Seeing that both Chen Ying and He Xiaoxiao looked terribly frightened, Meng Wan instructed Lao Xu to report this incident to the General, and then she offered to escort Chen Ying and He Xiaoxiao home.
He Simu covered her face and wiped her remaining tears, then raised her hand and pointed to a courtyard not far away, “Captain doesn’t need to bother escorting us, we live there.”
Meng Wan stared in shock, looking at the courtyard and then at her, and said, “You live next to the governor’s residence; isn’t this the place prepared for…”
As she spoke, she realized something, “Don’t tell me the woman who saved the General today was you?”
He Simu nodded, clutching her chest.
“Yes, it is this humble servant.”
Meng Wan’s eyes instantly lit up, her pity and worry vanishing without a trace. She took two steps forward and grabbed He Simu’s wrist, “It turns out you really do have malicious intentions, trying so hard to get close to the General like this, what do you want to do? Report information to your master? Frame our General?”
He Simu burst out laughing, as if hearing the funniest joke in the world, then repeated in a low voice, “Master?”
After a brief pause, she said, “Rest assured, Captain, I don’t know any Duke whatever. If I wanted to harm the General, when the assassin attacked, I should have held the General back so he’d just die, right?”
Meng Wan’s eyes glinted sharply, “Then you must have another motive!”
That… is true.
He Simu looked at Meng Wan’s hand gripping her wrist, and thought that this teenage girl was really hard to deal with. She then said honestly, “I do have another motive. Honestly, ever since the General descended like a god and saved the people of Liangzhou from suffering, I fell in love with him at first sight, that’s why I want to get close to the General.”
Chen Ying gasped softly, his eyes sparkling, and his small face, which had been pale from fright, now flushed slightly. It was clear that despite his young age, he already knew the joy of gossiping.
“You! The General comes from a noble family, only a noblewoman from the southern capital is worthy of him. You, a lowly village girl, dare to dream…” Amidst her anger, Meng Wan showed a condescending expression.
He Simu suddenly approached Meng Wan, looked her in the eye, and said, “Then, are you a noblewoman from the southern capital?”
Meng Wan choked on her words, her face turning red, “I can’t be considered…”
“There you have it. You’re not a noblewoman from the southern capital, neither am I; you can’t marry Duan Xu, neither can I; but you like Duan Xu, and I like him too. Since we share the same goal, isn’t this destiny from heaven, meant for us to support each other, right?”
He Simu smiled and patted Meng Wan’s shoulder. This little girl was silenced by her bizarre logic. He Simu then turned around casually, holding Xue Chenying’s hand, who hadn’t dared to interrupt all along, and walked home.
Suddenly she remembered something, turned around and said to Meng Wan, “Captain Meng, thank you for saving us today. But next time, if you don’t bring a talisman, it’s better to just run if you encounter that evil spirit.”
She tilted her head and smiled. It was late at night, and the snow was falling. The black gauze of her hooded hat faintly revealed her face, like a black gauze lantern.
“After all, even the bravest sheep shouldn’t fight to the death against a wolf, right?”
The long night returned to calm.
Calm in the eyes of mortals.
In the suburban graveyard area, a flash of blue light suddenly flared. Amidst the light, the silhouette of a woman was faintly visible. As the light subsided, her silk boots with curled toes stepped onto the wet, soft ground.
The woman wore a triple-layered rust-red dress with a curved design, decorated with embroidery of flowing clouds and honeysuckle flowers. This style of dress was popular about a century ago. Hanging from her waist was a white jade pendant finely carved to resemble a hexagonal lantern, emitting a sparkling blue light.
That small jade pendant, if returned to its original form, was the Ghost King’s Lantern that terrified everyone.
The woman’s face was deathly pale without a trace of life. She had arching willow-leaf eyebrows and phoenix eyes, with a small mole at the corner of her eye. Her stunning beauty, like ice-smooth skin and jade-white bones, was none other than herself. Even amidst the dead atmosphere, she radiated a quiet beauty.
He Simu had inherited her parents’ beauty very well; her true form could also have a physical body. Unfortunately, if this body were shown to humans, at a glance they would know she was a dead person.
She twirled the jade pendant at her waist, raised her pitch-black eyes, and smiled lazily as she said, “Come out.”
