pjbooks Chapter 369 What's hidden in the bed...?
Chapter 369 What's hidden in the bed...?
The two pieces of information Yan Xun mentioned came from the background information he received when he entered the instance, and from the information provided by Li Wu and others.
The system notification said that Master Gao married him to ward off disaster, and that the Gao family's prosperity was largely due to the offerings they made.
Li Wu and the others also learned that the items worshipped by the Gao family were in Master Gao's room, and no one had ever seen them.
However, these two pieces of information contradict what Master Gao himself said about the deity enshrined in the ancestral hall—it's unclear whether Master Gao was lying or if there was another hidden story—for example, the Gao family enshrined more than one deity.
Upon considering this possibility, Yan Xun couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement, because he recalled the strange well and the yin peach blossoms that Lou Yanchuan had mentioned.
One item is enough to give them a headache; if the Gao family were to offer sacrifices to seventeen or eighteen more, they wouldn't know how to deal with it.
Thinking of this, Yan Xun fixed his gaze on Gao Ruiyun's face, wanting to see what excuse Master Gao could come up with.
Upon hearing this, Master Gao immediately began to stammer, his gaze shifting left and right, avoiding looking at Yan Xun, seemingly too guilty to even look at him.
This secretive behavior made Yan Xun even more convinced that there was a secret in Master Gao's room.
But he had just looked around and there was neither a shrine nor an altar in Master Gao's room. Could it be that such a thing doesn't follow these rules...?
Can't I just hide it under the bed?
Thinking of this, Yan Xun no longer cared what Master Gao thought—he realized that no matter what he did, Master Gao had his own logic to defend him—so he simply stood up and walked straight to Master Gao's luxurious carved bed.
His movements were so swift that Gao Ruiyun was caught off guard.
Seeing him walk straight towards the bed, she quickly stood up and followed behind him, "...What are you looking for?"
Gao Ruiyun looked at Yan Xun anxiously, "Tell me, and maybe I can help you look for it."
He seemed unwilling to let Yan Xun come to his bedside, and as he walked, he walked in front of Yan Xun and blocked his way.
Seeing his expression, Yan Xun became even more certain that Master Gao was up to something!
He made a feint, shook off Gao Ruiyun, and walked towards the bed in a different direction.
Although Master Gao's room was large, it wasn't large enough for the two of them to play race walking in the room, so Yan Xun bypassed Gao Ruiyun and came to the bedside.
The closer you get to that bed, the stronger the dizzying scent of incense becomes.
Yan Xun lifted the bed curtains and saw a suspiciously raised quilt on the bed.
Upon seeing this, Master Gao immediately reached out to stop Yan Xun, but being a dying man, he was no match for Yan Xun's strength and could only helplessly watch as Yan Xun pressed him aside, watching as Yan Xun pulled back the covers from the bed—
Nothing at all.
There was nothing there except the clothes covering the pillow.
Yan Xun pulled the blanket up, repeatedly looking down to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
What Gao Ruiyun was trying to hide wasn't the strange thing he was worshipping in his room, but rather a set of clothes he was wearing over his pillow.
"...What are you doing?" Yan Xun asked, puzzled. "What's there to hide?"
Gao Ruiyun was initially uneasy, but after hearing what Yan Xun said, she immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
His pale face had regained some of its vitality, as if he had experienced a final burst of energy before death.
"You...you're not angry?" Gao Ruiyun asked tentatively, not daring to look at Yan Xun's face as he spoke, only daring to ask in a whisper with his head down.
Yan Xun was even more confused, "Why am I angry?"
He glanced at the pillows and clothes on the bed, but still wasn't reassured. He reached out and searched again to make sure there were no items like "amulet" or "jade pendant" hidden there. Then he bent down and carefully searched under the bed once more.
The area under the bed was so clean it looked like someone had just licked it clean; there was nothing there.
Yan Xun braced himself against the edge of the bed with one hand, while kneeling on the floor with the other... He looked up at Gao Ruiyun, who was watching his every move intently, and asked, "So there's nothing else enshrined in your room?"
"And there's nothing else hidden?"
Yan Xun looked at Gao Ruiyun, "You can't lie to me."
“In my room…” Gao Ruiyun said softly, “there is indeed nothing else on display.”
"I swear, I absolutely did not lie to you." Gao Ruiyun seemed worried that Yan Xun would not believe her, and hurriedly said, "If I lied to you, may I die a horrible death."
Yan Xun: "...?"
"Hey buddy, are you doing really well these days?" Yan Xun thought to himself.
Seeing how resolute Gao Ruiyun was in his words, as if he would die immediately if he didn't believe him, he could only swallow his doubts and ask, "Is the rumor from the outside world wrong?"
Gao Ruiyun's expression was even more conflicted, as if she was torn between "not being able to lie" and "not being able to tell the truth".
Finally, he took a deep breath and said to Yan Xun, "The rumors are true."
“The Gao family does indeed worship something extraordinary,” he said to Yan Xun. “It is the same person you saw in the ancestral hall.”
"As for what you said about what happened in my room," Gao Ruiyun said, "that's a secret of the Gao family, and I can't talk about it."
Gao Ruiyun's words puzzled Yan Xun.
On the one hand, he said that he did not have anything else enshrined in his room, but on the other hand, he said that the fact that he had something enshrined in his room was a secret of the Gao family that he could not tell—in other words, this was also implying to Yan Xun that there was indeed something in Master Gao's room.
The intelligence from the outside world and from Li Wu and others was correct.
What does this mean...?
Yan Xun looked at Gao Ruiyun and pondered his words carefully.
They discovered that the other person kept saying that there were no "other" things enshrined in his room.
The Gao family has always worshipped the great man in the ancestral hall.
In other words, the offerings to that person were divided into two parts: one was a statue placed in the ancestral hall, enjoying the incense offerings in the Gao family ancestral hall, and the other was a part of the secret offerings made by the Gao family head.
But Yan Xun had seen so many "gods," big and small, and he didn't insist on worshipping any of them separately.