Chapter 82 Give me your birth date and I will ask for you.
The next day, they woke up early and the newly-minted Qingche University students No. 1 Li Xiaogou and No. 2 Jiang Mu went out together with their small backpacks on their backs.
The tour guide was found last night. She was a woman in her thirties, wearing an orange polo shirt and gray shorts. When she smiled, her two pointed fangs were exposed. In the local dialect, she looked very "happy."
She introduced herself as "Orange". She was a local here and had little education. After graduating from high school, she helped out at her family's noodle stall. Later, by chance, she took a friend of a friend on a trip and then she thought about becoming a tour guide.
Orange is an absolute friendly person. Everyone along the way, from the vegetable vendors to the bookstore owner at the school gate, would take the initiative to greet her. When talking about every brick and tile here, Orange was very familiar with them.
Li Xiaogou and Jiang Mu shamelessly announced they were from Qingbei University, earning them a flurry of greetings from the locals. Li Xiaogou then asked, "We both study ancient culture and folklore. I heard the ancestral halls here are exceptionally well-preserved. I wonder if we, two outsiders, can take a look?"
Chengzi glanced at them, a look that made them both feel uneasy, and then he smiled and said, "There are people who study these things."
Jiang Mu was curious: "Is it strange to study these things?"
"No, it's just my grandma. She always told me that ancestral halls were feudal dregs. In her time, they would have torn them down. But now they're just preserved as relics. I didn't expect there were people who specialized in studying these things."
"Oh, research doesn't mean approval."
After hearing this, Chengzi nodded and said, "Visiting the ancestral hall is easy. I'm here, so you can spend as much time as you want!"
The two looked at each other and thanked each other happily.
There is more than one ancestral hall in the town. They visited three ancestral halls in a row, none of which belonged to the Yan family, and there was nothing strange about the ancestral halls themselves.
"Want to see more?" Orange asked.
"Um!"
Chengzi sighed softly, and completely gave up the idea of sending the two back to rest as soon as possible. She looked at the ancestral hall with black tiles and black walls beside her in confusion. They all looked the same. Was it necessary to look at them all?
Of course, she didn't ask this question out loud. Even if she had, Li Xiaogou and Jiang Mu would have already thought of a sufficient answer.
After walking through the streets and alleys for about ten minutes, Chengzi said, "The Yan Family Ancestral Hall, although not the oldest in town, has been expanded over the years and is now the largest. I'll go say hello to Old Man Yan, and you guys can go in and take a look."
"You're not following us?" Li Xiaogou had already stepped inside and asked curiously, "Is there anything taboo?"
Chengzi laughed: "No, no, I just want to find a place to rest. The Yan Family Ancestral Hall is too big, and my old legs can't walk anymore. But if you have anything you want to know, you can take a picture and send it to me. I will ask Old Yan for you. He is a member of the Yan family and knows much more than I do."
"Okay." Li Xiaogou curved his eyebrows and smiled.
His fake face was the harmless type, and his smile instantly captured his sister's heart. When Chengzi reacted, Li Xiaogou and Jiang Mu had already entered the ancestral hall and did not forget to close the door.
Although Chengzi mentioned "huge" several times, the scale of the temple only became apparent after they walked in. The temple had been expanded into a three-courtyard structure, which together was the size of two football fields.
By this time, the sky was gradually getting dark, but there was a road next to the door. The two walked in for a while and confirmed that there was no one in the huge ancestral hall. Then Li Xiaogou squatted in the corner under the cover of Jiang Mu and tilted a small piece of the wall.
"It's just an ordinary brick, nothing special." Li Xiaogou stuffed the brick back and dusted his hands.
"This is just the outermost layer. Perhaps Yan Jiang feels it's too dangerous to stuff anything in here. Let's go inside and take a look."
Li Xiaogou nodded and followed Jiang Mu in.
However, they knocked on the walls of every house and still found nothing.
Are we going to take such a big risk to sneak in, only to return empty-handed?
Li Xiaogou looked around with a serious face, not even leaving out the most corners.
Slowly, his gaze fixed on one spot. Jiang Mu noticed something was wrong with him and asked, "Is there something wrong with the tablet?"
