Chapter 50 Chapter 50 The Funeral-Happy Demon
"Now that my mother is out, I thought I'd try my luck and see if I can find that sister."
Shancha's eyes were filled with emotion after hearing this. She said, "It's amazing that you still remember that singer. If it were me, I would be truly delighted to know that someone like me still cares about me."
"Sir, why don't you tell me the physical characteristics of the singer you mentioned? Perhaps I will recognize her."
The surprise in Chen Qing's eyes was undeniable. "Really? Thank you so much, dear sister!" She then lowered her eyes in thought. "That sister, I remember she loved red clothes and was extremely beautiful, and..."
When she heard the word "red clothes", a hint of discomfort suddenly flashed across Shancha's eyes.
Chen Qing accurately grasped the emotion in her eyes and said calmly, "Also, she has a cinnabar mole between her eyebrows. That sister also loves red carp and often feeds them in the pond in my backyard."
“Moreover, she doesn’t feed fish, but instead…” Chen Qing paused deliberately for a moment, and indeed saw the other person’s pale face.
Seeing Chen Qing suddenly stop talking, she suddenly looked up and asked, "On the contrary what?" There was a panic in her eyes that she could not hide.
Chen Qing smiled faintly and said, "On the contrary, they like to be fed with coarse grains. What I didn't expect is that those red carp actually eat coarse grains."
Shancha's grip on the corner of the table suddenly loosened. She forced a smile and said, "I've never met the person you're talking about, but red carp eating grains is quite common. It's just that few people try it."
Shen Qing couldn't hide the disappointment on her face. "Is that so? Then I'll ask other sisters another day."
"No!"
"Hmm?" Chen Qing looked up in confusion.
Perhaps sensing her own loss of composure, Shan Cha uncomfortably smoothed her hair and said, "I've been in Yuanchun Tower since I was ten. I've been there for twenty years, and after all, I know most of the girls. If there really was a beautiful woman who loved wearing red clothes and had a cinnabar mole on her forehead, how could I not know her?"
"The girl you mentioned is definitely not in the building."
Chen Qing said disappointedly: "Is that so..."
Shancha regained her usual gentle demeanor. "I think it's been a while, and you were too young back then, so you must have remembered it wrongly."
"Since my sister said it's gone, then it's gone. I'll go to another building to check it out another day." Chen Qing seemed to have given up on finding out, and held his chin up to concentrate on listening to the music.
She was certain in her heart at this moment that the Happy Funeral Demon had a close connection with Yuanchun Tower, but for some reason, she asked the people in the tower to keep silent about anything related to her.
Seeing that she had gathered enough information, she took the jewelry and sent the man away, then took advantage of the situation to enter the backyard of Yuanchun Tower, which was also the place in Liu Wanxiu's memories.
I saw that the maids and servants in the yard had already started to get busy. Some were washing clothes for the ladies in the building by the lake, some were carrying buckets of bathing water, and some were carrying firewood, all of them were busy running around.
There was numbness in everyone's eyes, as if they were a group of puppets forced to act in order to survive.
No one cared about Chen Qing, the extra "person".
Chen Qing followed her memory and came to the deck, where there were only two women washing clothes.
The former covered boat disappeared, replaced by a medium-sized uncovered boat tied to the shore, which could easily accommodate two people but would be too crowded for three.
As soon as Chen Qing arrived in front of the boat without a canopy, she was stopped by one of the women.
She stopped Chen Qing on the deck, her old eyes, covered with fine lines, widening as she saw a young man dressed in exquisite clothes and with a refined temperament. She knew it was a noble who had strayed into this place. She skillfully wiped the water stains from her hands onto her dress, and then said, "This is a filthy place. My noble, please don't come here. I will take you back."
Chen Qing said, "I came here specifically to borrow this boat."
The old woman murmured, "How can we move forward when we know the boat has no oars?"
Chen Qing glanced around after hearing this, and suddenly smiled, "Since there's no oar, just find one nearby."
