Chapter 26: Grade A Yellow, Lotus Lake (15)

The sound of crashing items was relentless. Xu Yiliu listened as vases, boxes, and hair accessories were smashed, followed by what sounded like bowls and chopsticks.

She exchanged glances with the three people huddled beside her, all of them staring at one another.

The violence inside was intense. Through the wide-open window, one could see the troupe leader’s neck flushed a painful red with rage. The man being beaten was bloodied, his head split open, while the others sat slumped on the floor, clutching their heads in a display of utter dejection. No one paid the slightest attention to the crowd gradually gathering outside.

"The troupe leader has such impressive stamina," Xu Yiliu remarked.

They had been at it for a long while, yet there was no sign of her strength waning.

Ji Xianxing, Fang Xiaoyi, and Chen Diandian remained silent. Though they were accustomed to the strange focus of her observations, they still felt the urge to retort.

Except for Chen Diandian, the three who had visited the ancestral hall last night had already guessed the cause of today’s outburst. They had burned half of the contaminants; the troupe leader knew the man had visited the hall and suspected he was responsible. Or, even if he wasn't, the act served as a perfect outlet for her own stance.

Observing the others' reactions, it was clear that the items inside were by no means treasures to this troupe. Their faces showed no anger or regret—only pure, unadulterated terror.

Xu Yiliu glanced at Chen Diandian beside her. Sending Chen Diandian in right now would not feel the least bit out of place.

"I'll leave this to you two," Xu Yiliu said with a smile. "We’ll go check on Lotus Lake."

Chen Diandian, lost in a daze, lowered her head and said nothing.

Fang Xiaoyi stared at Xu Yiliu’s smile. "Aren't you—"

"Fine," Ji Xianxing interrupted Fang Xiaoyi again. Her small frame stood before Fang, shielding her expression from view. "Leave this to me."

Leave it to *me*, not *us*.

Xu Yiliu smiled slightly. "Good."

With that, she turned to Chen Diandian. "Let's go."

As Fang Xiaoyi started to protest, she saw Ji Xianxing turn away. She muttered, "Xu Yiliu, she wants to..."

"You know this is the only way," Ji Xianxing said coldly. "Otherwise, you had plenty of opportunities to stop her earlier."

Fang Xiaoyi’s face turned pale; her mouth opened, but no words came out. Ji Xianxing knew she wasn't slow-witted, so she didn't elaborate. Instead, she turned her gaze toward the troupe leader, who was looking out from the window. "It’s your turn."

The fierce glare in the troupe leader’s eyes had not yet faded, but it softened slightly when she met their gaze.

She opened the door—perhaps because of the lesson Xu Yiliu had given her, she stopped using the language they couldn't understand and asked stiffly, "What business do you ladies have?"

"Someone else has died in the manor," Fang Xiaoyi said, calming herself and forcing out the words Ji Xianxing had instructed. "What do you make of this?"

The troupe leader’s lips were pressed tight, her words forced out as if squeezed from a tube: "You’re joking. We are innocent—what could we possibly make of it?"

Ji Xianxing stared into her eyes. "Is that true?"

"It is not false," the leader replied.

Ji Xianxing continued, "Even if the next person to die is one of your own, would you still say the same?"

Hearing this, the troupe leader’s expression darkened considerably. "What do you know?"

Ji Xianxing remained silent, watching her coldly. Her eyes were large but appeared hollow; her features were youthful, and when she stared at someone without moving, it sent a chill down their spine.

Seeing the troupe leader beginning to lose her footing, Fang Xiaoyi spoke up: "My Fang family has a profound scholarly heritage, and our students are everywhere. We are no strangers to strange folk tales. With this happening on the estate, do you really think we can’t see the connection to you lot?"

The troupe leader finally took two steps back and muttered, "Nothing will happen to us. We didn't do anything."

Fang Xiaoyi sighed. "I don't want anyone to get hurt either, but from what I can see, the next victim definitely won't be one of us. If you don't believe me, just wait until tomorrow morning. Check carefully—see if the dead person isn't from your troupe."

"However, Troupe Leader, you must think carefully," Ji Xianxing said coldly. "If someone else dies, it’s one thing, but if it’s you, there will be no one left to cooperate with us in resolving these matters."

The troupe leader’s face turned ashen; clearly, she had little confidence that they would remain unscathed. Otherwise, the people slumped on the floor would not have worn such expressions.

"We are all in the same boat now," Fang Xiaoyi sighed again. Ever since this mission began, she had been doing nothing but sighing. "No one wants anything to happen. If you tell us what’s going on, perhaps we have a way to solve it. If you can't even trust the Fang family, I’ll tell you this: within a month, you won't find a better option."

Watching how Xu Yiliu operated had made her own skin much thicker; she managed to spout this nonsense without even blushing.

The troupe leader’s gaze wavered. She looked around at the people in her troupe, then finally settled on the bloodied, unconscious man on the floor. Seeming to resign herself to fate, she said gruffly, "Since the taboo is broken, there is no point in hiding it anymore."

Hearing this, Fang Xiaoyi and Ji Xianxing knew the clue was about to emerge.

The anger on the leader's face faded, replaced by exhaustion. She went into the room, pulled out a stool, sat down heavily, and said, "That ancestral hall—have you seen it?"

If Xu Yiliu were here, she would surely have grumbled about the woman not offering them a seat. Ji Xianxing banished this strange thought, not admitting they had been inside, and simply said, "We saw it. It’s locked."

"The evil aura inside is very strong," Fang Xiaoyi improvised, enduring her own embarrassment as she spoke.

The troupe leader said, "After the incident back then, I locked it with my own hands. As long as it remained closed, nothing would happen. I never expected..."

"Smack!"

She suddenly erupted, grabbing a dustpan from the side of the door and smashing it against the man on the floor. "He was the greedy one! He thought there were treasures inside and actually stole the key to open the door!"

The man, on the verge of death, cried out, "Master! I only opened it to take a look! Who would have thought that as soon as I opened the door, a demon wind would blow out? I stepped closer to look, and the things on the altar were already like that! After that, I did nothing! I turned and left, I swear I did nothing!"

The troupe leader looked at him with disgust. "You let one and a half of those things go. If I hadn't been using fire to intimidate the remaining half every single day, it would have broken out sooner or later."

As she spoke, her tone grew more desperate. "Now that one is incomplete, the other has no restraints. Heaven is destroying me..."

Suddenly, she slapped herself across the face, her eyes filled with terror.

Fang Xiaoyi felt a surge of confusion. What was happening?

The troupe leader seemed to have gone mad. "How could I have let that slip..."

Fang Xiaoyi, not understanding, looked at Ji Xianxing, only to see her brows tightly knitted before quickly relaxing.

But the troupe leader’s next words made Ji Xianxing’s brows furrow once more:

"If back then I hadn't... I hadn't done what?"

The troupe leader’s words of regret stalled, replaced by a profound sense of bewilderment. "Back then... what happened back then?"

The man on the floor murmured, "What happened?"

The people in the room all spoke in unison: "What happened?"

Fang Xiaoyi sensed something wrong and quickly backed away.

Ji Xianxing grabbed her sleeve and scanned their surroundings. "Look at what the others are saying."

The others...

Fang Xiaoyi swallowed hard. She saw people in the distance with hollow expressions, their mouths moving incessantly. A nearby tenant farmer dropped his hoe, his mouth opening and closing rhythmically.

Turning around, the maid Chunlan, who had approached at some point, asked her, "Miss, what happened?"

She was suddenly struck with terror, realizing that everyone—this entire crowd—was mouthing the exact same sentence.

"What happened?"