Chapter 28: Chapter 28: The Third Young Master
Ke Long’s death cast a shadow over everyone’s heart, seemingly a sign that this night was destined to be anything but peaceful.
Sure enough, after an indeterminate amount of time, Yang Xiao, who had been lying in bed resting, was suddenly roused by Su Tingting who, with a nervous face, informed him that a fog had risen outside. The fog appeared abruptly, and by the time it was noticed, the entire back courtyard was already enveloped.
Holding his breath, Yang Xiao hid behind the window and peered through the cracks outside, where another room had vanished without a trace, as if erased by some invisible force.
Gradually, sounds began to emerge from outside, Xu Su, who was backed against the wooden door, swallowed nervously, "Has that ghostly thing come again?"
Kuang Hongyi frowned deeply, he too was somewhat puzzled by the situation. The noise from outside sounded strange, lacking the chilling singing from the night before, instead it was a series of rhythmic tapping noises, and upon closer listening... it seemed to be mixed with the sound of gongs, drums, and shouts.
The sound grew closer, and a trail of torches appeared in the mist, with many people urgently approaching this way.
Accompanied by chaotic footsteps drawing near, the wooden door was knocked upon, "Blessing Guests, it’s not good, our Third Young Master is missing!"
"When did it happen?" Without choosing to open the door, Kuang Hongyi countered, given that any strange occurrence in this ghostly fog would not be surprising.
The person outside continued to bang on the door with even greater force, "It just happened, now everyone in the Mansion is mobilized to search for the Third Young Master, you should also come out quickly to help!"
Xu Su let out a cold laugh, as if seeing through the other’s ruse, "Happy to help, but have your Steward Liu speak to us, we were invited into the Mansion by him."
Peering through the gap, the faces of the servants outside were unfamiliar, and with the ghostly fog lingering and neither the Ghost Ship nor the opera-singing woman appearing, one couldn’t help but be on guard.
After only a few minutes, another group arrived, this time led by the stern-faced Steward Liu, with the odd-looking Paper Talisman Artisan trailing behind him from the evening.
"Gentlemen, our Third Young Master has gone missing, and the two paper effigies prepared as his substitutes are also gone. We just discovered this," he said.
At this moment, Shi Dali and Shi Guanming also hurried over from another room. The color drained from Steward Liu’s face, "How come there are only the two of you, where is the other person?"
Shi Guanming’s complexion was ashen, "He’s dead."
After quickly understanding the situation, the Paper Talisman Artisan looked shocked, then began to calculate while pinching his fingers, and after a moment drew a deep breath, "No wonder, the substitute for tonight has been exposed, angering that malevolent spirit, which has brought this misfortune upon the Third Young Master."
Under Steward Liu’s guidance, the group rushed to the lake only for Su Tingting to freeze in place upon arrival. There were only the ashes of the burned paper effigies, with no sign of Ke Long’s body.
"Where is the person?" Shi Guanming was already feeling guilty, and now he was even more panic-stricken, "No, where’s the body, who moved the body?"
At this moment, the servants of the Mansion seemed to discover something, they lowered their heads, picked up lanterns and shone them near the ashes of the paper effigies; then everyone saw it clearly—the ground had a line of footprints.
The footprints started off chaotic, but from a distinctly pitted spot on the ground, they suddenly became straight and rigid, then continued all the way into the waters of the lake.
Yang Xiao could probably guess that the initial disordered footprints were left by Ke Long rushing out of the room, and that the pothole was created when Ke Long’s body fell, but as for those rigid footprints leading into the pitch-black lake water... The scene that came to mind was one of a corpse slowly standing up amidst the fog, stepping mechanically, step by step into the lake, until completely swallowed by the water.
However, Steward Liu’s attitude was that he did not care about this at all. His only concern was the Third Young Master, and the look he cast towards the others also carried a chill, "Although your companion has already died, tonight’s events were ultimately caused by you all. You must take responsibility."
"What do you need us to do?" Kuang Hongyi knew the principle of bowing one’s head under someone else’s roof.
Steward Liu still had that official, impassive face of a dead person, "We have searched every corner of the mansion and have not found the Third Young Master; only the lake is left. I have just sent people to check, and the small boat tied in the reeds is gone; it seems the Third Young Master’s hysterical disorder acted up, and he went to the lake alone to play."
Shi Guanming turned pale upon hearing this. Now the visibility on the lake surface, with the fog drifting, was extremely poor, and besides, who knew what kind of ghostly things were hidden inside? To go in the water now was no different from sending themselves to death.
Even stranger was that standing here, everyone could feel the cold wind blowing from the lake surface, yet this wind could not disperse the fog shrouding the lake.
The lake surface shrouded in thin mist seemed like an indissoluble blob of ink, merely staring at it gave one the eerie feeling of being engulfed.
"Steward Liu, look, the night is also deepening; how about we wait a bit longer, wait until dawn when the visibility is better..."
Xu Su was still thinking of buying time, but before he could finish, Steward Liu rudely interrupted, "No! We can wait, but the Third Young Master cannot wait!"
"But how do we search? We don’t even have a boat, are we supposed to swim over?" Shi Guanming was scared; after all, there wasn’t just the singing female ghost in the water, but also Ke Long’s body.
"Hehe, the blessings guests need not worry about this, we are well-prepared." Steward Liu seemed to have anticipated this, giving a glance to a servant beside him, who lifted a bronze gong in his hand and struck hard with a red-cloth-wrapped mallet.
In an instant, the shrill sound of the gong echoed in the vacant night air.
It was a signal, and soon low-pitched calls began to emerge from the dense fog along the lake’s edge, as one by one, robust men with bare upper bodies walked slowly out of the mist. These men stooped, with their hair tied up, thick hemp ropes slung over their shoulders, moving slowly but firmly.
Lines from the ropes stretched taut behind them, trailing into the fog over the lake, obviously towing something heavy.
The next second, Yang Xiao and the others were stunned as, through the mist, a large vessel slowly emerged, its shape becoming distinct — it was a large wooden boat!
The boat was styled like an old-fashioned covered boat, with a square cabin on top and, towards the front of the hull, a black mast stood erect; it was big enough to accommodate all six of them.
But what astonished them further was that there was not just one of these vessels; a total of three wooden boats were being dragged out from the mist.
"Blessing guests, as I said before, having taken the silver, you must complete the task. Now, we’ll trouble two of you per boat to go onto the lake and retrieve the Third Young Master. Once the task is accomplished, Feng Mansion will offer you a generous reward," Steward Liu said as he greeted Yang Xiao and the others with a bow.
The servants of Feng Mansion followed suit, bowing to the group, while only the Paper Talisman Artisan stood off to the side, head tilted, with a smile that was not quite a smile.
Yang Xiao felt the hairs on his back stand on end; this scene did not seem like they were being asked to search for someone, but rather like they were being sent to their deaths.