Li Xiaogou did not answer, but walked to the other side facing the tablet.
It was a wall made of two huge pieces of marble. There was a one-foot square hole in the middle of the wall. A faucet in the shape of a dragon head extended from the hole. There was a groove underneath. Water fell into the groove and flowed down, flowing out of the entire room.
Li Xiaogou and Jiang Mu didn't understand Feng Shui, but they understood some more intuitive things, for example, the thickness of the marble pillars was a bit too thick.
If you crack the marble, the whole block will shatter, making it easy to be caught in the act.
Li Xiaogou walked around to the side pillar, raised his hand and knocked lightly, then showed a surprised smile.
"Come and listen." He called Jiang Mu.
So Jiang Mu also stepped forward and listened attentively.
The conclusions reached were consistent: there was a vacuum inside the column, and the knocking sound was not the sound produced by marble.
"Wait for me." Jiang Mu said as he took out a palm-sized shovel from his bag. "This is the best for scraping walls."
Li Xiaogou consciously took a step back and raised his hand to make room.
Jiang Mu's expression as he squatted and scraped the wall was so serious that it was a little funny, but Li Xiaogou soon stopped laughing because they finally saw the appearance underneath the thin layer of marble-colored coating.
The following are ordinary bricks. Not entirely ordinary, as they are stacked much looser than ordinary bricks, as if they were specially designed to be pried open.
Both of them became uncontrollably excited.
Li Xiaogou knocked off the bricks in the corner and saw the true appearance inside the vacuum through the gap.
The black hard drives, simply wrapped in water-repellent material, are stacked tightly together.
"Does this confirm our guess?" Jiang Mu asked.
"Yeah." Li Xiaogou replied.
Although all their previous speculations were confirmed, the two were not as excited as before. A more realistic problem lay before them - how to take these things away.
The "little damage" they caused was not easy to be discovered, but it would be discovered sooner or later, and they had to take everything away this time.
Looking at his watch, Li Xiaogou said, "It's almost time. If we don't leave now, Chengzi might get suspicious. Let's leave here first and come back at night after we've discussed it."
Jiang Mu nodded. This was the only way to deal with the current situation.
The two men called out to Orange through a door, and a response came quickly from inside. They never went in. Even if they were two fake faces, it would be best not to let the Yan family see them.
When we returned to the hotel, Wang Bo was curled up on the sofa, sighing.
When he saw the two of them, his eyes lit up: "Did you find anything?"
Jiang Mu told Wang Bo about their discoveries and difficulties.
Wang Bo has been competing with Wang Zheng in wits and courage since childhood. His personality is a bit deviant, but he definitely has the most clever ideas.
His handsome eyebrows were wrinkled as he was thinking very hard.
"Why did Yan Jiang hide the data in that place?" Wang Bo asked suddenly. "I remember reading a novel a while ago that said running water is a good thing, but it's not good to draw it out from the inside, as it will take away wealth."
Of course, what you see in novels cannot be true. There is a 90% chance that the author made it up with his eyes closed.
In order to verify this, Wang Bo conducted a rigorous investigation - asking AI.
Finally, he concluded: "There is such a saying."
Jiang Mu was puzzled: "Judging from the size of the Yan family's ancestral hall, it doesn't look like their family's wealth is overflowing."
Wang Bo: "Isn't it said that the ancestral hall was donated? It can't represent the living standards of the Yan family. Besides, I'm not asking you to really pay attention to Feng Shui!"
Li Xiaogou said calmly: "Don't be anxious."
Wang Bo gradually calmed down. "What I want to say is, the intention behind Feng Shui is this: many hospitals don't have beds 14 or 44. Are all doctors superstitious?"
"Would you rather believe it?"
Wang Bo snapped his fingers: "Bingo!"
"In our country, we believe it's better to believe something than not to believe it. Even if we don't believe something, we will try to avoid unlucky situations like this. If the hard drives weren't hidden here, they could be hidden somewhere else in the ancestral hall."
"unless--"
"Unless Yan Jiang built it here on purpose." Li Xiaogou added.
"Right." Wang Bo smiled. "The more I analyze it, the more I think this is the correct answer."
