The ancient war between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in a wealthy family

"What's wrong?" Zhan Yu and I asked in unison, a glimmer of hope rising in our hearts. Could it be that we could actually find evidence to turn the tables?

Lawyer Fang said nothing, clutching the note tightly as he hurried toward the secret door. Zhan Yu and I supported each other, enduring the discomfort, and followed closely behind.

The secret door was very hidden. If Lawyer Fang hadn't known about it beforehand, we wouldn't have been able to discover its existence. Lawyer Fang took a deep breath and pushed the secret door open with force.

"crunch-"

A sharp sound pierced the silence of the warehouse, and my heart skipped a beat. Fortunately, there didn't seem to be anyone else in the warehouse.

Behind the secret door was a narrow passage. A damp, musty smell hit us, making us frown. Lawyer Fang pulled a lighter from his pocket, and using the dim light, we cautiously entered the passage.

The passage was not long and soon reached the end. Before us was a rusty iron door.

"This should be it..." Lawyer Fang muttered to himself and reached out to push the iron door.

"Wait!" I grabbed his hand and looked around cautiously, "It's too quiet here, I always feel..."

Before I could finish my words, I heard the sound of footsteps coming from a distance.

"Someone is coming!" My face changed and I quickly pulled Zhan Yu and Lawyer Fang to hide behind a pile of debris.

The footsteps were getting closer, and my heart was in my throat. Through the gaps in the debris, I saw a dark figure walking towards me.

The man was short and fat, holding a dim oil lamp. He was one of Song's trusted aides! How could he be here? Did he know we were coming?

I held my breath, not daring to make a sound, for fear of being discovered by him. Zhan Yu also tightened his jaw, his eyes fixed on the dark figure, his hand already silently reaching for his waist.

The black shadow walked around the warehouse and didn't seem to find anything unusual, so he turned and walked towards us.

I held Zhan Yu's hand tightly, my palms full of cold sweat. Closer, closer...

Just as the shadow was about to pass us, Zhan Yu suddenly groaned, as if his wound had been agitated... "Damn it!" I cursed inwardly, wishing I could cover Zhan Yu's mouth. He usually remained calm even in the face of disaster, so why did he fail at this moment?

The black shadow really stopped and turned his head alertly. The dim oil lamp swayed in his hand, stretching his shadow longer and shorter, making him look like a ghost's claws.

"Who's there?!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the empty warehouse, sounding even more sinister.

My heart was in my throat, and my palms were covered in cold sweat. It was over, were we going to be discovered? Zhan Yu also frowned, trying to endure the pain, as if thinking of a countermeasure.

"Meow--"

At the critical moment, an idea struck me. I picked up a stone from the ground and threw it hard towards the other end of the warehouse. The stone hit the metal pipe, making a crisp "clang" sound, which was particularly abrupt in the silent warehouse.

The dark shadow was indeed attracted by the sudden sound. He hesitated for a moment, but finally turned around and walked towards the direction of the sound, holding the oil lamp.

"Let's go!" I lowered my voice and said to Zhan Yu and Lawyer Fang.

We took advantage of the moment when the shadow turned around, crouched down, and used the cover of debris to quickly run towards the secret door.

My heart was pounding like it was about to burst out of my chest. I took every step carefully, afraid to make any sound and alert the dark figure.

"Wait, my crutches..." Lawyer Fang suddenly stopped and said in a low voice.

I looked back and saw that Lawyer Fang's crutches had fallen to the ground.

"Never mind, let's go!" I said anxiously. Every second is precious now and we can't delay any longer.

Lawyer Fang hesitated for a moment, but finally gritted his teeth, gave up his crutches, and continued running with us.

We finally reached the secret door, and I pushed it open with all my strength, getting in first. Zhan Yu and Lawyer Fang followed closely behind, and together we closed the secret door, and silence returned to the warehouse.

I leaned against the cold wall, gasping for breath. The thrilling escape just now had almost exhausted all my strength.

