Kaleidoscope of Death

The lamp was definitely going to be stolen, but exactly where to steal the lamp became a problem.

They had once secretly brought out a lamp from the Mistress, which meant that the lamp could be taken out, but with the Mistress guarding it, there was a certain risk. If they were caught by the mistress while stealing the lamp, they would probably be killed by the mistress on the spot as if they were pigs.

Apart from the mistress, the ancestral hall they had been to before also had oil lamps, and the oil lamps placed inside were probably made by the mistress from her corpse.

In fact, Lin Qiushi felt very uncomfortable when he thought of the ancestral hall. If their guess was correct, it was very likely that there was something very ferocious inside the ancestral hall filled with oil lamps.

While Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming were wondering where to go to get the lanterns, they saw several people from the team sneaking out of the courtyard.

Gu Longming saw Yan Shihe's figure among those people, he stood up and said, "Yan Shihe is also there, where are they going?!"

Lin Qiushi said, "They went out?"

Gu Longming nodded and looked at Lin Qiushi, "Should we secretly follow, I have a feeling they want to do something."

Lin Qiushi thought, "Let's go."

So the two of them quietly followed out.

There were four people in this group, and one of them was Yan Shihe. He was standing in the middle of the crowd, whispering something to the others, Lin Qiushi could vaguely hear the content of their conversation, but because the distance was too far away, he could only vaguely hear a few words, oil lamp, chance, shrine.

Although it was only a few words, it was enough to provide the most crucial information, Lin Qiushi knew where they wanted to go, these people obviously wanted to go to the ancestral hall and steal the oil lamp just like they did! And since Yan Shihe was in the crowd, it was highly likely that he had instigated it.

Eventually, Lin Qiushi opened his mouth and said to Gu Longming, "They're going to steal the lamp."

Gu Longming's heart was shocked, "What? To steal the lights? A shrine?"

Lin Qiushi nodded.

Gu Longming said, "This..." he couldn't say that this was a bad thing, because if these people could safely bring the lamp out of the shrine, then they wouldn't have to venture to Mistress's residence.

Lin Qiushi said, "Follow and take a look first."

As they were worried about being discovered by the people in front of them, Lin Qiushi and the others didn't dare to follow too closely. After walking through a few small roads, the magnificent and ornate shrine built in the small city appeared before their eyes.

Yan Shihe and the people he had brought with him walked directly inside the ancestral hall.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming, on the other hand, were close to the door and hid in a corner, secretly peeking towards it.

Lin Qiushi saw Yan Shihe from the crack in the door and heard his voice as well.

Yan Shihe was speaking and he said, "There are oil lamps here, don't you need them? Don't take it yet."

"Nothing will happen if you really take it, right?" One of the men was a little hesitant, his eyes surveying the shrine filled with plaques, "It's like something is worshipped here."

"Is it useful to worry about that now, without lights you all will die tonight." Yan Shihe said, "What's the point of following me if you're so afraid, I'll take it first if you don't." After he finished speaking, he reached out and took down an oil lamp, extinguished the wick burning on it, and put it directly into the pocket he was carrying.

There was a silence in the crowd, and everyone was a little surprised at Yan Shihe's crispness.

After several long minutes of waiting, nothing happened inside the shrine, and Yan Shihe looked very impatient as he said, "You guys keep dawdling, I'm leaving first." He said he was leaving and turned around and came towards the door.

When the others saw that there were indeed no accidents after Yan Shihe had taken the oil lamp, they also reached out and took the nearest oil lamp to them.

After the oil lamp arrived, all of them had smiles on their faces.

But Lin Qiushi, who was standing outside the door, noticed an unusual sight. After these people had taken off the oil lamps and extinguished them, there were some dark red highlights on the dark ceiling of the ancestral hall.

At first, Lin Qiushi thought that those highlights were light sources, but after careful observation, he discovered that those highlights were actually blood-red eyes. These eyes quietly gazed at the person below the shrine holding the oil lamp showing a happy color, blinking slowly.

"What's dripping?" Someone's body suddenly dripped with something and he was shocked, wiping his fingers on it, he found that it was a drop of sticky liquid that, though transparent, was giving off a disgusting smell that felt like something's... saliva.

The man was so shocked by his association that he didn't even dare to look up for a moment to see what was above his own head, and his steps towards the door were involuntarily quickened.

The first to get the oil lamp, Yan Shihe, but his footsteps had already stepped out of the door of the ancestral hall.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming were afraid of being discovered and didn't dare to get too close, they hid in the small forest next to the shrine and saw the people inside the shrine come out one by one.

