Datang: Hiding private money, exposed by Xiao Sizi

Qin Wenyuan suddenly stepped forward, selected a smiling portrait, and suddenly took it down.

"what are you doing?"

Tianji asked a little annoyed.

Qin Wenyuan glanced at her and said calmly: "Such an important clue must be kept."

"Why? You want it?"

Tianji pursed his lips.

Seeing that Qin Wenyuan had already put the portrait in his arms and would not hand it over, she snorted coldly: "It's up to you."

Qin Wenyuan looked at Tianji deeply.

Tianji stopped me and didn't let me take the paintings away.

What are you worried about?
Are you afraid that you might find out something through the portrait?
Or... this portrait has some connection with Tianji, so Tianji doesn't want the portrait to be taken away?

strange?
Qin Wenyuan looked at Tianji.

When Tianji saw Qin Wenyuan looking at him with inquiring eyes, his expression changed slightly.

She snorted, "What are you looking at?"

Qin Wenyuan did not hide his thoughts. He said calmly, "There is something wrong with you."

"There's something wrong with you."

Tianji snorted coldly, she suddenly turned around and said, "There's nothing interesting on the third floor, let's go to the fourth floor."

Having said that, she walked straight up the stairs.

"Tianji is no longer at peace."

"Normally, she wouldn't be so abrupt even if she was trying to change the subject on purpose."

"Could this portrait really have some connection with Tianji?"

"Could it be that the woman in this portrait, or the woman the portrait is based on, has some kind of relationship with Tianji? A friend? An elder?"

Qin Wenyuan was uncertain.

But he knew that this was definitely a reasonable direction of speculation.

If we follow this direction, we may get some unexpected surprises.

However, now is obviously not the time to think about these things, so Qin Wenyuan can only temporarily suppress his extremely active thoughts, and winked at Sishe, asking Sishe to follow Tianji closely, so as to prevent Tianji from taking away any important clues when they are not paying attention.

Several people came to the fourth floor.

When he reached the fourth floor, Qin Wenyuan raised his eyebrows slightly.

It’s not that there’s anything unusual about the fourth floor.

On the contrary, the fourth floor is much more normal than the second and third floors.

This is the place where religious belief is most normal.

In the center of the fourth floor, there was a two-foot-tall statue of a deity. This statue was the woman in the scroll on the third floor.

She is very gentle.

Her eyes were gentle and compassionate, as if she was looking at everyone in the world with compassion.

The person who carved this statue must have had superb skills.

At first glance, one can feel that the Goddess of the North Dipper is definitely a compassionate and good belief.

The expression currently displayed by the statue is exactly the same as the smiling scroll that Qin Wenyuan had just taken away.

Qin Wenyuan felt that perhaps this statue was carved according to the scroll.

In other words, the painting was depicted based on this statue.

But no matter what, it seems to indicate one thing, that is, the painting scroll that Qin Wenyuan took away seems to be a little unusual.

There was no incense burner in front of the statue, only a few cushions.

The entire fourth floor is very spacious.

There are only these few things.

The candle flame was blown slightly by the wind blowing in from the window, causing the candlelight to sway up and down, and also making the face of the statue sway back and forth between light and darkness from time to time.

Qin Wenyuan looked at the statue, and suddenly, a light flashed in his mind.

He said, "I understand!"

"what?"

The snake was stunned for a moment.

Tianji also looked at Qin Wenyuan.

Qin Wenyuan said: "I have figured out one thing."

"When I first entered the Beidou Tower, on the first floor, I felt something was strange."

"Now, I finally figured out where the strange place is."

"strangeness?"

Sishe looked at Qin Wenyuan in confusion: "Master, where are you?"

Qin Wenyuan suddenly raised his hand, pointed directly at the Buddha statue, and said, "It!"

"Buddha statue?"

Sishe said in surprise.

Qin Wenyuan nodded slightly.

He said, "Think carefully, on the first floor, there is an incense burner, a cushion, and a donation box."

"Obviously, the first floor is for ordinary believers to worship and pray."

"I don't believe in gods or Buddhas, so I rarely go to temples or Taoist temples, so I just overlooked this point."

"Now that I see this statue, I suddenly realize that something is wrong."

"Normally, when believers pray and worship, they must pray to the statues of their faith, hoping to communicate with the gods through the statues."

