Nightmare Apostle

Chapter 428: Chapter 366: United Hearts

"Mad?" The Du Family approached, wanting a closer look, but were frightened by Mi Shu’s fierce expression. She sat up, her hands clawing at the approaching Du Family as the basin of water was overturned, causing chaos all around. freeweɓnovel.cѳm

Mi Shu’s mouth hung open as she made unintelligible "huffing" sounds. It took men as big as Yang Xiao and Cheng Cha to barely control her.

A moment later, the exhausted Mi Shu’s head lolled to the side as she fainted once again.

"Quick, let’s not stay here! Take her... take her back!" Yang Xiao urged. This time, the Du Family did not stop them, watching as they clumsily carried Mi Shu away. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com

Once they reached their residence and had just settled Mi Shu on the bed, someone followed them into the courtyard. It was a maid named Xiao Zui.

"My lords, may I help you with anything?" Xiao Zui feigned concern as she stretched her neck, trying to peek inside the house.

Yang Xiao and the others could tell right away that this was the Du Family not having trust in them, deliberately sending someone to monitor them.

Cheng Cha walked over, stopped Xiao Zui at the door with a random excuse, and shut the door. He also told Xiao Zui not to disturb them as Mi Shu was still unconscious and might lose control of her emotions if she woke up and saw strangers after being so frightened.

"Alright then, if Miss Mi Shu wakes up, you must inform us. The Patriarch will bring calming medicines for her," Xiao Zui said, still feigning her obedient demeanor.

Xiao Zui turned to leave but didn’t go far, lingering near the courtyard gate. Cheng Cha crouched behind the door, watching through the crack as Xiao Zui occasionally sneaked up, leaning against the gate and peering covertly towards the room.

The girl was somewhat clever but not overly so; her surveillance was too blatant. At this moment, Mi Shu lay on the bed with her eyes closed as Yang Xiao sat beside her. Only after making sure that no Du Family members were watching did he lean down and whisper gently into Mi Shu’s ear, "You can open your eyes now; the Du Family members have left."

The next second, Mi Shu slowly opened her eyes, her gaze clear and her expression calm, showing none of the previous madness. This scene stunned Wuma Haoming, who found it even more astonishing that aside from himself, Yang Xiao, Tong Han, and Cheng Cha all seemed unsurprised, as if they had long known she was pretending.

"You can speak, but keep your voice down and don’t sit up; just lie down," Yang Xiao said hurriedly.

Mi Shu lifted one hand, pointing at her throat and opening her mouth to emit a slightly hoarse voice, "Is there... any water?"

"Yes, yes," Tong Han immediately moved to get a cup of tea for her.

"You... you weren’t mad?" Wuma Haoming struggled to accept this reality, recalling how viciously he had been bitten, almost losing a piece of flesh with blood dripping down his arm. And now they were telling him it was all an act, a feigned injury?

This trick was not too hard for Yang Xiao and the others to see through. At the time, Tong Han was the closest to Mi Shu, with Wuma Haoming being the farthest among them. Where is the logic in a mad person, during a fit of fury, choosing to bite someone farther away, clearly not wanting to bite Tong Han, but picking the less useful Wuma Haoming?

Thus, Yang Xiao and the other two immediately recognized it as a trick, with the motive also easy to guess. They conjectured that she had uncovered some secrets of the Du Family during the night, and if she hadn’t pretended to be mad, passing the scrutiny of the Du Family Patriarch would have been difficult.

The reality was indeed as she had feared. Seeing her still alive, the first reaction of the Du Family was to detain her to prevent her from revealing what she saw the night before.

After drinking some water, Mi Shu apologized softly to Wuma Haoming, and then Yang Xiao sent Wuma Haoming to watch the maid Xiao Zui at the door.

"How are you feeling?" Tong Han asked with concern.

Mi Shu nodded her head, indicating she was fine, and carefully worded the events of the previous night. When it came to hearing that the Du Family had returned and brought many people, sealing the doors and windows and holding a human head outside, even people like Yang Xiao and Tong Han couldn’t help but take a sharp breath. Just imagining the scene was terrifying.

But this did indeed confirm the Du Family’s murderous truth, coming with the heads of the deceased, proving the entire Du Family were indeed beasts.

Then Mi Shu recalled how she had passed out again and, upon waking, encountered the ghosts behind the screen, saved by a sudden appearance of a Bridal Ghost.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Cha suddenly perked up. Their experiences shared similarities. "I’ve met her too. I initially suspected she was the first victim, Liu Haiping, but now it seems not; she doesn’t have the capability."

"Right, it indeed wasn’t her," Mi Shu said, gritting her teeth as she pulled out a silver chain from her bosom. The sight instantly drew everyone’s attention.

Yang Xiao and the others were momentarily stunned. The chain also had a small silver lock hanging from it, but the lock was missing half, "Where did this come from?"

"It was tied to the ankle of the Bridal Ghost," Mi Shu added, "the right ankle."

