Chapter 13 After the rooster crowed once, ...

After the rooster crowed once, He Wenqing on the bed opened his eyes and woke up. At first, he did not realize that he was in the bridal chamber in the west courtyard. When he sat up fully clothed, he realized that the person sleeping next to him was not his wife Wei Yin, but his cousin Chen Xuanhua.

After he opened his eyes, Chen Xuanhua also woke up quickly. She lowered her eyes and carefully looked at the man who had sat up.

"cousin……"

"Awake?" He Wenqing asked. "Are you still in pain?"

When Chen Xuanhua saw his question so bluntly, she blushed with embarrassment despite her past experiences, and even coughed twice in embarrassment.

Seeing her shy appearance, He Wenqing knew she was easily embarrassed, so he stopped talking and told her to sleep a little longer. He then called a maid to come in and help her wash up.

Finally married to the man he had longed for, Chen Xuanhua couldn't bear to sleep any longer. She quickly got up, took the belt from the maid, and personally helped him put it on.

She gripped the belt, but then suddenly remembered how he had taught her how to undo his belt last night, causing her face to flush slightly.

He Wenqing glanced at Chen Xuanhua, who was bowing her head to tie his belt, and felt rather unaccustomed to it. Wei Yin was not as considerate as her. Not to mention serving her husband, she often coaxed him to dress her because she couldn't get up too early. However, although she was a bit spoiled, she was still quite cute.

I remember seeing her yesterday when we returned to the west courtyard after the wedding; she seemed to still harbor some resentment towards him.

But now that the die is cast, even if she still harbors resentment, she has probably already come to terms with it, right?

So He Wenqing said, "Xuanhua, I'll take you to pay your respects to Yin'er later. Today is your first day meeting her as one of my maids, so she might still have some resentment towards you. However, if you are respectful and say some nice things to her, she is usually easy to talk to and won't hold it against you."

"Thank you very much, cousin." Chen Xuanhua noted it down. "Xuanhua will respect your wife."

He Wenqing was very satisfied with Chen Xuanhua's proper manners and generosity. The maid brought a basin of water for him to wash up. He turned around and took two steps, then remembered something and turned back to chuckle softly.

"Still calling him cousin and cousin's wife, Xuanhua? You should change your address."

Chen Xuanhua looked up and stared directly at He Wenqing. He stood tall and had handsome features. She immediately suppressed the flutter in her heart and replied tremblingly, "Yes... my lord."

He Wenqing nodded and instructed the maid outside the room, "Go and see if the young mistress has gotten up yet."

However, the maid returned shortly afterward: "Young master, the young mistress is not in her room."

He Wenqing was taken aback: "She got up so early today?"

The maid shook her head: "I asked Granny Liu and the maids in the room. The front yard was too busy last night, and everyone slept soundly. We don't know when the young mistress got up. We couldn't find her in the mansion either. We wonder if she went out early this morning."

He Wenqing immediately frowned and pushed away the face towel that Chen Xuanhua handed her. "I'll go take a look."

...

Wei Yin had just come out of Hu Datian's house. In the summer, it gets light very early. Before dawn, the bright sunlight had already illuminated the road under her feet.

Although Lu Hun was not afraid of the peace charm and fire, he seemed to be afraid of sunlight. Just before dawn, he put on the blue bamboo paper umbrella that he had taken the night before, and silently hid his entire face under the umbrella.

It was still early, and there were no people on the road, so Lu Hun didn't bother to conceal himself.

As Wei Yin passed the stone house, she glanced tremblingly at the river. The river was calm and peaceful, and in the distance, a vast expanse of mountains was shrouded in a thin mist, with cuckoos chirping. There was no indication that a terrible thing had happened the night before.

She paused, glanced back at Lu Hun, and only after leaving the Hu family did she finally blurt out what she had been holding back for so long.

“I think Hu Datian is acting a bit strange. When I knocked on his door last night, he seemed very nervous and even knocked over the candlestick. I heard from someone that things weren’t going well at his house, that Azhu had gone back. Did he think Azhu had come again last night...?”

Lu Hun nodded: "The Hu family does indeed harbor a strong sense of resentment."

Wei Yin exclaimed, "Then Ah Zhu wasn't there last night either, was she?"

Her startled expression made Lu Hun slightly raise his face: "Don't worry, I'm there, she doesn't dare to go back yet."

Lu Hun kept an arm's length distance from Wei Yin. Just like in his previous life, he still didn't like to interact or talk to people. Except for the time last night when he reached out and pulled her out of the river, he kept a distance from her from beginning to end.

He looked at him and he seemed no different from Ah Zhu's ghost. Both of them had died violent deaths, but why did Ah Zhu seem to be wary of him?

Moreover, her amulet must have had some effect on Ah Zhu, otherwise she wouldn't have been able to save Ah Fu, yet Lu Hun could easily take the amulet away.

Recalling the strange events that occurred at the temple a few days ago, and how he saved Ah Zhu last night without seeming to want to kill her, Wei Yin was unsure what he was up to.

A young person's thoughts are hard to fathom.

The thoughts of the young ghost are even more unpredictable.

Wei Yin dared not say anything more and quietly shut her mouth.

