A Happy Year of the Rabbit

After assigning tasks, Yu Xing quickly ransacked the room where she was.

As he expected, he indeed found clues left by the "previous lodgers" in some obscure corners.

For example, under the bed, he found a dusty piece of paper with the word "Run!" written on it; and under the wooden table in the room, there was a sentence carved with a knife—

Don't believe her.

Yu Xing's search skills are maxed out; finding the easiest place to hide information at a glance is second nature to her.

He ran his finger under the wooden tabletop and felt the uneven marks, then squatted down and saw the writing.

"Don't trust her..." Yu Xing squatted down, her gaze falling on the knife marks left at some unknown time. Although the characters carved were messy, each stroke was straight, enough to show the force used by the carver.

Perhaps this was left behind under conditions of extreme fear.

The only person who can be referred to as "she" in the entire abandoned house is a young woman whom we have not yet seen.

Having confirmed this, Yu Xing opened the cabinet again and found a package in the corner.

The package was tied together with a whole piece of linen, the kind that people used to carry on their shoulders. It looked like it was luggage that someone had left behind and didn't take with them.

The package was covered with a thin layer of dust, indicating that it hadn't been touched in a long time. Yu Xing opened it and found several faded clothes, a purse, and a book inside.

The money bag was heavy, but it didn't contain much silver; it was mostly copper coins that rattled when shaken.

"..." Yu Xing silently put the money pouch into her pocket.

Just in case, just in case it works.

Having hidden away the copper coins of his predecessors, he opened the book again.

Upon looking at it, Yu Xing couldn't help but become interested, and leaned against the cabinet to slowly turn the pages.

As expected, this is a "diary"—an ancient version.

The brushstrokes had long since dried, but the characters were still quite elegant, conjuring up an image of a poor scholar in Yu Xing's mind.

The interesting thing is that this "diary" perfectly inherits the common pitfall of writing a diary in horror Yugi, recording the three days and three nights the diary's owner spent in an abandoned house from the perspective of a war correspondent who is deeply in danger.

The vertical records had no punctuation, Yu Xing read them a little slowly.

In summary, the scholar and a girl surnamed Li in town fell in love and were also acquainted by their elders, so they got engaged early on. They were supposed to hold a wedding on an auspicious day, but the girl suddenly eloped with someone else, leaving the scholar dumbfounded.

The scholar received a farewell letter from the girl, which was written by someone else because she was illiterate.

The scholar didn't believe the farewell words in the letter, so he searched everywhere for her, eventually hearing that the girl had gone to the legendary abandoned house...

By a stroke of luck and with his persistent pursuit, the scholar finally entered the abandoned house. He didn't intend to stay there forever; he was just temporarily staying.

Here, he did indeed meet the girl he loved, but he never saw the man who had eloped with her.

The girl said that she was forced away by the scholar's parents because the scholar's father, who was an official, knew an even higher-ranking official and wanted to arrange a marriage for the scholar with the official's daughter, but dared not directly pursue the relationship and abandon his future.

The scholar begged the girl to go home with him, but the girl cried and said that she had already stayed in the abandoned house and could not leave again. She only asked the scholar to stay with her for three days, as if it were fate.

So the scholar stayed overnight for three days.

On the first day, he met the burly man who lived with the girl, a young man surnamed Song, and a child without a name. The young man was a doctor, but he himself was sickly and didn't seem to know the girl well. The scholar trusted the girl very much.

That evening, the scholar heard faint sounds of women and men talking and laughing in the courtyard. He pushed open the door and went out, but saw nothing.

The next day, the scholar discovered that the medical book in the young man surnamed Song's hand had been replaced with poetry. The two even discussed it for a while. The scholar felt that he had met a kindred spirit, and his worries lessened a bit. However, his doubts from the previous night remained. He went to find the girl he loved and saw her embroidering in her room.

The room was filled with exquisite embroidered works, each one beautiful and delicate. They would surely be popular with wealthy young ladies if sold. The only odd thing was that every single embroidery was red.

