Chapter 21

Those few people chatting were local hired hands.

In the feudal era, servants in wealthy families were divided into two types: one was maids and servants sold to the master's family, and the other was hired hands paid with money.

Those sold were actually slaves, and their life and death were decided by the master's family. They had no wages, and their marriage and funeral arrangements were not up to them.

It sounds miserable, but in fact, if they encountered a kind master's family, at least they wouldn't starve. There were some bonuses during festivals, and in lean years, their lives were much easier than the average person's.

Of course, there was a threshold for selling oneself into slavery—one had to be good-looking.

Wealthy families also had something to say: "Just for this, many people want to kneel, but don't have the path!"

Like these few chatting, they were hired hands paid with money when the wealthy family was short-handed, doing chores like sweeping and repairing, with money and goods settled, actually just day laborers.

If you want to talk about gossip and rumors of wealthy families, most of it comes from the mouths of such people.

Because those who were sold lived and ate in the master's family, and their life and death were decided by the master's family.

If they were caught gossiping, their lives might not be guaranteed.

And those like hired hands moved back and forth between various wealthy families, gathering for a small drink before going home after finishing work, and the gossip naturally spread.

At this time, these few had already had three rounds of drinks, their faces red and hot, and they were muddled.

Seeing Li Miao bring the wine over, they knew it was good wine they couldn't usually afford just by looking at the pot, so they naturally wouldn't refuse.

They hurriedly made room for Li Miao and told the story of this "ghost haunting" one after another.

To talk about this Squire Wu, he was a famous wealthy man in this Pingshan Guard, with a thousand hectares of fertile land, and his mansion was magnificent.

The process of Squire Wu's ancestors getting rich, when talked about, is actually very cruel.

The primitive accumulation of capital is bloody, especially naked in the feudal era.

A thousand hectares of fertile land certainly didn't fall from the sky; it often relied on clever seizure and forceful grabbing.

Magnificent certainly wasn't brought from the womb; every bit was stripped from people.

Fortunately, Squire Wu's ancestors were smart people, knowing that the key to passing on wealth is not to make wealth more, but to make everyone feel that "you deserve to have so much money."

So he started to associate with officials and powerful people, finding some backers for himself.

Toward those below, he also started to restrain his habits, accumulate virtue and do good, and even gave out porridge during lean years. If tenant farmers were a few days late with rent, he would also let his subordinates go to their door and say things like "the landlord's family has no surplus grain either," actively granting them a period of time.

Just like this, it was passed down for two or three generations, and by the time it reached Squire Wu's generation, his reputation in Pingshan Guard became "no wonder they are rich."

Squire Wu himself was not very smart, failing his studies, so he just honestly acted as a rich man in Pingshan Guard, and his life was considered comfortable.

But starting from a month ago, Squire Wu's life began to become difficult.

At first, it was the guards in the mansion; when patrolling at night, they always felt cold and fearful in their hearts, and couldn't find the reason.

Later on, the flowers and plants in the mansion also began to wither.

A few days later, when the servants were cleaning the courtyard, they always found animal corpses in some nooks and crannies.

At first, it was snakes, insects, rats, and ants, later it was birds, and then it was wild cats.

You must know that it was already late autumn, the weather was cooling down, and ordinary corpses would always take two or three days to start rotting.

These corpses, however, looked like they had been dead for a while, already starting to grow maggots, rot, and stink.

At first, the servants thought it might be some wild cats carrying the corpses in without finishing them. Or some naughty children throwing them in over the courtyard wall, so they didn't pay much attention.

As a result, after cleaning up one batch, another batch died the next day, and there were more and more corpses, and the originally quiet courtyard was filled with a stench.

After ten days or so like this, Squire Wu finally couldn't bear it anymore and let the guards all guard the courtyard at night to see what the situation was.

This look caused trouble.

According to the guards on night watch, that night was exceptionally cold, and the moon was also covered by clouds.

The entire courtyard only had the light of lanterns, and a group of people scattered in the courtyard could barely see each other's figures, and couldn't even see the faces of the people opposite them clearly.

A group of people in the courtyard, smelling the faint stench of corpses, all felt fearful in their hearts.

Just when they were trying to keep their spirits up and guard until the fourth watch, thinking that tonight would pass like this.

Meow~~

In the silence, a cat's meow was heard.

A large snow-white cat walked over from the courtyard wall, its two eyes emerald green, as if two ghost fires were floating in the air.

This large cat's pace was stiff, completely unlike the agility of ordinary wild cats, but instead limping, simply like a corpse that had just learned to walk.

A guard holding a lantern gathered his courage to look, and as a result, he was scared to the ground with a "Mommy."

That large cat, its skin and flesh rotting, its bones showing, a piece of flesh on its face had fallen off, revealing white teeth.

Its belly was empty, dried intestines dragged under its feet, and ribs grew unevenly on its chest.

That large cat was clearly a corpse!

A pair of eyes were staring fixedly at that guard!

Hearing this, Li Miao glanced intentionally or unintentionally at Xiao Si, who was whispering to Wang Hai, and turned to pour a glass of wine for the person speaking.

"And then?"

That person drank the wine, lowered his voice, and continued to speak.

That guard screamed and fell to the ground, and the rest hurriedly rushed over to help.

People of this era were generally superstitious, and at most had heard a few ghost stories from their elders, so where had they seen this scene?

As a result, they were all scared dumb on the spot by that large cat, not daring to move.

That large cat stopped when it saw people, its two green eyes staring at people without turning.

On that face with only half its skin and flesh left, it clearly revealed a stiff, human-like smile!

Meow—!!!

With a hiss, it lunged at the group of people!

Among the guards, there was an older one who had traveled the Jianghu when he was young, had seen much, and was bold, using the long stick in his hand to block in mid-air.

Crack.

It was a crisp sound, sweeping that cat corpse into two halves.

The upper and lower halves of that large cat fell to the ground, still struggling incessantly, trying to crawl onto people.

Several people were scared pale, and the timid ones vomited on the spot.

It was still that old guard who called for people to bring dry grass and fire oil, and burned that corpse with one fire.

A group of people waited until dawn to report to Squire Wu; Squire Wu didn't believe it at first, but a group of people swore they saw it truly, so he didn't doubt it anymore.

He publicly rewarded that old guard with twenty taels of silver, gave him a few days off, and let him go home to rest for a period of time.

But after a few days, he waited and waited, but didn't see the old guard return.

When Squire Wu sent people to check at the old guard's home, they found that the old guard had already died at home, and the entire corpse had rotted beyond human shape.

The skin and flesh on his face, just like that large cat, were missing half.

(End of chapter)