Plum Blossom Seal

“The scenery here is quite nice,” Si Mucheng said, pressing down the mound of earth and sniffing. “You can keep each other company here, and be good friends in the next life too.”

Beside the mound stood a jujube tree. Si Mucheng patted the trunk and said to the little dog ghost who had been sitting there, "How was it? Did I help you resolve your obsession? But it's a pity I couldn't properly punish the murderer for you."

The little dog ghost just looked up at him, its dark eyes gleaming.

Si Mucheng didn't understand its meaning, so he turned to Wen Ya and asked, "Master, has its obsession been resolved?"

Wen Ya shook her head, her eyes serious: "Its obsession doesn't lie in this."

"Not to catch the murderer?" Si Mucheng asked in surprise. "Then what is it taking us there for?"

Wen Ya remained silent for a long time: "It probably wanted us to go and save our own kind." Unfortunately, we were still a step too late.

Si Mucheng was taken aback when he heard this, and his nose started to sting again. He squatted down and praised, "Good dog."

The little dog suddenly stood up, ran a few steps forward, then came back to look at them, wagging its tail incessantly.

Si Mucheng was puzzled, but he knew what the little ghost was trying to convey: "What's wrong?"

The little dog ghost continued to come and go. Wen Xiaofeng flew onto Wen Ya's shoulder, and Wen Ya said, "It wants us to follow it."

"Hmm?" Si Mucheng asked curiously, "Where are we going this time?"

"I don't know, but for now we can only go with it," Wen Ya said firmly.

Indeed, they wanted to dispel the little dog ghost's obsession. Since they couldn't communicate with it, they could only follow it.

"So, shall we drive?" Si Mucheng asked, bewildered.

By this time, the little dog ghost had already gone down the hillside into the woods, standing by a tree and looking back at them, as if waiting for them to pass by.

Wen Ya pondered for a moment, then shook her head: "Judging from its appearance, it seems quite familiar with this place. It should know this area, and its destination probably isn't far. Let's walk there and follow it."

"OK."

The little dog saw them coming and wagged its tail and continued walking.

After Si Mucheng pushed aside the branches for the third time but was accidentally slapped by one, he sighed and rushed ahead to lead the way to the little dog ghost: "Goodness, don't you know a more respectable way? This mountain is too remote, I don't even know where I've ended up..."

The little dog ignored him completely and charged ahead on its own.

Si Mucheng was helpless, but Wen Ya didn't say anything. He could only step forward to help her clear away the branches. Fortunately, this situation didn't last long, because the little dog ghost emerged from a bush, and Si Mucheng and Wen Ya followed closely behind. Then, the view suddenly opened up.

Looks like we've arrived.

Si Mucheng dusted himself off and discovered that there was a treehouse and a small pavilion here.

"Oh, this place must be owned." Si Mucheng looked around, but Wen Ya looked in the other direction. Curious, Si Mucheng followed her gaze and was astonished to find the manor below, and the castle-like villa in the middle of it. He hissed and asked sincerely, "Why does this place look so familiar..."

Wen Ya's eyes flickered slightly: "The Shangguan family."

Si Mucheng turned his head in surprise: "What?!?!"

The hilltop they were on was high up, so the view from there was very different from yesterday. Besides, yesterday Shangguan Qin drove them in and out, and he didn't pay any attention to the surrounding environment. He only marveled at the manor's grandeur on the way to the villa and didn't even notice the mountains.

"So close?" Si Mucheng still found it unbelievable. "This... is actually in the same direction. What a coincidence."

They followed the tracking talisman the whole way without paying attention to the direction.

“It should be the back mountain of the manor.” Wen Ya looked down at the little ghost dog wagging its tail. “I just don’t know why it brought us here.”

Si Mucheng saw a dog bowl next to the treehouse. He looked at Wen Ya and said, "This... seems to really be its home..."

Wen Ya had just frowned when she suddenly heard a sweet, innocent female voice behind her: "Wen Ya? What are you doing here?"

The two were startled and looked in the direction of the sound. Shangguan Qin was looking at them with a suspicious gaze.

The little dog was overjoyed, its tail wagging so hard it seemed about to break off, and it hopped and skipped over to Shangguan Qin, circling around him.

Seeing that the two were silent, Shangguan Qin was about to speak again when she suddenly sensed something, took a half step back, and assumed a defensive posture: "A ghost?" She looked at Wen Ya: "Did you bring it in?" The Shangguan family is a family of exorcists, and they would perform exorcisms in their own residences, so it was very difficult for ghosts to get close to the manor.

Si Mucheng was indignant upon hearing this, as if they had deliberately brought in something dirty. He couldn't help but retort, "It's one thing if the area downstairs is your home, but does that mean this wild mountain is your home too?"

Shangguan Qin sneered: "Don't even mention this wild hilltop, the uncultivated wasteland behind it is also my family's. So what?"

Si Mucheng: "..."

He was careless.

