After Lin Xueru finished speaking, her favorability toward him kept rising until it stopped at 60.
Once Chu Qingjiu had learned most of what had happened, the cold, clammy sensation of being watched disappeared.
That also meant the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost who had been observing him from the shadows had left.
This allowed Chu Qingjiu's taut nerves to relax a little.
Although he did not know where the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost had gone, she was still somewhere in the Xu Residence.
In any case, he and Qi Wu would visit the rear courtyard again tonight. All they had to do then was find that banyan tree and dig beneath it to see whether the Fierce Ghost's corpse was there.
Then he could use the Fierce Ghost's corpse to force her to appear and find an opportunity to control her.
At that thought, Chu Qingjiu let out a soft breath before lifting his eyelids to look at Lin Xueru, who was possessing Xu Zhijie. A trace of doubt clouded his uncanny purple eyes as he asked softly:
"Have you never considered that you might have been deceived?"
For instance, the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost might kill her, then kill her young master as well, all under the noble pretext of finally bringing the two lovers together so they could accompany each other on the road to the underworld.
Wouldn't that mean she had died for nothing?
"No. I trust her not to lie to me. She said the young master would get better by tomorrow."
Seeing how much she trusted that female ghost, Chu Qingjiu said nothing more. He merely stood and asked, "Who lives next door?"
"The second young master."
So it was the second young master, the one left disabled by a fall.
An idea formed in Chu Qingjiu's mind. He left the eldest young master's room and went to the second young master's door, knocking in the same manner.
However, since the second young master could not move due to his disability, a servant had been assigned to care for him. After Chu Qingjiu explained why he was there, the servant opened the door for him.
As soon as he entered, he caught a faint fragrance that seemed to soothe the nerves and ease pain. The room was tastefully furnished. The second young master lay neatly dressed on the bed with a book in his hand, lending him a distinctive charm.
Although both his legs had been broken in the fall and lost all sensation, his upper body was unharmed, and he was a handsome man.
His pale skin, untouched by sunlight, had a delicate, sickly beauty. His features were gentle, giving him the air of a frail scholar who made it easy for others to let down their guard.
The servant was also handsome, with refined features. Seeing that Chu Qingjiu wanted to discuss something with his master, he tactfully went outside to wait.
The second young master set down his book and said apologetically, "Forgive me. I'm unable to rise to greet you."
Xu Zhicheng's every gesture revealed excellent upbringing. His speech was gentle and polite, with an unhurried air of composure.
His disability had not left him increasingly despondent or dispirited. In fact, his complexion looked much better than Xu Zhijie's.
Chu Qingjiu was not fond of exchanging pleasantries. He carefully surveyed the room before his gaze finally settled on the book beside Xu Zhicheng's hand.
The book lay open, and Chu Qingjiu could see what appeared to be illustrations on its pages. It seemed to be some sort of storybook.
The fingers resting beside the storybook were fair and slender, exceptionally beautiful. That made the marks left by threads wound around his fingertips especially obvious.
Noticing Chu Qingjiu looking at the book beside his hand, Xu Zhicheng closed it sheepishly and feigned ignorance as he asked, "What can I do for you?"
"I wanted to ask whether you've picked anything up."
"Anything?" Xu Zhicheng repeated blankly before shaking his head. "I haven't left this room in two years. All my books were found for me by Mozhu. It's unlikely that I could have picked anything up."
"Have you lost something?"
Chu Qingjiu stared steadily at Xu Zhicheng's right hand and said coolly, "Never mind. I've found it now."
Chu Qingjiu slowly walked over to Xu Zhicheng and took hold of his right hand.
His right hand was beautiful, pale and slender with well-defined knuckles, but it was completely bare.
There was indeed nothing on his fingers, but Chu Qingjiu could hardly fail to recognize his own Puppet Threads hidden beneath the skin.
Upon sensing his presence, the Puppet Threads lying dormant in Xu Zhicheng's palm emerged on their own and rested quietly in Chu Qingjiu's hand.
"Ngh..."
Xu Zhicheng let out a muffled groan of pain. He could only watch as the Puppet Threads he had once commanded obediently returned to the long-haired young man's palm.
The pain drenched him in cold sweat. Xu Zhicheng was clever enough to realize that the long-haired young man before him was probably the Puppet Threads' true owner. He simply gritted his teeth and endured the pain without alerting anyone outside.
"You can still control Xu Zhijie without the Puppet Threads, so I'll be taking back what belongs to me."
Chu Qingjiu's expression was cold and distant. He frowned slightly at the bloodstained Puppet Threads, regarding them with considerable distaste.
As though they possessed intelligence, the Puppet Threads cleaned the blood off themselves before obediently returning to Chu Qingjiu's hand.
Only after retrieving the Puppet Threads did Chu Qingjiu lower his gaze to the sickly man lying on the bed and ask coldly, "Why are you controlling your elder brother?"
"I... I'm merely unhappy that I'm the only one who ended up disabled."
Xu Zhicheng's eyes darted about as he answered, as though he were deliberately hiding something. Perhaps he had another objective and was lying to conceal it.
Yet controlling Xu Zhijie offered him almost no benefit. If there was nothing to gain, and he was not venting his resentment, then he must be doing someone else's bidding.
"What's your connection to the woman who died two years ago?"
At those words, terror appeared on Xu Zhicheng's face. He was probably shocked that Chu Qingjiu had brought up the woman who had died two years earlier.
The only possibility Chu Qingjiu could think of was that Xu Zhicheng was helping the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost. Whether willingly or under coercion, he was helping her all the same.
He said with a feverish air, "I'm atoning for my sins. You don't understand anything."
"How am I supposed to know what you're atoning for if you won't tell me?"
Xu Zhicheng seemed to choke on his words. After a moment's silence, he said, "You'd better stay out of this. Our Xu Family owes her this."
People who spoke in riddles and refused to explain themselves were the most irritating of all.
Chu Qingjiu had only one Puppet Thread that could lower favorability and exert control. The favorability requirement was simply that it be above twenty points, but he did not want to use that Puppet Thread on Xu Zhicheng.
The one he wanted to control was the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost.
Chu Qingjiu looked at him coldly. "You're not going to talk?"
Xu Zhicheng pressed his lips together and remained silent. It seemed he had no intention of revealing anything at all.
But Chu Qingjiu had a way to make him talk.
"That servant is very important to you, isn't he?"
Xu Zhicheng immediately grew anxious. He grabbed Chu Qingjiu's wrist tightly and demanded, "Y-you, what are you going to do?"
"If he happened to be killed by a 'Fierce Ghost,' that wouldn't be unusual, would it?"
Xu Zhicheng abruptly raised his head, his face filled with anger.
He seemed not to have expected the aloof beauty before him to threaten someone's life so cold-bloodedly, much less the life of the person most important to him.
"Don't kill him..."
Mozhu seemed particularly important to Xu Zhicheng, so much so that after hesitating for a long time, he finally said in defeat, "...Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."
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