False evidence

Chapter 328 The Hotel's Secret (4)

Liu the Blind Man seemed to be possessed, holding the book in a daze for a long while before muttering:
"Master really didn't lie to me. This extraordinary book truly exists in the world... No wonder that guy was so desperate to get it..."

"Whatever it is, can we go outside first and then talk?"

I'm not interested in the so-called precious book, mainly because the three-legged sheep is underneath, and I'm worried about that. It's tied to the life of the preserved egg, after all.

Blind Liu carefully placed the book into his robes. Just as the three were about to leave, Lü Xin suddenly spoke in their minds:
"Don't go yet! There are still treasures here, don't waste them!"

"What other treasures are there?" Apart from the leather bag, there was only an incense burner left on the offering table. It looked very rough and definitely did not resemble any antique treasures.

Lu Xin said, “The incense burner is an ordinary incense burner, but the five grains offered before the spirit tablet have absorbed the spiritual energy of the treasure. You should keep these five grains; they may come in handy in the future.”

As instructed, I poured the rice from the incense burner into the leather bag, then, supporting An Xin and carrying the two little monkeys, I went out with Blind Liu along the same route.

When we climbed outside, we saw that the corridor and rooms had been restored to their original state, and the only 'door' we used to enter and exit was a tall, suspended window at the end of the corridor.

Liu the Blind and I helped An Xin carry her mother and younger brother back to their room. We also tidied up the mourning hall a bit.

An Xin tugged at me and pointed to the coffin.

I remembered that I had hurriedly closed the coffin lid earlier, and there might have been rats inside. I quickly called Liu the Blind Man to help me lift the coffin lid open.

The three people present were stunned after just one glance into the coffin.

There were no rats in the coffin, and the body showed no signs of being disturbed. However, in addition to the original dead body, there was an extra stiff corpse!

However, it was not a human corpse, but an old macaque that had lost most of its fur!
"It's Gou Dan!" An Xin burst into tears immediately.

I also remembered the shadow that had guided us to the entrance through the hanging window...

There were so many strange things that happened in the middle of the night that I couldn't sort them out at once, so I asked Anxin to come with me to the room on the third floor to treat the two little monkeys' injuries first.

Back in the room, Yan Fengwei was dozing off on the bed, while Lu Zelin was snoring loudly.

The blind man chuckled wickedly, "This little clown refused to drink no matter what I said, but I didn't believe it and forced him to drink half a cup. As a result, he fell asleep immediately!"

Yan Fengwei woke up when he heard the noise, rubbed his eyes, and exclaimed, "Holy crap, where did they get two monkeys from?"

While I was applying the white medicine to the little monkey, Blind Liu gave me a rough account of what had happened.

I went downstairs to find some vegetables, while he and Yan Fengwei secretly tricked Lu Zelin into drinking. They got Lu Zelin drunk before they remembered to look for me.

As soon as Liu the Blind stepped outside, he sensed something was wrong.

He was a man of great experience, and after going down to the first floor to investigate, he roughly figured out what had happened. Then, relying on his feng shui skills, he went back to the third floor, picked up the three-legged sheep, and went to the dark room on the second floor where he found me and Anxin.

I recounted the strange events that had occurred before, and Blind Liu said:

"The Black-Armored General also attached his soul to a paper talisman and used the evil art of creating animals to gather the ants of the forest behind the mountain. Once the paper talisman was burned, the soul returned to its original body. Those rats were either poisoned or ordered by the weasel to cause trouble. The purpose was to create a diversion and let the weasel steal the precious book in the chaos."

I nodded. "It's fortunate that it was these two little rascals, otherwise the other side would have really succeeded."

An Xin held the two baby monkeys and sighed, "My dad treated Gou Dan better than me. Even after Gou Dan died, he couldn't bear to leave him. He even sent his two children back to protect this family."

I also felt a bit emotional. Anxin's father used to be a monkey trainer. Although people say that monkey training is inhumane, who can understand the feelings between monkey trainers and monkeys?
"This building is really a tombstone?" Yan Fengwei nudged me with his shoulder and whispered, "What treasure did you find? Show it to me so I can see it?"

Blind Liu took out the tattered book, held it out to him with both hands, and said, "You really have an eye for things." To me, it was just a tattered book. Although it looked old, I wasn't interested in it, mainly because it wasn't mine.

Yan Fengwei flipped through a few pages, and surprisingly, the colors were also changing.

I couldn't resist peeking in. The content was handwritten with a brush, and it even had an illustration. However, it wasn't a drawing of a person, but rather a strangely shaped little animal.

Yan Fengwei flipped through the pages for a while, then suddenly took a deep breath. "Could this be 'The Record of the Treasures of Heaven and Earth and the Wonders of Clouds and Things'?!"

The blind man grinned and nodded: "That's right!"

"Is this book a treasure?" An Xin asked.

"The Record of Treasures of Heaven and Earth and Strange Things can be said to be a comprehensive record of the treasures of heaven and earth, and it also records the characteristics of cats, dogs, birds, and other rare animals."

Liu the Blind raised an eyebrow: "If I'm not mistaken, your dad is outwardly a monkey showman, but actually he's in the business of catching treasures and stealing sheep."

Yan Fengwei scratched his head and said, "Aren't sheep herders who hoard treasures forbidden from getting married and having children?"

I muttered to myself, "So her dad is the real 'jerk'."

An Xin took the tattered book in her hand, bit her lip, and then handed it to me:

"I don't know if this is a treasure, but it's definitely useless to me. I'll give it to you, but on one condition. I've been accepted into university, and you have to pay my tuition."

"I can pay your tuition fee first, but it's just a loan, and you'll have to pay it back later."

I wanted to suggest that she keep the things, but then I saw the blind man and Yan Fengwei wink at me at the same time.

I hesitated for a moment, but still put the tattered book away.

"Which school did you apply to?" I asked casually.

An Xin said, "XX City Agricultural University."

"Going to the same school as me?" I was taken aback. "What major did you apply for?"

"Veterinary medicine".

"Wow! That's my 'junior sister'!" I was a little confused and asked, "Doesn't Nanjing also have an agricultural college? Why did you have to apply to another one?"

An Xin chuckled: "You'll know why when it's light."

The truth is, someone knocked on the door before dawn.

The police arrived, saying that an early-rising villager had found a body at the foot of the mountain, which was confirmed to be Anxin's second uncle. The forensic examination determined the cause of death to be a sudden heart attack. The deceased was unmarried and lived alone, so they could only notify Anxin's family.

At this moment, An Xin's mother and younger brother also woke up. Upon hearing that her husband's younger brother had died, An Xin's mother turned around, and the first thing she did was to take her son's hand, her eyes shining as she said:
"Good riddance, son, you'll get another house!"

When she looked at An Xin, her eyes were cold and even clearly showed disgust.

I'm starting to understand why Anxin chose to go to another city for the same school.

(End of this chapter)