The moonlight was cold and clear, and the mountain forest was silent.
There was no wind tonight; it even felt somewhat hot and dry.
Dogs kept barking from below the mountain, making people increasingly restless.
Several figures crept through the weeds in the mountains. The man leading them grumbled unhappily, “That useless Deng Jun can’t even deal with one dog? If it keeps barking like this, what if it wakes Fan Yue’s whole family?”
None of them were wearing masks. By the moonlight, it was easy to see that they were Zhu Hai’s group.
Carrying axes and chainsaws, they nimbly climbed over one mound after another. Their target was right in front of them: this orchard, which covered more than twenty mu.
They were nothing more than a gang of hoodlums. Since they could not deal with Fan Xiwen head-on, they naturally resorted to underhanded methods.
They would cut down the fruit trees at his home and see what he could do afterward!
Zhu Hai had watched many television dramas. The people on television liked to call this “drawing out the firewood from beneath the cauldron,” supposedly one of the Thirty-Six Stratagems.
What a brilliant scheme!
Zhu Hai was almost impressed with himself!
“Hurry up and get to work. Deng Jun’s side is definitely unreliable.”
Upon arriving at the orchard, Zhu Hai told everyone to start working together.
Zhu Hai himself held an axe. After speaking, he raised it high, apparently intending to chop down the flowering orange tree in one strike.
However, the raised axe never came down.
Because Zhu Hai felt as though something was blocking the axe. He simply could not bring it down.
He looked up. The axe was still held high, and no matter how much force he used, he could not bring it down.
Rustle, rustle!
Gusts of wind began to echo through the orchard...
Zhu Hai felt a chill run down his back, as though something were watching him.
“Brother Hai, do you feel like someone is watching us?”
A hoodlum standing beside Zhu Hai, holding a chainsaw, spoke with a trembling voice.
Click!
Suddenly, the chainsaw let out a harsh, grating sound, and its blade began to move.
Ah!
The hoodlum holding the chainsaw suddenly screamed. The chainsaw fell to the ground and plunged deeply into the Earth God, yet it continued making noise.
“Damn it, you can’t even hold on to a chainsaw?”
Summoning his courage, Zhu Hai patted his companion and then said forcefully, “Who’s watching us? You’re just scaring yourself, you damn coward.”
Bang!
It seemed as though something yanked Zhu Hai backward, and he instantly fell flat on the ground.
Then, Zhu Hai, who had still been trying to reassure himself, suddenly widened his eyes.
The axe he had been swinging earlier had broken free of his control, yet instead of falling to the ground, it simply floated in midair.
“Oh my god, a ghost!”
Even Zhu Hai, who usually claimed to be utterly fearless, was frightened into soul scattering at the sight. His legs jerked, and he fainted from terror.
The others were also scared out of their wits. They dropped their weapons and ran desperately into the mountain forest.
However, before they had taken two steps, something tripped them and sent them sprawling. One after another, they cried, “Spare us!” Yet in the end, they pathetically fainted.
A foul smell began to spread through the air...
The axe suspended in midair descended directly onto Zhu Hai’s right hand as he lay unconscious. With a wet chop, his right arm was instantly severed into two pieces.
Zhu Hai groaned. The intense pain instantly brought him out of unconsciousness, but when he saw the axe lying beside him and his severed arm, a deep terror swept over him. His face twisted horribly, and the unknown filled him with dread.
Lying on the ground, he kept crawling backward. His chest heaved continuously as he screamed with all his might, “Don’t come over here!”
His eyes were stretched wide, and his pupils contracted sharply.
He had actually been frightened to death...
After his scream, the orchard once again fell silent.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, in front of Fan Xiwen's family’s home—
Deng Jun, whom Zhu Hai and the others had mentioned, was throwing a bag of leftover food mixed with bones and poison into Fan Xiwen's family’s home. The large black dog tied with a rope barked furiously without stopping.
However, for some unknown reason, the bag of leftovers did not land inside Fan Xiwen's family’s home. After being thrown out, it actually bounced back. Moreover, Deng Jun’s mouth opened, and he directly swallowed several rice balls. Those rice balls contained rat poison, which passed down his esophagus into his stomach.
The dogs barked loudly that night.
That night, the entire village was roused, and the lights of countless homes glowed red.
That night, a hoodlum named Zhu Hai died in the village, and five lunatics appeared.
Of the five lunatics, four had encountered ghosts in Fan Yue’s family’s orchard. After being brought home, they went insane, with only one sentence in their mouths: “Ghost Grandpa, spare us! We’ll never dare do it again!”
Axes and chainsaws were found in the orchard. Everyone already knew perfectly well what these people had intended to do.
Zhu Hai had lost an arm, but according to the forensic examination, aside from Zhu Hai’s fingerprints, there were no other fingerprints on the axe.
As for the cause of Zhu Hai’s death, his liver and gallbladder had ruptured from terror. He had clearly been frightened to death.
