As soon as he entered the restricted area of the Forbidden City, it was as if he was completely isolated from the hustle and bustle of the open area. The worry of being overwhelmed by tourists at any time also disappeared, and he could finally appreciate the real Forbidden City.
The first feeling he had when he entered was silence. It was really too quiet. Other than the occasional one or two employees who walked past him, there were basically not many people on the road. The grass was desolate, and the ancient trees were like a canopy. On both sides of the road, there was a pair of bronze palace lanterns with stone bottoms. Walking here was like wandering through thousands of years of history.
Wen Li saw Zhang Zian looking around curiously and laughed. "Did you think that the restricted area of the Forbidden City was very mysterious, but now that you're here, it's just like this?"
She was partially right.
In fact, the main reason Zhang Zian was looking around was to find the thing that seemed to be an elfin that had just run away, but it was not convenient to explain it to her, so he just acquiesced to her guess.
"It's rare for me to come here. Can I take a picture?" He waved his phone and asked her.
The thing that had run away was only a suspected elfin. If he had a preconceived idea, what if he missed the real elfin?
"Go ahead." She did not stop him and very generously agreed.
As Zhang Zian followed her around, he used the game's capture interface to scan the surroundings, not letting go of any corner.
There had always been a lot of rumors about the restricted areas of the Forbidden City that were difficult to distinguish between true and false. Some people said that these restricted areas hid the treasures of the Ming and Qing Emperors, and some even said that the reason why the Forbidden City did not open these areas to the public was because there would be supernatural incidents in the Forbidden City at night, and these restricted areas were areas with high incidence of supernatural incidents.
In fact, with what he saw and heard along the way, he could completely overturn these baseless hypotheses. These areas were not open to the public because they had not been completely restored, so it was not time to open them yet.
Every time he passed by a palace, he could peek through the open gate and see a corner of the courtyard. The dusty palace was surrounded by scaffolding, and there were piles of stone materials placed around it. It was obvious that it was being repaired.
As a cultural relic with hundreds of years of history, the repair work of the Forbidden City was far more complicated than the repair work of ordinary houses. They were carefully carried out by experts who had been in the industry for decades, led by graduate students, bit by bit. Any carelessness could cause irreversible damage to the cultural relic.
Therefore, although it looked like a construction site, there were only a few people working in it. They wore yellow safety helmets and repeatedly checked the blueprints. The progress of the work was extremely slow. After all, slow work produces fine work.
Of course, there were also some palaces that did not have scaffolding outside. It was possible that the external reinforcement work had been completed and the internal repair work was being carried out, or it was simply not the palace's turn yet.
As for the second feeling after entering, it was that there were really a lot of stray cats. On top of walls, corners, doorsills, and under windows, stray cats of all colors were enjoying the spring sun in all sorts of positions.
Most cats liked peace and quiet. The normal open areas were crowded with tourists, and there were some naughty children who liked to pull the tails of cats. So there were not a single stray cats in the open areas. They all ran to the closed areas to enjoy the peace and quiet.
Every time she saw a stray cat, Wen Li would recite their names as if she was familiar with them.
The history of raising cats in the Forbidden City began as early as the Ming Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, there was even a "cat room" that was specifically used to manage the cats in the palace, and then select the best ones to be presented to the emperor. The Emperor kept his favorite cat for himself and gave the rest to his relatives.
After many years of history, the noble palace cats of the past had been scattered everywhere.
Wen Li said that some of these stray cats might have been the descendants of the palace cats of the past, and some of them might have been stray cats from nearby that had run in. It was no longer clear who they were.
Including Snowy, these stray cats all had marks on their ears, indicating that they had been sterilized.
Wen Li also proudly said that most of the buildings in the Forbidden City were made of wood, but there had been no rat infestation for many years. It must be because of these stray cats.
Looking at these sterilized cats that were fed fat and lazily basking in the sun, Zhang Zian had reservations about this statement. Maybe Wen Li said this to find a reasonable excuse for the employees of the Forbidden City to raise and love cats.
The stray cats were the real owners of the ancient buildings. Some of the tightly locked doors could be nimbly squeezed through the gaps under the doors, through the drainage on the walls, and even jump over the top of the walls.
Visiting the Forbidden City was a very boring thing. After all, all the palaces were actually very similar, but it was different when there were professionals leading the way. Every time Wen Li passed by a palace, she would patiently introduce to Zhang Zian the name and origin of the palace, which imperial concubines had lived there, and what interesting stories had happened there.
Not only did Zhang Zian nod his head as he listened, but even the elfins were listening very seriously.
As they walked northwest, the surrounding buildings became more and more … old. They were completely different from the bright and beautiful buildings in the open areas. Perhaps this was the true appearance of the Forbidden City, which had experienced hundreds of years of wind and rain and war. It was beautiful, but it was not real.
"Our destination is in front of us."
On the east wall of Jianfu Gate, she pointed to a building hidden in the shadows of ancient trees.
Jianfu Palace was a very large area. They were not going to the main body of Jianfu Palace, but to an attached courtyard next to it.
When he first saw the courtyard, Zhang Zian could hardly believe his eyes. This was too broken, wasn't it?
The row of rooms in the courtyard could no longer be described as covered in dust. It was almost like a dilapidated temple. The windows were all empty, without any glass or window paper. The paint was almost gone, and a layer of dust would appear when one rubbed it with their fingers.
If this was not the Forbidden City, he could guarantee that no one would have the idea of entering the house.
Wen Li understood his feelings and smiled bitterly. "There is no other way. This place has not been included in the repair schedule, and this courtyard itself is not important, so it can only be pushed back."
She walked to the door of the room. The door was also very broken, and it was just a decoration.
To Zhang Zian's surprise, she did not directly push the door open and enter. Instead, she raised her voice and said to the inside of the dilapidated room, "I'm coming in."
Before she spoke, Zhang Zian had already seen the inside of the room from the hole in the window. It was dark inside. Although he could not see very clearly, he was sure that there was not a single person inside. Who was she talking to?
When he thought of the supernatural rumors in the Forbidden City, although Zhang Zian did not believe in them, he still could not help but feel a chill down his spine.
Could it be that those rumors were true? That there were indeed some supernatural things here?
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