Shortly after Xiao Chenyan left, a servant came and carefully took away the iris lantern.
At the same time, the maidservants he had arranged also arrived.
Hong Rui appeared more composed, while Lu Qiao was more lively. Both women had beautiful features, and their movements revealed they were skilled in martial arts, but what drew attention were the tattoos on their right cheeks.
The tattoo read 'slave'.
Qing Wu's memories were stirred; in her previous life, she and Xiao Chenyan had rescued three children abducted by human traffickers.
Two girls had characters tattooed on their cheeks, while another little boy was luckier and was rescued before being tattooed.
Qing Wu withdrew her thoughts, yawned, and asked for dinner. After eating only a few bites, she went back to sleep.
The two maidservants observed her for a while. Seeing no abnormalities, they then retreated.
When Qing Wu woke up from her nap, it was already dark.
The two maidservants were still guarding the entrance. She smiled and blew a breath towards the door.
As the night wind blew, Lu Qiao and Hong Rui suddenly felt extremely drowsy. Their heads nodded, and they fell asleep leaning against the wall.
Qing Wu boldly pushed the door open, her figure disappearing into the darkness in an instant.
Ever since Yun Houxing brought the coffin home, the Minister's Manor had been in a state of panic.
Madam Luo had just been elevated from concubine to wife. She had barely enjoyed the prestige of the main wife for a day when she saw her daughter 'dead' and returned, weeping uncontrollably.
As soon as he left Prince Yan's Manor, he went to request an audience with the Crown Prince, but he couldn't even get through the Eastern Palace gates.
Clearly, the Crown Prince had received the news and was now doing his best to distance himself from him!
Was Yun Houxing afraid of Xiao Chenyan now?
No...
He was afraid of that coffin!
It was Yun Qingwu!
He had no time to care if Madam Luo was sad or not. He summoned his confidants to find a Daoist priest or a high monk, determined to destroy Yun Qingwu's ghost!
As night fell, no Daoist priest was found, but a group of monks were invited, chanting liberation spells in the Minister's Manor.
Yun Houxing felt a slight sense of security, but still didn't dare to be alone. He had his servants guard the entrance, and the room was lit by candles.
He didn't care if Madam Luo was sad or not, and forced her to stay with him. What he was thinking was that Yun Yujiao was Madam Luo's daughter, and this woman had often tormented Yun Qingwu.
If that little slut came back for revenge, she definitely wouldn't let Madam Luo off.
If there was real danger, he would let Madam Luo take the hit for him first.
Yun Houxing had been quite frightened today. Amidst the woman's sobbing, his eyelids grew heavy.
The whimpering sound by his ear, at some point, became distorted, exuding an eerie chill.
"It hurts so much..."
"My heart aches so much..."
Yun Houxing was extremely annoyed. Suddenly, he felt something dripping on his face.
He subconsciously touched his face; it was sticky, like blood. The sound seemed to be coming from above his head.
Yun Houxing's heart felt as if it had been struck by a hammer. Terrified, he stopped breathing and opened his eyes to see only darkness.
"Ahhhhhh!!"
The man's scream was particularly piercing in the night.
"Light the lamp! Quickly light the lamp! Who put out the lamp for this old man!"
Madam Luo, terrified, quickly went to light the lamp.
As light returned, Yun Houxing gasped for breath and looked at his hands. He only saw sweat, not the bright red he had imagined.
As he breathed a sigh of relief, he angrily roared, "Who put out the lamp!"
He looked in Madam Luo's direction.
But he saw a woman in a wedding dress, with blood holes in her limbs and chest, her face deathly pale, standing by the lamp, staring directly at him. That face was unmistakably Yun Qingwu's.
"It's me, Father..."
"Ahhhhhh!!!"
"Help! There's a ghost!!!"
Yun Houxing was so scared he wet himself, screaming as he fled the room.
Inside the room, Madam Luo, holding the candle, also broke out in a cold sweat. However, she was much calmer than Yun Houxing. Still, she didn't dare to stay in the room for long and quickly ran out to call the guards.
A figure emerged from behind the screen. Qing Wu smiled at the female ghost in the room, "Go ahead, continue causing trouble."
Yun Qingwu nodded, her eyes red, and floated out.
Qing Wu carried a Netherworld Lantern, its faint ghost fire concealing her movements and aura. She wandered through the Minister's Manor as if she owned the place, clearly familiar with it.
Judge's Brush: "Why are you so familiar with this place?"
"This was once my home."
The reminiscence in Qing Wu's eyes quickly turned into sarcasm. "The Old Emperor was quite generous to bestow the Marquis's Mansion upon that bastard Yun Houxing."
Judge's Brush: "No wonder you want to help Yun Qingwu get revenge. This is purely personal revenge! No, Lord Ming issued a restriction; you are not allowed to access any information from your tribulation."
"Did you peek at the Book of Life and Death? Otherwise, how would you know that Yun Houxing caused the deaths of your parents and siblings back then?"
Qing Wu's tone was indifferent: "Don't worry, I only took a quick glance. Not much."
She only saw that this old dog Yun deliberately cut off the army's supplies and leaked information to the Hu people.
Judge's Brush: "You said you were just looking for souls! You clearly want revenge too! It's forbidden for Yin officials to kill mortals!"
"Where did I kill anyone? Yun Qingwu is the one taking revenge; I'm just here to watch the show."
"Besides, Yun Houxing isn't dead yet."
As Qing Wu spoke, she entered the study and began searching.
Back then, Yun Houxing had a mastermind behind him. For such a major act of treason, this guy wouldn't have left no backup plan for his own survival.
Qing Wu wanted to find the souls of her parents and elder brother, and also to clear their names.
Even though she had been in the Netherworld all these years, every Zhongyuan Festival, when the human and ghost realms connected, she could hear the curses from the families of the soldiers who died in that great battle, directed at the Marquis Zhenguo's Estate.
They cursed the Marquis Zhenguo's Estate for causing the deaths of their sons.
They cursed the entire family of the Marquis Zhenguo's Estate as traitors!
Loyal bones wronged, souls lost, how ridiculous!
Qing Wu searched the entire study but found nothing. She took a deep breath, suppressing her killing intent.
The explosive sound of the Judge's Brush made her even more agitated.
"A Wu, bad ghost, calm down! You can't mess around anymore!"
"You can investigate, but let's at least follow some of the rules of the human world. If you personally kill someone, things will get troublesome!!"
"I know." Qing Wu gritted her teeth. Suddenly, her beautiful eyes narrowed as she looked towards the entrance.
The Netherworld Lantern in her hand flickered, enveloping Qing Wu's figure more tightly.
A figure quickly pushed the door open and entered.
The study was pitch black, but Qing Wu could clearly see the man's pair of rather beautiful phoenix eyes.
Xiao Chenyan's body paused. The moment he infiltrated the study, he sensed someone's presence.
The dagger flew out of his hand, shooting straight ahead, passing through the void, and embedding itself in a pillar.
Xiao Chenyan's gaze deepened. An illusion?
He strode forward, pulled out the dagger, and smelled a somewhat familiar fragrance.
It smelled like... snowflakes on the first snow, or perhaps... irises.
A face flashed through Xiao Chenyan's mind.
Yun Qingwu?
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