Chapter Eleven: The Hanging Ghost

  Two men rushed back to the county government office of Mingwu, quietly sneaking into the government compound. They saw a person who looked like a county lieutenant on duty. Zhou Tianhao took a closer look and found that the man was familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere before. He thought carefully and suddenly remembered that it was the county lieutenant Wang whom he had met at his father's wedding a few days ago. Zhou Tianhao took out the letter he had written and threw a flying knife through it, making a "whooshing" sound as it flew out. The flying knife landed straight on the pillar beside County Lieutenant Wang.

  Zhou Tianhao and Ah Gui carefully observed this person. All they saw was that he was startled by the sudden event. He tremblingly took down the flying knife, picked up the letter, looked out the door for a moment, and returned to the room. When he opened the letter and read it, his face turned pale with shock.

  He picked up his pen and quickly wrote a letter, sealed it in an envelope. "Someone, come here!" Wang Xiancheng shouted loudly towards the door. Before long, a bailiff ran in, "Sir, what are your orders?"

  The county magistrate Wang called the person to come closer, whispered a few words in his ear, and handed him the letter. The person quickly exited the house, mounted his horse, and left the government office. Zhou Tianhao felt suspicious, gave A Kui a signal with his eyes, and A Kui quietly jumped down from the wall to follow the government official. Zhou Tianhao waited for a while before exiting the house to report to County Magistrate Wang.

  Tianhao jumped down the wall and quickly caught up with Aqui, following the yamen runner to a mountain villa. Tianhao looked up and saw that it was Jiangyue Mountain Villa. Isn't this the residence of my master's brother, Leng Jiangbo? Tianhao was surprised in his heart. Tianhao was unfamiliar with the terrain and had to wait outside. Before long, the yamen runner hummed a tune and came out alone on horseback. Tianhao quickly caught up with him and pulled him down from the saddle. The yamen runner thought he had encountered a bandit and knelt on the ground shouting "Spare my life".

  "You just tell the truth and I'll spare your life." Tian Hao shouted sternly.

  "Good fellow, may I ask?" The bailiff was so frightened that his teeth chattered.

  "What brings you to Jiangyue Manor?" Tian Hao asked.

  "I've come, I've come..." The official's heart was filled with fear, and he didn't dare to speak the truth.

  "Speak quickly!" Aqui drew out his treasured sword and placed it horizontally across his neck.

  "I've come, I've come to deliver a message to the master of Jiangyueshan Manor..." The yamen runner stuttered.

  "What message?" Aqui shifted his sword and asked loudly.

  "I really don't know, the letter is sealed, I truly don't know what's written inside. All I know is that our county magistrate Wang has a close relationship with the master of Jiangyue Mountain Villa, and that's all... Good sir, spare my life!" The bailiff begged.

  "Alright, I'll let you off today, you can go." Tian Hao said.

  "Get out of here!" Aqui put away his treasured sword and shouted at the bailiffs.

  "Alas!" The official scrambled up, with great difficulty mounted his horse and galloped away...

  "It seems that County Magistrate Wang and Leng Jiangbo are in cahoots, and Leng Jiangbo is also in league with Xiong Erpao. It's hopeless to rely on the officials and soldiers. We can only count on ourselves to stop their actions." Zhou Tianhao felt both disappointment and indignation.

  "What's going to happen now?" Aqui asked anxiously.

  "It seems they will definitely change the time or location of the transaction. Let's keep an eye on this mountain villa for now." Zhou Tianhao also couldn't think of a good solution at the moment.

  After a bag of smoke, a group of horseback riders came out from Jiangyue Mountain Villa. Tian Hao hid in the distance and vaguely saw that the two leaders were Leng Jiangbo and Xiong Erpao. They rode their horses southeast. The Tiandi Temple was clearly in the northwest direction, but why did they go southeast? Zhou Tianhao judged from this that they must have changed the transaction location. He said to Aqui: "We'll keep an eye on them and first figure out who they're dealing with."

