Chapter Thirty-One: The Unsettling Shrine

  The shadow of the ancestral tomb being dug up has been shrouding the Zhou Mansion...

  On this day, the fifth lady entered the main lady's room and said to her: "Elder sister, I heard that our ancestral tomb has been dug up. This will disturb the spirits of our ancestors. Our Zhou family is going to be unlucky."

  The lady also sighed: "Isn't it true? People all say so."

  "What can we do?" said the fifth lady helplessly, "Is there a way to rush through it?"

  "I heard that the old master has already made offerings to our ancestors. I think our ancestors will surely forgive the great disrespect of later generations." The madam said, her hands clasped together in silence...

  "Elder sister, asking the Buddha for protection is one thing, shouldn't we also pay our respects to our ancestors?" said the fifth lady with some concern.

  The old lady heard the words of the fifth lady and suddenly stopped, thought for a moment, and said: "As soon as the master comes back, I will definitely talk to him about it." After finishing speaking, she again devoted herself to reciting Buddha's name. The fifth lady saw this and quietly retreated...

  The next day, the Zhou family slaughtered pigs and sheep, preparing a sumptuous offering. Master Zhou led his four wives, Xiao Qing, Xiao Hong, and several maids to the ancestral hall for worship. This was the first time that the fifth wife and Xiao Qing had entered the ancestral hall since coming to the Zhou residence. They were full of curiosity about everything around them, looking here, touching there, observing very carefully, and constantly asking questions of the fourth wife and second wife beside them. The eldest wife saw the two of them chattering with everyone else, turned her head to glance at them, and everyone immediately closed their mouths, not daring to speak again.

  Zhou Shiming led the way, followed by a queue of madams and maidservants, each with a solemn and dignified expression on their faces. They walked to the north side of the garden, climbed up three layers of white marble steps, and Master Zhou used his key to open the door of the ancestral hall. The five madams followed him into the hall, passing through the central courtyard, turning around the corridors leading to the main hall, and entering through a stone gate. From there, they walked through another stone gate on either side of the main hall, passed through the courtyard again, and arrived at the back hall. Master Zhou opened the large door of the back hall, and everyone entered in sequence. The fifth madam glanced around with her peripheral vision, seeing that inside the house was a large incense burner, behind which were many spirit tablets, ancestral portraits, and family trees. The walls surrounding the ancestral hall were hung with numerous ancient paintings...

  Zhou Shiming stood in the front row, and behind him were the various ladies. The maidservants quietly placed the offerings in front of the ancestral tablet, after which the steward Liang Xingchu shouted "The ancestor worship ceremony is about to begin".

  He then sang: "Pure water!" The young boys who were offering sacrifices brought pure water, and the participants in the ancestral worship ceremony washed their faces and hands one by one.

  "A clean towel." The young boy who was serving brought three hand towels and everyone wiped their hands in turn.

  "Prepare to light candles and burn incense." The maids lit the candles on the east side and handed them over to Zhou Shiming, who then ignited the incense.

  "Welcome, ancestors." The host, Liang Xingchu, sang. Zhou Shiming turned around and walked to the door, waving incense in a half circle towards the outside, saying: "Today is an auspicious day and time, we, the descendants of the Zhou family, are holding an ancestral worship ceremony to comfort the spirits of our ancestors. We respectfully invite all ancestors to come and partake in the offerings of food and fruit." Then he carried the incense to the altar.

  "Prepare the incense, candles and suona!" The host sang. Zhou Shiming faced north with both hands holding incense and candles level, turning from north to east, south, west and back to north, each time respectfully raising them up once.

  "Lighting the candle." Zhou Shiming bowed to his ancestors' portraits in the morning, holding a candle over his head with both hands.

  "First incense." Liang Xingchu sang. Zhou Shiming lit the first stick of incense, and before lighting it, he distributed the other sticks to the ladies. When they lit the incense, the ladies also bowed slightly towards the ancestral tablet, holding the incense with both hands above their heads.

