False evidence

Chapter 17 Incense Burning
A true hobby must be based on a certain level of financial resources.

Obviously, my grandfather didn't have that ability, so the most 'valuable' things he collected, in my opinion now, were a plaster cast of Chairman Mao about half a foot tall and a picture of the Kitchen God that I don't know if he took down from someone's stove.

When I was very young, my grandfather's favorite thing to do in his spare time was to point to his "collection" and tell me about each of the people who owned it and what their stories were.

Because of my grandfather's quirk, I didn't have much trouble recognizing the origins of the eight wooden carvings.

Su Qin, Sun Bin, Shang Yang, Li Si, Bai Qi, Mao Sui, Fan Li... Which of these is not a famous figure in history?

There was one person who was relatively difficult to identify, but after recognizing the identities of the previous seven, and looking at this person's attire, combined with the anecdotes about the people that my grandfather had told me, I immediately guessed the person's identity by summarizing the commonalities.

This person was actually Xu Fu, who led thousands of boys and girls across the sea to the east during the Qin Dynasty to search for the mythical islands overseas for Qin Shi Huang!
Having identified the eight wooden carvings, I finally discovered the source of the strange fragrance. Carefully picking up one of the carvings and examining it closely, I became even more certain of my suspicions.

These wooden human figures are not merely handicrafts; their true function is actually as eight incense burners!

However, this is not an ordinary incense burner, but a reverse-flow incense pot with a mechanism hole inside!

In fact, backflow incense is not unusual at all, and in recent years many bourgeois people have been trying to be sophisticated.

However, according to Li Ping, the house has been empty for at least three years. The old house is not very well sealed. Even if the door was only recently opened, the old door alone has several cracks. Any smell should have dissipated after so long.

Moreover, the scent is so strange...

I looked around and suddenly spotted a small wooden box on the bookshelf.

I swear I was just curious and had no intention whatsoever of stealing valuable family items.

More importantly, upon seeing the wooden box, I seemed to immediately know what was inside.

As he opened the unlocked glass door of the bookcase and picked up the wooden box, his gaze fell on the back of it. Judging from the title, it seemed to be a book related to physiognomy.

Looking back at the furnishings inside the room, I couldn't help but wonder: Did the owner of the study also have a passion for metaphysics?

The wooden box is quite ordinary; it's not even entirely made of solid wood. You can't smell any strong odor through the box.

Upon opening the wooden box, as I expected, it indeed contained eight tower-shaped incense sticks. Bringing them to my nose, they appeared to be ordinary sandalwood.

After much hesitation, I finally called Liping.

When the call connected, I apologized to him first, saying that I had gone up to the second floor without his permission. Then I told him about the strange discovery I had made.

Li Ping seemed to be eating something, and mumbled on the other end of the phone, "I've seen those eight incense burners you mentioned before, but I don't know who those eight people are. I even bought that box of incense myself. I just thought it would be fun, but when the incense arrived, I got bored and lost interest in lighting it."

Oh, right, I just got a call from my aunt this morning. She said they're not planning to move back in and asked me to help them find a real estate agent to sell the house. I specifically asked her about it, and she said I should handle everything in the house.

"Hey, I'm not trying to fool you. I mean, don't overthink it. For the time being, you can do whatever you want in that house. You're basically bored anyway, so if you can find a buyer and get rid of all that stuff, that would be great."

I said I wouldn't dare make that decision. Just that daybed alone looks worth a lot of money, and the books are even more unpredictable. I saw several of them that are as old as my grandfather.

After hanging up the phone, I felt completely at ease.

Seeing that the amount of incense was just right, I decided not to push myself too hard. I was just killing the kids on a rainy day anyway, and since it was a cheap online purchase, I figured I might as well light it and enjoy the view instead of throwing it away!
With that thought in mind, I didn't care about anything else and just lit the incense.

However, out of reverence for the ancients, I bowed three times to the wooden carving after each incense stick I lit and placed it on the burner. Perhaps due to the unique structure of the incense burner, the fragrance diffused unusually slowly after the incense was lit.

After lighting seven pills and bowing to seven wooden carvings, I could only just smell a faint fragrance, which was nothing more than ordinary sandalwood scent.

However, after the eighth incense stick was lit and placed in the palm of the Xu Fu statue, I suddenly felt a tingling sensation all over my body.

That's definitely not ordinary numbness. For example, when a person squats in the toilet for a long time, after standing up, their legs don't feel like they're doing their own thing, and their body feels numb, like the static on a TV screen.

It's not just a localized issue, but a whole-body one; even my brain is numb and I can't think straight.

Before this feeling appeared, I had planned to worship the statue of Xu Fu, but the sudden numbness left me no time to even groan. I stumbled back a few steps, turned to the side, and knelt on the ground with a thud.

The brain is completely unable to think, but fear bypasses thought, spreading rapidly until it fills the entire body.

I felt my vision getting blurrier and blurrier, but at that moment, I vaguely saw that above the Luohan bed directly in front of me, on the originally blank wall, a huge portrait had appeared!

All I can say is that my grandfather's quirks and the stories he told had a profound impact on me.

Although my eyelids were heavy and my vision was becoming increasingly blurry, I recognized the person the moment I saw the outline of the portrait.

However, in the next moment, I finally couldn't hold on any longer and completely lost consciousness...

I don't know how much time passed, but then I heard footsteps. I opened my eyes with difficulty, and the first thing I saw was a pair of feet.

I couldn't move my body, I could only move my eyes. Looking diagonally upwards along those feet, I saw a figure with a shirt shaped like a ladybug standing in front of the bookshelf.

Following the man's footsteps, my gaze shifted to one side. I saw him pull out a chair and sit down at a desk next to the display cabinet.

From this unusual angle, I finally got a glimpse of the person's profile.

It looked like an elderly person in their sixties, dressed in a Tang suit... or more like a shroud for the dead.

The old man began to open a book. He read it very attentively and carefully, giving the impression that this small space was his own private world.

At that moment, I felt like I was in a nightmare, unable to distinguish between reality and illusion.

That's why my gaze ultimately lingered only on the old man's profile.

Gradually, I began to realize that his profile looked somewhat familiar.

My body is still unable to move, but my mind is gradually becoming more active.

I began to realize that this numb and bewildered feeling was not unfamiliar to me, but when it appeared some time ago, it was never as intense as it is now.

It was precisely because of this 'enlightenment' of my brain that I came to believe in something else that I never expected.

The old man sitting under the lamp, engrossed in reading, is none other than Yang Wudao, the man I once gave a meal to!

(End of this chapter)