Not only me, but everyone also thought of this - could that old Yuan Tou be a descendant of Xuan Heng? Everyone looked at their cousin.

Sister Li asked tentatively: "Do you mean that old Yuan Tou is actually a descendant of Xuan Heng, and he is guarding Xuan Heng's tomb here?"

The cousin nodded. His speculation shocked Mr. Chen and his wife. If old Yuan Tou is a descendant of Xuan Heng, and that Xuan Heng mysteriously disappeared here with the Ming Dynasty vassal king Zhu Leting.

It was not a normal death in the pit. How could Old Yuan Tou guard Xuan Heng's tomb?

"Since that old Yuan Tou is guarding the tomb, have you two seen the tomb he guarded with your own eyes?" Madman Liu asked Mr. Chen and his wife.

The old couple shook their heads repeatedly and said that they had never seen a tomb around, and they had not even seen a tombstone. This was even more strange - since Old Yuan Tou was guarding the tomb here, there should be a tomb nearby, but there should be a tomb nearby.

Why actually not?

The cousin pondered for a while, and then said to Mr. Chen Lai: "If it is convenient, can you take us to visit that old Yuan Tou? I have a vague feeling that he should be a very unusual person."

Mr. Chen did not agree immediately, but after thinking for a while, he made up his mind and said: "Okay, although that old Yuan head is taciturn, his personality is relatively peaceful. I will take you there, it should be no problem."

Since there was only three or four miles to go, we went as soon as we could. Under the leadership of Mr. Chen, everyone went to look for the old Yuan Tou.

After coming out of Mr. Chen's courtyard, passing through the crater and continuing to walk back, there is a narrow path. Follow this winding path further up. After turning around a few hills, there is an open space in front of you.

In the open space, there are two or three houses built of stone and wood. Needless to say, this is the residence of old Yuan Tou.

Because it had just rained, there were puddles of water on the ground, and water drops kept falling from the roof.

"Brother Yuan, are you at home?" Mr. Chen came to the door, banged the door and shouted loudly - although he already knew that the old man's surname was Xuan, he might be used to it, so Mr. Chen still did not change his name.

There was a coughing sound in the room, and then the door slowly opened - the old man who opened the door looked very ordinary, one of those people who had seen him a few times but still couldn't remember his appearance. There were wrinkles on the old man's face.

He looked very old, and his hair and beard were all white.

When he saw so many people standing outside the door, the old man was surprised. He opened his eyes wide and looked at us first and then at Mr. Chen, obviously confused as to what was going on.

Mr. Chen explained with a smile: "These people are from the Provincial Cultural Bureau and the Institute of Archaeology. They are here to do cultural visits and archaeological work. They know that you have lived here for a long time, so they want to come to visit you and ask you."

I want to ask you some questions."

Mr. Chen's rhetoric was discussed before we came here, because this status makes it easier to understand some of the information we want to know.

After listening to Mr. Chen's introduction, Mr. Yuan said "hmm" twice, not particularly enthusiastic, but not cold either, and let us into the house.

The room seemed a little dark, but it was very clean, and there was a scent of sandalwood, which made people feel very comfortable and quaint. There was also a large bookshelf in the room, which was filled with thread-bound books.

There were several large Chinese characters with wet ink spread on the table. Unexpectedly, this ordinary-looking old Yuan Tou also had the style of a traditional scholar.

My cousin walked to the table and looked at the words carefully. He couldn't help but admired and said, "I never expected that your calligraphy skills, old man, would be so profound."

After hearing what my cousin said, everyone came over to take a look and found that the font was very strange. After looking at it for a while, we couldn't recognize a single word. This reminded us of the font on the rocks in the well-shaped canyon -

- "Seal script", according to Madman Liu, that type of font was more popular from the Warring States Period to the early Han Dynasty, but was gradually lost. Later, the great calligrapher Yu Youren once made a version of that type of font based on the unearthed bamboo slips.

recover.

I couldn't help but ask Crazy Six next to me: "Is this also the kind of 'seal script' we saw on the rocks in the well-shaped canyon?"

Crazy Six shook his head: "At first glance, it looks a bit similar, but when you look closely, you find that it is very different. The structure of the characters and the writing method are very different from that kind of 'seal script'."

After listening to our discussion, my cousin smiled slightly and said, "Ha, the 'seal script' you are talking about was a font that was once widely used. That was before the official script and regular script were mature, and the seal script was

A quick way of writing. This font was popular for a long time from the Warring States Period to the early Han Dynasty.

The font written by Mr. Yuan is called "Cao Zhuan", which is exactly the opposite of the name of the font you mentioned, but the two are completely different - the font written by Mr. Yuan is called "Cao Zhuan".

It was created by the famous calligrapher Zhao Huanguang in the late Ming Dynasty. I think its skill and elegance are not inferior to Zhao Huanguang."

