Entering Chen's Mansion at Night
"Bring out that family heirloom your grandmother cherishes. It will at least keep her company for a while."
"The family heirloom can't be taken out, is there no other way? Great Immortal, please think of another way! I can't die yet! I'm willing to add more rewards! Please!"
"She's clinging to you now. Even if I have other ways to destroy her, I dare not act rashly. It's very likely that you will be killed at the same time. Bring me the family heirloom that your grandmother values so much in exchange for a way to get you out of her body. Then I'll destroy her, and the heirloom will be yours as well."
Hearing this, Zhao Hu did not hesitate, stopped struggling, and was ready to die.
He said calmly, "Even if I die, I will never take out the family heirloom."
"Even if your family heirloom is priceless, when you die, all that money is just dirt. It's useless. Don't you understand this?"
"Can't the Immortal predict everything? Then you should be able to predict why I'm exchanging my life for the family heirloom. I have gold, lots and lots of gold. I can give you the wealth you want, so hurry up and find a way to save me! Don't think that if I die, you can pick it up for free! The family heirloom and my treasure are not in this Zhao mansion. No one can find them except me!"
"Either I send you to your deaths, or you wait for death, or I take out the family heirloom. Apart from this, I have no other choice."
Knowing he was about to die, he laughed wildly and turned his head to challenge his grandmother, "How could I be afraid of you, just a corpse?! Over the years, I've taken so many lives and buried so many bodies I can't even count them myself. What should I be afraid of? We're all going to die anyway, so let's just wait and see who rots away first, or me, by your hands!"
The provoked grandmother stopped banging her head and opened her mouth as wide as she could, tearing the flesh at the corner of her mouth into a bloody maw. The right side of her face, already hanging down, fell even further due to the tearing, drooping on Zhao Hu's shoulder.
Zhao Hu held his breath for too long and couldn't help but inhale, and the strong stench of decay made him vomit.
Grandmother was old, with only a few teeth left before her death. She bit and tore at the flesh on Zhao Hu's shoulder. Zhao Hu resisted, trying to shake her off, struggling desperately, even trying to break her rotting arm. But it was like a punch on cotton.
Zhao Hu stopped, exhausted, and wept bitterly as he stared at his bloodied shoulder. The intense pain didn't cause him to pass out, but instead sharpened his mind. He couldn't live, couldn't die. The events of the past two days were too bizarre and difficult to explain. He missed his mother so much...
He stopped struggling and stood there waiting to die with a dead heart.
Heng Jin stared at Zhao Hu with cold eyes, waiting for him to break down and tell the truth. The more Zhao Hu refused to speak, the more Heng Jin became interested in the so-called family heirloom and the truth behind it. Her intuition told her that the heirloom might be related to the jade hairpin.
It doesn’t matter if Zhao Hu doesn’t say anything, he has a way of finding out what happened in the past.
Chu Xiao and his companions, having finished their search, were met with this bloody scene, their stomachs churning. Chu Xiao, accustomed to seeing corpses dissected, couldn't handle the shock of the scene. He turned around, found a patch of grass, and began vomiting. Yuanli and the others, who hadn't intended to vomit, nearly lost it when they heard Chu Xiao's relentless retching.
Heng Jin helped Chu Xiao into the house, under the pretext of taking him in to rest and clean up, but in fact she took him aside and asked in a low voice if he had found anything else while investigating the case and keeping an eye on the Zhao family.
After calming down, Chu Xiao said, "This Mr. Zhao is a wealthy man, but his family is small, with only a few servants serving him. However, he's been implicated in many murders and is often brought to the government as a suspect. He should still have a mother alive, as she's the head of the Zhao family, but we searched the compound extensively and couldn't find her. Aside from burying bodies in the backyard late at night for several consecutive nights, there's nothing unusual about him."
"What about the people around him? What could be wrong?"
"Chi Xun asked about the house across from me. They were also very strange. The gate was always shut, and the outer door looked shabby, but the people living inside were also wealthy, having made their fortune through legitimate business. However, his wife had a head full of white hair and couldn't stand being seen in public. Someone had seen her, and the rumor spread, and everyone in Dishui Town said his wife was a demon, so they all avoided this West Alley."
"Do the Zhao family and the Chen family have any dealings with each other?"
"No. Even though they live across from each other, they are neighbors, but ever since the investigators began their surveillance, they have never seen the two families meet. Their doors have never been open at the same time."
After questioning, Heng Jin returned to the courtyard and said to Zhao Hu, "If Mr. Zhao is determined to commit suicide, then I will take my leave. I have a solution. Since you don't want to do it, I will not return a penny of this reward."
