Chapter 46
The Mao family's house was a three-story Chinese-style villa with a small courtyard outside.
The courtyard wasn't very large, but it was decorated in a very quiet and elegant manner. To the left of the entrance, against the wall, was a pond. The pond was level with the ground and paved with clean, shiny stone slabs. At this moment, the stone slabs were wet, and on them lay a very large turtle.
"What a huge turtle!" the cameraman blurted out.
Mao Dayong glanced at it, said "Oh," and then said, "This is the turtle my grandfather raised. It's said to have been passed down from my great-grandfather's generation, and it's been raised for hundreds of years!"
Seeing the obvious interest on Xu Gui's face, Mao Dayong led them closer to take a look.
As you get closer, the turtle appears even larger, and the patterns on its shell become more pronounced, vaguely resembling the Chinese character for "longevity," which is quite peculiar.
Mao Dayong said with a hint of pride, "You don't know, reporters used to come to our house specifically to photograph it, and some people were willing to pay a high price to buy it, the highest offer being eight million, but we promised my grandfather that we wouldn't sell it, so we firmly refused."
Xu Gui glanced at him, exposing his lie, and said, "Isn't it because your grandfather said that only this tortoise knows where his inheritance is? If you dare to sell the tortoise, you'll never find his inheritance in your entire life?"
Mao Dayong chuckled dryly and said, "That's part of the reason."
but……
"You even know that my grandfather said that?" He looked at Xu Gui in surprise. "Are you really a fortune teller?"
His words made Xu Guidu feel a bit resentful, and he said, "If I weren't a diviner, why would you invite me here?"
Mao Dayong: "That's true."
He saw Xu Gui squat down and stroke the turtle's shell. The turtle, which was usually unresponsive, now poked its head out and showed an unprecedented liveliness. Mao Dayong suddenly remembered what Xu Gui had mentioned before about being able to talk to turtles.
"You can really understand what the turtle is saying?" he asked.
Xu Gui: "..."
The paparazzi couldn't help but glance at Mr. Mao: "Do you still remember this?"
Xu Gui didn't answer his question, but instead asked, "Your grandfather said that only this tortoise knows where his inheritance is, right?"
Mao Dayong's attention was diverted. He nodded and then said, "Do you think my grandfather is crazy? He doesn't tell us about his inheritance, but tells a turtle. But this turtle can't talk. What's the point of him telling it? Does this turtle really know where the inheritance is?"
Xu Gui smiled and said, "This tortoise can't tell you where the inheritance is, but it can help you find your grandfather's inheritance."
"Really?" Mao Dayong was skeptical.
Just then, a surprised voice came from the doorway: "Dayong, what are you doing here?"
Xu Gui turned his head and saw a slightly overweight man standing at the entrance of the Mao family's gate. The man was about fifty years old and looked somewhat old, but his features were somewhat similar to Mao Dayong's.
Upon seeing the other person, Mao Dayong called out, "Dad!"
Then he asked, "Why are you back? It's not the weekend, is it?"
Mao Dayong's father walked in and said, "There's nothing much going on in the office, so I came back first... What are you all doing?"
His gaze swept over Xu Gui, who was squatting on the ground scratching at the turtle, and then glanced at the cameraman carrying the camera.
"Are these two your friends?" he asked.
Mao Dayong hurriedly said, "No, I invited them specifically to help me find my grandfather's inheritance."
Mao's father looked bewildered: What the heck?
Perhaps because the confusion on Mao's father's face was too obvious, Mao Dayong hurriedly explained, "This is Xu Gui, Master Xu. She is a diviner, and she can even talk to turtles! With her here, we will definitely be able to find Grandpa's inheritance."
Mao's father: "..."
After a few seconds of silence, he looked at his son with the eyes of someone looking at a fool.
"I can't believe you even came up with that!" Mr. Mao said through gritted teeth.
Mao Dayong didn't hear the gritted teeth in his voice, and thought he was being praised. He scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "Dad, you think I'm smart too, right? You don't know, when I saw the master making that turtle run around in circles, I was reminded of the old turtle at home."
The more he talked, the smarter he felt: "Grandpa said that only the old tortoise knew about his inheritance. If we can understand the old tortoise, then we can find Grandpa's inheritance, right?"
After he finished speaking, he didn't forget to praise himself: "I'm really a genius."
Mao's father: "..."
He didn't talk to this "idiot," but turned his gaze to Xu Gui and the others, and said in a harsh voice, "I don't care how you lied to my son, just get out of here now before I call the police! Otherwise, don't blame me for being impolite."
