Chapter Thirteen

Li Zhi blocked Baozhu's view with his body, gesturing for her to walk around the corpse from the other side.

"Perhaps they've been attacked by bandits, or encountered a monster. We'll have to make do with this for now, and report it to the authorities after we get down the mountain."

Li Zhi turned to comfort Baozhu, gently putting his arm around her shoulder, and continued down the mountain.

Baozhu took a few steps forward with him and secretly glanced back.

A middle-aged man lay in the roadside grass, his abdomen seemingly slashed open by a sharp blade, his entire cavity empty, yet a happy smile graced his face.

It was extremely strange. Baozhu looked away, puzzled.

The man's abdomen was ripped open, yet there wasn't a single drop of blood in the grass.

And what was he laughing about during such a painful moment?

Thinking of this, Baozhu felt a chill creep up her spine. She quickened her pace and cautiously scanned the path leading down the mountain.

There was no trace of any monsters, nor any scent of mortals. The middle-aged man seemed to appear out of thin air, and then be cut open out of thin air.

With their thoughts in mind, the two descended Yonglian Mountain. Until they set foot on the territory of Xiandu Prefecture, they did not encounter anything strange, which put Baozhu at ease.

After passing through the vast farmland surrounding Xiandu Prefecture, a beautiful and exquisite lake appeared before the two. The shore was crowded with tourists, and many residents of Xiandu Prefecture were enjoying a spring outing. Several small boats on the lake carried scholars and ladies, drifting leisurely on the water.

This bustling scene could only be found near a very prosperous city.

The hustle and bustle of the mortal world dispelled the travelers' melancholy, and Baozhu, who hadn't seen such a scene in a long time, couldn't help but smile.

Li Zhi caught a glimpse of her, leaned closer to her, and whispered, "You like lively places?"

“How could anyone dislike a lively atmosphere?” Baozhu asked, puzzled. “It’s so interesting to have so many people gathered together, bustling about.”

This question stumped Li Zhi. He frowned slightly, pondered for a while, or perhaps found the question quite interesting, because the expression on his face became very vivid, which was in line with his age.

The cunning Li Zhi is adept at flaunting his charms!

Baozhu felt as if a tickle had been touched, and her whole body felt itchy. To relieve the sudden strange feeling, she strolled towards the lake.

"The sunset reflected on the lake is quite beautiful."

Baozhu looked around, glancing at the sunset and the small boats on the lake, but refused to meet Li Zhi's gaze.

Li Zhi had no choice but to follow behind Baozhu and said in a gentle voice, "Miss, it's already evening. We should go into the city soon. I wonder what will happen tonight?"

His voice was so low that Baozhu had to strain her ears to hear it.

"Does Miss have somewhere to go?"

That lecherous scoundrel!

Baozhu's ears turned a rosy hue. The strange symptoms on her body not only did not improve, but became more pronounced, making her restless and agitated. Just as she was trying to clear her mind and calm herself down, a commotion suddenly arose on the lake.

The romantic atmosphere was shattered, and the two looked in the direction of the sound.

It turned out that a pure white raccoon had fallen onto a small boat floating on the lake and was struggling in the water.

A richly dressed young man on the ship jumped up and down in a panic: "Sai Xue! My Sai Xue!"

As he shouted, he pushed all the servants on the ship into the water.

"Hurry up and bring Sai Xue back!"

Several beautiful women were sitting beside the young master. Knowing the seriousness of the situation, they also chimed in with their sweet voices, "Hurry up! This is Young Master Chen's precious treasure! If anything happens to it, none of you will live!"

For a time, people on the lake and along the shore stopped to watch.

Baozhu and Li Zhi were mixed in with the crowd when they heard the people around them talking: "This young rascal has caused trouble again. No matter how important his cat is, it may not really be more important than a human life."

"Who knows? The lives of nobles' cats are naturally more valuable than those of lowly people."

The idlers on the shore were just gossiping and watching the spectacle, but the servants in the lake were truly suffering.

This tiny cat was floating right in front of us, but we couldn't catch it no matter what we did. Sometimes it floated on the water, which made the servants reach out to catch it, and sometimes it sank into the water, which frightened the servants so much that they dived into the water after it.

Before long, someone in the water couldn't take it anymore and barely floated on the surface, panting heavily. He turned back to beg his host for mercy.

"Young master, please allow us to board the boat and rest for a while."

Upon hearing this, Young Master Chen flew into a rage, picked up the long pole used by the boatmen to propel the boat, and hurled it into the water without thinking: "Sai Xue is still in the water, who wants to come up?"

The servant was hit by the long pole, cried out in pain, and dared not approach the small boat again. Seeing stars, he swam towards the white cat.

The onlookers on the shore were getting a little anxious.

"Why does that cat seem to be deliberately teasing people?"

"Don't let it actually lead to someone dying."

Some passersby, who couldn't stand it but weren't afraid of Young Master Chen, shouted from the shore: "You swim ashore, and let's see if you, Young Master Chen, dare to come up and drag him back!"

People on the boat were shouting, people on the shore were yelling, and there was a cat and several people swimming in the lake. The environment was extremely noisy, almost making Baozhu's ears ring. Moreover, everyone was watching the excitement, and the people were all crowded on the shore. When she turned her head, she saw that the bold woman was taking advantage of the crowd to move closer to Li Zhi.

Baozhu raised her eyebrows in anger, turned her head and whispered angrily at the white cat in the lake, "If you make a fool of yourself again, I'll call the Celestial Master to arrest you!"

