“Have they all left?”
“Reporting to Madam, they have all departed.”
Lin Yu’er immediately beamed with delight. “Time to tally the spoils of war, wahahaha!!”
She stuffed a steamed bun into her mouth and scurried into her room clutching an armful of items.
“Hehehe, what a bunch of fools! They deliver gifts to me every day and don’t even stay for meals!”
“This demoness is so clever – taking their offerings then shooing them away! Tsk tsk tsk, I’m such a smart cookie!”
“That useless Marquis only keeps so few concubines… causing me to miss out on so many treasures. If only he had more male consorts…”
Du Du, who overheard Lin Yu’er’s muttering, wore a peculiar expression.
This was truly eye-opening!
She had never seen any mistress complain about having too few concubines.
When Lin Yu’er emerged again, she glanced at Du Du and pointed at several breakfast items on the table that she didn’t like: “Offer these, these, these, and these to the Demon God!”
Du Du paused for a moment, recalling the extremely ugly clay figurine from yesterday, then nodded.
“This servant understands.”
She hadn’t expected her mistress to still remember this matter. It seemed that clay figurine needed to be preserved carefully.
After sitting down to eat some more food, her hair was neatly combed by Zhang Momo.
“Madam, your hair is done.”
“Oh.”
Lin Yu’er remained seated without moving.
With a distinctly sneaky demeanor, her ears twitched left and right.
Watching this scene, Du Du felt chills running down her spine.
She whispered, “Zhang Momo, what is Madam… doing?”
Zhang Momo shushed her.
“Madam is experiencing auditory hallucinations!”
“Auditory hallucinations?”
“Those are inexplicable sounds – perhaps what she believes are transmissions from the Demon God, perhaps voices of spirits not existing in this world, or possibly chaotic whispers. These are sounds we cannot hear, only she can.”
After speaking, Zhang Momo’s eyes also grew somewhat bright.
As the director of the mental hospital, she normally wouldn’t need to personally attend to psychiatric patients.
But Lin Yu’er was a patient she had personally accepted.
There were many reasons for this.
However, what ultimately made her decide to take the case was: the person who delivered her to the mental hospital wasn’t her parents or relatives, but the director of the National Bureau of Mystical Research!
The Bureau of Mystical Research…
Before meeting these people, she had always believed this rumored organization was fake, just misinformation.
But after encountering them, she realized some rumors weren’t entirely baseless.
Lin Yu’er did indeed have mental illness, but some things she did defied current scientific explanation.
Once, when Lin Yu’er refused to take medication and was confined to the dark room, she emerged claiming there were many faceless ghosts inside wailing mournfully.
Zhang Momo had dismissed it.
Patients at Red Star Mental Hospital with such hallucinatory and auditory psychiatric disorders were a dime a dozen.
Most were just products of disordered thinking and delusions.
But when the Bureau of Mystical Research learned of this, they took it very seriously – that very day they sealed off the entire area around that dark room…
Later.
Zhang Qiu personally witnessed the site being bulldozed, excavating an enormous deep pit from which numerous skeletal remains were carried out. This incident left a profound impression on her.
“Momo, Momo…”
“Hmm?” Zhang Momo snapped back to attention. “What is it?”
“Look at Madam quickly!”
Zhang Momo immediately turned to look at Lin Yu’er, finding her giggling while shaking and nodding her head intermittently.
Why does it seem like she’s listening to gossip?
Du Du was thoroughly intrigued. “Momma, should we go ask Madam what she heard?”
Zhang Momo retorted, “Do you think she’ll actually tell us if we ask?”
“Why wouldn’t she?” Du Du argued. “We’re the only two Magic weapons in this realm! We depend on each other for survival—of course Madam would tell us!”
Zhang Momo rolled her eyes and poked Du Du’s forehead with her finger. “Madam’s identity is fabricated, and so are ours. Have you actually started believing you’re a Magic weapon?! You’d better be careful lately—don’t start deluding yourself and end up going mad too.”
Du Du rubbed her forehead. “This servant is stubborn. I want to give it a try.”
Zhang Momo withdrew her finger. “Suit yourself.”
Du Du ran off to ask, while Zhang Momo stood watching quietly from behind.
After the two exchanged a few words, they saw Du Du run back to her room and return carrying an explosively ugly clay figure, placing it on the table. “I invite the Demon God to dine!”
