Chapter 82: Hide and Seek

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

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

【The household receives the wealth of the east, south, west, and north】

【Boundless longevity】

"Did your dad write that couplet at the door himself?" Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe asked.

Shi Yurou nodded: "Yes, my father wrote it himself during the Dragon Boat Festival this year, and my brother and I posted it together."

"I see..." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe's gaze shifted away from the child God of Wealth statue in front of him, examining the furnishings in this study:

A desk with the four treasures of the study, a log tea table, a wooden shelf displaying various cultural artifacts, calligraphy and paintings on the wall, a bookshelf neatly stacked with thread-bound books... and five rattan chairs that seemed to be woven from the flexible twigs of some plant.

A very normal study, nothing strange. If there was anything missing, it was probably that there was no computer here. A modern person's study is actually a computer room, but this old guy Ji Bochang was clearly not a modern person in the general sense.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe walked to the desk, pulled out the unfinished calligraphy from under the paperweight, and the content written on it was:

【Better to eat without meat, than to live without】

"Than to live without bamboo." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe recited the unfinished second half of the poem.

Literati use bamboo to introduce integrity. Su Shi's poem "Green Bamboo Pavilion at Yuqian Monk's" is a representative work: "If a person is thin without meat, it makes them thin; if a person is vulgar without bamboo, it makes them vulgar. If a person is thin, they can still get fat; if a scholar is vulgar, it cannot be cured."

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

Ji Bochang's will said that as long as Master Yeyao and others on the list came to the study and finished listening to the will, they would naturally know what to do. Shi Yurou saw that this Mr. Master Yeyao, wearing a ghost mask, had entered uninvited in the middle of the night and had been in a contemplative state since entering the study. He likely knew something about the anomaly that occurred after her father's death.

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

"What?" Shi Yurou felt confused.

"Your father is hinting at me to find his corpse... it's best to take you or your brother with me." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe shook his head and pressed the unfinished calligraphy back under the paperweight: "It's very late today; I'll come back tomorrow during the day. The visibility is better during the day."

Father left a hint? Shi Yurou felt even more confused. How come she didn't see any hint anywhere?

But out of politeness, she still called out to Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe, who was turning to leave on his own: "Mr. Master Yeyao, if you don't mind, you can sit down and have a cup of tea before leaving."

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

Shi Yurou was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted. She scrambled back to the tea table, only to see that the tea leaves she had put into the pot had been boiling since she was chatting with Master Yeyao just now. They hadn't been off the fire for several minutes, and the dark brown tea soup looked just like traditional Chinese medicine.

It must taste like traditional Chinese medicine too.

"Ah... so embarrassing, so embarrassing..." Shi Yurou covered her eyes with both hands, and the shy red color spread from her cheeks to her earlobes.

"Sis, what are you doing?"

Shi Yurou was just 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.

Beside Ji Yunying stood a refined young man, looking about twenty-five or twenty-six, with fair skin, soft features, and a pure black Zhongshan suit that was very well-tailored. He wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses with a high prescription. "Yunying, you're back. Who is this...?" Shi Yurou thought for a moment and remembered that this refined young man in the Zhongshan suit was also on the list left by her father, so she said: "Mr. Seeing Lan Shiwen, right? You don't look much like your photo; I didn't recognize you for a moment. I'm really sorry."

The young man called Seeing Lan Shiwen let his gaze linger on Shi Yurou for a moment and smiled gently: "I've never been very photogenic; in girls' words, should it be called 'not camera-friendly'? No need to mind."

The three of them exchanged polite greetings, and Ji Yunying noticed the freshly brewed tea on the tea table and asked suspiciously: "Do we have a guest?"

"Eh?" Shi Yurou was a little confused: "Didn't you see Mr. Master Yeyao when you went upstairs? He just went downstairs; you should have just bumped into him."

Seeing Lan Shiwen frowned and looked at Ji Yunying. Both shook their heads: "No, we didn't see anyone on our way here."

This is strange... Shi Yurou was very sure that Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe had just left the study, but Ji Yunying and Seeing Lan Shiwen, who came upstairs together, both said they didn't see him.

... Could it be that he didn't go downstairs?

A chilling coldness crawled up Shi Yurou's lower back. She hurriedly used her mobile phone to pull up the surveillance of Chuyun Shanzhuang, only to see a man wearing a long trench coat and a ghost mask walking leisurely on the winding path in the manor, strolling toward the direction of the main gate.

"No, Mr. Master Yeyao has already gone downstairs..." The coldness in Shi Yurou's heart dissipated slightly, but an incomprehensible confusion still lingered in her chest.

"Tell me about the will of Mr. Ji Bochang, the old gentleman." Seeing Lan Shiwen didn't seem to want to delve into this topic and walked to the rattan chair by the tea table and sat down.

Ji Yunying then started a new cup for him, poured the fragrant tea, and said: "The will left by my father is a bit strange. He asked us to keep all the things he usually uses..."

=9+Shu_ba

"Pfft—" Just as he started speaking, Seeing Lan Shiwen almost spat out a mouthful of tea.

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

Seeing Lan Shiwen looked at the teacup in his hand, then at Shi Yurou, who was standing not far away with her hands hidden behind her back and her eyes dodging, and he already understood in his heart.

"Nothing... Old Mr. Ji treated me well. His sudden passing is like a bolt from the blue to me; I really can't accept it." Seeing Lan Shiwen frowned tightly, drank the remaining tea in the cup, and forced a smile: "Good tea."

While the two siblings were repeating Ji Bochang's will to Seeing Lan Shiwen, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe climbed over the wall of Chuyun Shanzhuang and strolled in the forest, seemingly looking for something.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe held a flashlight in his left hand, picked a broad leaf with his right hand to examine it carefully, walked a few steps, picked a new leaf from another tree, and compared the two.

After circling Chuyun Shanzhuang basically once, Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe confirmed his guess.

"Ji Bochang hid his corpse and the ghost he controlled... he hopes other Ascenders can find him."

And it's best to take Shi Yurou and Ji Yunying with him to find it.

"Old fox." Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe sighed softly, not taking it to heart.

He had no interest in resolving the Strange World event caused by Ji Bochang's death. Whether he died or not, or if the entire Yun Ducheng died, had nothing to do with him.

Seeing Seeing Ning Zhe only cared about one thing—how much did Ji Bochang know about the ghost that Yu Zi Qian possessed, which could imprint a thought steel seal on people?

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 83 =====