168 The Ji Home 3

Who would have imagined that the Ji family, so wealthy and powerful in the world's eyes, would have such a broken down compound?

However, this compound was where the original owner of the body had stayed for seven or eight years.

Ji Fengyan led Bai Ze across the stone flags that were overgrown with moss. She slowly walked towards the dim room and gently pushed open the room door. The creaking sound it made was unusually piercing. Although the room looked tidy, an overwhelming scent of decay arose from it.

All the room contained was a narrow bed, an old wooden table, and a wooden stool.

There were no ornaments or decorations. Everything was simple to the point of shabbiness.

Ji Fengyan walked over to the stool and sat down. She was not angered by what she saw. Instead, she rested her chin on her hand and studied the shabby room.

"You really were wretched." Ji Fengyan laughingly said to the pitiful worm who was the original owner of the body.

For a young lady of the Ji family to stay in a room that was poorer than the servants' quarters was certainly wretched.

Little Bai Ze took a turn around the room then uneasily leaned against Ji Fengyan's legs. Ji Fengyan patted its small head. Everything she saw brought back memories from the original owner of the body.

Those dark, mournful memories.

With nothing better to do, Ji Fengyan arose and walked out of the room. She followed the cobblestone path out of the broken down compound.

The Ji family mansion was large, so large that one could easily get lost by accident. Although the mansion looked magnificent, in the original owner's memory, it was like a cage.

As she walked, Ji Fengyan happened upon a large door. Ji Fengyan collected her wits as she stood in front of the metal door. She looked around and laughed a little.

The large door in front of her was the entrance to the Ji family martial arts arena, where the Ji family trained the next generation. In addition to the Ji family's children, the place also had a group of children who were selected from outside the family. Their surname was not Ji, but they grew up in the Ji home. All of them worked hard at cultivation, hoping to receive the Ji family's approval one day and become a family member. For these children, obtaining this surname was a lifelong pursuit.

Ji Fengyan did not know why she had come here. In truth, the original owner of the body seldom walked around the Ji home. However, she had come to this martial arts arena several times and her few good memories of the Ji home had taken place here.

As a young child, the original owner of the body had received instruction here together with the other children. The Ji family had hired many tutors in order to train the next generation. One of these tutors was especially talented, and he had taken on the original owner of the body as his pupil. He had been good to her. One might say that this tutor was the only one in the Ji family who had shown any warmth to the original owner of the body.

"Tutor…" Ji Fengyan murmured as she looked at the door. The original owner of the body had greatly esteemed this tutor. Ji Fengyan herself had been raised by her master, thus she felt that the situation was rather delicate.

Perhaps she should greet this tutor on behalf of the original owner of the body.

Just as Ji Fengyan had decided to open the door, a sharp voice suddenly spoke from behind her.

"I was wondering who it was. It's Ji Fengyan! Didn't you go to Ji City to be the city lord? What… what wind has brought you here?"

Ji Fengyan turned and saw a group of young men and women who were around 15 or 16 years old walking towards her. They wore the gray clothes that the Ji family gave to outsiders of a different surname.

…