Deng Jun was discovered early. After being forced to drink several spoonfuls of feces and urine, he vomited up all the rat poison. Even so, what had happened the previous night had driven him insane.
Fan Yue’s family’s orchard was Haunted by Ghosts!
This was the furthest extent of what all the villagers could think of at that moment.
Zhu Gui arrived. After seeing the lunatics, his expression grew gloomy, and he also sank into deep unease.
With his parents supporting him, Fan Xiwen said to the villagers who had come to the front of his home to watch the commotion, “Good. Heaven’s justice runs in cycles, and retribution never fails.”
These people had all seen ghosts; it had nothing to do with the Fan family. Fan Yue’s family of three were honest, upright people.
Besides, these people had not stayed home to sleep in the middle of the night but had instead come to the Fan family’s home to admire the moon. The matter was suspicious from the beginning.
When the police arrived, everyone remained. After questioning Fan Yue’s family of three, they still failed to uncover anything.
They investigated for half the night without finding the slightest clue. Only when dawn broke did they finally disperse.
Fan Yue’s family consisted of three people. Although Fan Yue was the head of the household, he was a simple, honest farmer who normally would not even quarrel with anyone, much less murder someone. As for Su Qing and Fan Xiwen, one was a woman; even if she had some strength, there was no way she could have been a match for several strong men. And Fan Xiwen was even less capable of it. He was a frail student to begin with, and Zhu Hai had beaten him during the day. His body was covered in injuries—couldn’t everyone see that he even needed his father’s support to walk?
As for taking them away for questioning, well, Zhujiachong was located in a remote, impoverished area. Once Fan Xiwen explained to everyone why Zhu Hai had beaten him, everyone understood: he was the true victim.
In any case, Zhu Hai and the others were hated by every person and despised by every ghost in the village. If they had been frightened to death or gone mad, that could only make everyone rejoice.
But if anyone dared take Fan Yue’s family of three away, well, their car could be overturned into the fields in no time. They could not do anything about it either, because the law did not punish the multitude.
After a night of activity, Fan Xiwen slept soundly right in front of his own home. The police officers had investigated for half the night and could ultimately only leave helplessly.
Zhu Gui showed his face only once and never appeared again afterward.
No one bothered to investigate these matters.
Over the years, Zhu Gui had supported Zhu Hai’s group, and they had extorted no small amount of money from the village. Everyone harbored Resentful Energy in their hearts. But now that Zhu Hai had been frightened to death and the others had gone insane, Zhujiachong was Haunted by Ghosts. Who knew whether those ghosts would go after someone like Zhu Gui?
After everyone had dispersed, Fan Yue and Su Qing plopped down in front of their home. The two of them had actually been badly frightened as well.
What had happened the previous night was simply too bizarre. In all their years, it was the first time Fan Yue and Su Qing had encountered anything like it. Both were unsophisticated villagers with little experience, and their minds had long since been thrown into complete disarray.
When they turned around and saw their son sleeping soundly, they could not help showing a strange expression.
They carried their son upstairs and pulled one corner of a thin quilt over his stomach. The temperature was still somewhat low in the early morning.
Then Fan Yue and Su Qing sat to one side, sighing deeply.
..
The story about the orchard being Haunted by Ghosts spread throughout the village, with all sorts of versions circulating.
Everyone was highly interested. As long as they had not encountered it themselves, they were happy to watch the spectacle.
Only Fan Xiwen slept peacefully. Yuan Sheng Wood had not been anything valuable to the former Chu Emperor. But to the current Fan Xiwen, it was a treasure that could barely be put to use.
That was because Yuan Sheng Wood still contained a trace of the Power of Lightning. For Fan Xiwen, this lightning was ideal for Body Refinement.
With the Power of Lightning refining his body, Fan Xiwen’s shattered body had grown two parts stronger after undergoing several reconstructions. Combined with his control over his divine sense, he could now barely maintain the appearance of an ordinary person. As for his previous weakness, it had merely been an act.
As for whether the orchard was Haunted by Ghosts, Fan Xiwen did not know. After finishing, he slept deeply and soundly. As for what his divine sense had done, who knew?
He slept until after ten o’clock before finally crawling out of bed.
Then he said to his still-worried parents, “Let’s sell the orchard.”
“That won’t do. Even if we stop growing fruit there, your mother and I can work harder and plant melons, fruits, and vegetables. We can take them into the city to sell every day and still earn some money. You’re about to attend university, so the family has to save money for you.”
Yes, in addition to his university tuition, they also had to save for Fan Xiwen’s future bride price.
They had already planned it all out!
The orchard could not be sold!
In his previous life, Fan Yue had reluctantly chosen to compromise after his son was beaten. But now that the orchard was Haunted by Ghosts, the buyer would probably have second thoughts once he learned the news. Moreover, Zhu Gui had lost his lackeys, so Fan Yue did not make the same choice as in his previous life.
“Dad, listen to me about this.”
Fan Xiwen smiled at his parents. “I have a plan.”
“What could a child like you possibly understand?”
Fan Yue immediately widened his eyes.