The old woman was stunned.
I saw Chen Qing find two long wooden boards from a corner. The boards were two palms wide, neither thick nor thin, and the weight she could accept.
This was originally a long wooden board that the kitchen servant was going to cut for firewood. Unexpectedly, before it was chopped into several pieces, the sharp-eyed Chen Qing saw it and found that it could be used as an oar.
The old woman seemed to see an old friend through her deep sorrow, and tears suddenly flashed in her eyes.
Chen Qing asked curiously, “Why did grandma suddenly cry?”
The old woman shook her head and silently pulled out two old white cloths from the side and wrapped the tips of the two wooden boards for her. "The wood is rough, please don't hurt your hands."
Chen Qing watched the old woman's skillful movements and asked, "This boat looks relatively new. Has it always been like this? Does it have an owner? If I use it today, will the owner be unhappy?"
The old woman stared at the boat in a daze. "It wasn't originally a boat. It was a covered boat, but it got dirty. They smashed it and burned it. This boat is mine. You can use it if you want."
"I would like to thank Grandma here."
Chen Qing noticed that there were many ripe lotus pods in Huachun Pond, so she moved up her lotus picking plan for today. In the next few days, when the Happy Funeral Demon showed up, she might not have the chance to pick any lotus pods.
She held the wrapped "oar" and carefully stepped onto the boat with the help of her mother-in-law.
Another old woman who was working hard suddenly looked up at this time. When she saw that her companion had already sent the distinguished person onto the boat, her eyes popped out, "Ah Si, what are you doing! Oh, nonsense!" She clapped her hands in anxiety and turned around.
"My dear lady, please come down quickly! Don't fall into the water!" The old woman hurriedly stepped forward, pushed away Ah Si's wife, and was about to pull Chen Qing up.
Chen Qing had originally managed to keep his body steady, but after she pulled him like that, his body became unstable, and he was swaying and about to fall into the water.
Fortunately, at the critical moment, she pushed away the troublesome old woman and sat firmly in the boat. When she raised her eyes again, her eyes were filled with anger.
With all the commotion just now, the boat had unknowingly sailed some distance away. The old woman immediately became even more panicked, "Young Master, please come back! You can't trust what this crazy woman says! The lake is dangerous!"
Chen Qing said angrily, "Tell me, I just wanted to go boating and pick lotus flowers, how could it be dangerous?"
The old woman was so anxious that her words were unclear. She said, "The fish in the lake want to eat people! This boat is for dead people, not that crazy woman's boat. We can't use it! Come back quickly!"
Chen Qing suddenly perked up. She closed her almond-shaped eyes slightly and raised her voice, "I see there are only red carp in this lake. How could red carp eat people? And you said this boat is a ship of dead people. What do you mean? Are you indirectly calling me a dead person?"
The old woman slapped herself twice in panic. "Pooh! Pooh! No, no! What I meant is that someone died on this boat! The one who died was the boat owner. Those red carp are real man-eating creatures. Come on up!"
Compared to the old woman's frantic anxiety, Chen Qing was calm and composed. She leaned against the edge of the boat, propped up her chin and asked, "Tell me, who is the owner of this boat?"
The old woman said, "I only know that this boat was bought by a woman in the building three years ago, but I don't know who it was. Since then, the owner has never appeared. Until later, the owner suddenly died on the boat, and the boat was taken over by this crazy woman."
"Whenever someone wants to approach this boat, Ah Si will drive them away and refuse to let anyone get on the boat. But today..." Unexpectedly, today she was as if possessed by a ghost and suddenly agreed. Therefore, when the old woman looked up and saw the distinguished person getting on the boat, she had a look of ecstasy.
“Three years ago…” Chen Qing felt a sense of loss in his heart.
Soon she perked up again, "So what do you think about this red carp eating people?"
The old woman also shook her head. "I came to this building five years ago. At that time, people in the building had already said that the red carp here would eat people."
