After my luck was stolen, I led my whole family to defy fate and change our destiny.

Gu Linglong immediately grinned, drool dripping from her mouth.

Granny Chen exclaimed in delight, "Wow, young lady is so precocious! She understands what the young master is saying at such a young age!"

Gu Yu'an was proud. "Of course! Look who her sister is! Since she wants to go too, let's go and join in the fun!"

Gu Yu'an and the others arrived at the gate of the Qi family. The ancient red-lacquered gate had a faint smell of blood.

A gust of cold wind swept in, rustling the leaves on the leaves by the door.

The three brothers shuddered simultaneously.

"Huh~"

Gu Ziming immediately hid behind Gu Yu'an. "Big brother, it seems like there really are ghosts here?"

"Don't talk nonsense."

Gu Ziming covered his mouth, but his eyes were warily scanning his surroundings.

The servant knocked on the door.

Upon hearing that they had come to exorcise a ghost, the gatekeeper quickly welcomed them into the hall.

Upon hearing from his servants that someone had come to exorcise a ghost, Qi Zhenghai warmly went to greet them, only to find that the group consisted of a few rather immature teenagers.

There's another baby?

He was neither a Taoist priest nor a Buddhist monk, so how could he possibly exorcise ghosts? The smile on his face couldn't help but fade a little.

Upon closer inspection, the other person's attire revealed him to be of noble birth and wealth; he was likely a young master from a wealthy family who had come to watch the spectacle.

"Then let's treat him well and not offend him," thought Master Qi, and his smile became more sincere.

Gu Yu'an glanced at Qi Zhenghai, who looked listless with dark circles under his eyes, as if he had been drained of his life force by a ghost. The three brothers stepped forward and bowed.

"Master Qi, we apologize for our intrusion."

Qi Zhenghai quickly returned the greeting, "Young friend, did you come to take the exam?"

"exactly"

"Please take a seat, young friend."

Gu Yu'an declined a few times, then sat down below Qi Zhenghai.

"May I ask, sir, that your residence is said to be haunted? What exactly are the details of this haunting?"

Qi Zhenghai sighed, his shoulders slumping. "About a month ago, not long after we moved in, we started hearing the coughing of elderly people in the middle of the night."

But when the servants went out to look, there was no one there, inside or out, and the coughing continued.

Someone knocked on the door late at night. The doorman went to open it and saw a bat inexplicably crashing into the door.

Rows of dead bats by the door...

The doorman fainted from fright.

Hearing this, the three brothers felt a chill run down their spines, silently huddling closer together, feeling a bit cold…

"Cough cough cough..."

Thinking of this, Master Qi suddenly coughed. The steward quickly served tea and patted Master Qi's back.

"Sir, please wait a moment, let me explain."

"Cough cough cough..." Qi Zhenghai nodded.

The butler bowed and said, "The bat died in front of the door in a gruesome and frightening manner, which is not only bad feng shui, but also carries a very bad omen. Moreover, there are ants writing on the corridor wall..."

The butler glanced at Qi Zhenghai and whispered, "The ants on the wall are writing the word 'death'."

"Our Qi family has been in business for generations, and business people are most averse to these things. How could we possibly care about this?"

"Our master was so anxious he couldn't sleep night after night, and he even fell seriously ill because of it. The servants were all trembling with fear, and they consulted many Taoist priests, but nothing worked."

"This...this must be some ghost haunting our Qi family..."

The housekeeper spoke while crying, constantly wiping away her tears.

Gu Linglong gave a light snort.

【Pshaw, it's just a cheap trick, a charlatan's way of deceiving people. I've already done all that.】

Gu Yu'an quietly sat up straight and pricked up his ears to listen.

The ants forming words are simply a matter of writing words on the wall beforehand, and then the ants are attracted by the smell and go to eat them.

[Bats suck blood, and there was eel blood on the door, which would definitely attract bats to crash into it.]

The coughing sound is even easier to explain: when you feed a hedgehog sugar water, it feels uncomfortable and coughs, sounding like the voice of an elderly person.

Gu Yu'an's brows relaxed, and he mentally gave Gu Linglong a thumbs up; his little sister was indeed so intelligent.

"Could you take me to the place where ants form characters?"

The steward stretched out his arm and said, "This way, gentlemen."