  Two people followed Cold River Wave and moved forward. They only saw that they had arrived at a place about two miles away from the Mingwu River and stopped. Oh, this is where they made the transaction, so who was the other party to the transaction? Zhou Tianhao wondered, and how did they make the transaction? If they were to connect again, would there still be an opportunity to stop them? Tianhao's brain was turning rapidly.

  He called A Kei over to his side, "Quickly remove the saddles from our two horses, then go into the bundle and take out my white long gown, bring it to me."

  A Ke didn't understand, but it wasn't good to ask what, so he just did as he was told.

  "Ride a horse to Tian Di Temple immediately and deliver the letter to the county magistrate, telling them to hurry here quickly. Be careful not to show your face, just pass the letter with a flying knife. Go quickly!"

  "Are you okay here by yourself?"

  "No time for that now, we're running out of time, let's hurry!" Tianhao's voice was very serious.

  A'kui turned and left. Zhou Tianhao gazed intently ahead...

  In less than the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, he saw over a dozen figures vaguely hurrying towards him along the riverbank. He reckoned that this was probably the other party to the transaction. He hastily found some thicker and harder tree bark, tied them to his legs and arms with rope, tied two saddles to his chest, and put on a white long gown. He also pulled out his hairpin, and his hair immediately fell down, then he smeared his face with mud... When he was ready, the people in the distance had also arrived. The two groups of horses were about to meet.

  Tian Hao quietly approached them and watched from a close distance with the help of the torches of both teams. Then he heard Xiong Erbao loudly ask: "Is the comer Song Zhanggui?"

  "Exactly! So you are the masters of the Cold Palace?" the newcomer asked back.

  "Hehe, it's us."

  "Is everything okay at home? Did you bring back some stuff?"

  "Everything is ready as we have arranged."

  "That's good, let's inspect each other's goods first. The tobacco we brought today is also top-notch, you'll definitely be satisfied!"

  As they spoke, the two dismounted and walked towards the middle of the two groups. Tian Hao listened intently, this voice sounded so familiar! He took a closer look, wasn't this Song Zhuangzhu from the Ying Tian Tea House? Could he be the one who exchanged opium for cultural relics?

  It's time for him to take action. Zhou Tianhao suddenly jumped out from behind a hidden rock, lightly landing on the ground, then lightly jumping up again, and silently falling back onto the ground, repeating this process over and over, gradually closing in on the two groups of people...

  At this time, someone on the opposite side shouted, "Look at you, what is that thing?"

  Others also looked over and said, "Is it a ghost?"

  "It's like a ghost..."

  "It's a hanged ghost..."

  The murmurs of the crowd grew louder, and the two groups focused their attention on Tianhao, no longer thinking about the transaction... The two people in the middle who were inspecting the goods heard the noisy discussions from both sides and didn't know what had happened. They looked up to see a white figure jumping high in the distance, landing silently, and their attention was also drawn over...

  "It's a ghost, a hanged ghost..."

  "Don't talk nonsense, you few go and take a look, it might be someone in disguise, go and check quickly." Leng Jiangbo ordered, pointing to the two people beside him.

  "This, this... is a big deal, ghosts can eat people!" The two of them trembled with fear and didn't dare to move forward.

  "What a bear hug!" He said, but in fact he was also very scared. He thought of the scene at the cemetery some time ago, and his heart beat even faster...

  At this time, the white shadow was getting closer and closer, and people's feet involuntarily retreated backward...

  "Quickly shoot the arrow, quickly shoot the arrow..." Leng Jiangbo shouted while retreating backwards...

  A few bold subordinates barely picked up the bow, trembling and putting on arrows, weakly shooting towards the white shadow. Many arrows were shot at the "hanged ghost", but the ghost was not afraid at all, continuing to jump forward...

  "It's really stubborn, can't even be killed by an arrow..."

  "Run for your life..."

  "Run..."

  The crowd dispersed in a hurry, and the two people in the middle also hastily picked up their things and turned to run...

  In an instant, two teams of people, thirty or so in total, ran off without a trace.