"Huh... Fortunately, we escaped..." I said with lingering fear.

"Thanks to you, ma'am." Lawyer Fang wiped the sweat from his forehead and said gratefully, "If it weren't for your quick wit, we would have been discovered."

"Yes," Zhan Yu also nodded, "This time it's all thanks to you."

I forced a smile and said, "It's not time to be happy yet. We haven't found any evidence yet."

We continued walking along the narrow passage until we finally reached the end. A heavier iron door appeared before us, and on this iron door hung a heavy combination lock.

"Combination lock?" I was stunned. Could this be where the secret was hidden? But what was the combination?

Lawyer Fang took out a handkerchief from his pocket and carefully wiped the dust off the combination lock, his brows furrowed, as if he was thinking about something.

"Crack, click..."

There were sounds of messy footsteps and metal colliding coming from the distance, getting closer and closer.

Oh no! It's the Song branch! My heart sank. How could they catch up so quickly?

"It seems we're running out of time..." Lawyer Fang said in a deep voice, a hint of solemnity in his tone, "We must find the password as soon as possible!"

I was extremely anxious, searching the surroundings for clues. Suddenly, my eyes fell on an inconspicuous stone brick next to the iron gate. There seemed to be something engraved on that stone brick...

"Wait, look there!" I pointed at the stone brick and said, "There seems to be words on it!"

Zhan Yu and Lawyer Fang immediately gathered around, and in the dim light, we finally made out the words engraved on the stone bricks:

"Year of Jiazi, Month of Guihai, Day of Dingchou..."

"What does this mean?" I was confused. These words looked like some kind of date, but what did this have to do with the password?

"This is..." Lawyer Fang seemed to have thought of something, and his face suddenly changed. "Oh no, we've fallen into a trap!"

"boom!"

With a loud bang, the door of the warehouse was violently kicked open from the outside. Dazzling light shone in from outside, illuminating the cramped space in front of us.

Song Pangzhi walked in aggressively with a group of people. There was a sinister sneer on his face. His eyes swept over the three of us and finally fell on the tightly closed iron door.

"Do you think you can escape?" Song Pangzhi's voice was icy cold, like a call from hell. "This is where you will die!" "Quick! Look at what's written on that brick!" My voice trembled with anxiety as I vigilantly listened to the approaching footsteps at the other end of the passage. With every step Song Pangzhi took, my heart felt as if it were being gripped by an invisible hand.

Zhan Yu supported Lawyer Fang with one hand and held up the dim light of his cell phone with the other, shining it on the inconspicuous stone brick. Lawyer Fang narrowed his eyes, carefully identifying the inscriptions on it, his brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

"Year of Jiazi...Month of Guihai...Day of Dingchou..." He muttered to himself, as if recalling something. "This looks like a date, but it doesn't look like an ordinary date..."

"Is it some secret code?" I was extremely anxious and wished I could become a cryptographer immediately to crack the mystery.

"Wait..." Lawyer Fang suddenly straightened up, his eyes fixed on an ancient painting on the wall, "Look, this painting..."

I followed his gaze and saw an ink-and-wash landscape painting. It looked ordinary at first glance, but it was also difficult to see clearly in the dim light.

"What's wrong with the painting?" Zhan Yu asked.

"The mountains in this painting... and the direction of the water..." Lawyer Fang didn't answer. Instead, he walked quickly to the painting and gestured with his hands, "If you think of this painting as a map..."

"Map?" I was even more confused. "But what does this have to do with the password?"

"Look, doesn't the shape of this mountain resemble a '7'? And doesn't the bend in the water resemble a '3'?" Lawyer Fang pointed out the details of the painting, his tone tinged with excitement. "If I'm not mistaken, this painting is a key, a key to unlocking a combination lock!"

Suddenly, I realized, that's it! The ancients were so ingenious, they actually hid the code in a painting!