Qi Zhenghai didn't want to play house with these young noblemen, so he declined, citing illness. Gu Yu'an simply nodded and didn't say anything.

The group walked through the artificial hill to the long corridor at the back.

"This is where the ants formed the characters before; now the servants all avoid this place."

Gu Yu'an gently rubbed it with his hand; it was a little sticky. He held it to his nose and could still faintly smell the honey.

"Butler, come and see what's on this wall?"

The butler stepped forward to examine it carefully, then mustered his courage and, imitating Gu Yu'an, smelled it in front of his nose, his brows furrowed.

"Honey? How come there's honey on this wall?"

A multitude of thoughts exploded in the butler's mind. Could it be...?

Gu Yu'an said calmly, "Please invite Master Qi over. I've made a major discovery, and I'll also bring a jar of honey."

The steward couldn't delay and immediately went to invite Qi Zhenghai. Upon hearing the steward's report, Qi Zhenghai rushed over.

"Young friend, this is honey. May I ask what it is used for?"

Gu Yu'an took the honey, dipped it in a brush, and wrote the character "福" (fortune/blessing) on ​​the wall.

After a while, a group of ants came over to eat the honey. Qi Zhenghai and the butler stared wide-eyed, their faces full of disbelief.

Gu Ziming clapped his hands excitedly: "Second Brother, come quick! The ants are eating the honey!"

"This...this...isn't this...could it be..."

Soon the ants formed a black "福" (fortune) character.

Qi Zhenghai stared in disbelief, "This...this...this..."

Gu Yu'an's expression darkened. "Someone is brushing honey on the wall to attract ants to eat it, thus achieving a frightening effect."

"Your residence is not haunted; you may have offended someone and been targeted."

Wow, my older brother is so smart!

Qi Zhenghai let out a long sigh: "Then... how do you explain the bats and the coughing sound? They were also man-made?"

"Go find a hedgehog, and you'll know."

Qi Zhenghai thoughtfully instructed, "Don't alert anyone else, go yourself."

"Yes"

In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the butler bought a hedgehog.

"Young master, the hedgehog has been purchased."

Gu Yu'an nodded. "Dilute the honey with water and feed it to it."

The butler did as instructed, and the hedgehog began coughing shortly after being fed honey water.

"Cough cough cough..."

The butler's eyes widened, and his hand trembled slightly as he pointed at the hedgehog.

"Master, this...this...the sound is exactly the same as the sound at night!"

Qi Zhenghai, enraged, smashed the teacup beside him on the ground.

Now that things have come to this, how could he not see that this so-called ghost story was a setup against his Qi family?

"Investigate! Investigate thoroughly!"

Gu Yu'an reminded him, "If you want to lure bats to crash into the door, someone will definitely smear eel blood on the door at night."

"Why not send some trusted confidants or yamen runners to lie in wait inside and outside the gate at night?"

Qi Zhenghai calmed down: "Yes, my young friend is indeed clever, avoiding alerting the enemy."

Qi Zhenghai was extremely relieved that he hadn't offended the other party just because of their young age; otherwise, he wouldn't have found out so quickly that his Qi family had been framed.

She felt an increasing respect and appreciation for Gu Yu'an, and her initial contempt completely disappeared.

He spoke with a tone of negotiation, "Young friend, tomorrow, tomorrow I will invite a few more young friends to my residence and personally present them with the silver, would that be alright?"

"If we were to withdraw such a large sum of money from the accounting office now, it would inevitably arouse suspicion."

Gu Yu'an nodded in agreement, but as he picked up his teacup to drink, he heard Gu Linglong say something.

[Oh, Qi Zhenghai, I remember now, isn't he the one who harbored such a deep-seated resentment that none of his five sons were his biological children?]

"Pfft"

Gu Yu'an almost spat out his tea.

Qi Zhenghai quickly asked, "Is it because you don't like this tea? I'll have someone change it right away."

Gu Yu'an waved his hand, "No, I just drank too fast."

Qi Zhenghai, regretting not having served better tea, said, "I have some light wine prepared at my residence for lunch. Please have lunch here, my young friends."

Gu Yu'an was about to refuse when he heard his younger sister speak.

I heard he won the heart of the most beautiful woman in Jiangnan back in the day. I really want to meet him!