In such a noisy scene, Baozhu's small voice should not have reached the lake, but strangely, none of the mortals around her heard it. Saixue in the lake seemed to have heard it, and the white cat obediently stopped moving and let the servant catch it.

"whispering sound!"

From the crowd on the shore, voices that were hard to tell whether to be regret or relief arose, and finally, they dispersed, no longer huddled together.

Baozhu forgot what she had said earlier and complained to Li Zhi, "There are so many people, it's really annoying!"

This made Li Zhi burst into hearty laughter.

The hustle and bustle subsided, and the crowd dispersed. It was already evening, and if one's home was in the city, it was time to head back. Small groups of pedestrians chatted and laughed as they made their way into the city.

The two then followed the crowd towards the city of Xiandu.

After walking a few steps, Baozhu couldn't help but turn back to look at the small boat in the lake.

On the small boat, Young Master Chen held the wet Sai Xue, calling out to her with delight, while the cat demon with its long, white fur let him do as he pleased, its eyes fixed on Baozhu.

The two monsters locked eyes.

"What's wrong?" Li Zhi turned around and looked in the direction Baozhu was looking.

Baozhu shook her head and looked away.

"What's so interesting about this?" she thought to herself. "This cat demon is so strange."

Because of the commotion caused by Sai Xue, when they entered the city, there was a long queue at the city gate. It took a long time for only half of the people to get in. Before it was Baozhu's turn, they heard a commotion ahead.

"The time has come, the city gates are closed."

Baozhu was taken aback, and heard the person in line next to her complain, "Now we're in trouble. We can't go back to the city. We'll have to find a family in the village to spend the night with."

"Another expense is coming!"

People complained, but their faces didn't necessarily show much sadness. And those brightly dressed young gentlemen winked and made faces, probably thinking they had some good places to go outside the city.

Baozhu was troubled.

The city gate was right in front of them, but they still couldn't separate from Li Zhi, and the two of them had to spend another night together.

The more time they spent together, the more conflicted Baozhu became. She talked about breaking up every day. But when the time really came, would she still be as carefree as she claimed?

She sighed inwardly and forced a smile, "Young Master Li, are you a ghost?"

Li Zhi asked curiously, "Why do you say that?"

“I’ve heard that there’s a long-abandoned garden on the outskirts of Xiandu Prefecture. Since we can’t get into the city anyway, why don’t we make do there for the night?”

"OK."

Just like in his previous life, Li Zhi paid no attention to the desolate garden or the strange tales.

In his previous life, the poor scholar Li Zhi, unable to afford an inn in Xiandu Prefecture for several months, sought out a haunted, abandoned garden that was famous throughout the surrounding area and stayed there until the autumn imperial examination.

Naturally, since Baozhu could not find her relatives in Xiandu Mansion, she had no choice but to move into the deserted garden as well.

Too many memories lingered in the desolate garden, and as Baozhu walked, regret slowly crept into her heart.

However, throughout the journey, Li Zhi seemed lost in thought, keeping his head down and remaining silent.

The atmosphere became inexplicably tense.

Fortunately, the abandoned garden was built by a wealthy family a hundred years ago, so it was not far from Xiandu Prefecture. The two arrived in just a quarter of an hour.

Although the garden is old, it is still grand. Looking up, you can see the words "Ruan Garden" written on the plaque above the gate.

“This is Minister Ruan’s garden,” Li Zhi said with certainty after taking a look.

Baozhu tried hard to recall and seemed to remember that Li Zhi had once told her that this was a garden left by a good official a hundred years ago. Because he was betrayed by a villain, his family fell into ruin and his descendants could not even keep the garden. But that Minister Ruan was an honest official, so he was not afraid of the ghosts in the garden.

What Li Zhi didn't know was that there were actually no ghosts in Ruan Garden.

The gates of Ruan Garden were locked. Baozhu and Li Zhi circled around and found a collapsed section of the wall, from which they entered the courtyard.

Despite being neglected for a century, Ruan Garden was not overwhelmed by weeds. The garden landscape, which clearly showed the painstaking effort put into its creation, was covered only with a thick layer of fallen leaves.

They entered through the garden, and it took them almost a quarter of an hour to walk from the garden to the small courtyard where the Nguyen family lived in the back.

This is enough to show the former glory of the Ruan family.

The two found a spacious courtyard, got some brooms, and started cleaning.

Although it's a small courtyard, it's big enough. Ruan Garden is so quiet that it would be a bit eerie if people didn't live together.

Without exchanging a word, the two tacitly began tidying up the left wing of the courtyard.

After tidying up briefly, the room was barely enough to spend the night in. Since it was inconvenient to light a fire in the deserted garden, they each found a place to sit down.

The weather has gotten warmer, there are no wild animals in the garden, no fire is lit, and there is no reason to huddle together.

Baozhu leaned against the left, and Li Zhi sat on the right.

The moonlight only penetrated a foot into the room; further in, the side room was pitch black, presumably inaccessible to ordinary people.

As Baozhu stared at Li Zhi without moving, she comforted herself in this way.

I'll just take a look; he doesn't know I'm watching him.

Therefore, when Li Zhi looked back at her, Baozhu's heart was filled with emotion, but she only thought it was a coincidence.

"It's late, get some rest. Tomorrow morning, we need to go into the city to report the events in Yonglian Mountain to the Yiren Temple." The night was so quiet that Li Zhi's voice was as light as a feather.

"Okay, you go to sleep too." Baozhu hugged her knees and waited quietly.

Soon after, a strange crying sound came from somewhere in the garden.

Baozhu quietly stood up and looked toward the source of the sound.