Chapter 17 Subtle Sourness

It was already late at night when we arrived at Yuan's house.

The masters were each assigned a residence, each in a separate courtyard.

The servants lived with their masters, and would live in the servants' rooms in the courtyard of the master they were assigned to serve.

Xie Yanyu was originally assigned to someone else.

But she was determined to find Helan Wei, so she gave him some money and moved herself to Helan Wei's yard.

When I arrived at Helan Wei's yard, he hadn't returned yet—

When they entered the house of the resentful ghost, the resentful ghost in the house dressed in human skin and disguised himself as a human to greet them. After allocating accommodation to them, he forced them to stay for a banquet.

The servants still need to help their masters settle down and do not need to stay for the banquet.

But it was difficult for the masters to refuse. Although they came to catch ghosts, they had to disguise themselves as mortals to enter the resentful house. The resentful ghost had high cultivation and was very cunning, so it was not easy to catch. In order to avoid alerting the snake, even if they knew that it was a ghost under the skin, they pretended to be nice and did not expose it. So they all stayed there, had a meal with the resentful ghost, and observed the ghost's weaknesses during the meal.

Helan Wei should still be dealing with the vengeful ghost right now, and he probably won't be back for a while.

Xie Yanyu stood in the yard for a while and saw the servants carrying Helan Wei's luggage into the bedroom, so he followed them and walked into the bedroom together. As a result, he was choked by the dust in the room as soon as he stepped over the threshold.

She covered her mouth and nose and looked around.

It looked like no one had lived here for a long time. Although the room was large, there were thick spider webs on the beams and under the corners of the tables. The room was very dusty, and even when the servants put down their luggage, a layer of dust floated onto the suitcases.

If it is not cleaned, there is no way to stay here.

The attendants seemed to realize this, and one asked, "What a horrible place! It's so dusty! Who can clean it up before the young master comes back?"

Xie Yanyu heard this and still kept his head down quietly.

Her face was expressionless, but her mind was active.

The purpose of Helan Wei's trip was to capture the resentful ghost and bring it back to Shangqing Palace.

The vengeful ghost was cunning and almost never left the house, so they had to disguise themselves as mortals to enter the house.

In this case, he would not be able to carry the token of Shangqing Immortal Palace with him, so the token is most likely in his luggage.

Now Helan Wei is not here either.

She could just stay in his room under the pretext of cleaning, and even go through his luggage under the guise of packing.

Although Helan Wei wouldn't take a token seriously, in his eyes, she was no different from the token. So if she asked him for the token, he wouldn't necessarily give it to her. Instead, it would be more convenient to just steal it and then secretly return it after she was done with it.

Thinking of this, Xie Yanyu immediately took on the task of cleaning the room.

After the servants finished moving the luggage, she closed the door.

Then she squatted down and opened the boxes of luggage one by one.

*

The resentful ghosts feed on the resentment of mortals.

It stays in the house of resentment, opens the door to welcome guests every once in a while, attracts passing mortals to live in, creates fear, and then kills them when people are most afraid, sucking the resentment from their souls.

Today is the first night that Helan Wei and his group enter the ghost house. The ghost will not act so quickly.

Though it compels them to feast,

But the banquet was a normal one, and there was nothing unusual about the food and drinks.

In normal times,

Helan Wei would at least eat a bite or two just to show his appreciation.

Although he appears to be pure and never takes rules and etiquette seriously, this kind of disrespect is hidden in his bones and does not show on the surface. Even when he deals with people, he grasps the aristocratic etiquette very well.

Because his status is high enough, etiquette and rules cannot restrain him. Instead, they decorate his appearance and hide most of his frivolity, making him appear polite and at ease. Even if the person in front of him is a ghost in human skin, he will not lose face for the other party.

However, today is an exception.

During the whole banquet, he didn't touch any of the dishes on the table, nor did he drink a sip of the wine. He held the communication talisman in his hand, his fingertips rubbing it unconsciously, but he didn't pick it up to look at it.

Even when the resentful ghost spoke to him, he would just respond indifferently. It wasn't rude, but it was quite abnormal for him.

In addition to him and Xie Chengjin, several younger generations from the Xie family's side branches also came along to gain experience.

The younger generations of the Xie family were not familiar with him, but they could see that something was wrong with him.

Someone came over and said, "Brother Helan, what are you thinking about? Why are you so absent-minded?"

He Lanwei heard this and tilted his head slightly, glancing at the Xie family's younger brother before asking gently, "Why do you say that?"