“But the first floor has everything except the statue!”

“And on the fourth floor, there are no incense burners, no smoke, but there are statues of gods!”

"So you don't think it's strange? Why is there no statue on the first floor?"

When Sishe heard Qin Wenyuan's reminder, he thought about it carefully, and his eyes suddenly lit up: "It's true."

"Master, I once went to a temple with my family. After entering the gate, the Buddha statue was right in front of us."

“And the Taoist temple is directly opposite the Sanqing Temple, so all believers can see at a glance where to worship.”

"So this Beidou Temple has no statues, which is indeed... very strange."

The more Snake thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong.

Without idols, what can believers use to worship?

The believers, regardless of whether there are statues or not, will kneel down and worship, and also offer incense money.

This is really a bit too weird.

Qin Wenyuan looked at the statue in front of him.

He felt that normally, the statue should be on the first floor.

But he happened to be on the fourth floor.

why?
There are also several cushions placed in front of the statue on the fourth floor.

It was obvious that someone was praying here.

Can believers come to the fourth floor at will?
Don’t believers feel scared when they run to the third floor?

Qin Wenyuan suspected that those believers could at most go to the second floor to flip through some books, and should not have the chance to reach the third floor.

Not to mention the fourth floor.

So who are these cushions prepared for?

People from Beidou Temple?

Or some specific special people?

There are too few clues to be sure.

Qin Wenyuan took a deep breath and glanced at Tianji out of the corner of his eye.

Tianji was staring at the statue of Beidou Niangniang at this time, wondering what he was thinking.

He didn't disturb Tianji or ask any questions.

Instead, he walked around the fourth floor by himself.

The space on the fourth floor is no smaller than that on the third floor, but there is nothing here.

There was nothing there except a statue and some cushions.

This makes the fourth floor seem too empty.

Qin Wenyuan recalled the floors he had passed.

He found that except for the second floor which was full of books, the rest of the floors were empty.

On the first floor, there are tables, donation boxes, incense burners, and cushions, but compared to the huge space, they only take up less than 10% of the floor space.

Still a bit too small.

As for the third floor, there were only some paintings hanging on the walls, and otherwise it was empty.

The fourth floor contains the things you see in front of you.

"It must be difficult to build this Beidou Tower."

"But such a Beidou Tower has nothing in it. It is almost empty. It is really unreasonable."

"If we squeeze in, two floors will be enough for these things."

"But the Beidou Tower has five floors."

why?
Qin Wenyuan wondered in his heart, why build five floors?
Is there any meaning behind this? Or is it just a simple attempt to save face?

It’s just that Beidou Temple is originally a false belief, without enough things to fill it, so it’s empty?
But this doesn’t make sense.

Isn't it easy to find something to fill it?

Creating some furniture and turning some rooms into quiet rooms or something like that would be very classy.

Just go to a temple or Taoist temple and copy it.

So, it shouldn't be that there isn't enough stuff to fill it.

It's that they don't want to do it.

Do you think it is unnecessary and no one will come up to check, or does someone not allow it?

Qin Wenyuan's active brain started working at high speed again.

And this time, he had more on his mind.

It is indeed this Beidou Tower. There are abnormalities everywhere. There is something wrong everywhere.

With his extremely active brain, he really couldn't stop even if he wanted to.

Qin Wenyuan took a deep breath and temporarily suppressed his thoughts. He looked at the fourth floor again to make sure there were no omissions, then looked towards the stairs.

"Let's go to the fifth floor."

This tower has only five floors, so the fifth floor is the highest floor.

The first four floors are stranger than the last.

What about the fifth floor?

Qin Wenyuan really became curious.

He went straight up the stairs.

Sishe looked at Tianji and said, "Let's go."

Upon hearing this, Tianji turned his gaze away from the statue of Beidou Niangniang.

She nodded silently, seeming even more taciturn than before.

This time, even Si Snake noticed that something was wrong with Tianji.

But seeing that the young master didn't say anything, he didn't say anything either, but he stared at Tianji more closely.

The three of them climbed the stairs and soon reached the fifth floor.

When he reached the fifth floor, Qin Wenyuan raised his eyebrows slightly.

"This is?"

Snake was also a little surprised.

Including Tianji, everyone frowned.

Because when they just reached the fifth floor, they actually found a door.

