Chapter 535 Evil Spirits or Evil Things?
Shao Wanru had been in an uninformed state on the mountain and was unaware that the case had raised a rumpus outside. She only saw that some of the personnel of the Ministry of Justice began to withdraw and the Ministry of Justice seemed to be checking the staff.
The case in the Yuhui Nunnery was left aside, as if it had been settled. But it was obvious that it had not been settled yet. No one knew who sent those black-clad men here. There seemed to be a rumor that they were the surviving supporters of the previous dynasty. Dongcang had been established for decades, and the descendants of the royal family of the previous dynasty were still alive.
With such a rumor, the case of the black-clad men could be solved easily. It must be another rebellion staged by the surviving supporters of the former dynasty like the one breaking out a few years ago although there was no evidence at the moment.
Old Madam sent more than twenty old maids here to find the former offerings.
After the hall was burned down, Madam Dowager hurried down the mountain. After that, the officials of the Ministry of Justice came up the mountain and focused on investigating the case. No one was in the mood to pay attention to the hall. Only some nuns of the Yuhui Nunnery came to clean up from time to time. But after all, there were not many of them, and they were ladies. So they had only finished half of the job up to now.
With the help of the twenty or so inferior old maids of Duke Xing’s Mansion, they sped up the pace of cleaning up a lot. Nevertheless, these old maids did not come to help them clean up all the stuff, but just cleaned up the part of stuff on the altar table in the middle of the hall.
“I find it. I find it. Look, this is the Second Miss’s silver bracelets!” An old maid wiped the sweat on her head and said. She walked to the pavilion after wiping the pair of silver bracelets.
Shao Wanru and Shao Yanru were both waiting in the pavilion. Old Madam especially asked them to supervise these twenty or so inferior old maids in order to find out the several pairs of silver bracelets buried deep down in the hall before.
There were still some officials of the Ministry of Justice in the Yuhui Nunnery, so both of them sat in the pavilion with veils on their faces.
The edge of each silver bracelet was engraved with the character “jie”. They were indeed Shao Jie’er’s bracelets.
Shao Yanru nodded after looking at them, and then instructed the old maid to pa.s.s it to Shao Wanru. Shao Wanru had seen the character “jie”, so she nodded at once.
Seeing that the two Misses had both verified them, another old maid at the side took them and wiped them with a clean handkerchief. Despite the ages of the silver bracelets, they were still bright after being wiped, as if they were new.
Soon another pair of silver bracelets were found, and they belonged to Shao Hua’an. After that, Shao Yuanhao’s and Shao Yanru’s silver bracelets were found successively and brought over after being wiped clean. All of them looked new and identical, extremely eye-catching. Some nuns, who were cleaning up the other parts of the hall, had seen the silver bracelets. A few of them looked at the silver bracelets curiously.
The nuns then looked at the two Misses wearing veils. Since they wore veils, the nuns couldn’t see their faces clearly. Nevertheless, both of them were said to be exceedingly gorgeous and ravis.h.i.+ng.
“Ah, what is this?!” An old maid suddenly screamed in fear. Her loud and terrified scream immediately attracted everyone’s attention. The two old maids nearby looked down at the ground at the same time. Seeing something dark squirming on the ground, they took a few steps back and screamed in horror.
“There’s… there’s… something weird.”
They screamed in a louder voice, making everyone look over here. Some people, who couldn’t see it clearly, even specially came over to have a look. After seeing two rings squirming on the ground, they screamed and fled in all directions.
The nuns got up and ran out in panic with their face turning pale.
Someone shouted loudly in fear, “There’s… something evil!” The scream attracted the officials of the Ministry of Justice staying behind.
“What’s wrong? Go and ask why they shouted!” Shao Yanru said in displeasure.
Upon receiving the order, Shuqi ran out. She shouted at the old maids while going up to have a look. After seeing it clearly, she stepped back in shock, fell to the ground directly because of an infirm step, and then quickly stood up on her hands and ran to the pavilion.
“Miss… Miss, they dug out two unknown pieces of stuff that are dark and still squirming. They seem… seem to be numerous bugs. They make me feel sick!”
Shuqi rushed over with a pale face. It was obvious that she was terribly frightened, but fortunately, she answered clearly.
Under the veil, Shao Wanru looked at Shao Yanru’s face calmly and slightly raised the corners of her mouth. Shao Yanru was indeed exceedingly shrewd compared with others. Had she had encouraged Old Madam to set up Shao Wanru?
No matter whether it worked or not, it wouldn’t do any harm to Shao Wanru. She just needed to wait and see!
As she expected, Shao Yanru was the most insidious and had killed her with plots in the last life!
“Fifth Sister, let’s go and have a look!” Shao Yanru said, while looking at Shao Wanru. Both of them wore veils, so neither of them could see each other’s expression clearly. Shao Yanru looked a little complacent, but talked in an extremely gentle tone, as if she really knew nothing about it.
“It’s… We’d better not do that. The officials of the Ministry of Justice have come. If there’s anything weird, let them have a look!”
Shao Wanru shook her head and said, reaching out to point at the gate of the Moon Cave with the round fan in her hand.
Such horrified screams from such a large group of people had alarmed the officials of the Ministry of Justice. A large group of the officials of the Ministry of Justice came over, and they were headed by an acquaintance, Wen Xichi.
