Chapter 3 Ghost Cry Village: Ghosts Kill People
How do ghosts usually kill people?
The next morning, as dawn broke.
Tang Yu didn't sleep well, so she got up early and went downstairs.
By this time, the group of镖师 (bodyguards/escorts) had already gathered in the hall. Some were still having breakfast, while others were busy packing their luggage.
Inside the hall, Wang Shanyue, who was munching on a dry steamed bun, immediately waved and greeted him warmly as soon as he saw him come down: "Brother Su! Sit here!"
Tang Yu smiled back and was about to find a seat and order some breakfast.
Suddenly, a sharp, urgent cry came from the direction of the stables in the backyard, filled with barely concealed panic.
"Something's happened?!" Wang Shanyue reacted swiftly, dropping the steamed bun in his hand and rushing towards the backyard with his sword in hand.
The bodyguards in the hall immediately became alert, put down their chopsticks, and rushed towards the backyard. In an instant, the hall became somewhat empty.
Tang Yu looked up and glanced at the roof.
I have a feeling that there's something stuck somewhere on the ceiling...?
Before she could examine it closely, her gaze shifted and met Xiao Fangliang's probing eyes.
The man was quietly scrutinizing her, a smile playing on his lips, his narrow, fox-like eyes gleaming with an unfathomable light.
Seeing her look over, he nodded slightly and followed her gaze to the ceiling, but apart from some mottled and dark spots, there seemed to be nothing unusual about it.
"Brother Su, why don't we go to the backyard together?" He raised the corners of his lips slightly, his tone unhurried.
Tang Yu's expression shifted slightly, a sense of crisis rising within her, but she ultimately did not refuse, smiling gently as she replied, "Okay."
The two walked side by side toward the backyard at a leisurely pace.
No sooner had they left than a very soft sound echoed in the empty lobby—
Tick-tock.
A drop of thick, dark red liquid slowly seeped out from the crack in the beam and dripped silently.
It hit the ground, then quickly and silently seeped into the cracks between the bricks, disappearing without a trace, leaving only silence.
*
As soon as I stepped into the backyard, I was hit by a strong smell of blood.
Xiao Fangliang drew a plain white folding fan from his waist, covered his mouth and nose, and frowned slightly, clearly disliking the smell.
The scene before them was even more shocking.
The stables were in complete disarray.
More than a dozen horses, along with Tang Yu's donkey, lay dead on the ground, their deaths gruesome; none of them survived.
Strangely, no one heard a sound last night.
There were no shouts, no neighs; all the horses died silently.
Everyone gasped in shock, their faces filled with horror.
The shopkeeper's lips trembled slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but he swallowed it back down with his saliva.
Instead, the pale-faced waiter exclaimed, "It's a ghost! It was the crying ghost who killed him last night!"
Wang Shanyue was squatting on the ground examining the horse's wounds when he was startled by Xiao Er's sudden shout. He almost stuck his hand into the horse's mouth and looked up at him speechlessly.
Xiao Fangliang walked unhurriedly past the mess on the ground and entered. He bent down and carefully examined the torn throat through the handkerchief, wiping away some bloodstains from the broken wound and letting Wang Shanyue smell them.
Seeing him nod, confirming her guess, she chuckled and asked, "Why does Ghost Kill Horse need to be poisoned beforehand?"
Xiao Fangliang stood up, dusted off his sleeves, and reminded him, "Hanhan, go check on your goods."
Wang Shanyue was startled, then suddenly slapped his forehead, finally remembering his extremely important cargo.
"It's over!"
He turned around almost as if he were flying, and led the group of bodyguards into the house.
Wangyuan Escort Agency is not only the largest in Zhongjing, but also the number one escort agency in the martial arts world. The fee for a single escort mission is frighteningly high, worth a hundred gold pieces. Even so, people still come in droves to entrust their goods to them. It is precisely because of their reputation for never losing a shipment that their escort agency is not only famous in the martial arts world, but also has influence in the imperial court.
Therefore, all valuables and people are handled by Wangyuan Escort Agency, trusted by both the martial arts world and the imperial court. If he ruins the reputation of this delivery to King Xia Nan, his father will surely beat him to death.
The group rushed through the hall, so anxious that no one noticed that blood was silently seeping out from the cracks in the beams above their heads...
At that moment, in the stable, Tang Yu stood beside Xiao Fangliang, looking down at her little donkey that had died peacefully, and silently mourned for it for two seconds.
