Liang Yunshan then heard Liang Zhen say: “Earl, after I discovered this secret back then, I soon had my accident. Does the Earl know why? Ziyu, Liang Jie, you should both go down with the Earl.”

Liang Yunshan looked at Liang Zhen, his heart jolting.

Liang Zhe and Liang Jie both stood beside Liang Yunshan.

They were also curious, extremely curious.

Though they knew Liang Zhen’s arrangement was to make them witnesses and checks on each other, no one objected.

After descending two steps, Liang Yunshan found a torch and flint on the wall.

Liang Yunshan lit the torch.

By the firelight, Liang Zhe and Liang Jie saw more torches on the wall. Each took a torch before following behind Liang Yunshan, walking down step by step.

After walking down more than twenty steps, they reached a great hall.

This cavern appeared to be naturally formed, just happening to be beneath Old Madam Liang’s bed. About two or three mu in size, they could faintly hear flowing water outside, and wind came through many crevices. The ventilation wasn’t bad, it was relatively dry, and the temperature wasn’t high – it was actually a natural place for preserving things.

In the middle of the cavern stood a cabinet, a table, and two chairs.

The three men’s gazes first lingered on the cabinet, table, and chairs for a while, then they raised their torches high and looked around.

Suddenly—

“There’s someone!”

Liang Jie shouted, jumping up and dropping his torch, grabbing onto Liang Yunshan with his left hand.

Both Liang Yunshan and Liang Zhe had been on battlefields. Their reactions were faster and their courage greater. They quickly arranged themselves to face different directions. Liang Yunshan asked: “Jie’er, what did you see?”

Though Liang Jie wasn’t incompetent, he had never been to war or seen dead bodies. His whole body trembled: “Person, person, there’s someone…”

Liang Yunshan raised his torch and peered intently in the direction Liang Jie pointed. Indeed, there was someone sitting on the ground with their head lowered.

Liang Yunshan shouted: “Who’s there?!”

The person didn’t move at all.

Just as Liang Yunshan was about to ask again, Liang Jie let out another ghostly scream: “There’s another one!”

Immediately after, Liang Jie said in a trembling voice: “There’s another one… ah… another one… another one… they should, should be dead people…”

Liang Yunshan pushed Liang Jie aside and walked forward with his torch. Looking closely, they were indeed dead – corpses. One corpse was sitting upright, and several more lay on the ground.

To be precise, they were just skeletons dressed in clothes.

There were… eight skeletons in total!

With the light of three torches gathered together, Liang Yunshan immediately recognized them.

These people were all women, because their hair remained, their head ornaments were still there, and their clothes were all servant and maid attire.

To be precise, they wore the clothing of the Earl’s mansion’s first-class senior maids and supervising matrons. Over all these years, the colors and styles of the mansion’s first and second-class maids’ and supervising matrons’ clothing had never changed.

The three men approached and couldn’t smell any odor at all, meaning these people had been dead for a very long time – their bodies had decomposed to nothing but bones.

Liang Zhe walked back to the table and chairs, picked up a chair, and hurled it at the skeleton sitting with its head lowered.

The skeleton collapsed with a “crack,” the bones losing their support, the skull rolling around on the ground.

Liang Jie stared in terror at the collapsed skeleton, his whole body shaking.

Liang Zhe picked up the leg of another chair and used it to poke at the skeleton’s clothing. With a light tear, the fabric ripped.

Liang Yunshan stood watching Liang Zhe’s activities, completely unable to speak or move.

After fiddling around for a while, Liang Zhe said: “Earl, from what I can see, these people didn’t die at the same time. Some have been dead for forty or fifty years, others for twenty or thirty years. I can’t say exactly, but if we report to the authorities and bring in a coroner, we could certainly find out.”

Liang Yunshan instinctively shouted immediately: “We can’t report to the authorities!”

The corner of Liang Zhe’s mouth twitched.

“What’s this?” Liang Zhe used the chair to scrape a hairpin on one of the skeletons twice. “Oh, how familiar!”

Both Liang Yunshan and Liang Jie came over. Liang Jie had sharp eyes and cried out: “Nanny Luo has one just like this!”

