Chapter 108

Zhou Yanqing nodded "gratefully," making him think he had done the King of Qin a favor, unaware that he had fallen into a trap set by several people.

"So what should we do next?"

Inside Hechun Tower, Zhong Zihe asked a question after Zhou Yanqing finished telling him about the matter.

“Wait until he takes the zither back.” Si Yanmo casually picked up his fan and fanned herself with it in a pretentious manner. “When someone has a guilty conscience, they will naturally see ‘ghosts’.”

"A ghost?" Zhong Zihe frowned even more deeply. "Are you going to perform a ritual?"

He had barely finished speaking when Si Yanmo smacked him on the head with her fan. "What are you thinking? You really think I can perform magic to summon ghost soldiers? Are you crazy or am I crazy?"

Zhong Zihe was naturally indignant after being hit by her, and rubbed his own lips with a pout, "Then you say you saw a ghost, who knows how he saw one?"

“Of course it is…” Si Yanmo pretended to be mysterious and looked towards the door of the side room.

At that moment, the door was pushed open, and a woman's graceful figure appeared behind it. She was wearing a purple dress, and every smile and frown of hers was captivating. Even Zhou Yanqing did not recognize her at first.

"Let me introduce you, Zhao Wan, formerly a shadow guard."

It turned out that after Si Yanmo and Zhou Junsong discussed their plan, they first found Zhao Wan, who had recovered from her injuries, and asked her for help.

Zhao Wan had previously served as Wei Jingzhong's shadow guard, where she learned many skills, including ventriloquism—she could change her voice and even imitate other people's voices.

She first sent Zhao Wan alone to Nandu to find out where Chen Tingyu usually went, and then...

"I don't believe he wouldn't be tempted by such a beautiful woman."

As expected, Zhao Wan pretended to be an innocent young girl who had been swindled out of her money in another place, and was actually the younger sister of an official in the Ministry of Rites of Qin. Chen Tingyu, that lecherous old man, took her to his residence, ostensibly to help her, but in reality, he just wanted to seduce her because of her beauty.

“Now that we’re working together from the inside out, I don’t believe we can’t scare him to death!” Si Yanmo said, revealing a sly smile.

——

Late at night, at the Chen residence, Chen Tingyu, ever since acquiring the zither, had not bothered Zhao Wan. He quietly opened the door to his study alone and carefully took out the zither.

He bent down and reached out to touch it, as if he wanted to press his whole body against the instrument, grinning lewdly, "That's it, that's it! My darling, you're finally in my hands!"

Just as he plucked the strings, wanting to test the sound, what came out first was not a melodious tune, but a voice that sounded exactly like Tan Yin's: "Is this zither still in your hands?"

He looked up warily. "Who?"

"Stop playing tricks!" Chen Tingyu said, noticing a figure outside the window.

He was somewhat scared, but he felt more that someone was deliberately trying to frighten him.

He walked over cautiously, then suddenly pushed open the window, only to find no one there, just the bamboo outside swaying in the wind.

At that moment, the voice rang out again, "You killed my whole family just for this one zither? Chen Tingyu, you will die a horrible death!"

Now he panicked completely, frantically searching for the source of the sound, shouting, "Who? Who is it? Show yourself right now!"

He opened all the cabinet doors next to him in a row, but found no one.

There was none outside the window, none outside the door, and none inside the cabinet.

He quickly took out the exorcism drum he usually used for exorcising demons and started beating it, chanting incantations: "I have received the mandate of Emperor Gu, and all the gods protect me. Even if you turn into a ghost, you cannot get close to me!"

After he finished speaking, the surroundings fell silent, as if his words had really worked.

But in the next second, he heard a piano note, ding-dong, ding-dong ding-dong...

He turned to look at the piano on the table, which remained motionless, yet the sound seemed to emanate from it.

He had heard this piece before; it was a score passed down through the Tan Yin family.

Back then, Tan Yin's great-great-grandfather acquired this zither and, in his joy, composed this piece, which was passed down along with the zither.

This piece was once famous in the southern capital, and for a time, musicians in various restaurants would play it.

He had seen this zither before because he had been a guest at Tan Yin's house, where Tan Yin played this piece for him on the zither.

He was captivated by the melody of the piece, but he fell in love with the instrument even more.

"Chen Tingyu, don't you like this piece? I'll play it for you every day from now on. So many people in our Tan family will play it for you every day!"

The voice was sinister, with an eerie upward slant at the end, as if it were truly the voice of a ghost.

"We'll play for you every day, we'll play for you every day..."

The silent night sky was shattered by a scream, and a figure rushed into the courtyard in a panic.

But what was inside the courtyard was even more terrifying. As soon as he ran out, he saw a blue court robe floating in mid-air. It was the Grand Commandant's court robe.

Chen Tingyu collapsed to the ground, so frightened that he fainted.

In the days that followed, Zhao Wan did not stop torturing Chen Tingyu. Not only did she secretly put hallucinogenic drugs in her food, but she also spoke death threats in Tan Yin's voice and Tan Mu's voice at night, accompanied by the cries of a baby.

It caused him to have trouble sleeping every night, and he went to the statue of Emperor Gu every day to chant scriptures and exorcise demons.

Having finally managed to get out for a stroll, they went to a restaurant to drink and make merry, only to hear the musician playing increasingly strange music. The deep, resonant notes, upon closer listening, revealed that it was none other than a piece from the Tan family, played in a slightly lower key.

He looked up in a panic. Although the musician was wearing a long skirt, she was clearly a woman. The more he looked at her, the more she resembled Tan Yin.

