Chapter 12 Haunted Houses in the Republic of China (12)
Year after year, day after day, the fiancé ghost expressed his love for Miss Xia in the restaurant. Even the storyteller ghost made up countless versions of the story, praising the fiancé's infatuation in his words.
But why did the infatuated fiancé's engagement partner become Miss Xia Er? Old Zhang heard that the two had been engaged since childhood, and when Miss Xia was about to reach marriageable age, the boy's mother took the two's horoscopes to have them calculated, and found that their horoscopes were incompatible. On the contrary, her son and Miss Xia Er's horoscopes were a perfect match. So the elders of both sides discussed it and decided that the eldest and second miss were the same, and since the children in the family grew up together and had a good relationship, they directly changed the engagement partner from the eldest miss to the second miss.
The ghosts outside felt quite sorry for the fiancé, because although Miss Xia and Miss Xia II were both daughters of the Xia family and had no difference in status, the second Miss Xia was the youngest in the family and was spoiled by her parents and siblings. But Miss Xia was different.
Everyone in this town knows that Miss Xia is gentle and virtuous. She has been well-versed in poetry and books since childhood and is a well-known talent. She even knows a little about those foreign things outside. Occasionally, when she talks with those gentlemen about certain ideologies, she has her own unique insights. She is not an ordinary lady trapped in the backyard with her horizons restricted. Countless people here regard her as the bright moon in their hearts.
But Miss Xia had been engaged by her parents since she was born, and others didn't even have a chance. However, the eight-character fortune-telling, which was regarded as feudal dregs by many young people in this era, made him lose his white moonlight fiancée and turned her into a spoiled little girl. It was no wonder that she drank to relieve her sorrow every day.
There are three children in the Xia family, one son and two daughters. The eldest son is not very promising. Although he was suppressed by his father and dared not do anything wrong outside, the businesses handed over to him suffered more and more losses. In the end, Mr. Xia dared not let his son touch the family business anymore. However, the family business could not be left without successors, so he handed over part of the business to the eldest daughter under pressure. As he expected, the eldest daughter was much more capable than his unpromising son. So after the engagement was cancelled, in order to prevent the family property from falling into the hands of others, he arranged a son-in-law for his daughter.
So even though the second Miss Xia died suddenly later, her former fiancé did not renew the engagement with the Xia family.
As for the second Miss Xia, who plays a very crucial role in the story, Brother Zhao got more information about her in the mansion. For example, although the three young masters and young ladies of the Xia family are siblings, the eldest young master has a better relationship with the second young lady. Although they are both sisters, the eldest young master has a very bad attitude towards the eldest young lady.
"Could it be because the eldest daughter inherited the family business, which made the eldest son very jealous?" asked Xiaolu.
"No, the relationship between the eldest young lady and the eldest young master has been bad since they were young." Old Zhang shook his head. "It's no secret, whether inside or outside the mansion."
Afterwards, Brother Zhao talked about the strange death of Miss Xia Er.
She died at home. The maid who followed her went back to the house to get something when she found that the second young lady in the yard was missing. They thought she had gone out to play somewhere or sneaked out of the house. After all, the second young lady had done this many times before. Mr. Xia and Mrs. Xia didn't take it too seriously at first. They just asked someone to look for her secretly, but no one found her trace at night.
The two masters of the Xia family finally realized the seriousness of the matter and immediately asked all the servants to go out and look for the person. However, after two or three days without finding the person, they had to risk damaging their daughter's reputation and ask the police to look for the person. Half a month later, they found the person. He was not outside, but in the Xia family, even separated from the eldest lady's yard by a wall.
People often walk around here, but no one noticed that there was a body in the well.
This Miss Xia Er had been soaking in the well for too long, and her body seemed to have been bitten by something. When she was fished out, she was almost rotten. Her eyes had disappeared, and they were dark and particularly scary. The inexperienced young policeman just lay down by the well and vomited.
But what was unusual was that the couple, who had always loved their youngest daughter, did not investigate the matter further. They buried her hastily and announced to the public that their daughter had died in an accident. They also did not allow their servants to mention Miss Xia Er again.
"Shit, so the one in the well is Miss Xia Er? She might not have died in an accident?" Xiaolu felt his scalp tingling when he thought of that precaution.
"It's not a possibility, it's a necessity. Miss Xia's cause of death should be similar to her brother's." Chang Yue frowned.
When Brother Zhao heard Chang Yue mention the young master, he immediately understood that the other party had also found out some important information.
He said in a sarcastic tone that some people should not just think about taking advantage.
Chang Yue snorted coldly. She was not stingy in sharing information, but... she glanced at Ning Hanqi secretly, and seeing that she looked calm and had no intention of stopping her, she told her what she had inquired about.
The information she knew was obtained from that crazy old woman, and it was all a bloody drama when she told it.
In fact, Miss Xia, the eldest young master and the second young lady are not siblings from the same mother. Few people know this secret, and the eldest young master's wet nurse is one of them.
It's not uncommon for dirty deeds to happen in the backyard of a large family, but no one has ever heard of a twin sister getting pregnant with her future brother-in-law before her older sister got married, and then having her young son push her into the pond to drown her, and then directly replacing her.
The pond where the original wife drowned was the place they were just about to go to.
This is probably the reason why the eldest master loves his younger sister but has a bad relationship with the eldest daughter. Not long after the second daughter died, the eldest master was locked up in the woodshed by Master Xia because he got into trouble outside. But when the servants went to deliver food at night, they found that the young master was missing. At this time, a large pot of broth appeared inexplicably in the kitchen... The cooks thought it was made by someone else, and the smell was so delicious. The crazy old woman said at first that the soup was divided up by rats, and later changed her statement to say that the servants stole it. It is not known for the time being which statement is true.
