Wei Yanchi stayed in the second branch's courtyard at the Wei Family Old Residence. It was a Siheyuan Courtyard too, with a pagoda tree growing so luxuriantly that it almost blotted out the sky.
The courtyard had been swept clean, though.
White mourning cloth had also been hung up. His sister-in-law pressed a handful of yellow joss paper into Wei Yanchi's hand and told him, "When you hear the bell, burn this by the entrance. The ritual doesn't matter; what matters is the thought behind it. Come to the ancestral hall later if you like. You can keep your aunts company and chat with them."
"Mm."
After his sister-in-law left, Xu Zhouluo stared at the pagoda tree, his brows furrowing again and again. "Ghost-Calling Wood? With so many people dying in the Wei Family, why would they still dare plant something that summons spirits?"
Zhang Mingqi looked around the courtyard. Its layout was perfectly conventional, but perhaps because there was so little light and white mourning cloth hung everywhere, it felt gloomy and sinister.
"Let's unpack first, then go over and take a look. Have Wei Yanchi ask his aunt about it, though I don't think he'll get much out of her."
The smell of burning paper filled the air, accompanied by what sounded faintly like several people crying.
Wei Yanchi dropped his suitcase in his room and came back out without doing much unpacking. He made a circuit of the Siheyuan Courtyard, then, unable to keep his hands to himself, opened the other rooms and ducked inside to look.
He found that all the furniture in the other rooms was covered with white cloth.
Then he opened the largest room. It had probably belonged to his parents once; there was a dressing table and a bed with intricate openwork