"Hahaha~ Younger Brother, please!"
"Elder brother need not see me off, stay, stay."
"Alright, alright."
After a bout of petty struggles between those who were beasts in human clothing, Li Miao and Xu Siyuan walked out of the official office, laughing and talking.
"I still have official business to attend to, so I can't stay long, Younger Brother. I've already had someone arrange everything at the Wu Residence, Younger Brother can go there directly!"
"Thank you, Elder Brother, I've troubled you."
"Hey! We brothers are like old friends at first sight, why say such polite words! Ah? Hahahaha..."
Xu Siyuan saw Li Miao off, the two of them chatted warmly for a while, and then bid each other farewell.
Xu Siyuan stood at the door, a smile on his face, watching Li Miao walk away, then turned and went back to the residence.
"Pah!" He spat on the ground: "Taking advantage of me, you bastard!"
Li Miao pondered as he walked: "This person surnamed Xu is quite wealthy, when the time comes, I'll have to hit him up for another sum."
Officials leaving the capital are promoted three ranks, not to mention he is an official of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, he is not afraid of Xu Siyuan retaliating in the future, so naturally, he will take as much as he can.
With the silver notes he extorted from Xu Siyuan in his arms, Li Miao returned to the tavern where he was eating.
Wang Hai and the other three were waiting at the door. Seeing Li Miao return, they led the horses over to greet him.
Little Four took the silver notes Li Miao handed over, carefully counted them, and happily stuffed them into her waist pouch.
Li Miao reached out and rubbed Little Four's head: "We have money, and we've also found a place to stay."
"Tonight, we'll go see the haunted excitement."
Wu Residence.
Master Wu nodded and bowed, fawningly saying to an official: "Lord, I've cleared out the rooms, and everything inside is new and good, there definitely won't be any smell."
"The ingredients are all fresh, the cook was hired from outside, and I gave him enough silver, they are all waiting in the kitchen. If the honored guest wants to eat anything, just give an order."
"I've left a few clever servants, they definitely won't neglect the honored guest."
The official didn't even look at him, nodding: "Don't let anything go wrong, this was ordered personally by Lord Xu. If the honored guest is unhappy and reports it to Lord Xu, I won't be able to protect you either."
Master Wu naturally nodded in agreement, but he was secretly lamenting in his heart.
"Where did this high-ranking official come from, why did they take a fancy to my house?"
Today, Master Wu was worrying about the recent haunting, when suddenly his backer on the official side arrived at his residence.
After asking about the intention, he learned that it was the superior of the Pingshan Guard, Commander Xu Siyuan, who personally ordered it, saying that he had an honored guest coming, and wanted to borrow his house for a few days.
The people of the Wu family, then, shouldn't live in their own house, but go out and find a place to live, so as not to offend the honored guest.
Master Wu's family only had money, but they hadn't produced any figures on the official side. To put it bluntly, he was just a local rich man.
To him, Xu Siyuan, a third-rank official, the superior of a guard, was simply a figure from the heavens. Now that Xu Siyuan had spoken, he naturally didn't dare to refuse.
"It's just... my family has had some rumors recently, and some disturbances have occurred, I don't know if the Lord has heard..."
"You don't need to worry about that, move out quickly."
The official gave Master Wu a displeased look, and Master Wu didn't dare to say more, quickly ordering the servants to hurry up.
He himself took his family and went to another property in the city to stay temporarily.
The official inspected the residence for a few rounds, and seeing that there were no problems, he waited at the door.
Not long after, he saw Li Miao and his party of four leading horses walking over.
The official immediately stepped forward to pay his respects: "Lord Li, the residence has been prepared, please come in."
Naturally, there were servants who came over to lead the horses and take the luggage.
Li Miao nodded, and the four of them followed the official into the main room and sat down, and he saw that he hesitated to speak.
"Lord Li... please forgive my impertinence."
"This Wu Residence, has recently had some trouble, it's not very peaceful."
Li Miao smiled: "Is it what those idle ruffians in the city said, the matter of the haunting?"
"You are also someone who eats Imperial Grain, how can you believe these things?"
"Lord, some things are better to believe than not to believe." The official said with difficulty: "In case I offend you, and Lord Xu blames me, I can't bear it either."
"There are no ghosts in this world." Li Miao said: "If there were, there wouldn't be so many unresolved grudges and unrequited kindnesses in this world."
"No need to say more, you go find Lord Xu and report back."
Li Miao naturally wouldn't care, because he had come for the rumors of the haunting in the first place.
It was he who took the initiative to ask Xu Siyuan to arrange for them to stay at this Wu Residence, so he could openly watch the excitement.
Seeing that Li Miao was determined, the official didn't say more, and bid farewell to Li Miao and left.
Wang Hai, seeing that the outsiders were gone, came over and said to Li Miao: "Commander, after you left, I also heard a few words outside the tavern."
"Is it that thing?"
"Eighty percent. I didn't expect to encounter this kind of rare thing in the Qi Lu Region."
Li Miao smiled: "Maybe someone kept it here, and it died outside, and they didn't have time to take it away."
"It's just that you don't have to go to Little Four's room to protect her tonight, aren't you a little disappointed?"
Wang Hai said with embarrassment: "Commander, what are you saying..."
"Alright, go rest. I'll go to the courtyard and take a look. If you're hungry, go to the back kitchen and order food, don't call me."
Wang Hai and the other three agreed and went to the guest rooms to rest.
Li Miao called a servant and had him lead the way, heading towards the haunted courtyard.
Before he even reached the courtyard, a faint smell of corpse drifted over.
Master Wu should have been afraid of displeasing Li Miao, and had someone sprinkle some incense in the courtyard, but the smell of the incense not only didn't cover the stench, but instead mixed with the smell of the corpse, making it even more strange and unpleasant.
The servants who were still in Master Wu's residence now were either those who had sold themselves and had no choice, or those who were bold and stayed because Master Wu had been giving money generously recently.
The one Li Miao called was obviously the former.
This person hadn't even reached the courtyard, and his legs were involuntarily trembling, cold sweat was pouring down his face, and he stuttered to Li Miao: "Ma… Master, it… it's here…"
"I… I'll wait for you here, if you need anything, call me…"
With that, he held onto the door frame and stood still, no longer daring to take another step forward.
Li Miao saw that he was afraid, and didn't force him, and stepped into the courtyard.
Entering this courtyard, the strange stench became even more obvious, and it was mixed with a smell of blood, making people instinctively feel uncomfortable.
The layout of the courtyard was obviously well-thought-out, with an artificial mountains in the middle, surrounded by water, a pavilion on the side, and branches and leaves densely covered all around, with some seasonal flowers and plants planted. If it were normal times, it should be a very quiet small courtyard.
Unfortunately, at this time, the trees were all withered, and the flowers and plants were also withered, and a thick layer of green algae had grown on the pond under the artificial mountains, and some mosquitoes and flies were flying around.
This courtyard should have been left uncleaned for a long time. Li Miao came in a hurry, and the servants of Master Wu's family roughly cleaned it once, but it was still inevitable that something was missed.
Li Miao walked to the side of the artificial mountains, and casually broke off a tree branch, and picked out a snake corpse from a gap in it.
Snakes love to burrow, this snake should have crawled here before it died, and wasn't discovered by the servants who were cleaning.
There were also a few nooks and crannies in this courtyard, hiding these kinds of corpses, there were rats, wild cats, and small birds.
Li Miao went directly for this snake corpse, because on a thing like a snake, which has no fur and is completely integrated, some traces would be more obvious.