At this point, Tong Han couldn’t remain calm either, his gaze toward Mi Shu changed instantly. Under such circumstances, daring to steal from the ghost’s ankle—which required enormous courage—didn’t seem characteristic of Mi Shu, as Tong Han understood her. Could it be that she too had issues?

Had the real Mi Shu already been murdered?

Highly sensitive, Mi Shu immediately sensed the slight shift in everyone’s emotions and quickly explained, "Don’t get me wrong; I didn’t steal it. I...I don’t know how it ended up on me. I hid under the bed and then passed out. When I woke up, the silver chain was on me, clutched in my palm."

"After I woke up, I didn’t dare to move until I heard your voices outside. Fearing a trick, I waited until the door was opened and you found me. I wasn’t sure whether you were humans or ghosts, so I pretended to be insane to test you." It was evident that Mi Shu was terrified, her hands trembling as she spoke about last night’s ordeal, apparently leaving her with lasting trauma.

However, these few sentences weren’t enough to dispel the suspicions of Yang Xiao and the others. "This silver chain appeared in your hand?" Yang Xiao suddenly asked.

Startled, Mi Shu quickly raised her left hand, "This...this hand."

Yang Xiao grabbed Mi Shu’s left hand, and without any hesitation, sniffed it, then quickly pulled over her right hand to smell it too. What upset Mi Shu even more was that Yang Xiao eventually stuck out his tongue and licked her palm.

But Yang Xiao had no ulterior motives; he was merely confirming his conjecture and nodded the next second, "What she said might be true. There is a very particular fragrance on that silver chain, likely some fragrant powder or dew. Her left hand has a strong scent, almost none on the right."

"I really didn’t deceive you, I survived all thanks to the Bridal Ghost. I could feel that she...she means us no harm," Mi Shu explained.

When Liu Haiping was dressed as a bride, both Mi Shu and Tong Han were present. There definitely was no such silver anklet on her ankle then, so the Bridal Ghost must be someone else.

But just one anklet doesn’t prove much. Yang Xiao picked up the anklet and examined it closely, focusing on the small silver lock attached to it.

Cheng Cha took the chain and looked at it carefully. After a moment, she finally noticed something, "This lock seems to be a joint-heart lock. It should be incomplete without its other half. On the wedding night, the bride and groom each wear one part which together makes a perfect whole."

"How can you be sure it’s a joint-heart lock?" Tong Han asked curiously.

Cheng Cha lifted the lock, presenting its keyhole to Yang Xiao and Tong Han, "Look, the keyhole is filled with cinnabar and sealed shut, no key can open it. It symbolizes ’united in life, inseparable in death.’ Once joined, they never part."

This item certainly held significant meaning, as did the Bridal Ghost’s identity in the bridal chamber, leading Yang Xiao to a bold conjecture, "Do you think this Bridal Ghost could be the bride of someone special, like... the Ghost Monk?"

Tong Han Cheng Cha and Mi Shu said nothing, but their expressions suggested that this conjecture was likely correct.

"But...can a monk get married?" Mi Shu asked softly.

Without any evidence, all these were just conjectures. Now, the urgent task was to find the other half of the joint-heart lock and prepare for the final task tonight.

Meanwhile, they started to categorize the ghosts inside Du Family Village by their identities. First were the real villagers of Du Family Village, the murderers and the initiators of the Mangjia Village massacre, such as the Du Family Patriarch and Du Huai Du San—beings neither human nor ghost.

The second type were those who lived there during that era but were slaughtered; these were the real ghosts, appearing only after the third watch of the night.

The third type was the Ghost Monk, the root of their current mission, who could to some extent lead the Ghost Villagers.

Besides these three types of ghosts, there was another kind, trapped behind the bridal chamber’s screen in the wardrobe. These ghosts didn’t belong to any of the aforementioned categories. In the entire village, the ancestral bridal chamber was a peculiar place, certainly for a reason.

They had speculated before, suspecting the ghosts in the wardrobe were neither from Mangjia Village nor Du Family Village. These ghosts were outsiders, either past travelers and merchants or refugees passing through in distress, all deceived into "Du Family Village," killed, and their bodies stolen to replace someone else’s death.

An earlier encounter by Cheng Cha confirmed this. Late one night, Du San came with bloody clothes, hung them up, and then stuffed them into the wardrobe.

Soon after, Xiao Zui brought them food while looking around, ostensibly to check on Mi Shu. Yang Xiao and the others easily handled her with their acting skills, with Mi Shu still pretending to be unconscious and Tong Han sitting beside the bed, holding Mi Shu’s hand. From the back, her shoulders twitched occasionally, perfectly expressing the depth of sisterly affection.

After observing and finding nothing amiss, Xiao Zui offered some trite words of comfort, set down the herbs she brought, and left. Cheng Cha watched her the entire time and noticed that Xiao Zui was really leaving, likely going back to report to the Du Family Patriarch and others.

As of now, there was still no news of Sui Chengguo. No news was good news, and although hopes were faint, everyone still hoped he would survive.