Chapter 36: The Xiao Family's Abandoned Mansion (Part 2)

  The shopkeeper coughed and scolded Zhang Cheng: "Zhang Cheng! Why aren't you watching the back room? What are you doing here, chattering nonsense!"

  Xiao Er slipped away to the back hall, leaving behind Xiao Zi Yang muttering to himself.

  "Xiao family's old house... the whole family was beheaded..." He suddenly had a strong urge, now go take a look, maybe the answer he was seeking was in Xiao family's old house!

  Xiao Ziyang's purchase of Li Er Long's ancestral home was extremely smooth, and the amount of silver spent was so low that it made people speechless. However, no one thought Xiao Ziyang was taking advantage of someone in trouble. Because Li Er Long had been forced by the gambling den to pay off his debts, he had been crying and shouting about selling his house for nearly a month. The locals were not interested in this mansion next to the legendary haunted house. Just when everyone thought Li Er Long's house would definitely not sell, Xiao Ziyang suddenly appeared and made the townspeople feel that Li Er Long was extremely lucky.

  As for the Li family's old house, which had two rows of buildings with 32 rooms in total, it was sold for only 300 taels of silver, which was less than one-third of its normal price. People didn't think this was unreasonable; instead, they thought that the buyer from out of town was being extravagant. This was because Xiao Zi hadn't even haggled over the price and had agreed to Li Er Long's asking price without hesitation.

  In Dongtou Town, on the east side of Longkou, there was a house facing the street and backing onto the lake. In the main hall of this house, four people were sitting solemnly.

  Among these four people, the one sitting on the left side of the first row was indeed Xiao Ziyang, who had a physique like an iron tower but wore a scholar's long shirt, which looked somewhat comical.

  Sitting opposite him was a middle-aged man with a pointed mouth and a somewhat flattering smile on his face, who was the owner of this mansion, Li Er Long.

  The one sitting in the first row above Xiao Ziyang was the owner of that small wine house. This person has a high status in Longkou Town and also has some reputation, so he was invited by Xiao Ziyang to spend money to become his middleman.

  An old man with a head of white hair sat at the top. He was the patriarch of the Li family in Longkou Town and had been invited by Li Er Long as an intermediary.

  Li family head held the written contract in his hand and asked Xiao Ziyang: "Zhang Yuanting, this house has two courtyards, with a total of 32 rooms, priced at 300 taels. Do you have any objections?"

  This is one of the three route guides that Xiao Ziyang obtained from Qinglongzhai on that day, with the name of the master on it.

  Xiao Ziyang stood up and bowed his hands towards Li Family's patriarch, saying: "No objections!"

  The owner of the wine shop asked Li Er Long, "Li Er Long, this house has two courtyards, with a total of 32 rooms in the main building, and is priced at 300 taels. Do you have any objections?"

  Li Er Long stood up and bowed to the shopkeeper: "Old shopkeeper, Li Er Long has no objection."

  The two of them finished asking questions and handed over the contracts in their hands to Xiao Ziyang. They signed and stamped separately.

  They took out the house deed and silver ticket respectively, one hand exchanging money for the other.

  Li Er Long received the silver ticket and happily ran towards the gambling den without any hesitation.

  Xiao Ziyang then invited the two witnesses to a wine house, where he set up a sumptuous banquet and asked them to eat their fill before dispersing.

  The Li family's mansion faces the street and backs onto a lake, with a small dock outside the back door behind the main house in the second courtyard. The elegant surroundings made Xiao Ziyang very satisfied.

  To the east of Li's residence is a huge abandoned house covering dozens of hectares, built on a piece of land that protrudes into the lake and resembles a peninsula.

  From the dock outside the back of Li's residence, it can be seen that this deserted mansion faces the lake on one side, and the foundation under the wall is built with bluestone slabs, which was obviously a lot of work and a large sum of money when it was built.

  This old mansion is the Xiao family's old house mentioned by Xiao Er.

