Chapter 17: The Bai Family Gatehouse

Following Liu Guanjia, the group arrived at a quiet, secluded courtyard. The scenery and specifications in this vicinity were clearly much better than the previous courtyard; the eaves of the walls were even paved with glazed tiles, shining brilliantly under the sunlight.

Outside the courtyard gate stood guards on duty, with tiger heads and leopard eyes, holding executioner staves in their hands, looking exactly like two door gods. Liu Guanjia stopped before the gate, turned his head, and instructed: "Everyone, wait a moment; I will go in and announce your arrival."

Liu Guanjia hurried away. From Yang Xiao's angle, he could see a small building standing in the courtyard. Inside the hall of the building, an incense hall was set up, with all sorts of things like an Incense Burner, offerings, and paper crafts fully provided. Amidst the curling incense mist, an old man in white clothes knelt on a prayer mat, seemingly chanting scriptures.

Looking closely, the old man was not wearing ordinary white clothes, but mourning clothes.

"Strange, the one who died is the second young master of the Feng family. It has always been the younger generation wearing mourning for their elders; how can there be a father wearing mourning for his son?" Ke Long was puzzled.

Kuang Hongyi's expression turned ugly, as he noticed some clues: "This is no ordinary mourning; this is heavy mourning. Look, this person is wearing a white cloth mourning cap, a three-foot square scarf tucked on the right, a white mourning jacket with raw edges and a front opening, the length reaching the knees, collarless with sleeves, buttonless with ties, a raw hemp belt around the waist, and a pair of white-faced mourning shoes with cloud-soaring soles on his feet. He is following the path of 'mourning clothes without borders'; this is at the very least the standard for a three-year mourning period."

"A father keeping vigil for his son—doesn't this violate the rules?" Su Tingting asked in surprise.

"There have been precedents in ancient books of a father wearing mourning for his son, but that was for the eldest legitimate son. However, this is clearly not right; he is not wearing mourning for the second young master of the Feng family." Yang Xiao seemed to have spotted where the problem lay.

Shi Dali looked Yang Xiao up and down a few times. "What do you mean by that?"

"Think about it, if he were truly wearing mourning for the second young master of the Feng family, and the master himself were in full heavy mourning, would it be appropriate for the servants in this manor to remain indifferent?"

One sentence awakened the dreamers. Everyone recalled that along the way, not a single servant they encountered was wearing hemp or mourning clothes; they were all dressed quite normally.

"This is not mourning; it is praying for blessings, begging the other party to forgive the evil deeds he committed." Xu Su spoke slowly, his voice lowering as he did so. "He is worshipping the woman who sang the opera last night."

Once these words were spoken, Shi Guanming's expression changed instantly. It was clear that he had also heard the singing from last night and had been left with deep psychological trauma.

After conversing with the kneeling old man for a while, Liu Guanjia straightened his body again, walked to the door of the hall, and beckoned to the group. The guards let them in. By now, the old man had already risen and come to sit upright on a grand armchair in the side hall.

The old man had a kind face and a naturally wealthy appearance, but the lingering look of sorrow in his eyes could not escape the eyes of Yang Xiao and the others. It stood to reason that this was the person in charge of the Feng family, the famous Master Feng, the great philanthropist of the town.

After a few polite exchanges, Master Feng sighed softly and turned to the main topic: "You already know the purpose of inviting you all here, so I will not repeat it. You must have witnessed the power of that thing last night yourselves. Alas! I heard from Liu Guanjia that someone else lost their life this morning. Truly... truly a sin!"

"You are all famous town guests from the surrounding ten miles and eight villages. I must entrust this matter to you. Rest assured, once this matter is settled, the reward promised to you will certainly be delivered with both hands."

Kuang Hongyi cupped his hands toward Master Feng, his gestures full of the habits of the pugilistic world: "Master Feng, rest easy. My brothers and I make our living this way. That you could come to seek us out shows you think highly of us. Please tell us the ins and outs of this matter in detail so we know how to prepare."

Nodding, Master Feng raised his eyelids, and with a single glance, dismissed the two maidservants waiting to the side. At this moment, only Yang Xiao's group, Master Feng, and his trusted aide Liu Guanjia remained in the room.

"This is a long story, starting from ten years ago. At that time, my late father had just passed away. Because my father loved listening to operas while he was alive, the family thought of hiring an opera troupe to perform on the night of his 'return of the soul' on the seventh day after his death, to let my father depart in peace."

"But... but who could have imagined that such a thing would happen?"

Speaking of this, Master Feng's emotions suddenly became agitated. His withered, thin fingers gripped the armrests of the chair tightly, the veins on the back of his hands bulging. "Halfway through the opera, the lead performer of the troupe accidentally fell into the water. Although the people in the manor went to save her immediately, they couldn't save her. The person just... just drowned like that."

Kuang Hongyi thought of the scene from last night and roughly knew where the opera had been performed, but he still asked, "May I ask where the opera stage was set up in the manor?"

Master Feng shook his head, his expression pained. "Right on that lake in the back courtyard."

Hearing this, Yang Xiao frowned. "An opera on the lake? Water represents Yin. The troupe you hired—were you asking them to perform a Ghost Opera?"

Hearing the word 'ghost', Liu Guanjia's expression darkened. Just as he was about to say something, he was interrupted by Master Feng. "That is correct. Inviting them to perform for my late father, it was naturally a Ghost Opera."

"We knew that opera troupes have many taboos, but we paid them extra silver and burned Yinchai Kailu Cai. You who work in this trade should know that they take such jobs in private, just that due to various reasons, it is inconvenient to speak of it openly."

Master Feng's attitude was sincere, and what he said was logical. There were not many troupes that dared to take on a Ghost Opera, but there were certainly some. The pear garden trade traveled north and south, dealing with both the living and the dead, making a living from everyone's rice bowls. The probability of encountering evil things was high; if these people didn't have some real skills, they would have disbanded long ago.

"May I ask which opera troupe Master Feng hired?" Xu Su asked.

"It was the Chunxi Troupe from Yingke Pavilion in the south of the town. The troupe leader's surname was Bai, so the locals also called them the 'Bai Family Troupe'. They were quite famous in this area back then."

"The woman who accidentally fell into the water and died was the star of the Bai Family Gatehouse and a famous lead performer. Her stage name was Xi Yao. Besides that, she was also the daughter of the Bai troupe leader."

"But her death has nothing to do with my Feng family! We paid the silver, and the Bai troupe accepted it; we have the receipts and contracts for everything. Who knew... who knew why this woman would haunt my Feng family? For this past year, everything in my Feng family has gone wrong, and we have lost people one after another. This... this is to leave my Feng family without descendants!" Master Feng became more agitated as he spoke, and finally, his blood and Qi surged, causing him to cough violently. Liu Guanjia hurried forward to pat his back and soothe his breath, and it took a long time for him to recover.

Hearing this, everyone finally knew the identity of that female ghost. No wonder she was obsessed with performing opera; it turned out she was an opera singer in life.

The singing from last night was ethereal and exceptionally sorrowful. The matter was certainly not as simple as Master Feng described; one could not listen to only one side of the story.

Thinking of this, Yang Xiao cupped his hands toward Master Feng and said politely: "Master Feng, please take care of your health. By the way, may I ask where we can find the Bai family opera troupe? We have questions to ask."

The pained-looking Master Feng clutched his chest and slowly shook his head.

The group did not understand what he meant. Finally, it was Liu Guanjia, with his deathly pale face, who spoke. His cold voice made one's hair stand on end: "I'm afraid you won't be able to find them."

"Why?"

"After that woman died, all those people died too. The Bai Family Gatehouse... is gone."