Chapter 83 Hide and Seek

Chapter 83 Hide and Seek

Chapter 83 Hide and Seek

"God of Wealth?" Ning Zhe's eyes narrowed slightly, and he remembered the couplet posted on the main entrance of the stilt house.

【The door welcomes blessings of spring, summer, autumn and winter】

【Households receive wealth from the southeast, northwest and northeast】

【Long live forever】

"Did your father write the couplet at the door himself?" Ning Zhe asked.

Shi Yurou nodded: "Yes, that was written by my father during the Dragon Boat Festival this year, and my brother and I posted it together."

"Is that so..." Ning Zhe shifted his gaze from the child statue of the God of Wealth in front of him and looked at the furnishings in the study:

There is a desk with the four treasures of the study, a wooden coffee table, a wooden shelf with various cultural relics, calligraphy and paintings on the wall, a bookshelf with some neatly stacked thread-bound books... and 5 rattan chairs that seem to be woven with flexible twigs of some plant.

It was a very normal study room, nothing strange about it. If there was anything missing, it was probably that there was no computer. A modern person's study room is usually a computer room, but old man Ji Bochang was obviously not a modern person in the general sense.

Ning Zhe walked to the desk and pulled out the unfinished calligraphy from under the paperweight. It read:
[It is better to eat without meat than to live without meat]

"One cannot live without bamboo." Ning Zhe recited the unfinished second half of the poem.

Literati use bamboo to evoke elegance and character, and Su Shi's poem "Yu Qian Monk Lu Jun Xuan" is a representative work: "Without meat, one becomes thin; without bamboo, one becomes vulgar. A thin person can be fattened; vulgarity cannot be cured."

"Did you see anything?" Shi Yurou came to Ning Zhe and asked softly.

Ji Bochang's will said that as long as Ye Yao and others on the list came to the study and listened to the will, they would naturally know what to do. Shi Yurou saw that Mr. Ye Yao, who was wearing an evil ghost mask, came in late at night without being invited, and he was in deep thought since he entered the study. He might know something about the changes that happened after her father's death.

Ning Zhe gently stroked the paper in his hand with his fingertips, then squatted down to look at the rattan chair leaning against the table, and suddenly said for no reason: "Interesting..."

"What?" Shi Yurou was suddenly confused.

"Your father is hinting at me to go look for his body... It would be best if you or your brother can go with me." Ning Zhe shook his head and pressed the unfinished words back under the paperweight: "It's late today. I'll come back tomorrow during the day. The view is better during the day."

Did her father leave any hints? Shi Yurou was even more confused. Why didn't she see any hints?
But out of politeness, she still gently called out to Ning Zhe who was about to leave: "Mr. Ye Yao, if you don't mind, you can sit down and have a cup of tea before leaving."

"No, it's bitter." Ning Zhe turned around and went downstairs without looking back.

Shi Yurou was stunned at first, then she reacted immediately. She hurriedly ran back to the coffee table and saw that the tea leaves she had put in the pot had been boiling since she was chatting with Ye Yao until now. The fire had not been turned off for several minutes. The dark brown tea soup looked like Chinese medicine.

I guess it tastes like Chinese medicine.

"Ah... so embarrassing, so embarrassing..." Shi Yurou covered her eyes with her hands, and the blush spread from her cheeks to her ears.

"Sister, what are you doing?"

Shi Yurou was feeling embarrassed when a familiar voice came from the door. She opened her eyes and saw a handsome young man standing at the door of the study. It was her twin brother Ji Yunying.

Next to Ji Yunying stood a well-mannered young man, who looked to be about 25 or 26 years old, with fair skin and soft features. He was wearing a well-cut black Mao suit and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses with a high degree of diopter. "Yunying, you're back. Who is this..." Shi Yurou thought for a moment and remembered that this well-mannered young man in the Mao suit was also on the list left by her father, so she said, "Mr. Lan Shiwen? You don't look like the photo. I didn't recognize you at first. I'm really sorry."

The young man named Lan Shiwen's eyes lingered on Shi Yurou for a moment and smiled gently: "I don't look photogenic to begin with. In girls' terms, I don't look photogenic. Don't mind."

The three of them exchanged pleasantries in a distant manner. Ji Yunying noticed the freshly brewed tea on the coffee table and asked in confusion, "Are there any guests at home?"

"Eh?" Shi Yurou was a little confused: "Didn't you see Mr. Ye Yao when you went upstairs? He just came downstairs and should have bumped into you."

Lan Shiwen frowned and looked at Ji Yunying. They both shook their heads and said, "No, we didn't see anyone along the way."

This is strange... Shi Yurou was very sure that Ning Zhe had just left the study, but Ji Yunying and Lan Shiwen, who went upstairs together, said that they did not see him.

Didn't he go downstairs?

A creepy chill crept up Shi Yurou's lower back. She hurriedly used her mobile phone to call up the surveillance footage of Izumo Villa, where she saw a man in a long windbreaker and a demon mask leisurely walking on the winding path in the villa, strolling towards the gate.

"No, Mr. Ye Yao has already gone downstairs..." The coldness in Shi Yurou's heart dissipated a little, but an incomprehensible confusion still lingered in her chest.

"Please tell me about Mr. Ji Bochang's will." Lan Shiwen didn't seem to want to delve into this topic and walked to the rattan chair next to the coffee table and sat down.

Ji Yunying then opened a new cup for him, poured him some fragrant tea, and said, "My father's will is a little strange. He asked us to give him all the things he usually used..."

"Puff——" Lan Shiwen almost spit out a mouthful of tea just as he started to speak.

"What's wrong?" Ji Yunying looked at him puzzledly.

Lan Shiwen looked at the teacup in his hand, then looked at Shi Yurou, who was standing not far away with her hands hidden behind her back and her eyes evasive. He already understood what was going on.

"Nothing...Mr. Ji treated me well in the past. His sudden death was like a bolt from the blue to me. I really can't accept it." Lan Shiwen frowned and drank all the remaining tea in the cup. He forced a smile and said, "Good tea."

While the brother and sister were repeating to Lan Shiwen the will left by Ji Bochang before his death, Ning Zhe climbed over the wall of Izumo Villa and strolled in the forest as if looking for something.

Ning Zhe held a flashlight in his left hand, plucked a broad leaf with his right hand and examined it carefully, then took a few steps forward and plucked a new leaf from another tree and compared the two.

After basically circling Izumo Villa in this way, Ning Zhe confirmed his guess.

"Ji Bochang hid his body and the ghosts he controlled... He hoped that other ascended beings would find him."

And it would be best if you could take Shi Yurou and Ji Yunying with you to look for them.

"Old fox." Ning Zhe sighed lightly and didn't take it to heart.

He had no interest in solving the strange events caused by Ji Bochang's death. Whether his son died or not, or whether the entire city of Yundu died, it had nothing to do with him.

Ning Zhe only cares about one thing - how much does Ji Bochang know about the ghost that Yu Ziqian possesses that can leave a mark on people's thoughts?

(End of this chapter)