ghost

Fang Xia was not polite to Geng Wenqiu, patted the cushion on the floor, and sat down on the other side of the low table.Then he raised his hand to pick up the teapot on the kettle stove, turned over a small purple sand tea bowl on the tea tray, filled it up for himself, and drank it slowly.The tea is made from high-quality tea leaves, and after entering the throat, it leaves a fragrance on the lips and teeth. Even Fang Xia, who doesn't understand tea, can taste the difference from ordinary tea.

"I don't understand why I have to go back to the Geng family as the heir. Don't you have a genuine heir to the Geng family?" Fang Xia poured herself a second cup of tea before putting the teapot back on the stove and looking up at Geng Wenqiu.He knew that he had a half-brother named Geng Bowen, whom he had heard his master Ma Guangping inadvertently mention.It was born to his father and the wife he was marrying, the so-called eldest son and eldest grandson, the orthodox heir to the Geng family.

"Passed away at the end of last year." Geng Wenqiu lowered his eyes, hiding the emotion in his eyes.

Fang Xia was startled, a little surprised by the answer.His elder brother was about six or seven years older than him, and his death at this age would obviously not be a normal death.However, Geng Wenqiu didn't mean to go into details, so Fang Xia didn't ask further questions knowingly.Although Geng Bowen is his brother by blood, they have never met before, and they are almost like strangers. Fang Xia was surprised by Geng Bowen's death, but he didn't care about his obsession to find out the cause of death.

"Even so, your Geng family is such a big family, it's not like there are no other candidates, right? Picking one at random is better than finding an illegitimate son like me as the heir?" There is no one in the Geng family who can outperform him, and he must be the only one.

"They are all unqualified." Geng Wenqiu said lightly.

"Why not qualified?" Fang Xia asked.

"You have too many questions." Geng Wenqiu said.

"You have to understand the uneasiness of a young... uh, young man who doesn't know much about the world, the anxiety after coming to a strange place, and the eagerness to get familiar with the environment as soon as possible."

Geng Wenqiu raised his eyelids and gave him a cool look, completely disbelieving his nonsense.

"Why did I choose you as the successor of the Geng family? You will understand when the time comes." After Geng Wenqiu finished speaking, without giving Fang Xia another chance to speak, he pushed a palm-sized carved red sandalwood box in front of him. , "This is something passed down by the ancestors of the Geng family and stipulated to be kept by the heads of the past generations. Now the head of the family is temporarily represented by your cousin, but this position will be handed over to you soon, so this thing will be handed over to you for safekeeping in advance."

Fang Xia picked up the red sandalwood box, glanced at Geng Wenqiu, and saw that she didn't stop her, so she followed the movement to open the box.The bottom of the square box was covered with red silk, on which lay a jade ring.The color is fat white, the texture is fine and moist, and there is a grease-like luster from the inside out.The shape is ring-shaped, and there is a gap about one finger wide on the ring body. The gap is carved into two totem-like dragon heads, glaring at each other.At the place where the tails of the two dragons are fused together, a red rope is tied, depending on the length, it is used to hang around the neck.

"This is the white jade double dragon head, you will wear it close to your body from now on." Geng Wenqiu said.

"Is this an antique? You wear an antique next to your body?" Fang Xia twitched the corners of her mouth slightly.He doesn't have much research on antiques, but he is a painter. The painting method of the dragon head is by no means the work of recent dynasties, at least it must be traced back thousands of years ago!With the generosity of the Geng family, it would not be possible to treat imitations of descendants as ancestral items, so this jade ring is probably the real one with a history of more than a thousand years.But jades of this age have to be placed in a display cabinet even if they want to be displayed, how can they be worn close to the body?

"Wear it as long as you're told, how can there be so much nonsense?" Geng Wenqiu said impatiently.

"What if I lose it?" Fang Xia closed the red sandalwood box and continued talking nonsense.

Geng Wenqiu: "You will suffer retribution."

Fang Xia: "..."

"Wang Ke is your assistant. From now on, you can find him for your daily life and study about the heirs of the Geng family. Tomorrow, you will be arranged to enter the genealogy. Go and pack your luggage and go to bed early." Geng Wenqiu waved his hand road.

Fang Xia picked up the small tea bowl in front of her, drank up the half-cold tea, put the rosewood square box of Yujue into her coat pocket, got up and walked out of the tea room.Just as he put his hand on the doorknob, Geng Wenqiu suddenly called out to him again.

Fang Xia turned around.

"That white jade double dragon head..." Geng Wenqiu paused slightly, raised his eyes to look in Fang Xia's direction, but the focus of his gaze fell on the void beside Fang Xia, as if he was staring at something. "His name is Fu Jin."

Against the light, Fang Xia didn't notice the strange deviation of Geng Wenqiu's vision.

"Understood." A jade ring actually has two names?After Fang Xia answered, he opened the door and walked out of the tea room while muttering in his heart.

Fang Xia walked out of the tea room and found that Wang Ke was still waiting in the hall with his suitcase.

Seeing him coming out, Wang Ke hurried over, "Master Fang Xia."

"Don't call me that." Fang Xia rubbed his arms with an exaggerated expression, "You've got goosebumps, can you call me by my name? This name really needs to be changed, it's too outdated."

"Ms. Fang Xia..." Seeing Fang Xia squinting her eyes, Wang Ke hurriedly changed her words, "Fang Xia, I'll take you to your room."

