004. Reason

"I haven't heard that there is a young master kept outside our house before."

"I heard from Chunmei in the front yard that Butler Liu went out a few days ago to pick up this young master."

"Hiss, this is strange. You said that the young master was lying in front of the gate by himself, but where are Steward Liu and the others?"

The two little girls who were mumbling outside the window stopped talking at the same time. After a while, the voice that had not responded finally sounded suspiciously, "Dead."

"Ah? Dead...dead?"

"I heard it when I went to get medicine just now. The master sent people out to look for them. Butler Liu and the others... were all dead in the small woods outside the city. I heard they were all hanged, and they were hanged with white silk."

After a while, another voice trembled and chuckled with some inexplicable meaning, "Then God is really wise. Our young master is quite weird."

The two of them were talking outside, and Qingling, who had been awake for a long time in the room, was listening silently.

He was lying on a spacious bed with soft bedding. The wounds on his body seemed to have been properly treated. The surroundings were also extremely unfamiliar. It was much better than the shabby little courtyard he had lived in in the mountains. The windows were carved and painted, and the furnishings were elegant and exquisite. It was a scene he had only read about in books before, but he could never imagine what it looked like.

Now that he knew, Qingling felt as if a stone was pressing on his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

He felt like he was inexplicably drawn into a terrifying net. Hanging on the criss-crossing silk threads were eerie faces, the rotting A Yuan, the hanged steward Liu, and - those eyes filled with resentment and hostility.

It was pure malice, and seemed like extreme resentment, like an old, rusty bronze sword. The sharp edge hidden inside could cause a layer of skin to be scraped off with just the slightest touch, causing blood to flow, which was terrifying.

But where did the evil spirit go?

Qing Ling recalled that his last memory was that he fainted inexplicably in the carriage. There was no need to think too much, it must have been the work of that thing. It was just that he seemed to hear something before losing consciousness, or maybe it was just an illusion, but in any case he came to the Qing family as he wished.

As for the two people outside, they were probably Qing's servants. They didn't seem to like the housekeeper Liu very much, otherwise they wouldn't have cheered for his death. Qing Ling didn't care about the life or death of those people, but he caught a word - Bai Ling.

He almost died under the white silk yesterday, but fortunately...

Qing Ling closed his eyes grimly.

Fortunately, shit.

That thing was like a beast guarding its prey. It probably just didn't want him to die at the hands of some other evil creature.

Qing Ling remained silent. Yu Bo had taught him how to read and be polite, and also said that one day the Qing family would take him back home. But now it seemed that the Qing family's servants didn't know of his existence before now. It was better to be quiet than to move. The two maids outside didn't say anything useful, and just kept talking about this and that.

Until the door was pushed open, a maid in goose yellow clothes came in with medicine, she looked no more than thirteen or fourteen years old.

Their eyes met, Qing Ling did not pretend to be unconscious, but calmly met the maid's surprised eyes.

"Little... No, Master Qingling." The maid immediately stepped forward attentively and placed the medicine bowl beside her. "Your servant An'er, when did the master wake up? Why didn't you tell me?"

As he spoke, he reached out to hold Qingling's arm, but the next moment he suddenly withdrew his hand and even took a step back, his expression confused and a little frightened.

Qing Ling was also slightly startled. He was not used to such service, but the other party's reaction was not right.

"Just woke up." Qing Ling sat up by himself and touched his arm inconspicuously, but found nothing wrong.

But An'er still looked frightened, and quickly bowed and said, "I will go tell the master right away."

Even as she hurried out, her face was still pale, and she felt the bone-chilling temperature through her clothes. Although it was not midsummer, how could a living person be as cold as ice? Like... a dead body.

Qing Ling soon waited for his biological father, Qing Congnan, who was also the head of the Qing family's property.

Qing Congnan was just over forty years old. He wore a navy blue embroidered robe, had his hair tied up and a beard, and was well-fed with a big belly and a ruddy complexion. When he saw Qingling, he came forward and called him "my son" repeatedly. He asked how he had been doing over the years and said that he had suffered a lot along the way. He was really caring about him.

After Yu Bo left, Qing Ling rarely spoke to anyone. He was not used to his biological father's closeness for a while, and only responded softly twice. Until Qing Congnan sighed, his tone became heavier, and he said, "Ling'er, don't blame your father for raising you in the mountains. Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. How could your father not want to take you back? But when you were born, life was not good, and you attracted... unclean things to covet you."

At this point, Qing Congnan's expression became a little strange, as if he was a little disgusted.

Qingling thought of what Master Miaoyuan, whom he met on the mountain road that day, had said about the "special fate of the donor". Qing Congnan also said that he was born on a bad day. In addition, strange things have happened frequently in the past few days, and it seems that everything has a trace.

Qing Congnan continued, "Your mother died because of this. In order to save your life, your father had to arrange a ghost marriage for you. There is an extraordinary person in the ancient tomb under Zhanlong Mountain, so you had to be raised there. Otherwise, how could you live to this day? There was a movement in Zhanlong Mountain a few days ago, and your father knew that the person had agreed to protect you, so he immediately sent someone to bring you back. I didn't expect that it took so long for you to come back."