Then he clicked his tongue and said, "Not content with poisoning, they even slit his throat."
Xiao Fangliang carefully wiped his fingers clean with a new handkerchief, then glanced at the horse carcass. "It was quite vicious."
As he raised his eyes and smiled, he regained his usual gentle and nonchalant demeanor.
The two returned to the central hall together, stopping almost simultaneously, as if by some strange unspoken understanding, and looked up at the ceiling above them.
The thick, sticky, dark red blood hung between the cracks, like dewdrops on spider silk, slowly gathering into a single drop at the end until the 'spider silk' could no longer bear it.
Tick-tock.
The blood finally lost its balance and fell straight down in front of the two people, crashing onto the blue bricks.
They looked away, their eyes met, and both saw a hint of surprise in each other's eyes, but neither spoke first.
On the second floor, Wang Shanyue had already carefully inspected the area to ensure that the seal was intact and there were no signs of tampering before he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Tang Yu and Xiao Fangliang were not thinking about the valuable goods, but instead headed straight for the door corresponding to the bloodstains.
Tang Yu tried, but the door was locked from the inside and could not be pushed open.
"A-Yue," Xiao Fangliang called softly, taking two steps back.
Wang Shanyue immediately understood, and rushed over in three steps, kicking the door with a flying kick.
With a loud bang, the wooden door burst open. Startled, Tang Yu instinctively took two steps back, somewhat annoyed that the person hadn't even warned her.
As soon as the door opened, a stronger stench of blood hit the nose than in the stables.
Everyone crowded around and peered into the room, all of them gasping in shock.
The shopkeeper hurried over, and when he saw the scene inside, his face changed drastically. He couldn't catch his breath, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted from fright.
Inside the room lay a corpse.
"Old Xu!"
One of the bodyguards recognized him and cried out in surprise.
At this moment, Old Xu stared wide-eyed, kneeling and facing the window, as if he had seen something terrifying.
There was a long, thin gash on his neck, deep enough to expose the bone. The blood, though half-congealed, had already soaked through his entire body, flowing down his torso and clothes, and pooling beneath him in a thick, blackish pool of blood.
The blood seeped into the cracks of the wooden floor, and after a night, it eventually turned into the blood that Tang Yu and the other person saw dripping from the ceiling.
In an instant, there was a deathly silence.
The window was not closed, and a gentle breeze blew through, causing the window frame to sway slightly and drawing in the damp air after the rain, making the stench of blood even more pungent.
“A ghost…it’s a ghost!” The waiter trembled, his voice shaking, and pointed to the old locust tree outside the window. “In the beginning…when the ghostly wailing first started, the first person to die was kneeling under that tree.”
Xiao Fangliang was not affected by his nonsense. Instead, he strolled around the room casually until he reached the window and stopped to take a breath of fresh air.
He unfolded his folding fan, a faint smile appearing on his lips: "Oh? So when did this ghostly wailing begin?"
Xiao Er swallowed silently, his voice trembling with tears, and said, "It was about ten years ago. At first, it was soft, like a kitten's meow, but later the crying became more and more shrill. Even after the rain that night, the girl named He Hong from the west of the village, for some reason, was found kneeling under that old locust tree the next day."
"That's why we advise our guests not to go out at night."
As Tang Yu listened, she examined the corpse, tilted her head in confusion, and asked, "How do ghosts usually kill people? With knives or swords?"
The others were somewhat bewildered by her question, and one of them tentatively asked, "A ghost killing someone shouldn't need a weapon, right?"
Tang Yu smiled and nodded, analyzing, "The victim's neck wound was neat, the cut from the weapon was smooth and thin, neither deep nor shallow, and the flesh didn't even have a single curled edge. It was clearly a sword wound. It must have been a master swordsman who made it impossible for this镖爷 (bodyguard/escort) to even draw his sword."
She paused for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the sword at the side of the corpse, and chuckled softly, "A ghost that can kill with a single blow? Being a ghost isn't easy these days."
His words were like a sharp blade cutting through the fog, shattering the rumors of "ghosts killing people".
The waiter was stunned and couldn't find any reason to refute it.
“That’s right!” Wang Shanyue also realized and nodded repeatedly. “It is indeed a sword wound. It seems that the murderer lured Old Xu to an empty house, killed him, and then jumped out of the window to escape. He also killed the horse along with him. He is truly extremely vicious!”
Before she could finish speaking, Xiao Fangqiong let out a sigh from the window.
