Free Web NovelChapter 764: Chapter 577: The Nonexistent ’11’_2
Gazing down at the body, Xiang Fengchen seemed to have thought of something. He squatted down and used two fingers to touch Yuan Ruoci’s left ankle and then her right foot, followed by her right hand, until he reached her left wrist. A moment later, Xiang Fengchen raised an eyebrow. He lifted the corpse’s left arm and gave it a light shake, and to everyone’s astonishment, they discovered that the motion of the left hand was very unnatural.
"It’s broken." Xiang Fengchen put down the corpse’s left hand. "Go fetch a mirror."
No sooner had he spoken than Xiang Fengchen shook his head, perhaps knowing it was unlikely to find a mirror at this moment. Hence, he made do with a substitute. With a palm, he gently swept over the corpse’s face and closed Yuan Ruoci’s eyes for her. "Lift the body up, face down, and carry it to the barrel."
Having seen Xiang Fengchen’s capabilities, Zhang Desong and Yang Zerun volunteered to step forward. One lifted by the head and the other by the feet, they carried the body to another partition by the barrel. After scooping out most of the petals floating on the water, Xiang Fengchen pulled up the corpse’s left arm, laying it across the surface of the water. Moments later, as the water stilled, a horrifying sight was revealed to all. A pale wrist bore a ghastly green handprint, presumably the very ghostly grip that had clutched at Yuan Ruoci underwater and drowned her alive.
"It’s the Water Ghost that seizes substitutes..." Lou Huixiang, who had hardly spoken, darkened in complexion, clearly aware of the mystery.
But in the next second, Xiang Fengchen released the arm and turned his head to glance at him. "Don’t talk nonsense if you don’t understand. Water Ghosts grabbing substitutes don’t grab hands; they always grab feet."
"Senior Xiang, then... what is this thing?" Zhang Songde asked.
"We don’t know yet, but it’s definitely a tough nut, very vicious. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need a water mirror to see it."
Xiang Fengchen lifted the corpse’s arm again. This time, as everyone drew closer, they made a new discovery. The handprint that had broken Yuan Ruoci’s left wrist was different from that of a normal person, it had six fingers, and they were long and thin. Yang Xiao stepped closer, compared it with his hand, and found it was a whole phalanx longer than his.
Suddenly, Yang Xiao shivered violently. He immediately looked up and around. Just then, he had felt as if something was staring at him, a gaze filled with intense resentment. It was a most unpleasant feeling.
And what made Yang Xiao even more alert was that this gaze didn’t fade when he became aware of it. On the contrary, it seemed even closer.
"What’s wrong with you?" Nalan Shuo was the first to notice Yang Xiao’s unusual behavior and asked.
"I don’t know, I suddenly feel a bit uncomfortable." At such a scene, he could not openly admit that he seemed to have been targeted by a ghost, or else he would surely be met with distancing and guarding from his teammates, which would be very detrimental to his actions to come.
Time ticked by. He looked around and saw nothing out of the ordinary until his peripheral vision inadvertently swept across the barrel in front of him... Finally, he discovered the source of that malevolent stare, on the surface of the water in the barrel floated a pair of relentless, haunting eyes!
"The corpse has opened its eyes!"
This statement gave Zhang Desong and Yang Zerun, who were carrying the corpse, quite a start, making them, almost on instinct, drop the body. The corpse hit the edge of the barrel and rolled to the ground, coming to a stop facing up, its head limply turned to the side, with a pair of eyes that eerily stared right at the position where Yang Xiao and the others stood. The sight made Fang Zhou’s legs go weak, staggering back and almost falling into the barrel.
"What the hell is this ghost thing?" Zhang Songde cursed, evidently panicked, his curse somewhat a means to embolden himself.
"Don’t worry about this corpse for now, the task is more important." Nalan Shuo stepped forward. "Now go down and bathe, we don’t have much time left."
The birthday celebration was the main task. Once the time came, and the people in the manor checked on them and saw that they hadn’t finished bathing and changing, who knew what trouble it would cause.
Someone had died now, so it should still be safe for a short time.
