Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

On the way back, everyone argued endlessly. Some said that the crazy monk was a lunatic, and some said he was a high-ranking monk. Qin Yun finally concluded: "Those who have achieved the Tao are often different from ordinary people, and they become lunatics in the eyes of ordinary people." Sun Xueli had just suffered a catastrophe and had been depressed all the time, but she had a little more understanding of Buddhism. She said: "I always feel that the monk's words hide mysteries." At this moment, the five people came to the shipyard again. Yuan Zhenhe pointed to the big ship and said, "The monk mentioned 'Cihang' many times just now. I wonder if he is implying this 'Cihang'."

This sentence opened the door of Qin Yun's heart in an instant, and he said excitedly: "The monk also mentioned 'this shore, the other shore, Nirvana, Nalanda', is it implying that we will be on board this 'Cihang' from now on? If you drive from one shore to the other shore, you will find the Pure Land of Changle, which is where the monks in Khotan used to store scriptures?" Yuan Zhenhe nodded and said, "If this speculation is correct, the Japanese must have been inspired to build ships." Qin Yun also said: "When Liu Hu interrogated the mad monk before, he once said a verse, 'Buddhas exist on the coast in the age of the end of Dharma, and in the temple in the age of Dharma'. The shore refers to water, does it also imply Buddhist scriptures? Hiding in the lake?"

"It must be! It seems that this crazy monk is just pretending to be crazy!" Liu Hu said loudly, "Let's get on the boat and have a look!" "The age of the end of Dharma exists on the coast, and now Buddhism is flourishing again, and it has come to the age of righteousness. It's time to leave the water and return to the temple." Yuan Zhenhe said, "Let's go! Let's get on the boat!" The five happily climbed onto the Cihang with ropes. Although it was built decades ago, it has not been put into use, so after blowing off the dust on the deck, it revealed a brand new look.The main deck is full of ropes and a tractor. There are cabins at the front, rear, and middle left, respectively, which are the first floor, the poop building and the bridge building. The first floor is where the cockpit is located.Qin Yun pushed open the door of the cockpit, and because it was very well sealed, there wasn't much dust inside.Everyone walked to the front of the cabin, where the console was covered with mechanical instruments, and there were many cabin cabinets above it. Liu Hu curiously opened one and found a logbook inside, so he took it out and looked through it. Ripped it off, the back part was all blank, so I had to stuff it back again.

However, Qin Yun made a major discovery. He saw the odometer showing 18,006 nautical miles, "Has this ship sailed before?" He asked Yuan Zhenhe. Yuan Zhenhe also wondered: "From the odometer, it has not only sailed, but also traveled a very long distance, but this ship is like new, strange?" "Could it be that after returning to the voyage, someone repainted it again?" Qin Yun speculated. "Extremely possible! If so, this ship may not be called Cihang, and it may not be a Japanese ship. It's just that the Japanese painted new paint on the hull afterwards, and then marked the two Japanese words 'Cihang'. It's just that they Why do you want to do this?"

Qin Yun shook his head, "The Japanese are acting strangely, it's really hard to deduce, let's try to see if the ship can still move." The task of sailing the boat will naturally fall to Liu Hu, but he joined the army in the inland Lanzhou Military Region. He can drive cars and trains, but he knows nothing about things in the water, so he can only bite the bullet and press all the active buttons. He pressed it back and forth, hoping to be lucky, and the start button just happened to be combined, but he was sweating profusely, but to no avail.Liu Hu was born in the countryside of Northwest China, and he didn't read many books, but he was born to like to play with machinery, and when encountering uneven ships, he naturally wanted to study them.Everyone saw that he would not give up if he didn't start it, so they had to let him continue to try, and the others left the cockpit to check the bridge and poop.

The bridge building is a tool room. When the door is opened, a musty smell comes in. Everyone hastily covered their noses. There are all kinds of tools piled up here and there, nothing special; the poop building is an observation room, with glass windows on all sides. There are several binoculars placed on a table, which are used to observe the situation at the stern, and there is also an old-fashioned telephone, which is probably used for communication within the ship.A tall sternpost was erected behind the poop, next to which was the automatic traction, and the chains had been brought up and wound around a large pulley with a hook at the end of the chain.Qin Yun suddenly had a feeling of déjà vu. He turned around to ask Xiaobai, but she disappeared.

"Professor Yuan, do you still remember the glass box we found on the train?" Qin Yun said, "There is a hanging ring on the top of it, which seems to match this iron hook very well. Could it come from here?" Yuan Zhenhe had an idea, "Yes, there is a parafish skeleton in the glass box, which is obviously related to the underground lake. Could it be that the Japanese sent people into the glass box and then submerged in the water to observe the bottom of the water?" "It must be, we have to transport it to the ship again." Qin Yun said again, "Where did Xiaobai go?"