Locked door!

From the first to the fourth floor, no doors were found.

So, there was a door on the fifth floor, and it was locked.

This discovery immediately made Qin Wenyuan smile.

Qin Wenyuan raised his lips slightly and said with a smile: "Interesting, it seems that these five floors are different from the other floors. Maybe... there will be unexpected surprises."

The fifth floor of Beidou Tower.

As soon as you go up the stairs, there is a tightly closed and locked door.

"Master."

Sishe looked at Qin Wenyuan.

Qin Wenyuan chuckled: "It seems that these five floors are different from the other floors."

"The first floor is a place for worship, the second floor is a scripture library. The third floor is for portraits, the fourth floor is for statues... Then what is this fifth floor? What is hidden inside? I am really interested."

He said to the snake, "Go ahead and unlock it."

"Yes!"

Snake took a look at the lock without any hesitation.

He checked it and said, "Master, this lock is specially made. It is different from ordinary locks. It is difficult to open it easily without a key."

"That's it..."

Qin Wenyuan thought about it, and suddenly raised the corner of his mouth: "Forget it, I won't unlock it."

"You're not going to unlock it? Then we're not going in?" Si Snake was stunned.

Qin Wenyuan laughed, suddenly grabbed the hilt of the knife at his waist, pulled out the knife, and chopped it hard at the closed door in front of him!
boom!
Then there was a loud bang.

The tightly closed door was directly smashed by Qin Wenyuan.

The broken door was directly caught by the padlock and was swaying in the air.

Sishe and Tianji were both startled.

They didn't expect Qin Wenyuan to be so cruel.

The lock is difficult to open.

So I just didn't unlock it.

He just split the door open.

This really solves the problem fundamentally!

The corners of the snake's eyes were twitching.

Tianji didn’t know what to say and his eyelids kept twitching.

Qin Wenyuan slowly put the knife back on the handle and chuckled, "Isn't this solved?"

"Let's go in and take a look at what this mysterious fifth floor looks like!"

As he spoke, Qin Wenyuan entered behind the broken door.

The fifth floor is different from the other four floors.

There were candles burning on the other four floors, as if they would stay burning all night.

But the fifth floor was pitch black and nothing could be seen.

"Snake, light the fire."

Qin Wenyuan ordered.

Si Snake quickly took out a tinder, found a candle, and lit the candle using the tinder.

Soon, the candle flame began to flicker.

The light dispelled the darkness and illuminated the five floors in front of it.

After seeing the scene before them, everyone was stunned.

Even Qin Wenyuan was slightly stunned.

But the next moment, Qin Wenyuan's mouth corners suddenly raised slightly, and he said with a smile: "Interesting, this is really interesting."

These five floors are completely different from the four floors below.

This place has absolutely nothing to do with Beidou Temple.

There is no element of Beidouguan at all, no portraits of Beidou Niangniang, no books, and no statues of the deity.

Here... is a yard!
A very large yard.

This yard has everything that should be there.

Lots of room.

The door of the room was open, and looking in from the outside, you could see everything inside.

Tables, chairs and benches!

Wardrobe, dressing table...

couch.

There was even a pot, some firewood, a water jar, a rice jar...

It can be said that the five floors in front of us are like a courtyard where one person lives.

If this courtyard was outside, even in the mountains or jungles, they would think it was normal.

But this courtyard is now on the fifth floor of the Beidou Tower, which is really strange.

There's no sunlight here. Who would be so idle as to build such a yard here?

Therefore, Qin Wenyuan felt that it didn't seem like someone was just idle and did this.

Instead, they spent a lot of time and effort to move a yard that was supposed to be outside here.

In order to protect the yard, it was locked with a very complicated special lock.

It can be seen that Beidou Temple is deliberately protecting this place.

Then this place must be very special.

"Let's go in and have a look."

Qin Wenyuan did not delay and walked directly into the yard.

Pushing open the gate, he found that this was a very common farmyard.

Moreover, the decorations and arrangements in front of him made him raise his eyebrows suddenly.

"This is not how the Nanzhao people would arrange it."

"Instead, it looks more like the courtyard commonly used by the people of our Tang Dynasty."

Qin Wenyuan had been traveling these days and passed by many villages. He had seen the arrangements of the Nanzhao people, which were completely different from this one.

(End of this chapter)