[Lu Family Courtyard] Herb Garden Rules

After Ren Yi stabbed the shadow eerie with his fork, it went completely still.

No more screams came from the few remaining participants in the surrounding melon patch. In the darkness, only the watermelons' feeble groans remained, gradually dying away.

The long night finally passed as the eastern sky began to pale. Only after Ren Yi finished his morning work of carrying water and weeding did he return to the courtyard at an unhurried pace.

Only fourteen participants came back from the melon patch with him.

It was only the morning of the second day, and the rate of attrition was a little faster than expected.

Presumably, the remaining eeries had seen that both their young masters had already met their quotas, so they no longer had any reservations and had begun "harvesting" without restraint.

He had no mind to bother with the pale, shaken participants. He went up to the second floor on his own; he had another job to do.

As soon as he stepped into the second-floor corridor, he saw Lu Zihan sprawled over the desk in utter boredom, making shadow shapes with his hands in the sunlight slanting through the window.

Seeing how carefree he looked made Ren Yi's hand itch. He wanted nothing more than to give him a smack right then and there.

When Lu Zihan saw Ren Yi, his eyes finally lit up.

"Seventeen..." he drawled, his voice full of grievance. "I don't want to study."

Ren Yi rolled his eyes inwardly, sorely tempted to reply, Go tell Aunt Lu Qing that if you've got the nerve.

Outwardly, though, he maintained his obedient appearance and replied in a natural tone.

"Then let's go play, eldest young master. If it's only for half a day, I'm sure Madam won't say much."

"Great!" Lu Zihan sprang out of his chair, his eyes shining brightly. "Then let's go to the Herb Garden! The servants working there today only set off a little while ago!"

Ren Yi was briefly taken aback, then exchanged a knowing smile with Lu Zihan.

It seemed Lu Zihan was just as curious about the Herb Garden as he was.

After all, when Lu Qing had introduced the "attractions" to them, she had only given their names. She hadn't mentioned what each place was for or what dangers it held.

And the Herb Garden had been the only place to achieve a "total wipeout" yesterday, and it had taken just half a day.

But for some reason, while the number of people assigned to the other jobs had all been reduced proportionally, Foreman Fu had still assigned the Herb Garden its full complement of ten people today.

Ren Yi and Lu Zihan exchanged a glance, and the two little eeries immediately reached an agreement.

So the participants who were busy sorting books in the study saw the temperamental young master eerie lead the poor servant called "Seventeen" downstairs in a rush.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. That harbinger of doom had finally left, and every extra moment they could live counted.

The Herb Garden was actually the Lu family's backyard. It wasn't particularly large, roughly the size of two or three basketball courts.

From a distance, the vegetation inside grew lush and thick, blotting out the sky.

A huge, leafy parasol tree stood right in the center. Its trunk was thick and its branches spread wide, making it look ideal for the kind of secret base children liked.

Here, Ren Yi finally saw the second explicitly written set of rules in the Instance.

An old wooden sign, half entwined with vines, was nailed to the wooden fence at the Herb Garden's entrance. It looked as though it had been damp with dew for years, and the words on it were written in dark brown:

[Herb Garden Work Regulations]

1. Servants are responsible for loosening the soil and weeding the Herb Garden. While working in the garden, they must work in pairs and maintain physical contact at all times, so as to coordinate their work and avoid damaging the plants through carelessness.

2. When entering or leaving the Herb Garden, both members of a pair must step through the gate at the same time. If one goes ahead, they are responsible for the consequences.

3. If injured and bleeding, do not allow blood to drip onto the ground within three zhang of the parasol tree's trunk.

4. When pruning or tending the herbs, if you discover a plant root system with a special structure, do not make it known. Simply cover it quietly with the surrounding soil.

5. Work must be completed before noon. You must leave the Herb Garden between noon (when the sun is directly overhead) and the hour of Wei (when the sun begins to descend in the west).

The Herb Garden's rules were noticeably shorter than any written regulations Ren Yi had seen, and they didn't seem to contain many traps either.

Could it be because there were fewer eeries here, or because they were relatively weak?

Ren Yi quickly went over the rules. The more straightforward ones were "act in pairs and in sync," "don't get injured and bleed beside the parasol tree," and the "working hours."

But some things were unclear too. For example, in the fourth rule, what kind of plant root system was "special"? How could they ensure that participants would recognize something "special" at a glance?

As for the time, it was morning, within the Herb Garden's working hours.

Apart from those working in the melon patch, the other servants got up to work at the hour of Mao. If they dawdled a little, it would take them about a quarter of an hour to enter the Herb Garden.

Because he had spent the previous night in the melon patch, Ren Yi had finished his work there very early today. It was now about three quarters of an hour into the hour of Mao, so the participants should all have entered the Herb Garden by now.

But for some reason, although the Herb Garden had been perfectly clear from a distance, a thin layer of mist had risen inside it by the time they drew close.

The mist was milky white and as thick as milk. Neither Ren Yi's eyes nor his eerie senses could penetrate it. It was completely silent inside, and there was no sign of the participants.

I hope the participants don't die too quickly, Ren Yi thought. He and Lu Zihan still wanted to get a good look at how the Herb Garden's rules were enforced.

Lu Zihan, on the other hand, didn't think much of it. After reading the rules, he casually lifted a leg to walk into the Herb Garden.

He was a "young master" here, and with that status, he could naturally ignore most of the rules.

Ren Yi reacted quickly and hurriedly grabbed his arm.

"Young master, we'd better follow the Herb Garden's rules. Otherwise, Madam will nag you again."

The problem wasn't Lu Zihan, but Ren Yi himself.

If he openly entered the Herb Garden alone and came out unscathed, and it was broadcast on the livestream, there would be no explaining it.

Lu Zihan paused, then suddenly understood. He immediately wiped the casual look from his face and put on an expression of distasteful resignation.

"All right, all right." He held out his hand and asked with a look of distaste, "Give me your hand. Your hand is clean, right?"

The two held hands to satisfy the rule requiring "physical contact," then lifted their feet at precisely the same time and stepped over the Herb Garden's wooden fence.

The moment they entered the Herb Garden, the milk-white fog completely enveloped everything before them.

Visibility was terribly poor. Even Lu Zihan, who was right next to him, was nothing more than a blurry dark shape, his features impossible to make out.

At the same time, the range of Ren Yi's eerie senses was greatly reduced, confined to almost half a meter around him. It even gave him the illusion that he had temporarily become an ordinary human again.

A few rays of morning sunlight managed to penetrate gaps in the mist, casting dappled spots of light on the ground and faintly marking the way forward.

So is that what the "act together" rule is for?

Indeed, without physical contact, a person would disappear from sight after just a couple of steps.