"What are we waiting for? Let's find other numbers!" Zhan Yu made a prompt decision, and the three of us immediately began to study the ancient painting carefully, not daring to miss any details.

"Here, the branches of this tree, do they look like a '1'?"

"And here, this rock is shaped like a '9', isn't it?"

We searched for possible numbers in the painting like a treasure hunt, and a glimmer of hope was mixed in the tense atmosphere.

"Found it! Yes!" Lawyer Fang said excitedly, with a slight tremor in his voice.

"Try it quickly!" I urged, my heart already beating in my throat. I could clearly hear the footsteps of Song Pangzhi approaching, and they could break in at any time.

Zhan Yu took a deep breath, steadied his trembling hands, and quickly entered the password according to the number combination we found.

With a "click", the combination lock opened!

At this moment, Song Pangzhi's roar came from the other end of the passage: "They are in there! Chase them!"

At the critical moment, we finally opened the door of the dark room!

"Go in quickly!" Zhan Yu grabbed Lawyer Fang and me, rushed into the dark room, and quickly closed the heavy iron door.

However, before we could breathe a sigh of relief, the scene before us made us

We rushed into the dark room, thinking we had found shelter, but the sight before us made us gasp. This wasn't some secret room; it was clearly an elaborate trap!

In the dark room, the dim candlelight flickered, illuminating the cold walls. Strange patterns and symbols covered the walls, exuding a gloomy and terrifying atmosphere. Scattered on the ground were rotten wooden boxes and weapons, silently recounting the bloody events that had taken place here.

"Be careful!" Zhan Yu grabbed me and looked around vigilantly.

"Why...are there so many mechanisms here?" I was still in shock, my voice trembling slightly.

"It seems that the ancestors of the Zhan family have really taken great pains to protect this secret." Lawyer Fang said in a serious tone, "We must be extremely careful. Any wrong step could lead to eternal damnation."

The three of us advanced cautiously, each step feeling like walking on the edge of a knife, fearing we might trigger some mechanism. The air was filled with a nauseating smell of decay, mixed with the damp, earthy air.

Suddenly, Lawyer Fang seemed to have noticed something and stopped. He pointed to a slate on the ground in front of him and whispered, "Look, the color of this slate is different from the others."

"You mean... this is a trap?" My heart tightened.

"It's very likely." Zhan Yu said, picking up a piece of gravel from the ground and throwing it at the stone slab.

The gravel hit the stone slab with a precise thud. At that moment, I felt the ground beneath my feet tremble, and before I could react, I heard a whooshing sound above my head.

"Be careful!" Zhan Yu shouted and threw me to the ground.

The next second, countless sharp arrows shot out from the hidden compartment above our heads, densely packed and pouring down like raindrops. The three of us huddled close to the ground, listening to the arrows whizzing past our ears and nailing the wall behind us with a creepy "thump thump" sound.

"Hurry! Find cover!" Zhan Yu shouted and pulled me to hide behind a stone pillar.

Lawyer Fang relied on his agility to dodge and weave in the rain of arrows, looking for a way to crack the mechanism.

"This is not a solution. Sooner or later, the arrows will turn us into hedgehogs!" I hid behind the stone pillar, feeling extremely anxious.

"Don't be afraid, I'm here." Zhan Yu held me tightly in his arms. His voice was low and powerful, as if it injected me with a powerful strength.

"Found it!" At this moment, Lawyer Fang suddenly shouted, and then he jumped up, grabbed a protruding stone brick on the wall, and twisted it hard.

With a "click", the mechanism stopped working and the rain of arrows disappeared.

We are finally safe for now.

I looked up in shock, only to find that Lawyer Fang was covering his arm with a pale face, and blood was slowly seeping out from between his fingers.

"You're hurt!" I exclaimed.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious." Lawyer Fang said, enduring the pain, "We must find evidence and leave here as soon as possible."

As he spoke, he covered his wound and walked into the depths of the dark room.

We followed closely behind, but before we had taken a few steps...