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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
Bing Wu Ding Mao, upside down. Xin Si Geng Shen, the Cursed God can be seen.
What does this mean?
In addition to these sixteen characters, there is another line: "Anyone who sees this prompt is a lazy person. Since you refuse Three Thousand Prostrations, the entrance to the cave will naturally not appear. However, considering your difficulty, I will provide you with a hint. After solving it, you can also find the entrance to the cave."
This classical Chinese text doesn't quite sound like classical Chinese, nor does it resemble modern vernacular. What is this? I looked at Fatty, and Fatty looked back at me, both of us filled with big question marks in our eyes.
After a while, I cleared my throat and said, "What he means is that if we bow three thousand times, that so-called cave Portal will automatically appear. If I don't bow, he has also given us a hint; as long as we follow this hint to seek the answer, we can find the entrance. Tsk tsk, the entrance design is quite user-friendly. Fatty, let me test you: do you know what Bing Wu Ding Mao and Xin Si Geng Shen refer to?"
Fatty laughed heartily and recited as if reading from a book: "That's simple. Bing Wu and Ding Mao are names of the Gan Earthly Branches. In ancient times, starting from the Yin and Shang dynasties, we used Gan Earthly Branches to record years. The stems are Jia Yi Bing Ding Wu Ji Geng Xin Ren Gui, while the earthly branches are Zi Chou Yin Mao Chen, Si, Wu, Wei Shen You Xu Hai. Each stem corresponds to an earthly branch for one year; for example, Jiazi year, Jiaxu year, Yizi year, Yichou year, Bing Wu Year, Ding Mao Year, etc., arranged in order from Jiazi year to Guihai year, with sixty years making one cycle..."
I scornfully retorted, "Lack of culture brings no fear; lack of knowledge brings no shame! According to your arrangement, with ten stems and twelve earthly branches lined up, it should take one hundred twenty years for one cycle; how can it be just sixty years? Let me ask you again: where have you seen Jiaxu year or Yizi year?"
"Eh? Isn't it supposed to be arranged like Jiazi, Jiaxu, Jiayin, Jiawu?" Fatty said in surprise.
I pointed at Fatty in exasperation: "You really don't know anything at all. The Gan Earthly Branches are staggered in arrangement: Jiazi, Yichou, Bingyin, Ding Mao. This way of rolling arrangement works because there are ten stems and twelve earthly branches; if they were paired up evenly, it would mean that for every complete cycle of earthly branches, the stems would need to rotate one point two cycles forward—essentially skipping two. So after twelve years from Jiazi year comes Bingzi year and then Wuzi year; there won't be any Yizi year or Dingzi year."
Fatty scratched his head in embarrassment: "Is there such a method?"
I laughed and said: "The branches Zi, Yin, Chen, Wu, Shen, Xu only pair with Jia, Bing, Wu, Geng, Ren. While Chou, Yin, Si, Wei, You, Hai only pair with Yi, Ding, Ji, Xin, Gui. Thus it perfectly makes sixty years one Reincarnation... Well then, let's not dwell on this. What I want to know is what these words on the back of the stone tablet mean?"
Fatty hesitated and scratched his scalp: "Bing Wu Ding Mao, aside from representing years, I don't know what else it could signify."
"Years?" I frowned in thought: "If it's about years then which year corresponds to Bing Wu Year and Ding Mao Year?"
Suddenly Fatty slapped his forehead: "Ghost Brother, could this represent numbers? Wait a moment; let me check Baidu."
Taking out his phone, Fatty began searching one by one: "Bing Wu Year corresponds to 1966; Ding Mao Year corresponds to 1987; Geng Shen Year corresponds to 1980; oh look! An Ran was born in the Geng Shen Year."
I was both angry and amused. "There's no need to check this. This stone slab is so ancient that the Common Era calendar only started being used after the Republic of China. The Gan Earthly Branches on it definitely don't correlate with any year numbers."
"What do you mean then?" Fatty laughed as he put away his phone. "You ask about which year of the Bing Wu Year, and you say it doesn't correlate with any year numbers either. Ghost Brother, your constant changes are really confusing me."
"Uh, let's change our approach," I shook my head. "Let's start from the Origin of the Gan Earthly Branches. For example, Gan represents a sequence, Jia Yi Bing Ding Wu Ji Geng Xin Ren Gui represents the numbers one to ten."
"Then the Earthly Branches represent the numbers one to twelve?" Fatty looked at me sideways.
"No, the Earthly Branches represent zodiac signs. Zi Chou Yin Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen You Xu Hai correspond to Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Chicken, Dog, Pig," I explained slowly.
"So according to you, Bing Wu means three horses? Ding Mao means four rabbits?" Fatty was stunned for a while before reacting. "Xin Si Geng Shen means eighteen snakes and seven monkeys?"
"Uh, that doesn't seem right either. Damn it, what a mess of clues!" I scratched my head, lit a cigarette, and turned to look outside. The yard outside was overgrown with weeds, and beyond the wall were lush trees.
After pondering for a while without any clarity, I casually flicked the cigarette butt outside.