The green-clad woman appeared before her along with a puff of blue smoke, then knelt hard on the ground, trembling like a leaf.
“King… King, spare this servant…”
“Name?”
“Shao… Shao Yinyin…”
He Simu reached her hand out into the air. The light from the jade pendant at her waist flickered, and a thick ancient book with curling pages fell into her hand.
She opened the ancient book casually, flipping the pages as she said, “Shao Yinyin, died on the seventh day of the third month of the Gengzi year in Muli City, Daizhou Province.”
“Correct… this servant…”
He Simu didn’t wait for her to finish speaking, and called out, “Guan Huai.”
When she spoke these two words, her tone was different from usual. It was as if an invisible power was contained in her voice, like a fully drawn bowstring released, vibrating the air.
As soon as her voice fell, a puff of blue smoke appeared again, and an old man tumbled out of it.
This old man had a face full of wrinkles, a hunched body, and entirely white hair and beard that grew long enough to touch the ground. From his appearance in the human world, he was at least a hundred years old. It seemed he had been combing his hair before being summoned. His hair was half tied up and half hanging messily on the ground, not only comical but also blocking his vision.
“King! Guan Huai is here!” He hurriedly bowed and paid his respects in a panic. His voice was too high-pitched and discordant, like a cracked gong.
“Master of the Meigui Temple, do I look like this tree?”
He Simu’s voice came from behind him. Guan Huai swept aside his hair, only then realizing that what he was bowing to was a pitch-black locust tree, whose branches and twigs seemed to be laughing at him. Guan Huai hurriedly turned around, nearly tripping over his own hair.
“King, forgive this servant who is old and shortsighted…”
“The Meigui Temple Master’s hair has grown so long it interferes with business, would it be better to just cut it?”
Guan Huai immediately grabbed his hair and kept saying, “No, no, the King knows, this hair of our evil ghosts won’t grow back once cut.”
Below the Ghost King were the Left and Right Prime Ministers, and twenty-four Ghost Ministers, each managing one Ghost Temple. Guan Huai was the Master of the Meigui Temple.
He Simu looked at him for a moment, leaned against a tombstone while tapping the book, and said calmly, “In the Thirty-Two Laws of the Golden Wall, what does article five, section three state?”
Guan Huai was like a student in a private school being asked about homework by his teacher; he trembled and remained stiff for a long time, then remembered and said, “It is… ah, forbidden to eat children under the age of ten!”
He Simu closed the book with a loud snap and pointed at Shao Yinyin, who was kowtowing on the ground, “An evil ghost from your temple tried to eat an eight-year-old child right in front of me. It seems the law means nothing in the eyes of the Meigui Temple Master.”
Guan Huai glanced at the trembling Shao Yinyin on the ground, then smiled apologetically, “This little girl hasn’t been an evil ghost for long, so she doesn’t fully understand…”
“Doesn’t understand? Shao Yinyin, take out that black-and-white urn of yours, let the Meigui Temple Master see just how little you understand.” He Simu looked down at Shao Yinyin with a sweet smile.
Shao Yinyin’s entire body stiffened; she lowered her head until it almost touched the ground. Shaking her head pitifully, she whispered, “I don’t have any urn…”
He Simu slightly narrowed her eyes, and enunciated word by word, “I said, take it out.”
The jade pendant at her waist suddenly emitted a blinding light. Shao Yinyin screamed and tremblingly took out a large-bodied, small-mouthed urn, decorated with a pattern of children playing.
Upon seeing this urn, Guan Huai’s expression changed, and he immediately yelled, “Fang Chang! Fang Chang!”
A puff of blue smoke appeared again. From within the smoke emerged a tall, thin scholar in white clothes. With a deathly pale face, he knelt and paid respects to Guan Huai and He Simu.
“This servant greets the Temple Master, King.”
Guan Huai pointed at Fang Chang and said angrily, “I originally trusted you, so I left all the affairs of the Meigui Temple to you while I was meditating. How could you neglect your duties like this, not even realizing that an evil ghost in the temple was secretly hoarding soul fire?”
This righteous accusation seemed intended to completely clear himself. It was obvious he knew he couldn’t cover up this matter anymore, so he looked for a scapegoat. Earlier he was shortsighted, but now his eyesight was suddenly sharp, instantly recognizing what kind of urn it was.
