Chapter 467: The Attic Is Still Haunted

"Is it inconvenient?" Lin Jue bowed. "I remember there is an attic in the backyard of your temple. If it is inconvenient because we are Daoists, we can also go to the attic to stay for one night."

"Eh? How do you know our temple has an attic?"

"Because my Xiao Shimei and I are both from Huizhou, and our secular home is not far from here. Before we went up the mountain, we had walked this road and stayed in your temple," Lin Jue said frankly. "It is for this reason that we two are passing by today and intend to stay in your temple for another night."

The old monk couldn't help but carefully examine the two of them.

Seeing that they were young, with fair faces, looking only about twenty years old, the so-called "before" was at most a few years ago.

But he had no impression at all.

"That attic..."

"Is it also not allowed?"

"It is allowed, but that attic..." The old monk's face showed embarrassment. "Alas, I will tell you clearly—it has been haunted for many years..."

"Haunted?"

Little Xiao Shimei became interested.

"Still haunted?"

Lin Jue was also a bit surprised.

Even the fox curiously poked its head out from Lin Jue's hair, and before the old monk discovered it, quickly retracted its head.

"It seems you really stayed in our place before," the old monk said helplessly. "It has been haunted on and off."

"Is it still the same ghosts as before?"

"Who knows? Who dares to go see?" The old monk said, stepping forward and making way. "Since you are truly old acquaintances, it can be considered fate. Daoists, please come in. I will find a room and a bunk for you. Nowadays, there are few people coming and going, so it is very quiet."

Lin Jue stepped in and scanned the surroundings.

The old monk in the courtyard had just swept half of it. The floor was clean on one half and slightly dusty on the other, with a line piled up with fallen leaves, dust, and wood chips as a boundary in the middle.

The temple seemed indeed a bit dilapidated.

The monks inside seemed to be fewer as well.

In the low guest rooms on both sides, half had doors open and were empty, which should be where people stayed last night, and half had doors closed, which should be where people didn't stay often.

The red walls were a bit mottled, and there were a few stonecrops on the roof.

"Are there still many people coming to stay on this road every day?" Lin Jue asked.

"Much fewer," the old monk sighed. "There used to be many merchants going from Huizhou to the south of the Yangtze River and to the capital. How many are there now? There are fewer people than before! Occasionally, merchants pass by, but they don't like to stay halfway. They leave early and rush to the city ahead even in the rain. It's not bad to have two or three people coming to stay throughout the day."

"So that's how it is."

Lin Jue knew that this temple was built by the road, and staying here was not only a convenience provided by the monks for passing travelers but also their way of making a living.

"I see that the masters in the temple are also much fewer?"

"No way. The world is not good, and everyone wants to become a monk, but the temple cannot afford to support so many people, so we have to let the younger monks go out to beg for alms."

Calling it begging for alms was actually wandering and begging.

It was a nicer way of saying they were sent out of the temple to be beggars.

"The end of the dynasty..."

Lin Jue sighed and looked at the attic in the backyard.

"We will still stay in the attic."

"Are the Daoists not afraid?"

"I once heard that there are bold secular people who have a clear conscience and are not afraid of ghosts. We are practitioners of the Dao, so what is there to be afraid of?"

"Then follow the Daoists," the old monk said. "I will cook some wild vegetable porridge at noon. If the Daoists don't mind, come and eat a little together."

"Good."

Lin Jue took Xiao Shimei and walked towards the attic.

The attic door had been locked for a long time and was covered in dust.

As soon as he pushed the door, he saw many sundries piled up on the first floor, many spider webs at the door, and a smell of dust rushed towards his face.

"Let me sweep it for the Daoists."

"The attic has been sealed for a long time. If it is opened specifically for us, naturally we shouldn't let the master sweep it for us. Just give us a broom and a feather duster."

"..."

The old monk suddenly frowned.

He always felt that these words sounded a bit familiar.

He couldn't remember, so he had to nod and respond:

"Also good."

Soon, the two of them, one with a broom and one with a feather duster, began to sweep the attic.

Just like back then, the downstairs of this attic was still a mess, covered in dust and spider webs, but the upstairs was clean and spotless, and the furnishings were neat and orderly.

And it wasn't just that—

"Shixiong, look!"

Little Xiao Shimei pointed to the floor and walls upstairs.

Lin Jue went up and saw that there were quite a few paintings on the floor, mostly elegant things like bamboo, lotus, pine, and willow, and the walls were full of poems, piled up layer by layer.

"It really is haunted here," Little Xiao Shimei said while looking carefully at the floor and walls.

The poems were layered on top of each other, and many could no longer be seen clearly.

The fox and the colorful cat also jumped out, both turning into the size of cats, running back and forth in the room, looking left and right, sniffing everywhere.

"What is written?"

Little Xiao Shimei was full of curiosity, leaned close to the wall, and recited:

"You are a guest of the cold mountain, I hold the frost and snow collar."

"Night ravine falls with green phosphorus, wild graves bury the plain heart."