Shao Wanru was very surprised. She thought that she wouldn’t meet Wen Xichi again after repaying his kindness in the last life. Unexpectedly they met again here. She put down the round fan, looked thoughtfully at Wen Xichi, and then looked slowly at the entourages he brought.
He brought plenty of people, so it could be seen that he got a high position in the Ministry of Justice. In the last life, Wen Xichi had long been bedridden at this time. In this life, he had a promising future as she expected after escaping the misfortune occurring in the last life.
“Let’s go and see what they are.” Wen Xichi said with his eyes falling on the two rings. He couldn’t tell what they were, but there were some tiny dark bugs squirming on them. The bugs looked like ants.
One of his subordinates came over and picked up one of the rings with a branch. After looking at it, he reported, “Your Excellency, a kind of large ants are attached to it.”
The entire ring was covered with dark ants. Because they were all alive, they made the ring look like something dark squirming that was extremely disgusting and horrifying. So people made such big noises.
“Your Excellency, can you instruct some of your subordinates to get rid of the ants?” Shuqi, who got Shao Yanru’s instruction, ran down and asked. As Shao Yanru’s maid, she naturally knew Wen Xichi.
“Help them clean up the ants.” Wen Xichi nodded and instructed his subordinates. The servants sent by Duke Xing’s Mansion and the members of the Yuhui Nunnery were all female. Seeing these ants gather, they were extremely terrified. However, the officials of the Ministry of Justice had seen more horrifying kinds of stuff, so they would naturally not be scared by these ants.
Some officials had gone over, picked up the rings with branches, and threw them into the pool nearby. The pool was covered with a layer of dark ants at once. Several old maids, who were watching it aside, had never seen such a disgusting scene despite their ages. They were so shocked that their faces turned pale. They narrowed their eyes and did not dare to look at the layer of dark ants.
How many ants could cover the entire pool? What was beneath the ants? Why would such disgusting ants stay on it? They did not find this kind of ants on other pieces of stuff during the excavation. Why did these two rings suddenly appear?
“Your Excellency, my master invites you to have a talk!” After thanking Wen Xichi, Shuqi bowed to him and said.
Wen Xichi turned and walked to the pavilion. When he arrived at the pavilion, Shao Yanru and Shao Wanru had stood up. Seeing him arrive, they bowed to him together.
“Please sit down, Third Young Master Wen!” As Wen Xichi’s old friend, Shao Yanru naturally pointed at the stone bench aside and said with a smile.
Meanwhile, Shao Wanru remained silent.
“First Miss Shao, Fifth Miss Shao, how do you do!” Wen Xichi said with a slight smile, walked into the pavilion, and sat down on the stone bench between the two of them. Shuqi hurriedly poured a cup of tea for him and then deftly retreated behind Shao Yanru.
Yujie raised her head and looked at her master, and then stood behind Shao Wanru obediently, as if she didn’t know Wen Xichi.
Shao Yanru also sat down and asked softly, “Third Young Master Wen, do you know what they are?”
Wen Xichi glanced at the several pairs of s.h.i.+ny silver bracelets on the table. He, who hadn’t figured it out before, immediately realized something at this moment and said, “They should also be a pair of bracelets!”
Shao Wanru lowered her head and sat quietly, only swaying the round fan in her hand a few times. But she did not say anything or answer, as if it had nothing to do with her at all.
As the younger sister, she should let Shao Yanru do the talking. Moreover, Shao Yanru seemed to be an old acquaintance of Wen Xichi.
“Bracelets? How could it be possible? It’s said that bracelets can avoid evil spirits. Moreover, these pairs of bracelets are buried there as well, but there was nothing wrong with them. Why is that pair of bracelets the only pair with something wrong?” Shao Yanru asked in surprise. She put down the round fan in her hand and reached out in an attempt to touch the several pairs of bracelets that had been wiped clean.
“Miss, please don’t touch them. Perhaps they also contain some evil spirits!” Shuqi was shocked and hurriedly reached out to stop her, while advising.
Shao Wanru rolled her eyes and raised the corners of her mouth slightly. It turned out that they set the trap here!
In fact, since her maternal grandma found out the smell of the longevity lock, she had been suspecting this.
Shao Yanru seemed to be frightened, slowly withdrew her hand, and said in an embarra.s.sed voice, “How can they contain evil spirits? Perhaps the ants had no place to go, so they gathered accidentally!”
“It’s impossible for ants to gather accidentally. There must be a reason.” Wen Xichi denied her statement. He glanced at Shao Wanru, who was sitting aside and focusing on swaying her round fan, with a trace of gentle delight across his eyes. She was pretending to be unacquainted with him. Compared with two years ago, she had grown up into a big girl!
“Miss, you should stay still as the Third Young Master Wen suggests. Here is the Yuhui Nunnery. If there are some evil spirits or evil things, the nuns of the nunnery will deal with them. You must not act rashly. Otherwise, if something terrible happens to you, I can never absolve myself from the blame!” Shuqi said. She seemed to be terribly frightened and blocked Shao Yanru’s sleeves to prevent her from reaching out.
Evil spirits, evil things? Under the fine and long veil, she lifted the corners of her red lips to show a sweet but gloomy smile.