"Hahahaha~ Brother, please!"
"You don't have to see me off, Brother, stay here, stay here."
"Alright, alright."
After a series of sycophantic exchanges between these two hypocrites, Li Miao and Xu Siyuan walked out of the yamen, chatting and laughing.
"I still have official duties, so I can't keep you long, Brother. I've already arranged everything at the Wu Mansion; you can just go there directly!"
"Thank you, Brother, I've troubled you greatly."
"Oh! You and I, Brother, hit it off at first sight, why speak such formal words? Huh? Hahahaha..."
Xu Siyuan saw Li Miao out, and the two spoke warmly for a while, bidding each other farewell.
Xu Siyuan stood at the entrance, smiling as he watched Li Miao walk away, then turned and returned to his mansion.
"Bah!" He spat on the ground: "Trying to take advantage of me, you bastard!"
Li Miao pondered as he walked: "This Xu fellow is quite wealthy. When I leave, I'll have to extort him again."
A Beijing official gains three ranks when leaving the capital, not to mention an official of the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards); he wasn't afraid of Xu Siyuan seeking revenge later, so he naturally wanted to extort as much as possible.
With the silver notes extorted from Xu Siyuan tucked in his bosom, Li Miao returned to the tavern where he had eaten.
Wang Hai and the other three were waiting at the entrance. Seeing Li Miao return, they led the horses over to greet him.
Xiao Si took the silver notes Li Miao handed him, counted them carefully, and happily tucked them into his money pouch.
Li Miao reached out and ruffled Xiao Si's head: "We have money now, and a place to stay has been found."
"Tonight, we'll go see the haunted spectacle."
——————
Wu Mansion.
Wu Yuanwai bowed and scraped, fawning over an official: "My Lord, I've cleared out all the rooms. All the furnishings inside are new and good, absolutely no strange smells."
"The ingredients are all fresh, and the cooks were specially hired from outside, paid handsomely, and are waiting in the kitchen. The distinguished guest only needs to give an order for whatever he wishes to eat."
"I've kept a few quick-witted servants; they will definitely not neglect the distinguished guest."
The official didn't even look at him, just nodded: "Make sure there are no problems. This was personally ordered by Lord Xu. If the distinguished guest is displeased and it reaches Lord Xu, I won't be able to protect you either."
Wu Yuanwai naturally nodded in agreement, but secretly lamented in his heart.
"Where did this high-ranking official come from, and why did he take a fancy to my house?"
Today, Wu Yuanwai was worrying about the recent haunting incidents when suddenly his official backer arrived at his mansion.
Upon inquiring about the purpose, he learned that it was Lord Xu Siyuan, the Commander and chief official of the Pingshan Garrison, who had personally ordered it, saying that he had a distinguished guest arriving and needed to borrow his house for a few days.
The Wu family members, well, they shouldn't stay in their own house. They should go find somewhere else to live, to avoid offending the distinguished guest's eyes.
The Wu Yuanwai's family was just wealthy, but no one from his family had ever held an official position. To put it plainly, he was just a local rich man.
For him, Xu Siyuan, a third-rank high official and the chief official of a garrison, was simply a figure from the heavens. Now that Xu Siyuan had spoken, he naturally dared not refuse.
"It's just... my house has had some rumors recently, causing some disturbances. I wonder if My Lord has heard about them..."
"You don't need to worry about that. Just move out quickly."
The official glared at Wu Yuanwai impatiently. Wu Yuanwai dared not say more and quickly ordered his servants to move faster.
He himself took his family to temporarily reside in another property within the city.
The official patrolled the mansion several times, and seeing no issues, he waited at the entrance.
Not long after, he saw Li Miao and his group of four approaching with their horses.
The official immediately stepped forward to salute: "Lord Li, the mansion is already prepared. Please come in."
Naturally, servants came forward to take the horses and luggage.
Li Miao nodded. The four followed the official into the main house and sat down, only to see him hesitating to speak.
"Lord Li... please forgive my bluntness."
"This Wu Mansion has had some troubles recently; it's not very peaceful."
Li Miao smiled and said: "Are you referring to the haunting rumors spread by the idlers in the city?"
"You're also an imperial official, how can you believe such things?"
"My Lord, some things are better believed than not," the official said awkwardly. "If it somehow offends you, and Lord Xu blames me, I wouldn't be able to bear the responsibility, would I?"
"There are no ghosts or gods in this world," Li Miao said. "If there were, there wouldn't be so many unavenged grudges and unrequited favors in this world."
"No need to say more. Just go report back to Lord Xu."
Li Miao, of course, didn't care, because he had come specifically for these haunting rumors.
It was he who had actively requested Xu Siyuan to arrange for them to stay in this Wu Mansion, so he could openly observe the spectacle.
Seeing Li Miao's resolve, the official said no more and bowed to Li Miao before leaving.
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Wang Hai saw that all the outsiders had left and leaned over to Li Miao, saying: "My Lord, after you left, I also overheard a few things outside the tavern."
"Is it that thing?"
"Most likely. I didn't expect to encounter such a rare item in this Qi-Lu Region."
Li Miao smiled and said: "It's possible someone kept it here, but then died elsewhere and didn't have time to retrieve it."
"It's just that you won't need to protect Xiao Si in his room tonight, are you a little disappointed?"
Wang Hai smiled awkwardly: "My Lord, what are you saying..."
"Alright, everyone go rest. I'll go check out the courtyard. If you're hungry, just order food from the back kitchen, you don't need to call me."
Wang Hai and the other two agreed and went to their respective guest rooms to rest.
Li Miao called a servant, asked him to lead the way, and walked towards the haunted courtyard.
Before even reaching the courtyard, a faint smell of decay wafted over.
Wu Yuanwai was probably afraid of displeasing Li Miao, so he had people sprinkle some spices in the courtyard. However, the scent of the spices not only failed to cover the stench but mixed with the smell of decay, making it even more bizarre and unpleasant.
The servants still remaining in the Wu Yuanwai's mansion were either indentured, unable to leave, or brave individuals who stayed because Wu Yuanwai had been generous with money recently.
The one Li Miao called was clearly the former.
This person's legs began to tremble uncontrollably before he even reached the courtyard, cold sweat streamed down his face, and he stammered to Li Miao: "M-My Lord, this... this is the place..."
"I... I'll wait for you here. Call me if you need anything..."
With that, he leaned against the doorframe and stood still, not daring to take another step forward.
Seeing his fear, Li Miao didn't force him and stepped into the courtyard.
Upon entering this courtyard, the bizarre stench became even more pronounced, mixed with a hint of blood, causing an instinctive feeling of discomfort.
The layout of the courtyard was clearly well-designed, with a rockery in the center, surrounded by a pond, a pavilion nearby, and dense foliage all around, with seasonal flowers and plants. Normally, it should have been a very quiet small courtyard.
Unfortunately, at this moment, the trees were withered, the flowers and plants were yellowed, a thick layer of green algae had grown on the pond under the rockery, and some mosquitoes and flies buzzed above it.
This courtyard must not have been cleaned for a long time. Li Miao arrived in a hurry, and the Wu Yuanwai's servants had only given it a rough cleaning, so some omissions were inevitable.
Li Miao walked to the side of the rockery, casually broke off a branch, and used it to pick out a snake corpse from a crevice above.
Snakes love to burrow. This snake must have crawled in here before it died and was not discovered by the cleaning servants.
There were also several other hidden corners in this courtyard containing such corpses, including mice, wild cats, and small birds.
Li Miao specifically looked for this snake corpse because on a creature like a snake, which has no fur and is uniform throughout, certain traces would be more obvious.