pavilion

The next morning, when the sky was just getting light, Jiang Nian packed his clothes and got on the carriage that had been arranged in front of the mansion without saying goodbye to anyone.

Zuihua Tower and Youguan Mansion were not far away, but there had been a downpour last night, so the roads were inevitably slippery, and the carriage slowed down a bit when going downhill.

Jiang Nianjing took out a round mirror from the box and took a look at her makeup.

Because she was the daughter of the Cui family given by Meng Zheng before, even though she recommended herself as a "slave" at this time, her bun, hairpins and earrings were still neat and tidy, not messy at all.

The morning air was still filled with the moist scent of grass and trees after the rain. The curtains fluttered in the wind, revealing the area outside the car window that was still in darkness.

Depressing and dull.

Jiang Nian gently closed her eyes, put the round mirror back into the box, and began to silently review what Qin Lan had said when he gave her the loose-leaf information about the Cui family.

"The Cui family was originally a remnant of the bishop's faction. They once defected to the Wumi people, but the negotiations between the two sides fell apart due to disagreements."

"Now that the Cui family is unknown, since you are playing the role of the Cui family's daughter, you should add a sentence to the person who is questioning you..."

"My family has fallen on hard times, leaving me with no one to turn to. I am willing to sell myself into slavery and join the Wumi tribe, becoming a servant of the goddess and serving her. I beg you two gentlemen to show mercy and take me in as your maid."

Jiang Nian still remembered the subtle and strange expression on Qin Lan's face when he said this. After he finished speaking, he added a few more words:

"Of course, I know there will definitely be some discrepancies. Miss Jiang will just have to act according to circumstances."

After saying this, he put the loose pages recording Cui's past in her hands and left.

In a blink of an eye, they were back on the road to Zuihualou. Jiang Nian lowered his eyes, stroked the wooden box with his fingertips, and sighed lightly.

Well, no one can predict what will happen in the future, and preparing for it in advance will only increase the psychological burden.

She glanced at the wooden box beside her, then turned to look at the endless sea horizon beyond the jungle.

The reflection of the blue ocean entered Jiang Nian's light-colored pupils, and his warm gaze seemed to ripple a pool of water.

At this moment, her heart had never been so calm.

—

The driver dropped her off at a wide lane not far from Zuihualou and then left.

Jiang Nian, carrying a wooden box and wearing a maid's uniform, stood in front of the gate of Zuihualou.

This was the first time she stood in this singing and dancing building that she had heard of many times but had only seen from afar at the door of Zhuyu Pavilion.

A building designed by Shouzan.

It was just dawn and the view was foggy.

The bright red lanterns hanging on the singing and dancing building swayed in the morning breeze, and a bell under the eaves of some window rang out a series of pleasant rings.

Before Jiang Nian could take his eyes off Zuihualou, a person wearing the same Zuihualou maid uniform came over from a distance.

"Are you the one who recommended yourself as a maid this time?"

The person who came didn't look big, but when she stared at him, it felt like a slippery and cold snake was wrapped around his neck and strangling his throat, which made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

Jiang Nian held the wooden box in front of him with both hands and nodded slightly at her, "Yes."

"..." The maid glanced at her, not knowing what she was thinking. She sneered and turned to walk towards the side door of Zuihualou: "Since you are willing to be a slave, then lower your status."

"Come with me and I'll take you to see the steward."

Jiang Nian replied with a low "yes", concealing the gloom in her eyes, and pretending to be a fragile woman whose family had fallen on hard times, who had no one to rely on, and had no special skills, and followed with a meek look on her face.

Unlike the guests who came to Zuihua Tower to seek pleasure, the path the maid took her on was the servants' passage underground in Zuihua Tower.

Perhaps because she was used to the fickleness of the world, and the absurd incidents where one second someone was promoted to high status and the next the entire clan was implicated, the maid ignored her but did not try to trip her up. She took her to the so-called steward's room without saying a word and left first.

The servant passage from the side door to the inside was not long and easy to remember, so Jiang Nian not only thought about the corresponding route in his mind according to the memorized drawing, but also observed the murals on the wall along the way.

I had heard Yan mention these murals during a break during a previous conversation.

There are many complex secret passages running through the city of Cangjun. These secret passages were all dug before the previous dynasty came into being.

They are all things related to the bishop.

At the time, central authority was hollowed out, and warlords and bishops formed an alliance to jointly control power. Over time, a rift arose: the warlords sought to seize the throne by force, while the bishops, with their own candidates, attempted to influence the succession through political means.

After several disputes and wars, the person sent by the bishop successfully ascended the throne.

Before being elected, the late emperor had promised to allow the bishop and his supporters to enter the capital to legitimize the bishop's religious status.

And that period was the time of further expansion of the bishops.

Many things that cannot be traded openly are done underground where there is no light.

Cang County is the stronghold of the bishop's power.

These passages, which are still preserved and repaired, are the secret networks created by the underground transactions back then.

Jiang Nian's gaze moved from far away to near, and he stopped at the last picture on the mural.

It is hoped that the gods led by the bishop can guide everyone so that the efforts made in this life will be rewarded in the next life.

It's a pity that the figure representing the 'bishop' in this painting was not completed.

After a long time, the paint has almost peeled off, leaving only the head without the upper half of the face.

