Chapter 196: Not Going To Pack Them Up And Let Others Take Advantage?
After entering, Lin Xin realized that the inside looked even more dilapidated than the outside, though she could still vaguely make out some traces of its former luxury. As she walked further in, she looked around curiously and nearly tripped over the weeds underfoot.
“Be careful. No one’s been here for a long time; it’s a total mess already.” Mo Ziyuan grabbed her arm and kicked at the patch of weeds as he spoke.
“Wait,” Lin Xin glanced at the weeds and quickly grabbed Mo Ziyuan’s sleeve, “this grass······”
“What’s wrong with the grass?” Mo Ziyuan asked puzzledly. The entire courtyard was full of grass!
Lin Xin followed his gaze and scanned the courtyard, her whole demeanor changing. “You said no one’s come to this courtyard for a long time? So these weeds have just been here all along?”
“Yeah, this was originally my mother’s courtyard. After she passed away, no one came here anymore. Once Qi Shi entered the household, the courtyard was sealed off.” Mo Ziyuan replied.
“That······” Lin Xin hesitated, unsure how to broach the subject.
“Just say whatever it is. We’re already engaged now; there’s nothing you can’t know.”
Lin Xin rolled her eyes inwardly, then asked: “How did your mother pass away?”
“My mother,” Mo Ziyuan’s expression darkened. He subconsciously tried to kick at the grass on the ground, but Lin Xin pulled him back and dragged him aside. “These aren’t ordinary weeds. You’d better stay away from them.”
“What do you mean?”
“This grass is called ‘Zi Wu Duo Hun’. At midnight and noon, it releases a special substance. If that substance mixes with salt, it reacts, and once it enters the body, the person becomes weak, starts coughing up blood, and slowly dies.” Lin Xin explained.
She had once seen a book at Cui Shi’s place that detailed various plants. Thanks to her supernatural ability, she had memorized it and remembered many strange flowers and grasses, including this kind on the ground.
“What did you say?”
“Of course, this grass is actually a medicinal herb that can regulate qi and blood, calm the mind and spirit. As long as it doesn’t encounter salt, it’s a life-saving remedy.” Lin Xin thought for a moment and mentioned the herb’s other side as well.
But Mo Ziyuan wasn’t listening anymore.
Midnight was at night, so naturally it had nothing to do with salt, but noon was exactly when lunch was prepared in the small kitchen—using salt was the most normal thing. He also remembered that his mother had indeed grown gradually weaker before coughing up blood and dying.
“Is this grass common?” Mo Ziyuan asked through gritted teeth.
“How could it be?” Lin Xin gave him a look that said ‘are you an idiot?’ “If it were common, how many people would it poison to death!”
Mo Ziyuan: “······” Though true, it didn’t have to be put so bluntly.
“Do you think someone deliberately planted this grass to kill your mother?” Lin Xin asked after pulling Mo Ziyuan to sit on the steps of the main house.
Mo Ziyuan nodded. “Yeah, if it’s not common, then how did it end up in my mother’s courtyard?”
Lin Xin scratched her head a bit. She had said that the inner residences of great families were always full of entanglement!
“You mean······ my father he······” Mo Ziyuan didn’t dare look at Lin Xin. He buried his chin in his arms on his knees and asked in a muffled voice. Lin Xin almost couldn’t make out what he said.
“If you want to know, just investigate! What happened won’t cease to exist just because you avoid it. If you want the truth, investigate it. If you think the truth isn’t important, then don’t. No need to be entangled.” Lin Xin said.
“What if······”
Lin Xin shrugged without answering. In fact, she couldn’t answer, since it hadn’t happened to her. Though she could understand Mo Ziyuan’s current mood, she couldn’t empathize with his feelings, as she hadn’t experienced it.
“I get it,” Mo Ziyuan wiped his face, forcing himself to calm down. He pulled Lin Xin to her feet and headed into the main house. “Let’s take care of serious matters first.”
“Okay,” Lin Xin followed obediently behind him.
Tonight’s moon was very bright. Through the leaky rooftop, they could see that the furniture in the room was covered with coarse cloth, but thick dust had accumulated on the cloth and the floor. As soon as they entered, they left two clear sets of footprints on the ground.
Mo Ziyuan was very familiar with the place. He led Lin Xin around the furniture, pushed open a small door next to the bedroom, and went in. After closing the door, he took a fire starter from his bosom, blew on it, and lit the oil lamp on the table.
“You used to come here often?” Lin Xin asked, looking at the lamp where half the oil remained.
“Mm, sometimes when I was in a bad mood, I’d come take a look.” Mo Ziyuan replied. He picked up the oil lamp and walked to a curio shelf as tall as the ceiling, turning a white vase in the center left and right several times. The curio shelf silently split in half from the middle, revealing a pitch-black passageway.
“Do all you rich people play like this?” Lin Xin curiously watched the curio shelf. She had only seen such mechanisms in novels or TV shows before and hadn’t expected to witness a real one this time.
“Basically every house in the capital city that can be called a house has its own secret room. Nothing strange about it.” Mo Ziyuan’s tone was utterly casual.
Lin Xin: “······” Fine, poverty limits my imagination.
Mo Ziyuan led the way in with the oil lamp, not forgetting to pull Lin Xin along.
Once inside, Lin Xin realized this was actually just a room. The ground surface was filled with wooden boxes edged in brass. These boxes were clearly old, yet preserved perfectly, with the carvings on them still vivid.
However, what stood out was that some boxes still had intact locks hanging on them, while others had their locks broken—clearly forcibly pried open without a key.
She quietly glanced at Mo Ziyuan and saw no change in his expression, realizing he probably knew something, so she said nothing more.
“Put all these away!” Mo Ziyuan pointed at the boxes and said to Lin Xin. His gaze, hidden in the darkness, grew exceptionally deep.
“All of them?” Lin Xin eyeballed them; there were at least thirty or forty boxes.
“Or leave them for someone else to take advantage of?”
“Uh, alright!” Lin Xin silently repositioned herself as a mobile warehouse, then unhesitatingly waved her small hand, transferring all the boxes in front of her into her space, leaving only the dust marks on the ground surface where they had been stacked.
“Done here. Let’s go to the next place.” Mo Ziyuan’s pupils contracted slightly. Though he had seen it several times before, it was still astonishing.
But Lin Xin found it even more astonishing. “There’s more?”
“Of course! This is nothing. Hurry up. Once we’re done collecting, we still have to deliver those corpses to Qi Shi!” Her wide-eyed innocence made Mo Ziyuan chuckle. After pulling her out of the secret room and restoring the curio shelf, they left.
