Chapter 96: Thick Fog and Corpse Poison (Part 2)
Shi Jin and Li Bai Cao, among others, blocked the Yuanbao Street in front of Kong Dye Workshop with ropes. The main gate of Kong Dye Workshop had been sealed off by the brothers from Shao Hua Mountain. Dozens of people surrounded this large courtyard, strictly prohibiting anyone from approaching or entering.
Shi Jin and others dismounted, those little heads of the Fangyuan brothers immediately came over, bowed, and hastily led Shi Jin and others to this side of the Fengshui Gate Cave.
At this moment, the Fengshui gate has a pair of black lacquered doors with a white cross-shaped seal stuck on it. The door panel is randomly pasted with yellow paper, which depicts various strange symbols.
Shi Jin walked up and tore off the seal, pulling down the yellow paper talisman on top. The little head took a look and felt that things were going to go wrong, but he had no choice, so he obediently pulled out the key and inserted it into the large black iron lock on the door. With a "click", the big lock opened with a creak. The little head turned the handle with force, and the heavy lock slowly rotated out of its own lock tongue, scraping against the door and leaving another scratch mark.
Shi Jin stared at the existing scratch and asked the little head in a cold tone, "Since San Da's order to seal the well, has anyone come in?"
That little head continued to turn the lock out, and trembled with fear, saying: "No one has come, after the third master sealed this place, we few brothers have been guarding here, this seal was posted, it was just you who opened it a moment ago."
Shi Jin smiled slightly and didn't say anything else, then entered the courtyard. He saw that the courtyard was tidy and organized, and the big pit dug up last night had already been filled in. Shi Jin squatted down to take a look and saw that the filled-in soil surface had been repeatedly trampled on, pressed very flat.
Shi Jin walked around the yard and found that all the fabrics that were once hung on the racks had disappeared, leaving only neatly arranged bamboo frames. However, these bamboo frames seemed to be fewer than when he came last time.
Shi Jin gazed intently at the bamboo frame, and at this moment, Xiaotou, who was standing aside, spoke up, "Master Shi, what's so special about this bamboo frame? Why don't we go take a look at that well first?"
Shi Jin didn't seem to hear what he said, and instead walked around the bamboo racks by himself, taking one last look at them before speaking up, "Don't worry, don't worry..."
Shi Jin stepped forward to the stone steps in front of the courtyard house, and those two houses that had been ravaged by smoke and fire were now also pasted with yellow paper at the bottom and red pen-drawn talismans on the broken window frames.
Shi Jin led Li Bai Cao up the steps and stopped in front of the door, reaching out to peel off the yellow paper talismans stuck to the door frame.
The little head next to him took a look and suddenly became somewhat anxious. Just now, he could still hold it in, but if Shi Jin continued like this, what would happen? He couldn't help but say: "Master, stop! Don't talk about it anymore, the seal is gone, and the evil energy can't be suppressed."
"Evil spirit?" Shi Jin pinched the hem of a yellow paper, took a closer look, and saw that the red color on it was likely cinnabar. As he examined it carefully, his nose approached the surface of the paper, and a special smell wafted out, seemingly like realgar, yet also like glutinous rice and seven treasures.
Shi Jin unhesitatingly tore down the yellow paper talisman, and as he threw it to the ground, he secretly kept one hidden in his drooping sleeve.
Shi Jin pushed the two doors with force, and the iron lock crashed loudly, but the door did not open. Shi Jin looked closely again and only then discovered that the doors now had padlocks on them.
"How come it's all locked up? Open it!" Shi Jin looked at the little head, and he didn't dare to look straight into Shi Jin's eyes.
That little head said with a guilty conscience: "This... I really can't open it, it was locked by someone from the Kong family, saying it's to prevent theft..."
Kong Rong and Yu Lu are gone, what's the point of locking up now? Isn't Huang Erlang playing some trick on that side? For the time being, Shi Jin doesn't have the energy to deal with this, he just waved his hand and said: "Break it open for me!"
As soon as the words were spoken, two of the men who had come with Shi Jing and Li Bai immediately came forward, searched around the courtyard, found an iron hammer, and with a loud clang, smashed open the lock. The iron hammer held by the little servant who opened the door was covered with fine scratches on its head.
Just as Shi Jin pushed open the door, what he saw was no longer the smoke-filled and chaotic scene, but instead, it was a floor full of shattered ceramic pieces.
Li Baicao was also surprised, and involuntarily said, "What's going on here?" As he spoke, he looked at the little leader. The meaning in his eyes couldn't be clearer - he was questioning whether all this chaos was caused by their actions.
That little head also felt the seriousness of this gaze, and didn't dare to slack off, so he said: "This wasn't done by us small ones, when we came, all the houses were already locked, we just pasted up a seal and stood guard outside."
"So you're saying those yellow talismans on the wall weren't put up by you guys either?" Shi Jin also turned to ask the little leader.
The little head nodded and said in a low voice, "We've been like this since we came."
Shi Jin nodded, squatted down, and picked up a handful of broken pieces from the ground. The texture of these fragments was obviously a type of porcelain, with a layer of black glaze on the scattered shards. Shi Jin put down the fragments, stood up, and said: "Bring that big hammer again!"
The little servant quickly brought the big hammer back and presented it to Shi Jing. Shi Jing swung the big hammer up, took a piece of porcelain shard and scraped it on the hammer. The porcelain shard immediately left a trail of porcelain powder on the surface of the hammer, exactly the same as the original white scratches.
Shi Jin now seems to have figured out a bit, but why did he smash the water jar in this room and smash it so thoroughly. On the night after he left, what exactly happened here, is there any necessary connection with poisoning the well?
Shi Jin can't make sense of it now, but since they want to make a big deal out of it, there must be a reason for them to do so. At least, it's necessary for them. No matter who it is, in such a difficult environment, no one would be bored enough to do something so meaningless. The current situation must be that they are hiding something.
Shi Jin picked up a piece of debris and sniffed it at the tip of his nose, but there was no smell.
Shi Jin looked around and didn't find anything else unusual, so he walked with Li Bai Cao to the courtyard again, coming to the well in the middle of the courtyard. The edge of the well was covered with yellow paper talismans, but Shi Jin noticed that they were slightly different from those on the door. The strokes of these talismans were red with a hint of black, and when he sniffed them carefully, he detected a complex and indescribable smell.
"Draw water from the well!"
Two young men quickly put down the wooden bucket and soon brought up a bucket of water, which was placed steadily in front of Shi Jing.
Shi Jin looked at the clear water in the well, if no one said there was a corpse poison in it, who would know, no wonder so many people were poisoned.
"Hundred herbs, bring the silver needle." As he spoke, Shi Jin casually plucked a blade of grass from the edge of the well and dipped it in the water. With one hand holding the wet grass, he took out the yellow paper talisman from his sleeve with the other hand and carefully applied the wet grass to the talisman's characters.
At that moment, the crimson runes turned a deep black color...
