Chapter 124: Chapter 123: The Yizhuang Lady Ghost
Chu Wenyao was anxious, "How is this possible? I bought this talisman from the Daoist for five hundred taels each!"
"Tch, your mind is dull enough that being swindled is understandable." Casually tossing the talisman, it ignited in mid-air, turning into ashes.
Yu Nianzhao said, "You must have touched the corpse inside the coffin, right? To be honest, since you three entered King Yan’s Temple, I felt a deathly aura around you, especially you, it’s the thickest."
She pointed at Chu Wenyao, startling him to jump up.
"How could it be me?" Chu Wenyao pointed at his nose, sweat trickling down his forehead.
"Let me calculate again for you." Yu Nianzhao ignored him and turned to look at Luu Shaoqi, "Your brow has turned black, you’ve been continuously unlucky recently, though they’ve been small things, added up they might trigger a major disaster sooner or later."
Luu Shaoqi fell to his knees with a ’thud,’ "Princess Consort Su, you’re truly amazing, I’ve been quite unlucky recently, tripping for no reason on flat ground, choking while drinking water, a fishbone lodged in my throat when eating fish, biting my lips while eating, and even falling out of bed while sleeping, my body is bruised all over."
Chu Wenyao was shocked, "There are such things, why didn’t you tell us?"
"I just thought I was recently unlucky, never expected to be contaminated with evil spirits." Luu Shaoqi’s face was miserable, sweating coldly from anxiety, "If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone. I felt going to Yizhuang was ominous, if a small disaster turns into a big one, what will happen to me?"
"A major disaster is usually unheralded and very deadly, you might choke to death while eating, or accidentally fall into a shallow pond and drown, in reality, it’s the evil spirit sucking away your yang energy, trying to find a scapegoat to revive." Yu Nianzhao said airily.
But it scared Luu Shaoqi and Liu Yi half to death, "What should we do? How can we eliminate the evil spirit?"
"That’s a different fee, three thousand taels of silver for three calculations!"
Yu Nianzhao raised an eyebrow and looked at Chu Wenyao, "You’re the last calculation."
Chu Wenyao swallowed nervously.
"You... you’re at death’s door." Yu Nianzhao curled her lips, her light words making Chu Wenyao’s scalp tingle.
"What? Yu Nianzhao, are you cursing me? How am I at death’s door, you’re talking nonsense, you must be trying to swindle money."
Feeling the gaze of those around him upon him, Chu Wenyao’s face turned red with suppressed anger, he yelled furiously at her, "Yeah, the three of us went to Yizhuang to test our courage, why are they small ailments while I’m at death’s door? I don’t accept this, you’re definitely talking nonsense; I want my three thousand taels of silver back!"
He wanted to snatch the money back, but Jing Rui wouldn’t give him the chance.
Jing Rui’s body was as slippery as an eel, easily dodging his move.
"You guys are robbing money!" Chu Wenyao stumbled, almost falling to the ground, furious to the death.
"I haven’t finished speaking, why are you so anxious?" Yu Nianzhao glanced over his shoulder, pinching a talisman in her hand, "You’re at death’s door because you deserve it; you tricked them into going to Yizhuang with you at midnight, you know what you have planned."
Chu Wenyao’s eyes flashed with panic, "I, I don’t understand what you’re saying."
"You opened the coffin and saw a female corpse, right?" Yu Nianzhao tilted her head and asked.
"You know this too?" Liu Yi and Luu Shaoqi were even more excited, looking at Yu Nianzhao with increasing admiration.
"Hah, you two idiots, being used and not even knowing." Yu Nianzhao’s gaze turned colder, she stared at Chu Wenyao and said word by word, "Because it was Chu Wenyao who indirectly caused the death of that female corpse. Nicely said you took them to test their courage, but actually, you felt guilty for being a thief, didn’t dare go alone, so you dragged them as shields, just to confirm the female corpse’s identity."
"What? There’s such a thing?"
"Wen Yao, is what she said true or false?"
The two fools were stunned, feeling a chill in their hearts as they questioned Chu Wenyao with their gaze.
Chu Wenyao was sweating coldly, biting down his teeth, furiously embarrassed, "Of course it’s false, I don’t know that female corpse, don’t listen to Yu Nianzhao’s nonsense."
Yu Nianzhao’s gaze went past his shoulder, staring at the direction behind him, "When she died, she was wearing a red garment, after death she will surely turn into a vengeful ghost. Originally, if you hadn’t gone snooping as a guilty thief, she wouldn’t have been disturbed, but you pried open her coffin lid, now she’s following you."
"What?" Fear sprouted out of his heart, Chu Wenyao tried his hardest not to look back, but he felt his back growing heavier and colder, even glimpsing a trace of red garment out of the corner of his eye.
He felt dizzy, almost fainting.
"Red-dressed ghost?" Jing Rui was also taken aback, quickly shrinking behind Yu Nianzhao.
"That female corpse was indeed wearing a red garment." Liu Yi and Luu Shaoqi’s expressions turned serious, already believing most of what Yu Nianzhao had said.
"Chu Wenyao, what on earth are you up to? What is your relationship with that female corpse? No wonder you suddenly persuaded us to go to Yizhuang to test our courage, turns out it was for your private affairs? In the end you got us tangled up with evil spirits, we took you as a brother in vain, is this how you treat us?"
Luu Shaoqi thought of the possibility of being implicated and killed, his anger surged.
"She... she is making it all up." Chu Wenyao stubbornly refused to admit, clearly scared to death but still arguing.
Yu Nianzhao hooked her fingers with her hair at her ear, calmly saying, "It’s fine; hope you still stay so calm when she’s accompanying you to sleep every night."
A ghost lying beside every night?
"Ugh—"
Just imagining that scene, Chu Wenyao felt physically sick, gagging.
"Miss Yu, Princess Consort Su, can you save us!"
Seeing Chu Wenyao’s reaction, Liu Yi and Luu Shaoqi understood everything, they were just fair-weather brothers who had played together for years, the female corpse must have something to do with him.
They were frightened, hastily turning to Yu Nianzhao for help, treating her as a life-saving straw.
"As I said, expelling evil spirits is a different fee." Yu Nianzhao said with a smile.
"Fine, whatever it takes!" They feared death more than losing their money.
"I won’t raise the fee on the spot, you can donate incense money to the temple, as the fee for expelling evil spirits."
"Alright, I’ll donate right away!"
Liu Yi and Luu Shaoqi rushed to donate incense money.
"I don’t have much silver with me today, I’ll donate a thousand taels first, and come back to donate another thousand after I retrieve it." Liu Yi hurriedly pushed the silver into Jing Rui’s hands.
"I’ll donate fifteen hundred taels, the same, as long as the Princess Consort can help us drive away the evil spirits, I’ll come back to donate incense money later." Luu Shaoqi also tossed a bag of silver into Jing Rui’s hands, eager as ever.