"First hearing the night talk, suspecting it to be seeking a soulmate."

"Laughing at the bones of the third watch, rewarding with ten taels of gold."

"Who expected a fake-faced ghost, secretly making a jackal's sound."

"If turned into the soil of the spring terrace, cut the meat to feed the beasts and birds."

"..."

"What else..."

"Weeping blood to entrust the body is not my wish, dissecting the heart to give jade, how can there be no proof?"

"..."

Little Xiao Shimei turned her head:

"Shixiong, it seems to be the poems we heard about back then, the ones those two ghosts wrote to scold you!"

"And there are curses for you too."

"Look, something something, if the nine springs turn into green phosphorus fire, every night burning you until dawn, it's covered underneath and can't be seen clearly."

Lin Jue walked over and looked carefully.

Then he turned his gaze to the side and saw the poems they wrote in remorse when they discovered they had wronged and misunderstood the young scholar in an empty space.

There were poems like "Night rain knocking on the window to turn over old accounts, only then knowing that kindness and righteousness weigh as heavy as a mountain," and "Once took white candles as phosphorus fire, mistakenly recognized the medicine box as a coffin cage," and "The word 'regret' grinds through the three-inch palm, shame marks brand through the five-watch bell." All of them were unclear because of the long years.

However, Lin Jue still identified them earnestly.

Back then, he stayed here at night and met two scholar ghosts who went to the border to join the army and buried their bones in a foreign land. They chatted all night and had a great time. The two ghosts felt that the young scholar was an honest person, so they told him about their bones buried behind the temple and the silver money they had saved from the army, asking him to help inform their families so that the families could come to pick up the bones and appease their obsession with returning to their roots.

The reward was ten taels of silver, which he could take from the jar.

The young scholar, because he went to the back mountain to dig up the silver and was afraid of being seen and discovered, and to prevent the remaining silver from being dug up by others when their families came here, turned back to take the remaining silver, returned it to their families, and asked their families to come and pick up the bones.

Back then at the Langtou Mountain Thousand-Day Wine banquet, he was drunk for a night. When he woke up, he heard from Master that after he left, the two ghosts mistakenly thought he had broken his promise and stolen all the silver, so they cursed loudly in the attic. Both the monks in the temple and the travelers staying there could hear it.

And what was written on this wall was what happened after he left.

Lin Jue already knew—the ghosts here now were still those two.

It happened to be midsummer now. Although it was later than that year, the sunlight outside the window, the bamboo forest, the deserted mountain road, the official road, the bit of green outside the window, and the bit of golden light on the windowsill were all so similar to back then.

"I want to take a nap." Lin Jue walked to the long couch and sat down to test its decay. "You two, don't sniff around everywhere. Even if there are ghosts here, they must be good ghosts."

The fox and the colorful cat both turned to look at him.

Then the fox decisively gave up searching, ran back with small steps, jumped lightly, and lay down beside the long couch.

The colorful cat turned its head again and looked at Little Xiao Shimei.

Seeing Little Xiao Shimei standing by the wall reading poems earnestly, with no intention of looking for the ghosts here, it understood. It also ran back with small steps, stood by Little Xiao Shimei's feet, and looked up at the poems on the wall that it couldn't quite understand.

Unknowingly, it was evening.

There were three more guests in the temple.

Two young people and an old man.

Lin Jue sat by the attic window, and the three were below. The old man was telling the two young people about things on this road.

"You still say you want to go forward. Don't you know this road has never been peaceful?"

"How is it not peaceful?"

The young people clearly wanted to hear such stories.

"When I was young, there was a demon on this official road at night. It would turn into a human, pretend to be a passerby, talk to you, and trick you into believing it. When you completely believed it, it would suddenly turn into a demon and scare you to death," the old man said. "It is said that the demon is still there, but it was cleaned up by a master back then, so it doesn't dare to scare people anymore, but it often runs out at night, turns into an ordinary passerby, and comes to talk to you and chat with you."

"What if it's just an ordinary passerby?"

"How many people walk at night? It was fine when you couldn't tell before, but in these few years, there aren't many people on the road during the day. Use your brain, where do other passersby come from at night? And it happens every day!"

"This..."

"That's all! This demon only scares people and doesn't harm them. Nowadays, there are quite a few demons and ghosts on this road that harm people!" the old man said. "Not to mention anything else, just in this temple, it is said that this attic behind is also haunted!"

"Then why are we still staying here?"

"In a chaotic world, which road has no mountain bandits? Which night do you not encounter demons and ghosts? A ghost that doesn't harm people is always better than a ghost that harms people! This temple has been here for many years, so you can rest assured and stay!"

"Tell us the story of this haunted attic!"

"That can't be told casually!"

"Tell us! Tell us!"

"No..."

"Tell us back in the room!"

"Why do you have so much to say..."

At the same time, Lin Jue's gaze moved.

The fox and the colorful cat in the room also lowered their heads instantly, as if their eyes could see through the wooden floor to the downstairs.

Two ghosts had already appeared downstairs. ===== CHAPTER 468 =====