Even though Chen Xuanrong was good at pretending, she was now on the verge of collapse: "Brother Lin, let's move out! This is too scary, I can't take it anymore."
Madam Jiang's heart was pounding: "Shi Lin, tonight is too abnormal. What if it really is... what should we do? Should we move out?"
Chen Xuanrong chimed in, "Yes, yes, let's move out and find somewhere else to live. If that doesn't work, we can continue staying at the inn."
Jiang Shilin frowned, his heart filled with fear. He had never encountered such a situation before and didn't know how to handle it.
"The inn has been closed for a long time, and we don't know when it will reopen. The brokerage firm has already taken our money..."
Chen Xuanrong shrieked, "We need to get our money back! We need to make him compensate us! He's so heartless, renting this haunted house to us."
Jiang Shilin frowned. He thought he had inquired and found that the house had been rented before and had never been haunted.
But then he thought of the events that had happened in the past few days, and what he had just witnessed, and he had to swallow his words.
Jiang Shilin looked at Chen Xuanrong and then at Old Madam Jiang, and finally said, "Alright, I'll go to the brokerage firm at daybreak and have them find us a new house."
Chen Xuanrong said fiercely, "We must get the money back! We also need to make him pay for our doctor's treatment!"
Jiang Shilin felt very uncomfortable with her pointed face, monkey-like features, and the fact that she kept talking about money.
The Jiang family is not short of money, but they are not fools either; they will naturally take back what is rightfully theirs.
But Chen Xuanrong seemed obsessed with money; silver was her lifeblood, giving him the illusion that the Chen family didn't give her any money to spend.
In her memory, the eldest daughter of the Chen family was incredibly successful and charitable. Every year, she would spend a large sum of money, whether it was distributing porridge or helping charitable organizations.
Chen Xuanrong never cared about these things.
Jiang Shilin looked deeply at his fiancée and suddenly felt a sense of unfamiliarity.
This is not his childhood sweetheart, someone he grew up with without any romantic feelings for.
Ning Yao covered her ears, startled by Zhi Lan's scream, and couldn't help but complain, "Ouch, you could sing soprano..."
Zhilan didn't hear what she was muttering at all, and said in a trembling voice, "Miss, it really... is a ghost..."
Ning Yao didn't take it seriously: "The wind just blew the door shut, what's there to be afraid of? If there really were ghosts, your young lady could catch them all in no time."
"I'm afraid someone might be playing tricks..."
Inside the ancestral hall, there was a partitioned room with the door half-open. Ning Yao stared intently into the room.
"You've frightened my maid so badly, aren't you going to give me an explanation?"
The room was silent. For a moment, Zhilan's mind went blank: "Miss, who are you talking to?"
Ning Yao gave a speechless twitch of her lips: "This ghostly act can scare you like this? Looks like you're really scared!"
Zhilan was almost in tears: "Miss...this servant..."
Ning Yao ignored her and continued speaking towards the cubicle: "If you don't come out on your own initiative and wait for me to make a move, don't blame me for being ruthless."
After she finished speaking, the room remained silent. Seeing that the other person was going against her, Ning Yao instantly felt annoyed.
"Since you are unwilling to cooperate, then..."
As she spoke, Ning Yao drew her snake-skin whip from her waist with lightning speed and lashed it into the cubicle.
The serpent whip seemed to have eyes, nimbly darting into the cubicle and coiling around something.
Ning Yao held the other end of the whip and felt the other person struggling violently.
With a little internal force and a strong pull, the item that had just been separated was pulled out.
It crashed heavily to the ground with a thud, sending dust flying high into the air.
Immediately following was a muffled groan of pain, and a humanoid object, or more precisely, a person, fell to the ground.
Zhilan shuddered, and Ning Yao was speechless: "This whip can't bind a ghost, are you still afraid?"
Upon closer inspection, Zhilan realized that there was indeed a person on the ground, and it was a woman. Her fear instantly vanished by more than half. As long as it wasn't a ghost, everything was fine.
"This servant is no longer afraid."
Ning Yao did not loosen her grip on the whip. After feeling the pain, the woman on the ground began to struggle desperately, trying to break free of her restraints.
After realizing that everything he did was in vain, he raised his head and glared fiercely at Ning Yao.
Ning Yao watched her with great interest. Because of her study of ancient medical books, she could now determine a person's age simply by observing their movements, posture, voice, and so on.
However, this time nothing could be discerned.
Ning Yao couldn't help but find it somewhat interesting.
"You only agreed to come out after I had to use such methods to beg you? Doesn't it hurt when you fell to the ground?"
The woman stared at Ning Yao with eyes as if they were poisoned, her gaze filled with boundless resentment.
She just stared at Ning Yao without saying a word, which gave Ning Yao a bit of a headache.
"If you still refuse to speak, then I will make sure you never speak again, and you can continue to stay in this ancestral hall from now on."
"Trying to scare people with howling is rather childish."
"I wonder if you'll still be able to cause trouble after I cripple your martial arts?"
When martial arts were mentioned, the other party finally made a move.
"Who are you? Did Chen Sheng send you?"
Ning Yao crossed her arms and looked down at him, asking, "Who is Chen Sheng? And who are you? Why are you skilled in martial arts, yet trapped in this ancestral hall?"
The woman was stunned for a moment. It was obvious that Ning Yao's question made her realize that Ning Yao did not know Chen Sheng, nor was she sent by Chen Sheng.
"Chen Sheng is my husband, and a heartless man at that. He poisoned me because of our past relationship and locked me up here, depriving me of my freedom!"
Seeing the woman lost in her memories and her expression becoming increasingly frantic, Ning Yao interrupted her.
“This house used to belong to a family that had passed the imperial examinations. Later, they sold their property and the house changed hands. Two years ago, the previous owner moved north to the capital, and the house was sold to me. I am now the owner of the house.”
"Is the Chen Sheng you're talking about the scholar from back then, or the former master of this household?"
A look of confusion crossed the woman's face: "I don't know any of the people you're talking about. Is Chen Sheng dead?"
“Miss, the slave trader said during the day that this house had only been owned by a scholar and the previous owner, and that you were the third owner. But this woman said that Chen Sheng imprisoned her here. Could the slave trader be lying?”
Ning Yao thought for a moment and shook her head: "There shouldn't be anything, but we might have missed something."
"It is now the eighth year of the Yan Kingdom. How old are you?" Ning Yao asked again.
Upon hearing this, the woman began to mutter, "The eighth year of the Yan calendar? How could it be eight years? Shouldn't it be the fifty-first year of the Yan calendar? How could this be?"
"The 51st year of the Yan calendar? Isn't that the length of the late emperor's reign? The late emperor reigned for a full 60 years. After his death, His Majesty ascended the throne, and the count started anew. It has been 17 years since then."
Zhilan was shocked: "Could it be that you've been trapped here for seventeen years?"
Ning Yao said, "Sixteen years!"
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