C52 No × 2 (1/2)

It was probably because there were so many human bones dug up in the hall that when Luo Yi walked back in, she felt a chill down her spine, but the feeling was not too strong, so she calmed down and forgot about it.

It was rumored that this palace was occupied by a Consort Sin, but judging from the size of the Lin Yi Hall, the rank of this Concubine Sin should not be too low.

Luo Yi was concerned that this place had not been cleaned for a long time, so the dust must be heavier than other places. Thus, before she stepped into the main hall, she cleverly covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief, and waited until she was sure that she would not choke on herself.

There were not many furnishings in the house, but because it was not dark yet, Luo Yi did not need to ignite her candle to be able to clearly see the interior of the house, but after Luo Yi walked around the house twice, she felt that something was weird, but she could not quite put her finger on what it was.

She frowned as she fiddled with the silver wine jug on the table. When her gaze inadvertently landed on the wine cup beside her, her entire body froze in place. She immediately understood why this place was emitting a strange aura.

Half lit candles, half empty glasses of wine, and a bed curtain that would not be put down. Every piece of furniture in the room gave off the feeling that it had stopped. It was just like how, one second ago, the owner of the room was still drinking with someone here, but the next second, he was nowhere to be seen.

Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that someone had deliberately stopped the room at the moment its owner had disappeared.

The most obvious point was the wine left in the glass.

According to what others said, the owner of this room had died at least a decade ago. Even if the cup was full, it should have been full by now, yet it still had half a cup left …

Luo Yi put down the handkerchief. Sure enough, she did not smell any dust.

There were indeed no traces of people living in this room, but there was clearly someone inside.

Chen Liyi would not have had the leisure to cause trouble for such things. After all, he was not even born yet, and Wen Yan did not have any reason to play tricks on him, so the remaining … It was the person that had intentionally lured her back just now.

Luo Yi did not know martial arts, and from Qing Luo's words, she knew that the two of them were powerful, so unless the other party deliberately revealed it, she would not easily detect her existence. But what was her motive for doing so? Just to lure her back? Then what must she see in that hall?

Luo Yi forcefully suppressed the endless questions in her mind, and turned to the main bedroom.

Luo Yi was not in the mood to look again. She walked along the furniture and even through the corners of the room, but she did not find anything useful. She immediately frowned and wondered if she had thought too much into it.

She turned to go to the other rooms, but at the very moment she lowered her eyes, she saw an extremely unremarkable change at the foot of the bed.

She bent her index finger, tapped the protruding phalanx two times on the ground, and attentively examined the furnishings in the room once more. Then, with a smile, she pressed one hand on the spot where the phalanx had not left her finger and simultaneously turned over to jump onto the bed.

Almost at the same instant she left the ground, a hole appeared in the ground beneath her feet. The hole was not big, just enough for one person to fall down. Luo Yi waited for a while, confirmed that there was no difference, and then carefully moved closer. She stuck her head into the hole.

Under the dim sunlight, Luo Yi could barely make out the silver light coming from the blade at the bottom of the hole.

She was curious about the person who had lived in this house before.

She waited patiently for a while longer until the hole slowly closed in front of her. Then, she pressed down on the hole she had pressed down on earlier, but this time, the hole didn't open again.

Luo Yi turned her head and saw a passage going downwards from a completely opposite direction.

With the blessings of that mysterious person, Luo Yi was still able to walk through half of the candles before she descended. She rummaged through her bosom and took out the fire piston that she had hidden in her arms earlier that morning, then proudly raised her eyebrows.

Luo Yi carefully walked down, thinking that there was something strange hidden in the mechanism that that that person spent so much effort to create, that only then did she realize that it was only a square secret room.

The four walls were like a square wooden box. There was nothing inside other than a painting hanging on one of the walls.

The painter must be a master. Even though more than ten years had passed, and the drawing paper had turned slightly yellow, one could still clearly see the face of the person in the painting.

Luo Yi brought the candle closer to the woman, using her free hand to caress every single part of her face. The more she saw, the more shock she felt in his heart, to the point that her fingertips were trembling uncontrollably.

It had all been planned from the beginning.

She was almost unable to stand steadily. Her arms, which had been hanging down due to her sudden exhaustion, were clenched into fists. Every fingerbone seemed to be struggling to break through this layer of skin and flesh that imprisoned it.

She bit her lower lip, finally calming herself down. Her eyes darkened as she took the portrait off the wall.

The touch of the stone wall felt cold. Luo Yi quivered, and tiptoed to hang the painting back to its original position with difficulty.

Outside, the sun was shining.

Luo Yi stood under the sunlight and took a deep breath, strongly swallowing the pressure that was so heavy that she couldn't breathe in, and then, patting her clothes, she walked out of the Lin Yi Hall without any hesitation. However, she didn't see that after she left, a figure had suddenly appeared in the previously empty main hall.

The person was around fifty years old, and only after walking out of Lin Yi Hall did he casually take out the candle that was placed in its original position after Luo Yi came out of the secret room. He then took out a brand-new candle from his chest and placed it on it, and then used a fire piston to light it up, and then, as if he had completed some kind of important task, he bent his knees and sat on the ground with his legs crossed.

When he smiled, there would be obvious wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, making him appear much gentler. He had a kind and compassionate look on his face, as if he was an elder. His back slumped. A satisfied and pleasantly surprised sigh came from the depths of his throat. ”It's been so many years. This old servant thought she was already dead. Who would've thought …”

He sighed at the fickleness of the world, and then after a long while he laughed. He said to himself, ”The Empress must also be very happy, right?”

There was no one in the empty room to reply him, only the candlelight to strike his shadow against the window paper, then connecting it with the things dug up today in the front yard, giving rise to a sense of cold ghost shadow.

The candle burned very slowly, but the man was extremely patient. He sat cross-legged for several hours, and only when the candle was exactly where he remembered it did he get up and put it out — he had done this several hundred times in the past ten years, so of course, it was very easy for him to do it now — then he leisurely patted the robe on his body, lowered his head and left, ”Mother should rest early, this old servant will take his leave first.”

A light breeze came in through the gap in the window, blowing the candle in response to his words, and then there was silence again.

When Luo Yi returned to the Hall of Announcements, there was only a sliver of afterglow left in the sky. Chen Liyi took a seat at the entrance of the main hall and waited for her, not listening to anyone's advice.

Seeing her from afar, Luo Yi could not help but laugh, his heart becoming a little weak. Seeing Chen Liyi looking up at her, the smile on his face became even wider, he simply squatted down, and waited for Chen Liyi to rush straight into her embrace like a little cannon fodder.

These past few days, he had been extremely obedient. After staying in Luo Yi's embrace for a while, he came out by himself and stared at her with his big eyes, saying that he had already finished today's homework.