Chapter Eighty-Six: Yun Ranran of the Nine Provinces Academy

“Has the scarecrow come to life?”

When the younger brother heard Lian say this, panic spread across his face. He hurriedly pressed a finger to his lips. “That thing has very keen ears. It can hear us!”

Chongli took out two pills and for the moment saved the mother and daughter’s lives. By Lian’s judgment, if that strange creature was not dealt with today, the pair would certainly be reporting to the underworld by nightfall, and another wrongful case would be added to the books.

He instructed the two brothers to guard the house carefully, then set a protective barrier around it. As long as they did not leave the room, nothing serious would happen.

Retracing their steps, Lian and Chongli headed back the way they had come. The people in the street saw them returning and all began gesturing and whispering.

“See? I told you the Liu family’s luck was finished. These two they hired are so young; they definitely wouldn’t dare take on that sort of trouble!”

An old woman buying vegetables chimed in, “Ah, the Liu family is truly pitiful. This whole town has been troubled by just their one household!”

“Maybe someone in the Liu family did something wicked. This is heaven’s punishment! Look at those cornstalks all over the field, shooting up that high overnight. If it isn’t ghosts, what else could it be?”

As Lian walked, she could not help but feel annoyed. These people were always gossiping behind others’ backs, their lips curled in smiles even as they chewed over rumors.

“Ladies,” she said softly, “may I ask what the Liu family has ever done to you?”

The two old women stared at her in surprise.

“What relation would we have? We just live in the same town.”

“Then if I stood behind you and spread gossip about your families, would that sit well with you?”

Knowing they were in the wrong, the two women still stubbornly snapped back, “You’re not from our town, so why meddle? If you’re so capable, why not go exorcise the ghost tormenting the Liu family?”

“Oh? I was just planning to take a look at that field anyway. Why don’t you two come along and get some fresh air?”

Her voice had grown eerily cold. Seeing how badly she had frightened them, Lian turned back to stand beside Chongli, and the two of them left at once.

The old women patted their chests in lingering fear, yet still continued their murmuring.

Master, those two old women are still talking.

“I warned them. If they refuse to stop, that’s their own business. Their mouths are on their faces, after all.” Lian said it kindly.

No one knew whose idea it had been in this town, but instead of planting willows by the river, they had planted pagoda trees.

Pagoda trees were also known as ghost trees. In the countryside, uncanny things were already prone to happen, and though Lian did not understand the Daoist arts, she knew such shady, cold places were the easiest for spirits to gather.

Trouble always enters through the mouth. Those two old women were leaning against a pagoda tree behind them. Who knew whether the words they spoke were only being heard by the living, or whether something unseen was listening too?

Following the same road, Lian and Chongli somehow could not find the way they had come. The cornfield was still far ahead, yet they kept circling in place.

“Chongli, have we run into what people call a ghostly maze?”

After so many years of cultivation, this was Chongli’s first time encountering such a strange thing. “The other side is at least a ghost cultivator. I’m only afraid it may hide from us when the time comes.”

Then a blast of yin wind swept past. The grass and trees around them seemed suddenly alive, surging together toward Lian.

Before she knew it, Chongli had already summoned his jade flute. “Be careful. It’s here.”

He moved closer to Lian, and she summoned Nirvana to protect herself.

A low, breathlike hush drifted through the air.

And then came the wailing.

“My son... where are you... your mother misses you so much...”

On the empty road, there was not a single human figure. The cries echoed softly through the air, one lament rising higher than the last.

The sky grew darker. The later it was, the harder it became to deal with these intangible things.

Suddenly, the world went dim. In the distance, a woman in a red bridal robe appeared, so beautiful that all things under heaven seemed to lose their color beside her. She drew nearer and nearer. A closer look revealed her pale feet hanging above the ground. She was floating toward them.

“How pitiful, heaven above... betrayed by a heartless man... abandoned wife and child...”

Lian’s beautiful willow brows knitted together. “If you have a grievance, go to the underworld and seek justice from the King of Hell. Why harm the Liu family?”

The theatrical voice cut off, and the surroundings fell silent again.

A strip of red silk dropped before Lian’s eyes. Its vivid crimson looked utterly out of place in the barren waste.

“Harm...”

“Ah ha ha ha ha...!”

A figure gradually emerged upon the red silk. She wore a bridal robe of glaring scarlet. Blood flowed continuously from her hollow eye sockets, and her tongue hung slack beneath her chin. Around her, blood began to gush in waves.

The same voice came again. This time there was no trace of a man’s speech beside it. The woman’s voice was shrill, like a blade scraping over steel.

“I will make the entire Liu family be buried with my child. For the murder of my son, I will make him repay me for all eternity!”

Lian stepped forward, only to find the ground near her feet already soaked with blood. Chongli pulled her back and shielded her behind him.

“With your cultivation, you do not seem like some lonely spirit lingering in the human world. You escaped from the underworld.”

There was no answer.

Just when Lian thought nothing would come of it, the space around them darkened, and the scene before her flipped upside down before slowly coming into focus.

At the main hall, the bridal pair bowed to one another. Beneath the veil, the woman’s smile could be faintly made out. Under the raucous teasing of the crowd, the matchmaker shouted for the couple to be sent to the bridal chamber, and the bride was led away from the main hall.

The wedding looked solemn enough, yet there was not a single member of the bride’s family or the groom’s among those seated at the high table.

The groom, too, wore little joy on his face, carrying his sour expression as he went about toasting the guests.

The scene shifted again.

A festive bridal chamber. Red paper cutouts. The bride sat by the bed, full of hope, lifting the corner of her veil now and then to glance toward the door, waiting for the groom to arrive.

The red wedding candles suddenly flared high, only to burn themselves out in an instant. The cups of nuptial wine on the table remained untouched, and the bridal chamber’s door gave no sound at all.

From delight to desolation, from anticipation to despair, the bride waited until dawn had begun to whiten the sky outside. Then she yanked off her bright red veil. Still wearing the same blazing wedding dress, she strode out the door.

It seemed she already knew where her groom was at that moment.

Her steps were resolute. She flung open the main bedroom in the side room, and on the bed lay two people. A woman even more lovely than she was nestled like a little bird in the groom’s arms, her face flushed with wine-red color, barely covered, fast asleep.

The bride’s movement startled the woman awake. Ignoring the bride’s presence, she coyly stroked the groom’s chest.

“Husband, look at that person. Why is she spying on us while we sleep...”

The groom’s wedding clothes and the woman’s garments had been thrown carelessly onto the floor. In their haste, her clothes had been torn into strips of gauzy fabric.

“Xiaocui, why don’t you go back to your own room!”

Xiaocui, that is to say the bride, hurriedly forced a smile. “Husband, and this young lady is...?”

Hearing this, irritation showed on the groom’s face.

“She is Xianglan. In two days I’ll marry her into the house. From then on, you will be sisters!”

Xiaocui stared in disbelief, unable to accept it.

“Husband, you said you would only marry Xiaocui in this lifetime!”

The groom impatiently pulled Xianglan into his arms and stroked her slender arm.

“What’s so strange about a man having several wives and concubines? Why make that face? Get out!”

Seeing this, Lian almost wanted to slap the man clear across the room. Chongli took her hand and motioned for her to keep watching.

Xiaocui walked out of the room in a daze. Not long after she left, the creaking of the bed drifted from inside.

Dear reader, this chapter is complete. Wishing you an enjoyable reading experience.