One, two, three... The moment the third person's feet stepped out of the ancestral hall, the doors of the ancestral hall closed with a bang.

The three people standing in the doorway were all startled when they saw the sudden closing of the gate. In the next moment, one of the girls turned around in tears and began to slap the door of the ancestral hall hard, shouting, "Xiao Jian, Xiao Jian-" it looked like her teammate had been locked inside the ancestral hall.

A miserable scream came from inside the shrine.

This scream should have belonged to the man called Xiao Jian, no one knew what he had encountered inside, but the doorway of the ancestral hall was overflowing with thick blood, which was dripping out through the narrow slit, looking particularly terrifying.

Lin Qiushi, on the other hand, heard the sounds inside the ancestral hall, and although he didn't want to hear them, they still got into his ears. He heard the howling of a small ravine, a kind of sound of flesh being torn apart, and the clear, crisp laughter of a child.

A few minutes later, everything returned to calm, and the door, which remained unmoving no matter how much the people outside rapped on it, slowly opened once again.

The woman, who was outside rapping on the door, rushed in regardless of her own safety, but there was nothing in the shrine except for a puddle of blood on the ground, and the people who should have been inside had disappeared as if they had never existed.

The woman lowered her head and trembled as she picked up something on the floor, it was a piece of nail cover, she finally understood what had happened and wailed in pain.

Yan Shihe didn't enter the shrine again, just stood at the door watching from a distance, untouched by the death of the bystanders, he even lifted his wrist to look at his watch, looking like he thought it was a waste of time.

"I'm going to smash this place, I'm going to smash all of you!" The emotions of the woman who had lost her companion were on the verge of collapse, and she grabbed a piece of plaque and was about to smash it to the ground, but her raised hand was caught dead by a pair of withered old hands sticking out from behind her.

The woman turned back, and saw the guttering old face of the gatekeeper.

"You..." before the woman could say anything, she was grabbed by the gatekeeper's arm and dragged out of the shrine in a hard manner. The gatekeeper looked small in stature, but had great strength, and dragged the one-meter-plus woman out of the shrine in a hard manner.

The woman struggled and cried out, but there was only indifference in the eyes of those who were with her, this was the cruel world inside the gate, where one could lose their life at any time.

The woman who was thrown out of the ancestral hall gave up, kneeling on the ground crying and almost fainting, she pointed at Yan Shihe and cursed, saying, "You know, you must have known, you just want to get us killed!!!"

In response to the woman's accusation, Yan Shihe's face didn't change at all as he said, "Everyone has gotten their lamps, I'm leaving first."

The others who had gotten their oil lamps, however, showed gratitude towards him and said, "Brother Yan, let's go together."

No one paid any attention to the woman who was emotionally devastated by the loss of her teammate.

Gu Longming spat at the scene and said, "This Yan Shihe isn't a good thing at a glance."

Lin Qiushi agreed, "Indeed."

It seemed that the lamps inside the shrine could indeed be taken, but there was a quantity limit, and when getting a certain quantity caused a qualitative change from quantity to quantity, the things inside the shrine would come out.

Gu Longming licked his lips and said, "Lin Lin, what do we do?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I suddenly had an idea, if all goes well, we shouldn't have to go to the Mistress's courtyard."

Gu Longming said, "What idea?"

Lin Qiushi didn't say anything, just turned around and said, "Let's go."

They followed the path back to the courtyard, and as they passed by the street, they saw a few townspeople carrying live pigs towards the river again. Only this time the number of live pigs became two, and the number of people playing the music had increased. It was as if it was a signal, alerting them to the approaching River God Festival.

Lin Qiushi's footsteps finally stopped outside Yan Shihe's room, and then he pulled out a hairpin from his pocket.

Gu Longming's eyes straightened as he looked at it, "Lin Lin what are you doing..."

Lin Qiushi whispered, "Open the lock." He bent down and quickly inserted the hairpin into the lockhole, and a few seconds later, the large lock in front of him opened in response.

Gu Longming admired, "Bull."

Lin Qiushi always felt that this image was a bit familiar, and on second thought, he realized that it was just a replica of the Ruan Nam Candle that had brought him, only now he was playing the role of Ruan Nam Candle.

"What are we doing in here? Looking for oil lamps?" Gu Longming looked around, "But could he have hidden the oil lamp..."

Lin Qiushi said, "I saw, they at least don't have it on them." The oil lamps were made of bronze, they weren't lightweight, weighing at least around three or four pounds, and Lin Qiushi noticed that Yan Shihe didn't have a backpack on him, his friend Xiao Shallow only carried a shoulder bag that was quite inadequate to put down the oil lamps. This meant that the oil lamp they definitely didn't have with them, either in the room or hidden somewhere else.

