I wish to buy osmanthus flowers and share wine with you (Part 1)
The matter finally came to an end, and everyone returned to Luoqi from Guanxing. However, Wen Su did not go back with the others. Instead, he asked Zhou Ziqiu for leave, saying that he had some urgent matters to attend to. This was not a difficult matter, and Zhou Ziqiu readily agreed. He was just a little curious about where Wen Su had gone, since he hadn't even brought Fatty and Glasses with him.
The fat man wasn't surprised and told him how they met Wen Su.
"Glasses and I are actually from a small family in Xixiang. By our generation, the family had already fallen into decline. Glasses and I weren't very old back then, and we made a living by cheating and swindling. But one time we encountered a real ghost. Neither of us knew what to do. Just when we were about to be killed by the ghost, our boss suddenly appeared and saved us. We've been following him ever since."
"The eldest brother is quite mysterious. He has no fixed address and has never mentioned his family. We all thought he had run away from home. Later, we found out that his whole family had died."
Cui Yongle was listening nearby, and only when he heard the last part did he frown: "Wait, they're all dead?"
The fat man didn't understand what Cui Yongle hadn't understood: "Um, I asked him about your family back then, and he said they were gone, so I never asked again."
“Impossible,” Cui Yongle asserted. “I have records of everything that happens in aristocratic families. There’s no way I wouldn’t remember something that happened to a family of this magnitude.”
The man with glasses added, "But we've never heard of any prominent family with the surname Wen. Smaller families might have one, but the eldest brother's skills don't seem like something a small family could produce."
Small families are small because they struggle to nurture talented individuals. Even if a genius is born, the resources of a small family are insufficient to support the cultivation of that genius.
Zhou Ziqiu wondered, "There must be families that Qingdeng didn't record."
Cui Yongle shook his head: "Impossible. The Qingdeng tradition has been passed down for thousands of years, and all the families in it have been recorded. I have looked through the records from the beginning to the latest and I have not seen any family with the surname Wen. This surname is extremely rare in the records. I have only seen it in the commission records."
This surname is very common among ordinary people, but it is rare among aristocratic families. It is so rare that one might not even realize how rare it is when they suddenly see it. But how could there be no aristocratic families with the surname Wen in the records of Qingdeng for thousands of years?
"Either Qingdeng didn't record it, or it's a reclusive family, a family with a history even longer than Qingdeng's," the fat man said casually, shrugging his hands. He had no interest in other people's families.
However, when Zhou Ziqiu heard the word "seclusion," he suddenly thought of something and glanced at Cui Yongle.
Fatty and Glasses returned to their rented apartment. Just as Cui Yongle was about to leave, Zhou Ziqiu stopped him and led him to the second floor of Liaoyuan Pavilion.
"What's wrong?" Cui Yongle looked at Zhou Ziqiu in surprise.
“I remember there’s a reclusive family that seems to be surnamed Wen.” Zhou Ziqiu said what he had just thought of. “That family has a long history, longer than Qingdeng’s, and even longer than I have existed.”
Upon hearing this, Cui Yongle was somewhat shocked: "Even longer than yours? What kind of family can survive until now?"
"When I was young, I read a book that recorded an event that occurred at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty," Zhou Ziqiu slowly recounted to Cui Yongle the events described in the book.
The founding emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was brave and skilled in battle. He led his troops from Liaoxi to conquer Zhou City and establish the Zhou Dynasty. However, something happened during the founding ceremony that greatly displeased the emperor. In order to pray that his dynasty could last for a thousand years, the emperor invited a famous scholar from the previous dynasty.
The Wen family did not originate from the previous dynasty, but continued from ancient times to the Zhou Dynasty. Even the Wen family was the only large clan. It is said that when the ancestors of the Wen family were doing divination, a character was cracked on the oracle bone, and the family, which originally had no surname, was named Wen from then on.
Speaking of divination, this is precisely the reason for the rise of the Wen family. The Wen family was skilled in divination and had such a long tradition that every dynasty would invite the Wen family to come and pray for blessings and to divine the future fortune when it was founded.
This task was usually completed by the head of the Wen family. When informing the emperor, they would only give a vague outline to avoid being killed by the emperor. The decline of the Wen family began from this point.
At the founding ceremony of the Zhou Dynasty, the emperor asked the Wen family a question: "What is my Zhou Dynasty?"
The Wen family's answer was: "The Zhou dynasty will not last long."
It was extremely unlucky to say such things at the founding ceremony of a nation, but the Wen family must have had their own reasons for saying such things and risked their lives to remonstrate. However, the founding emperor of the Zhou Dynasty was a general, and he was furious. Ignoring the advice of the surrounding ministers, he executed the Wen family and even ordered that the surname Wen would not be allowed to appear in the country from then on. The Wen family disappeared completely from then on.