"Damn it, that could start a wildfire," Fatty rushed out to step on the cigarette butt.
"It's fine; that grass is growing in the cracks of the stone slab. It looks tall but isn't dense at all. Plus, there's a wall blocking it; even if it catches fire, it won't spread outside," I replied dismissively.
"Still worried about a wildfire? Luckily the butt landed right on the stone slab," Fatty extinguished it and shrugged with a smile as he prepared to come back.
I looked at the bluestone slab under Fatty's feet and suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Fatty, look at the bluestone slab beneath your feet; isn't it perfectly square?"
Fatty paused for a moment and looked down at his feet and then at several nearby bluestone slabs before raising his head and saying, "That's right; they're all square."
"Aren't they arranged very neatly?" I edged out of the door.
"Yeah, they are indeed very neat; it's like they were measured with a ruler."
"Alright, you help me count them vertically and see how many Bluestone Slabs are in a row." I pushed aside the weeds and began counting the rows of Bluestone Slabs beneath my feet. Fatty seemed to understand a bit as well, walking to the other end and starting to count the columns of Bluestone Slabs.
Before long, I reached the other end of the yard, and there were a total of ten rows. I shouted, "Hey Fatty, how many slabs are in your row?"
"There are twelve slabs in a row!" Fatty shouted back.
"I have ten rows here!" I exclaimed joyfully.
I finally understood what Bing Wu Geng Shen meant; it didn't represent years but rather directions. The ten rows of Bluestone Slabs beneath my feet corresponded to the heavenly stems—Jia Yi Bing Ding Wu Ji Geng Xin Ren Gui, while the twelve columns corresponded to the earthly branches—Zi Chou Yin Mao Chen, Si, Wu, Wei Shen You Xu Hai.
If we consider horizontal as rows and vertical as columns, then Bing Wu would be the seventh slab in the third row, while Ding Mao would be the fourth slab in the fourth row.
"Burn! Burn it down!" Fatty was overly excited, picking up a lighter and igniting the grass beside him, as if his earlier comment about Wildfire had nothing to do with him.
I dashed out of the gate, broke off a few branches outside, and threw a bundle to Fatty. If the fire spread outward, we could use the branches to extinguish it. However, as I mentioned earlier, this patch of grass wouldn't catch fire easily.
After burning for a while, the Bluestone Slabs in the yard were completely exposed. I marked Bing Wu, Ding Mao, Xin Si, and Geng Shen on four slabs. From a distance, these four slabs formed a parallelogram shape.
We both took iron rods and worked together to pry up the slab marked Bing Wu. It looked only about one meter square and seemed light, but its thickness reached fifty centimeters; its total weight was likely three or four hundred pounds. This couldn't be called a Bluestone Slab, it could only be referred to as a bluestone tile.
After much effort, we finally pried open one stone. Looking closely, there was vaguely a spring-like object in the middle of the ground below; it appeared to be some kind of mechanism. Without thinking twice, Fatty jabbed at that spring with his iron rod.
I quickly grabbed him and frowned, saying, "Don't move recklessly; there might be a mechanism!"
Fatty shrugged dismissively: "It's clearly just a spring; how could there be any mechanism?"
Regardless, he withdrew his iron rod. I squatted down to examine that spring from all angles but couldn't figure out what it was about. Then I looked at that bluestone tile and noticed a round groove beneath it. Carefully observing both the spring and the position of the groove revealed that they matched perfectly. This meant that if we placed this bluestone tile on top, it wouldn't touch the spring.
Suddenly, I recalled that phrase: 'Bing Wu Ding Mao, upside down.' Could it be that we needed to flip this stone over so that it would touch the spring and trigger the mechanism?
Thinking of this, I quickly called out to Fatty, "Fatty, let's flip the stone back to its original position."
"Are you sure you want to go through all this trouble?" Fatty complained unhappily.
"If you keep whining, I'll knock you out!" I laughed and said, "You need to understand two things: first, I'm your boss, so I can do whatever I want; second, I'm a Grandmaster Level expert, so I can do whatever I want. Damn, I almost forgot that I'm an expert."
The two of us laughed as we pushed the stone back into place. After stepping on the stone and feeling a slight undulation, we thought that should be it. Then we pried up the Ding Mao stone slab together. Sure enough, there was a spring-like mechanism underneath. After flipping the stone back into position, I said, "Bing Wu Ding Mao, upside down. I think this means we both need to stand on these two slabs. Let's give it a try."
Fatty followed my instructions and stood on the Bing Wu slab while I stood on the nearby Ding Mao slab. After a while, there was no reaction at all. I frowned and said, "Fatty, jump up and down to see what happens."
Fatty jumped high into the air and then landed heavily on the ground.
"Clank clank clank!" A faint sound of mechanisms echoed from below.
Oh, there's something! I jumped a few times as well, and the clanking sound became clearer, as if something was rising from beneath.
However, no matter how much we jumped afterward, the clanking sound remained at a certain level and did not rise any further.
"Ghost Brother, there are still two more slabs!" Fatty shouted while pointing at the Xin Si and Geng Shen slabs.
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