“There was no Chinese Pinyin in ancient China,” Yuan Shucai said, holding on to the diagram that Zhao Yu had handed to him. “People during that time used the pitching method, which involved using two words to form the pitch of how a word sounds. The so-called Ghost Eight Diagrams is actually a long-lost phonetic notation method.”
“Oh?”
Zhao Yu was impressed and his eyes lit up. As the saying goes, “Every trade has its master”, although Yuan Shucai was from a peasant origin, and did not even attend elementary school, he mastered so much knowledge through his own efforts. Such perseverance was indeed inspiring. However, it was a pity that he applied his knowledge in such a wrong way.”
“However, there is a big discrepancy between this and the traditional pitching. And without a practical significance, it had been long-lost.” Yuan Shucai pointed to a line of text on the paper and said, “Look at this… The wind moves, but water is calm… The water is muddy… The sea officials… The money in both hands… These four sentences were intended to emphasize the pronunciation only, the words do not mean anything. So these sentences have to be dismantled and analyzed, one by one.”
“Take, for instance, the sentence: ‘The wind moves, but water is calm’. If we dismantle the sentence, according to the principle of the pitching method, it will reveal a new meaning to the sentence.”
“So… What does it mean?” Zhao Yu asked eagerly.
“I have no idea either,” replied the Taoist priest. “The reason why the Ghost Eight Diagram was long-lost, was because of its complexity. You need to find an atlas to interpret what it meant. ‘The wind moves, but water is calm’… ‘The wind moves, but water is calm’…” He repeated the sentence several times and said with a frown, “These words seem to resemble numbers! And…’The water is muddy’… This seems to be denoting a position!”
“What you said was as good as not saying anything!” Zhao Yu complained unhappily. “Tell me quickly, where can I find the atlas for the Ghost Eight Diagram?”
“Well…” The Taoist priest shook his head and said, “Usually, such an atlas would be handed down from their ancestral home, and rarely seen in the market. I once saw one in a Taoist temple.”
“Which Taoist temple was that?” Zhao Yu quickly asked.
“That Taoist temple was demolished!” The Taoist priest said with a frown. “Such an item is not worth any cultural relic value. Thus, we did not store it away.”
“Gosh!” Zhao Yu was disappointed. It seemed that it was inevitable for him to listen to his mother’s advice and visit an old man’s disciple in the Lingyun City.
With this thought in mind, Zhao Yu gathered his things and turned to leave.
“So… The Gold Buddha…” The Taoist priest asked, looking hopeful.
“Alright, though you did a lot of evil, I am a man of my word. I will bring you the information and photos of the Gold Buddha,” Zhao Yu replied with a nod.
“Oh… Thank you… Thank you… ”
“But…” Zhao Yu walked to the door and added, “I will bring the information of the Gold Buddha here, but… It is entirely up to the guards whether they show it to you or not!”
“Huh? What?!” The Taoist priest stared hard at Zhao Yu and scolded him fiercely, “You… You are an unscrupulous policeman! You do not honor your word!”
Just as the Taoist priest finished scolding, Zhao Yu had already walked out of the interrogation room and shut the heavy iron gate closed.
Before he visited Yuan Shucai, Zhao Yu had learned a lot about Yuan Shucai’s past crimes. Besides the murder of Huang Jing, the princess, Dong Peizhuo and Fu Jianxing, Yuan Shucai was also involved in many serious wounding or murder cases. He seemed to be out of his mind.
It was no wonder that, after he killed Dong Peizhuo with an iron shovel, he threw the dead body into Qiu Cheng’s coffin! And… When he was surrounded by many criminal detectives, he did not hesitate to set off the explosives!
Perhaps the miserable experience the Taoist priest had eighteen years ago had left him with no choice, and had made him what he is today. But still, that was definitely not a valid reason for him to kill.
Therefore, there is no morality to speak to such a person. Not only Zhao Yu, but also the entire Qinshan police force hated the vicious Yuan Shucai. Now that he wanted to see the Gold Buddha, and it was also his greatest death wish, who would want to make this wish come true?
