Chapter 23

"Ha ha ha ha~ Worthy brother, please!"

"Brother, no need to see me off, stay, stay."

"Good, good."

After some shady dealings between the beasts in human clothing, Li Miao and Xu Siyuan walked out of the government office talking and laughing.

"I still have official business, so I can't keep you, worthy brother. I have already arranged everything at the Wu mansion, worthy brother, just go there!"

"Many thanks, brother, I have disturbed you much."

"Hey! You and I are like old friends at first sight, why say such distant words! Ah? Ha ha ha ha..."

Xu Siyuan saw Li Miao off at the door, the two talked enthusiastically for a while, and said goodbye to each other.

Xu Siyuan stood at the door, watching Li Miao walk away with a smile, and turned back to the mansion.

"Pah!" He spat on the ground: "Begging for favors at my door, you bastard!"

Li Miao thought while walking: "This Xu fellow is quite wealthy; I must come and knock him for another sum when I leave."

An official from the capital is three ranks higher when leaving the capital, not to mention an official of the Embroidered Uniform Guard; he wasn't afraid of Xu Siyuan retaliating privately later, so naturally, he would take as much as he could.

With the silver notes he knocked from Xu Siyuan in his bosom, Li Miao returned to the restaurant where they ate.

Wang Hai and the other three were waiting at the door; seeing Li Miao return, they led the horses to meet him.

Xiao Si took the silver notes Li Miao handed over, counted them carefully, and happily stuffed them into her waist pouch.

Li Miao reached out and rubbed Xiao Si's head: "The money is here, and a place to stay has been found."

"Tonight, let's go see the excitement of the ghost haunting."

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Wu Fu.

Squire Wu nodded and bowed, fawning over an official: "My lord, I have cleared out the rooms, and all the items inside are new and good; there will definitely be no smell."

"The ingredients are all fresh, the cook was invited from outside, and I gave enough silver; they are all waiting in the kitchen. The distinguished guest can just order whatever they want to eat."

"I have kept a few clever servants, and they will definitely not neglect the distinguished guest."

The official didn't even look at him, nodded: "Don't let any problems arise; this was personally ordered by Lord Xu. If the distinguished guest is unhappy and it reaches Lord Xu, I can't protect you either."

Squire Wu naturally nodded in agreement, but in his heart, he was secretly crying out in bitterness.

"Where did this high official come from, why did they take a fancy to my house?"

Today, Squire Wu was worrying about the ghost haunting these past few days when suddenly his backer in the government arrived at his mansion.

Upon asking the purpose, he learned that it was the main official of this Pingshan Guard, Commander Xu Siyuan, who personally ordered that he had a distinguished guest arriving and wanted to borrow his house for a few days.

The Wu family members shouldn't live in their own home, but go out and find a place to live themselves, to avoid getting in the distinguished guest's eyes.

Squire Wu's family was just rich, but hadn't produced any official figures. To put it bluntly, he was just a local wealthy man.

To him, Xu Siyuan, a third-rank official and the main official of a guard station, was simply a figure in the sky. Now that Xu Siyuan had spoken, he naturally didn't dare to refuse.

"It's just... my family has had some rumors recently, and some movements have occurred; I don't know if you have heard..."

"That's not something you need to worry about; move out quickly."

The official glanced at Squire Wu unhappily, and Squire Wu didn't dare to say more, hurriedly ordering the servants to move faster.

He himself took his family to temporarily live in another property in the city.

The official patrolled the mansion a few times, saw no problems, and waited at the door.

Not long after, Li Miao's group of four was seen walking over leading their horses.

The official hurriedly stepped forward to greet them: "Lord Li, the mansion is ready, please come in."

Naturally, servants came over to take the horses and take down the luggage.

Li Miao nodded, the four followed the official into the main room and sat down, and saw him hesitate to speak.

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

"This Wu mansion has had some chaos recently and is not very peaceful."

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

"You are also eating imperial grain, why do you believe these things?"

"My lord, for some things, it is better to believe they exist than to believe they don't," the official said in a dilemma: "In case you are offended and Lord Xu blames me, I can't bear it either."

"Where are there ghosts and gods in this world," Li Miao said: "If there were, there wouldn't be so many unfinished grudges and unrequited favors in this world."

"No need to say more, you just go find Lord Xu to report."

Li Miao naturally wouldn't care, because he came here specifically for these rumors of ghost haunting.

It was precisely his own request to let Xu Siyuan arrange for them to live in this Wu mansion, so he could openly go see the excitement.

Seeing Li Miao's determination, the official didn't say more and bid farewell to Li Miao.

Seeing that the outsiders had left, Wang Hai leaned over and said to Li Miao: "Battalion Commander, after you left, I also heard a few words outside the restaurant."

"Is it that thing?"

"Eight or nine out of ten. I didn't expect to encounter such a rare thing in this Qi and Lu region."

Li Miao smiled: "Who knows who raised it here, only to die outside without having time to take it back."

"It's just that you don't need to go to Xiao Si's room to protect her tonight; are you a bit disappointed?"

Wang Hai smiled embarrassedly: "What is the Battalion Commander saying..."

"Alright, go rest. I'll go to the courtyard to take a look; if you're hungry, go to the kitchen to order food yourself, no need to call me."

Wang Hai and the other two agreed and went to their guest rooms to rest.

Li Miao called a servant, had him lead the way, and walked toward the courtyard where the ghost was haunting.

Before reaching the courtyard, a faint stench of corpses drifted over.

Squire Wu must have been afraid of making Li Miao dissatisfied, so he had people sprinkle some spices in the courtyard, but the spice smell not only didn't cover the stench, but instead mixed with the corpse stench, appearing even more eerie and unpleasant.

The servants still remaining in Squire Wu's mansion were either sold and had no choice, or were bold and stayed because Squire Wu had been paying money readily recently.

The one Li Miao stopped was clearly the former.

Before this person reached the courtyard, his legs couldn't help but tremble, cold sweat flowed down his face, and he stuttered to Li Miao: "G-Great Master, i-it's here..."

"I... I'll wait for you here, if you have anything, call me..."

After saying that, he stood holding the door frame, not daring to take another step forward.

Seeing him scared, Li Miao didn't force him and stepped into the courtyard.

Entering this courtyard, that eerie stench became even more obvious, mixed with a hint of blood, making one feel instinctively uncomfortable.

The layout of the courtyard was clearly well thought out, with a rockery in the middle, surrounded by water, a pavilion on the side, and branches and leaves dense all around, planted with seasonal flowers and plants. If it were normal times, it should be a quite quiet little courtyard.

Unfortunately, at this time, those trees were withered, the flowers and plants were yellow, a thick layer of green algae grew on the pool under the rockery, and some mosquitoes and flies danced on it.

This courtyard should have been left uncleaned for a long time. Li Miao came in a hurry, and Squire Wu's family servants cleaned it roughly, but it was still inevitable that there were omissions.

Li Miao walked to the side of the rockery, broke off a branch, and picked out a snake corpse from a gap above.

Snakes love to drill into holes; this snake should have crawled in here before it died and wasn't discovered by the servants who cleaned it.

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

Li Miao specifically looked for this snake corpse because on things like snakes that have no fur and are integrated from top to bottom, some traces would be more obvious.

(End of chapter)