Both Yuan Zhenhe and Sun Xueli shook their heads. The three of them immediately sensed the danger and hurriedly looked around. In the cockpit, Liu Hu fiddled with it for more than half an hour, but still failed. He knew that he couldn't deal with this big robot beast, so he decided to give up.He wiped off his sweat, and as soon as he turned around, he saw a white face pressing against him, screamed in fright, and fell down on the bridge. "Xiaobai, is that you?" Liu Hu patted his chest, "Why didn't you make a sound when you came in?" Xiaobai pulled Liu Hu off the bridge and sat down on the pilot chair. It seemed that she was going to try it out.

Outside the cabin, Qin Yun was still shouting anxiously, but Xiao Bai smiled and didn't respond, she was enjoying the happiness that Qin Yun brought her nervously.Qin Yun was in a panic, at this moment, he realized how important Xiaobai was to him.He wanted to get off the boat to have a look, but at this moment, there was a sound of "Boom" from the stern of the ship, and the ship vibrated violently, "Ang—" With the sound of a loud whistle, the ship started slowly and hit the right side of the dock On the embankment, sparks were sparked, and then turned to the left, breaking the iron chain blocking the front, and by the way, many iron frames in the shipyard were pulled into the river, and the shipyard was in chaos.Qin Yun, Yuan Zhenhe, and Sun Xueli were shaken to one side, and when Qin Yun managed to stand still, he saw Xiaobai running out of the cab and looking at him with a smile on his face.

Qin Yun suddenly wanted to hug her. "Where have you been?" He suppressed the longing in his heart and forced to say sullenly, but Xiao Bai still smiled, the joy and tenderness in his eyes overflowed, dripping all over the deck. The four of them walked into the cockpit, and saw Liu Hu was sweating profusely at the helm, and the ship bumped into the embankment in the narrow dock from time to time, "Xiao Bai, come quickly! Why did you run away suddenly?" He shouted in panic In the sound, the ship finally sailed out of the dock and entered the vast underground lake.Xiaobai turned on the lights of the whole cabin and the external navigation lights. On the surface of the vast underground lake, the lights looked so small, which made people feel more ambiguous and lonely.Xiaobai stood beside Liu Hu and taught him how to steer a ship. Driving a ship on a wide lake is not difficult, and Liu Hu quickly mastered the basics.They drove the ship back to the shore where the train was parked, first pushed out the glass box manually, and then hoisted it to the stern with a crane on the embankment.

Qin Yun circled the glass box a few times, tore off the seal, and finally saw a built-in button, and was about to press it, but Xiao Bai grabbed him and shook his head.Qin Yun withdrew his hand hesitantly. He remembered that there must be a reason why the Japanese never opened the box during the process of transporting it from the ship to the train, and then to the underground world.Perhaps most intuitively, there is a great danger hidden in the glass box.But from the outside, except for three corpses and a black device, there was nothing that might bring danger.Qin Yun looked at Xiaobai and asked, "What should I do?" Xiaobai shook his head.When they planned to escape from the underground world before, a soldier died because Qin Yun ignored Xiaobai's reminder. Now, Qin Yun no longer dares to go his own way.He said to Yuan Zhenhe: "Professor Yuan, this glass box is very evil, let's leave it there for now, let's go to the lake and have a look." Yuan Zhenhe nodded, everyone returned to the cockpit, and Liu Hu drove the boat towards the depths of the underground lake.The underground lake is extremely wide. This huge hole formed in the ground allows a large amount of surface water in Dunhuang to flow to the ground, making the Dunhuang pastures that were originally moistened by the melted ice and snow of Qilian Mountain increasingly desertified.In the past 50 years, at least 22 surface lakes in Dunhuang have disappeared, and the Daquan River has also stopped flowing during this period.After driving forward for five or six hours, I didn't see any abnormalities, and I didn't see the embankment. The only thing that changed in the whole dark world was the stone wall above my head. Sometimes it was too high to be seen, and sometimes it was less than 30 meters away from the water. Liu Hu was worried. Hitting the top wall, I forced myself to watch the situation ahead, and the speed was extremely slow. Recently, Qin Yun has been full of doubts. He originally thought that Xiaobai might be born in the underground world, but now it seems that it is not so simple. He has a face that is so pure that people have no evil thoughts, but it is full of puzzling clothes. mystery.While everyone was sleeping in the cabin, he quietly pulled Xiao Bai to a sloping wall on the side of the boat and sat down. He planned to question Xiao Bai thoroughly.