Chapter 35: The Shrine Cannot Rest Day and Night
The people of the Ye family nodded again and again: "Yes, yes! This is a good marriage!"
It was as if they were not the ones who were vying for the position of concubine in the Gu family.
Luo Wan stood quietly aside. The farce before her, which was full of people clinging to the powerful and changing their attitudes according to the situation, was so absurd that it made people gasp, yet so realistic that it chilled her to the bone.
Her eyes fell on Pei Shaochuan. The boy was still standing tall, with bruises at the corners of his mouth.
But at this moment, what he exuded was no longer the childish brightness outlined by the sunlight under the window lattice of Hongwenguan.
The sunlight fell on his shoulders, and he looked completely different from his usual joking, laughing and cursing self.
At this moment, Luo Wan seemed unable to treat Pei Shaochuan as a child.
Seeing that the cooked duck was about to fly, the matchmaker could no longer hold back and said, "Master Chi, after all, we were here first, and the engagement should be with the Gu family. Moreover, you used to be on good terms with the Gu family. If this marriage goes through, it will be a perfect match!"
Dunzi sprinted forward and retorted in a booming voice, "Hey, my! You're a master at twisting right and wrong!... What do you mean you came here first? Madam Ye and our master decided on this marriage years ago. It was clearly us who came here first! It's you, the Gu family, who only came later and insisted on getting involved!"
Chi Jing'an's face turned red and white. On one hand, there was the pressure from the Gu family, which was as heavy as a mountain, and he could not afford to offend them; on the other hand, there was the engagement written in black and white in front of everyone. If he suddenly changed his mind, he, Chi Jing'an, would immediately become a traitor despised by everyone in the capital, and his spine would be exposed!
Feng Yuyun said gently, "As they say, marriage is a matter of parents' orders and matchmaker's words. But who someone likes and wants to marry is something only those who are in the situation know. Why not ask Wanwan who she wants to marry? If Wanwan chooses Young Master Pei, it will be considered as fulfilling Sister Ye's wish."
The people of the Ye family nodded: "Yes, yes!"
For them, no matter who Luo Wan chooses, it will be a sure win. The Pei family has mountains of gold and silver, and the Gu family is extremely powerful. No matter which high branch they climb, their "chicken and dog" will rise to heaven with them.
"I choose Pei Shaochuan!" Luo Wan said firmly.
"No, no." The matchmaker waved her hands repeatedly, "I can't explain this to Patriarch Gu!"
Feng Yuyun walked over to the matchmaker and gently patted the back of her hand. Her tone was soothing, but her eyes were sharp as needles. "Don't worry, mother. You just need to report everything that happened today to the head of the Gu family in detail, without omitting a single word. The Gu family is a famous family in the capital, very reasonable and respectful of rules and etiquette. Since Wanwan and Young Master Pei are already engaged, it is heaven's will. The head of the Gu family is wise and magnanimous, and he will not make things difficult for a servant like you who just ran errands. Go."
The farce ended in such a dragging manner.
Except for the Gu family, the Yu Pei and Ye families were all happy.
But there was one person who was unhappy, Chi Mingshi.
In the East Courtyard, the devilish sound was piercing.
Feng Yuyun looked at Chi Mingshi's closed door and the unpleasant, angry music of the piano, and asked Liu Ma, "Who made Mingshi angry again?"
Nanny Liu said, "It seems to be because of Master Pei and Chi Wanwan's marriage."
Feng Yuyun frowned: "Doesn't she like General Jiang?"
Aunt Liu shook her head, indicating that she was unaware of the entanglement.
Feng Yuyun pushed open the door and grabbed Chi Mingshi's hands as she was abusing the strings: "These are good nails. How much effort did your mother put into growing them like this? And you're ruining them like this!"
Chi Mingshi pulled her hand back and snorted, "You've spent more time and energy on Chi Wanwan than on me, your own daughter."
Feng Yuyun almost laughed out of anger, but still asked patiently, "Where did you get that from?"
Chi Mingshi said, "You asked her to study at the Hongwen Academy. Today, you could have asked her to be Gu Sihan's concubine, but you helped her marry Pei Shaochuan as his wife."
"Confused! Let me ask you, between the Gu family and the Pei family, who is more powerful in this part of the capital? Who can truly control everything?"
"Of course it's the Gu family!" Chi Mingshi said without hesitation. "No matter how rich the Pei family is, they're nothing more than merchants stained by money!" Feng Yuyun nodded and said, "The Pei family has been in business for generations. Even if Chi Wanwan marries Pei Shaochuan as his legal wife, she'll only be a merchant's legal wife, the lowest of the low. Gu Sihan suddenly wants to marry Chi Wanwan, and the reason is unknown. If she really marries into the Gu family, with Chi Wanwan's scheming, do you think Gu Sihan will be fooled by her and help her become his legal wife? Even if not, she'll have the Gu family's backing."
At this point, Chi Mingshi suddenly realized something. She looked down at her nails, which had split from overexertion, and said in frustration, "What a pity for my nails! I wonder if they'll grow back before my coming-of-age ceremony."
Feng Yuyun took her hand, examined it carefully, and said, "I'll ask Madam Liu to boil some ginger and white hyacinth juice and apply it on the skin every day."
Chi Mingshi raised her eyes and asked cautiously, "Will the Major General come to my coming-of-age ceremony?"
Feng Yuyun sighed inwardly.
It should be impossible for a daughter of a fourth-rank official to hold a coming-of-age ceremony, not to mention that the Chi family is also labeled as the Gu family, and the Jiang family and the Gu family are like water and fire. But unfortunately, her daughter just fell in love with Jiang Cichen.
