This vegetable cellar had obviously been sealed for many years. As soon as it was near the entrance of the cellar, a rotten smell hit the face.
Liang Yuanque held his breath, grabbed the rickety bamboo ladder and climbed down slowly.
According to what the servant said, someone was passing by here just now and found that the door of the vegetable cellar that was supposed to be sealed was wide open. He looked down and saw the body of the old housekeeper of the Lin family.
Liang Yuanque went down to take a look, and sure enough, the old housekeeper fell on his back, facing the wide open cellar entrance.
On the way here, I heard from the third lady that the old housekeeper had worked for the Lin family for many years. Now, in view of his old age, the old lady decided that even though he no longer had to work, the Lin family would still support him in his old age.
An old housekeeper who had worked in the Lin family for many years must have known a lot of secrets about the Lin family, but he died at this juncture.
Guarding the old butler's body in the vegetable cellar was a tall and thin young servant with a rather delicate appearance.
Liang Yuanque looked at him with a bit of surprise, "What's your name? You're quite bold."
The young servant smiled innocently and said, "To tell you what, sir, my name is Jiao Lin, and my masters all call me Xiao Linzi. When I was young, the fortune teller said I had a strong character, so I have never been afraid of this."
Liang Yuanque looked at his face, and based on his shallow knowledge of fortune telling, he didn't think that this Xiao Linzi was a tough guy.
But what happened to him was not the focus of Liang Yuanque's attention. He quickly turned his attention to the corpse on the ground.
The old housekeeper was lying on his back on the ground, with blood coming from his mouth and nose, and his eyes were wide open.
Liang Yuanque lifted his head and found that the entire back of his head had collapsed, and his brain was mixed with blood, making it a chaotic mess.
Judging from the appearance of his death, he should have been pushed down from above.
Liang Yuanque raised his head and looked at the cellar door above. The door panels composed of two thick wooden boards were still hanging very firmly in their proper positions.
This vegetable cellar was supposed to have a set of ladders nailed to the wall, but later, probably due to the blockade, the ladders were removed, and now only an additional bamboo ladder can be used to go up and down.
Judging from the appearance of the body, it seemed that he was suddenly attacked and pushed down the vegetable cellar, but the door panel was intact, indicating that the door panel was open before he fell.
If the door panel is opened, there is no reason why the old housekeeper can't notice it.
If he noticed that the door of the vegetable cellar was wide open when he was passing by, looked down curiously, and was suddenly attacked from behind, then he should have landed on his face.
There are too many possibilities, but none of the assumptions seem to be accurate.
Liang Yuanque frowned and covered his nose. The vegetable cellar must have been too smelly. The smell penetrated his brain and made him unable to think calmly.
"Xiao Linzi, why does this vegetable cellar smell so strong? Didn't the corpses from before be cleared out?"
He looked around and asked the servants around him.
The entire vegetable cellar was filled with the smell of fermented and rotten vegetables, but mixed with it was a strange corpse smell.
The old butler's body was obviously still fresh, so it couldn't have been him.
Although Xiao Linzi's sense of smell is not as sharp as Liang Yuanque's, the impact of the smell here is so strong that it is difficult not to smell it.
He narrowed his eyes and said, "I don't know. It may be because it has been sealed for many years, or it may be because the second young lady and the second uncle died inside."
Liang Yuanque could almost conclude at this moment that this was the smell of corpse odor.
This smelly corpse probably wasn't naturally decayed. It must have been treated with some special technique, but as time went by, the smell inevitably leaked out.
He covered his nose and wandered around the vegetable cellar. It was dimly lit, so he called Zhuang Youjie above,
"Master Zhuang, throw the flashlight to me!"
Although Zhuang Youjie did not dare to come down, he lay at the entrance of the cellar and stared closely at the situation below.
"Oh, okay, catch it!"
Zhuang Youjie saw Liang Yuanque reaching out his hand below, so he threw the flashlight in his direction, and it hit him right on the head.
Liang Yuanque bent down to pick up the flashlight that fell to the ground, rubbed his forehead and said to him,
"If you have any opinions on me, you can raise them."
With the flashlight, Liang Yuanque's vision in the vegetable cellar was much better than before.
He held up a flashlight and shone it around, and found that there were large stains of blood in many places, and the entire vegetable cellar looked like it had once been used as a slaughterhouse.
He walked towards the nearest blood stain, squatted down and took a closer look, and found that the blood stain, like the paintings on the wall, had turned dark brown.
A long time had passed since the death of the second young lady and the second uncle, so it makes sense that the blood stains would have oxidized to look like this.
But Liang Yuanque had a vague feeling that the blood stain seemed to have taken shape even earlier.
But this is just his feeling. When the blood stains are oxidized to a certain extent, it is difficult to distinguish the difference with the naked eye, not to mention the dim light here, making it even more difficult to judge.
After looking at the blood stains, he walked towards a large pile of things covered by oil paper in the corner. The closer he got, the more serious the rotten and sour smell that stung his brain.
He held his breath and suddenly opened the brittle oil paper cloth. Underneath were rows of Chinese cabbages. All the cabbages were rotten and full of bacteria. They were probably older than the third lady.
There are still many things in this vegetable cellar that have not been evacuated. At a glance, there is no damage anywhere. The Lin family sealed it up back then, so there must be a reason for sealing it up.
Liang Yuanque looked at the rotten vegetable leaves, tried hard to hold back his nausea, and then turned to look at the pickle jars on the other side.
These pickle jars are also larger than those in ordinary families. After all, the Lin family is a large family. The family was still prosperous at that time, and the demand for food was also large.
There should be something still in the pickle jar. Even though it was sealed, there was still a smell that was persistently squeezed out of it.
Liang Yuanque held a flashlight in one hand, so he couldn't open the sealed pickle jar with one hand, so he called Xiao Linzi to help.
Xiao Linzi was stunned for a moment, but he came over obediently.
"Sir, this is probably very disgusting."
"It doesn't matter, you have a tough life and can bear it." Liang Yuanque patted his shoulder, feeling that he would suffocate if he stayed in this vegetable cellar for a little longer.
After all, his sense of smell is better than ordinary people, so he will naturally suffer more torture here than ordinary people.
The jar was not easy to open, so Xiao Lin used both hands to open the lid. As soon as he opened it, he screamed in fright and pushed the jar out.
"Ah, what is this!"
Liang Yuanque quickly looked over with his flashlight and saw a black skull rolling out of the tilted pickle jar.