"Meat soup?" Those who heard for the first time that the young master had turned into a pot of meat soup immediately felt nauseous when they thought of the soup they had drunk during this period. Fortunately, they had not tasted meat during this period, otherwise they would have vomited it out.
"So the Madam Xia in the courtyard now is actually fake?"
After pondering for three seconds, Brother Zhao became more certain of his guess.
"I see!"
Even Ning Hanqi, who had been looking down at the table, wondering what he was thinking, looked up and glanced at Brother Zhao.
"If you add this premise, it makes sense! Neither Madam Xia nor the eldest young master wanted to see their first wife's daughter inherit the family business. Given Second Miss Xia's personality, she probably wouldn't tolerate her fiancé showing affection to her sister every day. Add to that the tragic deaths of the eldest and second young masters, who were clearly the result of ghostly revenge, and it's no surprise that they were the two who murdered the eldest young lady!"
Xiaolu tugged at Ning Hanqi's clothes and asked softly, "Does that mean the eldest young lady was murdered before the eldest young master and the second young lady died? And the one who appeared in the yard afterwards... was a ghost?"
"Probably." Ning Hanqi's eyes were unfathomably deep.
How else could they possibly make those two give up on investigating the cause of death of their beloved youngest daughter?
"Thinking about it this way, that young lady is pretty miserable..." Her scumbag father has a stepmother who killed her own mother. If the other party is not a fierce ghost who wants to kill her, Xiaolu will definitely feel pity for her.
Chang Yue glanced at Xiaolu who was still unguarded against Ning Hanqi, and felt a slight pain in her forehead. Should she say that she was careless?
"The exit set in the game must be closely related to the dungeon boss. Right now, we have no idea what caused the dungeon boss's death. The only thing we know for sure is the place where she killed people. Perhaps there's a connection between the two. Time is running out, and we can't wait until the seventh night to confirm everything one by one. Let's hurry and investigate these two places. Does anyone have any concerns?" Old Zhao glanced at everyone. Aside from his companion, Old Zhang, Chang Yue's expression was filled with disdain. Wu Er, who had always been his yes-man, lowered his head, unsure of what to think. Xiaolu, that apparently dull girl, probably hadn't yet figured out what she was saying...
"What about the pond we just went to? Do we also need to investigate the pond that the dungeon boss forbade us to go to?" Ning Hanqi looked up at him with a faint smile on the corner of his mouth.
Brother Zhao put his left hand in his pocket. Ning Hanqi keenly noticed that after she said this, the other party's hand seemed to tighten something in his pocket. She had felt it since they met, that there was an ominous aura emanating from his pocket.
"This... ahem, I've analyzed it, and there should be no connection. However, Lao Zhang and I will investigate it as well. Since it's quite dangerous there, you girls should not run there." Brother Zhao's words were not convincing, but because of the unknown object in the other party's pocket, Ning Hanqi just smiled and said nothing.
"Well... in order to improve efficiency, we have one more thing we want to ask Xiao Ning." Old Zhang changed the subject.
Ning Hanqi looked at him naturally.
No matter how many times he saw these eyes, Lao Zhang would feel a chill down his spine, as if all the dirty secrets he had hidden were exposed to the sun.
"Brother Zhang, just say it directly." Ning Hanqi nodded slightly.
"Then I'll tell you..." Old Zhang seemed to have hesitated for a long time before he "had no choice" to hope that Ning Hanqi could use the location they investigated to test the dungeon boss in order to increase the accuracy rate.
For a dungeon boss like this one that's filled with resentment, a smart person might be able to figure out how she died from her reaction.
This is indeed a faster and more accurate method, but it is quite dangerous and you will die if you try it.
Chang Yue rolled her eyes. Did he really think everyone was a fool?
If the dungeon boss hadn't seemed surprisingly tolerant towards Miss Ning, Lao Zhang wouldn't have had such a bold idea.
"Okay, I'll try my best." Ning Hanqi is like a soft bun who won't refuse and can be manipulated in any way.
She agreed too quickly, just like when she first entered the game, a feeling of unease vaguely lingered in Lao Zhang's heart.
He's just a new player, how could he feel dangerous?
"If possible, please ask Miss Xia carefully what dangers are in that pond."
"Okay." Another crisp answer.
Old Zhang frowned and felt that something was wrong, but Brother Zhao seemed a little impatient. Anyway, the goal had been achieved, so he pulled the person away without waiting for a few words.
After the two men left, the absent-minded Wu Er saw Ning Hanqi was about to leave, and Chang Yue winked at him, so he gritted his teeth and pounced on him, kneeling down with a "thump".
"Help, help me, please help me!" Wu Er trembled as he pulled out a handful of candles from his pocket. These were obviously more than the number they had taken out from the safe house. "They, they asked me to take these candles. They had originally agreed to ask the NPCs for permission, but I overheard them saying that there were fewer candles and I didn't know who stole them. They, they tricked me into stealing these candles..."
The first thing to note is that you cannot steal things from the mansion without permission. Wu Erke doesn't think he doesn't have to take responsibility just because he was cheated. Thinking of the tragic death of Brother Li, he didn't dare to directly break up with the other two old players, and only dared to come to Chang Yue secretly.
But what else could Chang Yue do? In the end, she was so annoyed that she decided to give him a last-ditch effort and point out a way: go and ask Ning Hanqi for help. If anyone among these people could find a way to save him, perhaps it would only be the mysterious Ning Hanqi.
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