I have a weird dynasty

Chapter 84 Incense Burner (asking for monthly ticket)

The skinny monkey couldn't even recognize a few words, but when he talked about the past, he was very clear and logical, with suspense coming one after another. Kou Yushan felt nervous, but Sang Que became alert.

What Skinny Monkey said now sounded just like the background introduction and narration in his mother's novel.

This shows that the skinny monkeys have been completely controlled by the storyteller's stories, and everything they say and do now is under the control and influence of the storyteller.

This made Sangque very uncomfortable, like a puppet being controlled by someone, but he had to understand the background of this story.

After listening to it, she briefly sorted out the situation and found that Shouhou's grandfather had three children, two daughters and one son.

His maternal grandfather had been working as a helper in a funeral supplies shop in the city. When his youngest daughter, Skinny Monkey's mother, turned 15, the owner of the shop encountered a family misfortune and wanted to sell the shop.

Skinny Monkey's grandfather then became interested, and in order to buy the funeral shop, he sold his two daughters to Ming as slaves.

The Ming family was rich and generous, so his grandfather owned his own shop.

The two poor daughters, the older one was sixteen and the younger one was fifteen, became maids in the Ming mansion. They would not be married off by the master until they were twenty years old. Usually they would be married off to a servant in the family. After that, their ancestors would be servants of the Ming family for generations, unless the Ming family showed mercy and released their indentures.

The two sisters were named after their elegant and kind nature. The elder sister was named Zhou Huilan and the younger sister was named Zhou Huixin. The younger sister was the mother of Shouhou.

After entering the Ming Mansion, she was not given any new name, but her surname was removed, and she was still called Huilan and Huixin.

The two sisters and other newly bought girls were given a lot of torture when they first arrived at the Ming Mansion. They were said to be teaching them the rules, but in fact, all the rough and tiring work that others were unwilling to do was pushed onto the newcomers.

Fortunately, the two sisters have always been together, taking care of each other and warming each other. Although life is difficult, they can hold on.

Until one day, the nanny in charge wanted to choose someone to take care of the eldest daughter of the Ming family, who had been locked up in the backyard, and was the freak of the Ming family's generation.

Legend has it that the monster was born pure white, except for his blood-red eyes. All his hair was white. He looked like a wild beast and drank human blood and ate human flesh every day.

However, the ancestors of the Ming family had set a rule that such a freak could not be executed at will, and must be supported until the end of his life. They said that this freak had warded off disaster for the Ming family, just like a village guard. Without this freak, the Ming family would not be as rich and prosperous as it is today.

Therefore, there has always been a separate courtyard in the northeast corner of the Ming Mansion for each generation of freaks to live in.

The previous maid who took care of the freak young lady was bitten to death and had her blood sucked by the freak young lady, so they had to choose a new maid to take care of her.

Because younger sister Huixin was envied for her good looks and had no money to honor the housekeeper, she was chosen to serve the weird eldest lady. When the housekeeper announced it, younger sister Huixin was so scared that she fainted on the spot.

Elder sister Huilan couldn't bear to see her younger sister suffer, so she begged the housekeeper to take over her younger sister's job.

After that, the two sisters were separated. For three whole months, the younger sister Huixin did not see her older sister Huilan again.

Sister Huixin prayed to all kinds of ghosts and gods every day to protect her sister's safety, but she didn't expect that disaster would find her again.

The nearby wine-making workshops all worship the god of wine, but the Ming family enshrines a "Niè God" in the ancestral hall on the back mountain. The reason why Ming family's jade juice is as pure white as jade and has an unparalleled sweetness and richness is related to this Niè God.

Every year around the Ghost Festival, the Ming family would choose an auspicious day for the whole family to worship the God of Jue and offer a bride to him.

Per year!

Nine girls!

Sister Huixin was chosen again, or rather, that batch of maids who were bought were prepared for the God of Destiny from the beginning.

She thought she couldn't escape this time, but who could have imagined that her elder sister Huilan would find her younger sister Huixin on the eve of her wedding.

Elder sister Huilan gave younger sister Huixin two talismans and some silver money, and sent younger sister Huixin out of Ming Mansion through a hole in the wall of the back mountain courtyard of Ming Mansion. Afterwards, elder sister Huilan put on her wedding dress and got on the bridal sedan for her sister, buying time for her sister to escape.

"...Later, my mother relied on the two talismans to escape all the way to Dongyang County. Soon after, we heard that a fire broke out in Cuiyun Mountain that night, and the entire Ming Mansion was burned down. The government and the evil-suppression department went to investigate, but no one knows the results of the investigation. However, in the past fifty years, no one has heard of anything happening in this abandoned house."

The skinny monkey sighed and continued, "My mother hated my grandfather very much at that time, so she didn't go home. Her indenture was still in the Ming Mansion, and she was a slave. She could only rely on the money given to her by Aunt Huilan to hire a carriage and horses to settle down in Tangyuan County. Not long after, she met my father in Tangyuan County. My father told me that the head of Heishan Village was very kind and was willing to take in someone like her who had no household registration. In the end, she settled down in Heishan Village."

