Chapter 35

34, Zhou Eryang

The bride burning paper money by the water pool was none other than Bai Xiue.

The sky gradually darkened, and a chilling wind spun in the forest.

Zhou Chang looked at the flickering firelight by the pool, which illuminated the blinding red of Bai Xiue's wedding dress; he paused for a moment on the spot, then took a step forward and walked to Bai Xiue's side.

Bai Xiue's hair strands fell down, covering half of her face.

She concentrated intently as she threw sheets of paper money into the fire, humming that mournful and sorrowful song.

She did not expect Zhou Chang to suddenly approach, which truly startled her—

She was caught off guard by someone walking toward her, hurriedly covered half of her face with the paper money in her hand, and then looked up at the tall figure approaching.

Seeing Zhou Chang's face clearly, a light suddenly flashed in Bai Xiue's eyes, then abruptly went dark and silent.

"You, you, you, how did you come here?"

Bai Xiue spoke in a panic, using the paper money in her hand to cover that half of her face even more tightly.

Zhou Chang stared at her without blinking, watching until she was so frightened she lowered her head; his voice was calm: "I came here to take you back."

He spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Who wants, who wants to go back with you... we are not even related..." Bai Xiue's head lowered even further; she somewhat liked the current feeling, but fear and worry in her heart made her dare not stay.

She hurriedly stood up and said to Zhou Chang: "Go quickly, you must go quickly... this is not a place you can come to."

"What's wrong?" Zhou Chang instead squatted down by the pool water, raising his eyebrows to look at her, "Is it cold under the pool water? Does your neck still feel painful?"

"You..." Bai Xiue was stunned by the sound.

Like someone who had done something wrong, her eyes held some shame as she slowly lowered her head: "I, I did not mean to harm you and Master Zhou... s-sorry..."

"What fault is there in that?"

Zhou Chang sighed; he was not here to question Bai Xiue.

But the other party seemed to have misunderstood his meaning.

Bai Xiue, who lowered her head in shame with nowhere to hide, was still speaking slowly, but her voice had changed, becoming gentle and full of affection: "However, does the Young Master truly want to know what the scene is actually like under this pool water?"

She slowly raised her face; half of her face had long, slender eyebrows and eyes, charming and affectionate, while the other half had clear eyebrows and eyes, pale and weak, but covered densely with lotus root holes.

Pale, translucent lotus threads swam out from those holes, transforming into pale, tender little hands that swayed like water weeds before Zhou Chang's eyes; Zhou Chang heard many girls' lively, youthful voices within those lotus threads: "Come, come..."

The half of Bai Xiue's face covered in lotus root holes looked at Zhou Chang with eyes full of shame and panic, signaling with her gaze for Zhou Chang to flee quickly.

She could not make any sound at this moment.

What currently dominated her body was the 'Paper Face' who had previously tied her hair with Zhou Chang.

Zhou Chang gazed at Bai Xiue's face, which was too ashamed to meet his eyes; even though this face belonging to Bai Xiue looked far more terrifying than the Paper Face at this moment, he actually found this face cuter.

"Seeing the two of you like this now, I am even more curious about how you get along on a daily basis?

Living together in one body, when daily disputes arise, how do you fight each other?" Zhou Chang asked the Paper Face curiously, "However, if you are willing to tell me about the scene under this pool water, why should I not listen?"

"No, no...

Go away quickly! She will kill you!" At this instant, Bai Xiue struggled violently, temporarily seizing control of her own body; she grabbed Zhou Chang's arm, begging him to flee.

However, in the next instant, the Paper Face returned with renewed force.

'She' still held Zhou Chang's arm and said with a smile: "Speaking of which, since over two hundred years ago, when a woman named Bai Pandi drowned herself by throwing herself into the pool on her way to get married, ghostly incidents caused by this pool have become increasingly numerous.

Over the course of more than two hundred years, dozens of women who hanged themselves, threw themselves into the water, or committed suicide near this pool.

Those young women were mostly those who had not yet left their boudoirs or were about to get married; most of them came from a place nearby called 'Bai Family Grave'.

This pool was therefore named Bride Pool.

But to avoid people associating too much with the tragic events that occurred in this pool, it was renamed Jade Maiden Pool—yet the name Bride Pool remained, and people would mention it from time to time... that name, however, spread much wider than Jade Maiden Pool."

The Paper Face lowered her eyelids, looking at the silent pool water: "Some say the reason Bride Pool attracts countless boudoir girls to compete in suicide and throwing themselves into the water is mainly because the atmosphere in 'Bai Family Grave' is bad.

The men in Bai Family Grave keep rat braids and even imitate the customs of the Qing dynasty people.

Their clan elders and family heads forced the male descendants to flee and the women to commit suicide.

—Before that Bai Family matriarch named Bai Pandi threw herself into the water, first there was an in-married son from another surname named 'Zhou Eryang', who was thrown by the Bai family members into the pool and soaked in a pig cage.

The reason 'Zhou Eryang' was soaked in a pig cage was because people in Bai Family Grave spread rumors that he was seducing Bai Pandi, who was about to leave her boudoir, helping Bai Pandi carry water and cut grass..."

Hearing the name 'Zhou Eryang', Zhou Chang frowned and also turned his gaze toward that deep, bottomless, dark, and cold pool.

"Naturally, some also say there is something eerie in this Bride Pool to begin with.

They say the deceased Bai Family matriarch and her lover Zhou Eryang, their bodies sank into the mud at the bottom of the pool and gradually grew into a section of corpse lotus root; thereafter, every time a woman died in the pool, that corpse lotus root would grow another section...

Otherwise, where would all these lotus flowers on the surface of this pool come from?

Look, those vast expanses of dead lotus leaves are what remain after the lotus flowers on the summer pool withered." The Paper Face spoke softly.

In one corner of the pool, there were indeed vast expanses of withered lotus leaves floating quietly on the water surface.

Like corpses floating on the water surface.

"If I were to say..." At this moment, Zhou Chang turned his eyes to look at the palm the Paper Face had been holding his arm with, and suddenly said, "Seeing is believing, hearing is doubting; nothing is better than personally going down into the pool to take a look.

What do you think?"

Hearing this, the Paper Face was momentarily stunned.

She gazed into Zhou Chang's eyes, wondering if this person was now simply very bold, or acting with impunity?

—Zhou Chang was actually neither.

He simply guessed that this Paper Face would not kill him at this moment; if she wanted to kill him, she would have done so at the mass grave, and certainly would not be telling him these stories here, speaking such nonsense.

So why not make good use of this opportunity?

Especially since he now had some self-defense ability, it would not be good to truly find a demon to test on.

The Paper Face was relatively close and was in a stalemate with Bai Xiue, making her an excellent test subject; once things changed, he could also use the opportunity to test his abilities.

"The Young Master is right..."

The paper-faced figure gripped Zhou Chang's arm, gave a gentle pull, and drew him down into the pool: "Then pray, Zhou Langjun, witness it with your own eyes..."

What, after all, lies beneath the pool's waters?"