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墨書 Inktalez
"What is your relationship with the Drowned Ghost? Why were you buried together?"
The Drowned Ghost, trembling beside her, hesitated for a moment when Yan Kongyue asked her this question. "We... we married the same man," she began to recount events from over four hundred years ago.
Their man was a second-rank High Official of that era, with numerous wives and concubines. The middle-aged woman was the official wife, while the Little Maid served her closely. The one known as Ma Dan was called Li Qing, a renowned performer in a small county. She was talented and beautiful. One day, the High Official was appointed as an imperial envoy and happened to visit that small county. Knowing that the High Official enjoyed opera, the county magistrate invited several talented performers to entertain him at the government office.
Li Qing was among them, and the High Official took an immediate liking to her. The magistrate then gifted Li Qing to the High Official as a concubine. Although Li Qing had a beloved senior brother, they were mere commoners and could not compete with the powerful, so she had to compromise.
Li Qing was clever; knowing that the High Official favored her, she devised ways to gain his trust. Eventually, she poisoned him with a slow-acting toxin. At first, he felt nothing unusual; he simply grew weaker over time. Despite consulting many famous doctors who could not diagnose his illness, he assumed it was just age catching up with him.
More than a year later, the High Official's health deteriorated completely. He had taken all the necessary medicines and seen all the doctors available but found no remedy. His official wife, the middle-aged woman, decided to take another young concubine to lift his spirits.
The Drowned Ghost's father was a seventh-rank minor official who wanted to rise in rank and wealth, so he sent his daughter to be a source of joy for the High Official. However, Li Qing learned of this and did not want any more young women to be ruined. She poisoned the High Official again, hoping he would die sooner.
What she never expected was that after his death, his mother insisted on having the Drowned Ghost buried alongside him. The Drowned Ghost resisted this fate, but the old woman threw her into a well where she drowned.
After learning of this, Li Qing confronted the old woman. While the High Official was alive, he protected her; now that he was dead, who would protect her? In a fit of rage, the old woman decided to have Li Qing buried alongside them and killed the official wife as well since her maid knew too much.
With several deaths in the family, fearing discovery, the old woman claimed they had all willingly chosen to accompany the High Official in death due to their deep affection for him. To avoid suspicion, she arranged for a grand burial for them but did not bury them with the High Official. Instead, she found a Taoist priest who sealed them together in their graves while blood bats were assigned to guard their tomb.
And then? Huo Jingyu felt unsatisfied with just that.
Yan Kongyue shot Huo Jingyu an annoyed glance.
"Actually," she continued, "I don’t know much either. When I entered, I didn’t even see the High Official’s tablet before being pushed into the well. Everything I’m saying is what I learned after we became ghosts."
"Who dug you up?"
"I don’t know. I remember there was a heavy rain for some time that flooded our burial site, but we were sealed in our coffins and couldn’t leave that place. Later on, someone ventured into the mountains and discovered our tombs; it seems they performed some rituals there. After that ceremony, we fell into a deep sleep until we woke up here."
"Do you have no memories at all?" Yan Kongyue asked disinterestedly about their story; she was more concerned about who sold their coffin boards to Huo Family and why they weren’t unsealed during the screen-making process but only awakened at Huo Family.
"No!"
Yan Kongyue didn’t want to waste more words with her; since she didn’t know anything useful, there was no point in keeping her around any longer. She called upon Xie Bian.
Lin Qian scratched his nose; he felt it wasn’t fair that Xie Bian didn’t want to pay attention to Yan Kongyue while she always called for him first.
In truth, Xie Bian didn’t know either.
Yan Kongyue smirked: "Is it possible that I’m doing this on purpose? Haha!"
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