It was a finely crafted gold-plated hairpin with twin phoenix patterns. The gold hairpin appeared to be made with substantial material, the design was very intricate, and the craftsmanship was first-rate.

Liang Zhe tore off a piece of cloth from his clothing, wrapped the hairpin in the fabric, brought it close to the torch light to examine it carefully, and read softly: “Jianqiu.”

The three men looked at each other. The expression on Liang Yunshan’s face could no longer be described as merely shocked.

Liang Zhe pulled out a similar gold hairpin from another skeleton’s head and read: “Nongdong.”

Next, he pulled out a hairpin of similar style from a third skeleton’s head and read: “Chuxia.”

Liang Zhe pulled out six hairpins in succession: two Nongdong, two Jianqiu, and two Chuxia.

Two skeletons remained – one dressed in matron’s clothing, one in second-class maid’s attire, with simple jewelry that made it impossible to identify who they were.

Liang Zhe said: “Chuxia, Jianqiu, Nongdong – I’ve heard these were all first-class maids who served Old Madam back in the day.”

Liang Yunshan remained silent.

Liang Zhe smiled coldly and walked directly to the table with his torch. The table was covered in thick dust, but one area showed signs of wiping.

With the firelight from the side, the traces were very easy to see – clearly someone had been here recently.

Liang Yunshan saw it too.

He slowly walked over, stared at the empty tabletop for a long while, then turned his gaze to the man-high cabinet.

The cabinet was made of finest huanghuali wood. It wasn’t large – only about the width of an adult man’s palm, somewhat resembling a bookcase.

The cabinet doors were tightly closed, its contents unknown.

After pondering for a moment, Liang Yunshan gently pulled the copper handle on the cabinet door.

Inside were writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, several small booklets, and several sealed ceramic bottles.

Liang Yunshan took out one small booklet and flipped through it. Inside was clearly Old Madam Liang’s handwriting:

Bingzi Year, Second Month, Ninth Day, Chuxia. Bingzi Year, Second Month, Thirteenth Day, Jianqiu. Bingzi Year, Second Month, Fourteenth Day, Nongdong. Xinsi Year, Tenth Month, Thirteenth Day, Jianqiu, Two. Xinsi Year, Tenth Month, Fourteenth Day, Nongdong, Two. Wuxu Year, Ninth Month, First Day. Wuxu Year, Ninth Month, Second Day. Wuxu Year, Ninth Month, Fifteenth Day.

Liang Yunshan stared at this familiar handwriting. Though there were only a few short lines, he looked at them for a long time.

The current year was Bingchen. That meant Bingzi Year was forty years ago, Xinsi Year was thirty-five years ago, and Wuxu Year was seventeen years ago.

Liang Yunshan was born in the second month of Bingzi Year, Luo Meixiang was born in Xinsi Year, and Zhao Wanniang died in Wuxu Year. This meant that when they were born or died, a maid or matron had also died in this secret chamber.

After reading this, he looked at the four ceramic bottles arranged in a neat row.

Liang Jie followed Liang Yunshan’s gaze like a puppet, looking at the ceramic bottles.

With trembling hands, Liang Yunshan placed one ceramic bottle on the table, unscrewed the lid, and found several red pills inside.

He poured one pill onto the tabletop, stared at it for a long time, then said in a heavy voice: “Hundred Insects Heart-Loss Pills.”

Liang Zhe used cloth to wrap one corner of the dust-covered stack of papers and placed them on the table. These papers bore bright red seals.

When Liang Yunshan saw those seals, his pupils contracted: “Qifeng Dynasty!”

Liang Jie asked curiously: “Father, what is the Qifeng Dynasty?”

Liang Yunshan said slowly: “The Qifeng Dynasty was destroyed by our Great Zhou Dynasty long ago – over sixty years ago. But after the Qifeng Dynasty’s fall, its remnants persisted, repeatedly stirring up trouble and attempting to rebuild. Among their remnants were beautiful women who became the wives of high officials and nobles in the Western Regions, constantly whispering in their ears. This is why the Western Regions and our Great Zhou have been in constant warfare all these years. They truly have the hearts of wolves – their treacherous intentions will never die!”