After the Ghost Opera Singer and the audience had all vanished, Ye Chu and Pei Yanchuan emerged from behind the tree.
"Ye Chu, why didn't you find ghosts strange in the other Instances, but in this one you keep insisting it's a person pretending to be a ghost?"
Ye Chu fell silent for a few seconds before answering, "Instinct."
Pei Yanchuan blinked. "Ye Chu, your instincts..." Are they reliable?
Ye Chu coughed. "Well, it's almost dawn. Let's head back to town."
In the end, he didn't mention the old man. He still didn't know who the old man really was, and that prediction of a "fated calamity"... he didn't want Pei Yanchuan to worry about him.
When they returned to town, they discovered that white mourning banners had been hung outside the house where they'd rested earlier, and paper money was burning in the brazier again.
Pei Yanchuan stopped a passerby. "Sir, what's going on with this household?"
The passerby glanced at the house, then hurriedly looked away and lowered his voice. "Someone died! Suddenly, last night. There was only one person left in that family to begin with. Ah... now they're all gone."
"How did he die so suddenly?"
"How would I know?" The older man's hands trembled slightly. "I heard he showed disrespect to Lord Ghost Opera Singer and was punished!"
"Disrespect?"
The man had rushed off to burn two sticks of incense just for mentioning the stage. How could he have disrespected the Ghost Opera Singer?
"I'd advise you not to wander around the streets either," the passerby warned. "There have been so many strange things happening in town lately. Loads of people have died. You should go home and stay there!" With that, he left without looking back.
Ye Chu and Pei Yanchuan exchanged a glance,