  "Ya Shang Xiang", "San Shang Xiang". Zhou Shi Ming and his wives lit incense sticks one after another, just like the first time.

  "Burning incense and paper money, making grand offerings to our ancestors." Liang Xingchu continued to chant. Zhou Shiming personally lit the incense, all the mourners stood up and bowed three times to their ancestors.

  After finishing the incense offering, Zhou Shiming knelt down and kowtowed three times to his ancestors, while the ladies curtsied three times.

  After seeing off our ancestors, the ancestor worship ceremony is complete.

  The Fifth Mistress suggested walking around the ancestral hall, and Old Master Zhou Shiming reminded her: "Don't walk too far, lest you lose your way." The Eldest Mistress wanted to step forward to stop her, but considering the Old Master's face, she didn't say anything. She quietly reminded Liang the steward: "You accompany the Fifth Mistress for a walk." Liang Xingchu nodded in understanding.

  The fifth lady and Xiao Qing walked and asked, very curious. Especially Xiao Qing, walking around randomly. The housekeeper was very dissatisfied. After the fifth lady and Xiao Qing strolled for a while, Housekeeper Liang Xingchu reminded them that it was time to return. Reluctantly, the fifth lady and Xiao Qing followed the housekeeper back to their own room.

  After returning, Mrs. Tai quietly called Liang Xingchu to her side and asked: "Is there anything unusual about the fifth lady and that maid in Rongyuan?"

  Liang Guanjia thought for a moment and said, "It seems that Wu Furen is fine, but that little Qing is quite reckless, treating everything as novel and exciting, running around everywhere without listening to advice..."

  "All right, I know. You're also tired, go back and rest." The madam said to the butler, Liang Xingchu. Liang Xingchu withdrew from the madam's room.

  The night grew darker, and the Zhou residence returned to calm. A black shadow leaped onto the outer wall of the garden. The ancestral hall transmitted a series of eerie and terrifying sounds. The black shadow suppressed his fear, mustered his spirits, and entered the Zhou family's ancestral hall, using the key in his hand to open the door. He quietly entered the hall, came to the rear chamber where the ancestors' plaques were placed, lit candles, carefully observed the surroundings, and searched for suspicious places. Unexpectedly, when he lightly opened a incense box under the plaque, several cold arrows shot towards him with a "whooshing" sound. He dodged with all his might, but despite his high martial arts skills, he evaded the first and second arrows, yet failed to avoid the third. The third arrow deeply pierced his left arm, and fresh blood flowed out immediately. Feeling unwell, he hastily retreated from the hall, wanting to escape. At this moment, several black-clad warriors swarmed in, surrounding him...

  He saw it was hard to escape, so he drew his own dagger and started fighting with the black-clad warriors.

  The black-clad men seemed to be in no hurry, not rushing forward. One of them swung his sword at his head, and he held up his treasured sword, pushing it back with force. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he slashed horizontally at the black-clad man's abdomen. However, this person had excellent lightness skills, lightly jumping behind him and landing steadily. As he landed, he crouched down and stabbed at his calf with his sword. He turned around, holding his sword from bottom to top, opening up the black-clad man's sword, and suddenly swung it towards the black-clad man's neck. The black-clad man remained calm, continuously turning his wrist to deflect his swift and ruthless sword, while constantly taking steps back. He realized that this person had profound internal strength, and the wound on his left arm was numbing...

  He took a look and thought it was not good, one person was so fierce, if others came up, what would be the result? Can't stay here for long. Thinking of this, he jumped out more than ten feet away, then crouched down, wanting to jump onto the wall, but it wasn't that easy. The black-clothed men saw him trying to escape and rushed towards him together, surrounding him. He took a look, the encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, no way out, if he didn't make a move, it would be a dead end. He actively swung his knife at them, wanting to kill a bloody path and take advantage of the situation to escape. But when he approached the encirclement, the formation of several black-clothed men was not chaotic at all, just as he hesitated, one of the black-clothed men jumped up into the air, pounced on his head, stretched out his hand and took off his black hat, his hair fell down immediately, almost covering his eyes, fortunately, his face was not exposed, didn't reveal his identity.