Upon hearing this, Mao Dayong became anxious and cried out, "Dad..."
Mr. Mao rolled his eyes and said, "You idiot, you believe someone when they say they can talk to turtles? Are you an idiot? No, even an idiot isn't as easily fooled as you!"
Mao Dayong: ...Was it necessary to scold him like that?
“Dad, the master really is something.” Mao Dayong felt he needed to explain himself, lest his father think he was a fool. He said, “The master is truly capable. She just guessed right away that our family didn’t sell the big tortoise because Grandpa said if we dared to sell it, we’d never find his inheritance…”
"Tell me, isn't it amazing?"
Mao Dayong felt he had done nothing wrong. He said, "Besides, we've been searching for Grandpa's inheritance for seven or eight years. We've practically turned this house upside down. If we don't think of other ways, when will we ever find it?"
In the end, they've searched everywhere they could think of. You know, they almost turned their house upside down in the search for the inheritance. Now that they really can't figure out where their grandfather's inheritance is hidden, they can only turn to the superstition.
"Anyway, if they really are fraudsters and can't find Grandpa's inheritance, then we'll call the police and have them arrested!" Mao Dayong finally convinced his father with this statement.
The person following behind heard this: "..." So you're not a fool, but a cunning old fox?
At this moment, Mao's father was scrutinizing Xu Gui with a critical eye. He still didn't quite believe it, especially since Xu Gui looked too young and beautiful, almost like a TV star, glamorous and dazzling. He didn't look like a master at all.
Mr. Mao curled his lip and said, "Since you say you're a master, then tell us, where exactly is Dayong's grandfather's inheritance?"
Xu Gui glanced at him, reached out and touched the large tortoise beside him, and said, "Actually, the old man's legacy is in this courtyard."
Hearing her say that, although he was still full of doubts about Xu Gui, Mao's father straightened up and subconsciously glanced around the courtyard.
"Where?" he asked.
Just as Xu Gui was about to speak, the Mao family's door was pushed open again, and several more people, both men and women, rushed in.
The two people walking in front were a man, who looked to be in his forties. He wasn't overweight and had crescent-shaped eyes that seemed to be smiling even when he wasn't. The woman next to him was short and plump, with shrewd eyes and a capable and calculating look.
The two men looked very much like Mao's father, clearly related by blood. As soon as they entered, they started shouting, saying:
"Big brother, I heard that your Da Yong hired a master to find his grandfather's inheritance. How could you not tell us about this? We are Dad's sons and daughters after all. If his inheritance is found, we will have a share of it!"
"That's right, brother, you're being too polite. If our Minhui hadn't seen the live stream, we wouldn't have known about this!"
Behind them, when the woman mentioned "Minhui," a young woman inside looked proud—yes, it was she who saw it; otherwise, if Mao Dayong's family had really found the inheritance, there wouldn't have been any for them.
This group of people rushed in, rattling off a string of words. When Mao's father saw them, his face turned green.
"What are you saying? If I really found Dad's inheritance, wouldn't I share it with you?" Mr. Mao said unhappily, though he seemed to be sincere. However, his words didn't really work on the people opposite him.
After all, the three of them are brothers and sisters, grew up under the same roof, and family members know each other well. Who doesn't know the other's character?
"That's hard to say," the middle-aged woman, Mao Dayong's aunt, said with a pursed lip. "What if you find the inheritance and secretly hide it away, then we won't know, right?"
Uncle Mao said, "Little sister, you're going too far. Of course we have to believe what our eldest brother says, but we three siblings all have a share in Dad's inheritance. So, if we're going to search for it, we can't expect you to do it all by yourself, can we?"
The close siblings, now vying for their father's inheritance, revealed their ugly side, offering each other the most insincere smiles.
Xu Gui watched this scene with a cold expression, and gently stroked the shell of the giant tortoise.
Meanwhile, under the overpass on the other side, at Xu Gui's fortune-telling stall, the group of onlookers hadn't dispersed yet. Looking at the old man who had spoken to Mao Dayong earlier, they couldn't help but ask him, "Young man, did your family really leave behind an inheritance of over a hundred kilograms of gold?"
With the value of gold rising steadily, the value of these hundred-odd kilograms of gold is truly immeasurable. But who exactly is this elderly man who left behind so much gold?
Could it be that the Mao family were once wealthy landowners?
“…That’s not it.” The old man, who was clearly very familiar with the Mao family, denied everyone’s guess and said, “It’s just that Mao Dayong’s grandfather used to be a bandit. If I mention his name, many of you should have heard of him.”
