Chapter 28: The Third Young Master

The death of Ke Long cast a shadow over everyone's hearts, and it seemed to herald that this night was destined not to be peaceful.

Sure enough, after an unknown amount of time, Yang Xiao, who had been lying on the bed resting, was suddenly woken up. Su Tingting told him with a nervous look on her face that fog had risen outside. This fog had come suddenly, and by the time they noticed it, the entire backyard was already shrouded in mist.

Holding his breath, Yang Xiao hid behind the window and looked outside through a crack. The other room had already vanished without a trace, as if it had been wiped away by an invisible force.

Gradually, sounds began to emerge from outside. Leaning against the wooden door, Xu Su swallowed nervously, "Is that ghost thing here again?"

Kuang Hongyi furrowed his brows; he also couldn't quite make sense of the situation. The sounds outside were very strange; there was no hair-raising singing like last night, but rather a series of rhythmic tapping sounds. If one calmed down and listened carefully, it seemed... it seemed to be mixed with the sound of gongs and drums, as well as shouting.

The sounds grew closer and closer, and torches appeared in the fog. People were rushing toward this place, and judging by the noise, there were many of them.

Following a flurry of messy footsteps approaching from afar, the wooden door was knocked upon, "Honored Lucky Guests, it's bad, our Third Young Master is missing!"

"When did this happen?" Choosing not to open the door, Kuang Hongyi asked in return; after all, it was no surprise for strange things to appear in this Ghost Mist.

The person outside continued to pound on the door, with even greater force, "Just now! Everyone in the mansion has been dispatched to search for the Third Young Master, you all must come out and help immediately!"

Xu Su sneered, as if seeing through the other party's scheme, "Helping is naturally fine, but let your Liu Guanjia come to speak; we were invited into the mansion by him."

Looking through the crack, these servants outside were all unfamiliar faces, and with the Ghost Mist permeating the area, the fact that the Ghost Ship and the singing woman had yet to appear could not help but make everyone vigilant.

After only a few minutes, another group of people arrived outside. This time, leading them was the sour-faced Liu Guanjia, and the strange-looking Paper Maker from the evening was following right behind him.

"Everyone, my Third Young Master has gone missing, and the two Paper Substitutes prepared for him are also gone. We only just discovered this."

At this moment, Shi Dali and Shi Guanming from the other room also hurried over. Liu Guanjia's expression sank, "Why is it just the two of you? Where is the other person?"

Shi Guanming's complexion was ashen, "Dead."

After briefly understanding the situation, the Paper Maker's expression turned to one of shock. He then began to calculate on his fingers, and before long, he took a deep breath, "No wonder. It turns out the substitute for tonight was seen through, which angered that Fierce Spirit, and that is what led to the Third Young Master meeting with disaster."

The group followed Liu Guanjia to the lakeside, but as soon as they arrived, Su Tingting froze. There were only the ashes left from the burned Paper Person, but Ke Long's corpse was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is he?" Shi Guanming was already feeling guilty, and now he was even more terrified, "No, where is the corpse? Who moved the corpse?"

At this moment, the servants in the mansion seemed to have discovered something. They lowered their heads and brought their Lanterns over to shine them near the ashes of the Paper Person. Now, everyone saw clearly that there was actually a trail of footprints on the ground.

The footprints were relatively messy at first, but starting from a clear depression in the ground, they suddenly became straight and stiff, and then disappeared all the way into the lake water.

Yang Xiao could roughly imagine it: the messy footprints at the start were left by Ke Long when he rushed out of the room, and that depression was made when Ke Long's body collapsed. As for the final stiff footprints leading into the pitch-black lake water... the image in Yang Xiao's mind was of a corpse in the fog slowly standing up, taking mechanical steps, one by one, walking into the lake until it was completely swallowed by the lake water.

However, looking at Liu Guanjia's attitude, he didn't care about this point at all. He only cared about the Third Young Master, and his gaze toward the group also carried a touch of coldness, "Honored Lucky Guests, although your companion is already dead, tonight's affair was ultimately caused by you, and you must take responsibility for it."

"What do you need us to do?" Kuang Hongyi knew the principle that one must bow their head when under someone else's roof.

Liu Guanjia still wore that business-like deadpan face, "We have searched everywhere in the mansion and cannot find the Third Young Master. Only the lake remains. I just sent people to check, and the small boat tied in the reed marsh is gone. I imagine the Third Young Master's hysteria flared up, and he went out onto the lake alone to play."

Shi Guanming's face turned white upon hearing this. Now, the fog was swirling on the lake surface, visibility was extremely poor, and besides, who knew what kind of ghost things were hidden inside? Going into the water now was no different from sending them to their deaths.

Even more strangely, standing here, everyone could feel the cold wind blowing from the lake, yet this wind could not disperse the fog shrouding the lake surface.

The lake surface under the thin mist was like a lump of ink that could not be dissolved; just staring at it gave one a strange feeling of being swallowed up.

"Liu Guanjia, look, the night is deep. Why don't we wait a bit longer, wait until dawn when visibility is better..."

Xu Su was still thinking about stalling for time, but before he could finish, he was rudely interrupted by Liu Guanjia, "No! We can wait, but the Third Young Master cannot!"

"But how are we supposed to search? We don't have a boat. Are we supposed to swim over?" Shi Guanming was terrified; after all, there was not only the singing female ghost in the water, but also Ke Long's corpse.

"Heh heh, there is no need for you Honored Lucky Guests to worry about that; we were prepared long ago." Liu Guanjia seemed to have anticipated this point. He gave a look to the servant beside him, who raised the gong in his hand and struck it heavily with a drumstick wrapped in red cloth.

In an instant, the ear-piercing sound of the gong echoed in the empty night.

This was a signal. Immediately following it, low rhythmic chants began to come from the thick fog along the lakeside. Strong, shirtless men slowly walked out from the mist. These people were hunched over, their hair coiled up, with thick hemp ropes tied to their shoulders, moving with slow but powerful steps.

The ropes behind them were taut, extending all the way into the fog on the lake, clearly dragging something heavy.

The next second, Yang Xiao and the others were all stunned. They saw a large object slowly reveal its outline in the fog—it was actually a large wooden boat!

The boat was styled like an old-fashioned Black-awning Boat, with a square cabin on top, and a black mast standing at the front of the hull. Judging by its size, it was enough to accommodate all 6 of them.

But what surprised them even more was yet to come: there was not just one such boat; a total of three wooden boats were being dragged out from the fog.

"Honored Lucky Guests, I said before that if you take the silver, you must do the work. Now, I must trouble you to take two people per boat and go out onto the lake to find the Third Young Master. Once the task is accomplished, I, the Feng Mansion, will have other generous rewards." Liu Guanjia bowed to Yang Xiao and the others.

The servants of the Feng Mansion followed suit and bowed to them as well, only that Paper Maker stood to the side with his head tilted, wearing a smile that wasn't quite a smile.

The hairs on the back of Yang Xiao's neck stood up. This scene did not look like they were being asked to find someone; it looked more like they were being sent to their deaths.