He rubbed his eyes frantically, thinking he must be hallucinating, but he felt the musician's face getting bigger and bigger until it transformed into Tan Yin's appearance and pounced in front of him with its blood-red mouth open, as if it wanted to devour him. Terrified, he ran out in sync with his hands and feet and scrambled into the carriage.

Si Yanmo and Zhong Zihe came down the steps, looked at each other, and laughed so hard they almost fell over. Tan Muhe stood on the platform, watching their flustered backs, feeling a cold smile but also a sense of satisfaction.

This person shouldn't have died so easily; he should have suffered daily torment and repented before the idol. For him now, it's far too lenient.

The group tormented Chen Tingyu for a week, making him afraid to even leave the house. Just then, Zhou Junsong and Si Yunyun, who had set off later, arrived.

"It seems we need to move on to the next step."

Si Yanmo closed her paper fan and followed Zhou Yanqing, who was acting as a shaman, into the palace to report Qi Muchen's matter to the Southern Emperor.

In her vivid description, it seemed to have become an unsolved case of a vengeful spirit seeking revenge.

Zhou Yanqing also put on a worried expression, "Your Majesty, didn't Chen Xiangbu say a few days ago that the zither I brought belonged to that demon's family? Such a coincidence, I'm worried that it really is the work of that vengeful spirit. Perhaps we should ask Minister Xiangbu to perform a ritual to dispel the vengeful spirit."

Upon hearing this, the Southern Emperor frowned, as if he had thought of something. The steward beside him reminded him, "Your Majesty, Chancellor Chen has been ill for seven days..."

The Southern Emperor raised his hand, "This matter concerns the work of a demon; please invite him to the Imperial Ancient Temple."

At this moment, Chen Tingyu was in a daze from the torment. He was holding an exorcism drum and chanting incantations. When he heard the door open, he was so frightened that he dropped the drum.

The servant was startled by his inhuman appearance, but dared not show it. He simply reported, "Sir, His Majesty requests that you come to the Digu Temple to perform a ritual."

He was still somewhat dazed, and responded blankly. He picked up the drum shakily and walked forward, but then, as if he had forgotten something, he turned back to get his divination tortoise shell.

As Chen Tingyu was about to leave with his servant, Zhao Wan suddenly appeared, looking at him with a smile, "My lord, where are you going?"

"Go...go..." Chen Tingyu couldn't say it for a moment, but the servant next to him replied, "Reporting to Miss Wei, His Majesty invites you to the Digu Temple to perform a ritual."

"A ritual?" Zhao Wan asked curiously. "Can I come along?"

Chen Tingyu remained silent, seemingly lost in his own world. The servant, seeing that he did not reply, dared not speak either.

The three of them remained frozen in place for a long time. Zhao Wan sighed helplessly. Had she frightened them too much these past two days?

She asked again, and this time Chen Tingyu casually answered, and the two got into the carriage together.

He was on edge the whole way, not even daring to lift the curtain of the carriage, for fear of seeing something terrible.

Zhao Wan feigned concern and asked, "My lord, did you not sleep well?"

Chen Tingyu nodded blankly, as if he had been frightened into a daze.

A slight smile played on her lips; she knew the princess's plan would succeed soon.

Before long, the carriage stopped. Zhao Wan saw the Southern Emperor's entourage outside and, thinking that she couldn't be discovered, she pretended to have a stomachache and sneaked out.

Chen Tingyu didn't care much. He didn't want to care about anything right now. If the Southern Emperor hadn't insisted that he come, he definitely wouldn't have dared to go out.

Upon entering the Digu Temple, the Southern Emperor, the King of Qin, and the Queen Consort of Qin were all present.

Seeing his pale face and disheveled hair, the Southern Emperor was somewhat displeased, but considering that he had claimed to be ill, he said nothing.

The steward explained the situation to him and asked him to perform a religious ceremony.

Upon hearing that it was related to Tan Yin, Chen Tingyu immediately hesitated, but then heard the Southern Emperor's authoritative command, "If I say do it, then do it!"

He hurriedly knelt down, "Your subject is guilty!"

Since it was the Southern Emperor's order, he had to do it even if it meant gritting his teeth.

They lit incense, set up an array, and Si Yanmo thoughtfully brought over the blood copper coins she had found with Qi Muchen earlier.

Of course, the so-called blood copper coin was made up by her, just to make the story more mysterious.

Chen Tingyu picked up his exorcism drum, as if trying to give himself strength, and muttered, "Tan Yin, I can kill you once, and I can kill you a second time!"

As he spoke, he picked up a talisman, lit the pile of yellow paper in front of him, threw his tortoise shell into it, and began to beat the exorcism drum and chant sutras to exorcise the demons.

After a while, the pile of yellow paper in front of him stopped burning and turned to ashes, and the tortoise shell lay quietly in the middle.

He stepped forward to check if the exorcism had been successful. However, instead of the expected runes, the tortoise shell bore the inscription: "For the sake of the wooden zither, you have created evil spirits. May you be punished by heaven and earth."

Just then, a thunderclap suddenly resounded across the sky, and dark clouds instantly filled the sky. The eerie sound of a zither echoed once again from within the Digu Temple.

Chen Tingyu was so frightened that he immediately collapsed to the ground, pointing in terror at the tortoise shell in front of him as if he had really seen a ghost. "Get away! Get away! It wasn't me! It wasn't me! Get away from me!"

The others watched the farce in silence, but the Southern Emperor frowned and ordered the guard beside him, "Take Xiang Bu back and let him rest properly."

Upon hearing this, Si Yanmo and Zhou Yanqing were not about to let him off easily. Si Yanmo pretended to be curious, stepped forward to examine the tortoise shell, and turned around to bow to the Southern Emperor.

"Your Majesty, it seems that a divine message has been sent down from this tortoise shell."