Behind the mystery
Tang Zhou reviewed the events, from entering the cemetery to recalling what he had seen and heard in the icy well water the previous night. The more he thought about it, the more something seemed amiss. The stone chamber containing the coffin of the former empress had another passage behind it. In ordinary tombs, the coffin is usually placed in the last chamber. Moreover, the secret passage was equipped with dragon-slaying stones cast in black iron, and the furnishings of the stone chamber at the end of the passage were too elegant, too out of place with the cemetery itself.
After he and Yan Dan were trapped by the Dragon-Slaying Stone, it was Shen Xiangjun who found them. If her claim of understanding bird language was just a fabrication, then she must be extremely familiar with this tomb. But who is Tao Ziqi? Is she really the venomous woman Shen Xiangjun described?
And last night, he already knew that what Master Shen had said to him was untrue. So, could Shen Yijun's words be trusted? The two of them were consistent on less important matters, but when it came to the most crucial parts, they were completely contradictory. One of them must have lied, or perhaps both of them were lying. If so, what was the key issue?
The truth is gradually becoming clear, and it's just a matter of finding a clue.
But what is the thread that leads to the truth?
As he was pondering this, he suddenly heard a few knocks at the door. He casually said, "Come in." A silvery laugh rang out, and Shen Xiangjun skipped in, carrying a plate with several smooth, bright red apples. "These apples are so pretty! I couldn't resist taking a bite as soon as I saw them, but my sister scolded me, saying they weren't clean." She placed the apples on the table and said with a smile, "I washed them before bringing them to you; they're not dirty."
Tang Zhou looked at the plate of apples and shook his head: "I don't want to eat them yet, I'll wait a while."
Shen Xiangjun pouted: "Okay."
Tang Zhou suddenly asked, "Where did my junior sister go? Why hasn't she come back yet?"
Shen Xiangjun was taken aback: "I haven't seen her before. I'll go ask my sister if she's seen her."
Tang Zhou thought that she couldn't leave the Shen residence and there was no chance of anything happening to her, so he said, "There's no need to ask. Junior sister is always mischievous, I wonder where she went to play again."
Shen Xiangjun leaned on the table, staring at him intently: "I often play hide-and-seek with the birds, what do you guys play?"
Tang Zhou thought for a moment and said, "Catch a monster." Yan Dan was someone he caught casually.
Shen Xiangjun pressed on, "And then what happened?"
"...After the monster escapes, we'll catch it again." This is the absolute truth. "Because some monsters are very sharp-tongued, we have to keep them company."
Shen Xiangjun was completely confused and said blankly, "Is that so..."
Tang Zhou suddenly smiled, seemingly lost in thought: "Occasionally, you might encounter a demon who is very worldly-wise, a sycophant, good at acting cute, and only says the nicest and most unimportant things."
Shen Xiangjun looked at him and couldn't help but say, "I don't think you're talking about a monster, but rather... I can't quite put my finger on what it is, but a monster is definitely not this interesting."
Tang Zhou was slightly startled, suddenly feeling as if everything in front of him began to sway. He forced himself to stand up, but his body was too weak, and he staggered back a few steps before collapsing onto the edge of the bed. Seeing him like this, Shen Xiangjun suddenly jumped up and ran out of the guest room, shouting, "Sister, sister, come quick! Someone here is sick! Come and see!"
Tang Zhou bent his knees, only to find that he soon had no strength left to even move a finger. He composed himself, gathered his last bit of strength, and bit down on his tongue, a faint taste of blood spreading across his lips.
Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door. Shen Xiangjun turned back and reached out to help him up: "Where does it hurt? Are you alright? I don't know where my sister is. I'm going to look for her again!"
Tang Zhou smiled bitterly: "Why are you looking for her?" He had been drugged, which was why he couldn't move, but he couldn't figure out how he had been poisoned. Looking at Shen Xiangjun's incoherent behavior, he could only sigh softly. She probably knew nothing and couldn't do anything.
Shen Xiangjun grabbed his hand and tried her best to pull him up, but Tang Zhou was too weak to move him. She could only stomp her feet in frustration. After a while, she said, "I'll go find my sister again!"
A short while later, a slender figure appeared in the doorway. Shen Yijun's face was gloomy as she walked slowly closer, until she was right in front of him. She smiled strangely and said, "Indeed, it is the purest soul..."
Although Tang Zhou was unable to move, his mind was clear as water: "So it was you." He must have fallen into the deep well last night and was now unable to move, all because Shen Yijun had tampered with the tea. Her scheme to make him hear and see what Master Shen did was probably just a smokescreen to lure him into a trap.
Shen Yijun looked at him and nodded: "I knew you would definitely come and go there to see, and I also knew you would see Father burying people there. You didn't believe him to begin with, but after seeing these things, you will only believe what I say, right?" She looked at Tang Zhou tenderly, her eyes filled with fervor: "Your soul is so pure, I really like it too much. I didn't originally want to treat you like this."
