Chapter 22

Chapter 22

At the Zhong family's old residence, the siblings Zhong Yourong and Zhong Youtong were both scared out of their wits.

Seeing that even the house servants couldn't protect them, as the few servants were no match for Pei Mu, they dared not seek help from the villagers either. Zhong Yizhu's threats still echoed in their ears, and they also feared that the other villagers would learn the truth about why Zhong Yizhu had been driven to Liushan Village.

Zhong Youtong didn't even bother with Zhong Yourong, who was groaning on the ground. Though unharmed, she snapped back to her senses and kept urging the servants to harness the carriage. She wanted to leave this cursed place at once.

Wang Shun, kicked by her, limped up and headed to the back courtyard. Zhong Youtong hurried back to her room to pack her belongings.

The remaining servants helped Zhong Yourong to his feet, then went to pack up or harness the carriage in the back courtyard. They dared not meddle in their masters' affairs, knowing only that they were no match for that man. Still aching, they didn't dare rest, eager to leave as soon as possible.

But fate had other plans.

The late summer weather changed rapidly. By the time they had the carriage ready, a torrential rainstorm blocked their departure.

Within moments, large raindrops pounded the earth, blurring the world into a haze of gray, even the distant mountains hidden in the mist.

The country roads turned muddy. In such weather, if they insisted on traveling, the carriage would surely get stuck halfway, leaving them with no one to turn to.

The Zhong party had no choice but to stay in Liushan Village for another night.

Zhong Yourong lay in bed, groaning incessantly. The village only had a barefoot doctor, and the servants braved the rain to fetch him. After a careful examination, the doctor said nothing was broken—only superficial wounds that would heal with rest. He left a bottle of medicated oil and departed.

The servants applied the oil to his wounds while he mumbled curses indistinctly, one moment threatening Pei Mu, the next vowing to kill Zhong Yizhu.

From the outer room, Zhong Youtong sneered. Who was he trying to impress now? If he was so bold, why hadn't he said anything when Zhong Yizhu was there?

For dinner, the servants had a neighboring household prepare the meal. With the rain so heavy, there was no other option. Zhong Youtong had no appetite anyway, and finding the food disgusting, she only forced down a few bites. Zhong Yourong, too sore to eat much, picked at the meat and put down his chopsticks.

The sudden tempest blurred the line between day and night, and the entire village fell silent early.

Zhong Youtong, shaken by the day's events, slept poorly. In a daze, a cold draft seeped into her bedding, making her shiver. She turned over, and a stronger gust of wind, carrying the damp, earthy scent of mud, swept into the room.

Frowning with sleepy annoyance, she opened her eyes. But when she turned to see the scene before her, her expression froze completely.

The moonless night was as dark as ink, yet she could clearly sense the wide-open window and the tall, blurry figure outside. She could even feel the thing's eyes boring into her.

A flash of lightning tore across the sky, and in that instant, Zhong Youtong saw the figure clearly. Her scream rose with the rumble of thunder, only to be swallowed by the storm.

"Ah! Second Uncle!"

She scrambled to the farthest corner from the window, trembling uncontrollably in fear: "Second Uncle, don't scare me, please, don't scare me..."

The silence around her was broken only by her own voice and the rain outside. Yet she could feel that thing by the window, its red eyes locked onto her, sending an even deeper chill down her spine.

In despair, she cried out, "I didn't do anything! If you want vengeance, go after Grandmother! She made all the decisions at home, it has nothing to do with me!"

Another flash of lightning. In that brief moment, Zhong Youtong saw a sight that nearly made her eyes split—

Second Uncle's face was covered in blood mixed with rain, like endless bloody tears, and he was climbing through the window with movements so twisted they seemed inhuman.

She had clung to a faint hope because Second Uncle had been kind and gentle in life—maybe he would spare her? Now she knew it was impossible.

Her survival instinct kicked in, and she scrambled to her feet, screaming as she rushed out the door. The side room opened into the courtyard, and she ran, shouting for help while constantly looking back over her shoulder. The thick darkness enveloped her, making her feel lost even in the small courtyard.

The relentless rain soaked her, and her steps grew heavy, barely able to support herself.