Zhao Hu didn't say anything. He looked up at them, sneered, then lowered his head, closed his eyes and waited for death.
Heng Jin deliberately said to them, "We've already gone out tonight, so we can't waste our time. The shop across the street also has business to do."
"Wait, what business is Master Li going to do at the house opposite? When a dying man is about to speak, his words are good. I advise Master Li not to waste his energy. The house opposite will not open the door to anyone except the government office." Zhao Hu said.
"Mr. Zhao should worry more about himself. Since I have figured out his wife's abnormality and can solve it, I have the confidence to make them open the door and welcome me in. Didn't Mr. Zhao not believe me at first? Goodbye."
"What's wrong with his wife?"
"This... involves someone else's family affairs, so I can't tell Mr. Zhao what I calculated, just like I will never tell anyone about the Zhao family's affairs."
After saying that, Heng Jin waved and asked Yuanli and the others to follow her.
Outside the Zhao residence, Yuanli said, "We've come out now, and we haven't found anything yet. Do we really have to go knock on the door across the street?"
"Of course I'll go."
With that, Heng Jin knocked directly on the door of the Chen Mansion. As expected, no one answered and no one opened the door. He said to the door, "I am a Feng Shui master hired by Mr. Zhao next door. I can also tell fortunes. I just happened to find out that your wife is suffering. I can help Mrs. Chen return to normal. At least, she can see the light of day."
After she finished speaking, there was still no response from behind the door, so Heng Jin continued, "You can't control your master, so go and report to your master. Tell him that his wife is in this state because she wore a hairpin that she shouldn't have worn. Removing the hairpin is useless, and only I can save her."
Although there was still no response from behind the door, they waited a moment until the door to the Chen residence opened. A middle-aged man, roughly ten years older than Chi Xun, came out to greet them. He held a red paper lantern with a dim candle. The flickering candlelight dimly illuminated his gloomy face, revealing a few scratches.
He looked at everyone warily and asked, "Then calculate what kind of hairpin that is."
"Made of jade."
"Come in with me."
As he spoke, the middle-aged man stepped back a few steps and began to lead the way. He was lame, and his gait was unsteady, causing the lantern in his hand to sway with him, making the candlelight flicker even more.
It was very dark in the Chen Mansion, with a red paper lantern hanging every few meters. In addition, there were many tall and dense trees planted in the mansion, making the light inside even dimmer. It was not as bright as the street outside the mansion gate.
She was a little scared. Heng Jin and Cha Suxun both held her hands as they walked forward, and immediately noticed each other's actions, but neither of them was willing to let go and held on tightly.
The Chen Mansion was quite large. The middle-aged man took them around the mansion for a while before they arrived at a main hall.
A statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva was enshrined in the center of the main hall. Various offerings of fruit were placed on the table. The incense burner was about 70% full, indicating that incense was offered year-round. The place where Guanyin Bodhisattva was enshrined was the brightest place they had seen in the palace.
As soon as the middle-aged man entered, he lit three incense sticks, knelt reverently before the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva, kowtowed three times, and then inserted the incense into the incense burner. Immediately afterwards, several women came in carrying five or six red paper lanterns and hung them up, finally allowing a clear view of the main hall. However, the bright red light made the atmosphere even more eerie.
The middle-aged man sat across from them, raising his hand to signal the maids to serve them tea. There were no teacups, just teacups for each of them. Perhaps it was because of the red candlelight, the tea in the teacups also looked dark red.
Yuanli took a look, didn't drink it, and closed the lid.
"What reward does the Immortal want?"
"My fee starts at ten gold bars. Ten today, twenty tomorrow, and ten more a day later. I'm honest and fair. You can ask Mr. Zhao next door."
"Your Highness, your price is quite high. However, if you can cure my wife's illness, I will give you ten ingots of gold immediately upon completion." Chen Yuanwai took the teacup, took a sip of tea, and continued slowly, "However... Your Highness, you must demonstrate some real skills to convince me before I can trust you to treat my wife. The fact that you figured out that my wife's condition was caused by the jade hairpin is nothing. She once wore that hairpin to meet strangers. Finding out is just a waste of money and time."
"Okay. I gave Mr. Zhao across the street a few words, and I'll give you one too. Your wife's son is right across the street."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Chen paused in his tea drinking. His gaze, which had been fixed on the tea, instantly fell on him. He put down the covered bowl and said disapprovingly, "What do you mean, Great Immortal? I don't understand."
"You understand. Mr. Chen hasn't kicked us out yet, so he must still have some trust in us. However, I only have one sentence to give you, and I want to hear it again. Before we pay ten ingots of gold and reach a consensus, I'll give you one ingot of gold in exchange for one sentence."
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