The young man said, "This dish is right in front of you, but you don't eat a single bite. You must be worried."

A very simple and straightforward answer.

The young man said this while picking up another piece of food with his chopsticks.

Helan Wei looked at him for a moment without making any comment.

After he put the food into his mouth, he said lightly: "Do you dare to eat the food given by the evil spirit?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the young man stopped chewing instantly, as if frightened. His face turned visibly pale. He was neither sure whether to spit out the contents in his mouth nor to say he was absent-minded. He asked him incoherently:

"Brother Helan, could it be that this vengeful ghost has tampered with the food? Didn't it say it wouldn't do anything on the first day we moved in? Or is it because you think I'm noisy and afraid I'll ask you about your worries, so you're trying to scare me into shutting up?"

Helan Wei didn't answer.

He just smiled gently and casually, then said, "I have something else to do, so I'll go back first."

He actually had nothing to do, but he really didn't want to stay here any longer. He didn't know why tonight, but he felt a little uncomfortable. He always felt like there was a fire burning in his heart, making him very anxious. Even though the table was not noisy, he could hardly hear much noise in his ears, and even the communication talisman was very quiet. No one was looking for him and no one was bothering him.

But the feeling of anxiety did not subside.

He couldn't sit still at all, so he left the table early for the first time and walked towards the yard assigned to him by the resentful ghost.

When I returned to the yard, the bedroom light was on and there seemed to be someone in the room.

He frowned almost imperceptibly.

Walked to the door and pushed it open.

*

Because I was afraid that Helan Wei would come back suddenly,

Every time Xie Yanyu finished rummaging through a box, he would take out the luggage inside and sort it out, pretending that he was really cleaning and tidying up.

This is a safer approach, but it is very time-consuming. When I heard the door being pushed open behind me, there were still two boxes left to be opened.

But she still stopped and looked back, and saw that it was Helan Wei who came back.

She had come along on this trip, originally planning to find an opportunity to have some drama with him. Now that she saw him, she intended to reveal her identity and ask him why he unilaterally ended their friendship, and whether she had done something to make him unhappy.

After all, there is still a lot of his story line to be completed, and it is not a good idea to keep it deadlocked.

But she was still a little unsure.

Should he reveal his identity now, or wait until she has searched the remaining two boxes and stolen the token?

But no matter what, you have to greet him first when you see him.

So she leaned forward slightly and said, "Greetings, sir."

She changed her appearance and took medicine to temporarily improve her voice.

So no matter from her face or voice, it is difficult to recognize her as Xie Yanyu.

Helan Wei glanced at her when he heard that.

He rarely dislikes anything.

But he really didn't like having maids serving him closely, and usually he didn't even let maids enter his bedroom.

Seeing the strange maid in the room, he felt a little unhappy. He knew she was sweeping the room, so he wanted to ask her how long it would take.

But before he could say anything,

The communication talisman in the sleeve suddenly emitted a surge of spiritual power.

Helan Wei paused.

The door was not closed, and cold wind blew in from outside, but this cold wind seemed to make the previous anxiety even stronger.

He took out the communication talisman, and felt a subtle sourness on his fingertips, and a secret expectation seemed to arise in his heart.

Then he tapped the talisman with his fingertips.

The next second,

Newly received messages come into view.

It was from the younger generation of the Xie family who had just spoken to him, asking him whether he had discovered something wrong with the vengeful ghost, or if he was in a bad mood and deliberately scared him. He sent a long message, but Helan Wei didn't read it any further, his gaze pausing for a moment at the bottom of the communication talisman -

At the bottom of the communication symbol,

It was Xie Yanyu and his dialog box.

In the dialog box, the message still lingered on what he had said to her a few days ago: "Miss Xie, why don't you come visit me another day?"

He unilaterally terminated the friendship, and soon unilaterally restored the friendship.

But she never responded.

Even after he left the Xie family and took all his luggage with him, she didn't send him a message to ask.

Did she not care, or did she simply not notice that he was gone?

It was like a fire that had been deliberately ignored and suppressed suddenly ignited.

He suddenly opened the dialog box with her——

Since you don't plan to have any contact in the future, why keep the communication talisman as a friend?

With her status, she shouldn't have his contact information.

His face was cold, as if he had peeled off his usually gentle and casual appearance. He clicked his fingertips and once again ended his friendship with her.

Lifting my eyes, I saw another maid in the room.

He didn't want to see anyone now, and he didn't wait for her to finish cleaning. He was cold and angry:

"go out."