  Just as he was exhausted, several flying knives shot out from the wall and flew towards the black-clothed men. The black-clothed men seemed to have sensed something and hastily dodged. He took another look and saw that if he didn't run now, he would never have the chance again. Just as the black-clothed men were momentarily stunned, he swiftly leaped up and jumped onto the wall, escaping from the garden...

  A black-clad warrior chased all the way, and the shadow disappeared without a trace near the courtyard of several ladies...

  The black-clad warriors immediately reported the incident to the steward, Liang Xingchu. Upon hearing this, Liang Xingchu ordered an immediate search, not a moment could be delayed, catching the person was one aspect, but more importantly, it was crucial to ensure the safety of all the madams.

  The black-clad team and the servants quickly surrounded the courtyard of several madams, unfolding a carpet-style search from where the black shadow disappeared, not letting go of any place, especially where the madams lived. Liang Xingchu hurriedly led his men to check one by one...

  Master Zhou Shiming was sleeping in the room of the madam. After butler Liang Xingchu knocked on the door and gave him a brief report, he brought people to carefully check and found that everything was as usual, with no signs of outsiders entering, only then did he feel at ease. Zhou Shiming said to Liang Xingchu: "You're doing the right thing, now hurry up and check the residences of the other madams, be careful not to make a big deal out of it, just see if everything is fine, and try to catch people if possible." Liang Xingchu hesitated for a moment, Zhou Shiming seemed to have noticed something and said: "If you feel uncomfortable, I'll go with you."

  "Then I'll have to trouble you, sir," said Liang Xingchu.

  The two men brought the family servant to the second wife's residence. The second wife was fumbling for her smoking utensils and, upon hearing a gentle knock at the door, quickly hid them under the bed and asked, "Who is it?"

  "Yu Xin is me." Zhou Shiming replied.

  The second lady hastily opened the door and saw Master and everyone's anxious appearance, so she asked: "Master, what's wrong?"

  "Didn't you hear anything?" asked Old Master Zhou Shiming.

  "No." The second lady replied with some surprise, and then asked again, "What happened?"

  "Oh, never mind, go to sleep. I still have some things to do, you lock the door and rest." After finishing speaking, Zhou Shiming led his men away from the second lady's residence and arrived at the fourth lady's place. He saw that the lights in the fourth lady's house were already extinguished, but Zhou Shiming was still uneasy, so he went forward and knocked on the door. After a long time, he heard someone inside ask: "It's so late, who is it?"

  "Lotus fragrance, have you fallen asleep?" Zhou Shiming asked from outside.

  "Oh, it's Master! I'll open the door right away, please wait a moment!" said the fourth madam inside.

  "You rest now, it's alright, you don't have to get up. I'll be leaving now." Zhou Shiming said, and then left with a peace of mind.

  They arrived at the residence of the fifth wife and found that the lights were still on inside. They went forward and knocked on the door, and heard a voice from inside ask: "Who is it? It's so late?" It was the voice of the fifth wife.

  "Are you asleep, Jingya?" asked Old Master Zhou Shiming.

  "Not yet, is it the old master? You can come in directly, the door isn't closed."

  Zhou Shiming gently pushed open the door and entered the house, Xiao Qing was massaging Wu Furen's back, seeing Master Zhou come in, she quickly got up to greet him. Zhou Shiming saw this and asked: "Why haven't you rested yet?"

  "These past few days I've had a sore waist and back, so I'm having Xiao Qing give me a massage. In a bit, I'll be taking a rest." The Fifth Madam hastily invited Zhou Shiming to take a seat.

  "There's nothing going on, I just came over to take a look. Get some rest early." With that, he turned and left...