"I didn't believe it at first, but one day when I was washing clothes, I accidentally rubbed my finger and blood dripped into the Huachun Pond. The lake suddenly boiled. When I looked closely, I saw that there were densely packed red carp swimming at the bottom of the water. It could even jump! If I hadn't dodged quickly, I'm afraid my finger would have been lost long ago." When she said this, she sighed with lingering fear.
Then he urged earnestly: "Just come up quickly!"
Chen Qing snorted coldly, "I'm determined to pick the lotus pods today. You're not allowed to make any more noise, or I'll have my fake mother gouge out your eyes and tongue and kick you out for making such a fuss."
The threatening words were indeed effective. When the old woman heard them, she covered her mouth and eyes with her hands. In the end, she could only watch Chen Qing row the boat into the deep lotus leaves with a bitter face.
"Ouch!" The old woman pointed at the woman named Ah Si with a look of reproach on her face. "It's all your fault. It's okay if you go crazy on any other day, but you went crazy today and caused such a disaster. I just hope that little noble is okay! Otherwise, three lives won't be enough for you!"
The servants in this backyard are all of low status, bought cheaply by the fake mother. They can only spend their entire lives in a small courtyard, spending their days doing countless menial chores.
Sometimes they are not even considered human beings, not even as good as a pet of the lady in the building. This is what is meant by "life is cheaper than grass".
However, the dull-haired, lifeless-eyed Ah Si Po looked intently at the direction where Chen Qing disappeared, smiled foolishly, and said, "Ah Chou, come back early, and I'll make you some lotus seed soup."
As soon as the old woman saw her, she knew that she had gone crazy again. She sighed to herself, stamped her feet, and resigned herself to her fate and went back to wash clothes. From time to time, she looked into the depths of the lotus bush, fearing that something had happened to her.
Grandma Si was still standing on the deck, grinning foolishly as she said, "Ah Chou, come back soon. Grandma will make you some lotus seed soup..."
.
Chen Qing paddled the wooden oar with some difficulty and soon came to a wide area. There were bursts of fragrance all around, which was the unique smell of lotus flowers and lotus leaves, refreshing.
Chen Qing raised her hand and broke off a large lotus pod and brought it into the boat. She peeled open a lotus seed, revealing the tender white lotus flesh. She put the lotus flesh into her mouth and squinted her eyes in satisfaction.
Then she did not forget her main business. She took out the oil paper hidden in her arms, peeled off the layers of oil paper, revealing the bright red pig liver inside. She just threw it into the lake, and sure enough, she saw countless red carps rolling in the water, just to compete for that piece of meat.
The current scene is exactly the same as the one they described, so what exactly is the reason why these red carp have the habit of eating only raw meat?
Chen Qing lay in the boat, his hands resting on his head, his eyes closed, thinking.
The Happy Funeral Demon knew that these red carps loved to eat flesh and blood, and he brought five-year-old Liu Wanxiu to Yuanchun Tower and showed her the scenery.
Perhaps ordinary children would be frightened if they saw a stranger cutting his wrists and bleeding, but Liu Wanxiu could tell at a glance that the Happy Funeral Demon was crying, and she was not afraid at all. She even showed anger towards these red carp.
This shows that the relationship between the two is very close, at least Liu Wanxiu trusts her unilaterally.
The happy funeral demon did not attack the young girl and sent her back to the Liu family safely. As a result, Liu Wanxiu was able to grow up peacefully until she was fifteen.
When talking about her sister, the puzzled look on Liu's mother's face that day could not be faked. It either meant that she really didn't know there was such a thing as the Happy Funeral Demon, or... her acting skills were so good that she hid it from herself as well.
The red carp that eats raw flesh, Shancha's strange reaction, the boat that was dismantled and burned, Liu Wanxiu's sister...
Chen Qing's intuition told her that the Happy Funeral Demon had a huge connection with the Liu family and Yuanchun Tower, but because there was no thread connecting the several links, she was confused and bewildered.