The book also records on the last page: At that time, the young mistress was pregnant and was sent away by the loyal servants of the Wen family at the cost of their lives. A few younger members of the Wen family were also sent away. Although they were able to escape, most of the Wen family's thousand-year heritage was destroyed in this catastrophe, and only a few books of records were preserved.
Zhou Ziqiu still remembers how angry he was when he first read the book. In his opinion, the Zhou Dynasty could have lasted for hundreds or thousands of years, so why did that Wen family member say that "the Zhou Dynasty will not last long"? He even vented his anger on Xie Xingzhou, who gave him the book. But now it seems that the Wen family member probably foresaw the tragedy that would happen in the Zhou Dynasty decades later and wanted to dissuade the emperor, but instead brought destruction upon his own family.
"It seems Wen Su is the Wen family member you mentioned. No wonder Qingdeng didn't record him." Cui Yongle pondered, but there was still something he couldn't understand. "But what misfortune befell the Wen family that left only Wen Su as their sole heir?"
Zhou Ziqiu slowly shook his head; he had no way of knowing either.
"I'll go back and check it out." Cui Yongle stood up.
After seeing Cui Yongle off, Zhou Ziqiu sat back down behind the reception desk on the first floor.
He had been busy with the Sun family's affairs lately and hadn't had much time to look at the Qingdeng backend. Now, it took more than a minute to load after he opened it. Most of the messages were thank-you notes and requests for help. Zhou Ziqiu scrolled through them briefly.
Ordinary people don't encounter persistent ghosts in their daily lives. Most of the time, they accidentally offend them. Afterward, they can send them away by offering a proper sacrifice. Zhou Ziqiu then instructed them on how to do this backstage.
However, as he scrolled down, a request for help caught Zhou Ziqiu's attention.
"Master, I've been having the same dream for the past few days. I dreamt I was getting married, but not in the modern way; it was an ancient wedding. It was late at night, and I was wearing a red groom's outfit, riding a horse, with a large bridal sedan chair behind me. There were many people carrying betrothal gifts and the sedan chair, but they weren't human; they were ghosts."
"Master, are you there? Please help me, I'm so scared!!"
"Master? Are you there?"
Zhou Ziqiu moved his fingers slightly and opened the page of the person seeking help. After seeing the phone number on the homepage, he dialed the number. A very young male voice answered.
Hello?
"Hello, I am the owner of Liaoyuan Pavilion. I saw your message. Are you in Houcheng?"
"Okay, I will arrive in Houcheng tomorrow afternoon."
"You're in Houcheng now?!"
After returning home yesterday, Cui Yongle arranged for an investigation. After using his network of connections, he quickly found some information. He originally wanted to tell Zhou Ziqiu about what he found, but when he arrived at Liaoyuan Pavilion, he found the store closed. He called to inquire and heard Zhou Ziqiu tell him that he was in Houcheng.
What are you going to Houcheng for?
Zhou Ziqiu looked at the somewhat awkward boy sitting in front of him and said, "I'll hang up now after I've finished helping you."
"Wait, wait," Cui Yongle hurriedly spoke before Zhou Ziqiu could hang up, "Do you need me to send someone over to help you?"
Zhou Ziqiu thought for a moment and, judging from the message left by the person seeking help in the background, realized that he could solve the problem, so he declined Cui Yongle's offer: "No need, I can solve it."
"Okay, okay, I'll send you what I found via email."
"Okay." After hanging up the phone, Zhou Ziqiu looked at the person who had asked for help again. "Please tell me what happened in detail."
Meanwhile, deep in the mountains and forests, Wen Su looked at the house in front of him with a cold gaze.
It is strange that such a mansion exists deep in the mountains where no one would go, but Wen Su not only found it, but even stepped inside.
It was strange to find such a residence deep in the mountains where no one would go, but Wen Su not only didn't find it strange, but even seemed to know that it existed beforehand, and stepped inside.
The footprints on the white stone tiles were particularly clear, and each step stirred up the surrounding dust. The dilapidated decorations inside the house, the scattered porcelain shards on the ground, and the dried-up artificial rockery in the courtyard all revealed that this mansion had been abandoned for a long time.
Wen Su looked up and his gaze fell on the plaque above the main hall, which bore four large characters: "Elegant Room, Fragrant Orchids".
A moment later, Wen Su growled in a low voice, "Come out?"
"Come out!"
"Don't you have the guts to come out?"
18:57:28
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