"What should we do with this corpse?" Gong Pinglan whispered, the director of instruction was also frightened by the scene that had just unfolded.
"Let the hosts take care of it. I’d like to see how they deal with this corpse," Xiang Fengchen said seriously.
The word "deal with" made everyone involuntarily have some unpleasant associations. Right away, they abandoned the corpse, the three women grabbed their clothes and shoes, and everyone gathered downstairs, leaving only Yang Xiao, Fang Zhou, and two others who had not bathed and changed.
This was more like a ritual. As long as they immersed themselves in the water, it counted as bathing, and the whole process took less than three minutes. Yang Xiao and the others finished bathing and changed into clothes provided by the hosts. These clothes were off-white and very new, just temporarily for them to wear. Soon, the ceremonial clothes for the actual birthday celebration would be delivered.
However, with the incident involving Yuan Ruoci, the atmosphere at the scene became very oppressive. Everyone had thought that the ghost would cause trouble at the birthday feast, or after the celebration, but now it seemed that things were far more complicated than they had imagined. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
Exactly how did Yuan Ruoci die? Naturally, her cause of death was being held by the wrist by a ghost and drowning in the water, but the key question was why the ghost targeted her. The task had just begun; what exactly had she done wrong?
Furthermore, it was strange that the livor mortis had appeared on Yuan Ruoci’s body so soon after her death.
Where had the trap been set? Was it after arriving at the manor, or on the way here with the birthday celebration entourage, or... at that eerie, dilapidated temple?
Perplexed, time ticked by second by second. Before long, everyone heard a series of footsteps approaching from outside, accompanied by the glow of numerous red lanterns.
The person at the front was an old man with fair skin and a steady gait. Clothed in silk, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes drooped downwards—an archetypal "囧" expression. Upon meeting them, he first courteously saluted, "Ladies and gentlemen, I am the steward of this estate. My surname is Wu. The Manor Master has prepared these ceremonial clothes for you. We rely on all of you for the celebrations of the Ancestor’s birthday tonight."
With that, Steward Wu gestured, and the servants carried in trunks one by one. At this moment, Nalan Shuo, who was usually reserved and composed, spoke up. He too began with a polite bow, but then his face turned ugly as if he had some unspeakable concern, "Steward Wu, on this auspicious day of great joy for your estate, there is something I must inform you of. One of our companions has unfortunately drowned while bathing. Regarding the birthday celebration..."
Steward Wu initially froze, his gaze sweeping over everyone present. Then, forfeiting his remaining smile, his expression became taut as he said, "Don’t speak nonsense. On such a joyous day, do you realize the severity of interrupting my Manor Master’s auspicious birthday?"
"We’re not lying, the body is upstairs. If you don’t believe us, go and look, and you’ll know," the crowd piped up in support of Nalan Shuo.
Steward Wu snorted coldly, brushed past them, and headed straight upstairs. Yang Xiao and the others quickly followed, and along with the people Steward Wu had brought, a large group of people crammed up the wooden staircase. But once they reached the upstairs, Yang Xiao and the others were stunned—there was water everywhere, but the lying corpse was gone.
"Where is the person?" Zhang Songde’s scalp went numb in an instant. Several people immediately checked the room, including the remaining wooden tubs, but found nothing.
Seeing Steward Wu’s unpleasant face, Yang Xiao immediately stepped forward to vouch for Nalan Shuo, "Steward Wu, we assure you, we indeed had a companion who drowned just now, a woman. You should remember that there were 11 of us when we entered your estate, 7 men and 4 women. Now, look, there are only 3 women left."
"Right, you can call someone to ask," the crowd also had to speak up at this moment. Causing such an incident on someone’s auspicious birthday was asking for trouble—if they were misinterpreted, it could lead to major issues. If anything unforeseen happened to the Ancestor, the blame would likely fall on their heads.
"This is becoming more and more outrageous!" Stomping his foot, Steward Wu’s ’囧’ face grew even more somber, and his eyelids twitched in anger as he hissed, "You clearly came with only 10 people, 7 men and 3 women. Where did this 11th person come from?!"