No one answered her calls. The overwhelming panic drove her to despair. When she turned back again, she watched in horror as Second Uncle emerged from her bedroom, a chain suddenly appearing in his hand.

Zhong Youtong's legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, listening to the sound of the chain dragging closer with a clink. She screamed in utter despair.

She knew Second Uncle had manifested to take revenge for Sun Yunniang and her son. But she wasn't ready to die. The idea of sending Zhong Yizhu away hadn't been hers—why should she bear the punishment?

Incoherently, she blurted out everything her parents, grandparents, and others had done to Zhong Yizhu, absolving herself of blame with every detail. But the cold chain still coiled around her neck.

Zhong Youtong snapped, screamed once, and fainted.

Over in Zhong Yourong's room, he was jolted awake by Zhong Youtong's screams. Wincing in pain, he sat up to check what was happening, only to hear Zhong Youtong "confessing."

Hearing her shout out the family's secrets, he forgot his own pain. Cursing, he staggered to the door and opened it, but the words caught in his throat when he saw the scene outside.

Zhong Youtong lay on the ground with a chain around her neck, unconscious. And standing before him was the familiar figure of Second Uncle, who had been dead for two months.

A vengeful spirit... The words flashed through his mind, but fear choked his voice. After a long pause, he finally managed to scream, "Ghost! There's a ghost!"

The next moment, "Second Uncle" turned to look at him. Zhong Yourong saw the blood on his face and felt dizzy.

He fell to his knees, begging for mercy, knocking his head frantically on the ground. But the familiar boots and robe appeared before him like a ghost.

The cold chain wrapped around his neck. Zhong Yourong's scream got stuck in his throat. He wet himself, and with a roll of his eyes, he fainted too.

The rain continued.

Next door, in Zhao Daniang's yard, Qiaozhen, who had gotten up to relieve herself, covered her mouth in terror. She didn't even finish her business, running back inside and trembling as she burrowed into her bedding.

Her husband mumbled sleepily, "I heard someone shouting next door. What's going on?"

"I don't know," Qiaozhen replied, her teeth chattering.

The man didn't press further and soon started snoring again, leaving Qiaozhen awake all night.

The next morning, when the servants woke up, they found the Zhong siblings lying unconscious in the courtyard. Shocked, they quickly sent for a doctor.

Before the doctor arrived, Zhong Youtong woke up with a start. She sat up abruptly, first touching her neck, then laughing and crying as she muttered, "I'm alive... I'm still alive..."

The servants didn't dare enter her boudoir and stayed outside. She rambled to herself for a while, and as the sky brightened, she regained some courage. Scolding the servants, she said, "Are you all dead? I called for help all night, and no one came?"

The servants exchanged bewildered glances. "Fourth Miss, we didn't hear you calling last night."

Zhong Youtong thought back to the dreamlike yet nightmarish experience. Looking down at her mud-stained clothes, she noticed a few splashes of blood on the hem. A chill shot through her heart, spreading to every limb.

She screamed, got up, and began changing her clothes. In her terror, she couldn't even control the volume of her voice: "Harness the carriage now, hurry!"

Over in Zhong Yourong's room, it was much the same. As soon as he woke, he kept babbling about ghosts and demanding to leave. The doctor, hurriedly fetched by the servants, heard nothing but nonsense. Seeing that neither sibling would cooperate with an examination, he could only tell Wang Shun that they seemed to be possessed and suggested finding a folk healer.

The Zhong siblings had arrived in style, but they left looking dazed and haunted, as if being chased by dogs. When Old Huang told the villagers about it, they were surprised. Their village had been peaceful for years, with no unnatural deaths—how could they be possessed?

After the previous night's storm, they worried the rain would wash away their newly planted seedlings, so after a few idle words, everyone went back to the fields, paying little mind to the matter.

By midday, when the sun was high and people returned home for lunch, Zhao Daniang suddenly appeared under the big banyan tree at the village entrance. She said mysteriously, "I know what ghost the Zhong siblings had encountered last night."

The curious crowd immediately gathered around her.

·

At the foot of the mountain.

The clear daylight streamed through the paper windowpanes, casting a warm golden glow on the floor.

Zhong Yizhu moved a small stool to the bedside and sat guarding the person who was napping.

