East Street Ghost Street
When, when was Wu Qi replaced?
Yi Shen kept replaying the events in his mind.
Suddenly he remembered the loud argument he had witnessed in front of the jewelry shop. He glanced back at her, and in that one glance, Wu Qi was replaced.
His expression was icy, all manners were thrown to the wind, and he disregarded all pretense of concealing his abilities. The soft sword in his hand was pressed against the woman's throat as he asked, "Wu Qi, where did she go?"
Seeing this, everyone retreated, fearing that this pure and noble young man would go mad and kill.
"Wu Qi" shrugged helplessly and said, "Aren't I just Wu Qi?"
Yi Shen said firmly, "No, you are not her."
Wu Qi's neck was still bleeding, but she stood in the crowd and laughed for a while, then put her hands on her hips and said, "Boring, well, all I can say is that she's probably still alive."
She looked up at the waning moon tonight.
Under the waning moon's glow, the East Street was desolate and deserted.
There were no glass lanterns or red lanterns on the trees, and the whole street was shrouded in moonlight. A gust of wind blew, swirling up the fallen leaves and causing skirts to flutter.
Wu Qi walked aimlessly down the deserted street.
Because of a pastry shop called "Li's Pastry Shop," East Street is generally considered a ghost street. Even during the Fire Festival, no one dares to come to East Street to sweep up fallen leaves. Over the years, the fallen leaves have covered the ground, appearing even more pale under the waning moon.
"Come on, come on, come with me?"
Her voice was sweet and girlish, but it was extremely eerie on the street.
The woman was dressed in white, wearing a red veiled hat, and the red lantern she carried was the only red light on the street.
She stood in front, smiling, and led Wu Qi forward, saying sweetly, "Want to come with me to eat some rice cake?"
Wu Qi, his feet resting on withered leaves, nodded like a puppet.
The woman chuckled twice and then fell silent.
One person carried a red lantern, while another, like a puppet on strings, slowly moved forward under the waning moon, until the signboard of "Li's Pastry Shop" drew ever closer.
The woman reached for Wu Qi's waist and threw the dagger at the entrance of the pastry shop, while Wu Qi remained unmoved throughout.
Two laughs came from under the red veil.
The door of the pastry shop suddenly opened, letting in the smell of dust that hadn't been cleaned in a long time.
The woman in white carried a red lantern and stepped into the pastry shop. Wu Qi also lifted his foot and followed her into the pastry shop as if he had lost consciousness.
The dusty pastry shop looked like it had been ransacked; the tables and chairs were askew, the dried and moldy pastries were scattered on the floor, and there were several footprints on the wall. If you looked closely, you could also see a few streaks of blood.
The flaming lights inside the lantern burned out, plunging the room into darkness.
Bang--
The sound of the door closing rang out, and Wu Qi slowly blinked, the voices of many women echoing in the pastry shop.
Laughter and tears were mixed together, like a ghost, bitter and desolate.
Suddenly, the red lanterns lit up, illuminating the woman in white. She had removed her red veil at some point, revealing her entire face, just as the servant had described.
She had lines drawn on her face indicating many children and much happiness, and her skin was rough, but she was certainly not ugly.
Her eyes were tightly closed, her lips remained still, but the sounds inside the room continued, growing louder and louder, as if trying to engulf Wu Qi.
Whether someone is human or ghost, you'll know once you stab them.
Wu Qi secretly clenched the pink jade hairpin in his hand, thinking to himself, "I wonder if the pink jade hairpin given by Yi Shen can withstand this stab."
The dagger was left outside the pastry shop; she only had a jade hairpin in her hand.
She doesn't wear jade hairpins often. The pink jade hairpin that Yi Shen gave her was only worn once, when she was painting in the peach blossom forest. She usually treasures it very much, but she doesn't know if she can keep it today.
If it can't be saved, then Yi Shen will definitely send another one.
Wu Qi curled his lips into a smile and, gripping the jade hairpin, thrust it toward the man's neck.
I don't care if you're human or ghost.
The sounds inside the house ceased, and in the light of the lantern, Wu Qi could see that what was flowing from the person's neck was not blood, but glitter.
Wu Qi held the lantern close to her neck, and it was indeed Liu Ge, the Liu Ge from Pingwu Mountain.
What's going on?
A moment later, Wu Qi heard the voices of several women. This time, they weren't pretending to be ghosts; they were genuinely discussing their surprise at Wu Qi.
"Wait a minute, she...she...stabbed my sister to death?"
"My sister died a long time ago! But didn't you throw away her dagger!?"
"I will definitely throw her dagger away. If you don't believe me, go outside and see for yourself. I promise I've definitely thrown it away!"
"Aaaaaah, I have to go fix my sister again!!"
Wu Qi listened quietly. She looked around but couldn't find anything to wipe the jewels off the pink jade hairpin. In her heart, she thanked the deceased "sister" and used the hem of her skirt to wipe off the jewels.
"Aaaaaah! My sister's skirt!"
Finally, a woman couldn't stand it any longer. She suddenly appeared out of nowhere, pointed at Wu Qi, and said, "You actually used my sister's skirt to wipe Liu Ge?!"
This person was petite, without a veil or the "many children, many blessings" line drawn on her face, and the slap mark on her face had not yet faded. Wu Qi recognized her as the person who had been slapped by her mother in public.
"Is this repaying kindness with enmity?" Wu Qi smiled at the woman, without any sense of blame. "I gave you a flower, and you actually played tricks on me to scare me."
The woman was speechless and said, "I..."
"Alright, everyone else, come out too," Wu Qi said.
