Old Wang, holding a flashlight, had already stepped inside when he suddenly turned around and glared at Qin Jingwen.
“Your grandfather was Qin Dadan, and you haven’t inherited any of that idiot’s traits.”
Qin Jingwen held Bai Qianmo's hand tightly, her eyes reddening: "She's a girl, after all."
Old Wang chuckled twice. Although the light was dim, one could still sense that the old man's smile was rather eerie.
"You can leave."
Bai Qianmo sensed that Qin Jingwen was frightened by Old Wang, and said to her, "Jingwen, go upstairs and wait for me."
“I’ll stay with you. That corridor is creepy, I’m scared, and I don’t trust you.” In her memory, Grandpa Wang had always been a withdrawn and eccentric person. Now that he had suddenly brought Qianmo here, and her cousin hadn’t come along, how could she possibly leave Qianmo behind and run away by herself?
Bai Qianmo didn't say anything more, and Old Wang stopped trying to scare Qin Jingwen. He held up a flashlight and said, "I'll go in and turn on the light first."
Bai Qianmo patted Qin Jingwen's hand and pulled her inside.
Old Wang walked familiarly to a mahogany altar and expertly took out matches to light the candles on both sides.
"Why use matches? Isn't a lighter more convenient?" Qin Jingwen asked, puzzled.
After lighting up the wall lamps on both sides, Old Wang casually replied, "Nothing here can be changed. We, the descendants of the Wang family, have always followed the ancestral teachings, including this small match."
Qin Jingwen muttered to herself, "The rules set by the Wang family ancestors are so strange."
"Hey, little girl, don't talk nonsense in our ancestral hall. The Wang family ancestors are listening."
Qin Jingwen felt a chill run down her spine, which shot up from her waist. Her scalp tingled, and the dim light in the room, along with the flickering candlelight, reminded her of scenes from horror movies she had watched.
"Grandpa Wang, I didn't say anything."
"That's good."
Bai Qianmo remained silent, her gaze fixed on the two portraits hanging in front of the altar.
Old Wang glanced at Bai Qianmo, then shone his flashlight on one of the portraits on the wall.
"This is my ancestral master!"
"Oh, this... Qianmo, she..." Qin Jingwen exclaimed in surprise after seeing the portrait of the woman on the right, her gaze shifting back and forth between the portrait and Bai Qianmo's face in astonishment.
Bai Qianmo calmly stared at the woman in the portrait. She was wearing a light blue cheongsam, and her eyebrows, eyes, and features were exactly the same as hers. However, judging from the age in the portrait, the woman should be a bit more mature than her.
Bai Qianmo recalled the photo of Xu Jin'en that she saw at the home of Chonghe Wei in Xuchang. Xu Jin'en should have been around twenty years old at that time.
The woman in the portrait should be around twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old at this point. Xu Jin'en passed away suddenly just after turning thirty, so the portrait must have been left shortly before her death.
Seeing Qin Jingwen's shock, Old Wang said to Bai Qianmo, "Am I right? My ancestral grandmother looks exactly like you."
Bai Qianmo asked curiously, "You call her Grandmaster Grandmother, are you perhaps a descendant of her?"
Old Wang looked at the portrait intently for a moment, then shone his flashlight on the portrait of the man to the left of the woman.
The man was dressed in a crisp green military uniform. He had regular features, thick eyebrows, and big eyes, with his dense brows revealing a hint of fortitude.
"This is my grandfather, Wang Zhenshan. The ancestral master next to him is not my biological grandmother, but my grandfather's benefactor and the woman he admired and respected most in his life. When my grandfather was alive, the times were turbulent. To commemorate my ancestral master, he secretly dug a secret room in his house to remember her and hung her portrait here. Later, when times improved, my grandfather still insisted on coming here every day for a while. Until he passed away, he called my father and second uncle to his bedside and gave them only two instructions: First, never touch anything in the ancestral hall without permission. Second, come to the ancestral hall to worship every day."
Old Wang walked to the offering table, lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the incense burner, then knelt on the prayer mat and kowtowed.
He then continued, "After my grandfather passed away, my father and second uncle discussed it and decided to hang his portrait in this ancestral hall. Although my grandfather didn't say anything, his descendants all know that this is what he would have liked to see the most."
Bai Qianmo stared at Xu Jin'en in the portrait, feeling a strange sense of resonance.
In that era, she seemed to be an outlier.
Xu Jin'en must be very smart, otherwise so many people wouldn't still remember her after her death.
When Old Wang was about to get up from the prayer mat, Bai Qianmo immediately stepped forward and gently helped him up.
Old Wang turned around and glanced at Bai Qianmo: "Your name is Bai Qianmo?"
"Yes!"
Bai Qianmo...
Old Wang murmured for a while, then looked Bai Qianmo over carefully before slowly shifting his gaze to the portrait.
How could there be such an imaginative person in this world?
Just then
Bai Qianmo's phone suddenly rang.
He took out his phone and saw that it was Gu Jueye calling. He immediately pressed the answer button.
"Hello."
Where?
Bai Qianmo glanced at Old Wang. Because the signal was very unstable here, the phone was crackling. She walked to the door and whispered, "I'm at the Wang family's house."
I didn't see you at the Wang family's house.
Bai Qianmo raised an eyebrow: "You're here too?"
"Hmm, shall I come to you or will you come to me?"
"I'll go out and find you right away."
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