Thinking of this, I immediately jumped off the bed, walked out of grandma's room, moved a low stool in the front hall, and then entered my grandparents' bedroom.
It was completely dark. When I was moving a stool in the back hall, I looked through the patio and saw a bright light in the kitchen. It was probably Xiangyu who was preparing dinner.
I returned to the bedroom, placed the stool on the big mahogany bed, then stood up, letting my head pass through the bed frame and the white curtain.
Using the light of the flashlight on my phone, I carefully groped around on the bed frame.
However, after touching for a while, I didn't find any hidden compartments on the shelf.
I couldn't help but feel a little discouraged. Are all the reasoning just now wrong?
Is this lowered curtain just an unintentional move by grandpa?
I was thinking in my mind, my hands hanging on the bed frame unconsciously.
Suddenly, the bed frame made a "squeak" sound.
No, is the bed frame so weak?
I thought to myself and quickly put my hand down.
At this time, I discovered that the thin patterns carved on the bed frame seemed to have some meaning.
I stepped down from the stool and simply sat on the stool, shining the light of the flashlight on my phone on the bed frame, then raised my head and carefully observed the patterns on the bed frame.
I have a hunch that the patterns carved on this bed frame are probably the cultural relics donated by my grandfather back then.
The fine lines on the bed frame are very obscure, and I would only have noticed them if I hadn't been lying on the bed frame just now, so I was very close.
So, I sat on the bed, raised my head and saw the pain in my neck, and then vaguely saw something that looked like a fish but was not a fish.
In other places, it seems that there are only wood grains.
So, I moved my position, sat under the thing that looked like a fish but didn't look like a fish, and looked at it carefully.
The pattern was carved in the center of the canopy bed. After looking at it carefully for a while, I finally vaguely saw that it was a Capricorn-shaped pattern with a human head.
On the pattern, the girl's head is beautiful, wearing a bun on her head, ribbons between her neck and arms, flower stickers, and holding a dragon head in both hands. The girl's body is in the shape of a fish, with upturned fins, fine scales engraved on her body, and two appendages on both sides of the abdomen.
There is a flying wing that wants to spread its wings.
The whole pattern gives people the feeling of a phoenix above a dragon below.
This image originates from the historical legend of Khitan.
"Luoyang Jialan Ji" records that the Tathagata Buddha once transformed into a big Capricorn fish and used his meat to help people for more than twelve years. Therefore, people in later generations used Capricorn ornaments to make gold, silver or jade articles, hoping to pray for the Tathagata Buddha.
of favor and protection.
If we put aside the scene we saw in the enclosed building at the bottom of Poyang Lake and just think about Grandpa’s motivation for putting down the curtain, the Capricorn pattern on the bed frame was probably the reminder Grandpa gave me before he left.
The Khitan people were deeply influenced by the Buddhist culture of the Tang Dynasty, so the pattern of Capricorn and the big fish has always appeared in the unearthed Khitan cultural relics.
If you look carefully at the pattern in front of you, it matches the historical legend of the Khitan phoenix above and the dragon below, and it can also reflect the pattern of Capricorn. Therefore, this thing is likely to come from the Khitan people.
Could it be said that among the eight astrolabe families, there is a Khitan nation?
"Zhou Cang."
At this time, Xiangyu's voice suddenly came from behind me.
"I'm here." I slipped out of bed.
Xiangyu was originally standing at the door of my grandparents' bedroom. Maybe she saw me getting off the bed, so she crossed the threshold, reached out and turned on the switch of the tungsten filament light bulb.
In an instant, orange light filled the entire room.
"Zhou Cang, what are you doing?" Xiang Yu had an indescribable complex expression on his face, "What are you doing on my grandparents' bed? You even lowered the curtains and didn't turn on the lights.
"
"I, I," I felt like I couldn't explain it clearly no matter how I explained it.
"Don't be nervous, I just want to see if you are okay and tell you that you can have dinner."
The nervous look on my face was because I couldn't explain why I was in the curtain, and I was afraid that Xiangyu would think wildly. I didn't expect that she would get the wrong idea.
"Xiang Yu, come and see, I found something on the bed frame." I said, holding Xiang Yu's wrist, and then walked towards the mahogany bed.
When I walked to the bedside, I lifted up the curtain and hung it on the carved copper hooks on both sides.
"Zhou Cang, what did you find on the bed frame?" Xiang Yuhuan swept a large mahogany bed and asked doubtfully.
"Come up," I climbed onto the big mahogany bed first, squatted on the bed and said to Xiangyu.
Xiangyu took off the slippers under his feet, then hesitated and said, "Zhou Cang, I haven't washed my feet yet, can I step on them?"
After she said this, I realized that the series of actions I had just made seemed like I had really soiled my grandparents' bed.
But, this is already the case, what else can be done?
I had to say: "It's okay. When the weather is good tomorrow, we can just wash the bedding together. Grandpa won't blame us."
"That's it, that's okay." Xiangyu slowly climbed onto the bed after hearing what I said.
I asked her to sit on the stool that was placed on the bed with my head first, and then said: "Look at that pattern. I suspect that this is probably one of my grandma's dowries back then."
After Xiangyu heard what I said, he didn't say anything or sit on the chair. Instead, he sat on the bed. Then he raised his head and said to me: "I can just sit here. You move the stool first."
Go down. These are things that grandma used before she was alive. We’d better not mess around with them all the time."
After she finished speaking, she remained silent and carefully observed the pattern on the bed shelf.
Xiangyu just observed quietly, as if a long time had passed, still maintaining the same posture.
Just when I was already worried about whether her neck could bear it, she finally changed her posture and said, "Zhou Cang, I've seen this pattern before."
"You mean, have you seen this pattern?" I doubted whether my ears heard it wrong, so I repeated it again.
"Yes, Zhou Cang, I'm sure it's this image. However, if this Capricorn-headed image is grandma's dowry, then it should be a relatively small thing, but the thing I saw is
A huge stone sculpture." Xiangyu said.
"Stone sculpture, where did you see it?" I asked eagerly.
"In Shennongjia." Xiangyu said, moving her body to the edge of the bed and putting both legs under the bed.
"Shennongjia? In the Shennongjia Scenic Area?" I asked.
"Of course it's impossible," Xiangyu turned around and smiled mysteriously at me, "It's in a restricted area."
"It's in a restricted area. If it's in a restricted area, how could you see it?" I continued to ask.
"It's in Professor Andrew's aerial video," Xiangyu said.
"Andrew's aerial video, do you mean that Andrew actually knew this place for a long time." I asked.
"I'm not sure whether this aerial video has anything to do with the astrolabe, because Andrew has been a fan of China for a long time, so before he joined the astrolabe project at Stanford University, he actually traveled to many places in China, and something like this
The restricted area in Shennongjia is actually the place that these foreigners are most interested in," Xiangyu said.
"Since it is Andrew's private video, why do you know about it?" I asked.
"Peeping it, I actually have all his information. Of course, even when I entered Stanford to join the astrolabe project, it was for a purpose." Xiangyu put on his slippers, then stood beside the bed and said to me.
"As Professor Chen said, did you enter Stanford just to steal their research results?" I asked.
"Yes, Zhou Cang, until now, I have no intention of hiding it from you. I am also affiliated with Guiyiyuan."