Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
An Xiaoning looked away and said to Wang Jinsheng, “Send the corpses back to A City immediately. Take me to the ancient residence while the sky is still bright.”
“Okay.”
After exiting the tent, Wang Jinsheng brought An Xiaoning, Wen Lele, and two other archeologists to the ancient residence.
It took a five-minute car ride to get there.
The group of five alighted from the car. An Xiaoning stared into the distance and could not help but find the place to be rather familiar-looking.
She felt as if she had been here before.
The sense of familiarity and deja vu grew stronger with every step she took. It reminded her of the way she felt in Mount Huayi.
“I heard from Lele that this used to be the location of an ancient palace. Is that true?”
“Yes. It dates back to almost a millennium ago.”
“Who was the master of this palace?”
“According to historical recounts, it was vaguely stated that a prince used to live here, but his name wasn’t mentioned.”
An Xiaoning did not stop walking until they reached a worn-out entrance.
The door was already removed from its hinges due to the decomposition, which was a toll that time had taken on the residence, leaving only the door frame behind.
“Has anyone come here before?”
“The archeological team has visited this residence before. Nothing really happened in the day and the mysterious and bizarre events only took place from the evening onward. They set up tents outside the entrance and most of them died here. Ever since then, no one dared to come by again. This time, we were filled with uncertainty and decided to make all the possible preparations beforehand, such as getting a ritual performed by a medium. We initially thought that everything would be fine, but to our astonishment, a tragic mishap still took place…”
“I don’t get it, can’t you do your research in the day? Why must you people stay overnight?”
Wen Lele answered, “It was already five o’clock in the evening when we arrived yesterday. Thus, we set up the tents and initially planned to only enter the residence the next morning. However, the sky had yet to turn dark by the time we were done. Hence, we decided to go in to take a look since we didn’t have much else to do anyway. We just took a casual glance around the place. When the sky turned dark, my female colleague and I headed to the toilet outside. We didn’t see the rest of them when we came out so we decided to look for them, but afterwards, we saw them at the entrance…”
Wen Lele paused and continued in a quivering voice, “Then, that happened. My colleague and I didn’t dare to step forward and instead zoomed toward the car.”
The five of them entered, filled with fear and anxiety, all except An Xiaoning.
There was a chaotic sight near a wall beside the door with blood all over the floor. It was obvious that that was where the scene had taken place.
An Xiaoning scanned her surroundings, and a scenario that she had dreamed of previously popped up in her head. All of a sudden, she realized that the setting of the scenario matched the sight before her.
She was immediately alarmed. Could this be…
An Xiaoning quickly strode inside while the rest followed her frantically.
After a millennium, the walls and interior of the house were no longer well furbished and were now worlds apart from the way they used to be. However, she could still recognize it.
Standing at the spot where she once kicked Granny Sun, An Xiaoning scanned her surroundings carefully, not in the least bit afraid at all.
She sent Jin Qingyan a text message to explain the situation to him briefly.
After ensuring that the message was successfully delivered, she took a stroll around the place.
At last, she arrived at a larger mansion. She could tell that it was a mansion because of the stone bricks.
The other houses in the residence had already collapsed completely, except this one.
Just as she was about to enter, Wang Jinsheng yelled to stop her in her tracks, “Ms. An, if there are really any supernatural beings here, could they be inside?”
“We’ll know once we go in.”
Wang Jinsheng dragged himself across the floor with heavy footsteps, feeling as if his feet were weighed down by boulders.
Wen Lele and the other two archeologists dared not follow them and instead waited outside the mansion.
As soon as An Xiaoning touched the wooden door, it began collapsing down in their direction, causing the three of them to shriek in terror.
All of a sudden, they fell silent while An Xiaoning supported the door with one hand. Thinking that the door must be rather light, Wang Jinsheng tried to help her support the weight of it, only to find that it was extremely heavy.
Is it because I’m old?
He could not help but feel ashamed at the fact that he was weaker than a woman.
“Captain Wang, go outside first.”
“Alright.” Just as he walked away from the door, An Xiaoning pushed the door inward, causing it to fall with a thud.
Wang Jinsheng was instantly dumbfounded. He hurriedly stepped forward in an attempt to carry the door, only to find that it was impossible. His eyes widened in shock and he asked, “Ms. An, the door is so heavy. How did you do it?”
“Captain Wang, don’t you know that one could gain endless strength during crucial times?”
Wang Jinsheng nodded in self-admittance.
The other three also approached and tried to lift the door with all their might.
Noticing that An Xiaoning had entered, the four of them slowed down and proceeded after her step by step.
An Xiaoning glanced around and did not find a single spirit in sight.
She slowly approached a table. Due to the fact that it was extremely aged, a piece of the wooden table would crumble with the slightest touch.
“Seems like this used to be a study. There are still some books there,” said Wang Jinsheng, pointing at a bookshelf behind the table.
An Xiaoning walked toward the bookshelf and grabbed one of the books, which turned into dust quickly.
Hence, she was extremely gentle and handled the paper with tender care. Staring at the writings on the book, she asked Wang Jinsheng, “What do these say?”
“It’s a book of poems.”
She grabbed all the books and handed them to Wen Lele. She then picked up a navy blue stone from the ground, after which Wang Jinsheng interjected, “This is an ink stone used in ancient times.”
An Xiaoning scrutinized it repeatedly before handing it to Wen Lele.
After exiting, they proceeded to explore the other places.
The water in the pond had already dried up due to the blazing sun. An Xiaoning was no longer in the mood to stay any longer.
On the way back, she felt a sudden sleepiness, although the journey only lasted a few minutes.
“Captain Wang, I’m a little tired. I’ll take a nap.”
“Alright, go ahead.”
She leaned back against her seat and closed her eyes to take a nap.
An Xiaoning soon fell into a daze and felt that the car ride was extremely bumpy and that it was jerking violently. She struggled to open her eyes, only to discover that she was no longer inside the car but was now inside a sedan.
She quickly snapped out of her trance and looked out of the carriage.
She discovered that the skies were gray and gloomy and that humans were scarce on the streets.
An Xiaoning frantically drew the curtain open and asked the person who was carrying the sedan, “How long more do we have until we arrive?”
“Don’t get impatient, Miss Jin, I’ll speed up. We’ll arrive in a jiffy.”
An Xiaoning felt relieved after hearing his polite reply.
It was An Xiaoning’s first time sitting in a sedan, and she could not help but feel uncomfortable due to the violent rocking. She extended her hands toward the windows and tried to ease her discomfort.
She felt as if they were traveling at a snail’s pace, for she had already gotten used to traveling by car.
