Chapter 1018: Clues Left by the Senior Brother
The Fang Clan Ancestral Hall is no different from ordinary ancestral halls. There are many tablets enshrined in the hall. In front of each tablet is a small and exquisite incense burner. There are incense, candles, and fruit offerings on the table, and three cushions on the ground.
It can be seen that someone comes here to clean regularly. Every place is spotless without any dust.
Shang Kui walked around the ancestral hall twice and searched every place he could find, but found nothing unusual.
He turned to look at the Fang clan leader next to him and asked about Fang Wujiu.
The answer I got was almost the same as what Fang Huai said.
After Fang Wujiu paid tribute to his parents, he left and was never seen again.
No one knows where he went.
Wen Jiucheng asked: "Which two are the tablets of Fang Wujiu's parents?"
The Fang clan leader pointed to the two tablets at the bottom right corner and said, "These are the two."
Wen Jiucheng walked forward and stared at the two tablets for a while, but didn't see anything unusual.
He sighed. It seemed that the senior brother didn't leave any clues here.
Thinking that he had come all the way here and couldn't have come in vain, Wen Jiucheng asked the Fang clan leader for three incense sticks.
He knelt on the mat and kowtowed three times to the tablets of Fang Wujiu's parents to show his obedience to his elders.
He stood up slowly and inserted the incense sticks into the incense burner in front of the two tablets.
No one noticed that he paused while lighting the incense.
After burning incense, the group left the Fang Family Ancestral Hall.
The Fang family had long known that what happened in Fang Wujiu's family was known to the county magistrate. They were afraid that it would bring disaster to themselves, so they quickly told everything they knew, including returning all the money that Fang Huai had bribed them with.
As a punishment, Jian Shujie doubled the Fang family's taxes this year.
Doubling the tax means that the Fang family will have to hand over all of this year's harvest to the government.
Fortunately, the harvests in the past two years were good, and every household had surplus food. With the surplus food, they could barely survive the next year and avoid starving to death, but it was certain that the days of tightening their belts would be difficult.
At Jian Shujie's enthusiastic invitation, Wen Jiucheng and Shang Kui went to the county magistrate's mansion.
They had a very sumptuous dinner in the county magistrate's mansion.
After having a good meal and a few drinks, Shang Kui declined Jian Shujie's enthusiastic invitation and took a carriage back to the inn with Wen Jiucheng.
Because he drank a lot of wine at the banquet, Shang Kui was drowsy when he returned to the inn.
But he still gathered his strength and called all the Yulin Guards over to ask them about the results of their investigation during the day.
After some investigation by Yulin Guards, they learned that the old immortal lived in Zizai Temple.
Zizai Temple was originally just a little-known Taoist temple in Fufeng City. After the old immortal moved in, the temple became very popular all of a sudden.
Many people in the city would go to Zizai Temple to seek divination from the old immortal. It was said that the old immortal's divinations were extremely accurate and could be said to be ironclad.
He would tell fortunes for people three times for free every day, but he would have to charge for any subsequent fortune-telling.
It is said that a divination from the old immortal would cost at least several hundred taels of silver, and the most expensive ones would even cost a thousand taels of gold. The price was staggering, but even so, there were still many people who went to him for fortune-telling.
In addition to fortune-telling, the statues of gods in Zizai Temple are also a major feature.
The statue was blessed by an old immortal himself. As long as you take it back and worship it devoutly, your wish will be fulfilled.
Of course, the statues are not free. One statue costs at least ten taels of silver, and the better the workmanship, the more expensive it is.
Nowadays, almost every household in Fufeng City worships the statue of the god, and the status of the old immortal in their hearts is extremely high.
After listening to the report, Shang Kui felt that there were so many rich people in Fufeng City!
A Yulin guard said, "The old immortal will explain Taoism in the Taoist temple on the first and fifteenth day of every month. As long as the believers go to listen to the Taoist teachings, they can have a free vegetarian meal in the Taoist temple on that day. There are especially many people in the Taoist temple on these two days of every month."
Some people really want to listen to the teachings, while others just want to have a free meal.
But no matter what the reason is, it can bring a lot of popularity to Zizai Temple.
Wen Jiucheng calculated the time and found that tomorrow was the fifteenth.
He said to Shang Kui.
"Tomorrow we can blend into the crowd and enter Zizai Temple to see what kind of person that old immortal is."
Shang Kui nodded and said yes.
After Wen Jiucheng returned to the guest room, he read a book for a while. When it was completely dark and he could no longer hear any voices outside, he put down the book and blew out the candle.
But he did not go to bed, but woke up Shang Kui who lived in the guest room next door.
Wen Jiucheng whispered a few words to him.
Shang Kui then called two Yulin Guards and asked them to put on black night clothes and go out for a walk.
The two Yulin Guards were both confused.
But they were tactful enough not to ask any more questions and just followed their commander's orders.
As soon as the two Yulin Guards left the inn, two spies followed them out of the inn.
This scene was seen clearly by Wen Jiucheng and Shang Kui who were standing by the window of the guest room on the second floor.
Shang Kui cursed softly.
"Someone is watching us from the dark!"
Wen Jiucheng whispered, "I need to go out for a while, you have to help me lure away those spies."
Shang Kui said it was no problem.
Under his arrangement, the Yulin Guards left the inn one after another.
Almost every Yulin Guard is followed by a sneaky spy.
It was not until the seventh Yulin Guard left the inn that there were no more spies behind him.
To be on the safe side, Shang Kui sent out two more Yulin Guards. After making sure that there were no more spies following him, Wen Jiucheng changed into dark clothes and left the inn.
He used his light skills to travel through the night and arrived at the entrance of the Fang Family Ancestral Hall as quickly as possible.
The door was locked.
Wen Jiucheng took out a piece of wire from his sleeve, poked it into the keyhole, gently turned it twice, and with a click, the copper lock opened.
He pushed open the door and walked in slowly.
In the dim night, those densely packed tablets looked particularly creepy.
Wen Jiucheng walked straight to the tablets of Fang Wujiu's parents.
He picked up the small incense burner placed in front of the tablet. The burner was filled with incense ash, with three burnt incense sticks stuck in the ashes.
Wen Jiucheng reached his hand into the incense burner, rummaged his fingers in the ashes twice, and when he pulled his hand out, there was a folded piece of paper between his index finger and middle finger.
When burning incense for Fang Wujiu's parents this afternoon, Wen Jiucheng noticed that there was something hidden in the incense burner.
He guessed that it might be the clue left by the eldest brother.
But he was afraid that he was not safe around him, so he said nothing at the time and left as if nothing had happened.
Only when he was sure that no one was following him did Wen Jiucheng dare to take out the things hidden in the incense burner.
…
Good morning everyone!
It’s the end of the month, and the monthly pass will expire if it is not used.
Everyone, are there any monthly tickets left?
If you have any, please vote for Xianyu, muah~(づ￣3￣)づ
(End of this chapter)
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