Chapter 307
Chapter 307
Red lanterns now hung everywhere throughout the Xie Residence.
Lotus lanterns covered the artificial lake as well, making for a rather beautiful sight.
Most people had gathered in the front courtyard for the banquet, but lights still burned throughout the garden and rear courtyard. From time to time, maids walked along the corridors carrying dishes of every kind.
Lu Jing was the first to notice the maids approaching with food and quickly called out a warning. Fortunately, there were many ornamental rocks nearby, and the group immediately hid among them.
Once the maids were gone, everyone emerged again.
“Find Miss Xie’s courtyard,” Jian Fan said, finally giving them a destination.
With Jian Fan’s instruction, the others naturally followed.
They had already explored the residence during the day and were much more familiar with it now, even in the darkness. They headed straight for the rear courtyard.
There were many small courtyards in the rear, and earlier they had been unable to tell who lived in which one. Now, however, it was easy enough. Although Miss Xie never appeared to enter the bridal chamber at any point in the events they had witnessed, the entire Xie Residence had been newly decorated. Surely the bride’s courtyard would have more red wedding characters on display and a more festive air than the others.
Following that logic, they quickly found Miss Xie’s courtyard.
It was completely empty now, apart from the burning candles.
Lu Jing went first to clear the way. Encountering no obstacles, the group entered Miss Xie’s bridal chamber.
The entire room was red. Wedding candles burned slowly, and the bed had been made with bright red sheets and quilts, with peanuts and lotus seeds scattered across it. Whether or not the bridal chamber would actually be used, none of the customary details had been omitted.
“Search everywhere,” Qin Weiyi said after sweeping his gaze around the room.
The moment the words left his mouth, Jian Fan was already walking toward the bed.
Qin Nan followed him.
Seeing Jian Fan inspect the bed, Qin Weiyi surveyed the room and chose another direction.
Once Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi moved, everyone else immediately spread out and began racing against time to search for clues.
There was one exception.
Xia Zeqin.
Xia Zeqin walked over to the round table and sat directly on a stool.
Tea and wine had been set out on the table. Without the slightest hesitation, Xia Zeqin poured himself a cup of tea, raised it to his lips, and slowly took a sip, leisurely watching everyone else work.
In the midst of his search, Qin Nan glanced at the others and naturally spotted Xia Zeqin.
For a moment, he could not decide whether to get angry or curse the man out first.
Jian Fan remained wholly focused.
Reaching the bed, he swept his gaze across it, grabbed the sheet, and gave it a hard yank. Everything on the bed rolled in all directions. Some remained on top, while others rolled underneath the bed.
Jian Fan paid no attention. After shaking everything loose, he inspected the bed. Only when he was certain there was nothing unusual and no clue hidden there did he casually toss the sheet back.
Once he finished, he took several steps back but remained standing before the bed, studying its shape carefully.
Qin Nan walked over and asked in confusion, “Is there something wrong with the bed?”
“What do you think it resembles?” Instead of answering, Jian Fan posed a question of his own.
Qin Nan examined the bed.
This world appeared to have an ancient setting, so the bridal chamber naturally contained an old-fashioned wooden canopy bed.
Wooden panels enclosed three sides, exquisitely carved and hung with red silk. Qin Nan’s gaze slowly traveled upward.
The bed was perfectly rectangular, shaped like a cuboid. The sleeping area occupied only the middle, with carved wood above and below it.
Wait–
Qin Nan noticed something wrong.
As far as he knew, although rosewood canopy beds were enclosed, all four sides were generally hollow, or at the very least two of them were. Yet three sides of the bed before him were sealed tight. Only the side facing them was open, as though it had been left solely to provide a way inside.
And this bed…
Qin Nan swallowed.
“Why do I feel like it looks like a coffin?” Perhaps because of the story’s setting, an absurd theory surfaced in Qin Nan’s mind. Yet the moment he voiced it, he actually felt it made perfect sense.
Most tellingly, the wood was the same color as a coffin.
The more he thought about it, the more it resembled one.
Qin Nan went numb.
When Jian Fan heard him, he did not disagree. Instead, he nodded, confirming the thought. “Correct. It is a coffin.”
Qin Nan stared at him.
No wonder Jian Fan had headed straight for the bed upon entering.
Then again, this was a ghost’s residence. There was nothing strange about sleeping in a coffin.
Wait. Did that mean Miss Xie really was a ghost?
As Qin Nan’s thoughts wandered, Jian Fan suddenly raised a hand and pointed to the carvings at the top of the bed. “Look here.”
“Huh?” Qin Nan paused, then raised his head and carefully examined the place Jian Fan indicated.
One look left him stunned again.
At first, he had assumed the bed was carved with decorative patterns. Upon closer examination, he realized they were no ordinary designs. They resembled the shapes of spirit tablets, each with rows of characters inscribed down the center. Qin Nan struggled to make out several of them and discovered that each tablet-like carving bore a different name.
Beneath the tablets were carvings resembling candles.
He would never have known without looking closely. Now that he had, Qin Nan felt his entire body prickle with dread.
“Fang Kang.” Jian Fan pointed in another direction.
Qin Nan immediately followed his gesture.
Sure enough, Fang Kang’s name was written in the center of one of the tablet-like shapes. All the tablet carvings after Fang Kang’s were blank, without any names at all.
“So the names of all her dead grooms are carved into this bed?” Qin Nan sucked in a sharp breath as soon as he said it.
Good lord. If the bed was a coffin, then Miss Xie herself was obviously meant to lie in the middle. And she had carved the names of every groom she had married onto her coffin. Were they all supposed to be buried with her? Qin Nan counted upward and found thirty-four blank spirit tablets on the side facing them alone. The bed was carved on all four sides, which meant the other three likely held blank tablets too.
How many people was Miss Xie planning to drag down with her?
It was terrifying.
“Together in one coffin after death,” Jian Fan suddenly said.
Qin Nan stared at him.
Did he mean what Qin Nan thought he meant?