  To avoid appearing out of place, Xiao Ziyang casually asked a couple of questions about the origin of this mansion and seemed rather nonchalant.

  This old mansion was the ancestral home of a stern military officer, but as for what this stern military officer's name was, what rank he held in office, the people in town didn't know much about it. The stern military officer was an official in the capital and rarely returned to his ancestral home; even when he did return, he didn't socialize with the townspeople.

  Eighteen years ago, a group of fierce and ferocious government soldiers suddenly appeared in Longkou Town, saying that the Xiao family had colluded with the King of Chengtian to rebel, and without saying a word, they rushed into the mansion, killing wildly, and slaughtered more than thirty people in the Xiao family's old house, regardless of age or sex.

  It is said that after the entire Xiao family was killed, the house started to be haunted by ghosts in the second year. A wealthy family from Zhongshan City had set their sights on this location and planned to tear it down and rebuild, but they were also scared off by the rumors of ghost haunting, and since then, the Xiao mansion has been abandoned until today.

  Xiao Ziyang suppressed his temper, waited until the third watch had passed, changed into night-traveling clothes, took out a pair of beheading knives hidden in the gift box and slung them over his back, quietly opened the courtyard door, and swiftly darted into the darkness.

  Since the haunted Xiao family old house appeared, every time someone in Longkou Town wants to build a new house, they will generally choose the west end of the town. As a result, the east end of the town where the Xiao family old house is located has become increasingly desolate.

  Xiao Ziyang skirted around in a circle and quietly flipped over the nearly two-zhang high courtyard wall, entering this haunted mansion.

  He entered into the backyard of this house, where mugwort grew thickly and there was hardly any place to set foot.

  Xiao Ziyang drew out his horse-slaying knife and parted the wormwood on the ground, walking towards the garden.

  The climate in Chu State is warm and humid, and now it's spring, the mugwort grows very luxuriantly. On top of the wall, he can still see several small buildings in the garden, but once inside the garden, nothing can be seen at all.

  Xiao Ziyang followed his memory and pushed aside the wormwood grasses, advancing four or five zhang before suddenly finding himself at the edge of a cliff.

  What appeared before him was a three-zhang square clearing, with weeds on the ground that were slightly shorter than elsewhere. It seemed as though someone had once tended to it, but judging from the height of the weeds here, which wasn't much different from other places, the person who tended to it must have been gone for quite some time already.

  In the middle of the empty land, a five-foot-square mound of earth was exposed in the midst of a thicket of weeds. Xiao Ziyang went forward and parted the mugwort grass, and in front of the mound were placed an incense burner, several cups and bowls. The incense burner had several roots of incense that could no longer be distinguished by color inserted into it. In front of the incense burner was a patch of ground that was slightly blackened, making it not difficult to judge that someone had once burned paper money here.

  Across the vacant lot, a small path that had once been cleared was faintly visible, with luxuriant sagebrush showing it hadn't been walked in years.

  Along this small path, you can see a pond about 7 or 8 zhangs in diameter. On the opposite side of the pond is a two-story small building that, although dilapidated, still shows its original grandeur.

  Xiao Ziyang looked down at the mound of earth that resembled a grave, pondered for a moment, parted the wormwood, and walked forward along the small path.

  As he came to the edge of the pond, his field of vision suddenly opened up. There were two small buildings and a waterside pavilion by the pond; a winding path led all the way around the pond to the pavilion.

  Xiao Ziyang walked along the small path to the waterside pavilion, where it was empty and desolate. Even the windows had been dismantled by someone, the ground was covered with dust, and the walls around were filled with spider webs.

  Through the water pavilion, the path plunged once again into the deep thickets of wormwood.

  He walked along the path and after more than ten feet, he came to a rotten and collapsed gate. Outside the gate was a four-foot-wide pier.

  After observing for a moment on the dock, Xiao Ziyang returned along the original road and left this eerie old mansion of the Xiao family.