Chu Qingjiu went to Xu Zhijie's room.
Xu Zhijie had shut himself inside and pasted paper over all the windows, leaving the room too dim to see clearly.
"Knock, knock-"
Chu Qingjiu rapped his knuckles against the door. Only after receiving a response did he speak. "I'm a relative of Peiling's. I'd like to ask you about her."
At the sound of Peiling's name, the person inside hurried to his feet and opened the door, revealing a pale, haggard face.
Seeing the darkness between Xu Zhijie's brows and the look of someone whose time was almost up, Chu Qingjiu grew thoughtful.
"Please, come in." Xu Zhijie's voice was soft, so weak it was almost inaudible. He was a hundred times worse off than Chu Qingjiu.
When he turned, he took tiny steps, walking like a woman in ancient times on her bound, three-inch feet.
It certainly gave the impression that a female ghost had possessed him.
Chu Qingjiu said nothing and pretended not to notice. Xu Zhijie was weak and lacked yang energy, so it was perfectly normal for unclean things to target him.
What he didn't know yet was whether the female ghost possessing Xu Zhijie was his beloved Peiling.
Chu Qingjiu thought it probably wasn't Peiling's ghost. If it were, there wouldn't have been a second task.
In the mansions of wealthy families like this, women dying was all too common.
On his way here, Chu Qingjiu had noticed lights in both the eastern and western wings. Those rooms were generally reserved for the family's children, proving that Xu Residence wasn't home to only Xu Zhijie.
The door next to this room in the eastern wing was still closed, but a light shone inside. Someone was probably there.
Whether some other female ghost had possessed Xu Zhijie remained to be investigated. He planned to ask next door later.
"What illness did Peiling have before she died?"
Chu Qingjiu sat at the table and spoke with the possessed Xu Zhijie.
"She... she wasn't sick. My younger brother was." "Xu Zhijie" spoke slowly, his voice carrying a faint rasp. Beneath it, a woman's voice was just audible.
"Which younger brother was sick? Has he recovered?"
"The youngest young master. Not yet, but he should soon." "Xu Zhijie" suddenly smiled, the expression all the more unsettling against his deathly pale face. "Tomorrow. He'll get better tomorrow."
"Who are you?"
"Xu Zhijie" tilted his head and grinned at Chu Qingjiu. Thick, impenetrable darkness filled the blue-black hollows beneath his eyes, which were clouded and bloodshot.
"Me? I'm... Xu Zhijie." He began to giggle.
"I know you're not him. If you're willing to tell me your story, perhaps I can help you."
"Xu Zhijie" stared fixedly at Chu Qingjiu. Realizing her identity had been exposed, the ghost simply stopped pretending.
"How will you help me?"
This was a gentle, clear female voice, and she sounded quite young.
Chu Qingjiu said calmly, "First, you'll have to tell me how you're related to the youngest young master."
"I'm his wife. My name is-Lin Xueru."
Chu Qingjiu was somewhat surprised that the female ghost held such a position. Still, he knew little about the affairs of wealthy households, so he merely nodded for her to continue.
"The eldest young master's wife and I died on the same day.
"Starting a month ago, the youngest young master, the eldest young master, his wife, and I all developed fevers of varying severity and became delirious.
"We lingered in a haze for a while, but in the end, we didn't make it.
"While I was bedridden, I kept seeing a banyan tree. A woman in red stood beneath it, her hair loose and her back to me.
"She kept repeating one sentence-"
Her voice suddenly faded. Then an agonized female shriek rang out from "Xu Zhijie's" body.
"-I want you to pay with your lives."
A fierce wind suddenly rose outside, rattling the windows until they creaked. The air inside abruptly turned icy and clammy.
Chu Qingjiu suddenly felt a weight on his back, damp and cold, as though a woman in red were draped over him, her fingertips slowly wandering.
Without a change in expression, Chu Qingjiu reached behind him and caught a woman's gray-blue hand. "I don't like uninvited guests," he said coldly. "Ghosts included."
He now understood what was happening. A Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost had attached herself to the Xu Family. She wanted every member of the family to die in payment for a life, perhaps because of something they had once done to her.
But what did that have to do with him?
The woman's hand abruptly vanished from his grasp, but the feeling of being watched remained. Chu Qingjiu believed the Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost was still in the room. She simply couldn't attack him yet because no one could die on the first day.
The female ghost's icy gaze made him shiver, and he couldn't help turning his head to cough.
His body couldn't even withstand this level of yin energy. If she attacked him, he really might find himself at death's door.
Still, that Fierce Ghost's affinity toward him was 30. If it rose high enough, he intended to put her to good use.
Chu Qingjiu slowly steadied his ragged breathing, wiped the glistening moisture from the corners of his eyes, and leisurely smoothed his hair. "Do you know where that banyan tree is?"
"In the rear courtyard, I think? I heard there used to be a huge banyan tree there. I only married into the family last year, so I'm not sure. Apparently, the rear courtyard was sealed off two years ago."
Fierce Ghosts could roam over vast areas, so Chu Qingjiu saw nothing strange about this one appearing in the room.
It wasn't as though he'd never controlled a Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost before. He knew how far a powerful one could roam.
If he remembered correctly, one of his previous Red-Robed Vengeful Ghosts had been able to move throughout an entire village, and that village had been much larger than the Xu Family estate.
What had happened in the rear courtyard two years ago to bring about this Red-Robed Vengeful Ghost? And there was the Evil Buddha they worshipped. Was the Xu Family trying to do something?
They hadn't seen any banyan tree when they visited the rear courtyard. It might already have been cut down. That woman in red beneath the banyan tree...
Could her body have been buried beneath it?
Chu Qingjiu also asked Lin Xueru about the Xu Family's children. There were four sons in total. The second had fallen from an upper story last year, leaving half his body paralyzed.
The third son had drowned the year before last. The youngest was still bedridden with a persistent high fever.
In any case, people had frequently died in the Xu Family over the past two years, so there weren't many servants left either.
Chu Qingjiu suddenly asked, "Do you feel you've been wronged?"
The Fierce Ghost clearly wanted revenge on the Xu Family, yet Lin Xueru had been dragged into it simply because she had married into the family.
Lin Xueru fell silent. Only after a long while did she speak. "...I chose it myself. I wanted the youngest young master to live."
Chu Qingjiu understood.
In other words, the female ghost had given Lin Xueru a choice: either she lived, or he did. Lin Xueru had chosen him, so she had died.
Chu Qingjiu didn't understand such feelings. Peiling might have made the same choice as Lin Xueru, leaving the eldest and youngest young masters alive.
Beautiful women had met tragic ends since ancient times. Perhaps it was because their love was so devoted. Raised to believe their husbands were their whole world, even in death, they wished only for their husbands to fare well.
Those three-inch bound feet were shackles that imprisoned women for their entire lives.
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