Jiang Nian thought it was dirty and did not reach out to touch the dusty mural. While waiting for the butler to open the door, his thoughts drifted back to the memory of talking with Yan in the hall.

After finishing his talk about the complicated affairs of the previous dynasty, Yan pondered for a while, folded his arms and raised his hands, subconsciously nodding his face. After thinking about the next part of the story, he continued:

"Therefore, the former emperor of the previous dynasty fulfilled his promise to the head bishop after ascending the throne and made the bishopric a legitimate religion."

"But... the emperor is suspicious. Therefore, the late emperor was worried that the bishop and his other supporters might threaten his political power in the future, so he secretly expanded his military power."

"——That is the sword currently held by Commander Yu."

"After the pro-army forces were strong enough, they eliminated the bishop and other forces."

Jiang Nian nodded in understanding, "So that's how it is... But judging from the duties Your Majesty has assigned to the Fourth Prince, some of those bishops have fled, right?"

Yan nodded in understanding, then sighed helplessly, "It wasn't just the bishops themselves. The bad habits of selling official positions and titles, and allowing bloodshed, all started back then."

"The late emperor was simply afraid of purging those who threatened his position. Everything else remained the same. It was all..."

Yan paused for a moment and said, "They are only interested in profit and will do anything."

"This gave the Donglan Wumi people the opportunity to station themselves in Huandu. These evil cults that are now rampant in Huandu all took root at that time, waiting for the opportunity to sprout."

“…”

After understanding the whole story, Jiang Nian finally understood how the Bishop and the Wu Mi people, two religions from different countries, were connected together.

The thoughts in the memories were broken, and the door in front of her opened from the inside to the outside. A person whose appearance could not be seen clearly stood at the door, and the face looked straight at her.

The contrast between this faceless man and the dark underground passage made Jiang Nian feel as if he had stepped into a horror movie, and his body subconsciously tensed a little.

To wait for her to react, the man whose face could not be seen turned sideways and opened the door a little wider.

The vague gaze that rested on his face was withdrawn, and Jiang Nian suddenly felt relieved. He then nodded to him, pretending to be as weak and timid as the daughter of the Cui family, and whispered to the faceless man:

"I am the daughter of the Cui family. I have come here on my own initiative, willing to serve as the goddess's maid... I hope you will forgive me if I have troubled you."

The other party didn't say anything, and his body posture remained the same as the moment he turned sideways to let her in, his limbs stiff as a dead tree or corpse.

When Jiang Nian looked over in the bright candlelight in the room, the faceless man who opened the door for her looked lifeless and didn't look like a living being at all.

...like a wax figure.

Is it controlled by humans?

Suppressing the sudden palpitation in her heart, Jiang Nian was distracted for a moment, and continued to maintain the persona of Cui's daughter - after bowing hurriedly to the faceless man, she took small timid steps, her fingertips tightly grasping the wooden box, biting her lower lip delicately, and moved into the house step by step.

Entering a room lit with many bright candles from a dark place, Jiang Nian squinted uncomfortably and then looked around carefully.

There is no one around.

But on the simple wooden table in front of me, there was still a cup of unfinished tea.

The teacup is filled with water, and after years of use, the bottom of the cup has turned yellow.

Jiang Nian clutched her bag, turned around timidly, and looked back slightly.

The bright and narrow room was as quiet as a tomb. Apart from this unique room, there were dark, unlit paths everywhere.

At this moment, a man without any facial features stood behind Jiang Nian at some point, "staring" at her neck silently without saying a word. His hairless head was bald against the dark old shirt that had been patched for many years.

“?!”

Jiang Nian took a sudden step back because the shoes that came with the maid's uniform were really difficult to wear - she was not used to them, and her center of gravity was unstable, and she bumped into the wooden table behind her, which looked like it would collapse at any time. The corner of the table stabbed her waist hard, and in pain, she fell to the open space next to the table and chairs.

The movement of the fall was too great, and the Cui family's daughter had few but complicated hair accessories on her head. After several collisions, strands of hair fell down.

“…”

Since it was the first time for Jiang Nian to act like a cowardly rich girl, she was not very experienced and fell to the ground before she could even scream.

In addition, although she was a little surprised at this time, she was not so scared that she fell down. However, in order to show the character of the Cui family's daughter, she fell down. Her current action should be——

Jiang Nian was thinking about the character in his mind, and while raising his hand tremblingly to cover his lips that were about to utter a word, he raised his eyes tremblingly, pretending to be very scared while looking at his "face", and listening attentively to the subtle movements around him.

She really didn't mishear. There was really no movement around.

Is that the maid playing a prank on her?

Not really.

As a fellow human being, no matter how much jealousy there is, one should not go against orders from above to punish her.

My heart is beating like a roar.

Although she had the fan Xiao Yingzhu gave her and the dizzying perfume in her clothes, she didn't want to show them within the first few minutes of arriving at Zuihualou.

“…”

Jiang Nian covered her lips and continued to look in fear at the faceless man in front of her who was slowly leaning towards her. She struggled to hide backwards, her thoughts racing.

So, after excluding the maid's prank and the fact that the faceless man in front of him did not have a strong desire to kill her, there was only one possibility left.

There was no movement around, which meant that someone was using this "person" to observe her every move.