In the old society, the walls of the mansions were several meters high, and gusts of cold wind blew incessantly, creating a gloomy atmosphere.
Shekh stepped aside to make way for the doorway. "Come in."
Ye Zhan: "Isn't the teacher going to lead the way?"
Shekh watched him silently, without saying a word.
Ye Zhan also remained silent. When entering the Half-Mountain Temple and Pagoda, the teacher did not go in first. She only led the way for half of the way. Her not going in proved that even the teacher had things she was afraid of.
Shekh casually pointed to Huang Yingzong: "You go first."
Huang Yingzong felt uneasy. He had a premonition that if he went in first, he would suffer today.
He wasn't stupid; he could tell that Lin Shu and her group had been avoiding him all day yesterday.
He knew very well that his actions at night had frightened Lin Shu, but Huang Yingzong had no other choice. He came to his senses and began to do that thing.
He walked slowly forward, dragging his feet, and was about to push open the door when he heard Yao Shu say, "Wait a minute."
"I'll do it."
Yao Shu took out a bowl from her prop backpack, put some coarse salt and glutinous rice into it, and then took out three sandalwood sticks and held them in her hand.
Huang Yingzong: "Thank you very much."
"No need." Yao Shu's kindness wasn't sudden; she was thinking of the original plot.
Fu Guan had heard them say that the more players who survived this round, the better, because it would spread the risk. Now she felt that they were right. If she died on the first night, and no one did these things, the survivors would step into more traps and die even faster.
With more people, there is more room for maneuver.
Everyone here is stronger than her, so if she encounters danger, as long as she's not alone, someone will always lend her a hand.
Since my character is walking a tightrope the whole time, taking a couple more steps won't make a difference.
Yao Shu knocked on the door politely and said loudly, "Excuse me, we're coming in."
The people behind her stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind them.
Yao Shu lit sandalwood incense, muttered incantations, and roughly circled the house clockwise, bowing at each of the four corners.
Then, she sprinkled the mixture of coarse salt and glutinous rice under the door and windows. After doing this, Yao Shu took out an incense burner, inserted the incense sticks, and placed them in the main room.
The Yu family once worshipped Mingpei, and in a sense, Mingpei was also the Yu family's guardian deity. Houses that have been worshipped should be treated with extra care.
The house was very large, and by the time everything was done, it was past noon. Jiang Xiaowan asked, "Is that all?"
"Wait a little longer."
The white smoke drifting out against the grain made Yao Shu frown. This house was so big, hundreds of years old, and there must have been quite a few ghosts living there.
After waiting for two or three minutes, the white smoke stopped dispersing, and the dirty thing left faster than Yao Shu had expected.
After performing a simple house-cleansing ceremony, she said, "Okay, that's enough for now."
Qian Chang found it interesting, "Wouldn't this make the house safe after we do this?"
“No,” Yao Shu replied. “They only exorcise minor ghosts, which only ensures that you won’t be handed toilet paper when you go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and that you won’t be paralyzed by ghosts at night. Powerful rituals like this may not necessarily be effective.”
Qian Chang: "...There's a lot of filth in this house, and the woods too, with piles of bones, it feels like a lot of people have died."
Yao Shu: "Isn't this normal? Which piece of land under your feet hasn't been stained with blood?"
Qian Chang was speechless. What she said made perfect sense, and she couldn't refute it.
At the back of the line, Shekh had a blank expression and looked unhappy.
"There are many century-old cultural relics in this house. You can look for them. Consider it compensation for the accident at this summer camp. If you find them, they are yours and you can take them all."
Such a great temptation! Driven by the plot, the others got the idea and quickly took action.
Apart from Huang Yingzong.
He pressed his shoulder, paused in place, pulled his outstretched leg back and forth, his jaw tightened, and his eyes shifted repeatedly.
Ye Zhan passed by him and deliberately patted Huang Yingzong on the shoulder: "Brother, aren't you going?"
"go."
Huang Yingzong's struggles ceased, and he began to wander around the house with the others.
Following the base of the wall, the group discovered a small, locked courtyard.
It was so dilapidated that its style was difficult to integrate into the whole house.
Although the Yu family mansion is old, it has been repaired and expanded by generations of people, so you won't feel that it is dilapidated when you actually step inside. Only this small courtyard is so dilapidated that it is unbearable to look at.
The rusty chain broke at the slightest touch, so Yao Shu knocked on the door before going in, as usual.
The small courtyard gate faces the main entrance of the house. The two carved wooden doors are crooked and leaning. Looking inside, the things inside have long since faded and decayed.
Shi Jinzhe picked up a piece of grayish-white bark and turned his gaze to the dead tree in the corner.
Kapok tree, also known as Qiongzhi, this is Yu Qiongzhi's yard.
The wind and rain have eroded it; the tree has been dead for a long time. Yu Qiongzhi is gone, and no one takes care of the tree in her yard anymore. She lives in the Yu family home…
Just as the noodle shop owner said, "Grandma" is just a title, and any descendants who care should not treat her former residence so casually.
"Come and see."
Jiang Xiaowan's voice came from inside the house. She was holding a stone slab with four and a half characters engraved on it. The first four characters were "Jade Tree and Jade Branches", and the last half was "?".
It was a very small stone slab, broken below the character "枝" (branch), with a relatively clean cut, and it appeared to have another half.
Fu Guan asked, "Where did you find that?"
Jiang Xiaowan: "It was lying on the ground. I saw it as soon as I came in."
Fu Guanzai: "Right on the ground?"
Jiang Xiaowan: "Yes, the house was ransacked, and this stone shard was lying on the ground."
The stone slab was passed around, and Shi Jin took it in his hand, feeling a chill at the broken point.
He took out his scepter, and sure enough, a very faint wisp of black mist was absorbed by the crystal—the black mist that was searching for Shekh.
Once he was sure it was completely absorbed, he held it in his hand, letting Sheikh see it but not letting her touch it.
Yao Shu asked, "This is a clue. Do you have any ideas about the second half of the sentence?"
Fu Guan stroked his chin: "Poems related to jade trees and coral branches."
He could recall a few poems with the character "琼枝" (qiongzhi), but he couldn't think of any for the moment. "These are radicals. Can you think of any characters with that radical?"
If Jiang Yinxue were here, she could come up with this right away.
When time comes and they fall, there is a line that reads, "Jade trees and precious branches, winding and leaning against each other."
Fu Guanzai: "That's quite possible, the radicals match up."
When the time was up, he shook his head and wrote down the next line of the poem.
[As the wine intensifies, spring thoughts stir. The embroidered quilt, adorned with mandarin ducks, ripples like crimson waves.]
He looked at the others, his face clearly saying, "Do you think it's reasonable for this poem to appear in Yu Qiongzhi's boudoir?"
Even a blind man would know what this means. If this sentence were engraved on the stone tablet, even just the first half, I don't know how people would talk about Yu Qiongzhi if they saw it.
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