Free Web NovelChapter 41: Chapter 41: A Man-Made Scare
"Who did this?"
Chen Li’s mind raced.
’Chen Yongquan’s family?’
’Probably not.’
’His family and mine have been at odds for years, but they’ve never stooped to such low-down tricks.’
"The Wang Family... Wang Shiming..." Chen Li’s eyes turned icy.
He was almost certain they were behind it.
They didn’t dare confront him openly, so they resorted to these disgusting, underhanded tactics to ruin his harvest and destroy his foundation.
’Report it to the authorities?’
’With no solid evidence, it would be a thankless task. Nothing good would come of it.’
Even if the constables from the County Magistrate’s Office came, they would just go through the motions at best.
Besides, the Wang Family could just claim wild animals did it, or simply deny everything and drag things out.
They could stall for a year or so, and the matter would most likely be dropped.
Chen Li had seen plenty of such schemes in his previous life; he was all too familiar with them.
’That’s not the best option.’
Chen Li’s gaze swept over the dark, quiet Lingxi Stream. He suddenly remembered that during last year’s drought, a family in the village with nothing to eat and nowhere to turn had hanged themselves from an old willow tree not far from this very stream.
He immediately turned to Zhao Gui and said, "Zhao Si, you did a great job tonight. Come to my house tomorrow and get a bag of grain. As for tonight’s events, keep them to yourself. Don’t mention it to anyone. You can head back now. Just act like nothing happened."
"Thank you, Master."
Zhao Gui was overjoyed. He nodded in agreement and hurried away.
At dusk the next day, Chen Li dug an old, white linen robe out from the bottom of a chest. He then killed a chicken, collected its blood, and stained the robe’s front and cuffs with large, dark red splotches.
Late that night, he took a sturdy hemp rope and quietly went to the edge of his newly bought paddy field, leaping nimbly onto a crooked old willow tree.
He tied one end of the rope to a thick branch and made a slipknot with the other, looping it loosely around his neck. He then hung down, as if weightless, swaying gently in the wind.
After breaking through to the Spirit Realm, his Inner Breath circulated on its own. Holding his breath and suspending his body was not difficult for him.
An unknown amount of time passed.
In the distance, the sound of several footsteps and hushed whispers could be heard.
A few men carrying clubs were stumbling along the ridges between the fields, heading this way.
A triumphant voice rang out, "Look at that Chen Li! Didn’t even dare to make a peep today. He must be scared. Tonight, we’ll ruin all of his best fields by the stream. Let’s see how arrogant he can be then!"
Last night’s "success," which went unpunished, had emboldened them. Seeing no activity in Chen Li’s fields during the day, they were even more certain that he had been forced to suffer in silence.
By the time they reached the bank of Lingxi Stream, a cold wind blew past, and for some reason, they all felt a chill run down their spines.
"Brother Chuanbao, look at that old willow... it looks a little spooky..." one of the more timid men couldn’t help but mutter.
"Shut up," Wang Chuanbao snapped, trying to bolster his own courage. "There’s no such thing as ghosts and spirits. You’re just scaring yourselves. Now get to work!"
The night wind seemed to have picked up, making the willow branches dance wildly, like countless shifting phantoms in the dark.
Wang Chuanbao subconsciously looked up in that direction.
The moment he lifted his head, the wind seemed to stop.
A ghastly white figure appeared without warning, right in his line of sight, hanging less than three feet above his head.
The figure was wearing a white robe stained with dark red splotches. Its body was still swaying slightly from inertia, and long, disheveled hair hung down, obscuring most of its face, revealing only a sliver of deathly pale skin on its chin.
An icy chill shot up from the base of his spine to the top of his head.
Wang Chuanbao’s blood seemed to freeze in his veins. His mind went blank, and his mouth hung open as he let out a choked, "Hkk... hkk..." gasp.
Suddenly, the "Hanged Ghost’s" head turned with excruciating slowness, a rigid, jerky motion, angling slightly toward him.
"Wang... Chuan... bao..."
Then, an ethereal voice, filled with endless malice and cold, drilled into Wang Chuanbao’s ears, each syllable pronounced with deliberate clarity.
"A ghost..."
An inhuman, bloodcurdling scream suddenly tore through the silence of the night.
Wang Chuanbao’s eyes bulged as if they were about to burst from their sockets, and all the color drained from his face in an instant.
His club fell with a CLANG, hitting him on the instep, but he didn’t even feel it. A warmth spread through his groin, and a foul-smelling liquid trickled down his pant leg.
He threw himself backward, scrambling wildly on his hands and feet, screaming nonsensically, "A ghost! It’s that old man who hanged himself! He’s come to claim my life! Don’t come for me! It has nothing to do with me!"
His shriek made his already terrified companions look where he was looking. They too saw the terrifying white figure swaying in the wind, and they were scared out of their wits.
"It really is a ghost!"
"Help! Run!"
"Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!"
Cries and screams erupted all at once.
The men threw down their clubs and scrambled away, practically falling over themselves. They wished their parents had given them two more legs as they fled for their lives back toward the village.
Their desperate, bloodcurdling cries echoed across the fields for a long time.
...
「The third night.」
"Don’t panic! We can’t panic! Last night was probably just that little bastard Chen Li trying to scare us with a paper effigy."
Wang Chuanbao, still shaken, had dragged several people to the willow tree during the day to check. There was no Hanged Ghost. The tree was empty; there was nothing there.
After some deliberation, he decided to go again tonight. This time, he managed to drag along more of his braver clansmen, thinking that a larger group would have stronger *yang* energy.
However, when they timidly approached again, the terrifying "Hanged Ghost" appeared right on schedule in the same tree. With the same sinister, chilling tone, it called out the names of the men in the lead.
"Everyone, don’t panic! There are so many of us. What’s to fear from some loser who hanged himself? Let’s go take a closer look." frёewebηovel.cѳm
One man mustered his courage and started to step forward.
Suddenly, the Hanged Ghost’s rope snapped, and the figure drifted straight toward the crowd.
"AHHH!"
"A ghost! It’s a real ghost!"
"It’s haunted! Someone who died unjustly has come back to collect a debt!"
"We’re done for! Run! Run!"
This time, even the bravest among them completely lost it.
With a collective cry, the crowd scattered like a disturbed hornet’s nest, fleeing in all directions.
The news spread through Lingxi Village as if it had wings.
And the story grew more and more bizarre with each retelling. Some claimed to have seen the Hanged Ghost with a long tongue lolling out, while others said they heard wailing all night long.
It became an accepted fact among the Wang Family that the willow tree by Lingxi Stream was haunted.
Panic spread within the Wang Family.
When Wang Shiming heard the news, he was furious, stomping his feet in a fit of shock, anger, and, most of all, frustration.
Although he felt a prickle of fear himself, he was more suspicious of Chen Li.
In all these years, he had never heard of any hauntings over there.
The haunting started the moment they went to destroy Chen Li’s paddy fields. How could there be such a coincidence in this world?
But he lacked the confidence to go check the Lingxi stream bank for himself, so all he could do was curse Wang Chuanbao and the others for being useless.
And so, he gave up.
’You’re finished. Now it’s my turn!’
「The fourth night.」
No one else came. Chen Li untied the rope and smiled coldly.
