Du Yu was utterly bewildered. Was Yingning... a story, too?
He only wished Dong Qianqiu, his little encyclopedia of the Underworld, were beside him. Then he could have cleared up these little questions with a word.
"Old man, that's a wonderful story, but it isn't what actually happened," Yingning said with a smile. "What that girl lost wasn't her smile. It was something else."
The old man looked puzzled. "How could that be? I clearly recorded this story..." He turned to the end of the manuscript and said, "Although this woman ultimately lost her smile, she lived happily ever after with Wang Sheng."
"Hahahaha! So..." Yingning looked at the old man with her smiling eyes curved into crescents. "Who told you this story?"
At those words, the old man froze, then lowered his head in thought. "If my memory serves me, the story's male protagonist, Wang Sheng, told it to me himself."
"In other words, you never saw Yingning in the end? Hahahaha!" Yingning doubled over laughing.
Du Yu thought he understood now. If his guess was right, this old man had recorded Yingning's story, but his account seemed to differ from what had really happened.
"Sir, who exactly are you?" Du Yu asked.
"I am merely an enthusiast of strange histories. Hardly worth mentioning, hardly worth mentioning." The old man waved a hand and continued studying his manuscript. "How could this be? Could the story I recorded be wrong?"
Du Yu shook his head helplessly and asked, "Sir, we really are in a hurry. Could you show us the vessels that can house vengeful spirits?"
Without raising his head, the old man said quietly, "Without a story, I won't sell a single thing."
Du Yu gritted his teeth. How had he ended up dealing with such a strange old