Perhaps it was his cousin's erudition that impressed the old man. After hearing these words, Old Yuan immediately became in awe of his cousin, and waved his hands repeatedly and said: "Thank you, thank you, you are so knowledgeable and talented. This kind of font, even if

Ordinary calligraphy and painting experts may not know him."

Next, Lao Yuantou's attitude towards us became much more enthusiastic, and his expression became less dull. He and his cousin discussed Zhao Huanguang's calligraphy again, and it seemed that the more they talked, the more speculative they became.

Things went surprisingly smoothly, so smoothly that it was a bit beyond our expectations.

It seems that this old man Yuan is not deaf at all, he just doesn't want to talk to people who don't talk to him. Although Mr. Chen is very kind to him, Mr. Chen is a botany student after all, and he doesn't know much about calligraphy, literature and history.

Very limited, which is very different from Old Yuan's hobbies and interests, so because there is no common language, Old Yuan doesn't like talking to Mr. Chen, which makes Mr. Chen mistakenly think that Old Yuan is a little deaf.

My cousin is a first-class expert in the field of literature and history, and of course he has extremely profound knowledge. After the two of them talked about calligraphy, they started talking about seal cutting. As if meeting a close friend, Old Yuan Tou took out some of his favorite seal cuttings.

, let my cousin appreciate it. My cousin’s comments on these seal carvings were extremely accurate, which made Lao Yuan nod his head.

As for us sitting next to each other, we couldn't say a word because we didn't understand anything they said.

I was secretly glad that my cousin came here this time. Otherwise, we would not be able to talk to this old man Yuan at all, let alone get any news from him.

But we are not here to talk about calligraphy and seal cutting with Lao Yuan Tou. Seeing that the sky outside is getting darker and darker, we are all a little anxious. Crazy Six secretly winked at his cousin, but his cousin didn't seem to notice.

The same thing happened, and he was still chatting and laughing with Lao Yuan Tou.

After a long while, my cousin coughed and changed the topic: "We are here today mainly to ask you something, old gentleman. I heard that you have lived here for decades and have a lot of knowledge about this area.

You should know it very well.”

Old Yuan picked up the tea cup and took a sip. Instead of following his cousin's topic, he asked his cousin: "Have you gained anything from your investigation in this area? There are no historical sites here, right?"

My cousin smiled slightly, looked at Old Yuan, and said calmly: "Not only are there historical sites here, but they are also extraordinary. There are many incredible and strange phenomena that have also appeared here."

Old man Yuan seemed shocked when he heard what his cousin said. Seeing that we were all looking at him, he quickly tried to calm down: "Oh? Weird phenomenon? What weird phenomena are there here? I have lived here for decades, and there are still

Never seen it before.”

The cousin remained calm, staring at Old Yuan and said: "Zhu Leting, the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, disappeared in the nearby crater, and disappeared with him, as well as his adviser Xuan Heng.

What is even more unbelievable is that, for some unknown reason, Zhu Leting and Xuan Heng did not die. They lived for more than three hundred years and were hiding under the crater."

None of us expected that my cousin would be so straight to the point and say this directly without any mincing words.

At this time, there was only a "pop" sound. It turned out to be Old Yuan's tea cup. It fell to the ground and broke into pieces. Old Yuan's eyes were wide open and he stared at his cousin, as if he had been shocked.

The horrified Gan Qian opened his mouth, but could not speak. His face looked horrified, and his face became extremely pale.

The atmosphere in the room suddenly became tense, and we all shrank, not knowing what would happen next - would Old Yuan get furious and kick us out; or would he faint because of his excessive emotion?

; The air seemed to be condensed, making us breathless.

After a minute or two, Old Yuan finally returned to normal. His wrinkled face still seemed to be shaking slightly. Hongmei quickly poured a glass of water and handed it to Old Yuan, and asked in a low voice: "You

Are you okay, old man?"

Old Yuan took the water, drank a few sips, and then let out a long sigh. In this short period of time, he seemed to have gone through a lot of struggles in his heart.

"How do you know this?" When asking this question, Old Yuan had a lot of helplessness in his tone.

At this time, my cousin said in an extremely sincere tone: "We come to you without any malice. We just sincerely seek your help. If there is any offense or abruptness, please forgive me. We have no choice but to do so."

Immediately afterwards, my cousin told Old Yuan succinctly the struggle with Blind Man Gao, the events we experienced, and everything we encountered near the crater.

We continued talking until it was time to light up the lamp, and we all kept adding to it. Old Yuan listened very seriously and didn't say a word.

At this time, we all breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that my cousin's strategy of "going straight to Huanglong" had worked. Coupled with our frank attitude, Old Yuan did not show any resistance.

After listening to what we said, Old Yuan let out a long sigh and said with emotion: "I can see that you are all good people. I understand more or less what you said.

, although some of your guesses are accurate, there are also many errors."
Chapter completed!