Wang Ke led the way, Fang Xia followed behind him with her suitcase, her eyes fell on his back.Why the Geng family insisted on him coming back as the heir is still a mystery.Since Geng Wenqiu refused to tell him, Wang Ke must not be able to get an answer here.One is that Wang Ke didn't know the reason, and the other was that Wang Ke knew it but was ordered not to say it. With Wang Ke's somewhat rigid personality, Fang Xia couldn't get an answer to either of these two situations.It was also in consideration of this that he didn't ask Wang Ke on the way here before, but directly chose to ask Geng Wenqiu.However, Geng Wenqiu did not cooperate and refused to answer.

Fang Xia withdrew his gaze, turned to the fence around the patio, where there were beautifully carved railings, and said casually, "This house has a long history, right?"

"Probably hundreds of years." Wang Ke glanced back at Fang Xia, and began to talk about the history of the old house that he knew.

The ancestors of the Geng family used to be a well-known local family.The Geng family's old house was originally built with more than ten suites, and the whole family lived together.Afterwards, with the division of the family, the offshoots no longer live with the descendants of the direct line, and the population dwindles.Due to the changes of the times, it has been rebuilt many times, and more than ten houses have been dismantled, and now only three houses remain in the Geng family's old house.

Compared with the past, the Geng family's old house has indeed shrunk considerably, but now, Sanjin's house occupies an area that cannot be considered small.Fang Xia's room was arranged in the east wing on the second floor of the third entrance. Wang Ke led him to the door and walked for about five or six minutes.Regardless of the short time, neither of them had short legs, and they walked not slowly, which was enough to show the size of the Geng family's old house.

Taking Fang Xia to the door of the room, Wang Ke handed him the key and turned to leave, but was stopped by Fang Xia.

"Fang Xia Shao...Fang Xia, is there anything else you can do?" Wang Ke asked.

"Is there no one else in this house? I mean besides me and you, and that old lady Geng." From the time I stepped into the gate of Geng's old house, I met Geng Wenqiu, and now I am led by Wang Ke As soon as he entered the east wing on the second floor, he saw two people—one Wang Ke, one Geng Wenqiu, and he didn't even see anyone else.

"Sorry, I was negligent and forgot to tell you." Wang Ke said apologetically, "Now in this old house, besides you, me and Mrs. Geng, there are Uncle Tong, Aunt Chen and Brother Cheng Dong. Today Uncle Tong Taking Brother Cheng Dong out, Aunt Chen is probably busy in the kitchen. Uncle Tong is the housekeeper, and he basically manages the affairs of the old house. Aunt Chen is responsible for housework such as cooking and laundry, and Brother Cheng Dong is mainly responsible for external contact. Geng's old house Besides us, there are many people employed here, but they don’t live here.”

"Wait! A lot of people are hired, but they don't work in the old house. They help manage Geng's company?"

"The Geng family's company is managed by people from the offshoot of the Geng family. Now your second cousin Geng Chongmin is in charge of the company. He is your grandma's sister and the second son of Geng Qiulan. The eldest son Geng Chongzhi is the current head of the family. Originally, this year their family People are going to move into the old house here, but since you are the heir now, they probably won't move in..."

That is to say, only direct descendants can live in the Geng family's old house, which is feudal enough.But it sounds strange, the side branch holds the power of the company, and the direct line is dedicated to guarding the old house?And watching a gate also hired a large group of people, and those people are not in the old house yet.

"Since the group of people hired by the old house are not in charge of the company, what business do they do?"

Wang Ke closed her mouth, remained silent for a while, and then said dryly to Fang Xia, "Mrs. Geng said that I can't tell you yet."

I can't say it now again!

Fang Xia squinted his eyes, then smiled and said half-jokingly, "Could it be some illegal business?"

"No." Wang Ke quickly denied, "I still have something to do, so I'll go down first, and I'll call you when it's time for dinner."

Wang Ke turned around and ran away. Fang Xia lost the target of the cliché, so she had to open the door with the key and enter the room with the suitcase with the newly added doubts.

The Geng family's old house looks antique on the outside, with carved beams and painted buildings everywhere, but the interior decoration of the rooms is in a modern style.There is a solid wood floor, a bed in the middle, and the bed faces the window. There is a wardrobe with sliding doors on the inner side of the bed, and a cloakroom and a bathroom behind the wardrobe.

Fang Xia changed his shoes and entered the room, stuffed the suitcase directly into the closet, then stretched out his limbs and threw himself on the bed for a while, then sat up again and took out his mobile phone, dialed a number for his senior brother Shan Yichun Call over.

"Hello? Brother, have you received Master's medical expenses?" Fang Xia asked straight to the point when Shan Yichun got on the phone.

"Ah? Oh! Medical expenses...the medical expenses have been received."

Shan Yichun's tone sounded a little tense, which made Fang Xia feel a little strange.

"Brother, is there something wrong with you? Your voice sounds a little nervous."

"It's all right...cough, it's just that your throat is not so good recently?"

"How is Master?" Fang Xia paused for a while, then asked.

"Master is very good, you don't have to worry." Shan Yichun said, "How is your side? The Geng family didn't make things difficult for you, did they?"

"I'm fine, too. They asked me to come back as the heir, so what can they do to me?" Other than nagging and being weird, this can't be said now, and what can't be said now is a bit annoying.

After chatting with Shan Yichun for a while, after confirming Ma Guangping's situation and the payment of the medical bills, Fang Xia hung up the phone.He casually stuffed the phone back into his pocket, and took out the carved rosewood square box containing the jade ring from the other pocket.