It's Just a Haunting

Three Flower Cat pressed all four paws firmly against the ground, every single paw pad splayed wide, as she bit onto a weed with her mouth and pulled hard in one direction.

Poof...

The weeds growing in the cracks of the flagstones were pulled out.

Three Flower Cat quickly stabilized her posture, avoiding a tumble, and then dragged this weed all the way over to the door.

A small pile of weeds had accumulated here, numbering around a dozen or so.

Next to it was a larger pile, reaching half the height of a person.

Three Flower Cat stopped, turned her head to look at the bent-over Song You not far away, and then looked at the huge disparity between the two piles of weeds. Her little face expressionless, she inwardly admired human nimbleness, then immediately ran back to continue her great weed-pulling enterprise.

Half an hour later, the courtyard had become neat.

"Three Flower Lady."

"Mm?"

"Might I ask you to go onto the roof and pull up the wild grass on the tiles as well?" Song You walked almost to the doorway, stretched his neck to gaze at the roof, and after a moment of hesitation decided to spare those stonecrop succulents, even though there was a folk saying that "households fall when stonecrop grows," which held that they were inauspicious.

Yet they really were quite pretty.

"Three Flower Lady, remember not to pull up those stonecrop succulents that look like flowers."

"Got it."

Three Flower Cat climbed onto the roof in two or three bounds.

The tiles instantly clattered and chimed.

Watching this courtyard become more and more like a place for humans to live under the efforts of himself and Three Flower Lady, even though it was a rented house, Song You felt rather good about it.

Then he chopped down the unruly bamboo and pruned the plum branches, spending roughly the entire morning on it.

The afternoon was dedicated to procuring all sorts of items.

Song You was not in a rush to buy everything all at once and immediately transform the entire courtyard into a space perfectly adapted to his own living habits. Instead, he strolled around the outside streets with Three Flower Cat, buying whatever he saw a need for and taking it back, without painstakingly racking his brains to figure out what he ought to buy.

In this manner, he unexpectedly spent the entire afternoon.

Coming and going all afternoon, the neighbors still looked at him with strange gazes. Song You had half a mind to inquire about what had once happened in this courtyard, which could also be considered gaining a bit more understanding of his living quarters for the foreseeable future and his neighbors under the same roof, but once he got busy, he felt there was no need.

To others, a haunted courtyard might be terrifying, but to him, it was merely something a bit dirty.

It was of no consequence.

Before he knew it, evening had arrived once more.

Song You moved an old chair to sit in the courtyard, listening to the sound of wind blowing through the bamboo leaves and watching the fragmented cumulus clouds with rosy cloud light in the sky.

Three Flower Cat strolled around the courtyard, speaking a couple of words to him from time to time—such as complaining that there were no mice in this yard and saying that the neighboring household also kept a cat—and he would generally muster his patience to reply to her, chatting with her for a bit.

A day in this era was neither long nor short. Due to a lack of entertainment activities, Song You woke up very early every day, but he also went to sleep very early.

Compared to his life in his previous existence, it gained a dawn when the sky was just turning bright, allowing him to experience a day that started in the morning as completely whole. Yet conversely, it lost numerous nights that only truly began after dark.

Once he grew accustomed to it, he found it quite nice as well.

Gradually, the clouds overhead were dyed a golden yellow by the dusk, and before long they were stained pink, but the pink lasted for only a very short time before the clouds turned a deep gray like burned ash. This pure patch of sky seemed to remind Song You of the era he found himself in.

"It's getting dark..."

The light in the courtyard gradually dimmed.

Song You felt a chill wind, bearing a freezing aura that spread from the direction of the bamboo grove, and turned his head to look. A blurred shadow seemed to have appeared, impossible to make out clearly.

At the same time, Three Flower Cat darted over, stopped in front of Song You, and vigilantly looked left and right.

"Is Three Flower Lady protecting me?"

Three Flower Cat did not speak, still looking left and right.

Shadows flickered among the bamboo shadows.

Song You looked closely, as if someone were dancing.

The ornamental bamboo grew right up against the white wall. Once the light dimmed, it became impossible to tell on the white wall whether it was bamboo or bamboo shadows. Another human figure appeared and disappeared intermittently among the bamboo shadows; that white wall seemed to have become the backdrop for her performance. Every time he caught sight of her figure, she was making different movements, yet she was as light-footed as a crane, free and casual.

Rent a cheap house, and get song and dance performances to boot.

Giving it careful thought, it really was quite a good deal.

Until the dance came to an end.

Only then did Song You stand up and bow once more toward that direction. "Since milady has already become a yin ghost, why do you still linger in a dwelling of the yang realm? Could it be that you have some hidden grievance or something you cannot let go of?"

No one replied, just like yesterday.

Song You thought for a moment before he understood—

She was likely driven by an obsession. For her yin soul to remain undissipated was already the absolute limit, yet she had failed to retain all her memories and intelligence from her mortal days. This sort of ghost possessed very low intelligence; if she were a malicious ghost, she would merely be a grudgeful spirit that harmed people, and if she did not harm people, she was also difficult to communicate with, only performing certain actions based on her pre-mortem preferences and habits.

That was fine as well; as long as they did not disturb each other, it was all for the best.

Song You stretched lazily. Waiting until the yin soul had dissipated, he looked down at Three Flower Cat by his feet and abruptly asked out loud:

"Three Flower Lady."