Upon hearing this, the remaining three women also emerged from the shadows. One of them lit up the pastry shop, allowing Wu Qi to see their faces clearly.
It is familiar.
Before the Fire Festival began, these were the first to remove their veils, and then more and more people removed their veils.
Wu Qi said, "Why don't you introduce yourselves?"
The woman who had been slapped raised her hand and said, "I'll go first, I'll go first. My name is Chen Pingle."
A woman lifted her red veil, revealing a face painted with lines symbolizing many children and good fortune. It was she who had led Wu Qi to Li's Pastry Shop, carrying a red lantern.
She said, "My name is Chang Ying. I'm sorry I startled you earlier."
"It's alright, I wasn't that scared." Wu Qi looked at the other woman and smiled, "We bought a flower from the woman selling flowers in the flower shop."
The woman nodded and said, "Yes, my name is Sun Qi."
"As for the other one, wasn't it you who gave me the incense?" Wu Qi asked.
She smelled a very fragrant scent and her consciousness became somewhat blurred. When she regained consciousness, she was already on East Street, with a "woman in human skin" leading the way.
She decided to play along and pretended to follow the "woman in human skin" to the pastry shop.
“Yes, I am Li Xingge.” Li Xingge looked at the only dead woman. “This is my sister, Li Shuying.”
Is your surname Li?
Wu Qi asked, "Is Li's Pastry Shop your family's? Does your sister like to eat 'tiao tou gao' (a type of rice cake)?"
“This pastry shop belongs to our family, but my sister doesn’t like to eat tiao tou gao (a type of rice cake). She hates tiao tou gao the most,” Li Xingge said while looking for needles and thread. “The one who likes to eat tiao tou gao is Lord Zhao Lang.”
Wu Qi asked in confusion, "Zhao Lang? Same name as Lord Zhou, but different surname?"
"Yes, but these two people are completely different."
Li Xingge handed the needle and thread he found to Chen Pingle. Chang Ying and Sun Qi worked together to knock Li Shuying down. Chen Pingle squatted on the ground and used the needle and thread to sew up the small hole that Wu Qi had pierced.
Li Shuying had many wounds all over her body that had been stitched up with needle and thread. It was likely that several women had injured her skin before Wu Qi. Fortunately, the Liuge from Pingwu Mountain was thicker than blood, so it wouldn't seep out through the stitched wounds when poured into Li Shuying's body.
"Why did you fill Li Shuying's body with Liuge?" Wu Qi asked.
Li Xingge seemed to have thought of something, and said sadly, "Because when I found my sister, there was hardly any blood left in her body, and she was practically dried up."
What?
Wu Qi looked at Li Shuying in surprise.
"Zhao Lang wanted to force my sister to marry him, but she refused, saying that she would rather die than marry him. Her parents helped her escape overnight. When Zhao Lang found out, he sent his men to chase after her, but they happened to run into Lord Zhou, who had come to Pingwu to take up a post. My sister was thus saved."
“Zhao Lang was not giving up. My sister knew that a higher-ranking official could have an advantage, so she kept pestering Lord Zhou. My family and I didn’t know much about my sister and Lord Zhou’s relationship. I only knew that Lord Zhao had arranged a position for my sister and had always kept her by his side.”
"During that period, my family and my sister were all safe and sound."
"Later, Lord Zhou was transferred to the capital, but my sister still couldn't escape Zhao Lang's clutches and died tragically in his mansion. I don't know who killed her; I only know that when I found her in the mass grave, she had already been dead for a long time."
“My parents went to demand an explanation, but they were thrown into prison and will be executed in the fall.”
In just a few days, Li Xingge's family was destroyed and he died.
There are always too many sad things in the world. I thought I had already encountered a sad thing that would make me cry, but I didn't expect that what I would encounter tomorrow would be even more heartbreaking.
Every single thing was a misfortune.
Wu Qi stood there, silent for a long time. She clenched the pink jade hairpin in her hand, not knowing what to say or do. She could only stare blankly at Li Shuying's corpse.
No wonder her skin is rough; she must have been exposed to wind and rain countless times.
Wu Qi felt that he was the frog in the well, having long been living under the title of a noble family's son, and not understanding the hardships of life.
She asked, "Why didn't Lord Zhou take her with him when he returned to the capital?"
Even if Zhou Lang didn't know he was the head of the Gold Coinage Bureau, it would be an easy thing for him to bring Li Shuying back to the capital if he wanted to.
“Because Lord Zhou once said that he wanted to restore a clear and bright environment for all the scholars in the world, and that he wanted all the women in the world to be able to enter the court and serve as officials. There are already precedents of women serving as officials in the capital.” Li Xingge said, “My sister made an agreement with Lord Zhou. She said she would take the exam to go to the capital and continue to serve as his subordinate.”
"At that time, Lord Zhou smiled and said he would wait for her in the capital."
Chen Pingyue sighed, straightened Li Shuying's clothes, and murmured, "With my sister's talent, passing the exam to go to the capital shouldn't be a problem. I originally thought the two of them would still be together like they were in Pingwu City, but who knew that Zhao Lang, that bastard, is utterly unworthy of being human!"
Wu Qi asked, "So you're putting on a show at the pastry shop, turning East Street into a ghost town, in order to get more people to help you?"
"Yes and no..."
A woman's voice outside the door interrupted Li Xingge's words.
All the people inside heard was the woman saying, "I guarantee your little sweetheart will be alright, so could you please stop pointing your sword at me?"
Wu Qi smiled.
Yi Shen has arrived.
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