Chapter 60 Chapter 60 Is there really a ghost in this old house?
"Ah! There really is a ghost!"
As Xin Da stepped over the threshold, he was frightened by the sudden cold wind and hid behind Han Yu.
"It's really a waste of your height!"
While cursing him inwardly, Hanyu reached out to push open another wooden door and walked straight into the house.
Manager Xu lit a candle to illuminate the dim room. Judging from the furnishings in the room, the owner of the room should be a girl waiting to be married.
"It seems this is Bai Ruen's room."
Hanyu searched through the old things in the room by candlelight, wondering where Father Bai would have hidden his daughter's letters.
Xin Da was timid and did not dare to enter the house, so he had to guard the gate of the house and inform them immediately if anyone came.
She and Manager Xu went to look for the letter separately. The old wooden furniture was often dark and gave off a rotten and damp smell that made people cover their noses.
In the half-open wardrobe stood a knee-high sandalwood box, locked from the outside with a rusty copper lock.
Hanyu called over Manager Xu and asked, "Could it be in this locked box?"
"It's possible. Why don't you take it out and take a look?"
Manager Xu opened the closet door and took out the sandalwood box. "Ouch! It's still a bit heavy."
Although the box was locked, fortunately the copper lock had become fragile after years of weathering. Hanyu took out the dagger and knocked hard with the handle to open the copper lock.
But to their disappointment, the sandalwood box did not contain any letters left by the Bai family, but only some hairpins and jewelry that did not look very valuable. Presumably, the valuable items were either sold by Bai's father or embezzled by the officers and soldiers who sealed off the old house.
"There are no letters here. Could it be that they were lost?"
"No, since these letters contain evidence of the abuse Bai Ruen suffered in the palace, and Father Bai originally tried to use them as evidence to sue Princess Chunyu, then it's impossible for them to lose this important evidence."
Hanyu always believed that the letter must still be there, but was hidden somewhere by Bai's father, a place that was not easy to be found. However, they were not familiar with the old house of the Bai family. It would take at least a few days to search this huge house thoroughly. If they stayed here for a long time, they would probably attract the attention of others.
The search for the letter was in trouble. Xin Da, who was guarding the gate of the house, whispered, "Someone is coming, hide quickly!"
Hanyu and Manager Xu each found a hiding place. Hanyu hid under the bed, and Manager Xu hid in the closet.
This room, which had not been taken care of for a long time, was full of dust. It was even dirtier under the bed, and there were even rats and insects making their nests there. Hanyu quietly moved her body, trying to stay as far away from those dirty things as possible.
Xin Daze climbed up the old locust tree next to the dry well and secretly observed the identity and intentions of the visitor.
To his surprise, the visitor was the young man who had shown them the way during the day. Seeing that the door to the Bai family's old house seemed to have been pried open, the young man knocked on the door and asked, "Is anyone there?"
The young man asked several times but no one answered. He wondered to himself, "Could they have left?"
He made sure again and again that no one answered before he dared to push the door open. The young man walked around the house stealthily, then returned to the dry well in the yard and poked his head into the well.
Fortunately, there was no water in the dry well, otherwise Xin Da hiding in the locust tree would have been discovered from his reflection on the water.
Although Xin Da was tall and strong, he was very agile. He hid among the treetops of the old locust tree, and no one could notice him after it got dark. Moreover, his hiding place was high up, so he could see clearly what the people below were doing.
I saw the young man found a hemp rope as thick as his wrist from the dry well. At the end of the hemp rope was tied an iron hook as big as his face. He swung the iron hook down and picked up a wooden box.
The young man took the wooden box and hid in the corner next to the dry well. He carefully opened the lock on the box and made sure that the things inside were intact and not a single item was missing before he put the box back into the dry well with confidence.
After the young man left, Xin Da finally came down from the old locust tree. He looked down into the well and saw that it was pitch black. He knew it was very deep without even thinking.
He told Hanyu and the others what he had just seen and heard. Manager Xu speculated, "That young man is obviously a greedy person. The dry well must contain money."
Xin Da shook his head. "That's not necessarily true. If it were pure silver, I could at least see the reflection of it in the moonlight. But I looked inside and there was no reflection of silver at all. Plus, his hands looked like he was flipping through pages of paper, so it couldn't be silver."
"If it's not silver, then it's banknotes!" Manager Xu concluded that there must be money inside.
But Hanyu felt it wasn't that simple. Who would hide money in such a gloomy old house? Besides, the young man didn't look like a wealthy man.
No matter how they guessed, it would be better to fish it out and take a look. So Xin Daxue followed the young man's example and used the hemp rope he had hidden next to the dry well to fish out the wooden box.
"Why is there still a lock on this box?"
"How could this kind of lock be so difficult for my Master Xin?"
Xin Da raised his sword and chopped at the iron chain, and it took more than ten hits before he finally broke it.