Lu Hun remained silent for a while, his eyes lowered, before finally speaking quietly: "'When a person dies, they become a ghost; when a ghost dies, they become a spirit; when a spirit dies, they become a rarity; when a rarity dies, they become a lowly one.' After death, not everyone can become a ghost. Only those who die in auspicious or inauspicious locations, are buried in auspicious or inauspicious burial sites, have treasures at their burial site, die on an inauspicious day, or have an unfavorable burial date, etc., have the potential to become ghosts through this influence. Ah Zhu died in a stone house, which happened to face the river, creating a special water-related inauspicious formation. Therefore, she was able to become a ghost through this influence, but because she hasn't lived long, she is now..." They are still just ghosts, not yet fully developed, and their strength is only slightly greater than that of ordinary people. Therefore, they can only use their ghostly energy to contact the living, causing them to become sick and die. But this takes several years. Alternatively, as you saw last night, they can use ghostly magic to blind you, frighten you out of your wits, extinguish the fire within you, and make you think that something is dragging you down to drown. So, although Ah Zhu wanted to haunt Ah Hu and the others to get revenge on her father, because Hu Datian was braver than ordinary people, he guarded Ah Hu and the others, making it difficult for Ah Zhu to make a move. That's why she went to find Ah Fu instead.

Wei Yin listened in surprise.

"So, there wasn't actually a whirlpool pulling me into the water last night, but rather I was frightened by Ah Zhu and hallucinated, and in reality, I was the one going down into the water...?"

"Hmm." Lu Hun continued, "Your amulet was bestowed by His Majesty. The current Emperor has dedicated his life to governing the country and has fought many battles against the northern barbarians to bring peace and stability. He possesses both a murderous aura and merits, which is why he can ward off ordinary ghost magic and prevent ghosts from getting close. You saved Afu last night, so Azhu must already harbor resentment towards you. Therefore, you'd better keep it on at all times, even..."

At this point, the voice suddenly stopped.

"Even what?"

She was listening intently, but he didn't continue.

Wei Yin turned around curiously and saw him standing behind her, motionless. She didn't know what was wrong, and his face was hidden by the umbrella, so she couldn't see his expression. Without thinking, she bent down and looked up at his face hidden under the umbrella.

The pale, handsome face of the boy was slightly flushed, as if he were considering something.

"Even when you're bathing... don't take it off."

Caught off guard by her bending down to look at him like that, the young man's delicate features faltered slightly, then he abruptly tilted the umbrella down heavily, obscuring his face.

?

Wei Yin was completely baffled for a while.

This ghost is just as strange as it was in life.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at the gate of the He family mansion. Wei Yin looked at the two bronze rings in front of the gate and almost burst into tears.

"Remember what I just said." Lu Hun's gaze followed hers to the gate of the He residence. After a moment of silence, he said, "Go in."

Wei Yin turned to look at him. The dawn had not yet broken, and the pale sunlight shone on his umbrella. She could not see his face under the umbrella, but she could vaguely feel that his gloomy gaze was looking at her. As Wei Yin looked, the sixteen-year-old boy holding the umbrella disappeared and turned into the young student who always came to school early every day, sat at his desk, and ate cold bread and drank cold water while flipping through books.

Lu Hun passed the imperial examination at the age of sixteen, with a promising future ahead of him. However, on the night he passed the examination, he set fire to the Bodhisattva Temple and hanged himself inside.

Everyone said he had gone mad, or that he had been bewitched by the ghosts in the temple.

But he didn't look like he was crazy at all...

So why did he have such a difficult decision back then?

Just then, the closed gate of the He residence creaked open from the inside.

The person who opened the door was none other than He Wenqing, who had come out to find Wei Yin. After the wedding night, he had changed out of the scarlet wedding clothes he wore yesterday, and the red jade crown on his head had been replaced with an ordinary crown.

Seeing Wei Yin standing at the door, He Wenqing was stunned: "Where did you go so early in the morning? Why did you go out alone? I looked for you in the manor for a long time... What happened to you?"

He quickly noticed her disheveled appearance.

Wei Yin glanced at herself, her clothes and shoes rumpled and stained with mud. She hadn't expected He Wenqing to appear so suddenly and was quite caught off guard. She secretly glanced at Lu Hun, unsure how to tell him about the strange events of the previous night. Even if she did, He Wenqing probably wouldn't believe her; the couple had never been good at talking to each other. So she made up an excuse: "I was just going for a walk, but I accidentally slipped and fell into a mud puddle..."

He Wenqing frowned, instinctively wanting to say, "You are the eldest daughter-in-law of the He family. You should know your place. How can you go out so casually?" But remembering that she had been unhappy these past few days, she held back.

Then, he took off his outer robe and gently draped it over her.

"When you go out in the future, you should take two people with you."

"Understood, my lord."

He Wenqing then noticed that there was a very young man standing behind Wei Yin. The man was almost the same height as him, but strangely, even though it was neither raining nor sunny, he was holding a gray-blue umbrella. Looking at him from afar, one could vaguely feel a bit of inexplicable coldness.

This young man actually returned with Wei Yin. He Wenqing narrowed his eyes slightly.

"What is this? You guys..."

Lu Hun remained unmoved and stood there as before.

Lu Hun did not conceal his presence and was unexpectedly bumped into by He Wenqing. Wei Yin was stunned for a moment, unsure of how to explain to He Wenqing.

We can't exactly say that this is Lu Hun, the scholar who died back then, can we?

He Wenqing would surely scold her for being absurd again.

He Wenqing was not one to be easily fooled, so Wei Yin thought for a moment and had no choice but to say, "My lord, this is my cousin."