Even in sleep, Pei Mu's brows were furrowed, as if etched with deep resentment. Despite being very handsome, the ferocity of his expression overshadowed it, so that the village girls and young men dared not even look at him.

But it was this person, who seemed so cold and hard, who firmly held onto him at the edge of the cliff, and to stand up for him, wore Zhong Yizhu's father's old clothes in the cold, wet rain to pretend to be a ghost and scare people.

Pei Mu opened his eyes from a heavy dream and immediately sensed someone beside him.

He turned his head and met Zhong Yizhu's eyes. Zhong Yizhu's voice was soft, as if afraid to wake him from his lingering dream: "You're awake?"

Pei Mu blinked, his voice a little hoarse from just waking up: "Why are you sitting here guarding me?"

"My mother won't let me work, so she sent me in to keep you company."

Hearing his light, soft tone, Pei Mu suddenly felt that lying there doing nothing was a rare indulgence.

He noticed the slight furrow in Zhong Yizhu's brow and quickly guessed he was troubled: "What are you worried about?"

Zhong Yizhu thought for a moment: "If they go to town or the city to see a doctor, will they find out about the drugging?"

Last night, Pei Mu's plan was simple: he put a small amount of sedative in the Zhong family's food, which would make the Zhong siblings' minds unclear, making the haunting seem more real, and also preventing them from distinguishing the differences between him and Second Master Zhong.

The medicine given to the servants was a normal dose, enough to make them sleep soundly until dawn.

The first half of the plan was perfect—the timing, the weather, the location of the old Zhong residence, and the background of the two siblings wanting to harm him—all were favorable opportunities for the "haunting" to occur.

But there was still one what-if—

Because time was short, the medicine Pei Mu used was what hunters usually used to drug prey in traps, and its effect on humans was unknown.

Last night, Zhong Yizhu's mind was sluggish and he didn't think of this; today, after coming to his senses, he couldn't help worrying.

If the doctor Zhong Yourong and Zhong Youtong find has miraculous skills and diagnoses that they've been drugged, then all this effort would go to waste.

But Pei Mu said with certainty: "They won't."

"The dose I gave them was extremely small; Old Huang in the village doesn't have the ability to distinguish it. By the time they reach the city and find a doctor, it will already be undetectable, unless there are food residues for comparison."

"As for the servants, since the Zhong siblings themselves didn't find anything wrong, how would they think to have a doctor check on them?"

Hearing this, Zhong Yizhu's heart, which had been hanging high all day, gently settled. He came to the edge of the bed, rested his chin on his folded arms, and praised him in a warm, soft voice.

"You've thought it all through so thoroughly."

Pei Mu fought back a smile, but the corner of his mouth still lifted into a slight curve.

Zhong Yizhu watched Pei Mu's relaxed brows from the side. He actually had another question he didn't ask: how did Pei Mu know what effect the animal sedative would have on humans?

He was so certain, as if he had personally experienced it and tested the dosage himself.

Zhong Yizhu couldn't bear to think of that possibility, but he guessed it was probably the only reason.

The villagers all said that Pei Mu was born having brought death to his mother and grandfather, was disliked by his father, and never had enough to eat. He would go from one household to another, scrounging for food. Once, when he was too hungry to bear it, he ate the bait that Hunter Wang had set for prey and passed out. Carpenter Pei and Tian Shi immediately went to Hunter Wang's door to try to extort money, but Hunter Wang said he had only used a sedative, not poison. Pei Mu soon woke up, and the couple had to drop the matter.

Zhong Yizhu had seen how rumors could distort the truth in the village. When he first heard this, he thought someone had made it up.

He would rather it was made up.

Zhong Yizhu reached out a hand and grabbed the corner of Pei Mu's blanket, saying something out of nowhere.

"Pei Mu, I'll learn to cook well from now on and make you good food."

Pei Mu looked at him for a long time, then shook his head.

"You don't need to learn these things."

Zhong Yizhu looked at him. Pei Mu said, "Tomorrow I'll take you to Songyun County."

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Author's note: Zhong: Cooking for love!

Pei: I-I think maybe I should be the one to cook.

Thank you everyone for your thunderbolt gifts and nutrient fluid~ Thank you to all the friends who love this story. Without your support, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up with daily updates. Thank you.