bookrandom Chapter 384 Delicacies
Chapter 384 Delicacies
“I just remembered something,” Yan Xun said.
Sun Zhao looked over upon hearing the sound, "What?"
Yan Xun recounted the plan he and Lou Yanchuan had discussed that night, and Sun Zhao immediately slammed his fist on the table, exclaiming, "There's a problem, brother!"
“Think about it,” Sun Zhao began to analyze. “None of us came to the Gao family willingly, but Lou Yanchuan was the only one who came eagerly.”
"That's very strange."
He looked at Yan Xun, then at Gu Jia, "Moreover, he asked you to plot against Master Gao."
"They said they could let you take over Master Gao's identity."
"What if we fail?" Sun Zhao asked suspiciously. "I think this is his scheme, designed to kill us, his righteous allies, by the dungeon rules."
"The dungeon rules don't say you can't kill Master Gao."
But it didn't say he could be killed, Yan Xun thought.
“Anyway, we now suspect that the eyeballs of that thing in the ancestral hall are inside Master Gao’s stomach,” Sun Zhao said. “We might also be able to learn some of the Gao family’s secrets from the cell phone.”
"I think our main task right now is to unlock the phone first, and then leave Lou Yanchuan alone."
"How about we do it tonight?"
“If Master Gao looks for you again, we’ll take the opportunity to go to that courtyard and see if we can unlock the phone and get some new clues.”
“There’s another place,” Yan Xun suddenly said.
"where?"
“In the wells.” Yan Xun looked at Sun Zhao and Gu Jia. “Every time we try to get close to the ancestral hall, those wells appear.”
“The maids say that those wells eat people, and that they will eat you once they know of their existence.”
"...So what's at the bottom of the well?" Yan Xun thought for a moment.
A bottomless well? Or a mountain of bones?
“Hmm…” Sun Zhao pondered, he hadn’t thought of that before.
"But if we jump in, will we survive?" Sun Zhao asked worriedly.
After entering the instance, they could sense that the instance and its items were temporarily sealed, as if overnight they had become ordinary people.
This is also a hint to the players, proving that they are still in the role and can only be "ordinary people".
Normally, Sun Zhao would never worry about a small well; even if ten vengeful spirits came into it, he would have a way to deal with them.
In this instance, however, he is just an ordinary person, whose identity is that of Master Gao's old classmate.
"It's hard to say." Yan Xun looked at Sun Zhao. "I can sense that those wells don't seem to have any malicious intent."
"It's simply a reminder to us."
But who can guarantee that this thing is not malicious?
Moreover, their goal was to jump to the bottom of the well and find out what was going on.
"Never mind that," Sun Zhao said. "Let's look for clues on the phone first."
Gu Jia looked at Yan Xun, "What are your plans?"
“Me?” Yan Xun pointed to himself.
“I’ll go find Li Wu and look at the records of the banquets the Gao family has held over the years.”
……
The news that the fifth concubine was trying to run away with the newlywed seventh concubine spread throughout the entire Gao family in less than half a quarter of an hour.
The most obvious thing is that Yan Xun discovered that in addition to Xiao Hong and Xiao Lü, he had several more maids around him.
He glanced at the unfamiliar maids a few times, and the maids simply bowed their heads in acknowledgment.
Master Gao was worried that the Gao family was not safe as the banquet approached, and hoped that they could take good care of Yan Xun.
Yan Xun knew, of course, that these maids were there for surveillance, but he couldn't bring himself to knock them out and run away, so he could only nod and say, "I'll go find the First Madam."
The newly arrived maids exchanged glances. Seeing that Yan Xun's expression was calm, they thought they had finally found a well-behaved maid and breathed a sigh of relief. Then they took Yan Xun to find Li Wu.
When this grand entourage arrived at Li Wu's location, Li Wu merely glanced at them and remarked, "What a grand display."
"Why did he need to bring so many people with him to come here?"
The maids immediately became uneasy upon hearing this.
Yan Xun: "..."
Does he really have to go for this kind of power struggle within a wealthy family plot?
"It's just that Master is worried about me," Yan Xun said expressionlessly.
"I'll let them leave."
Li Wu simply twirled the prayer beads in her hand without speaking. Yan Xun glanced back at the maids and said, "It's definitely safe here with the First Madam."
"If you're worried, you can wait outside."
"I can't just disappear into the lady's room."
The maids knew that Li Wu wasn't like Gao Wen, who was always thinking about escaping. Besides, they couldn't afford to offend Li Wu, so they could only exchange glances, bow, and take their leave.
After the maids had all left, Yan Xun plopped down on a stool. "Any new discoveries?"
Li Wu poured him a cup of hot tea. "That's strange."
"How to say?"
"We can find the time and place of the banquet, but we can't find the specific people who attended the banquet."
"No guest list?"
“It’s not just the guest list,” Li Wu said. “According to the Gao family’s custom, the concubines in the back courtyard will definitely attend the banquet.”
"But their specific identities and names cannot be found in these records."
“Not to mention them,” Li Wu said, looking at Yan Xun, “even the person who hosted the banquet didn’t keep a record.”
According to Gao Ruiyun, the banquet held every 30 years is a grand occasion for the Gao family, and almost everyone will attend. All attendees must wear paper masks.
“But what if there’s no record of the banquet attendees, and these people were wearing masks when they attended the banquet…” Yan Xun looked at the hot tea that Li Wu handed him, “and what if outsiders managed to sneak in?”
He thought of the scars on the Black Bear Man's face.
Could it be that the other party successfully infiltrated a banquet, caused a scene, and that's why they have scars on their face?
"I think so too."
Li Wu said that he handed Yan Xun the notebook that recorded the frequency of the Gao family's banquets and the major events that happened at the time.
“It seems that only I can view this record,” Li Wu said.
He now plays the role of the first wife who manages the Gao family's backyard, so naturally he has more authority.
He had secretly brought out this record and pushed it in front of Yan Xun.
"This gentleman appears almost every 30 years."
"In most cases, the banquet was very satisfactory, and then the Gao family was blessed."
"Only in rare cases will that lord express his dissatisfaction, thereby bringing disaster upon himself."
“And if they are not satisfied, the Gao family will only put in more effort and try even harder to please this person when they hold the next banquet.” Li Wu pointed to the record of one of the banquets.
That happened exactly 30 years after that lord had brought disaster upon the Gao family. In order to atone for their previous sins, the Gao family prepared even more lavish offerings, with all the good things that people could think of on the offering list.
What Yan Xun cared about most was the "delicacies" at the end of the list.
The term "delicacies" here is likely a metaphor. Yan Xun reviewed the records and found that the term "delicacies" appeared in the list of offerings after several instances of misfortune.