Maybe… Seeing Yuan Shucai die with a deep regret for not taking one last look at the Gold Buddha, is probably the best way to resolve everyone’s hatred for him! Thinking about this, Zhao Yu suddenly felt a chill down his spine. He wondered, if Yuan Shucai were to die with a deep regret, would he turn into a ferocious ghost after death?
Sigh!
After returning to the police car outside the detention center, Zhao Yu sighed heavily, as something was weighing on his mind. After considering for six to seven minutes, he finally made a difficult decision: to make a phone call from his mobile phone.
“Hello!” On the other end of the line was the voice of Blondie, Zhou Yang. He sounded a little sneaky and said, “Brother Zhao Yu, why did you call me at this time? You gave me a fright!”
“Zhou Yang!” Zhao Yu said to him with a heavy tone, “Forget about it, all of you… Stop what you are doing!”
“Um… Huh?” Zhou Yang was startled by what Zhao Yu said. He cleared his throat and asked, “Brother Zhao Yu, are you joking? What do you mean by asking us to stop what we are doing?”
It turned out to be that Zhou Yang and others had received instructions from Zhao Yu earlier, and were currently moving out things in a flower shop called Southern Flower. The things being moved were Li Xiusheng’s treasure, which had been hidden in the cellar of the flower shop.
The Rongyang branch was fully responsible for the task of arresting the remnants of Li Xiusheng. In the past few days, they had detained many of Li Xiusheng’s relatives and friends, who were now waiting to be interrogated.
With the knowledge that the Southern Flower was a shell company, as well as being the exact location of Li Xiusheng’s treasure, Zhao Yu secretly gave instructions to Blondie and others to pick up the treasures!
Li Xiusheng stored almost all his possessions in the cellar. According to Zhao Yu’s conservative estimation, all the cultural relics stored in that cellar could easily add up to a value of at least tens of millions.
Initially, Zhao Yu was confident that he could privately take possession of these goods under cover of darkness. However, after he questioned Yuan Shucai, he could not help but change his mind and call Zhou Yang.
“Do whatever I just said!” Zhao Yu shouted, “Put back all the things to their original positions, and make an anonymous police report! Give the police the exact location of the cellar, then let them handle it from there. Do you understand?”
“Yes!” Zhou Yang did not dare defy his order, but asked reluctantly, “But… Big brother, there are so many valuable things here. Really…”
“Zhou Yang, you listen to me!” Zhao Yu said earnestly, “Someday, you will understand the reason behind this. Listen to me, put them back!”
“Oh… Alright! We will all listen to you, big brother!” Zhou Yang replied and shouted at the others to return all the goods that they had taken, back to their original positions.
“Ah!” Hanging up the phone, Zhao Yu heaved a sigh of relief.
Greed!
Is it so difficult for a man to resist the temptation of greed?
Zhao Yu pinched his forehead, as memories of the General Ridge flashed back in his mind.
Death due to greed!
Both Yuan Shucai and Li Xiusheng died due to their greed!
Witnessing how the lives of these two people turned out was the best lesson anyone could learn, which was not to fall into the temptation of greed. Zhao Yu could not understand why he had almost followed their footsteps.
Greed was a temptation that creeps up on a man. Had Zhao Yu succeeded in taking over Li Xiusheng’s possessions, which involved a huge amount of valuable cultural relics, it would be too late for Zhao Yu to repent!
At that time, perhaps a new devil would even be born! If that happened, would he become the next Li Xiusheng, who would go to such great lengths to chase after fame and gain?
Because of these thoughts, Zhao Yu managed to repent and stop in time. However, despite conquering the evil temptation of greed, Zhao Yu did not feel good inside. After all, it was a good chance to get rich.
Unexpectedly, Zhao Yu’s phone rang. It was Li Beini.
“Brother, the discipline inspection team came again,” Li Beini whispered. “They took Captain Miao to the conference room for interrogation. I saw that Captain Miao’s mental state was not very good. I am worried that she might not be able to cope.”
“Holy sh*t!” Zhao Yu quickly took out his car keys to start the car, shouting back at the same time, “Beini, I will hurry back now!”