Kou Yushan nodded. He and his elder sister also went to Heishan Village and were taken in by the village chief.

Most villagers in other villages have the same surname, such as Shihe Village, but Heishan Village has many surnames. The old village chief Du Enfu has a scholar's title and seems to have some background, so he can help them get their household registration. "After my mother got married, she gave birth to three children in succession and didn't raise them. She became depressed and began to miss her family. My father wrote a letter to my grandfather without my mother's knowledge. Later, my uncle brought a car full of things to visit them."

"My mother only found out then that not long after the incident at Ming Mansion, my grandparents died of strange diseases. It was said that they died in great pain. My mother said it was retribution and cried bitterly. After that, my mother was in her forties before she had me. Unfortunately, my father passed away unexpectedly when I was ten years old. Since then, my mother has been sometimes lucid and sometimes confused."

Sang Que thought silently. There must be some hidden story behind Shouhou's mother's story. The nursery rhyme her mother had been singing was related to the two sisters being sold.

The Wan Xiangtou that Yan Daozi met said that the nursery rhyme was a curse and that everything would be fine as long as one stayed away from the source of the curse. So was the source of the curse the well in Shouhou's house, or was it Ming's sister Huilan who died?
The god of horror worshipped by the Ming family, the freak eldest daughter, and so on will definitely become important horror elements in the storytellers' stories.

Sang Que looked at the door leading to the depths of the Ming Mansion, hesitating whether to enter this "story" and find the storyteller.

There was a sentence written on the previous page: 'I joined the game myself'. Yu was a self-proclaimed name, which means that the storyteller also wrote himself into this 'story'. It is very likely that he is somewhere in Mingfu now.

But what is his purpose in writing such a story? Just like a fisherman, he uses himself as bait, presumably to catch a big fish.

"Can you tell me about this 'storyteller'?" Sang Que asked Kou Yushan.

Kou Yushan thought for a moment and said, "The storyteller is a member of the Jiuge. There are nine members of the Jiuge, all of whom are witches under the seat of the witch queen. Each of them has their own responsibilities. The storyteller is responsible for spreading the witch queen's oracles, delivering news to the people, and exposing injustices in various places."

"Make the truth hidden in the darkness known to the public, and let the people know that the gods are always watching over the earth. Good deeds will be rewarded, and evil deeds will be punished. It's not that there is no retribution, it's just that the time has not come. Those who do evil will definitely be punished."

Sang Que nodded. This was similar to doing news and publicity. It seemed that Jiuge under the control of Empress Wu had a complete organizational structure.

"How many storytellers are there?" Sang Que continued to ask.

Skinny Monkey looked at Sangque in confusion, "Each one is scary enough!"

Kou Yushan nodded, "The successors behind the storyteller will change, but there is only one identity. Jiuge and the Evil Suppression Division both have 'incense vessels' that represent their identities. Just like the mask of the Night Traveler of the Evil Suppression Division, it doesn't matter who is behind the mask. As long as he wears the mask, the people will know that he is the Night Traveler who can travel around at night."

Sang Que suddenly realized that it was no wonder that when he met He Buning and the other three that day, they were all wearing ghost masks. It turned out that the masks were incense burners, which carried the incense and wishes of the people.

What the people believe in is the Night Messenger represented by the mask, not the individual behind the mask. As long as the mask is there, it doesn't matter whether the person behind the mask is a man or a woman, old or young.

In this way, even if one of the Night Walkers dies, the incense accumulated from his good deeds during his lifetime will not dissipate, because the incense is gathered on the mask and can be passed on.

As long as the incense burners are always in the hands of the Zhenxie Division, the authority and power of the Zhenxie Division will not be weakened by the loss of personnel. Instead, it will become stronger and stronger through the accumulation of generations of Zhenxie Division members.

The real iron-clad evil-suppression department!
"The storyteller has a pure white mask and a folding fan with the words 'After telling all the injustices in the world, the world will be peaceful again' written on it."

"So it seems that the storyteller is a righteous man?" Sang Que asked.

As soon as he finished speaking, the skinny monkey shook his head vigorously, and Kou Yushan's expression also became solemn.

　I got the generations wrong here for Skinny Monkey, it was a bit confusing, so I changed it in the end. Skinny Monkey went to live with his biological uncle.

　　Shouhou's maternal grandfather had three children, the eldest daughter Zhou Huilan, the youngest daughter Zhou Huixin, and a little son who is Shouhou's uncle.

　　Shouhou’s mother is the youngest daughter, who is also the younger sister Huixin in the article. Let me sort it out for everyone again.

　　*
　　"蘖", pronounced as niè, refers to the branches that grow back from cut down or fallen trees, and its extended meaning is rice that has sprouted.

　　The word "蘖" means sprouted rice. ——Shuowen

　　The koji for brewing wine.

　　Using yarrow to make wine. ——Guan Zi: Forbidden Storage

　　Liquor (qujiu); Liqu (jiuqu)

　　Because of the above explanation, the ghost god worshipped by Ming clan was named "蘖神".

　　*
　　Wu Xi: wū xí, in ancient times, female witches were called wu and male witches were called xi, so they were collectively called "wu xi"

　　(End of this chapter)