Tang Zhou watched as she reached out her hand, her fingers slowly tracing the contours of his face. At this close range, he could clearly see a mole at the corner of her mouth. Shen Yijun spoke gently, "Young Master Tang, you are so handsome; every woman would be captivated by you. I don't want you to become withered and wrinkled, but there's nothing I can do about it..."
Tang Zhou smiled and said, "Why bother with this pretense?"
Shen Yijun gazed at him, a smile as beautiful as spring blossoms blooming on her face: "Do you like Xiangjun more, or do you like me more?"
Tang Zhou ignored her and simply closed his eyes.
Suddenly, a soft, gentle voice, tinged with laughter, came close by: "Of course he likes you more, do you believe it or not?"
Tang Zhou opened her eyes and saw Shen Yijun's face was ashen, trembling slightly. She cried out, "Who are you? Are you a human or a ghost?" She stood up in a panic, looking around, but saw no one. Suddenly, she felt a wet hand touch her neck, and the voice from before chuckled, "I am a ghost, a drowned water ghost..."
Shen Yijun wiped her neck and saw a slippery patch of moss on her hand. She felt as if she had been whipped: "Come out! Don't think I'll be afraid of you just because you've become a ghost!"
Tang Zhou recognized Yan Dan speaking, but Shen Yijun's reaction was really too strange.
"I know you're not afraid of me, and I don't want you to be afraid of me. If you are afraid of me, it won't be fun." Shen Yijun turned around twice but couldn't see Yan Dan's shadow, yet the other person seemed to be speaking right next to her ear. Her eyes bloodshot, she shouted, "Come out here! Stop playing tricks!"
A soft sigh was heard: "I'm not human to begin with, so what else should I do if I don't play the role of a ghost? I should see you, after all, you're the one who ruined me like this. But I look really ugly now, and it would make me feel bad if others saw me like this."
Tang Zhou vaguely understood what was going on. Shen Yijun must have done something terrible to Yan Dan before, but she didn't know that Yan Dan was not a mortal but a demon.
Shen Yijun forced a smile, "I wasn't afraid when you were alive, let alone after you're dead?" As soon as she finished speaking, she felt a cold, damp hand touch her face, covered in slippery moss. She jolted awake and whirled around to see Yan Dan standing there, dressed in white, her hair dripping wet, making her already pale face appear even more ashen. Her already jet-black hair was as black as ink. Yan Dan's eyes were unfocused, and she said ominously, "I'm out... I'm standing right in front of you..."
Shen Yijun watched helplessly as Yan Dan slowly reached out her hand again, then suddenly screamed and ran away as fast as she could, tripping and falling at the threshold. Shen Yijun glanced back and was utterly terrified: Yan Dan moved stiffly, hopping over like a zombie. She was terrified; she hadn't imagined that a zombie transformation could happen in just an hour or two. Gritting her teeth, she desperately tried to move away.
Yan Dan watched her figure disappear, raised her hand to tuck her long, wet hair behind her ear, and turned back to look at Tang Zhou: "Senior brother, how have you been?"
Tang Zhou watched as she slowly walked closer, then gracefully squatted down in front of him, a smile playing on her lips—three parts playfulness and seven parts obedience—as she slowly uttered a few words.
"I searched the entire Shen family and only found this white robe, and it doesn't even fit me very well."
Tang Zhou glanced at her, speechless.
Yan Dan rested her chin on her hand and chuckled softly, "Guess where I got this dress?" She asked, and seeing Tang Zhou turn his face away and ignore her, she suddenly raised her hand, pinched his face, and slowly turned him to face her, pouting, "Senior brother, why are you ignoring me?"
Tang Zhou's face remained calm, but his ears slowly turned red: "You—"
Yan Dan smiled, her bright eyes and white teeth revealing her beauty: "Tang Zhou, you treated me like this before, but now heaven has eyes and you've finally fallen into my hands." She leaned closer, still smiling, and said, "But before we settle accounts, is there anything you haven't figured out? I can tell you."
Tang Zhou remained silent for a long while, then said calmly, "When did you start to suspect Shen Yijun?"
Yan Dan sighed, "Why don't you ask Miss Shen the Second? There's only one Miss Shen in the Shen family; she doesn't have any sisters. Haven't you noticed?" She pointed to the corner of her mouth, "Miss Shen has a mole on the corner of her mouth, have you noticed? And Miss Shen the Second also has a mole on the corner of her mouth. Even if they are sisters, no matter how similar they look, there will still be some differences. But their moles on the corners of their mouths are exactly the same, both in location and size. Even if we take a step back, do you really believe that Miss Shen the Second is stupid? I think she's very shrewd; she knows how to use her understanding of gibberish to get by in some situations."