Unable to bear listening to Wang Shanyue's wild guesses any longer, he asked helplessly, "Didn't you notice? The people who killed the man and the man who killed the horse weren't the same group of people."
"Huh? Why?" Wang Shanyue clearly didn't understand.
Xiao Fangliang tapped the window frame with his folding fan. "The wound on the horse's neck is shallow on the sides and deep in the middle, obviously made with a curved blade. Also, there isn't much blood in the neck, indicating that the horse was poisoned first. And compared to the way Old Xu was killed with a sword, doesn't this seem a bit disjointed?"
Upon hearing this, Tang Yu's lips curled into a slight smile, showing a hint of admiration for this delicate and somewhat picky young nobleman.
Although this person did not know martial arts and his temperament was out of place with the rest of the escort team, everyone was used to it, and the second young master of the Wang family took care of him in every way and obeyed his every command.
For a time, it was impossible to tell who was in charge.
That's interesting.
Wang Shanyue still had doubts and argued, "Perhaps there is more than one of them, and they use different weapons. Moreover... compared to killing one person, there are many horses. If they were afraid of making too much noise, wouldn't it be reasonable to poison them first and then kill them?"
"No, it's backwards," Tang Yu said.
"Rebelled?" Wang Shanyue asked, puzzled.
Tang Yu countered, "Why would a master of poison not use poison when killing someone, but instead strike in person? Or, for example, why would a master who can kill with a single sword strike, leaving the victim no time to even draw their sword, go to the trouble of poisoning them?"
"A person's methods often reveal their instincts. When faced with a situation, people will first use the method they are most familiar with, rather than the most complicated one."
A hint of a smile flashed in Tang Yu's eyes.
This is a kind of habitual way of thinking. For example, even if members of the Tang Clan hate their enemies to the point of wanting to kill them with their own hands, they will still habitually use drugs or sleeping potions.
It's not a strategy, it's a habit.
“Young Master Su is right.” Xiao Fangliang nodded slightly and pointed his folding fan towards the window. “Besides, there are no drug residues in this room. Otherwise, this little centipede wouldn’t have come in to take shelter from the rain.”
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a small black centipede slowly crawling along the wall by the window.
Snakes, insects, rats, and ants are naturally more sensitive to danger than humans. On rainy days, they will crawl into houses to take shelter from the rain. If there is medicine in the house the night before, the centipede will not stay there after the rain has stopped and the sun has come out.
"Young Master Su might as well try it on the corpse; there shouldn't be any signs of poisoning there."
Seeing Xiao Fangliang looking at her, Tang Yu took out a silver needle and stepped forward to test it. Sure enough, there was no change in color, and she nodded.
"Then we'll have to arrest two groups of people?" Wang Shanyue was somewhat discouraged. "By the end of the night, even if they're not ghosts, they'll have disappeared long ago."
"No rush." Tang Yu smiled slightly. "The person who harmed the horse may have escaped, but the one who killed the horse... is still in the inn."
"Huh?" Wang Shanyue was clearly surprised.
He looked at Xiao Fangliang and saw a gentle smile on his face, so he knew that Xiao Fangliang also agreed with Su Yutang.
Why am I the only one who doesn't understand?
Before he could ask, Xiao Fangliang twirled his fan, his eyes filled with mockery, and spoke first: "After you killed someone, why did you lock the door but leave the window wide open?"
He paused, then asked in a deep voice, "Are you afraid others won't know that the person escaped through the window? Or do you hope others will think the murderer escaped through the window?"
Clearly, the other party is the latter.
If someone is so careful as to lock the door from the inside, why would they leave the window wide open?
Upon hearing this, Tang Yu suddenly thought of her younger brother.
After doing something bad, that kid would not only close the doors and windows, but also meticulously restore the furnishings in the room. Although he often slipped up, he would never create a scene as flawed, contradictory, and disjointed as this one.
I don't know how his health is.
Tang Yu turned her gaze back and suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question: "Young Master Wang, did you sleep well last night?"
“It’s good, it’s good.” Wang Shanyue was puzzled.
Tang Yu asked with a half-smile, "Last night there was thunder and rain, and ghostly wailing, but I suppose all of you镖爷 (bodyguards) slept very soundly?"
His gaze swept over the crowd.
There was a moment of silence, and everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.
I hadn't thought of it before, but after asking this question, I suddenly realized:
Yes, they slept so soundly last night.
[Author's Note]
Goodnight, Makka Pakka.
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