Ti ticked away second by second, and just as everyone was growing impatient, suddenly, the sound of bells from a distance echoed, identical to the ones heard before.
"Wuma Haoming is back!" Lu Youcheng excitedly stood up.
anwhile, the task proceeded, and the next, Hu Yanming, was also ready. Yang Xiao and the others confird that Sui Chengguo was still hiding far from the door before opening it, allowing Hu Yanming to walk out steadily, incense in hand.
Once he stepped out of the room, the remaining people quickly closed the door and watched the courtyard closely through the cracks in the door and windows. Fortunately, Sui Chengguo stayed honest, remaining hidden in the shadows without approaching, until Hu Yanming’s figure vanished outside the courtyard gate.
Soon, Wuma Haoming returned, and everyone was taken aback by his sorry state, just like Sui Chengguo. Wuma Haoming was also soaked through, like a drowned rat, with water still dripping from the hem of his clothes and his trouser legs.
Seeing that Yang Xiao and the others were unwilling to open the door, Wuma Haoming started to panic, "You... you don’t have to be scared. I’m human, and I don’t know how I got like this. Sothing climbed up the rope onto my boat, but I passed out. When I woke up, the boat had already reached the shore."
Wuma Haoming’s story was exactly the sa as Sui Chengguo’s, but even so, no one opened the door. Yang Xiao noticed that after Wuma Haoming returned, Sui Chengguo had gone into hiding and he could no longer see where Sui Chengguo was.
"Sui Chengguo has run off." Lu Youcheng suddenly grew nervous. "Could it be that he found sothing wrong with Wuma Haoming, or... or maybe he is the ghost?"
"Not necessarily, if I were Sui Chengguo I’d hide too, better safe than sorry," Cheng Cha squatted on the ground, scrutinizing Wuma Haoming’s every move through the crack of the door.
With two people in such a state back to back, rather than assuming they made a mistake and fell prey to a ghost, Yang Xiao was more inclined to believe it was part of the task itself.
It all depended on Hu Yanming now. If he also returned in that state, then there was a big problem. Yang Xiao didn’t really believe all three could co back unscathed; perhaps the real ghost was hiding among them.
Wuma Haoming was a sniveling ss, his lips chapped from pleading, but the people inside the room remained unmoved, telling him to wait outside.
"Where’s Sui Chengguo?" Wuma Haoming suddenly realized, "Let Sui Chengguo co out and talk. Why can he go in and not ? This isn’t fair!"
"Stop blabbering, Sui isn’t inside either," Tong Han said coldly, imdiately silencing him, "Keep it down or you might attract those things, and you’ll be the one to die!"
Sure enough, Wuma Haoming shrank his neck and stopped making noise. He looked around as if searching for sothing. "Sui, where... where did he go?"
"Don’t know, you’re too conspicuous out there. I suggest you find a hidden spot to tuck yourself away. Wait for Hu Yanming to co back and we’ll naturally open the door for you," Tong Han repeated her strategy, focusing on keeping them stable. If Hu Yanming really ca back, that would be interesting.
She and Yang Xiao shared the sa thought; if all three managed to co back safely tonight, then one was likely to be a ghost.
After Wuma Haoming also left the front of the door to find a hiding spot, Cheng Cha once again approached Yang Xiao and Tong Han, hoping to persuade one of them to accompany her to Patriarch Du’s daughter’s boudoir to search for clues, but was once again rejected.
With no other choice, Cheng Cha climbed out through a window at the back of the room, making sure no one was watching nearby before leaving quickly, crouched low.
The others didn’t object too much to Cheng Cha’s departure and even felt a bit of schadenfreude within. Yang Xiao knew they were worried about the red-dressed ghost trailing behind Cheng Cha.
Since she left quietly through the back, Cheng Cha didn’t alarm Sui Chengguo or Wuma Haoming in the courtyard. Soon after her departure, Yang Xiao found Tong Han; he planned to secretly follow Cheng Cha.
"No way, it’s too risky," Tong Han refused flatly.
"It shouldn’t be. Cheng Cha’s pretty sharp; he knows the ghost is tied up by the river tonight, and after dark, the people of Du Family Village don’t wander easily. So as long as we’re careful and don’t make too much noise, we should be safe," analyzed Yang Xiao, "This kid is too cunning. I don’t feel comfortable not keeping an eye on him."
"Then I’ll go with you," Tong Han said, knowing Yang Xiao’s capabilities. Without a gun or Resentful Eye, it would be tough for him to handle tough situations.
Ever since their joint attack on Yanhe Tian, Yang Xiao and Tong Han had unwittingly grown closer. Yang Xiao declined Tong Han’s offer, "Stay here, we still need soone on watch. Rember, unless you are completely sure, don’t open the door."
Seeing Yang Xiao and Tong Han whispering together, Mi Shu approached out of curiosity. Yang Xiao took the opportunity to pull her aside and share the plan, and he, Tong Han, and Mi Shu agreed that he would return through the window, using a knock on the window fra as a signal.
Three quick, two slow taps, he also demonstrated by lightly knocking on the ground for them.