The scholar had a vague feeling that something was wrong. The next night, as he lay in bed, he suddenly remembered that Miss Li didn't know how to do needlework at all. It was because Miss Li had disliked needlework since she was a child and preferred music that her father had made her learn the zither.

Startled and drenched in cold sweat, the scholar got up, lit a lamp, and decided to write down the causes and consequences of his journey and his doubts, which resulted in the book that has been preserved.

On the third day, the scholar was exhausted and got up late, almost missing the lunch that appeared in the courtyard. The burly man scolded him angrily and urged him to eat quickly. After he finished eating, the scholar saw the young man surnamed Song reading a book.

For some reason, the scholar felt a sudden unease. He found an opportunity to enter the young man surnamed Song's room and discovered that the shelves in the room were filled with the examination books that the scholar had read, as if the young man surnamed Song had given up being a doctor and become a scholar instead.

Before nightfall, Miss Li presented the scholar with an embroidery, and shyly suggested that this was the last time she would spend with him, and she wished to stay overnight in his room.

In the past, the scholar would have been moved and agreed to share a romantic encounter with Miss Li, but the thought of the white embroidery Miss Li had given him filled him with fear.

He refused, and at night, he continued writing in his "diary."

Then, there was a knock on the door.

The scholar's diary ended with "Someone is knocking on the door outside, I want to see," and then it was over.

The ending felt a bit abrupt, Yu Xing couldn't help but recall the carvings under the table beside her.

The diary contains a lot of information. According to the diary, the young man living in the abandoned house is a doctor, but the child who brought them in said that "Brother Song" is a scholar.

In addition, while it's true that Miss Li does embroidery, the child calls her "Sister Yun," and her surname is Yun, not Li.

Yu Xing chuckled softly; the story behind this was probably quite interesting.

He opened the door and entered the courtyard, where he saw the child had come out of the Lingren's room and was playing with origami in the yard.

Next to the child was a basket filled with colorful wildflowers. Yu Xing walked over and sat down beside the child, asking curiously, "What are you picking?"

"I'm folding a little bunny!" the child exclaimed cheerfully, showing Yu Xing a lifelike paper bunny in his hand. "Is it pretty?"

"So cute." Yu Xing rested her chin on her hand, revealing a warm and friendly smile.

"Here you go!" The child suddenly placed the paper rabbit in Yu Xing's hand.

"For me?" Yu Xing paused, somewhat suspicious that accepting the child's origami might trigger some kind of death trap—although, for now, it seemed the room he had chosen likely corresponded to "Miss Yun."

"The opera singer just told me that the New Year has just passed in the outside world, and it's the Year of the Rabbit!" the child said. "I haven't had sugar paintings in a long time. My parents used to take me to the market every New Year, and it was so lively... but I can't see them anymore after I came in."

The child started folding paper again, muttering, "I'm best at origami. The opera singer said you used to like lively atmospheres, and he hoped I could fold one for you so you wouldn't be sad."

Yu Xing: "..."

He glanced down at the paper rabbit in his hand, his gaze becoming indifferent.

Seeing the child intently folding paper, Yu Xing quietly got up and walked to the door of the Lingren's room. Just then, the Lingren opened the door, and, having overheard something, wore a slight smile.

Yu Xing tossed the paper rabbit into the Lingren's arms, a half-smile on her face, "Dear teacher, this is a gift for you along with my blessings."

The Lingren innocently caught the question, "Don't you like it?"

Yu Xing curled her lips into a smile, her eyes both playful and wary, and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "What if you want to harm me?"

Even if there's nothing wrong with the rabbit, he won't accept it.

After tossing the rabbit to the Lingren, Yu Xing felt a gaze upon her.

He turned his head and saw that the child, who had been intently folding paper, had stopped and was staring at him with large, clear eyes that seemed to harbor malice.

Why did you throw away the rabbit I gave you, big brother?

"Does my older brother dislike my origami, or does he dislike me?"