A pungent odor assailed her nostrils, giving her a splitting headache.
It wasn't an ordinary stench, but a disgusting mixture of the smell of decaying corpses and the stench of raw meat. In short, it was extremely foul.
Judging from Jiang Yuyao's expression, it was obvious that ordinary people couldn't smell this odor.
Suddenly, she remembered where she had smelled this odor before!
It was the same smell she had encountered in the ancestral hall that day. It was exactly the same as the current stench.
Now that she thought about it, perhaps Jiang Yunxi had been so frightened that day because she had seen something.
After comforting Jiang Yuyao, Jiang Zhao went straight to find Jiang Yunxi.
...
Jiang Yunxi's arm was tightly wrapped and hung around his neck. He was sitting on the bed with one leg crossed.
A beautiful maid beside him was feeding him.
Even in this state, Jiang Yunxi still couldn't stop flirting with the maid, making her blush.
Jiang Zhao clicked her tongue. If Jiang Yunxi didn't change his ways, he would surely be ruined by his lust sooner or later.
When Jiang Yunxi saw her come in, he said unhappily, "What are you doing here?"
Jiang Zhao forced a smile and said, "I'm here to see if you're dead, Fourth Brother. If so, I can burn some paper money for you."
"That night it was you, you little brat!" Jiang Yunxi suddenly sat up, but accidentally pulled his arm, causing him to grimace in pain.
"Fourth Brother, be more careful. Don't really kill yourself." Jiang Zhao waved to the maid and said, "You can go down first."
Jiang Yunxi glared at her and said, "You little brat, can't you say something nice?"
"Truth may be hard to hear. It seems that all the books you've read, Fourth Brother, have been in vain."
Jiang Yunxi gritted his teeth and turned his head, ignoring Jiang Zhao. This girl's mouth was too venomous. He was afraid of getting angry to death.
"I'm here to talk to you about something important, Fourth Brother." Jiang Zhao stopped joking with him.
Jiang Yunxi grabbed the quilt and covered himself, impatiently saying, "Speak quickly if you have something to say, and fart quickly if you have one."
"I've farted. Did you hear it, Fourth Brother?" Jiang Zhao smiled provocatively.
"You!" Jiang Yunxi covered his aching heart and said, "You little brat, you're really shameless! Get out of here!"
"I'm here because of Yaoyao. Don't you want to hear about it, Fourth Brother?" Jiang Zhao crossed her arms and stared at Jiang Yunxi.
Sure enough, as soon as Jiang Yunxi heard it was about Jiang Yuyao, he immediately sat up straight and asked, "What's wrong with Yaoyao?"
Jiang Zhao told Jiang Yunxi what Jiang Yuyao had said to her and then asked, "Fourth Brother, what exactly did you see in the ancestral hall that night?"
Jiang Yunxi shivered involuntarily. Just thinking about that night made his hair stand on end. "I'm really not lying. I really saw it. That black shadow zoomed past me in a flash!"
Jiang Zhao stroked her chin and said, "I believe you, Fourth Brother."
This time it was Jiang Yunxi's turn to be stunned. It was really unpleasant that no one believed him. He didn't expect Jiang Zhao to believe him.
However, Jiang Zhao had grown up in a morgue. She must have seen all kinds of strange things.
Jiang Zhao squinted her eyes and said, "It seems that what you saw, Fourth Brother, is the same thing that's been haunting Yaoyao."
Although Jiang Yunxi wasn't very brave, he was always interested in such strange things. He quickly asked, "Could it be the ancestors of our Jiang family?"
"As the storybooks say, if the deceased relatives lack something in the underworld, they will come up to tease the younger generation."
Jiang Zhao glanced at Jiang Yunxi as if looking at a fool and said, "The elders are all alive. What's the use of scaring a fool like you?"
Moreover, not long after Jiang Changlin's death, the ancestors of the Ningyuan Marquis Mansion had all abandoned their duties and left.
Otherwise, the fortune of the Jiang family wouldn't have declined so quickly. It had something to do with the lack of protection from the ancestors.
Jiang Zhao was now certain that this was definitely not an ordinary evil spirit. Generally speaking, ordinary vengeful spirits and ghosts didn't have a smell.
