As the butler spoke, he led us into the back courtyard.
Li Jiuming's recuperation quarters were in a small suite behind the garden. There was a small lake in the garden, surrounded by lush trees that provided a perfect shelter from the summer heat.
"Dad!!"
Li Mingyue didn't care about the rules. She lifted the summer curtain and rushed in.
The room was dim. All the windows were tightly covered with thick curtains. As we followed her in, we immediately smelled a faint stench.
"Uncle-in-law, Xirui is here to see you!"
Si Xirui was also very familiar with this place. She followed Li Mingyue into the inner room of the right - hand suite.
There was only a large bed with curtains in the suite. The curtains were hanging low, and there was a vague figure lying on the pillow under the quilt. Hearing us enter, the figure moved slightly and made a hoarse sound, "You're here..."
"Dad, how have you been lately?"
Li Mingyue had been following Qiu Zhuqing to the Si family all day long and had hardly cared about her father. Now that her mother had suddenly died, she felt a sense of crisis. She was afraid that her father would not be able to hold on and follow her mother. If those poor relatives in the family came to take over the family fortune, they would surely divide up all the property that belonged to her.
"Hehe... It's... okay..."
Li Jiuming, lying in the bed, spoke in a strange way, spitting out each word one by one like popping beans.
"Chicken." He stretched out his skinny hand from the curtain and said to us, "Eat... chicken..."
"Dad, I'll ask the servants to cook it right away."
Li Mingyue forced a smile. Since her father still wanted to eat, he should be out of immediate danger.
I found it strange. Since Li Jiuming's soul had already gone to the underworld with the ghost messengers and Qiu Zhuqing, how could he still be asking for food and drink in the Li family mansion?!
"Uncle-in-law, I'm here to see you."
Si Jiangchen squinted his peach - blossom eyes and looked at the dark figure in the curtain. I followed his gaze and saw a skinny old man half - lying on the pillow. He had no vitality at all. Even his eyes looking at us were like two pieces of dead flesh without a trace of spirit.
"Is it a zombie?"
I asked Si Jiangchen in a low voice. As a disciple of the Orthodox Unity Sect, he must be much more powerful than me...
"No."
Si Jiangchen slowly shook his head.
The black figure in the bed made a "giggle" sound, as if it was laughing. "Eat... chicken... meat."
"Uncle-in-law, you can't just eat meat all the time. I'll also prepare some millet soup for you to nourish your body."
Si Jiangchen said as he turned to the butler and ordered, "Besides the chicken, cook a pot of sticky millet porridge."
The butler was taken aback for a moment but still nodded and left.
"I'll go and have a look too."
Hearing that sticky millet porridge was going to be cooked, Lu Tianchang raised his eyebrows. Without waiting for Si Jiangchen to say anything else, he turned around and followed the butler out.
"Uncle-in-law, you can't always lie in bed!"
As Si Xirui spoke, she lifted the curtain and hung it on the hook. The so - called "uncle-in-law" finally showed his true appearance. Sure enough, just like the ghost of Li Jiuming I had seen, he was thin and white - haired. The Li Jiuming lying on the bed now didn't even look as human as his soul.
"Dad, I was wrong before."
Thinking of the dead Qiu Zhuqing, Li Mingyue couldn't help but hold Li Jiuming's hand and cry. "Mom was killed. From now on, it's just the two of us. You must take good care of your health..."
A few of her tears fell on Li Jiuming's hand. As if scalded, Li Jiuming quickly withdrew his hand and got back under the thin summer quilt.
"Dad..."
Li Mingyue was greatly startled by his extremely quick movement. Since she could remember, her father had been a gray - haired old man who walked slowly. She had never seen him like this before.
As Li Jiuming moved, the stench in the room became stronger. Si Xirui couldn't help but cover her nose. "Sister Mingyue, persuade uncle-in-law to take a bath. It stinks!"
After Si Xirui's outburst, I finally noticed that besides the smell of medicines like borneol and musk in the room, there was also a stench of an animal, like the smell of an old dog that hadn't taken a bath for many years on a rainy day.
My third eye had been opened by Granny Bai. Whether it was a human soul or an animal soul, it should not escape my sight. I knew that this Li Jiuming in front of me was definitely a dead man whose body had been occupied, but I didn't see any soul attached to his corpse.
"I... I can't tell what it is?"
This was a situation I had never encountered before. I was a bit confused, so I gently grabbed Si Jiangchen's arm.
"You'll know later."
Si Jiangchen looked very calm. He just gave me a few yellow talismans and motioned for me to seal all the windows covered with thick curtains.
Li Jiuming stared at me doing all this without a trace of panic. There was even a look of curiosity on his face.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
My action of sticking the talismans startled Li Mingyue, who was immersed in grief. She didn't see Si Jiangchen giving me the talismans. She thought I was sticking the yellow talismans all over the room on my own initiative.
"Exorcising ghosts!"
I didn't look back as I firmly stuck the talismans on the windows and then replied to her, "There are ghosts in this room. We can't let them get away!"
"Nonsense! There are only you, me, Achen and Xirui in this room. Do you mean my father is a ghost?"
Li Mingyue wiped away her tears and stared at me angrily.
"Hard to say!"
I shrugged and told the truth. I really couldn't tell what was on Li Jiuming. It was so low - key that it just stayed in the bed to satisfy its appetite.
There was a small kitchen in the garden.
It was usually used to decoct medicine and prepare snacks for Li Jiuming. Li Jiuming had been shouting for chicken and goose these days, so there were semi - finished products in the small kitchen. Now seeing the butler coming in person, the servants immediately steamed the chicken in a steamer. Soon, it was out of the pot.
The butler personally carried the steamed whole chicken into the room. The overflowing aroma immediately dispelled a lot of the stench in the room.
The chicken was served on a large eight - inch plate, stuffed with ginseng and astragalus to replenish qi and blood. Li Jiuming didn't use chopsticks. He directly grabbed the chicken's neck, tore it off and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Dad, be careful not to burn yourself!"
Seeing her father grabbing the hot chicken meat with his bare hands and stuffing it into his mouth like a starving ghost, Li Mingyue didn't care about finding fault with me. She quickly rushed over to try to take the chicken meat out of his hand.
"Get out!"
Li Jiuming mumbled with the meat in his mouth. He still spoke one word at a time, like a child who had just learned to speak and was angrily venting his anger after being provoked.