Searching for Treasures in the Clouds

Yu Ru asked someone to send the box to Shanren by helicopter, and Shanren received it that day.

After dinner, he took the box and sat on a chair to study it. The box was unpleasant at first glance; he was certain it wasn't anything good. But when he opened it, he didn't see anything bad; it was just a statue of Guanyin, seemingly ordinary and unremarkable.

"Shanren, where did this thing come from? Why are you staring at it? It's late at night, go to bed." His wife couldn't help but ask when she saw him staring at the box silently.

Shanren looked back at his wife and continued to stare at the box. "Brother Yuan's wife asked me to help take a look. She said she felt that there was something wrong with the box."

"Then what did you see?"

"Not yet, but this is definitely not a good thing. I got goose bumps when I first saw it. Yingjia, you go to sleep first. I'll study it further. Maybe someone wants to harm Brother Yuan and his wife again, so we need to get the results as soon as possible."

While the object might appear normal on the surface, the inside might be a different story. After consulting Yu Ru, Shanren decided to resort to the most primitive method—cutting the Guanyin and the box apart. He took the box and Guanyin out of the room and found a large nail and a hammer.

He squatted on the ground, placed everything in front of him, aimed the nail at the box with his left hand, aimed the hammer at the nail with his right hand, and then smashed it down hard.

"Bang!"

The hammer and nail collided with each other, making a sharp sound. However, the box did not open. He thought he was not strong enough and hit it a few more times. Strangely, after so many hits, the box showed no signs of cracking, only a little wear and tear.

"Strange, strange, is this... an indestructible piece of wood?" Shanren's expression became more serious.

Neither nails nor hammers could break open the box, so Shanren thought about trying an electric saw. However, he didn't know where the electric saw was, so he had to ask the aunt at home to find it. He could only look for it the next day.

……

Haicheng,

Yun Jixing had work to do in Haicheng. Since it took a long time, a total of four days, he couldn't bear to leave Yu Ru, so he took her with him on the business trip. He had a house in Haicheng, and the two of them lived in this house during the business trip.

At this moment, Yu Ru was at home in Haicheng, watching videos. The video content on all major platforms was bland. The negative information about Fang Longfei had disappeared, as had the reports about Park Yayan stealing cultural materials or Jiangcheng officials taking bribes and colluding with foreign forces. Those related videos had vanished without a trace, as if they had never happened.

Almost two days had passed since she had given the box to Shanren, but there had been no movement. Everything was so peaceful, which made her feel a little uneasy.

After watching videos for half an hour, Yu Ru felt bored, so she threw down her phone, took out her computer, and started working. Jiang Zaizhou had prepared the gifts himself, and there were so many things, so he hired people to help move them. So there were many people who might have been suspected of tampering with the gifts: his personal assistant, his driver, his bodyguard, his work assistant, and so on.

Yu Ru asked Jiang Zaizhou for all the contact information of the people around him. She planned to check the chat and browsing records of those people on their mobile phones and check all the suspects one by one.

"Mom, with so many people around, how long will it take to find out?" Shan Ci asked, looking at her while lying beside her.

"Start with his work assistant and personal assistant, then rank his people based on their closeness." Yu Ru stared at the computer, her hands tapping away at the keyboard. In a short while, she had uncovered Jiang Zaizhou's personal assistant's ID and home address. But that wasn't important; she wanted to examine the chat logs to see if they had any connections to the criminals.

"Mom, how can I help you?"

"No need, Shanci, just help me with the work. Respond to client messages, help me edit videos, and plan some advertising copy. I won't accept designs for less than 1000 per image."

"Good mother."

That night, Yun Jixing returned home from work, and Yu Ru was still in her room reviewing the information she had gathered. She had found the information of everyone around Jiang Zaizhou, and now all she had to do was check the chat logs for any anomalies.

Yun Jixing didn't see Yu Ru in the living room, so he went straight to the room. Inside the room, Yu Ru was curled up on the sofa like a snail shell, lying on her side and looking at her tablet. Yun Jixing walked over and sat down beside her, putting his hand on her waist and gently stroking it. "Aru, have you eaten?"

Yu Ru stared at the tablet intently and nodded.

"What time do you want to eat? Do you want to prepare some midnight snacks tonight?"

"We'll eat at 5:30. Mom wants to eat pan-fried beef ribs, shrimps as big as hands, and roasted beef bone marrow tonight. The ingredients have been bought and put in the refrigerator. Mom has instructed everyone, and Auntie will start preparing supper at 8 o'clock." Shan Ci replied.

"Okay, I understand." Yunjixing nodded and asked, "Aru, after this work is over, let's play here for a few days. Xiaoxiao, Little Ant, and Sister Junjun are all here."

Hearing this, Yu Ru raised her head and looked at him with a puzzled look.

"They just happen to have work here in Haicheng, and like us, they'll be staying for a few days."

Haicheng is a big city with many companies taking root here. It is also a destination for many workers on business trips, so it is not surprising that they would meet in the same place. Several people often travel to the same place on business.

Yu Ru nodded, put down the tablet, and gestured, "Go take a shower first. I have something to tell you later."

"Okay." Yun Jixing held Yu Ru's chin with one hand, kissed her on the cheek, and then stood up, "Then I'll take a shower first.

Not long after he left, Yu Ru received a message from Shanren about a new situation with the box. The contents of the box were truly not a good thing. On the surface, it contained a statue of the Goddess of Childbirth, but in reality, it was a cover, with the actual statue nestled inside.

In other words, it looks like one Guanyin, but in fact there are two of them, nested together like Russian nesting dolls. The inner layer of Guanyin is cracked, with broken hands and feet, and is smeared with an unknown liquid, which looks black and bloody, and also emits a fishy smell.

In addition, the box has a hidden secret. It has a compartment that is empty but filled with strange symbols. Shanren deduces that these symbols are not effective spells, but they are very unpleasant. They are curse words and are considered unlucky to see.

"Sister-in-law, who gave you this box? The person who gave it to you is very sinister and seems to hate you very much. This is to make you have no descendants and to bring you bad luck and a miserable death."

"I don't know who sent it. We're investigating now. It was mixed in with an engagement gift and sent to our house."

"That's truly vicious, giving this to someone on their wedding day. You need to investigate this as soon as possible. This box is not only disgusting, but more importantly, it's cursed. This curse doesn't curse anyone, it's just used to seal the box. If you don't break the curse, the box can't be opened. The day before yesterday, before I discovered the curse, I couldn't cut it open with a chainsaw. I only opened it after I broke the curse."

"Those who can achieve this are generally not ordinary people. To hire such a master to perform this kind of ritual, the money spent must be high. It seems that the person behind this is rich and powerful."

"I understand. Thank you, Shanren. Yunjixing and I will go back to the old house someday and bring you some goodies to thank you. You've worked hard."

"We are all one family, no need to be so polite."