Chapter 405 - Warning
"Oh! How handsome young men!" an old woman exclaimed when Huo Ling and Fei Yin approached her. "So, where are you from?" she asked.
Huo Ling's brow twitched as he looked at the old woman smiling. It was the nth time she asked them the same question! "From a small town. My father is a businessman and he sent me here to learn some things…" he answered. Then, he turned to whisper at Yi Bing. "Boss. She's like an NPC of a broken game asking the same question for one hundred times. It seems like you were wrong to choose her as someone to ask." He told him.
Yi Bing's expression didn't change. "Why don't you wait her to ask you for a hundred and first?" he asked him and turned to the other people in the inn. "Do you want to ask those bulky men, then?" he said..
Huo Ling turned and looked at the group of men with bulging muscles wearing ripped shirts and are drinking while chatting and laughing loudly. They are the loudest group in the inn, and some customers were looking at them, displeased, but they are also afraid to reprimand them because they were scared of their appearances.
"Nah." Huo Ling answered and shook his head. "We have to be low-key since we're new. 'A nail that sticks out gets hammered down'." He said and turned to the counter. "Why don't we ask the front desk?" he asked.
In hotels, one goes first to the front desk.
"No." Yi Bing answered. "'In order to gain something, you must give something in return'. He'll obtain information to us after we'd obtain information form him." he said.
"Isn't the customer a god?" Huo Ling asked. They can just order some food to be customers, too.
"Not in an ancient era. 'one has to bow down under one's eaves'." Yi Bing said and asked the old woman again. What he meant, they are now in someone's place and are the ones new, so they have to adjust to the circumstances.
Huo Ling frowned in displeasure and listened to the old woman's answer. But, he was surprised when the old woman suddenly changed her answer. "Ah! You are the son of someone wealthy?" she asked and looked at Huo Ling from his head to his feet, then from his feet back to his head.
"Yes." Huo Ling nodded as he immediately adjusted his emotions. "Grandma. We are new here, so do you might know some things that we have to avoid in staying here in this place?" he asked and smiled sweetly.
"Ah, yes. I do!" the old woman answered as if in a daze as she looked at Huo Ling's face.
Huo Ling's eyes brightened. "Can you tell us, grandma?" he asked.
"Yes, yes." She nodded. "You shouldn't go near the waters at night. You can only stay near them during the day, but only for a short while." She said.
This surprised both Yi Bing and Huo Ling. "Huh? Why?" they asked.
But, the old woman didn't answer again. "Ah! How handsome young men!" she exclaimed. "So, where are you from?" she asked.
Huo Ling and Yi Bing. "…"
"She's actually an NPC from a broken game, is she?" Huo Ling asked.
Yi Bing sighed in helplessness and took Huo Ling to the front desk. "Give us two plates each of your best dishes here." He told the waiter as he placed a gold ingot on the desk.
The waiter's eyes brightened. "Yes, sir!" he said as he took the gold ingot and immediately went to the kitchen to get the dishes.
"You finally will extract information from the waiter?" Huo Ling asked as they walked towards an empty table. He looked at Yi Bing, his gaze expectant.
"No." Yi Bing answered when they reached the table. "I'm hungry." He said as he sat on his seat.
Huo Ling. "…" fck you! He thought and sat on the seat across, looking at Yi Bing in dissatisfaction.
…
Contrary to Yi Bing and Huo Ling, Shi Jiu and Jiu Ye are very high-profile… or only Shi Jiu is the high-profile.
"Come on! Bring more booze!" Shi Jiu roared in laughter as he drank the nth bottle. "Bring more! Bring more!" he shouted to the waiters bringing trays of bottles.
The old man beside Shi Jiu laughed as he poured his cup with the drink. "Youth, ah…" he said and sighed.
The man on the other side of Shi Jiu slapped his thigh. "Ai!" he exclaimed. "This is how it's should be between men! Drinks!" he said and laughed.
