Chuntao answered and hurried away. Wu Jinghua snorted lightly, bent down, and pulled the sack off Bailian’s head.
In the dark, she couldn’t see the other party’s face. She groped over the body and found a teapot clutched tightly in Bailian’s arms. Wu Jinghua suddenly felt a burst of fear. If Bailian hadn’t held onto that teapot out of sheer terror, they might have been discovered by now.
That fear quickly turned to anger. She yanked the teapot free and tossed it into the dirt of the flowerbed. “Hmph. Don’t blame me for being cruel. Blame yourself for following such a good master.”
As she spoke, she began removing the jewelry from Bailian’s body. Soon, hairpins and earrings had been stripped off in a handful. She hadn’t expected this dead girl to have skimmed off quite a bit after only two days in a good position. She’d never noticed before that Bailian was so greedy.
Wu Jinghua stuffed the things into her own robes, then began stripping Bailian’s clothes. Summer garments were thin. With a tearing sound, a large area of Bailian’s shoulder and arm was exposed.
She busied herself arranging Bailian. By the end, Wu Jinghua didn’t care whether she was tired. She dragged the disheveled Bailian from behind the flowerbed, straining to make half of Bailian’s body protrude from it.
By the time all this was done, the time it took for a stick of incense to burn had passed. Wu Jinghua wiped her sweat and was about to leave when she felt something was not quite right. She blinked. It seemed… a faint light had been flashing in her eyes. But how could there be a faint light in the middle of the night?
Wu Jinghua rubbed her eyes and scanned her surroundings. Nothing around. Perhaps she had been too excited just now and had forgotten to be afraid.
Suddenly, Wu Jinghua’s entire body shook. It was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over her in the hottest days of summer. The blood in her whole body turned cold.
She saw—saw a human head appear on the carved window opening in the wall.
The head was tinged green. Its empty eye sockets were pitch-black, and its teeth jutted out past its lips.
Wu Jinghua stared blankly at the head, as if her entire body had gone rigid. Then the head actually moved. It opened its mouth as if laughing silently, and the head pushed forward in Wu Jinghua’s direction, as if trying to squeeze through the window.
A claw of the same purplish green stretched out from the gap, stiffly gripping the wall as if helping itself force its way out.
The scene was too shocking. Wu Jinghua finally regained movement. She stepped back, fell to the ground, eyes wide.
“Ah—”
An earth-shattering scream rang through the night and echoed across the entire Chancellor’s residence, disturbing many people in their sleep.
Wu Jinghua’s whole body went limp. She couldn’t get up. She turned, fell onto the ground, and crawled away on hands and knees, sobbing and wailing, “Ghost! A ghost! Help! Don’t come near me—save me!”
On the path, Chuntao followed behind a night watchman, covering her face and pretending to weep. The watchman walked, occasionally glancing back at Chuntao, then lowering his head awkwardly.
The watchman was probably in his forties. He had worked the night watch for nearly thirty years and had been single all his life. Now, in the middle of the night, he was walking with a graceful woman, and that woman was bashful and afraid. It really was…
Suddenly, that shrill scream and the cries of “ghost” sounded ahead. Chuntao was so frightened she nearly died. Her legs shook, almost dropping her to her knees. She even forgot to cover her face. In terror, she asked, “What was that? Is it a ghost—?”
“No. It must be the girl you mentioned having an accident.” The watchman wasn’t afraid of such things at all. As he spoke, he hurried his pace.
Chuntao panicked inwardly, but after thinking: Could it be Ning’er waking up and discovering that she had been…? Is that why she’s crying and shouting? She hadn’t expected Ning’er to wake so quickly. Suppressing her worry, she jogged after the watchman.
With such shouting, Ning’er, Sisi, and the others in the West Courtyard naturally heard it. Each wrapped clothing around themselves and opened their doors.
Sisi and Xiaoling stood at the room doorway, terrified and not daring to move. Ning’er ran toward Wu Sheyue’s room.
“Ning’er.” Just as she was about to push open the door to check on Wu Sheyue, she heard a voice call her from behind.
Ning’er turned and looked in astonishment as Wu Sheyue walked over from the courtyard. “Miss? You are—”
“Don’t bother with outside.”
“Miss, what happened outside?” Hearing the shrill screams one after another, Ning’er had a feeling that Miss had done something again.
Wu Sheyue looked back toward the gate. “Nothing. Someone thought I had been too quiet these past two days and their skin had grown tight. We’ll see in a moment who this play can draw over.”
Ning’er nodded suspiciously. “Miss, aren’t we doing anything?”
Wu Sheyue thought for a moment. Perhaps she could also use this chance to test the other two people.
“Go. Have Sisi and Xiaoling dress properly and stand by the gate with sticks. When I give the order, go out. No matter who is outside, beat whoever you see. I’ll take responsibility if anything happens.”
Ning’er immediately went to give the instructions. Then, thinking that Wu Sheyue probably didn’t intend to sleep anymore, she went inside and fetched an outer robe for her.
Wu Jinghua had fallen so hard that her backside hurt, but she couldn’t feel it. She lay on the ground and didn’t dare look back. Staggering, she got up and tried to run.
Then she heard a cry from ahead. “Here!”
The watchman and Chuntao had finally arrived. The watchman pointed at Wu Jinghua and shouted.
When Wu Jinghua saw light, she had already lost the ability to think. She wailed, “There’s a ghost! There’s a ghost!” and threw herself toward them.
At that moment, Chuntao’s eyes nearly popped out. By the faint light of the watchman’s lantern, she recognized the clothes and the disheveled person before her. In a daze, she murmured, “M-Miss?”
“Save me! Save me!” Wu Jinghua was completely frightened out of her wits. She no longer cared whether the people before her were male or female and grabbed at them wildly. “There’s a ghost over there!”
“Wait—” The watchman was bewildered. He still hadn’t seen any ghost.
But Chuntao behind him believed it. Chuntao’s pupils shrank. She had already seen the female ghost with disheveled hair crawling out of the flowerbed. She backed away in panic and shouted, “Th-there’s a ghost! It’s a ghost!”
The watchman was thrown into disorder by these two terrified people, especially with Wu Jinghua tugging at him. His face flushed red, and he didn’t know what to do.
At the gate, Ning’er pushed it open and stared wide-eyed at the scene.
Wu Sheyue patted Sisi and Xiaoling on the shoulders. “All right. You may go.”
The two little maids were still a little timid, but a master’s order had to be obeyed. They looked at each other, then rushed out with a stick and a rake.
The three people over there were inexplicably beaten with sticks. For a time, their three screams mixed with the shouts of Sisi and Xiaoling, even more deafening than before.
Sisi was very smart. She stepped forward and struck the watchman’s hand. The lantern fell to the ground and immediately caught fire. The two continued to strike. As they did, the lantern gradually burned to ash. In the chaos, no one could clearly see anyone’s face. They could only make out in the faint moonlight that they weren’t hitting their own people.
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