Although Shangguan Qin was quite disdainful at this moment, she still felt a little guilty, because she had forgotten that only the Soul-Responding Bells were hung on the mountains around the manor, which only served as a reminder, but had malfunctioned along with the Soul-Searching Device.

Even so, it doesn't matter. She'll just kill whatever comes her way, whether it's Buddha or ghost. She can ward off anything that comes her way.

Shangguan Qin flipped her fingers, and the bell with Xingdailu hanging on it appeared in her hand: "No matter what your purpose is in bringing ghosts here, you can't take it from me this time, can you?" With that, she was about to throw the bell at the little dog ghost.

Wen Ya threw out a talisman to block it.

Shangguan Qin angrily said, "Wen Ya! Why are you always going against me!"

Wen Ya sighed: "Don't rush, I still have something to ask you."

"What!" Shangguan Qin said impatiently.

Wen Ya looked at the little ghost dog sticking out its tongue and laughing at Shangguan Qin. Its eyes were bright and sparkling, filled with Shangguan Qin.

Wen Ya asked, "Did you ever own a light yellow puppy?"

Upon hearing this, Shangguan Qin's impatience froze on her face. She stood there stunned for a long while before softly saying, "It... is here?"

She didn't say who it was, but Wen Ya understood. She nodded: "Yes, it brought us here."

Shangguan Qin, usually so arrogant, suddenly seemed somewhat lost and helpless, as if in disbelief. Her eyes welled up with tears as she tried to find that figure from her memory, but all she could see were fallen leaves: "How could this be... how could he... be dead..."

In Si Mucheng's eyes, the little dog ghost was right in front of Shangguan Qin, but Shangguan Qin couldn't see it. For the first time, he felt that having the ability to see ghosts wasn't all bad.

He said softly, "It really is your puppy."

Shangguan Qin slumped her hands down, the bell merely hooked on her finger. To Si Mucheng's surprise, she shook her head: "Actually, it's not my dog."

Actually, it wasn't really her pet.

Shangguan Qin grew up in this manor called Zhengqi Mountain Villa. Although her room was large and she had her own study and entertainment room, she still wanted a secret base where no one could find her.

She tried many places, but the manor was large and crowded, with not only servants but also her fellow apprentices and uncles. It was impossible for anyone to find her anywhere she went. So she observed many places and finally settled on the hill to the north of the manor.

This place is in the resort, but it's also on the side, not in the main area of ​​the resort, so no one comes here on weekdays.

Shangguan Qin was very satisfied with this place.

She began to slowly set up the house, making sure it was sheltered from the wind and rain and had a comfortable environment. She even found a senior classmate to design a treehouse, and the wealthy young lady condescended to personally build the treehouse piece by piece.

Later, she created this secret base, where she would come whenever she was unhappy, and nobody knew about it.

When did the puppy appear? Shangguan Qin herself couldn't quite remember. It was just that one day, she came to the secret base again and found a little puppy had crawled into her study and was running wild on her carefully arranged tatami mat.

Shangguan Qin hated Wen Ya the most since childhood, and was most afraid of dogs.

She remembered being terrified at the time. But she dared not make a sound; she was more afraid of her family discovering her secret hideout than the dog.

Fortunately, it was just a puppy, only a month old. It had light yellow, curly fur that was fluffy and resembled a little hedgehog from a distance. Its nose was pink, but it wasn't afraid of people at all, and kept jumping on Shangguan Qin when it saw her. Even so, it posed no threat whatsoever, and Shangguan Qin was half-terrified.

She had intended to chase it away, and she did manage to do so on the first day. But when she returned the next day, the puppy was there again.

She's like a gamer; every day when she reaches a quest location, a new NPC appears, except this one is a puppy NPC.

That was her secret hideout; she couldn't let a little puppy take over. She tried to chase it away, but when she got closer, she found the puppy asleep on her tatami mat, its paws in the air, its soft belly exposed, sleeping completely unguarded.

Shangguan Qin was puzzled at the time. Isn't it said that stray animals are very vigilant when they sleep? How come this friendly little dog could reveal all its weaknesses to her?

It seemed to have an innate trust in her.

Shangguan Qin softened his heart at that moment.

She thought, it's just a place to shelter it from the wind and rain. She doesn't come to her secret base every day, so it's fine to give it a place too.

And so, after that day, they lived together peacefully.

At first, Shangguan Qin only thought that as long as the dog didn't bite or yell at her, it would be fine. Later, she discovered that the dog was incredibly intelligent; it could not only understand her words but also sense her emotions—it knew whether she was happy or not. When she was unhappy, it would even perform a backflip for her. Although animal performances should be discouraged, it was impossible to resist the animals' insistence on performing…

Shangguan Qin initially thought that she had only provided the puppy with a sheltered place from the wind and rain, and that was all she could do. But by the time she realized what was going on, she had already secretly bought dog food and toys, and even stole pork ribs from the kitchen to feed it. One day, she even inexplicably went into a luxury store while shopping and bought an expensive dog bowl.

And so, Shangguan Qin's secret base became her and its shared secret base.