Chapter 88: Progress Bar for Becoming a Regular Employee 19/100
Judging from the current conditions, it is clear that the Huo family initially lived in this alley, which is consistent with their economic situation. After all, Huo Zhenyue's grandfather started as a lowly soldier and didn't have much money to build a family business.
When Huo Zhenyue's father was wounded on the battlefield and retired, the emperor at the time, who was also Jiang Yichun's father, Emperor Chang, sent him a house and arranged for him to move there.
This old general probably won't have the chance to go back to his childhood home. So the question is, why not let him go back to live in his old house? Is there some secret hidden in the old house?
Su Zhenzhen then looked at the eunuch's ghost, "Do you still remember what the emperor asked you to convey? When you went to General Huo's house, how many people were in the house? What was the situation on the border at that time?"
The eunuch certainly remembered the contents of the imperial edict: "Please invite Madam Huo to the palace secretly. At the time, besides Madam Huo, there was a young girl in the room, whom Madam Huo said was her maid. This servant is only delivering the edict and does not understand court politics."
Su Zhenzhen thought that the Huo family genealogy clearly stated that Huo Erniang was born to a maidservant of the mistress, and no one would easily joke about the genealogy.
It is very likely that at that time, Old Mrs. Huo lived in the alley with Old Mr. Huo's concubine.
It's highly likely that this concubine had a difficult childbirth; otherwise, such a large, living person would have been seen by the neighbors.
For some reason, Old Madam Huo concealed Huo Erniang's true identity, telling the outside world that she was an adopted maid who would grow up to be her servant.
This matched the testimonies of the night watchman and the eunuch.
Su Zhenzhen calculated the birth and death dates of everyone on the family tree. When Mr. Huo returned to Beijing to retire, Mr. Huo had already passed away for several years.
So the old man's death shouldn't be a big deal.
It is very likely that Old Madam Huo discovered something, or perhaps Emperor Chang was too suspicious to tolerate something and wanted to bring the old lady into the palace as a hostage.
But how should she put it? Su Zhenzhen was conflicted and asked General Huo directly, "Isn't your father a bit arrogant? Does he give the royal family the impression that he's planning to establish his own independent regime?"
Or perhaps it was simply that Emperor Chang was overly suspicious.
Currently, Su Zhenzhen is half in favor of either of these two speculations.
Now there is another problem.
"I can tell you're all getting on in years. Have you encountered anything unpleasant while you've been night watchmen all this time?"
There were seven night watchmen, including Chang Yuan. They basically had no interaction on a daily basis. Even though their professional careers brought them together, they didn't seem to know each other very well.
Their situation, where they were killed one after the other, seems very much like that they inadvertently stumbled upon some secret and were subsequently silenced.
When it comes to this issue, everyone has a lot to say. They have countless stories of wealthy families beating and scolding their maids at night, or the master of the house secretly bringing prostitutes home.
Su Zhenzhen's head was spinning, but she still couldn't hear anything that was related to the Huo family.
"Chang Yuan, take them and think it over carefully. In the alley where you live, did you encounter anything unusual when you passed by on night watch?"
The heads of several ghosts huddled together, exchanging words, and eventually came up with a small clue.
Every month on the fifteenth of the month, when I pass by Chang Yuan's house, I can always hear cats meowing.
At the time, they thought it was someone's cat in heat, because it always meowed on the 15th of the lunar month.
"I remember now." Chang Yuan slapped his forehead. "When I was little, my grandma said that stray cats would suddenly appear from somewhere and meow loudly in the middle of the night. Nobody in our alley kept cats. People couldn't even afford to eat, let alone keep these animals."
Su Zhenzhen had a bold guess: perhaps it wasn't a cat meowing at all, but rather someone coming to scout the place out of the blue?
Su Zhenzhen then looked at the eunuch and asked, "When you went to deliver the imperial decree that night, did Madam Huo go with you?"
The eunuch shook his head. "I can't remember."
That's probably when he died. Most ghosts only remember the last thing they did in life. They can't remember things that happened too long ago, let alone such an old ghost whose memory has been almost completely eroded by the years.
Su Zhenzhen then asked the other ghosts, "Do you still have any unfulfilled wishes?"
The six ghosts shared the same thought: "We have no more wishes. We were already free from all attachments in this world. We just hoped to be reborn into a better life in the next life, but we can't find the path to reincarnation."
Because they died unjustly, their souls were bound by the threads of cause and effect, and naturally could not enter the cycle of reincarnation.
If we can find out how they died, perhaps the causal chain can be untied automatically.
“I have a guess in my mind. Maybe when you were on night watch, you heard the cat meowing, but people mistook it for you discovering their secret, which led to the series of accidents.”
As Su Zhenzhen finished speaking, the causal threads binding the six ghosts began to loosen.
One ghost even clapped his hands happily, saying, "I knew it! How could I be so unlucky? It's one thing to be an orphan since childhood, but when I grew up I couldn't find a wife, and when I got old I had no one to see me off in my old age. In the end, I died on a slippery road in the dark without knowing why. It turns out I was murdered by someone."
These people all came from truly impoverished backgrounds and had no attachment to this world. The reason they couldn't embark on the path of reincarnation was because they had indeed been harmed by others.
Just like the ghost said, his life had already been so miserable. If he were to lose his life because of slipping, how unlucky and unjust would that be?
In contrast, they would rather have been murdered. After all, a worthless life is nothing, and dying early means being reborn sooner, maybe even a better life in the next life.
Just as the ghost was speaking, all six causal threads loosened and disappeared.
Su Zhenzhen immediately opened the Path of Reincarnation and sent all six ghosts inside.
Ding, progress bar is now 19/100.
The progress bar in the sea of consciousness updated, and this time it even emitted a notification sound, probably because the performance increased by 6 at once.
The eunuch saw the Path of Reincarnation open before him and immediately tried to float in, but he was bounced away by a powerful gust of air the moment he entered. He then looked pitifully at Su Zhenzhen.
"I also want to be reincarnated. In my next life, I don't want to be sold by my parents again, nor do I want to be a eunuch. I feel my body is being blown away by the wind little by little. I can't remember many things. Am I going to disappear from this world?"
The eunuch's ghost was indeed somewhat unstable, but the karmic threads on his body had not been untied, so he was naturally rejected by the cycle of reincarnation.
Su Zhenzhen shut down the Cycle of Reincarnation. "Think carefully. Do you remember how you died? Or are there any unfulfilled wishes?"
The eunuch looked dejected. "I don't remember. I just want to go home. His Majesty said he would let me go home."
Su Zhenzhen's heart skipped a beat, and an answer began to surface.
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