Moreover, this thing had nothing to do with the Ningyuan Marquis Mansion. It should have been brought back from outside by someone.
As for who brought it back, it was hard to say.
"Let Yaoyao sleep here with you tonight." She needed to see if this thing was only haunting Jiang Yuyao.
"This... isn't it inappropriate?" Jiang Yunxi hesitated.
Jiang Zhao raised her eyebrows and said, "What, are you scared?"
Jiang Yunxi puffed out his chest and said loudly, "Who's scared! I just think it's not convenient for Yaoyao. She's a girl."
"If you really don't want to, you can send Yaoyao to your mother's place for one night."
Jiang Yunxi said, "Then let Yaoyao stay here. I don't know what my mother has been busy with recently. I haven't seen her all day."
Just as Jiang Zhao was about to leave, Jiang Yunxi called her back.
Jiang Yunxi said coyly, "Um, am I going to be unlucky forever from now on?"
"If this goes on, I won't even be able to go out." Not being able to go out was no different from killing him. He had been going crazy from boredom these days. The most important thing was that it wasn't safe at home either!
However, the only thing that made him a little happier was that Chen Huainan, who had made a bet with him at that time, was also having a hard time recently.
He heard that Chen Huainan was sick, seriously ill, and hadn't gone out for several days.
"Want to know?" Jiang Zhao curled her lips and showed a row of neat teeth. She looked so beautiful that she didn't seem real. "If you want to know, pay up. And pay the money you owe me last time as well."
Jiang Yunxi said speechlessly, "Jiang Zhao, are you crazy about money? You're even doing business with your own family!"
Jiang Zhao said indifferently, "It's your fault for being rich, Fourth Brother. It would be stupid not to make money from you."
"Are you going to pay or not? If not, I'm leaving." After saying that, Jiang Zhao pretended to leave.
"I'll pay! I'll pay, okay!" Jiang Yunxi reluctantly took out a silver note and handed it to Jiang Zhao. "Is a thousand taels enough!"
Jiang Zhao took it without hesitation and said, "Fourth Brother is so generous. Taking people's money and helping them get rid of disasters. I'll send something to you later, Fourth Brother. You can return it if it doesn't work."
No wonder everyone called Jiang Yunxi a fool with a lot of money.
Jiang Yunxi watched Jiang Zhao's departing back and couldn't help but smile speechlessly.
This girl must have suffered a lot in that morgue, which had made her so money - grubbing.
Forget it. Considering how pitiful she was, he wouldn't argue with her.
...
On her way back, Jiang Zhao happened to run into Wang Shi.
"Auntie."
Jiang Zhao saluted her. Wang Shi responded perfunctorily and then hurried out of the mansion.
It seemed that she was in a hurry.
Jiang Zhao tilted her head and stared thoughtfully at Wang Shi's back. She wondered if it was just her imagination, but she always felt that Wang Shi looked much younger.
She looked like a seventeen - or eighteen - year - old girl. There were no traces of fine lines at the corners of her eyes at all. Her skin was as smooth and delicate as a peeled egg.
It was impossible for a woman approaching forty to look like this, even if she took great care of herself. Moreover, it had only been a few days.
Something was wrong. Nine times out of ten, something was seriously wrong.
Jiang Zhao was sensitive to things that didn't conform to common sense. She decided to find out privately.
She had to go out of the mansion first.
Jiang Zhao took a carriage and headed west all the way. Finally, she got off the carriage in front of an unassuming shop.
The plaque above the shop was written with the words "Bu Wen Zhai" in a crooked way. There were no other shops around this one. Bu Wen Zhai stood there all alone.
The coachman looked at Jiang Zhao strangely. What was the young lady doing in this funeral shop that dealt with the dead?
Bu Wen Zhai mainly provided services such as tidying up the appearance of the dead, encoffining, and burying. It also sold coffins, shrouds, paper money, etc., providing a one - stop service.
Moreover, Bu Wen Zhai charged extremely high fees. The most important thing was that this shop was very unlucky. Some people used to say that it was haunted, so the surrounding shops had gradually moved away.
Thinking of this, the coachman shivered involuntarily.