The others followed, laughing loudly. Meanwhile, Jiu Ye looked at his elder brother from afar and sighed in exasperation.
"Are you also here to fetch your father?" someone asked beside Jiu Ye.
"Ah. No. I'm here for my elder brother." Jiu Ye answered.
"I've never seen you before." The teenager said as he stared at Jiu Ye.
Jiu Ye awkwardly smiled. "We just moved in." He answered.
"Where did you come from?" the teenager asked.
"From a small town. Our parents died and we're chased by the debtors, so we're forced to move here." Jiu Ye answered. Before going here, they already come up with a backstory.
"Oh." The teenager sympathized. "Where are you living now?" he asked.
"In a manor, near the river." Jiu Ye answered and pointed.
"The river?" the teenager's expression changed.
"Is something wrong?" Jiu Ye asked. Seeing there's no answer from the other, he continued. "Right. I remember there was someone missing recently. Was he already found?" he asked.
"Not yet." The teenager answered.
"Oh." Jiu Ye didn't speak again. He knows that the more you force an answer out of someone, the more they will tighten their lips, tighter than the clams.
As expected, the teenager spoke a while after. "Second young master Peng disappeared two nights ago." He said. "The whole county didn't sleep just to look for him. But, in these two days, he wasn't found." He told him. "Until just this morning of the third day… they found his corpse." He looked at Jiu Ye.
"His corpse was found in a river?" Jiu Ye guessed.
But, to his surprise, the teenager shook his head. "Not only there." he said.
'not only there'?
"The people also found his corpse in a lake, in their wells…" the teenager's face paled.
'also'? Jiu Ye thought. Suddenly, his expression changed and turned grave. "His corpse… was chopped in pieces?" he carefully asked.
"No!" the teenager answered.
"Then…" Jiu Ye's brows knitted. Then, his face paled when he realized what the teenager meant. "His corpse appeared in many places?!" he exclaimed in shock.
The teenager nodded as an answer, shuddering in fear.
"But, there's only one corpse one person can have…" Jiu Ye muttered. But, he didn't hear an answer from the teenager as the drinking session inside was finished and the teenager hurriedly left while pulling his drunk father away with him.
"So, what have you found?" Shi Jiu asked as he stood beside Jiu Ye.
"Ugh!" Jiu Ye grunted in disgust as he pinched his nose after he smelled the alcohol from Shi Jiu.
Shi Jiu looked at Jiu Ye, looking annoyed. "Let's go back. It's going to be dark." He said before he walked away. His posture ramrod straight as if he isn't drunk after drinking many liters of alcohol earlier.
Jiu Ye followed him, walking one meter behind Shi Jiu.
Office of the governor.
"It's nightfall again…" the governor muttered as his face paled. "Hurry! Cover the well! Pour out the water from the cups and basins!" he ordered his subordinates in a flustered state.
"Y-yes!" his subordinates answered, feeling frightened, too. Both by their superior's expression and also as to what is about to happen.
When they reached the kitchen, the two of them pushed each other. "You… you go to the well. I'll pour the water from the cups – " one of them said.
"No. You go to the well! I'll pour out the water – " the other said.
"No! You go to the well!" the first one said.
"You go!"
"No! You!" they pushed and shoved each other, unaware of the figure that appeared on the surface of the basin not far from them.
The oil lamps hanging on the posts looked like glowering eyes of a beast in the night. And the flames inside them flickered like the tongue of a snake, reading to bite on the two humans fighting on the side.
…
"The corpse appeared in many places at the same time?" Yi Bing spoke after Jiu Ye reported.
"En. That's what that teenager said." Jiu Ye nodded. "It seems like he's not lying, since he's sincerely afraid." He said.
"People of the ancient era are extremely superstitious and so very sensitive to supernatural things." Yi Bing said. "Since we were told earlier to not go near any body of water, even just the water in cups and basins, during night." He told them. "And we were told twice." He added.
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