“Madam, the Demon God has been enduring wind and sun outside. This servant invites him indoors so he can be closer to you. This way, the Demon God can better protect you!”
Lin Yu’er clapped her hands excitedly, clearly wanting to praise Du Du, but after rolling her eyes, her words changed at the last moment. “You’re not bad, girl—though still ten thousand miles inferior to this Demon Queen. You do possess a tiny bit of cleverness.”
Du Du responded, “This tiny bit of cleverness is all thanks to Madam’s excellent teaching!”
Lin Yu’er lifted her chin, visibly pleased. Then she patted the stool beside her and affectionately pressed Du Du down onto it. “Sit. I’ll tell you.”
Zhang Momo: “…”
She’s actually going to tell her?
Unable to resist, she took a few steps forward, hoping to eavesdrop.
But Lin Yu’er glanced at her, picked up her stool, and declared, “The sunshine outside is lovely! Du Du, let’s go talk outside!”
Zhang Momo, burning with curiosity, rolled her eyes, went inside to fetch a heating stove, teapot, and a jar of nuts and chestnuts, then hurried after them.
The winter sun was indeed comforting.
Just as Lin Yu’er and Du Du sat down, Zhang Momo arranged the stove, lit the charcoal, and began heating water for tea while roasting chestnuts.
“Madam, this old servant will make you milk tea~~” Zhang Momo smiled until crow’s feet appeared at her eyes. A woman in her thirties, she nearly gagged at her own affected voice.
Lin Yu’er lazily grunted “Mm” but didn’t drive her away.
“Madam, please tell us, what did you hear?” Du Du, at that curious age, was already growing impatient.
When showing off, Lin Yu’er would unconsciously relax her posture. Leaning back suddenly, she nearly toppled over but, not wanting to be laughed at by the two Magic weapons, simply arched backward on the stool into a ‘bridge’ pose.
“This Madam’s ears have become supernatural. I’ve heard far, far too many things.”
Du Du immediately adopted a pleading posture. “Could Madam share whatever you found interesting? This servant begs you!”
The ‘bridge’ stretched its neck to watch Zhang Momo stirring tea leaves in the porcelain pot, sniffing the air.
“Then I’ll pick one to tell.”
Lin Yu’er sprang up abruptly, scooped two chestnuts, and began peeling them in her hand:
“…Well, there’s this woman who apparently fell into a well. She kept sobbing, saying she regretted everything! She should have listened to her father! Shouldn’t have believed that man’s sweet talk.”
“She was apparently deceived by some man named Zhen Wei or Xiao Wei. Half a year after marrying him, she argued with Zhen Wei/Xiao Wei every day. Then—bang! bang!—two blows, and her head was smashed open with a huge hole, this big…”
Lin Yu’er gestured vaguely, indicating a large hole.
“…She was stuffed under the bed while that fake Xiao Wei was still fooling around with someone on the bed, until her body grew maggots. Then that Xiao Wei threw her into the well.”
Despite the sun hanging in the sky, Du Du still felt a chill running down her spine.
She moved closer to the stove and asked in a hushed voice, “And then?”
Lin Yu’er grew impatient with shelling the chestnuts and simply tossed a skin-on chestnut into her mouth, chewing it to bits before swallowing…
It scraped her throat terribly.
Finally, she threw the remaining chestnut back onto the stove to roast.
Zhang Momo pretended not to see and continued stir-frying the tea leaves.
“Later?”
Lin Yu’er shifted her buttocks. “Later, she kept crying in the well, cursing that fake Xiao Wei while she wept. Heh heh, she cursed really foully!! Said that fake Xiao Wei was a damn idiot!”
The more Du Du thought about it, the more horrified she became.
So this woman was murdered by her husband just half a year after marriage, and her body was dumped in a well!
Was the voice Madam heard a message from the deceased?
Hiss…
She felt the surroundings growing even colder.
Just then, Zhang Momo finished stir-frying the tea, poured in milk, added a few drops of honey, and stirred continuously with a wooden spoon… In just that brief moment, a fragrant aroma had already begun to drift out.
“The milk tea smells wonderful—definitely much better than the osmanthus fragrance in that well!” Lin Yu’er sniffed the air.
Du Du lifted her head and suddenly gazed blankly at the distant tree branches for a moment, her expression turning much more serious. “Madam, do you know what that woman in the well was called?”
Staring at the porcelain, Lin Yu’er replied casually, “How would I know? I never asked her.”