Chapter 33
"Did you bring the things?" Lu Jueqiu poured a glass of water for Jing Yucheng and turned off the computer and put it aside.
"Yeah." Jing Yucheng took a sip of water, took out the cardboard-wrapped family tree from his bag and handed it to Xie Que. "I wanted to take a picture of it, but I was afraid that some details might not be captured, so I just brought it here."
Xie was a little surprised by his attentiveness. She looked up and smiled at him softly: "It's okay. Thank you for your help."
"Open it and take a look." Jing Xiebai took out three copper coins from somewhere, put them in his hand and kept throwing them up and catching them.
"You even took this out?" Lu Jueqiu looked at Jing Xiebai in surprise.
These three copper coins were money used to pay for the beams of wealthy families in Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Qianlong period. Jing Xiebai cherished them very much and would not take them out easily. Even Lu Jueqiu had only seen him use these coins for fortune-telling twice, and on other days he would not even allow them to be touched.
"How else would we know who the exorcist is? There's no horoscope on it."
Xie Que raised an eyebrow at this. He knew Jing Xiebai had many magical instruments, but he had never had the opportunity to see them. In all his years of learning to exorcise ghosts, he had only seen Jing Xiebai tell fortunes in Tongjinggou, and he had only used ordinary copper coins. He couldn't help but feel curious.
"Here." Jing Xiebai sat down next to Xie Que and handed him the copper coins. "You count it."
"Ah?" Xie Que widened his eyes and looked at Jing Xiebai in disbelief, "Am I coming?"
He has never learned fortune-telling and doesn't know how to interpret hexagrams. Is it really okay to just leave it to him?
"It's okay, I'll teach you how to interpret the hexagrams, and you can also learn how to tell fortunes while you're at it."
Not only Xie Que was surprised, but even Lu Jueqiu beside him was also surprised. When he was a child learning fortune-telling, Jing Xiebai was not so easy to talk to.
"you……"
"What's wrong with me? How about you do the fortune-telling?" Jing Xiebai interrupted Lu Jueqiu, looking disappointed. "You studied fortune-telling for half a year and still can't even do it. How dare you say that?!"
Jing Xiebai is a gifted man who learns things quickly. Seeing that he has a good relationship with his son, Lu's father asks Jing Xiebai to teach Lu Jueqiu fortune-telling. Unexpectedly, Lu Jueqiu still can't learn to interpret the hexagrams after half a year. Jing Xiebai feels that he is ruining his reputation and never teaches him fortune-telling again.
Lu Jueqiu turned off the microphone and sat quietly aside watching Xie Que tell fortunes.
Xie Que glanced at Jing Xiebai, swallowed nervously, and flipped open the family tree. "Where do we start counting from?"
Because it has been so long, the family tree is a bit tattered. You have to be careful when turning the pages, otherwise they might fall off.
"I can only count them one by one. I don't want those that are too recent, and I don't want those that are too far away."
Jing Xiebai flipped through the family tree and quickly made his selection: "Just these few pages, just calculate the years from five hundred years ago to one hundred years ago."
"Okay." Xie held the three copper coins in his hand and told a fortune.
"No, this is a very bad omen." Jing Xiebai glanced at the hexagram and quickly rejected it.
Xie Que silently looked at Jing Xiebai, feeling a little emotional. Being able to interpret the hexagram so quickly, it seemed that Jing Xiebai was also very knowledgeable in fortune-telling.
Xie took a deep breath and continued to tell the fortune.
"No, continue."
Xie frowned and told another divination.
"Not yet, continue."
…
After half an hour of this, Xie was exhausted and had to tell another fortune while sweating profusely.
"That's it!" Jing Xiebai's eyes lit up and his tone was a little excited.
Xie heaved a sigh of relief, put down the copper coins, took the paper handed to him by Jing Yucheng, and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"What's his name?" Lu Jueqiu leaned over and took the family tree. "Xie Lingsong? Born in 1679? Wouldn't that mean he lived through the time when sorcery was prevalent? What a coincidence."
"Is this his name?" Xie Que's focus was different from Lu Jueqiu's.
"What's wrong with that name?"
Xie frowned, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes: "Before I was born, a fortune teller told me my fortune and named me Xie Lingsong, but my mother didn't like it, so she didn't give me that name."
Fortune telling?
Jing Xiebai and Lu Jueqiu looked at each other and saw a hint of caution in each other's eyes.
"Did your mother tell you about what happened back then?"
"Yes, I did. I have a very deep impression of it." Xie himself didn't like that name very much, so he remembered it quite clearly.
"My mother was expecting a baby at home. When she went out to buy groceries, a fortune teller stopped her and asked to tell her fortune." Xie's mother, being kind to others, didn't refuse. The fortune teller was known for his accuracy, and Xie's mother asked him to tell her child's fortune. However, the fortune teller only gave Xie a name and nothing else.
"My mom said she didn't like that name. After struggling for a long time, she finally decided to name me Xie Que." Xie Que noticed Jing Xiebai's face wasn't looking good after he finished speaking, so he hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
"Nothing, I just think it's a bit too coincidental." Jing Xiebai told Xie Que the origin of his jade, "Luckily you wore it that day, otherwise I would have gone to the King of Hell to find you."
It was such a coincidence, it was like a script that had been written. Jing Xiebai had always thought that the story would begin in the forbidden land of Xie Que's hometown, but he didn't expect that the story had been written when they were born.
"This Xie Lingsong is so capable, he must be a well-known figure in the martial arts world." Lu Jueqiu glanced at Xie Que, "Is there a tomb of this person in your family's ancestral tomb?"
Xie was stunned by the question and was unable to answer.