Manager Xu mocked him: "Isn't it a bit early for you to brag?"
"It's okay. With enough practice, even an iron rod can be sharpened into a needle. I'll chop it a few more times and I'll definitely be able to open it."
He took a deep breath, raised his sword and chopped it again, and finally he cut it in half. The wooden box was almost broken by him.
The three of them opened the wooden box and saw a neatly arranged stack of papers inside. Manager Xu held the candlelight close to the papers. Surprisingly, they were not banknotes, but calligraphy and paintings. The writing on them was all poems and illustrations excerpted from ancient books.
Manager Xu sighed in disappointment, "I thought we'd found a treasure. If I'd known it was just worthless calligraphy and paintings, why would we have bothered to open it?"
Xin Da said that he was obsessed with money and reminded him all the time of the purpose of our trip.
"Speaking of which, Old Xu, you've been with the prince for many years and were promoted to steward ten years ago. Your monthly salary should be quite high, right? Why are you still coveting his treasure chest?"
"How could I possibly covet it? I'm just guessing. Stop your nonsense, you clueless idiot!"
While they were arguing over the treasure chest, Hanyu found letters that looked like those from Bai Rune among the pile of calligraphy and paintings. She clearly remembered that Mr. Lai had mentioned that Bai's father also found those letters among a pile of calligraphy and paintings belonging to his daughter. Perhaps he had not hidden them anywhere else, and they were still mixed in with this pile of messy calligraphy and paintings.
"Look what this is?"
Hanyu took out one of the sheets and handed it to the two of them to read. Xin Da frankly said that he could not read and took the initiative to help Manager Xu hold the candle.
Manager Xu stared at it for a long time with half-closed eyes, and said, "My eyes are blurry and I can't see clearly. Let Miss Hanyu take a look!"
"Although I'm not blind and can read, I'm not from the Central Plains after all. I don't know many Chinese characters, and I can't understand what's written here at all."
This stumped them again. Finally, Manager Xu suggested that they take all the papers back to the inn and find someone who could read to identify them. Wouldn't that reveal the truth?
Several people unanimously agreed to do so. When they were about to take the wooden box away, someone came up from behind. It was the young man who had just left. He asked, "Why did you guys steal my things?"
Hanyu smiled awkwardly and explained, "We didn't steal it, we borrowed it. Since it's not valuable money or jewelry, could you lend it to us for a few days? We'll return it to you as soon as we're done using it."
"What do you mean by stealing? What do you mean by borrowing? No one is allowed to touch my things. Give it back to me now!"
The young man tried to grab the wooden box in Manager Xu's arms, but was blocked by Xin Da's sword, preventing him from getting close.
Xin Dali said confidently, "I've already asked you to borrow it in a very polite way, but I didn't expect you to be so arrogant and unreasonable. My sword has no eyes. If you dare to take a step forward, be careful that I will be rude to you!"
"What kind of people are you? Why are you all like bandits? Do you think you have the right to rob people? Do you think you will kill people to silence them if I don't give you what you have?"
"I'm going to rob you and kill you, what can you do to me?"
Xin Da's stunned look really looked like the fierce bandit on the mountain. His big and strong body was intimidating, and the sword in his hand scared the young man to tears.
Hanyu ordered Xin Da not to be disrespectful to others. After all, they were the ones who took other people's things first. How could he do such unreasonable things?
She asked General Xin to take the young man and the wooden box back to the inn, and several people sat down to discuss the matter together.
After returning to the inn, the young man looked unhappy and was unwilling to explain the calligraphy and painting. It was not until Hanyu told him Bai Rune's name that a look of surprise appeared on his face.
He asked in surprise, "Are you from Shangjing City? What is your relationship with the Bai family in Jiangnan?"
Hanyu could guess from the man's expression that those calligraphy and paintings must have been left by Bai Runen. Although he was not sure about the relationship between this man and the Bai family, he was at least certain that he was helping Bai Runen protect those calligraphy and paintings, otherwise he would not have hidden the wooden box in the dry well.
She explained the relationship between Yin Jinglong and the Bai family one by one, but the young man was not surprised at all, as if he had already guessed that someone would come to him to retrieve the calligraphy and paintings.
The young man said, "My name is Li Qiu, my original surname is Bai. I'm a member of the Bai family's branch, and I'm Bai Ruen's distant cousin. Ever since Bai Ruen's accident, we Bai family members have changed our names to avoid being implicated in the incident. The calligraphy and paintings you saw are indeed relics left by Bai Ruen."
"That's such a coincidence! I didn't expect to find someone from the Bai family as soon as I arrived in Xinglin Village," Xin Da apologized to Bai Qiu for his rude behavior just now.
Hanyu still had doubts: "Since you're afraid of getting involved in trouble, why don't you leave here like the Lai family did back then and find a quiet place to live in anonymity?"
Baiqiu held his head and sighed, saying that this was a long story.
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