After rummaging around the room, they finally saw what they were looking for under the bed, Yan Shihe's oil lamp was indeed hidden in a hidden place under the bed.

After Gu Longming turned the lamp over, he involuntarily cursed a swear word.

There was no other reason for swearing, because there was simply more than one oil lamp under Yan Shihe's bed, in fact, there were five or six oil lamps all neatly placed underneath, and it looked like they should be the oil lamps that the others had disappeared.

"This Yan Shihe is also too damn not something." Gu Longming opened his mouth and cursed, "It's thanks to him that he did it!"

He stole other people's oil lamps, and then created the illusion that they were destroyed, when in fact they were all in his pocket, and encouraged others to steal the lamps from the ancestral hall and lose their lives.

The first time I saw these lamps, Lin Qiushi's sense of disobedience towards Yan Shihe was even stronger, and he always felt that Yan Shihe seemed to know something from the moment he entered the house.

And such a situation Lin Qiushi had seen once, the human betrayer who used the picture frame to kill people in the world of the Lady in the Rain.

Could it be that Yan Shihe was also... Lin Qiushi thought of this, his brows furrowed tightly.

"Hey? There seems to be something else under his bed... "Gu Longming found something else pulled out behind the oil lamp, "Family...family tree?"

Lin Qiushi took a look at it and found that it was the family tree that Yan Shihe had once mentioned to them.

He flipped through the first page and found that there were actually photos inside the family tree, even though the photos were black and white, he could recognize the characters on them as the mistress of the courtyard.

After roughly flipping through a few pages, Lin Qiushi revealed a startled look, this family tree was more like some kind of record than a family tree, it was almost entirely photos of the mistress and her children, she had no expression on her face, and she was always holding a child in her arms. Some of those children were crying, some were laughing, but it was obvious that they weren't the same.

And none of these children's names were even extra, all of them were Yu Cai Zhe. There wasn't even any appearance of the male host inside, as if there was only the female host and the child from start to finish.

Gu Longming also vaguely understood something, he looked at Lin Qiushi, "These children aren't her children at all, are they?!"

Lin Qiushi said, "Maybe."

Yu Caizhe was just a code name, not a reference to a specific child, as long as the child was adopted by the mistress, it would be called Yu Caizhe.

Lin Qiushi looked at the timeline of the family tree and said, "Let's go and take this with us."

Gu Longming: "Wouldn't that reveal what we came in for."

Lin Qiushi seemed to laugh: "Didn't you say you were a ghost hunter outside the door, trapping these things should be very skilled ah."

Gu Longming defended, "Only occasionally, occasionally, most of the time I'm still a good and upright citizen."

Lin Qiushi: "Not an upright high school girl anymore?"

Gu Longming shyly said, "If you need me to become a female high school to make you happy..."

Lin Qiushi: ".......why is it suddenly so disgusting.

"We're going to steal the lamps anyway, so let's expose them, besides, I'm afraid he's the one who replaced our lamps." Lin Qiushi very rudely put the family tree into his bag, "Bring a few more lamps as well, for backup."

"Alright." Gu Longming put everything into his bag. He didn't like Yan Shihe in the first place, so he was naturally quite happy to be able to pit Yan Shihe against him.

After loading up their things, they left Yan Shihe's room, first hiding the few lamps they had brought out in a corner quite close to their house, then bringing a lamp with them in case of an accident, and of course, the family tree they hadn't forgotten to stuff in their bag.

The theft of the house, Yan Shihe soon found out, lunch time the whole face is black, eyes in the crowd, and finally fell on the face of Lin Qiushi who is slowly eating.

Lin Qiushi's face remained unchanged, and in the face of Yan Shihe's gaze, he only raised his eyes and said, "Something wrong?"

Yan Shihe laughed, "Did you find out anything new?"

"A new lead?" Lin Qiushi said, "Even if I find out, what clues do you have to trade with me?"

Yan Shihe: "That depends on what you've found out."

Lin Qiushi didn't say anything, just looked at Yan Shihe with a quiet look.

"Well, if you're willing, we can make another deal." Yan Shihe said that he would make a deal, but his eyes hid a searching taste, clearly wanting to see how Lin Qiushi would react to his words.

But Lin Qiushi's reaction was disappointing to Yan Shihe, he wiped his mouth as if he was pondering over something, and finally said, "I have nothing more to exchange with you." The statement was short and resolute.

Yan Shihe said, "Oh, so, you've been staying in the courtyard this morning?"

