"How could you two let strangers in?! Madness!"
Old Yue raised his snowy white brows and rose. He looked at me, his expression filled with animosity, and tried to drive me out with his walking stick.
When An Ning saw how he treated me, she immediately came forward, her tone angry, "It was your grandson that told Little Hua to come here if she had time today. Now we"re here and you"re driving us out, are you making a joke out of us?"
"That"s not what I mean!"
Yang Yi hurriedly flailed his arms. He saw that the situation was getting out of control, and interrupted, "Grandpa! Grandma! It"s not what you think! I really did tell Rong Hua to come."
"Humpf."
Old Yue was so angry he sat again huffing and puffing. Since An Ning did not know what had happened yesterday night, she obviously did not know the real reason I decided to visit the teahouse.
I could not ignore yesterday"s events, the old site of the Yue family must not be allowed to continue existing. If one person could break in and "explore", so could two people, three people….
So I decided to find Yang Yi and help him deal with the mess that his ancestors had left behind.
As long as the thing in the old site of the Yue family was still there, this area would never be at peace.
I knew that Pervert would not help. He did not like taking care of other people"s problems. If all the people on earth were troubled by evil spirits, would Pervert have to deal with all of them?
Although….even if he didn"t come help personally, he could at least send a subordinate to come lend a hand.
That thing in the mansion would not be easy to deal with.
"Grandfather Yue, grandmother Yang, I do not have any bad intentions. I came here today first to see Yang Yi, and second….I"d like to discuss something with you two."
"What can there possibly be to discuss, you"re an outsider, don"t go b.u.t.ting into our affairs, go, go."
Old Yue motioned at me. He seemed to really want me to leave. I was hurt by his disregard and my cheeks reddened. I clenched my jaw.
I was embarra.s.sed. It felt like all my enthusiasm and offers of help were met with coldness. I wanted to help them shake free of the shadows of the Yue family, and they treated me like this, leaving me with no face at all.
Yang Yi saw my expression, rapidly turning from green to red, and then looked at his grandparents. He was angry but he pressed down his emotions and forced his voice to stay calm.
"Grandfather, grandmother, Rong Hua is my friend, I invited her here, if you don"t respect her can you at least respect me. I asked her to come here and now you"re telling her to leave right in front of me, it makes me very unhappy."
I saw that Yang Yi was about to start arguing with his own grandparents and immediately said, "It"s okay, Yang Yi, if your grandfather and grandmother don"t welcome me, then I"ll leave. Sorry to disturb you."
"I"m sorry."
Yang Yi looked at me apologetically. I smiled and shook my head, signalling that I didn"t mind.
I understood why Old Yue and Old Yang did not welcome me. The old site of the Yue family was their family secret, and since I"d overheard their earlier discussion, they would obviously try to find various excuses and reasons to attack me verbally.
Largely because they did not know about my connection to the Underworld, my connection to Hades.
Just before leaving, I thought of something a little harsh, but that thought could work. I coughed and looked towards Old Yue and Old Yang, smiling, "Grandfather, grandmother, I was going to discuss with you two how to deal with the problem that your ancestors left behind, but since you are so unwelcoming, clearly I was thinking too much. Goodbye."
When I finished speaking, I grabbed An Ning by the wrist and started walking towards the exit.
I spoke very clearly, each word and phrase enunciated well just so they could hear all of it and understand what I meant.
Just as I expected, Uncle Yang"s face was filled with shock and he called for me to stop.
"You"re called Little Hua, right? Don"t go yet, what did you….what did you mean by what you just said?"
Uncle Yang"s forehead was beaded with sweat, and he swallowed repeatedly. His lips were pulled tight and his eyes staring right at me.
"I meant exactly what you heard me say, I know about what happened in the old site of the Yue family. Last night, I met Yang Yi when he went to strengthen the enchantments.
I pointed at Yang Yi and raised my brows, "He hasn"t told you about what happened?"
"No…."
The old couple and Uncle Yang replied simultaneously.
They were all frozen in place and shook their heads. Suddenly, Uncle Yang finally absorbed what he had heard and looked at me anxiously: "You know everything?"
I nodded, not at all afraid that they would kill me to keep their secret. "I came today to discuss about how to deal with it."
This kind of development shocked all three adults, and Yang Yi who was standing to the side.
"What are you saying…."
I nodded at him and replied, "What you"re thinking is right, Pervert won"t help you, but that doesn"t mean that I won"t. That thing in the mansion has to be destroyed, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable."
