs and fields, but there are no mountains or waters, so the main theme of this painting should be the dog.

The wall that belongs to the animals.

I have to say that Xing Tianqi is still very cautious.

After the two looked at each other, Lin Lezhi reached out and pulled the painting of the pastoral dog in front of him.

After a 'click' sound, there was a sound of a mechanism being opened under the desk in the room. The two walked over and found a stone staircase leading downstairs.

A faint fragrance wafts up from the dark cave entrance. The scent is not strong, but just smelling it gives you a sense of relief that relieves the boredom in your heart.

The two walked down the stone steps, one after the other. The entrance of the cave was closed shortly after they went down, and the paintings that had been pulled down from the wall were returned to their original places.

With the help of the light from the tinder, Xiao Yihuo found the lamp trough on the wall and used the tinder in his hand to ignite the lamp cord in the trough.

The entry of air and the ignition of fire lit up all the lights in the underground, and the underground layout could be seen at a glance.