Chapter 416: I Advise You to Be Good

Chapter 416: Chapter 416: I Advise You to Be Good

Even the unflappable Caspian Rhodes was stunned silent by Arabella Donovan’s completely unconventional words.

It took him a long moment to find his voice. "You mean... all the graves on this mountain are emitting green smoke?"

"No."

Caspian Rhodes let out a sigh of relief. But just as he was about to speak, Arabella Donovan added, "To be precise, the one in front of you is emitting green smoke. The rest are emitting black smoke."

"That..." Caspian Rhodes nearly choked.

While he could, at a stretch, console himself that an ancestral grave emitting green smoke was a good thing, black smoke could only be a terrible omen.

"So, can you tell what’s going on with this smoke?"

"It seems to be... the resentment of your family’s ancestors."

"Resentment?"

"It’s the kind of resentment born from ancestors who, knowing from the great beyond that their descendants have disgraced them, are so furious they want to claw their way out of their coffins to beat them up, but can’t."

"..." ’Is that even a freaking thing?!’

Caspian Rhodes’s expression grew complicated. He instinctively glanced over at his relatives gathered before the other grave mounds.

Arabella Donovan noticed his gaze and followed it, then gave an awkward yet polite smile.

’The one on the left secretly runs a casino and organizes illegal gambling. The guy next to him slept with a buddy’s wife. The third is a tax evader. The fourth is a loan shark who nearly drove someone to suicide. The fifth was in a hit-and-run and illegally dragged the victim, causing permanent disability...’

Caspian Rhodes felt his mind go numb as he listened. No wonder the incense sticks of several of the clan elders and uncles snapped the moment they touched them. With such a lawless bunch of descendants, the ancestors were probably dying to crawl out from underground and drag them all down, just to stop them from ruining their posthumous reputation.

’Whoa, and that one over there is on another level. He actually worked with that outlaw Jacobs—the same one who almost got my big brother killed—to deal in illegal drugs. So. Many. Felonies. Seriously, they’re all criminals, each one worse than the last! It’s a good thing my cousin Beatrice isn’t here today. She could round them all up in one go and meet her arrest quota for the whole year.

’You know, Mr. Rhodes, you should probably just take your grandpa, parents, and aunts and leave the family registry overnight. Otherwise, you’re bound to get dragged down by these distant relatives you barely even know. This isn’t a family living under the shadow of the law; it’s the entire penal code that decided to sprout a family tree!’

Caspian Rhodes felt so dizzy he thought he needed an oxygen tank. ’Just let it all be destroyed. Seriously!’

Heartache aside, the mess in front of him still needed cleaning up.

Arabella Donovan had already given her answer, but her words were clearly not something that could be said openly. Humiliating these people was a minor concern; he was afraid that if their crimes were exposed, they would be scared into a corner. And if they panicked, who’s to say they wouldn’t use their numbers to take a desperate risk and silence them for good?

Caspian Rhodes couldn’t take that gamble—and he wouldn’t! After composing himself, he began his performance.

"Everyone, don’t misunderstand. What Serena meant was that there’s something wrong with the smoke from the incense, most likely due to the weather today. The wind is too strong, which is affecting how the incense burns and interfering with today’s ceremony. In any case, what’s done is done, and the wind really is quite strong today.

"How about this: let’s end today’s ceremony here for now. We can all apologize to the ancestors and explain the situation. A few of you uncles can find someone to divine another auspicious day, and we’ll all come back together to complete the ritual then. Wouldn’t that be the best solution for everyone?"

Caspian Rhodes’s words were an out for everyone. If they were smart, they would take the chance to gracefully extricate themselves and let the matter drop.

Unfortunately, someone was determined to make their presence felt today.

"Cousin, that’s not right. Everyone was eagerly waiting for Master Donovan to give her verdict, so why is it you who’s explaining things? Or are you saying you can speak for Master Donovan? That what you’re saying now is what she wanted to say? Right, you two are a family, after all, different from the rest of us. No wonder your family’s incense was the only one without a problem today, while everyone else’s had issues."

Ian Rhodes’s words stopped just short of pointing a finger at Caspian Rhodes’s nose and accusing him and Arabella Donovan of being in on it together. He was implying that they had secretly orchestrated the so-called incense problem today, using these cheap supernatural tricks to elevate their own status.

A few young men with Ian Rhodes immediately chimed in, "Ian’s right! How could it be such a coincidence? You bring this ’master’ over, and suddenly there’s a problem with the ancestor worship ceremony. You have to give us an explanation for this."

"That’s right. Nothing’s ever gone wrong with the ancestral worship in past years, so why this year of all years? I don’t buy that it’s because the ancestors are restless in the great beyond. Why weren’t they restless before? Why not later? They just happen to get restless the moment this woman shows up. If it’s not her fault, whose fault could it be?"

"I told you it wasn’t appropriate to let an outsider horn in on our family’s ancestral worship. You just wouldn’t listen. Now look, the ancestors are angry and caused this huge mess. So tell us, what are you going to do about it?"

Listening to the crowd collectively shifting the blame onto Arabella Donovan was, as one might expect, entirely predictable.

It wasn’t that these people were gullible and truly believed Ian Rhodes’s rather clumsy provocations; it was purely a case of guilty consciences.

They knew better than anyone what they had done, and they were worried they might be the real culprits behind the current predicament. To avoid exposing themselves, they had no choice but to seize this opportunity to pass the blame.

Caspian Rhodes: ’...’ ’I’d advise you all not to be fools right now. Tuck your tails and keep your mouths shut. Otherwise, when you get what’s coming to you, don’t blame me for not stopping it.’

Arabella Donovan had heard Caspian Rhodes’s rambling explanation blaming the wind for the incense problem and had already guessed his intentions.

She had originally planned to play along and help everyone save face, but she didn’t expect some people to be so utterly shameless.

"The truth is indeed not as simple as Mr. Rhodes said. The smoke I mentioned is actually the resentment of the ancestors of those of you here. So-called ’resentment’ is the materialization of negative emotions like indignation, anger, and fury after a person’s death."

Ian Rhodes sneered, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "So you’re saying the ancestors have negative feelings towards us descendants? That they can’t stand us? What a joke. They’re our ancestors. They should be doting on us and loving us, so how could they possibly dislike us? You’re clearly just making things up."

"That’s right, if you can’t show any proof, you’re just spreading rumors! Great-Uncle, this person was brought here by your family, and now she’s saying things like this. What’s the deal? Are you trying to tell everyone that the ancestors only like your family, and that the rest of us aren’t favored by them? Such arrogant words, aren’t you afraid you’ll choke on them?"

Arabella Donovan’s words had clearly struck a nerve with many people present. So much so that they became angry from embarrassment and started lashing out indiscriminately, practically ganging up on Caspian Rhodes’s family.

Arabella Donovan was so incensed she actually laughed, then rolled up her sleeves.

’Oh-ho, there goes my temper. It’s one thing to be clueless, but to be clueless *and* pick a fight? That’s all on you. Since you’re asking for it, I guess I have no choice but to lay it all out for you!’