"No." Jing Yucheng on the side answered for Xie Que.
No one expected him to speak, and for a moment everyone's eyes were focused on Jing Yucheng, but Xie's eyes were filled with shock, and he seemed to doubt his ears.
"How do you know? When did you go to my ancestral grave?"
Jing Yucheng touched his nose sheepishly, his ears reddening as he whispered, "I, I was curious about the Feng Shui layout of your ancestral tomb, so I went to take a look."
He had a good memory, and after taking a walk around the Xie Que family's ancestral tomb, he remembered almost all the people buried there.
"Okay, kid." Jing Xiebai smirked, hooked his arm around Jing Yucheng's neck, pulled him towards him, and rubbed his head. "I was wondering why you took so long to get something. Turns out you went to check the feng shui of someone else's ancestral grave."
"I, I'm just curious." Jing Yucheng's face flushed as he stammered in his defense. He was well versed in feng shui, and ever since he learned that the feng shui layout of Xie Que's ancestral tomb was unusual, he had always wanted to take a look.
"You apologized to someone and didn't tell them about visiting their ancestral grave. Who taught you that?" Jing Xiebai let go of Jing Yucheng, pushed him in front of Xie Que, and warned him, "Apologize sincerely. Don't do that again next time."
"I'm sorry, I was reckless." Jing Yucheng lowered his head, bent slightly, and said sincerely.
Xie was a little flattered. He waved his hands and said incoherently: "It's okay, it's okay. If you hadn't gone to the ancestral tomb, we would have had to make another trip." This was an accidental save for them.
"Why doesn't he go to your ancestral tomb?" Lu Jueqiu was a little curious. There were not many ordinary families that could produce Taoist priests, let alone a Taoist priest with such high cultivation. This must be a blessing that he had cultivated for many years. How could such a person not go to the ancestral tomb?
"I don't know either. Did he make some mistake?" Xie wasn't quite sure. He didn't know much about the old customs, and he had only seen scenes of people being expelled from the family tree in TV dramas.
"Yu Cheng, are you sure you haven't seen this person's tomb?"
"No." Jing Yucheng was very sure. "It was noon when I went there. I wandered around for an hour to see the layout clearly. There's no way I was wrong."
"It's strange, why is he not in the ancestral tomb?" Xie Que frowned, supported his chin with his hand, stared at the family tree on the table, puzzled.
If they find Xie Lingsong's tomb, they can know his birth date and horoscope. With the horoscope, they don't have to worry about him having secrets, but now they can't even find the tomb.
Xie sighed and rubbed his head irritably. "Didn't people always return to their roots? How come my ancestors didn't even enter the ancestral tomb?"
Things were at a stalemate, and the atmosphere was becoming somewhat subdued. However, Xie frowned and casually flipped through the family tree.
"Be careful not to tear it to pieces." Jing Xiebai reminded that it is not a good thing to tear the family tree to pieces.
"Yeah." Xie responded, withdrew his hand, and stared at Xie Lingsong's page of the family tree, lost in thought.
We have such a talented exorcist in our family, but we're not allowed to enter the ancestral tomb? What's going on? Did he commit a crime? Has he been disowned? Or is he not even part of our family?
Xie was startled and suddenly woke up.
Yes, why didn’t I think about it in this way?
Xie's breathing became a little rapid because of excitement. He stood up and quickly flipped through the family tree.
Noticing Xie Que's abnormality, the other three looked at each other, somewhat unsure of the situation.
"What's wrong?"
"Do you know how the Xie generation is named?" Xie looked at Jing Xiebai excitedly, his eyes seemed to be lit with lights, so bright that it was captivating.
"I know, what's wrong?"
Xie Que was delighted and handed the family tree to Jing Xiebai: "Can you help me see if this Xie Lingsong is from my family?"
Jing Xiebai raised an eyebrow, understanding Xie Que's meaning. In the past, naming was based on the generation of characters. If Xie Lingsong wasn't a member of the Xie family, there was no need to follow the generation of characters. So, it made sense that he wasn't buried in the Xie family's ancestral tomb.
"Okay, I'll help you take a look." Different surnames in different regions have different requirements for generation names. Fortunately, Jing Xiebai knew them very well, and now they are useful.
"Xiu, Huai, De..." Jing Xiebai pointed at the names in the family tree and read them out loud. "When it comes to Xie Lingsong's generation, he should be named 'Yuan', but his name doesn't contain that."
"That means he is not a member of the Xie family?" Lu Jueqiu also felt a little surprised. The Xie family was really lucky. They actually adopted an exorcist as their son, and even the ancestral tomb benefited from it. Not many people could set up such a good feng shui plan.
"That explains why his grave isn't in our ancestral tomb." Xie Que took the family tree and speculated, "Maybe he had anticipated the situation today, and that's why he didn't let anyone bury him in our ancestral tomb."
A meticulous person like Xie Lingsong would never make such a small mistake. Xie couldn't help but feel a little emotional. Every step they took was now guessed by their ancestor. If they wanted to catch Chen Shan, they had to walk in front and not be led by anyone.
"This man is really a genius." Being tricked again, Jing Xiebai felt upset. He wanted to see how far Xie Lingsong could go.
Unable to find Xie Lingsong's tomb, they had reached a dead end and could only pray to hear news about him from other people.
"Yu Cheng, go back and check if there is any record of this person. I don't believe there is such a high level of ghost exorcist. I can't find any information at all."
"Yes." Jing Yucheng nodded and said hello before leaving.
"What do we do now? Just wait?"
"How can that be? The matter of the meeting of the four families has not been resolved yet."
Jing Xiebai glanced at Lu Jueqiu and said, "I'll contact you later. Xie Que and I have something else to do."
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