"I will find a way."
As Feng Yuyun's only daughter and the apple of Chi Jing'an's eye, the entire mansion began preparing for Chi Mingshi's coming-of-age ceremony early on.
Tang Li said indignantly in the west courtyard: "My young lady didn't even have a coming-of-age ceremony back then."
The Chi Mansion was thoroughly cleaned and renovated; dead trees were removed and replaced with seasonal flowering trees.
Wherever there is a shortage of bricks and tiles, we will fill them up.
Everyone in the Chi family was busy preparing for Chi Mingshi's coming-of-age ceremony, and the hustle and bustle of the day finally fell silent late at night.
Even the two maids who were guarding the ancestral hall were tired from working for days and leaned against the pillars of the porch, sleeping soundly with their heads nodding and making soft snoring sounds.
A figure blended into the night, glided silently across the courtyard, and stopped under the window frame on the side of the ancestral hall.
The short blade slid out of his sleeve and inserted into the window crack. Luo Wan flicked his wrist very lightly, and the window bolt opened.
Inside the ancestral hall, the strong smell of sandalwood mixed with the scent of aged wood hits you in the face.
The moonlight filtered through the high windows, casting a few pale beams of light on the ground, barely illuminating the layers of tablets on the altar and the Buddha statue that reflected an eerie glow in the darkness.
Luo Wan flashed into the room and gently closed the window with his backhand, blocking out the last ray of light from the outside world. Only a few eternal lamps on the altar were burning with bean-sized flames that flickered.
Her target was clear: the Buddha statue that Feng Yuyun treasured and worshipped day and night.
Luo Wan spun around and flew onto the beam, approaching the shrine and hanging wall cabinet. She stopped in front of the Buddha statue, and her cold fingertips touched the smooth but chilling metal surface.
The Buddha statue was cast quite roughly, and even some irregular bumps and depressions can be seen on the surface. There is a circle of extremely fine gap where the base and the body of the statue are connected.
Luo Wan gently inserted the tip of the short blade into the gap. The dagger explored in the gap and then encountered a piece of adhesive resistance. With an imperceptible sound, the Buddha statue shook slightly.
The base is separated from the statue.
An indescribable smell, a mixture of stale sandalwood and some indescribable, faintly fishy smell, suddenly escaped from the gap!
Luo Wan suppressed the churning in his stomach and, with the help of the flickering light, forcibly pried open the Buddha statue along the casting marks!
A golden statue with a stiff smile and unfocused pupils came into view. It was about 70% similar to the one Chen Nanyuan found in the county magistrate's mansion in Kantang County.
"Take the baby's body, fill it with mercury, and wrap it in gold foil."
Jiang Cichen's words echoed in Luo Wan's ears at this moment.
The air seemed to freeze, carrying a chill and dead silence that penetrated into the bone marrow.
Luo Wan reached his hand into the hollow of the golden statue's base, but what his fingertips touched was not the cold metal inner wall, but a dry, fragile texture with a rough texture!
Although he had been mentally prepared before coming here, Luo Wan still hoped that his judgment was wrong.
Luo Wan fumbled around, grabbed the thing, and pulled it out with force.
She pulled out an object, only the length of her forearm, tightly wrapped in faded old silk cloth, from the base of the golden statue.
The silk cloth was wrapped extremely tightly, and Luo Wan's fingers were a little stiff as she peeled off the strips layer by layer.
When the last layer of cloth was lifted, moonlight slanted in from the high window, and the pale light fell on the object in her hand.
That wasn't some relic of a deity or Buddha, it was a dried up, curled-up baby's corpse!
The body was stuffed into a silk cloth in an extremely twisted position, with its limbs curled up.
The small body had long been dehydrated and shriveled, the skin was a lifeless black and purple, tightly wrapped around the tiny bones, the mouth was slightly open, and there were only two empty black holes where the eyes should be.
This size clearly indicates that the baby is not full-term.
On the day of Ye's burial, the dead baby covered in purple that no one in the West Courtyard had seen was here.
This is Chi Wanwan's younger brother.
Day and night, he has no rest and is "worshipped" by his enemies with incense.
All the clues are connected at this moment, pointing to a heinous and inhumane truth.
Feng Yuyun used Xu Xuan to prescribe a chronic poison prescription, and Li Ma witnessed Ye drinking it with her own eyes. Not long after, Ye was poisoned and two people died.
At that time, Chi Fu had already followed the Gu family and indirectly learned that there was a kind of evil magic in the east that could bless one with promotion and wealth.
In order to consolidate her position and rise to prominence, she did not hesitate to treat the baby who died in her womb in such a vicious and blasphemous way.
I'm afraid that after Ye's death, Feng Yuyun did not ask anyone to perform a ritual to help her soul to be reborn, but to suppress her!
Just then, a vague mumbling sound came from the corridor outside the door.
Luo Wan quickly wrapped the small corpse in the faded old silk cloth again, then took out a fake object of similar size and shape that he had prepared long ago from his arms and stuffed it into the cavity of the base of the golden statue.
Close the Buddha statue, carefully smooth out the glue marks with the tip of a dagger, and put the Buddha statue back in its original position exactly.
Just like when he came, he slid silently to the window, and after confirming it was safe, he pushed the window open, climbed out, and left.
Inside the ancestral hall, the scent of sandalwood curls up.
The flame of the eternal lamp was still jumping, illuminating the Buddha statue that had swallowed up the sins and had now been replaced.
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