Hearing the call, Three Flower Cat suddenly turned her head:

"Mm? What is it?"

"Were you originally a house cat or a wild cat?"

"Why ask?"

"Suddenly wanted to."

"Anyway, not a house cat."

"Are you a wild cat?"

"I have a mother."

"And then?"

"Starved to death."

"I see."

The wild cat spoken of here did not refer to a wildcat species, but rather meant stray cats, cats without owners.

Three Flower Lady obviously did not belong to a wildcat species; she was a three flower cat with long-haired cat ancestry, born exquisite and pretty. According to her account, her mother was very likely a house cat that had left her owner. A kitten's attitude toward humans depended to a large extent on the mother cat's words and deeds; her mother had been accustomed to getting along with humans, which was why she herself was so close to people.

"I've always wanted to know how you became a spirit."

"I just became a spirit like that."

"That works too..."

Song You shook his head and did not dwell on it further. After thinking for a moment, he asked Three Flower Cat again, "Then Three Flower Lady should be a female cat, right?"

Three Flower Cat immediately looked at him with the gaze of someone looking at a fool.

"..."

Song You had no choice but to shake his head again, pretending he had never asked.

Sitting in the courtyard for a while longer and listening to a couple of tunes with nothing else to do, Song You returned to his room to rest.

He had a premonition that perhaps the nights for quite a long time to come would be spent just like this. Thinking about it this way, he actually had the yin ghost of this courtyard to thank, as she more or less added a bit of amusement to the boring nights.

A few days later.

Song You went out and bought an oil lamp, fetched a pot of lamp oil, and at great expense purchased a copy of Records of Geography and Scenery.

Records of Geography and Scenery was a travel guide that was relatively popular in the current world, recording many scenic spots and historical sites along with their transportation routes, accommodations along the way, local specialty foods, and the like, as well as documenting several legendary mountains, famous waters, Taoist temples, and Buddhist monasteries.

It was meant to help Song You temporarily view the world.

Upon returning home, he saw a crowd of people sitting beneath the large tree next door, some cooling themselves, others playing chess, and he couldn't help walking over to take a look.

Several elderly men were playing Chinese chess.

Two were playing, while three or five people looked on.

Not far away, another group was sitting around chatting about trivial matters, such as whose daughter was about to get married or whose son couldn't find a wife.

Summer mosquitoes were numerous and venomous, and everyone here held a cattail leaf fan in their hands. At night, the sound of cattail leaf fans slapping against bodies could be heard everywhere.

Over the past few days, the neighbors' attitudes toward him had undergone a visible change.

At first, everyone held a mentality of waiting to watch the fun, not believing that he could live here for long, and often discussed in private how many days he would last. But over the past few days, they only saw him coming and going every day without the slightest panic or fright, looking entirely like he had settled down here. Coupled with the Taoist robe he had worn when he first arrived, the numerous neighborhood residents looked at him with somewhat more respect.

Song You watched for a while when someone came over to strike up a conversation with him.

"Young Mister has eaten dinner?"

Song You turned his head to look—it was the female homeowner of the house diagonally across from his, whom he vaguely remembered had a husband working in official circles.

"Eaten."

"This courtyard hasn't been rented out for several years. Even if someone comes to rent it, they back out of the lease the very same day." The matron asked curiously, "Young Mister lives here and hears this ghost singing tunes every night—are you really not afraid at all?"

As soon as these words were spoken, amid the dim light of dusk, quite a few gazes turned toward Song You.

Clearly, everyone was interested in such a topic.

Perhaps over these past few years, this haunted courtyard had helped them pass many a boring moment after tea and meals. They had been discussing the topic of it for a very long time, and this was actually the first time they had seen someone live inside it for so many days, naturally adding a fresh topic of conversation to it.

Yet Song You merely kept his eyes fixed on the old men playing chess, smiled, and said, "Don't all of you hear it too?"

Truly not afraid!

Someone's heart grew cold inwardly.

They had thought he slept early and deeply and couldn't hear it.

The crowd looked at one another.

"We know that ghost can't get out of this courtyard, and besides, when no one is living inside, she only acts up once every three or five days," the matron said. "Furthermore, we don't do anything against our conscience on normal days, so we aren't afraid of ghosts knocking on our doors at night."

"That is the logic of it."

Song You was still staring at the old men playing chess.

The wooden chess pieces struck against each other, producing crisp sounds.

People became ghosts after death, and ghosts were naturally weaker than humans. Ghosts even more powerful than humans already possessed cultivation, and the vast majority of ghosts were weaker than mortals. Even the methods many malicious ghosts used to harm people were through deception and intimidation. As long as a normal person was neither greedy nor fearful, there was very little need to be afraid of ghosts.

Song You had even heard of a certain strapping fellow who encountered a ghost at night and instead turned around to bully the ghost.

At that moment, he heard the matron ask again:

"Mister is someone with real capabilities. Since that's the case, why haven't you gotten rid of that ghost?"

"That is merely a wisp of lingering soul. Thanks to her, this humble person was able to rent such an affordable courtyard, so how could I return kindness with enmity?" Song You turned around and smiled, bowing to the elder sister. "Besides, long nights are boring. With her around, it can be considered adding a bit of amusement."

Once these words were spoken, many of the listeners instantly understood—

This young mister was not only truly unafraid, but he also genuinely possessed real capabilities. Ghostly spirits that ordinary people avoided like the plague were simply not worth mentioning in his eyes.