At least someone in the building knew the happy funeral demon when she was alive, but for some reason they kept their mouths shut. They could only wait for Liu's mother's feedback... As long as Liu's mother could produce the things of that "sister", Chen Qing would be able to confirm that Liu's mother must be hiding something.
She let out a long breath and just as she opened her eyes, she saw a man in a red robe standing on the eaves of Yuanchun Tower. His black hair was tied up high, his waist and elbows were silver, and he looked neat and capable. If she looked closely, she could also see a black mass on his hand, which was the black leather fingerless gloves on his hand.
This is the outfit he usually wears when he goes out on business.
I must have run into a ghost today, dreaming about this guy, Chen Qing thought indifferently.
Well, maybe because he saw Chen Qing, the guy jumped from the eaves and flew towards him. He saw the small red dot getting bigger and bigger, getting closer and closer to him.
wrong.
Chen Qing suddenly sat up in the boat, her eyes wide open, "Damn it, this is not a dream!" she exclaimed.
Li Daoxuan jumped onto the boat and heard her muttering about ancestors. He frowned and asked, "What ancestors are you talking about?"
"Why are you here?! Didn't you go back home to recuperate?!" Chen Qing said in disbelief.
Li Daoxuan raised the corner of his lips and glanced at her, his eyes full of mystery. He said, "Aren't you smart? Guess it yourself."
Chen Qing guessed how he got here without even thinking: "How else can you do this except sending someone to follow me?! Shameless!"
"What is face? I don't know." His words were tantamount to acknowledging his own actions. Then he added, "But you're only half right."
After saying that, he kicked the wooden board used as an oar on the boat into the water.
Chen Qing hurriedly reached out to grab him, but he grabbed her slender wrist and she couldn't break free.
She was so angry that she fell back. She had overestimated his face. In a rage, she pushed Li Daoxuan and said, "Get out!"
The hull was shaken by this blow, but Li Daoxuan's body was extremely stable. Instead, Chen Qing lost her balance and fell towards him. Li Daoxuan looked at the person in his arms and straightened his expression in an instant.
"Mrs. Shen, you probably don't know that just as you left the room, someone discovered the skinned bodies of Shancha and Haitang in the house."
Shen Qing felt all the blood rushing to his head for a moment, "What did you say?"
"Don't you understand yet? You are now a suspect in the Dali Temple, and only I can help you." Li Daoxuan leaned over and whispered in her ear.
"Why don't you tell me why you came to Yuanchun Tower today? Why did you call the two singing girls, Haitang and Shancha, into your room? 'Eighteen Beats of the Hujia' is just an old, outdated song. Why did you come to Yuanchun Tower just to listen to it?"
Shen Qing could not hear anything Li Daoxuan asked. All she could think about was that just after she left, Haitang and Shancha were skinned and killed.
She couldn't help but wonder whether the Happy Funeral Demon had been targeting her since she entered Yuanchun Tower. When she was in the room, she hid somewhere in a dormant posture, laughing as she watched her presumptuously try to find information about her from the two people.
As soon as he left, the Happy Funeral Demon immediately killed the two of them with a smile, as a warning to him.
Did she notice me so early?
“Madam Shen, what are you still thinking about? You might as well agree to cooperate with me and exchange the information you know with me. I will also tell you what I have found out.”
"When did you know there were more great demons than just Bai Shuisha? Was it when you saw Bai Shuisha on the beam that day, hugging the Buddha statue and speaking affectionately, or was it even earlier, when you saw those paintings on the wall? I'm sure you came to Yuanchun Tower today just for this great demon, right?"
It was only when Li Daoxuan heard about the Yuanchun Tower skinning case that he realized the connection between the two.
He specially left something at the door of Bai Shuisha's house that day, so that he could sense it immediately if Bai Shuisha went out.
When someone died in the building, Baishuisha could stay at home peacefully. However, when he rushed to Yuanchun Building, he saw strange phenomena falling from the sky. The building was filled with evil energy, and it was obvious that there was still a big monster there.
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