This treasure map seems...
Seeing Xin Zizhao frowning tightly, Wei Shuxuan felt quite curious. "Hey, Xin Zizhao, what's wrong with you? Have you spotted something?"
"Can't you tell?" Xin Zizhao's first words were a rhetorical question.
"Humph, if I could tell, I wouldn't have to ask you."
Wei Shuxuan scoffed at Xin Zizhao's attitude. "This is not a treasure map at all. Come here, and bring over that picture of the magnificent landscape hanging on the wall."
Wei Shuxuan did as Xin Zizhao said. She fetched the picture of the magnificent landscape that Dan Xueyao had hanging on the wall and gave it to Xin Zizhao. Xin Zizhao put the treasure map and the picture of the magnificent landscape side by side.
"Come and take a look here," Xin Zizhao traced a rough outline on the picture of the magnificent landscape with his finger, and then traced a similar outline on a certain part of the treasure map. "Aren't these the same?"
"Um... let me take a look..." As Wei Shuxuan took a look, she really couldn't tell much. She frowned tightly and examined the two pictures carefully. But after looking for a while, it seemed that these two places were quite similar. "Are they... the same place?"
"Then take a look at this place, and this one," Xin Zizhao marked approximate positions on two other parts of the picture of the magnificent landscape and the treasure map respectively, and then asked Wei Shuxuan to observe.
Wei Shuxuan looked for quite a while before telling Xin Zizhao that those two places were also the same.
After that, Xin Zizhao found several parts on the picture of the magnificent landscape, which, when put together, formed this treasure map. "Actually, this is not a treasure map at all. It's just a combination of several parts from the picture of the magnificent landscape. The treasure on this treasure map simply doesn't exist."
"Eh? Eh!" Wei Shuxuan looked at Xin Zizhao in surprise, with a hint of disbelief in her tone. "No way?"
"The fact is just like this. Believe it or not."
So, was that why Dan Xueyao called her alone to the prime minister's study last time? Was it because of this that she acted so mysterious and kept her in suspense in the end?
"Xin Zizhao, I'm asking you. How many people do you think know that this treasure map is fake?" Wei Shuxuan finally recovered from her surprise.
"Not many," Xin Zizhao told Wei Shuxuan for sure. "All they can see is the treasure that can last them a lifetime. They don't have any extra brainpower to think about whether this treasure map actually exists or not."
Sometimes, Wei Shuxuan really thought that although Xin Zizhao seemed cold on the surface, he could actually be quite sarcastic with his words.
Noticing Wei Shuxuan's gaze, Xin Zizhao looked down at her. "What are you looking at?"
"I find that your mouth can be quite sarcastic sometimes."
"What does'sarcastic' mean?"
"It means you don't care about other people's feelings when you talk."
"Whatever."
Although they had discovered the secret of the treasure map, they still had to do what they were supposed to do. Wei Shuxuan continued to search Dan Xueyao's room to see if there were any reliable clues, and Xin Zizhao also helped her look for clues.
Wei Shuxuan found that there were no bookshelves in this room, but thick solid - wood bookcases instead. And while the rooms of others all had inner chambers, only Dan Xueyao's room didn't. Was it the design style of this room, or was there something strange about this room?
She walked over to the bookcase and took a closer look. There were books on each layer of the bookcase, but there was a ceramic elephant placed beside the books on one layer. It looked very delicate. Wei Shuxuan was stunned for a moment. Could this be the mechanism?
So, she reached out to move the elephant. As it turned out, the elephant could be moved. It was not a mechanism at all. She might have been a bit over - sensitive.
Since it wasn't, she continued to check other things.
Wei Shuxuan didn't notice that there was a tall vase behind her. When she turned around, she bumped into the vase. Then she heard the bookcase gradually opening to both sides, revealing a long secret passage.
"Xin Zizhao! Hurry up and come here. There's a mechanism here!"
Xin Zizhao was searching around Dan Xueyao's bed. He saw the jade pendant that had fallen on the bed. After hearing Wei Shuxuan calling him, he quickly hid the jade pendant in his bosom.
"Have you found something?" Wei Shuxuan asked casually when she saw that it took him so long to come over.
However, before Xin Zizhao could answer, Wei Shuxuan interrupted him. "Let's hurry up. It's already the second day today. God knows what outrageous things Pan Xintian might do to Dan Xueyao."
They walked into the secret passage. It was so narrow that only one person could pass through at a time, and it was very dark. Without a light, they couldn't see the road ahead at all. Xin Zizhao took out a fire starter from his sleeve and instantly lit it with his internal energy. Soon, the whole secret passage became bright.
Xin Zizhao followed behind Wei Shuxuan and walked straight ahead. Before long, they reached the end. Wei Shuxuan looked at the door blocking her way. She knocked on the door. It was hollow inside, but there seemed to be no switch around.
"Are you stupid?" Suddenly, a hand reached out from behind. A slender finger pressed a small button on top of Wei Shuxuan's head. You wouldn't be able to see it if you didn't look carefully.
With a "bang", the door in front of Wei Shuxuan opened outward. "Ah, it's open. Let's hurry up!"
The road outside was rather narrow at first. And because it had snowed before, there was still some melted snow on the ground. The soil was wet, and a row of two different kinds of footprints could be clearly seen on it. Wei Shuxuan squatted down and took a closer look. One footprint was bigger, and the other was smaller. These should be the footprints of Pan Xintian and Dan Xueyao.
"Let's follow the footprints and go forward."
They thought they could just keep walking, but they came to a fork in the road. Wei Shuxuan thought for a while. "I'll go this way, and you go that way. If we find them, we'll meet at the Pan Mansion directly."
"Okay."
After splitting up, there were so many footprints on the road that Wei Shuxuan took that it was impossible to tell who they belonged to. But since there was only one road there, she could only follow it for the time being.
Wei Shuxuan thought that Pan Xintian had kidnapped Dan Xueyao for the treasure map. Maybe he had overheard the conversation between her and Dan Xueyao that day. He thought that Dan Xueyao knew the whereabouts of the treasure on the treasure map, so he wanted to kidnap her and make her take him to find the treasure.
Halfway through, Wei Shuxuan saw a streak of cyan on the branch of a bush by the roadside.