《Once Upon a Time in a Foreign Land》Chapter 052 : Beihai Xinxiu
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The five of them then walked back to the backyard. When they reached the hole's edge, Xinxiu and Yixiong prepared to descend. At that time, the process was going much faster than before.
The basement was quite spacious. It may even be as large as the simple houses scattered throughout the city. Many houses in urban areas were less than a hundred square meters. The ceiling was also quite high, about four meters. The hole they had entered was in the back right corner of the room. That's assuming that the basement was in the backyard of a house next door to the house behind their house.
Xinxiu tried to illuminate the entire dungeon with the flashlight he carried. The center of the room was almost empty. There was only a table and a few benches made of stone. Xinxiu wasn't sure that it was a table. It had no legs, so it was like a stone slab. However, it did seem to function as a table. What they thought was the table even had a unique shape, namely an octagon. It seemed to be positioned according to the eight cardinal directions. The table was quite large. It was about one meter high. The longest width of the table, from end to end, was about two meters. Xinxiu couldn't understand how people put the table into the dungeon in ancient times.
Several months ago, when they came down to the room, they had also seen the stone table. Just like that time, the second time they saw the thing, Xinxiu was still amazed. He glanced at Yixiong who was also showing a similar facial expression.
I wish we had a time machine to see how they did it.
Some objects in the room were too heavy to fit through the holes they had entered. Another possibility was that they were had brought in through the two doors on the west and east sides of the room. But even that theory was not without problems. Xinxiu had absolutely no idea how the oversized table, chairs, and cupboards would get through the much narrower door. Yixiong and Xinxiu looked at each other. For the umpteenth time, they could only shake their heads.
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Xinxiu paid close attention to the situation there. On each side of the table, there were eight chairs in total. The benches were rectangular, with each side measuring about fifty centimeters. Both the table and the bench were finely carved. Xinxiu was definitely not a historian. Also completely clueless about antiques. However, even a fool would have guessed that the objects in the room were extremely valuable. Both in terms of art, historical, and commercial value.
On each side of the room, there were things that looked like cupboards. A few months ago, when they had came down to the room, they had seen the objects, which, according to Shanquan, looked like cupboards. But at that time, they had not pay much attention to those things. They looked like lockers, but without a lid. So, from a distance, they looked more like a pile of boxes. There was nothing in those "cupboards." All were empty.
In contrast to the table and benches in the center of the room, which were made of stone, the cupboards were made of wood. However, it was still heavy because the wood used as raw material was the number one quality wood. Except for the corner from which they had come, the entire room was covered with cupboard-like objects.
The four central sections of the walls on each side of the room were already exposed. The cupboards in that section had been shifted to the side by Shanquan, Iren, and Zhengyi. Xinxiu and Yixiong could see that a door led to nowhere in the middle of the west and east sides. Yixiong knocked on the metal door.
"What are you doing?" Xinxiu was surprised. "Behind the door, there must be a room or passage. It's an empty space. So it's definitely not rock or solid earth."
Yixiong just laughed. "I know. I'm just looking for inspiration. Who knows, I might suddenly come up with such a good idea?"
"Maybe we should just ask our new landlord," said Xinxiu.
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"Ask about what?" Yixiong chuckled.
"We'll ask if he knows about this room. Then if he knows about the doors on the west and east sides of this room. And most importantly, does he have the keys to these doors?" said Xinxiu.
"Even if he knew and had the key. Do you think he would tell us?" Yixiong sounded stifled laughter.
"I don't think so. Ha ha ha!" Xinxiu laughed. He tried not to laugh too loudly. Although he was almost one hundred percent certain that his voice would not be heard all the way up, he still had to be careful.
Yixiong still looked curious. He shone his flashlight at the door in front of him. The iron door had no handle. Although there was a small hole to insert the key. Yixiong tried to look through the small circular hole in the door that had no handle.
"Can you see anything?" Xinxiu approached Yixiong from behind.
"I can't see anything. Everything is pitch black." Yixiong straightened his back.
Xinxiu walked towards the table in the center of the room. Then he sat down on one bench at the side of the table. The moment he touched the table's surface, he felt a chill in his palms. Xinxiu rubbed the table's surface to make his palms feel slightly warm. It was then that he realized that the table's surface was not as smooth as he had previously thought. There were carvings on the surface of the table.
Xinxiu aimed his flashlight at the carving. It turned out that there were carvings on the stone table. The carving was in the form of three horizontal lines. Each line was about twelve centimeters long. Xinxiu then shifted to the other side of the table. He inched to the right. There were carvings there, too. Almost the same as before, there were also three lines. But the third line comprised two short horizontal lines about five centimeters long. There was a space of about two centimeters between the two horizontal lines. Xinxiu then turned to the left side of the side where he was initially sitting. Here, Xinxiu also found almost the same carving. Comprised three lines. The first line comprised two short horizontal lines, while the second and third lines each have a long horizontal line.
"What is it?" Yixiong walked over to Xinxiu.
"These engravings depict the shapes in the Hexagram!" Xinxiu couldn't help but shout.
"Hexagrams?" Yixiong's voice was like the shriek of a chick that had lost its mother. Apparently, he didn't understand what Xinxiu meant.
"Right! As in Yijing."
"Yijing?" Yixiong raised a hand to scratch his head. "Please explain in simpler language."
"Yijing, the 'Book of Change,' the ancient book of fortune-telling!"
Yixiong froze for a moment. He frowned.
"Remember yet?" Xinxiu was so excited. To the point that he forgot that Yixiong couldn't keep up with the pace of his thoughts. "It is one of the earliest scriptures in our ancient civilization. Initially, it was used to predict and describe the future."
"Ah! You mean that book!" Yixiong finally remembered.
Xinxiu knew Yixiong was ignorant of ancient texts that date back to the time before The Great Migration. Let alone the ancient books written during the time of their ancestors still living in the old world, even Yixiong apparently had never heard of most of the ancient books written by the people in their new world. After they lived together, Shanquan and Zhengyi, who were experts in history and ancient languages, often discussed these matters. They often had taught other friends about the ancient books that existed in the old world.
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