After dinner, they sat together again to drink tea and chat.
It's just that the men share one room and the women share another.
The Xu sisters now really like Li Mai and have talked to her a lot, about the Xu family and the Jiang family.
Li Mai also learned that the Xu family and the Jiang family were not actually very close. The sisters' mother passed away not long after giving birth to them, and their father raised them on his own.
As for the Jiang family, they didn't visit them often. Apart from their cousin Jiang Wenhan, the people there rarely interacted with them.
Especially Jiang Wenhan's mother, their aunt, didn't like them at all.
Their maternal grandparents had passed away, and their uncle was a womanizer who loved to travel around. His family business had been handed over to his older cousin at a young age.
Their older cousin was good to them and would help them out, but they always felt that there was something about him they couldn't quite understand.
Xu Changhuan sighed, "If my cousin's shop really sold bewitching incense, then I think my cousin must have known about it."
"This means that my cousin and Xu Chengshuang's family had dealings, or that my cousin received the bewitching incense from the Yao family. Now that the entire Xu Chengshuang family has been imprisoned, it will be difficult to find any evidence of their dealings, and there is no way to investigate the Yao family." Xu Changle sighed.
She still couldn't quite believe this reasoning.
Xu Changge was silent for a while, "My cousin doesn't lack that little bit of money. What do you think is the reason for his association with Xu Chengshuang's family?"
Xu Changle couldn't figure it out and shook his head.
Li Mai had no idea either, and shook his head.
"Although I don't know what his motive is, I think he must have a purpose. For example, does your Xu family have any secret treasures or valuable items that others want?"
After Li Mai finished speaking, the sisters' expressions changed.
Li Mai smiled; it seemed she had it.
"Decades ago, the Xu family was the leading family among the four major incense-making families. Besides the fact that the Xu family members were good at business, there was another reason: the Xu family had an ancestral incense manual."
"This book is a closely guarded secret of the Xu family, passed down only to the head of the family and the young master. After the Xu family suffered an accident, my grandfather knew that my eldest and second uncles might not survive, so he secretly passed that book to my father, telling him to lead the Xu family to survive."
“As long as that book exists, the Xu family will not fall. My father relied on that belief to keep the Xu family afloat. However, when my father opened that book one day to study it, he found that it was a blank book, completely empty. That is why the entire Xu family moved to Tianxiang Village in the mountains.”
“My father didn’t know what the problem was, and he didn’t dare let anyone know, so he secretly sealed the book again and buried it.”
"When I took over my father's position, the incense-making skills I knew were all learned from my uncles and elders in the clan since I was a child. My father used to be a martial artist, so he wasn't very good at incense making. After I was born, my father discovered my talent and entrusted me to my uncles and elders to teach me."
"Therefore, everyone in the Xu family now believes that the calamity more than 30 years ago destroyed the incense scriptures passed down from the Xu family ancestors."
“Xiaomai, if what you said is true, then I guess if my cousin has dealings with Xu Chengshuang’s family, then could it be that he’s after that incense scripture?” Xu Changhuan asked Li Mai.
Li Mai frowned. "Why would your cousin think the incense sutra is at his house?"
"That's because Xu Chengshuang's family suddenly learned how to make incense. They told their family and clansmen that Chengshuang dreamed of their ancestor one day, and the ancestor taught him the Xu family's lost incense-making skills. Suddenly, he was able to make incense."
"That's true. His family suddenly learned how to make incense in just two years. Everyone in the Xu clan knows how to make ordinary incense, but the important thing is that his family suddenly learned how to make several kinds of incense that are unique to the Xu clan."
"Nobody believes in the concept of dreams. After all, if ancestors were to appear in a dream, it would be for the head of the family, not for them. The rule that family skills are only passed down to the head of the family and only to collateral branches when the head of the family is no longer alive was established by our ancestors."
“However, everyone thinks that Xu Chengshuang might have gotten his hands on the incense manual that the main family lost back then. Even my father secretly suspected it. After handing over the position of chieftain to me, he went out to travel. He said he was traveling, but actually he went to investigate the matter of the real and fake incense manuals,” Xu Changhuan said.
She trusted Li Mai and actually told him about her family's affairs.
Li Mai pondered for a moment, then nodded, "Then it makes sense. Your cousin's attempt to get close to Xu Chengshuang's family was probably for that incense scripture."
Xu Changge frowned. "Could it be for his incense shop? It couldn't be for me, could it?"
Li Mai nodded. "It's definitely not because of you, and I don't think it's because of him either."
Li Mai considered a possibility.
"Who is that because of?" The two sisters looked at Li Mai in surprise.
"Think about it, didn't the other three incense-making families rise to even greater heights after your family declined?" Li Mai asked.
The two sisters exchanged a glance and nodded.
"Then think again, which of those three families does your cousin have close ties with, or is related to any of them?"
“My cousin has business dealings with the Yao family. He has no connection with the other two families,” Xu Changle said definitively.
In fact, she was closer to them than her older sister and cousin.
Because her husband is the town's magistrate, when her cousin comes to Xiabei Town, he will definitely visit her, have a meal at her home, and drink a few cups with An Nanyang.
However, he rarely went to Tianxiang Village, so he saw his sister less often.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