Looking at the curious onlookers, the old man revealed the name of Mao Dayong's grandfather: Mao Taiping.
"Mao Taiping?"
Upon hearing the name, the younger people in the crowd looked somewhat bewildered, but a few of the older people were surprised and asked in astonishment, "That notorious bandit Mao Taiping?"
The old man nodded: "That's right, it's Mao Taiping."
Seeing that they all seemed to know each other, the young man next to them couldn't help but ask, "Who exactly is Mao Taiping?"
Before the old man could answer, those who knew the name started talking one after another.
"Mao Taiping was quite famous around here in the 1950s and 60s!"
At that time, their area was still in a very isolated environment. Mao Taiping occupied the mountain and became a bandit, organizing a group of rabble to become bandits. He robbed countless caravans, making him both a tyrant and a rich man. However, around the 1970s, an army came to fight the bandits, and after that, we never heard from him again.
"If it were Mao Taiping, he might actually have a hundred or so pounds of gold..." someone muttered.
When asked why, the person replied, "Because the mountain that Mao Taiping occupied was originally occupied by invaders from our area. Later, Mao Taiping drove them away, and that mountain became Mao Taiping's bandit mountain... It is said, it is said!! Those invaders looted the wealth of several surrounding towns, and who knows how much money they hid on that mountain."
"Everyone says that Mao Taiping occupied that mountain and robbed it of all its wealth. I heard there are several caves full of gold and antiques there!"
Throughout history, these kinds of "rumors" have always been the most interesting. People around listen with their ears perked up, and after the story is finished, they subconsciously ask, "And then what happened?"
The man said, "Later? Then the army came and wiped out the bandits. We never heard from Mao Taiping again. We all thought he was dead."
Unexpectedly, this person is still alive, and even married and had children. If that's the case, he might have left behind a huge inheritance. No wonder the Mao family has been so eager to acquire it.
The old man who knew the Mao family said, "Actually, we don't even know if this inheritance exists."
The others asked, "Why do you say that? If it was Mao Taiping, he must have left something behind, right?"
The old man had his reasons for saying this. He said, "You don't know, the Mao family was quite down on their luck before. Mao Taiping was so poor that he couldn't even afford to get married. We all guessed that his property on the mountain might have been confiscated, which is why he was so destitute."
The old man was much younger than Mao Taiping. When Mao Taiping returned home, he was already in his teens, so he was quite clear about these things.
After Mao Taiping came down the mountain, he was already over thirty years old. By the time he got married and had children, he was almost forty. Later, he had a son and a daughter, making a total of three children.
For many years, this family lived in poverty. It was only after the area was developed and demolished that the Mao family's life improved.
The Mao family used to live in their ancestral home, which was a large area. Once it was demolished, they became wealthy. However, perhaps because Mao Taiping himself committed too many sins in his youth and damaged his karma, all three of his children were heartless and unfilial.
Mao Taiping was already in his seventies or eighties at that time, but none of his three children were willing to take care of him. After Mao Taiping fell ill, they simply abandoned him in a dilapidated house and left him to fend for himself.
Chinese people value filial piety above all else, and upon hearing this, they couldn't help but say, "This is outrageous! Mao Taiping's three children are so unfilial!"
“Those three children don’t think they’re unfilial grandchildren at all,” the old man said, his tone disdainful. “According to them, they’re acting on behalf of Heaven, upholding justice by sacrificing their own family. Mao Taiping used to be a bandit, so they don’t acknowledge him as their father!”
Of course, if these three siblings could consistently live up to their words, others might grumble a bit, but they wouldn't look down on them. However, the way these three siblings behaved was indeed too unsightly.
"After they drove Mao Taiping out, only a beggar was taking care of him, and Mao Taiping gave this beggar a gold ingot..."
As the name suggests, the "Golden Cake" is a large cake made of gold. When this news spread, not only others, but Mao Taiping's three children couldn't sit still. The three ungrateful bastards who were previously heartless and treacherous were now kneeling and begging Mao Taiping to come back.
At this moment, they all forgot what they had done to Mao Taiping before, and all became filial sons and grandsons. Mao Taiping instantly became their good father and good dad. The three of them even fought over Mao Taiping's right to support him.
When this story got out, it was both laughable and pathetic, and it also evoked extreme contempt for the three Mao siblings.
After this incident, the three Mao siblings became extremely obedient to Mao Taiping and dared not be filial at all, because every time they had any doubts, Mao Taiping would take out a large piece of gold.
With this piece of meat hanging in front of them, how could the three Mao siblings dare to show the slightest disrespect?
