Jian Ruonan was very pleased with her handiwork. Those five grueling minutes spent practicing the traditional character for "misery" hadn't gone to waste.
But wasn't this Old Madam a little too easily frightened?
She'd fainted so quickly.
Had she been scared to death?
Jian Ruonan reached out to check her breathing and found that she was still alive. There was just an extra puddle on the floor.
Old Madam had wet herself in fright.
If only she had a camera. She'd have taken at least five hundred different photos of Old Madam to commemorate the occasion.
Before anyone noticed her, she crouched down and slipped out of the ancestral hall.
Once she was far away, she took out her whistle and blew it.
"Juuu-"
This was the all-clear signal she and Teng had agreed on.
When Teng heard the signal, he knew his fifth sister had finished her part. He ended his performance and scampered off to find her.
Old Madam hadn't been scared to death. She'd been scared into wetting herself.
When the maids discovered that she had fainted again, they also smelled the urine on Old Madam.
The maids weren't allowed into the ancestral hall, so they had to summon Second Master Lang to carry Old Madam out.
Old Madam was getting on in years. After two such frights, even her eyes had lost focus. She looked unlikely to survive the night.
Jian Lang was somewhat anxious. "Mother, what on earth happened to you? Who did this to you?!"
Old Madam clutched her son's hand and said in a thread of a voice, "Fifth Girl... Fifth Girl... I saw Fifth Girl. She's come to claim my life..."
Jian Lang's brows knitted. Old Madam had athlete's foot, yet she was grabbing his hand. She had no sense of