Lin Qiushi said, "What do you want to ask after going to see the ritual by the river?"

Yan Shihe laughed and stood up, "It's fine, I'm just asking." He turned around and walked away.

Now that four people had died, plus the one who died in the ancestral hall in the morning, the total number of dead was five, while there were still seven living people left, so after discovering that something was missing, Lin Qiushi became Yan Shihe's first target of suspicion, no, in fact Yan Shihe had almost convicted Lin Qiushi and the others.

It was good that Lin Qiushi didn't care about that, he finished his lunch and got up with Gu Longming to leave.

Yan Shihe's gloomy eyes fell behind Lin Qiushi's back.

Xiao Shallow saw the situation and asked, "Brother Yan, are they the ones who took the lamp and the genealogy with them?"

Yan Shihe said, "Who else could there be but them." He said in a cold voice, "Aren't the others in this gate useless trash." He was referring to the other three remaining people who were a bit irritated, "If you hadn't refused to carry the genealogy on your back, where would there be so much going on."

Shallow defended, "I...I'm scared of this too, aren't I..." she didn't want to carry the genealogy with the black and white photos of her mistress plastered all over it.

"Well now." Yan Shihe smirked, "They've stolen it all."

"But we've seen it all, so it's okay if they take it away, right?" Xiao Shallow mumbled, "It's not an important prop anyway."

Yan Shihe gave Xiao Shallow a cold glance, "It's a miracle you've survived this long."

Xiao Shallow was speechless.

After lunch, Lin Qiushi approached a random servant in the courtyard and asked about the history of this courtyard.

That servant said that this courtyard had been around for over a hundred years and had gone through three generations, the most recent one - Mistress's generation.

Lin Qiushi asked for more details about the dates of this world, and that servant returned a number.

As soon as he heard it, Gu Longming realized that something was wrong, he said, "1867? It's not possible-"

He was about to say something, but Lin Qiushi stopped him and smiled, "We know, thank you."

The servant who was asked the question then casually waved his hand, indicating that it was fine, and turned around to leave.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming's eyes locked together as he said, "You also understand what I mean?"

Gu Longming said, "Understood."

The time the family tree was created was the time the mansion was built, and there was also a photo posted below that day and time that was a unique photo of the mistress. There was no timeline on the family tree, only the date when it was created, but if you didn't know the reality of the time, you might not think that there was anything special about the family tree.

Gu Longming said, "She's actually lived for over a hundred years..."

Lin Qiushi said, "We can be sure she's not human."

"Does it matter?" Gu Longming was a bit confused, "Is she a person we can't afford to mess with, right?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head, "No, it's important. Her different identity means that the way we treat her has to be different as well." If it was a human, perhaps they would still have a fighting chance against her, but if it was a ghost, then there was absolutely no possibility of them fighting hard against their mistress.

Gu Longming scratched his head, seeming to understand.

"I always felt like the clue to the key was on her body." Lin Qiushi said, "If there's a chance tomorrow, we'd better check in her room again."

Gu Longming nodded, "Yes."

Lin Qiushi said, "There's also a story about this mansion..." he looked at the sky, "Let's go, let's go to the small town, the people inside the city, they should know something."

So Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming left the courtyard and took a turn inside the small city.

This small town wasn't big, the dense fog that surrounded it isolated the place into an island, they asked some of the city's inhabitants on the street, but they were all very wary and didn't want to talk much about the Yu family's courtyard.

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming both felt quite helpless.

Gu Longming said, "Why don't we go to the restaurant and sit down, I'm walking hungry and I don't know if the food in this world is good."

Lin Qiushi saw that there was no breakthrough and nodded his head and said good.

They went inside the restaurant and casually found a table to sit down, and were about to call the runner to order food, but they heard a sound of waking wood slapping onto the table.

"But it was said that the rain fell for seven days and seven nights in a row that year..." Lin Qiushi looked for the sound and saw a storyteller in old clothes standing in the middle of the restaurant, holding a piece of wake wood in his hand, and said aloud, "Seeing that the city was about to be flooded, it was said that a family had come up with a way to cure the water, and that way was to offer sacrifices to the river god to stop the long, unceasing downpour-"

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming's eyes widened slightly when they heard the word Yu family, they didn't expect to hear a story about the Yu family compound in such a way.

The author had something to say: the reason why the kid entering the other room was blood water was because there was no human oil lamp in that room, Lin Qiushi's room had a lamp, so the kid wasn't able to turn into blood water. It's not a bug, and it's not Goldfinger, I saw someone was weird so I'll explain.