Chapter 23: The Haunted House

"Hahahaha~ Brother, please!"

"Brother, there is no need to see me off. Please, stay your steps."

"Very well, very well."

After some hypocritical pleasantries between these two wolves in sheep's clothing, Li Miao and Xu Siyuan walked out of the government office, chatting and laughing.

"I still have official duties to attend to, so I cannot keep you here, brother. I have already had people make all the necessary arrangements at the Wu Fu. You may head there directly!"

"Many thanks, brother. I have troubled you greatly."

"Hey! We two brothers hit it off the moment we met; why speak such distant words? Eh? Hahahaha..."

Xu Siyuan saw Li Miao out, and after a few more enthusiastic words, the two bid each other farewell.

Xu Siyuan stood at the entrance, watching Li Miao walk away with a smile on his face, before turning back into the residence.

"Pah!" He spat on the ground. "Trying to fleece me? You bastard!"

Li Miao pondered as he walked: "This Xu fellow is quite wealthy. I must squeeze him for more when I leave."

A capital official is three ranks higher when leaving the capital, let alone an official of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He did not fear that Xu Siyuan would seek private revenge later; naturally, he would take as much as he could.

With the banknotes squeezed from Xu Siyuan tucked in his chest, Li Miao returned to the tavern where they had been eating.

Wang Hai and the other two were waiting at the entrance. Seeing Li Miao return, they led the horses over to meet him.

Li Xiaosi took the banknotes Li Miao handed over, counted them carefully, and happily tucked them into her waist pouch.

Li Miao reached out and ruffled Li Xiaosi's hair: "We have the money, and a place to stay has been found."

"Tonight, we shall go and see the excitement of this 'haunting'."

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Wu Fu.

Squire Wu nodded and bowed, fawning over an official: "My lord, I have cleared out the rooms. Everything inside is new and of good quality; there will absolutely be no unpleasant odors."

"The ingredients are all fresh, and the cooks were hired from outside just now. I have paid them well, and they are waiting in the kitchen. The honored guest only needs to give an order for whatever they wish to eat."

"I have kept a few clever servants; they will certainly not neglect the honored guest."

The official did not even look at him, merely nodding: "See that nothing goes wrong. This was ordered personally by Lord Xu. If the honored guest is displeased and it reaches Lord Xu's ears, I cannot protect you."

Squire Wu naturally nodded in agreement, though he was secretly lamenting in his heart.

"Where did such a high-ranking official come from, and why did they take a fancy to my house?"

Today, Squire Wu had been worrying about the recent haunting, when suddenly his backer in the officialdom arrived at his residence.

Upon asking the reason for the visit, he learned that it was the head of the Pingshan Garrison, Guard Commander Xu Siyuan, who had personally ordered that an honored guest of his would be staying at his home for a few days.

As for the Wu family, they were not to stay in their own home; they were to go out and find their own place to live, so as not to be an eyesore to the honored guest.

The Wu family was merely wealthy; they had never produced any official figures. To put it bluntly, they were just local landlords.

To him, Xu Siyuan, a third-rank high official and the head of a garrison, was a figure from the heavens. Now that Xu Siyuan had spoken, he naturally dared not refuse.

"It's just that... there have been some rumors in my home recently, some disturbances. I wonder if you have heard..."

"That is no concern of yours. Move out quickly."

The official gave Squire Wu a look of annoyance. Squire Wu dared not say more and hurriedly ordered the servants to move faster.

He took his family to stay temporarily at another property within the city.

The official inspected the residence a few times, and seeing that there were no problems, went to the entrance to wait.

Not long after, Li Miao and his party of four arrived, leading their horses.

The official hurriedly stepped forward to salute: "Lord Li, the residence is prepared. Please, come in."

Servants naturally came over to take the horses and luggage.

Li Miao nodded. The four followed the official into the main hall and sat down, noticing the official seemed to have something to say but hesitated.

"Lord Li... forgive me for being meddlesome."

"This Wu Fu has had some trouble recently; it is not very peaceful."

Li Miao smiled: "Is it the haunting that the idlers in the city are talking about?"

"You are also on the imperial payroll; why do you believe in such things?"

"My lord, in some matters, it is better to believe they exist than to assume they do not." The official said with difficulty: "If you were to be offended and Lord Xu were to blame me, I could not bear the responsibility."

"There are no ghosts or gods in this world." Li Miao said: "If there were, there wouldn't be so many unavenged grievances and unrequited kindnesses in this world."

"No need to say more. Just go and report back to Lord Xu."

Li Miao naturally did not care, because he had come specifically for the rumors of the haunting.

It was his own initiative that led Xu Siyuan to arrange for them to stay at the Wu Fu, so he could openly watch the show.

Seeing Li Miao's determination, the official said no more and took his leave.

Seeing that the outsider had left, Wang Hai leaned over and said to Li Miao: "Battalion Commander, after you left, I heard a few things outside the tavern."

"Is it that thing?"

"Eight or nine out of ten. I didn't expect to run into such a rare item here in the Qilu region."

Li Miao smiled: "Who knows who raised it here, only for them to die unexpectedly outside before they could retrieve it."

"But you don't need to go protect Li Xiaosi's room tonight. Are you a bit disappointed?"

Wang Hai smiled embarrassedly: "What are you saying, Battalion Commander..."

"Enough, go and rest. I'll go take a look in the courtyard. If you're hungry, go to the kitchen and order food yourselves; no need to call me."

Wang Hai and the others agreed and went to their respective guest rooms to rest.

Li Miao called a servant to lead the way and headed toward the haunted courtyard.

Before they even reached the courtyard, a faint smell of rotting corpses drifted over.

Squire Wu must have been afraid of displeasing Li Miao, so he had someone scatter spices in the courtyard. As a result, the scent of the spices did not cover the stench but instead mixed with it, making it even more eerie and foul.

The servants remaining at Squire Wu's residence were either indentured and had no choice, or were bold enough to stay because Squire Wu had been paying well recently.

The one Li Miao had stopped was clearly the former.

Before they even reached the courtyard, the man's legs were trembling uncontrollably, cold sweat streaming down his face. He stammered to Li Miao: "M-Master, t-this is it..."

"I... I will wait for you here. If you need anything, just call me..."

Having said that, he held onto the door frame and dared not take another step forward.

Seeing his fear, Li Miao did not force him and stepped into the courtyard.

Once inside, the eerie stench became even more pronounced, mixed with a hint of blood, making one instinctively feel uncomfortable.

The layout of the courtyard was clearly well-thought-out: a rockery in the center, surrounded by a circle of water, a pavilion to the side, and dense foliage all around with seasonal flowers and plants. Under normal circumstances, it should have been a very quiet and secluded courtyard.

Unfortunately, at this moment, the trees were withered, the flowers and plants were yellow and dry, and a thick layer of green algae had grown on the pond beneath the rockery, with flies and mosquitoes dancing above it.

This courtyard must have been left uncleaned for a long time. Li Miao had come in a hurry, and while Squire Wu's servants had roughly cleaned it, there were inevitably omissions.

Li Miao walked to the side of the rockery, casually broke off a tree branch, and poked a snake corpse out from a crevice.

Snakes love to burrow into holes; this snake must have crawled in here before it died and was not discovered by the servants who cleaned up.

There were several other nooks and crannies in this courtyard hiding such corpses—mice, wild cats, and small birds.

Li Miao had specifically sought out this snake corpse because, on a creature like a snake that has no fur and is uniform from head to tail, certain traces would be more obvious.

(End of chapter)