Just now, Shen Yijun was standing close, and he did see the mole on the corner of her mouth, but he would never normally look at it closely. Yan Dan smiled slightly: "Do you remember when I told you that I could understand fish? I've said this truth so many times, and every time it was from the bottom of my heart, but you didn't believe me."
Tang Zhou couldn't help but think to himself, if she said that, no one who wasn't completely insane would believe it.
"The fish in the lotus pond in the courtyard, though they didn't know much, told me something crucial. In the Shen family, Master Shen and Miss Shen are not father and daughter at all." Yan Dan's eyes flickered as she slowly said, "When I saw them arguing in the flower hall earlier, I had a strange feeling that they didn't seem like a father and daughter. From this, I deduced that their move to Qing Shi Town must have been for a purpose, and it must be related to the mysterious deaths of people in this town. The fact that they slandered each other there shows that these two must have a grudge against each other and wanted to use you to get rid of the other. It's just a pity that you didn't fully believe either of them. And your soul just happened to be very pure, and the taste was also very good, so Miss Shen made her move first."
"Afterwards, Miss Shen took you to the abandoned well in the backyard. I suddenly had a suspicion that the two Miss Shens might be the same person, so I immediately went to verify it, and that's when I found the mole. But there's still something I don't quite understand. You thought what you saw in the well was an illusion, but I felt there must be another reason. Later I learned that Miss Shen had practiced a kind of mind-controlling technique. After making eye contact with her, you would be controlled by her mind. She used this method to make me unconscious and then had Aunt Hu throw me into that abandoned well." Yan Dan raised her wrist, and the heavy bracelet on her wrist was gone. "She didn't know that she had unintentionally done me a great favor. I told her that this restriction was a gift from you to ward off evil spirits, so that you could sense if anything happened to me. As a result, she helped me take the bracelet off and threw it away. She's really easy to fool; she would even believe something like this."
Tang Zhou said in a low voice, "So, what she said about understanding bird languages wasn't true after all."
"Miss Chen is actually quite foolish. She can talk to any bird, yet she insists on having a parrot with her. I have a friend from the Feather Clan who can mimic any sound. She once told me that parrots are arguably the least talkative birds in the world. So I knew from the beginning that everything she said was nonsense. Thinking about it this way, since she's so familiar with the mechanisms in the tomb passage, she must have been the one who placed the Dragon-Slaying Stone in the secret passage." Yan Dan paused, then suddenly raised her hand and slapped Tang Zhou across the face, not too hard. "Although I am a demon, have I ever harmed you? Or do I owe you anything? How have you treated me? For a fat, bloated bully, you almost killed my companion!"
Tang Zhou looked at her without even frowning.
Yan Dan slowly stood up: "You now owe me a life, how do you plan to repay it? But someone like you who likes to repay kindness with enmity might actually want to kill me instead, right?"
Without hesitation, Tang Zhou replied, "I haven't thought of it that way."
She walked to the doorway, turned back, and said, "I've already scared that Miss Shen away. The effects of the muscle-relaxing powder on you will wear off soon. Senior brother, we'll never meet again."
As Tang Zhou watched her step out the door, he suddenly said, "I am now powerless to fight back. No matter who from the Shen family comes back, am I doomed?"
Yan Dan sighed and turned around, saying, "That's why I need to leave now. If you wait until you have the ability to fight back, even if my skills are twice as good, you'll still catch me." As she said this, a hint of wariness appeared in her eyes: "You're not trying to stall for time until the effects of the drug wear off, are you? I have a lot of things to do, and I don't have time to waste with you."
She had just turned around and taken a step when she suddenly heard Tang Zhou call out softly behind her, "Yan Dan..."
Yan Dan immediately turned around, carefully observing his every move, with a charming smile on her face: "Senior brother, the tea you drank earlier contained muscle-weakening powder. The effects of the medicine last for an hour, so it's normal to feel weak all over. Anyway, I must go first, so you don't need to worry about me."
Tang Zhou looked at her and slowly asked, "Where are you staying? Perhaps one day I can come to see you again."
“…It would be better if I visited you instead.” If Tang Zhou went to Yelan Mountain, he would only scare away a whole house of demons. Perhaps the little wolf demon Dan Shu, who was most afraid of ghosts, would change his fear of the Celestial Master. “There is an order of seniority. Once a senior brother, always a senior brother. How can I let my senior brother go through all this trouble?”
"The Tang family residence in Xiangdu. If you go to Xiangdu, just ask anyone."
Yan Dan touched the goosebumps on her skin, thinking that she hadn't heard anything just now and should hurry up and change into something thicker. She had only taken a few steps when she suddenly felt a gust of wind behind her. She subconsciously turned her head to look, and suddenly felt a chill on her forehead, and her body became immobile. Then, she felt a tightness on her wrist, and a talisman was neatly pasted on it, turning into a heavy bracelet in the radiant light.
Tang Zhou withdrew his finger from her forehead and said with a smile, "This time it was just a little short. Let's try again next time."
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