It was even eerier outside the house than they had imagined. The white lanterns and white streamers that had hung there during the day took on a strange blood - red hue under the red light. He Zhiping accidentally caught a glimpse of the portrait in the mourning hall. He wasn't sure if he was just scaring himself, but it seemed as if the frowning Old Lady Yu in the photo had smiled for a moment.
He Zhiping quickly turned his head and tightly grabbed Ming Mingzhong's sleeve. He silently recited the names of all the deities he knew in his heart.
The dim sky made the already somewhat chaotic layout of the wing - rooms in the quadrangle courtyard even more complex. He and Ming walked around the yard four or five times but still couldn't figure out which room was Yu Nian's.
In their confusion, Ming Mingzhong felt a pat on his left shoulder. He shuddered and almost let out a scream.
Immediately afterwards, there were two more pats on his right shoulder.
Ming Mingzhong couldn't hold back anymore and whispered angrily, "Stop fidgeting!"
"I didn't move," came He Zhiping's aggrieved voice from diagonally in front. "Can't I even tie my shoelaces?"
Ming Mingzhong was stunned for three seconds. When that force landed on his left shoulder again, he looked at the hand by the moonlight.
It was yellowed, emaciated, with long black fingernails from which black mist was constantly seeping.
Ming Mingzhong took a deep breath. "One, two, three... He Zhiping, run!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, he dashed forward like an arrow released from a bow. He grabbed He Zhiping and rushed into a wing - room. Then he plastered all the talismans on the door in one go. Only after finishing these did Ming Mingzhong finally breathe a sigh of relief.
But He Zhiping's face suddenly turned deathly pale. He covered his mouth tightly and pointed at Ming Mingzhong's back with a trembling finger.
Ming Mingzhong's heart sank. At the moment when he was about to turn around, he even thought about where he would be buried.
Then... he saw Yu Qinghe sleeping soundly in the room.
He Zhiping said, "She looks so ugly without makeup."
Ming Mingzhong: ????????? Are you crazy, He Zhiping?
Realizing that he had overacted, He Zhiping scratched his head embarrassedly. "Who asked her to be so arrogant during the day? Can't I scold her to relieve my anger?"
Ming Mingzhong didn't have the energy to argue anymore. He slumped against the door.
After they rested for a while, Ming Mingzhong said, "Go and check if Old Lady Yu has left."
He Zhiping was puzzled. "Why do I have to go?"
Ming Mingzhong didn't even lift his head. He just pointed at the densely packed talismans on the door, and the message was self - evident.
He Zhiping nodded resignedly and mumbled, "For the sake of you saving my life..."
He Zhiping tiptoed to the back of the door and gently pressed his ear against it. He concentrated and listened for a while, then finally breathed a sigh of relief and whispered, "She seems to have left."
Still not feeling at ease, he noticed a coin - sized hole in the wooden door and leaned his face against it.
The next second, he saw a pair of extremely large pupils, gray and lifeless but constantly moving, scanning the room.
Old Lady Yu was lying motionlessly against the crack of the door. It was unknown how long she had been watching them.
After making eye contact with He Zhiping, that eye actually bent into a strange arc and then disappeared in a blink of an eye.
He Zhiping choked on his breath and fell to the ground stiffly.
Ming Mingzhong was startled. He quickly helped He Zhiping up and recited the exorcism spell twice before He Zhiping came to his senses.
He Zhiping was lying weakly on the ground, but his mouth kept mumbling something. Ming Mingzhong quickly leaned over to listen.
"Stupid Old Lady Yu. She was a big pervert when she was alive. Your mother &%…&…"
Ming Mingzhong quickly moved his ear away and silently said, "Forgive me, Grand Master." The swear words He Zhiping said were the most novel ones he had ever heard in his life.
About five minutes later, He Zhiping finally came to his senses. He cried and said, "We can't get out. Are we going to stay here for the rest of our lives?"
Suddenly, Ming Mingzhong stretched out his hand, signaling He Zhiping to be quiet. He said in a voice that only the two of them could hear, "Don't you think there's something wrong with this room?"
He Zhiping nodded without thinking. "Nonsense. Is there any normal place in this whole mansion now?"
"No," Ming Mingzhong was a bit anxious. He nodded in the direction of Yu Qinghe. "We've been in this room for so long and made so much noise. Why hasn't she reacted at all?"
He Zhiping was stunned for a moment and finally realized the strangeness. He shakily stretched out his hand and knocked hard on the cabinet door.
The sound was loud enough. Even if a normal person didn't wake up, they would at least make some reaction. But Yu Qinghe seemed completely deaf. She didn't even move.
He Zhiping's legs went weak again. "Is Yu Qinghe dead??"
He Zhiping was scared by his own thought, but soon he frowned. "It doesn't make sense. Yu Qinghe is Old Lady Yu's granddaughter. Why would she harm her own granddaughter?"
Ming Mingzhong pondered for a while, and his eyes suddenly flashed. "Is it possible that Old Lady Yu deliberately led us here?"
As soon as the words left his mouth, Yu Qinghe, who had been sleeping peacefully, suddenly opened her eyes. The next moment, she twisted painfully as if she was suffocating. She let out miserable wails from her throat, and her hands pounded upwards in a strange posture, as if there were several invisible walls around her that trapped her tightly.
Yu Qinghe's movements became more and more intense, and her expression became more and more ferocious. Her originally handsome face turned a terrifying liver - colored. She seemed to have seen something extremely terrifying. Her almond eyes widened more and more, almost popping out of their sockets.
Amid Yu Qinghe's almost crazy roars, Ming Mingzhong managed to distinguish a sentence: "Will... not die well?"
When he read this sentence, he felt cold all over. But the situation in front of him didn't allow him to be afraid, because Yu Qinghe was about to strangle herself!
He Zhiping and Ming Mingzhong rushed forward hurriedly and tried to break her arms apart, but to their surprise, Yu Qinghe's strength was incredibly great at this moment. Two adult men were no match for her at all.
Just when they were in despair, they suddenly heard Yu Nian's clear voice: "Press her Fengfu acupoint."
Ming Mingzhong's eyes lit up. He immediately had a sense of direction. After quickly finding the Fengfu acupoint on the back of Yu Qinghe's neck, he struck it hard. Yu Qinghe let out a whimper and slumped back to her original position as if she had no weight.
He Zhiping finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was true that he disliked Yu Qinghe, but no one wanted to watch a living person die in front of their eyes.
Ming Mingzhong looked at Yu Nian, who seemed to have descended from the sky like a divine soldier. Behind her, besides Feng Chengyuan, were the Zhou Qian siblings and Yang Jing'an.
Yang Jing'an had witnessed everything at the door just now. His eyes were almost glowing with excitement. He took out a thick notebook from his pocket and walked fearlessly to Yu Qinghe's side, carefully recording something.
Feng Chengyuan was a bit puzzled and asked Yu Nian, "What on earth does he do?"
Before Yu Nian could answer, Zhou Feiyu said casually, "He's an intern at the National Bureau of Folk Customs Investigation, which is dedicated to collecting and solving folk - related matters for the country, abbreviated as NBOF."
He Zhiping was completely confused. "Goodness, can one even get a government - affiliated job in the ghost - hunting field now???"