A piece of Japanese incense

The moment I raised my head and stood up, my eyes looked at the ground under the eight-immortals table. I lifted the tablecloth and saw a gap between a wooden floor with a similar area to the eight-immortals table and the other floors.

Yuyi and Yutuan worked together to move the Eight Immortals Table away. I patted and hit it, but there was still no response.

My intuition firmly tells me that the entrance to the secret room is hidden here.

I stood up and looked at the table behind the armchair. The blue and white porcelain vase on the right side of the table had been broken. I carefully examined the table made of huanghuali wood: symmetrical Ruyi cloud patterns were engraved on both sides; the lacquer patterns were deep and three-dimensional, with bright colors; various rare materials such as gems, ivory, and shells were embedded on the surface as decoration...

My eyes suddenly lit up. When I first entered the garden, I saw that the screen wall also had a Ruyi cloud pattern as the background, and hundreds of precious stones were inlaid to form intricate and gorgeous patterns.

There are gold, silver, gems, pearls, jasper, jadeite, crystal, agate, tortoise shell on the screen wall... but there is one more thing here, ivory!

I touched the ivory on the right side of the table. There was only one place that moved. I pressed hard and the wooden board bounced up.

A cold air blew in the face, making people shiver.

"Oh! You scared me!" Yutuan hid behind me, staring at the downward stairs with wide eyes.

"You two take whatever tools are convenient for you and come with me."

"Oh my God, girl, why don't we wait for the master to come? It's so dark down there, I don't know what's there." Yutuan stared at me with her bright eyes, waiting for my answer.

"Well, that makes sense. It's not appropriate to go down rashly. Let's light a stick of incense first, and then go down to explore the way."

"what……"

"Go!"

The jade ball and jade sweetness were pressed tightly together, and Bugui was handed to me.

As the smoke slowly cleared, I pressed the ivories again and opened the floorboards.

Yuyi shrank her neck, and Yutuan moved back as far as possible and lowered her head, and both of them closed their eyes subconsciously.

Actually, I was a little scared, but I thought that if I didn't go there tonight to find out the truth, I would be worried and unable to sleep or eat. Besides, I would be even more terrified if someone appeared at my bedside at any time.

I walked in front holding the candlestick and was the first to go down the stairs.

This underground secret passage was not as dark and damp as I had imagined, with thick spider webs, dust, and wet moss. On the contrary, although it was winding and seemed to have no end, there was no peculiar smell, not even a trace of dust, which meant that someone had been passing through it all year round.

"Girl, why is the underground so big? We have just passed many forks in the road, we must not be unable to go back!" Yu Yi crouched with her head on my waist, shaking constantly.

"Don't worry, I remember the way and I can definitely take you out." I looked at the candle that was half burned and patted Yuyi's hand gently.

Gradually, I could no longer smell the scent of no return, and I became a little worried. I didn't know how long it would take to reach the end. The entire underground tunnel was shrouded in a mysterious and terrifying atmosphere.

Finally, we saw some faint lights flickering ahead. The stones on the wall had been eroded by time and were uneven, and some places were even cracked. Our footsteps echoed in this small space, and were particularly clear.

My palms were numb from holding the candlestick tightly and I felt like I was about to lose my grip, but I didn't dare let my guard down. My heart was beating fast and every step I took was torture.

She took off the hairpin on her head and walked towards the room.

The door of the secret room was tightly closed, with only a dim and depressing light shining through the gap. I mustered up my courage and pushed the door open.

"Creaky", the ancient door slowly opened in silence.

The ceiling of the secret room was very low, making people feel a little depressing. Only a flickering candlelight barely illuminated the surrounding environment.

There were some ancient furniture and sundries in the room; in the center of the secret room, there was a round stone platform with some strange symbols and patterns engraved on it, which made people feel an inexplicable fear and uneasiness; in the corner of the secret room stood a large black wooden box, which was locked with a complex combination lock.

A stuffy breath hit me in the face, and the air was filled with an indescribable odor that made people feel a little suffocated.

"I'm going to vomit, girl. What's this smell?" Yu Tuan finally stood up straight, closed the door, and took out a handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose.

The wall was covered with mottled marks, and the candlelight shone on the wall, making the stone wall's texture more distinct. I touched the wall and lowered my eyes to notice that a stone on the lower left side of the wall was relatively smoother than the other stones.

When I touched the stone, as expected, with a light push, the stone wall opened...

Aban was lying on a simple bed, his upper body wrapped in bandages, bloody gauze scattered all over the floor, and an even more pungent smell was spreading. The mixture of bloody smell and what sounded like medicine hit my nasal cavity, choking me so much that my hair stood on end. I immediately covered my nose with my arm.

"Ugh! Help! This stinks!"

"Girl, let's go quickly, cough cough, before he wakes up, cough cough! What's that smell?"

I resisted the discomfort and observed the secret room in the secret room: in addition to a simple little bed, there was an old wooden table with some strange items on it. There was also a wooden box with peeling paint, the pattern on the surface was no longer clear, and it was inlaid with pearls and gems. I didn't know what precious items were inside; there was also an old map with some mysterious symbols and marks on it.

Yuyi and Yutuan were so choked that they opened the door and gasped in the secret passage.

"Don't run too far!"

"Girl, come out quickly, why don't we go back and wait for the master to come and ask him to change the yard for us? Oh my God, what is going on?"

My gaze was fixed on Ah Ban's face. There were still some bruises on his face and arms, presumably from our beating. But based on the severity of our blows, he shouldn't have been injured to such an extent that his entire upper body needed to be bandaged?

As if possessed by a ghost, I reached out and touched Ah Ban's wrist. His pulse was stagnant, weak and delicate, and the blood circulation was sluggish. Is this... a heart disease?

My body trembled violently and I squatted on the ground in a daze, my heart was raging with confusion and shock.

His pulse was exactly the same as Princess Tingzhu's...

Who is he? Why does he look exactly like the Crown Prince? And why is he hiding here?

"Girl, let's go quickly. I don't think there is anything to explore. This A-ban is like a rat in a ditch, mysterious and surviving in this dark place..."