Mind reading saves the whole family; I'm firmly in the role of a charlatan.

Chapter 416 I Advise You to Be Kind

Even someone as composed as Xi Jingyue was stunned by Du Anrao's unconventional words.

After a long pause, he finally found his voice: "You mean, the graves on this mountain are all emitting green smoke?"

"No."

Xi Jingyue breathed a sigh of relief and was about to say something when Du Anrao added, "To be precise, apart from the one in front of you that is emitting blue smoke, the others are emitting black smoke."

“This…” Xi Jingyue almost choked.

If his ancestral grave was emitting green smoke, he could at least console himself that it was a good thing. But if it was emitting black smoke, then it could only be a very bad omen.

"Can you tell what's going on with this smoke?"

"It seems to be... the resentment of your ancestors."

"resentment?"

"It's like the resentment of ancestors who, knowing what's going on in the afterlife, feel that their descendants have disgraced them and want to climb out of their coffins to beat them up, but can't."

"..." This is even possible?!
Xi Jingyue's expression immediately became somewhat subtle, and he instinctively turned his head to look at the relatives in front of several grave mounds not far away.

Du Anrao noticed his gaze and looked over as well, then gave an awkward yet polite smile.

[The one on the left runs a private casino and organizes gambling; the one next to him cheated on his brother with a married woman; the third evaded taxes; the fourth engaged in predatory lending and almost drove someone to death; the fifth caused a hit-and-run and illegally dragged someone, resulting in disability...]

Xi Jingyue was numb with shock as he listened to the rest of the group. No wonder the incense sticks broke as soon as the elders touched them. With such a group of unruly descendants, their ancestors probably wished they could crawl out from the ground and take them all down with them to prevent them from ruining their posthumous reputation.

"Hey, that guy over there is even worse. He actually collaborated with that outlaw Boss Jia who almost killed my older brother before, selling illegal drugs. Criminal, criminal, criminal, each one more serious than the last! Luckily, my cousin Bixiao isn't here today, otherwise we could have arrested a whole bunch of them, and we wouldn't have to worry about our year's revenue."

Mr. Xi, you should probably take your grandfather, parents, and aunts and remove them from the family genealogy overnight. Otherwise, you'll be dragged down by these distant relatives sooner or later. It's not just one family facing criminal charges; it's a family growing out of a criminal code!

Xi Jingyue felt dizzy and couldn't help but want to breathe oxygen. Destroy it all, really!

I'm heartbroken as I am, but I still have to clean up this mess.

Du Anrao has already given her answer, but these words are obviously not suitable to be said openly. It is a small matter to embarrass these people. What is more worrying is that if the things they have done are revealed, they might be so frightened that they might take desperate measures and kill her to silence her, relying on their numbers.
Xi Jingyue dared not gamble and could not gamble! After calming himself down, the man began his performance.

"Don't misunderstand, everyone. What An'an means is that the smoke from these incense sticks is off, most likely related to today's weather. The wind is too strong, affecting the burning of the incense and also affecting today's ritual. Since things have already come to this, and the wind is indeed a bit strong today, how about this: let's temporarily stop today's ritual, let's all apologize to our ancestors and explain the situation, and the uncles can find someone to calculate another day, and then we can all come together to complete the ritual. Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds?"

Xi Jingyue's words were a way of giving everyone a way out. If these people were smart, they should take advantage of the situation and let the matter drop.

Unfortunately, some people just have to make their presence felt today.

“Cousin, you’re wrong about that. Everyone was eagerly waiting for Master Du to give his verdict. Why is it that you’re the one explaining things now? Or do you think you can speak on behalf of Master Du and that what you’re saying is what Master Du wants to say? Well, you’re all family, unlike us. No wonder your family’s incense was fine today, while everyone else’s had problems.”

Xi Yanyi's words were practically pointing his finger at Xi Jingyue, implying that he and Du Anrao were in cahoots, and that the so-called incense and candle issues today were all their doing, a scheme to elevate themselves through such superstitious tricks.

The young men following Xi Yanying immediately chimed in, "Yanying is right. How could it be such a coincidence? The moment you brought this so-called master here, the ancestral worship ceremony went wrong. You have to give us an explanation for this."

“That’s right. There were no problems with the ancestral worship in previous years, so why did something happen this year? I don’t believe it’s because the ancestors are restless in the afterlife. The ancestors were restless sooner or later, but it just happened that this woman came and now we’re not at peace. If it’s not her problem, then whose problem is it?”

"I told you long ago that it wasn't appropriate to have an outsider join in the family's ancestral worship, but you wouldn't believe me. Now look what's happened, the ancestors are angry and this has become such a big mess. What do you suggest we do now?"

Hearing everyone collectively shift the blame onto Du Anrao was entirely expected.

These people weren't actually misled by Xi Yanyi's not-so-clever provocation; they were simply feeling guilty.

They know better than anyone what they've done and are worried that they might be the culprits behind this predicament. In order to avoid being exposed, they have no choice but to seize this opportunity to shift the blame.

Xi Jingyue: "..." I advise you not to be ungrateful at a time like this. Keep your mouth shut and watch your mouths, or don't blame me for not stopping you when you're in trouble.

Du Anrao had already roughly guessed Xi Jingyue's intentions from listening to him ramble on and on, pushing the issue of incense onto the wind.

I was originally planning to cooperate and save face for everyone, but I didn't expect some people to be so shameless!
"The truth is not as simple as Mr. Xi said. The smoke I mentioned is actually the resentment of the ancestors of all of you here. The so-called resentment is the negative emotions such as unwillingness, anger, and resentment that people feel after death."

Xi Yanying sneered, saying with no small amount of sarcasm, "You mean our ancestors have negative feelings towards us, their descendants? They dislike us? What a joke! They are our ancestors, they love and cherish us, how could they not like us? You are clearly spreading rumors."

“That’s right, if you can’t produce evidence, you’re just spreading rumors! Grandpa, this person was brought by your family, yet he’s saying such things. What, are you trying to tell everyone that our ancestors only like your family, and that none of us are favored by them? Such a big mouth, aren’t you afraid of choking to death?”

Du Anrao's words clearly touched a nerve with many people present, causing them to become somewhat angry and start making baseless accusations, especially against Xi Jingyue's family.

Du Anrao was so angry he laughed, and immediately rolled up his sleeves.

【Oh dear, I have a short temper. Being bad at the game isn't your fault, but being bad at the game and also loving to play is definitely your fault. Since you've put it that way, then I have no choice but to have a serious talk with you guys!】