"But why did Yan Jiang do this on purpose?" Jiang Mu asked.
The room fell silent again.
After a while, Li Xiaogou spoke again: "Perhaps, the purpose of expanding the ancestral hall and building this is the same, to show off."
"Based on the information Captain Baili and the others have gathered, Yan Jiang didn't have a happy childhood, and he wasn't the most favored child in his family. This may be the biggest source of worry in his life."
Wang Bo, who also had a strong desire to prove himself to his father, understood instantly: "He built the living water opposite the tablet because he wanted the Yan family's ancestors to see, even after their death, how their unloved child has grown up, and then watch helplessly as the Yan family's wealth drains away."
"From the perspective of his hatred for the Yan family, everything is easy to explain."
"These are just speculations. How can we verify them?"
Li Xiaogou: "Just ask about the Yan family's recent situation and you'll know. If Yan Jiang really wanted to help the Yan family, he definitely wouldn't just donate the ancestral hall and ignore the Yan family members."
It was late at night, and it would not be nice to disturb Chengzi at this time, so Li Xiaogou had to give up his plan to go to the ancestral hall tonight and decided to ask around before going.
"But we can first discuss how to get those things away." Li Xiaogou said.
This was of paramount importance, and everyone stopped joking.
Jiang Mu: "There are only three of us here this time, and no one is there to help us. A head-on confrontation is definitely not going to work. We can only do it secretly and make sure that the Yan family won't find out what we have done within three days of our departure. Only then will we have a chance to escape successfully."
Wang Bo: "Then we can each carry a few hard drives. Aren't they supposed to store the core data? If any of them are missing, Yan Jiang will be in big trouble."
"Well, this is the last resort. Although it is fatal if a small piece of core data is missing, we don't know how strong Yan Jiang's ability in this area is. If the missing piece is small, he may be able to recover quickly. If possible, we still have to take away as much data as possible." Li Xiaogou analyzed.
Wang Bo sighed and said, "What should we do? I'm not looking down on you brothers, but it's impossible for the three of us to take away so many hard drives."
Li Xiaogou's eyes flickered slightly. "If it's true as Wang Bo just said, that Yan Jiang hates the Yan family and is doing this to get revenge on them, I do have a method we can try. If it succeeds, we might be able to take away all the hard drives at once. But if Yan Jiang is just a masochist, and we're very nice to him, then we can only take a few hard drives each and leave."
He had a dreamless night and went out early the next morning with some "local specialties" to thank Chengzi.
Wang Bo took Li Xiaogou to eat at a roadside stall. This was a good restaurant he discovered yesterday. It was also here that he overheard the waiter discussing the recent "unrest" at home. Perhaps for this reason, Wang Bo immediately thought of Feng Shui.
Now, he feels that the feng shui of this store is quite suitable for him.
Wang Bo ordered a bowl of wontons for Li Xiaogou and a bowl of pork noodles for himself. He was just concentrating on eating when he was suddenly slapped hard on the back. The soup with fresh and spicy oil poured into his throat. Wang Bo coughed until tears came out of his eyes. Looking back, he saw the other party grinning at him: "I'm sorry, brother."
Being invited to sit down together, Wang Bo introduced him, "I met him at the noodle stall yesterday. He was the one who said things weren't going well at home. I didn't believe him, so I argued with him. Then we started chatting."
Li Xiaogou was speechless for a minute. Wang Bo was indeed a tough guy.
The man slurped the noodles and half raised his head from the bowl when he mentioned himself. Only then did Li Xiaogou see his appearance clearly. He had a square face with deep brows and eyes, and looked very decent, but there were two dark circles under his eyes, which destroyed the "proper" feeling and made him look hollowed out.
If this man is not a playboy, then there must be something wrong with his body.
"That's an exaggeration, isn't it? You had the same expression when you first met me." The man smiled. "Even if I had eight mouths, it wouldn't be enough to explain it. I don't even have a girlfriend, but I look like I have kidney deficiency. I went to the hospital for a checkup and it turned out to be kidney deficiency. I don't even want to recall the look the doctor gave me..."
Wang Bo paused and said, "You didn't mention this yesterday."
"So if I tell you that I'm haunted, will you believe that I'm haunted?"