No wonder the evil spirit kept calling her "my wife", they were actually a married couple.

Qing Ling found it extremely absurd and his mind was working quickly.

At first glance, these words do sound like those of a father who has put in a lot of thought and planning for his child, but there are also many doubts. As far as Qingling knows, Daxia has a vast territory, governing 38 states, and Lincang is just a small city in Mingzhou on the southeastern border, not to mention how capable a merchant in Lincang can be?

How did they know there was an ancient tomb at the foot of Zhanlong Mountain, and how did they arrange this ghost marriage? And there are the so-called unusual movements, a few days ago... wasn't that the time when the evil spirit appeared? It would take a day and a night to travel by carriage. What happened in Zhanlong Mountain, and how did Qing know about it so quickly?

Qing Ling knew that Qing Congnan didn't want to talk, and he might not get the truth even if he asked. He had no feelings for this father Qing Ling whom he had never met, so he just nodded and asked casually, "Where is Butler Liu? I fell asleep in the carriage last night, and when I woke up I was here."

Qing Congnan's expression changed for a moment, as if he was frightened, but he quickly adjusted himself, smiled and said, "Don't worry about him, it's good that my son is back. It's just right that we will go to the ancestral temple to worship our ancestors in a few days, so you can also go and burn some incense for them, so that the ancestors of the Qing family will know that you have returned to recognize your ancestors."

After that, Qing Congnan never mentioned Butler Liu and his group again. It was obvious that he didn't want to talk about this matter. After expressing his concern for them for a few insignificant words, he left on the pretext that he had important matters to attend to.

Qingling watched him leave calmly, and the look in his eyes when he looked at his biological father was no different from that in the eyes he looked at a stone on the side of the road.

Today Qing Congnan solved many of his doubts, and they all sounded reasonable, but he couldn't help but be distracted. What was more important was that evil spirit!

Qing Ling clenched the quilt tightly, his already pale knuckles turned even bloodless. From beginning to end, Qing Congnan never said how to deal with the evil spirit. What husband and wife, what protection? The murderous intent of that thing towards him was almost tangible!

As for why he hadn't taken action yet, perhaps he wanted to keep him to tease and humiliate him for a few more days, or perhaps it was for some other reason, but the evil spirit was like a wild beast, and sooner or later it would take his life.

Qing Ling gritted his teeth.

He doesn't want to die.

I don't want to die in such an unclear way at the hands of an evil spirit.

.

Qing Ling only had superficial wounds, which were not serious, and he would be able to stay in bed the next day. However, Qing Congnan told him to take good care of himself and did not even need to pay him a visit. It was as if he had just been moved from the courtyard in the mountains to the Qing residence. The third young master of the eldest wife, who had been kept outside for eighteen years, did not even have a visitor.

Qing Ling knew that in addition to the eldest son born to the current mistress of the Qing family, he also had a second brother born out of wedlock. Except for Qing who came from the south once yesterday, Qing Ling had not seen any other brother.

And there was one thing Qingling couldn't figure out.

Ancestor worship is usually done during festivals such as Qingming Festival and Winter Solstice. Now that the Dragon Boat Festival has just passed, what kind of ancestors are we worshipping?

Qingling leaned against the pillar under the eaves and sighed. He had no way to get any news. There were only two maids in this courtyard, one was An'er, whom he had met once that day, and the other was Fu'er, who was talking to An'er outside that day.

The little maid named An'er was very strange. She seemed afraid to look him in the eye. Every time Qingling called her, An'er lowered her head hastily. Occasionally, one could see undisguised panic and fear in her eyes.

He did get a lot of information out of Fu'er, for example, the Qingzhai Ancestral Hall was located in an old house in the south of the city, and ancestor worship was held there every year. However, when it came to Butler Liu, Fu'er never said much, but Qingling felt that she knew something, because on the day he woke up, he heard Fu'er saying outside that Butler Liu's death was "God's will."

White silk, strangled to death, Fu'er said this after hearing this way of death. The white silk that almost took his life seemed to have some hidden story.

The last touch of red from the setting sun blended into the night. Qing Ling twirled his cuffs embroidered with water cloud patterns and was about to get up and go back to his room when he was suddenly enveloped by an extremely cold and familiar aura.

He suddenly froze.

Then he felt a cold and lifeless embrace restraining him from behind.

There he is again, that evil spirit!

"How pitiful." The voice was cold and sinister, and the tiny air current it brought was also icy and had no temperature. It continued as if mocking him, "What's the point of going to so much trouble to escape here?"

Qing Ling was silent for a while, then hesitantly and with a subtle tone, he said, "So you can talk so much."

The evil spirit probably didn't expect him to say this, and was unable to respond for a moment.

The man and the evil spirit fell strangely silent, and the atmosphere in the whole yard was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Qing Ling didn't mean anything else. After all, the evil spirit spoke in a dry and slow voice the previous few times, and could only say a few words at a time. But if they could have a normal conversation, he might have a chance to mediate with the evil spirit.