Chapter 24

Li Miao picked up the snake corpse with the branch and placed it in front of him to observe carefully.

For things like snakes, the skin is dead and won't rot. Any external injuries on the body before death can be reflected on this skin.

Li Miao looked for a long time and found a small gap on the snake corpse's belly.

He carefully observed that gap, threw the snake corpse into the pool, and had a rough idea in his heart.

It was about four or five in the afternoon, and it was still early for the ghost haunting time, so waiting here was meaningless.

Li Miao yawned, went back to find the shivering servant, and had him lead the way to eat and rest.

Sunset and moonrise, the time reached the third watch.

When Squire Wu moved out, he took away many servants, so many rooms in the Wu mansion were empty at this time.

The servants were also panicked by the haunting recently; usually, the rooms were full, and having people around gave some comfort, but now it was empty and too creepy, so they simply gathered in a few nearby rooms to rest.

Most were already fast asleep at this time.

A servant woke up from holding his urine, turned over, got out of bed, and wanted to go to the latrine, but didn't dare to open the door when he reached it.

After hesitating for a while, he went back and patted a handyman he usually had a good relationship with.

"Hey, wake up."

"What for?"

"Accompany me to the latrine."

The person patted awake was a bit dissatisfied, but thinking that he would need someone to accompany him when he wanted to get up at night, he didn't say much, put on an outer coat, and walked toward the latrine with him.

Fortunately, the latrine was not near the haunted courtyard.

The two walked to the latrine, the one wanting to get up at night went in, and the handyman who accompanied him waited outside the door.

Late autumn season, the weather was getting cold.

The draft blowing through the corridor picked up fallen leaves, rustling the withered grass.

The handyman who got up at night squatted for a while, felt cold in his heart, and knocked on the pillar.

"Are you there?"

"Yes, yes, hurry up, I'm freezing to death," came an impatient reply from outside the door.

He breathed a sigh of relief and continued: "Tell me, what kind of officials were those four who came during the day?"

"They were actually quite kind, not as fierce as Lord Wang who came to visit the mansion before."

"But officials don't they all ride in sedans, why did they lead their own horses?"

"Those two women were truly beautiful, even more beautiful than the Third Mistress."

"Sigh."

"If only I could marry such a beautiful wife in the future."

He rambled on, finished his business, pulled up his pants, and prepared to open the door to go out.

But he suddenly stopped.

He suddenly realized that the person outside the door hadn't spoken for a long time.

He asked in a trembling voice in a low tone: "A-are you there?"

No one answered.

"Y-you... don't scare me..."

"If you're there, say something... stop messing around..."

There was still silence outside the door.

"Stop messing around... I'm scared, is that not enough..."

He wanted to open the door to see, his hand placed on the door, but it shook like a sieve, not daring to push it open.

Drip.

The wind stopped for a moment, and he heard outside the door, right outside the door, the sound of liquid dripping.

Drip.

Drip.

One sound after another, as if knocking on his heart.

"It's here... it's over..."

Remembering what a handyman who bumped into a ghost said a few days ago, he panicked.

"What to do, what to do, what to do!"

The latrine only had one door, and the person outside the door had no movement, most likely already harmed by the ghost!

That ghost might be outside the door, waiting for him to open it!

"Window, right, the window!"

There was a small window left above the latrine for ventilation, not in the same direction as the door. He was thin and could crawl through!

He hurriedly ran under the window and jumped with all his might.

But his hands went soft from fear and he couldn't grab it.

He was so anxious that tears flowed out, he smashed his hands on his legs twice, and wiped his sweaty hands.

He jumped with all his might again, and this time he finally grabbed the window sill.

He excitedly kicked the wall twice, used his hands to pull himself up, and grabbed the outer wall.

"Quick, quick!"

He pressed his hands against the wall, wanting to crawl out, but couldn't, as if his clothes were caught.

He exerted some force, couldn't break free, sent his body back into the latrine, and stretched out a hand to push away the corner of his clothes.

"Creak—"

Just at this moment, he heard the sound of the door being pushed open behind him.

His limbs went soft, he fell down, and sat on the ground.

Behind him came the sound of clothes being blown by the wind, reaching behind him.

He forced himself to turn his head to look.

But he saw a blood-stained white dress floating in the air above him.

Further up was a face covered in blood, a pair of bleeding holes, facing him.

"!!!!"

He was terrified to the extreme at this moment, opened his mouth to call for help, but his throat felt as if it were being gripped, only emitting a hoarse hiss.

That face paused in the air and lunged at him!

"Ah!!!!"

He got his wish and let out a shrill scream, finally scared unconscious.

That face lunged onto him, but emitted a dull sound, fell off his body, and rolled on the ground a few times.

That white dress also lightly covered him, empty inside.

After a while, that dress seemed to be pulled, sticking to the ground and exiting the latrine.

Li Miao leaned down to pick up the dress, pulled hard on it with one hand, and pulled out a thread.

"Heavenly silkworm thread, good stuff."

Li Miao turned his head to look at a roof: "You use it for this? To scare people?"

A light sound came from the roof, a person in night clothes jumped up, stepped on the eaves, and fled outward without a word.

"Don't be in such a hurry to leave."

Li Miao wrapped the thread around his hand, turned to the servants who ran over to check after hearing the scream, and said: "There are two people by the latrine, one was drugged and one was scared unconscious."

"Carry them into the room, find a doctor to take a look tomorrow."

After saying that, he also leaped up, stepped on the roof, and chased after the person fleeing.

On the other side, Wang Hai, Xiao Si, and Mei Qinghe also heard the movement here.

The three of them knew there would definitely be a situation at night, so they all rested in the afternoon.

At this time, all three were in a small courtyard, Wang Hai in one room, Xiao Si and Mei Qinghe in another, and now they were all awake.

Hearing the scream, they knew that with Li Miao there, they didn't need to worry, just take care of themselves, so none of them moved.

Just in this small courtyard, a large cat suddenly jumped down.

This cat's pace was stiff, walking crookedly, its body covered in mud and grass leaves, its fur damaged, only a pair of eyes emitting a green light.

It walked a few steps in the courtyard, first looking up at the two rooms with lights.

One room reflected two shadows, and one room had only one.

It hesitated for a moment and swayed toward the room with fewer people.

In the room, Wang Hai listened to the sound outside the door, took out a pair of gloves inlaid with iron pieces and sharp hooks on the fingers from his bag, and put them on.

"Choose me?"

"Then you can be considered to have chosen well."

"Digging things out from under skin and flesh is my specialty."

(End of chapter)