Wang Bo choked.
Li Xiaogou naturally took over the conversation: "It's not necessarily a ghost. There are many things in this world that cannot be explained by science. For example, a large number of people with special abilities have suddenly appeared recently. Weren't they kept it secret from us ordinary people before?"
Wang Bo looked at Li Xiaogou suspiciously, when did you become so considerate?
Li Xiaogou ignored him, smiling and soothing him in a voice that gave Wang Bo goosebumps, "What a coincidence! We're studying ancient culture and folklore, so we have some knowledge of these things. Apart from your physical condition, have you experienced anything strange?"
While the man was thinking, Li Xiaogou asked again: "I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Wang Mu, and I don't know your name yet."
"My last name is Yan. You can just call me Yan San. I'm the third child in my family."
Wang Bo was startled for a moment, then perked up instantly: "Yan San, my senior is much better at studying than I am. He said that dabbling is mastery. Anyway, I didn't seem to have any solution from what you said yesterday. Why don't you tell me about it?"
Yan San hesitated for a moment, then finally made up his mind: "Okay! My family originally ran a restaurant. Although it was a small business, it was quite famous and the business was pretty good. At its peak, people from the neighboring city would come just to have a meal at my house. But my eldest brother fell ill without any signs. My parents ran around everywhere to treat him, and they neglected the business and even sold the house. In the end, my eldest brother passed away. Later, my second brother was born. My parents took him for a physical examination every year, but there were still problems. A matching test was needed, so my parents gave birth to me. The test was successful, but then my second brother was in a car accident before he reached adulthood. It seemed like fate. My parents suffered a huge blow, and their health has been failing ever since. I always thought it was fate until I became what I am now."
Li Xiaogou looked at Yan San deeply twice, and Yan San couldn't help but shrink his neck and avoid his gaze.
Suddenly I felt like I was being seen through.
Li Xiaogou smiled faintly: "How about this, I know a very powerful master, give me your birth date and time, and I will ask for you."
"Okay. Add me on WeChat."
After adding the contact information, Li Xiaogou continued to eat wontons.
After breakfast and saying goodbye to Yan San, Li Xiaogou took Wang Bo back to the hotel.
"Why didn't you just show off your skills in front of him?" Wang Bo asked in confusion.
Li Xiaogou raised an eyebrow: "You already said I was your senior brother, and I suddenly changed my career to become a quack?"
"Is what Yan San said true?"
"Yes. There are some secrets, but everything they say is the truth." Li Xiaogou paused, "Of course, it is not ruled out that Yan Jiang left them some secret means that can deceive my supernatural powers. So we can confirm it when Jiang Mu comes back."
Time passed by minute by minute as the two of them waited anxiously. Jiang Mu came back just after lunch time with obvious joy on his face.
"We found out, our guess was correct!" Jiang Mu couldn't help but say as soon as he entered the door.
Wang Bo coughed twice and waved his hand: "Come, sit down first. We also have important news to tell you."
…
After the big battle.
Jiang Mu: "Originally I was 80% sure, now it's 100% certain. Yan Jiang didn't help the Yan family at all."
Wang Bo rubbed his chin and frowned, "Just didn't help? I always feel that what happened to the Yan family was not a coincidence. Yan Jiang might have done something."
Jiang Mu shook his head: "Yan Jiang's ability is just to control data. What happened to the Yan family is more like a coincidence. However, Yan Jiang's childhood tragedy has shown that there are serious problems with the Yan family's family education. It is reasonable for such a family to decline."
"Xiao Gou, what do you think?" The two looked at Li Xiao Gou at the same time.
"It could be pure bad luck, or it could be Yan Jiang's doing. Or maybe it's both. For example, Yan San's eldest brother really died of illness, but the car accident of the second brother might not be a coincidence. No matter which one it is, it has no impact on what we are going to do next."
Wang Bo and Jiang Mu then remembered that Li Xiaogou had said last night that as long as their guess was correct, he would have a way to take all the hard drives away.
"What are you going to do?"
Li Xiaogou raised the corner of his lips and said, "We just need to make the Yan family believe that there is indeed someone behind their misfortune, and that person is Yan Jiang."
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