Mao Taiping lived a long life, passing away eight years ago at the age of ninety-three, which was considered a long life. Moreover, he died without any pain, according to his family, from a sudden illness.
A sudden illness is just that—sudden. It's very sudden, with basically no pain, and you die instantly.
"You know, this man is really lucky," the old man sighed. "He spent the first half of his life as a bandit, killing countless people, yet in his old age he not only lived to a ripe old age but also didn't suffer much."
Although he encountered some minor setbacks along the way, compared to the happiness he enjoyed, what were those setbacks?
"The old man's inheritance?"
"Inheritance? When Mao Taiping was alive, he did keep talking about inheritance. It was because of this inheritance that his three children didn't dare to treat him badly, for fear of not getting a penny of his money... But when Mao Taiping was alive, he didn't tell anyone about this inheritance. He kept it a secret for a long time, so when he died, no one knew where it was."
When Mao Taiping died, his three siblings almost turned their house upside down in search of his inheritance, but they found nothing. Seven or eight years have passed, and there's still no sign of the inheritance. Now, many people are starting to have doubts.
"Everyone suspects that Mao Taiping actually had no inheritance at all. The inheritance he mentioned was just to ensure that his three children would be filial to him."
Especially now that the internet is so developed, there are so many jokes online. The story of that old lady who pretended to be rich even though she had no money, and who made her children filial, has been widely circulated online. So people are wondering if Mao Taiping is another "old lady".
The Mao family probably had this suspicion as well, but they were likely unwilling to accept it. After all, they had been providing Mao Taiping with good food and drink for the sake of this inheritance; otherwise, they would have kicked him out long ago. So, it would be too difficult for them to accept this ending with nothing.
Therefore, for the past seven or eight years, the Mao family has never given up on finding the inheritance.
The old man secretly revealed some information: "Right after Mao Taiping died, quite a few thieves visited the Mao family's house in search of his inheritance, but unfortunately, they found nothing."
Whether Mao Taiping actually left any inheritance remains a mystery to this day.
*
The Mao family's hard-earned legacy of over a hundred kilograms of gold is indeed real; otherwise, where did the gold amulets on Mao Dayong and the others come from?
However, before the inheritance was found, the Mao family had a conflict over how to divide it equally.
Fortunately, they remembered that the distribution of the profits could only be done after the inheritance was found. So, after a conversation that was full of hidden agendas and ulterior motives, they turned their attention back to Xu Gui.
"So this is the master?" Aunt Mao asked, looking at Xu Gui with great curiosity. She said with a smile, "He's really young. No wonder they say heroes emerge from among the young."
Behind her, a young woman approached. It was Minhui. She said, "Mom, I searched online, and this person really is a master! She can really tell fortunes!"
Kong Huimin's two consecutive "Eh!" perfectly revealed her amazement.
"...She's been running her fortune-telling stall on the overpass for quite some time now, and so far, she hasn't made a single wrong prediction. She's been right about everyone's fortune!" Kong Minhui said excitedly, "This time, we might really find Grandpa's inheritance."
It was quite a coincidence. Kong Minhui had a habit of watching live streams. She was about to swipe away from Xu Gui's live stream when she spotted her cousin in the crowd, and her finger paused.
It was this pause that led to the current situation; otherwise, her family would never have known that Mao Dayong and his family had actually hired a fortune teller to look for her maternal grandfather's inheritance.
When Mao Xiaogu heard her daughter's words, her eyes couldn't help but dart around, and her gaze towards Xu Gui became even more affectionate.
Uncle Mao said somewhat urgently, "Then what are we waiting for, Master? Please help me calculate where my father hid his inheritance."
The long-cherished wish might be fulfilled today. Everyone present stared intently at Xu Gui. Even Mao's father, who was still angry, couldn't help but look at Xu Gui expectantly, hoping that she could give a satisfactory answer.
Xu Gui, who was being watched by everyone, was already sitting on a rock by the pond, gently stroking the shell of the large tortoise beside her.
"I can find the inheritance, but the money I had before isn't enough," Xu Gui said, making his stance clear: "You'll need more money!"
Upon hearing this, Mao Dayong became somewhat anxious and said, "Didn't I already give you five hundred? Why do you want more money?"
Xu Gui raised an eyebrow and said, "That's your share of the money, but the others didn't give any... Otherwise, come here, and I'll secretly tell you the location of your grandfather's inheritance without telling anyone else."
Upon hearing this, Mao Dayong and his son's eyes lit up, but the rest of the Mao family could not remain calm.
"no!"
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