"Correct," Pei Yu's voice was as cold as ice, each word crystal - clear. "Judging from its size and texture, it should be made from a whole piece of human skin tanned after being flayed from a living person. The skin - flaying technique... is quite sophisticated."
"How... how could there be such a venomous way of painting in the world?" someone asked in a trembling voice.
Pei Yu's eyes were gloomy. "The skin - flaying punishment has existed since ancient times. When executing the penalty, the executioner usually starts from the spine, splitting the back skin into two parts, and then slowly separating it with a sharp blade. It looks like a butterfly's wings. The whole process is extremely long, and the prisoner will suffer excruciating pain, unable to live or die." He paused for a moment, his tone ambiguous. "Until the reign of Emperor Zhaohui of the previous dynasty, who ruled the world with benevolence. After hearing about this punishment, he felt compassion and thus modified the laws, abolishing a number of cruel punishments. The skin - flaying punishment was abolished since then." He changed the subject. "However, this punishment was always imposed on extremely heinous criminals, and the flayed human skin would never be used for painting."
Those who had touched the scroll just now felt a chill run down their spines. Even their fingertips seemed to feel a faint pain!
Before everyone could react, Shen Cuiyu had already picked up the scroll and shouted at the closed door:
"After listening for so long, aren't you going to come out and meet me?"
Creak—
The closed door actually opened in response!
Although it was the hot summer, a bone - chilling cold air rushed towards them, spreading from everyone's scalps to their whole bodies, as if they had fallen into an ice cave.
In a daze, someone murmured, "So... so cold..."
Almost instantly, everything around them fell silent.
The birds that had been chirping in the treetops just now stopped singing, and the wind that had been blowing the willows suddenly stopped. The entire Qin Mansion was eerily quiet.
Pei Yu's face suddenly changed. He subconsciously looked at Shen Cuiyu. Just as he was about to speak, he felt as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a club!
His vision went black, and he frowned and closed his eyes. He didn't know how long it had passed. When he opened his eyes again, the Qin Mansion in front of him had completely changed!
The Qin family members were gone, and Shen Cuiyu was also gone.
The blue bricks, black tiles, carved beams, and painted rafters... from the layout to the scenery, it all seemed to be the feng shui pattern favored by the wealthy families of the previous dynasty!
For the first time, there was a crack in Pei Yu's ever - calm face. His heart was greatly shocked!
The scene in front of him was too real. The touch of the bricks, the texture of the trees, and even the faint slang of the previous dynasty floating in the wind... This was definitely not a dream!
If he had previously doubted the existence of ghosts and gods, now, after being transported here by an invisible force, he was completely convinced!
Pei Yu had read several ancient books of the previous dynasty and roughly knew the layout of houses built by craftsmen of that time. So he tentatively walked towards the exit of this courtyard.
After about half a stick of incense, Pei Yu looked at the familiar old locust tree in front of him, his expression grim. Had he circled back again?
Could this be the so - called "ghost hitting the wall" in folk tales?
Pei Yu was always self - aware. He stopped taking rash actions, thinking that instead of wasting his energy, it would be better to wait for someone who truly understood the yin and yang to come and find him.
This person, of course, was Shen Cuiyu.
His gaze fell on the wind chime under the eaves. This item was popular in the previous dynasty and was made of jade pieces. People believed that it could communicate with the heavens and the earth and was mostly used to drive away birds and protect the house. However, modern people disliked its noisy sound, and gradually, fewer and fewer merchants sold it. Now, only temples and Taoist monasteries probably still hung it.
Pei Yu gently nudged the wind chime with the handle of his fan. The jade pieces collided.
Ding - ding - dong - dong.
The clear sound was like a gurgling stream, extremely prominent in the silent courtyard, but it somehow dispelled a bit of fear.
Pei Yu wasn't sure if this sound could attract Shen Cuiyu, or even worse - attract other inhuman things. But he couldn't just sit there and wait for death.
But his intuition told him that Shen Cuiyu would come. He just inexplicably trusted the little girl with the rabbit - shaped purse. He couldn't explain the reason.
Pei Yu fanned himself expressionlessly, thinking that perhaps it was because her father was Shen Canghai, the imperial astrologer. He had intended to make friends with Shen Canghai, so it was reasonable for him to have some trust in his legitimate daughter.
The wind chime rang exactly three times, and the courtyard returned to silence. For a moment, the only sound that could be heard was Pei Yu's own breathing.
Just as Pei Yu was about to look for another way out, footsteps actually sounded not far away!
The sound became clearer and clearer. Pei Yu stood in front of the main hall, his face calm, but his index finger quietly covered the handle of the fan, pressing against the barely noticeable bulge. The poisoned silver needles inside were ready to be shot out.
If the person who came wasn't Shen Cuiyu, he would shoot out the silver needles to buy himself more time to survive...
His calm gaze stared intently at the latticed door not far away. Until a "creak" sound rang out, and a familiar canary - yellow figure suddenly came into view.
The fingers that Pei Yu had tightly grasped around the folding fan quietly relaxed.
Shen Cuiyu walked over. Her lively and vivid appearance was extremely eye - catching against the backdrop of the old gray walls and black tiles. It dispelled the cold and gloomy atmosphere in this old mansion and brought a bit of warmth.
The girl's calm gaze swept around. When she saw Pei Yu, she obviously paused for a moment, and her tone was full of curiosity.
"Prince, you've also been dragged in?"
Pei Yu quietly watched Shen Cuiyu quickly approach. She looked up at him and smiled. There was a rare soothing look in her eyes.
"Don't panic. I know what you want to ask. Have you heard of being possessed by a ghost?" Shen Cuiyu said as she took out a talisman paper from her purse. Her slender fingers moved quickly, drawing a vertical line of symbols that Pei Yu couldn't understand. She explained in a low voice, "Actually, we're still in the Qin Mansion. It's just that the grudge of that evil ghost is too deep, and it's noon now, when the resentment is at its strongest. So we've been dragged into the mental prison formed by her obsession - you can think of it as an illusion. The other people in the Qin Mansion have been deceived and are sleeping. They haven't entered this realm. But your noble body is inviolable to ghosts and gods, so you were directly dragged in."
After she finished speaking, the talisman paper was also drawn. Shen Cuiyu glanced around the courtyard for a moment, walked to a certain place, and casually pasted the talisman paper. Pei Yu faintly felt that something was different about the surrounding environment.
Pei Yu looked outside the door. The deep courtyard that he couldn't get out of just now now clearly showed three stone paths. It was very obvious.
He thought for a moment and roughly understood what Shen Cuiyu meant. In folk terms, they had been haunted by this unlucky female ghost!
But for a capable Taoist priest, it meant it was time to do their job. Eliminate the karma, resolve the disputes, untangle the grudge of this evil ghost, and send it off cleanly!
Pei Yu's expression remained unchanged. He looked down at Shen Cuiyu. "How difficult is this illusion for you?"
"I can solve it," Shen Cuiyu replied without hesitation.