After making arrangents, Yang Xiao also climbed out of the window, following the sa one Cheng Cha had used. After landing, he quickly pursued in the direction Cheng Cha had gone.
The night at the Du Family Ancestral Ho was eerily quiet, apart from a few lanterns hanging at the entrance of the courtyard and the ager illumination of the moon. Looking from a distance, shadowy areas appeared to harbor sothing.
The trees that looked fairly normal during the day now seed increasingly bizarre and malevolent, standing in the yard with their branches gnarled as if they were monsters.
During the day, Yang Xiao had roughly morized the layout of the ancestral ho, and now he followed his mory, making his way to a secluded courtyard, which was where Miss Du’s boudoir was located.
Along the way, Yang Xiao was extrely cautious, sticking close to the dimly lit walls, but he didn’t see a bird, let alone a person.
This vast residence felt like a still pond, devoid of any signs of life.
To Yang Xiao’s surprise, the gate to the courtyard was locked, with a yellowish, hefty copper lock on it that looked very sturdy.
Peering through the crack in the gate, he saw nothing but pitch darkness inside, barely making out the rough outlines of the buildings and trees in the yard, creating an eerie feel.
It didn’t look like there was anyone inside, but he hadn’t encountered Cheng Cha along the way, either. So... where had that boy gone?
Had he lost his way, or did he have another agenda?
"Chu?"
Suddenly, a soft call ca from behind him, startling Yang Xiao so much that it nearly gave him a heart attack. He froze on the spot, not daring to look back.
Patriarch Du had specifically ntioned during the briefing of tonight’s mission that if soone called out your na from behind while walking at night, you should never turn around.
Light footsteps approached quickly, circled around to the front of Yang Xiao, and it was indeed Cheng Cha who appeared, saying, "Chu, it really is ."
Cheng Cha had a pained expression on his face, and his body was filthy, with several tears in his clothes, as if he had suffered quite a bit.
"Were you waiting for ?" Yang Xiao’s suspicions were imdiately aroused. Logically, Cheng Cha should have set out earlier and already entered the boudoir to investigate since the unknown risks of night favored prompt actions. Yet, they had run into each other outside the courtyard, which clearly ant he had been lying in wait.
Noticing the murderous look in Yang Xiao’s eyes, Cheng Cha imdiately waved his hands in defense, "No, no, you misunderstand, Chu. I wasn’t waiting for you, and I had no idea you would follow out of concern. I’m here entirely because the door is locked, I... I can’t get in."
"You could’ve climbed over the wall," Yang Xiao said bluntly, the wall wasn’t so high that he wouldn’t be able to scale it with a good jump.
Cheng Cha pulled Yang Xiao into a corner, a safer spot, and pointed to a crooked tree beside them, whispering, "I tried to climb over by stepping on this tree, but it’s dead, the branches are too brittle to support any weight, and I fell when they broke. Look at the ss I’ve made of myself."
Turning around, Cheng Cha’s clothes were torn from where the branches had caught him, and he was also covered in a lot of mud, obviously having had a rough fall.
This boy seed clever enough, yet his agility was lacking. Yang Xiao had no choice but to climb the wall himself, ensuring there was no movent inside before he reached down to pull up Cheng Cha. The boy wasn’t particularly tall, but he was hefty, and it took a great deal of effort.
Sitting on top of the wall and panting for breath, Cheng Cha looked sowhat embarrassed as he explained to Yang Xiao that he wasn’t usually like this; he had just been eating better recently and hadn’t exercised much. He promised to do better next ti.
"You go down by yourself, I’ll keep watch from here. Be quick about it," Yang Xiao paused, then added, "And don’t take too great a risk, better to preserve the ans for future endeavors than to risk everything at once."
"Got it."
Cheng Cha climbed down the wall, landing lightly in the courtyard. After observing for half a minute and verifying there was no movent, he imdiately headed for the boudoir’s tightly closed door. Surprisingly, the boudoir door was also locked; together with the courtyard door, there were two locks in place.
Cheng Cha moved around to the back of the boudoir and spotted an unlocked window. He opened it about a third of the way, guessing it was left that way by the Du Family to air out and get rid of the blood sll more quickly.
He peered inside and saw the room had clearly been tidied up, the severed head was gone from the dressing table, and the bloodstains had been wiped clean. Everything seed back to normal, yet the tallic scent of blood was still faintly detectable.
He climbed in through the window into the empty and eerily silent room, where Cheng Cha could even hear his own heartbeat. He approached the dressing table, avoiding his reflection in the mirror, hastily opening drawers and searching. Soon enough, he found a small copper mirror.
Holding the copper mirror, Cheng Cha cautiously approached the folding screen, took a deep breath, then bent down with his back to it, lowering the mirror in his hand until one side touched the cold floor.
A gap of about ten centiters was left between the bottom of the wooden fra supporting the screen and the floor. Through the reflection in the mirror, Cheng Cha could see the space behind the screen, even though he was well-prepared for it, the sight still caused his blood pressure to soar and his heart to pound.
He saw multiple swollen, bluish-black severed feet cramd into the narrow space behind the screen, still wriggling, with toes pointed outward as if searching for Cheng Cha’s location.
User Comments
0 comments from readers