After listening to what I said, An Ning just stood by my side, confused, as if she was trying to remember if something had really happened at the old site of the Yue family last night. However, her mind told her that after she returned to the hotel from sightseeing, she had not gone back out!
An answer popped up in her head!
I saw the dawning realisation on her face, and started to laugh. Before the smile even had the chance to spread on my face, she had already jumped up and pointed at me, yelling out, "Yesterday you and your husband were making out! I wasn"t dreaming!"
Pfft-
Her words almost scared me to death, and with my face completely went red, I raised a fist and was ready to hit her!
This girl! That kind of thing shouldn"t even be mentioned in public! Why didn"t she have any awareness of the situation!
An Ning had completely ruined my calm and collected appearance, and what I had been planning to say flew right out of my head. As I was still trying to recover, I gave Yang Yi the mission of describing what had happened.
"You can tell them what happened last night at the old site of the Yue family. Tell them everything you saw."
My face was still red and while I attempted to slow my rapidly beating heart, Yang Yi told his family about everything that had happened last night.
"Also, Rong Hua is Hades" wife."
Yang Yi said calmly, pointing at me.
I could visibly see the three in the living room slowly petrifying. It was clear that what Yang Yi just said had given them too much of a shock. They looked at me as if I was a ghost, and their eyes were fixated on me. Minutes pa.s.sed and they didn"t even blink.
Embarra.s.sed, I rubbed my cheek and smiled, "I lived in a small village when I was eighteen and was taken to a hut and sacrificially married to Hades, but I didn"t die."
Yang Yi stepped forward and asked: "Wait, you mean you were forced into being a sacrifice, and the girls that were sacrificed before you all died?"
I glanced at him, impressed. I had only said one sentence and he had already deduced the whole situation. I nodded, my smile filled with a warmth I did not even notice myself.
"But I am very lucky, Pervert treats me very well."
I remembered that now was not the time to be talking about my past, and looked towards Old Yue and Old Yang, then said seriously: "I honestly want to help you. If you two aren"t willing to accept, and don"t want an outsider to interfere, I"ll leave right away."
"Queen of the Underworld!"
Tears flowed down Old Yang"s face, and he walked towards me, hands and jaw shaking, "My husband and I were unreasonable, please do not take our actions to heart."
Clearly my "status" had scared them. I walked to her side and helped her to the nearby sofa. "There"s no need to call me by my status, this isn"t the olden days, I"m Rong Hua, just call me Little Hua."
Old Yue had gotten a rolled up painting from somewhere and brought it over to me with trembling hands, then undid the red string holding the painting closed and shook it out before handing it over to me.
I took it, confused, but when I saw what was on the painting, my eyes went wide.
At first I had wondered how Yang Yi knew what Pervert looked like, and how he could tell immediately that Pervert was Hades.
Turns out, he had a full body painting of Pervert in his house. I had no idea who had painted it, but the painting definitely depicted Pervert. Although the clothing was different, the mask could not be more familiar.
"Grandfather, where did you get this painting?"
Old Yue stroked his eyebrow and sighed, "When the faction of our family that worshipped spirits disappeared, I was still young, and was sent to the old mansion to deal with the matter of the land. I found this in a small house there. It was hidden under the bed. If I hadn"t been cleaning, I would never have found it."
The Yue family was definitely not simple. They even had a painting of Pervert. Ordinarily, the King of h.e.l.l"s visage could not be seen by anyone, even the spirits of the Underworld were unlikely to look upon him, let alone a living person.
Old Yang had stopped shaking and took a while to calm down. A pair of rough, old hands gripped mine and she looked at me, eyes filled with hope. Her voice was hoa.r.s.e as she spoke, "You will help us, right?"
Yang Yi"s brows furrowed angrily, "Grandmother!"
I sent him a signal with my glance. What had happened before was unimportant, the old couple had not known who I was and tried to drive me away, but it was also their way of protecting me.
"I can help, but I need to know what kind of ritual the last people of the Yue family performed before they disappeared."
Old Yue"s whole body jolted! His slightly curved back bent even further and the wrinkles around his eyes deepened. Even Yang Yi"s uncle sunk into silence, frowning.
The living room was completely still, deadly quiet.
Then, a voice tore through the silence!
"Ritual? Little Hua, I listened to what Yang Yi said, and now I know what you did last night. I"m relieved that you came back unharmed, but hearing you mention a ritual, I really cannot be a bystander."
Her expression was serious and a sharp glint appeared in her eyes which caused my heart to skip a beat.
I thought of the An family"s profession and knew that An Ning must have some understanding of the ritual.