The man stared at the box, unwilling to let it go. "Old man, if this is a cultural relic, it definitely has research value. See if you can..."

"Professor Qian, please don't say anymore..." At that moment, another old man ran out from the construction team and frantically dragged the professor back into the courtyard.

"Let go of me!" Professor Qian flared up. "What does a feng shui master know about cultural relics?"

The man was also anxious. "You only know about cultural relics. Do you even know what that is?"

My grandpa didn't even glance at them again. He pulled me up and said, "Let's go home."

I followed my grandpa forward, but my eyes kept staring at the box.

The box was about a meter long and wrapped in a layer of yellow cloth. The color was similar to the yellow jackets of the Qing Dynasty. It seemed like something was embroidered on it, but my grandpa blocked my view, and I couldn't see anything clearly.

After my grandpa brought me home, he shoved the yellow cloth package under the kang cabinet. No matter how much I pestered him, he wouldn't let me look at it.

At that moment, my dad came home. His face changed when he saw the yellow cloth package. "Dad, why did you bring that thing back?"

My grandpa smoked his pipe and said irritably, "What else could I do? People went in there, and their yang energy ruined it. What use is it now..."

My dad immediately got angry. "That bastard, I'm going to find him!"

"Come back!" My grandpa glared. "Look at you, what do you think you're doing? You want to kill someone?"

"Sigh—" My dad sighed and sat on the kang. After a long while, he said, "What about the people who went into the bell tower?"

"Why do you care so much? Think about how to live in the future, that's the real issue..." My grandpa stopped talking halfway through his sentence.

My dad directly chased me out of the room. They talked inside for a long time before my dad came out, his eyes red-rimmed, as if he wanted to cry but couldn't.

Seeing my dad upset, I didn't dare to speak. My dad came over and patted my head, then sent me back into the room without saying a word.

In the following days, my dad didn't go out to work, staying at home day and night.

I, on the other hand, was running around all day long. One day, when I came back from outside, the boss and the feng shui master stopped me.

The feng shui master squatted down and said to me, "Young man, I want to ask you something. What did your ancestors do for a living?"

I didn't think much about it. "Night watchmen!"

"Don't talk nonsense," the feng shui master said. "I heard that your ancestors were imperial guards."

My eyes lit up. I had watched many martial arts movies and knew that imperial guards were powerful. If my ancestors were really imperial guards, I would be overjoyed.

But then I thought about it and felt something was wrong. "My grandpa wouldn't lie to me. My ancestors were just night watchmen."

The feng shui master coaxed, "Night watchmen are not all the same. Ordinary night watchmen are considered lower-class, looked down upon. Night watchmen in the imperial palace are not ordinary people."

The feng shui master deliberately lowered his voice and said, "That clapper your grandpa uses, is it made of bone?"

"Yes!" I was only seven or eight years old at the time, and easily tricked with a few words.

"That's right then!" the feng shui master said. "The clappers in the imperial palace are made of tiger bone. They're called 'Tiger's Might to Astonish Ghosts and Gods.' When the clapper is struck, even ghosts and gods don't dare to approach. Is your family's clapper made of tiger bone?"

Chen Xiaobao paused here and said, "Brother Ye, are the clappers in the imperial palace really made of tiger bones?"

Ye Yang didn't speak, but Feng Ruoxing explained, "The clappers in the imperial palace are still made of wood. Only the clappers in a few special places are made of tiger bone."

"Only the Cold Palace in the imperial palace uses tiger bone clappers, because those places have too much resentment, which easily leads to wronged souls and vengeful ghosts. Tiger bone clappers are used to ward off evil."

"Moreover, the night watchman who uses tiger bone must be a veteran who has fought a hundred battles. Only a hardened soldier who has beheaded a hundred people can control tiger bone. If such a veteran cannot be found, an executioner is used instead."

"However, executioners cannot use tiger bone; they can only use human bone because there is a rule in the executioner profession that they cannot execute more than a hundred prisoners in their lifetime. Therefore, executioners cannot use tiger bone and can only take a different approach by using human bone instead of tiger bone."

"The people who keep watch in the imperial palace cannot leave the palace, even in death. Therefore, there are only legends about them in the martial world, but their whereabouts are never seen. And no one can say for sure what secret methods they possess?"

Feng Ruoxing seemed to be explaining to Ye Yang rather than to Chen Xiaobao.

Chen Xiaobao continued after Feng Ruoxing finished explaining, "At that time, I didn't know any of this, so I said honestly, 'My grandpa said his clapper was made of human skull.'"

The feng shui master gasped at that time. "Young man, don't scare people. Who would make a clapper out of a human skull? Wouldn't it shatter after a few strikes?"

I was unhappy at that time. "That's what my grandpa said. If you don't believe me, ask my grandpa."

The feng shui master asked, "What does your grandpa shout when he strikes the third watch? That's around eleven o'clock. What does he shout? That little phrase he whispers!"