Xia He felt a little embarrassed and gave a dry laugh, "To be honest, I actually stole those things."
While fleeing from disaster, she saw a down-on-their-luck opera troupe being invited by a wealthy man in town to perform at a funeral. She took advantage of the chaos and went into the wealthy man's house with the opera troupe, originally hoping to freeload.
After watching several plays, all sorts of thoughts flashed through her mind, and in the end, almost inexplicably, she stole several costumes and some makeup products from the opera troupe.
After stealing it back, she was terrified and didn't dare show it to anyone for a long time. Until two years ago, when they returned to their own village, life became harder and harder. In fact, very few people would stay overnight in this village, as it was not only remote but also haunted.
In the past, people who came to stay had only entered because they had gotten lost. They wouldn't usually come here intentionally. Song Tantan believed this, and that their group had also come here because they had taken the wrong turn.
The so-called haunting was actually because many people died in the village and no one came to collect the bodies. Some people who accidentally wandered in were frightened. Later, the ghosts returned and buried the rotting corpses one by one.
Seeing that their relatives, especially their own, had not been properly buried for so long after their deaths, the living villagers were heartbroken. So, in the days immediately after they returned, they spent their days burying the bodies and their nights gathering together to cry.
The place is near the hills, and there are no other villages around. At night, there are often birdsong and howls of wild animals, along with their cries, echoing around the entire village, which is quite eerie, like the cries of ghosts.
People outside were saying the place was haunted, and Xia He remembered the things she had stolen from the opera troupe, so she decided to play along.
"I'm just a girl, and I can't go out to find odd jobs. My embroidery skills aren't very good either, so I thought of this crooked way. I've been lucky, though, and nothing bad has happened so far." In fact, they had only dressed up as ghosts five times in total, earning a total of twenty-two taels of silver. They had never harmed anyone, but they never expected to be caught tonight.
"You guys are really bold. There are over a hundred of us, and we're all trained fighters. You dared to make a move against us. It would be strange if you didn't get caught." Song Tantan shook his head. They were too young and thought things were too simple. If it hadn't been them today, but someone else, who knows what would have happened to the rest of the villagers.
“We train regularly, and we run incredibly fast; most people can’t catch us.” Xia He said this with a hint of pride. This was a method she came up with. Every day, after the village children chopped firewood and picked wild vegetables, they would practice running away, just to save their lives.
Believe it or not, practicing all day really works. They run incredibly fast, and when they dress up as ghosts to scare people, their floor-length robes make them look like they're floating. Plus, they're very familiar with their surroundings, so they can often appear and disappear mysteriously at night.
When it came to training speed and learning to escape, Song Tantan was very interested, after all, she had done it before, it seemed that Xia He and she had some kind of connection.
"When it gets light, I'll find a few people to race you and see who can run faster. If you win, I'll give you the antidote; if you lose, you'll have to wait a few more days," Song Tantan said, throwing out a bait to entice them to agree to her request.
Xia He was overjoyed, feeling confident that they would win. She nodded immediately, "You have to keep your word. What if your fiancé disagrees?" In ancient times, men usually had more say, so it was normal for her to have this concern.
“He can’t disagree; he has to go along with me.” Song Tantan gave her a reassuring look, indicating that she wanted to sleep and that Xia He could go back.
The next day, just as dawn broke, Xia He arrived with the others. Of course, the four elders did not come. At this time, Lin Yu and the others were cooking porridge in the kitchen. He had eaten dry rations all day yesterday and did not want to eat dry rations again, so he got up early to have someone fetch water to cook porridge.
Although this trip was to deliver grain, we also brought enough food for them to eat on the return journey, including both coarse and fine grains, as well as some cured meat. This morning, we cooked cured meat porridge, which made him very hungry.
Hearing a knock at the door, he immediately became alert, gripped the hilt of his knife tightly, and led two young men who knew kung fu to open the door.
When the door opened, a beautiful young woman stood outside. She had bright, round eyes, a fair and rosy oval face, and long, black hair that reached her waist. Apart from her rather worn-out clothes, she was beautiful in every way.
"I'm here to find your young master's fiancée. She made an appointment with us." Although Xia He had a lot of resentment towards Lin Yu, this guy was incredibly arrogant last night, constantly intimidating them and even tugging at her clothes, almost suffocating her.
However, circumstances were beyond her control. Xia He showed no sign of distress, her smile genuine and gentle, so that no one could tell that something was amiss.
The young master's fiancée?
Lin Yu took a moment to process what was going on before asking who it was. "Young Master" refers to Master Ye, whose fiancée is Song Tantan. Apart from Song Tantan, the rest of the group are all men. This girl is here to see Song Tantan.
After staring at the group for a while, Lin Yu asked uncertainly, "Are you the group that dressed up as ghosts to scare people last night?"
Xia He's smile froze, almost failing her. She said dryly, "It's us. My name is Xia He. We apologize for yesterday. We apologize to you today. Please be magnanimous and don't hold it against us."
Lin Yu was already labeled a villain in her mind, a bully who relied on others' power and influence. Sigh, little devils are the most troublesome. She had to treat him with kindness and gentleness to avoid him causing her trouble again.
"So this is what you look like?" Lin Yu's eyes flashed with a complicated expression. This person looked like a ghost last night, but he didn't expect him to be so beautiful after washing up. His heart couldn't help but pound a few times.
Looking at the others, they were all clean and cute, especially Xia He's younger brother, who looked seven times like her and was very handsome and refined.
Last night I disliked them, but now I think they were forced by life to resort to dressing up as ghosts to scare people, not because they had bad intentions.
Lin Yu, a fan of good looks, completely lost his composure. Gone was the fierce and arrogant demeanor from last night. He immediately changed his expression, smiling like a fool as he welcomed the person into the courtyard.
"Have you had breakfast yet? If not, you can eat here. The meat porridge is ready." Lin Yu greeted Xia He and the others very attentively, especially Xia He and her younger brother, who had already been pressed down into chairs by him.
Xia He: "..." What kind of trouble is this person causing now?
Xia Ping: The way this guy looked at my sister was weird. He looked like someone who hadn't eaten meat in a long time was suddenly seeing meat in a bowl and his mouth was watering, as if he wanted to pounce on it and gnaw on it right away.
Looking at the bowl of preserved meat porridge that Lin Yu handed her, Xia He instinctively swallowed, but she didn't dare to eat it. Who knew if this guy had put something in the porridge? She subtly shifted her gaze and asked gently, "Have your young master and his fiancée gotten up yet? If not, we'll come back later."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com