[The Study's Treasure I]

Treasures in the Study

In the ancient castle at night, within this old study steeped in the scent of age, Du Wei stood beneath the candlelight all around him, silently raising his head to gaze at the oil painting on the wall. After a brief silence between the boy and the painting, Du Wei received no response.

He seemed to frown. "Won't answer?"

The face in the painting continued to stare into Du Wei's eyes.

Du Wei smiled, though there was something less than kind in that smile. He slowly walked aside, pushed over a tall ladder, climbed up along the bookshelves, and reached out to try taking down the oil painting.

Only then did a trace of panic appear on the painted man's face. Within the painting, those eyes fixed on Du Wei's face, already filled with alarm.

"Ha!" Du Wei yanked the painting off the wall. Clearly, such a heavy object was difficult for a frail half-grown boy like him to lift. His arms were already aching. Yet what astonished him was that there was nothing behind the painting!

It was not a mechanism! Nor was someone hiding behind the painting and watching him! It was the painting itself!

Du Wei finally grew more serious, carefully carrying the painting down the ladder.

The face in the painting was bitter, its eyes even more uneasy.

"What exactly are you?" Du Wei asked in a low voice. "A figure in a painting that has come alive?"

The eyes in the painting shifted evasively.

"Hmm, this painting is a portrait of that ancestor of the Rowling Family who served as an Imperial Marshal back then... Don't tell me that ancestor has come back to life?" Du Wei smiled, then shook his head. "That makes no sense. That ancestor lived more than two hundred years ago. And this painting was clearly made by later descendants in remembrance of their forebear. So I'll ask again... what exactly are you?"

After questioning it for a while without receiving an answer, Du Wei's face darkened. "Oh, you refuse to speak? Then don't regret it."

He pointed at the surrounding candlesticks. "See that? There are plenty of flames here. If you don't talk, I'll burn you to ashes. Do you think I'd dare?"

With that, he turned and picked up a lit candle, slowly bringing it closer to the painting.

The painted man's expression changed at once. Terror flooded his face without the slightest concealment; his eyes were full of urgency and pleading as he watched the candle and flame in Du Wei's hand draw ever nearer. All he could do was beg Du Wei with his eyes, his face full of anxiety.

Just as the flame was about to touch the canvas, Du Wei moved the candle away and nodded. "Hmm, it seems you truly can't speak? Can you talk?"

The man in the painting hurriedly shook his head.

"Then what exactly are you?" Du Wei's eyes were practically shining! A living painting! Could it be something created by magic?

The painting could not answer Du Wei's question. Once free of the danger of being burned, the man in the painting seemed to let out a breath, then looked at Du Wei again with interested eyes.

Du Wei tried asking the painting several more questions, but communication was difficult since the other party could not speak. At most, the painting could barely manage to nod or shake its head. After struggling with this for quite some time, he still learned nothing.

Boy and painting simply stared wide-eyed at each other.

Just then, a large clock on the study wall slowly began to chime! It was midnight!

Du Wei suddenly seemed to see a glimmer of light slowly radiating from the painted man's eyes! Then he seemed to hear a soft sigh beside his ear!

Though the sound was somewhat faint and drifting, Du Wei heard it clearly. It was unmistakably the sound of a human sigh!

"Listen carefully! I have been afflicted by a kind of magic, so only when the midnight clock chimes can I briefly speak. Once the chimes end, I will no longer be able to make a sound! I'll say this only once! There is a hidden chamber in this study! There are treasures inside! I can guide you to those treasures, and then I need your help. One of those treasures can undo the magic afflicting me."

Du Wei's eyes widened as he looked at the painting. "You're the one speaking?"

"Yes! There's no time to explain." The voice from the painting spoke rapidly. "Start by examining the third oil painting on the wall. There are instructions on it. Follow them, and if you aren't a fool, you should be able to find it..."

Dong—!

Midnight had passed. With the end of the final chime, the light in the painted man's eyes gradually faded. Then the voice fell silent as well.

Du Wei looked the painting over. The man inside was looking at him too, his face wearing an imploring expression.

"Oh, you said you were afflicted by some kind of magic, right?" Du Wei smiled. "And you said there's another secret chamber in this study, with a treasure inside that can lift the magic on you. Right?"

With each question he asked, the painted figure nodded once, his face full of yearning.

"All right then, what's in it for me?" Du Wei smiled. "Why should I help you?"

The face in the painting changed. The plea in his eyes grew even stronger, as though he desperately wanted to say something, but unfortunately could not utter a single word.

"Forget it. I find this strange enough as it is; I'll just satisfy my curiosity." Du Wei waved a hand, then climbed the ladder onto the bookshelves and carefully examined the third oil painting on the wall, following the painting's instructions from when the clock had chimed.

The third oil painting was likewise a portrait of some ancestor of the Rowling Family. This ancestor wore a naval admiral's uniform and had a stern expression... his gaze level, as if looking into the distance.

Du Wei examined it carefully for a while, yet found no trace of anything on the painting. He even made the effort to move it aside and inspect behind it, but found nothing there either.

Standing on the ladder, Du Wei thought carefully for a while. He was in no hurry; instead, he patiently began checking every detail all over again. After three fruitless reexaminations, something suddenly stirred in his mind, and he began closely studying the figure in the painting...

Hmm, the figure's eyes... were looking straight ahead.

An idea flashed through Du Wei's mind! He immediately searched in the direction the figure's eyes were facing!

That was the opposite wall! The figure in the painting seemed to be staring at a knight's broadsword hanging on the wall opposite!

Du Wei immediately strained to push the ladder to the other side of the room. All this back-and-forth was more than a thirteen-year-old boy could comfortably endure. But his intense curiosity drove him onward.

After examining the knight's broadsword on the wall, Du Wei discovered that its blade was pointing toward the bookshelf beside it!

Following that direction, he felt his way onto the bookshelf.

At last, he found it!

On one of the bookshelf's crossbeams, Du Wei felt a line of uneven markings. He calmed himself slightly and felt them carefully, finally discovering that they were actually a line of writing!

Only, the writing had been inscribed backward! Thus, if someone else had happened to touch it without examining it closely, they would most likely have taken it for ordinary decorative patterns.

Du Wei carefully read out the line of writing, which had been written entirely in reverse.

"The answer lies in the night sky, and the giant ladle is the key that points the way forward."

Du Wei could not help but smile bitterly.

What was this supposed to be? A riddle?

He sighed, slid down the stairs, and simply sat cross-legged on the floor, clutching his head as he wracked his brains over the riddle.

"The night sky... a giant ladle..."

At last, Du Wei sprang to his feet. Hope returned to his face.

What was in the night sky... the stars!

And the giant ladle? There was no need to ask—it had to mean the Big Dipper! Didn't the seven stars of the Big Dipper form the shape of a giant ladle in the sky?

Once Du Wei figured that out, he immediately began searching the bookshelves in the study at high speed!

Stars... stars...

What in the study was related to stars... Hmm, it had to be the shelf containing books on astrology!

Before long, using the index catalog, Du Wei found the bookshelf dedicated to astrology. He laboriously climbed up and searched through it. Then, following the clue of the "ladle," he carefully felt his way along the seventh row of the shelf.

He practically examined the books one by one, until finally...

When he pulled at one book, he clearly felt that it was unusually heavy! It was actually a book made of metal! And after he tugged it, a dull clack-clack of gears turning soon sounded from within the wall...

At last, with a swish, the entire bookshelf slowly turned on its own, revealing a pitch-black entrance in the wall behind it...