“You guys are like tanghulu candied fruits skewered one by one.” He Simu smiled and took the black-and-white urn from Shao Yinyin’s hands. The pattern of children playing on the urn depicted little children wearing aprons playing cuju, looking lively and delightful.
Inside this adorable urn, the weak yet pure soul fires of six children under the age of ten were stored.
“Killing children under ten, the first crime; hoarding soul fire, the second crime; according to the law, what is the punishment?”
The white-clad scholar, his face full of panic, kowtowed and said sadly, “This servant begs the King for mercy, spare Yinyin! She did not intend to go against the King. During her lifetime, Yinyin gave birth to four children, all of whom died one after another. In the end, she died of a hemorrhage while giving birth to her fifth child. Yinyin harbored a grudge in her heart, becoming a wandering spirit, and turned into an evil ghost after a hundred years. The obsession that turned her into an evil ghost is children. She cannot control herself, this servant begs the King to have pity on her, spare her!”
Guan Huai immediately glared at Fang Chang.
He Simu observed this scholar-form evil ghost from head to toe for a moment, then said lazily, “Her life story is already clearly written in the Ghost Book, why are you repeating it to me again? I don’t care whether she intended to oppose me or not, but as long as I am in this position…”
He Simu paused for a moment, her eyes turning cold, “My laws must not be broken.”
Fang Chang lowered his head and gritted his teeth. He Simu approached Fang Chang, bent down slightly in front of him, and smiled, “You like Shao Yinyin?”
“This servant…” Fang Chang glanced briefly at Shao Yinyin.
“So you pity her, spoil her, and hide her?”
“Not at all!”
He Simu stroked the jade pendant at her waist and said casually, “There’s a saying in the human world, spoiling a child is the same as killing them; it’s the same between lovers.”
Fang Chang seemed to want to say something, but Guan Huai interrupted him, yelling, “The King is right! A bowl of porridge, a bowl of rice, one must remember that it is not easily obtained. Don’t you remember the principles you learned when you were human; why have you forgotten them after becoming a ghost? When eating rice, one must appreciate it; when eating humans, can one just do it carelessly?”
Guan Huai signaled for Fang Chang to be quiet, while glancing at He Simu’s expression.
Shao Yinyin kowtowed on the ground and muttered, “This servant hopes the King remembers that this is Yinyin’s first mistake, and gives a light punishment.”
He Simu glanced at the righteous-looking Guan Huai, then smiled, “This is an evil ghost from your temple; it makes sense that you should punish her.”
Hearing this, Fang Chang’s face showed joy, while Guan Huai trembled. Sure enough, He Simu approached Guan Huai and patted his hunched shoulder.
“You punish her, I punish you, how about that?”
“This servant…”
“I’m on vacation right now; Jiang Ai and Yan Ke are taking my place overseeing the ghost territory. Go and receive your punishment today; there’s no need to report to me how you punished her. After seven days, if her name is still in the Ghost Book, we will talk about it again.”
He Simu didn’t look at Shao Yinyin and Fang Chang on the ground; she patted Guan Huai’s shoulder again, then disappeared in a flash of blue light.
“This servant sees off the King.” Guan Huai bowed deeply, then let out a sigh of relief, as if He Simu were a massive mountain pressing down on him, and after she left, his back straightened again.
He slowly turned around, swept aside his comical white hair, looked at Shao Yinyin and Fang Chang kneeling on the ground, and said angrily, “Fang Chang oh Fang Chang, what should I say to you? Protecting your lover is bad enough, but you still dare to talk back to the King? With what Shao Yinyin has done, even if you talk about it until the sky falls, the King will not let her go!”
Shao Yinyin looked at Fang Chang in a panic, and before she could beg, she was scolded again by Guan Huai, “Now you know fear? Weren’t you very happy when hoarding soul fire and killing little children!”
Even though he was an extremely old man, and his voice sounded like a cracked gong, his voice was very strong when scolding someone, so much so that his beard flew a foot high.
Fang Chang’s thin hand stroked Shao Yinyin’s back. He showed a resolute expression, kowtowed and said, “Temple Master, you are the eldest in the ghost territory; the King has always respected you. Fang Chang begs you, please ask for mercy for Yinyin; I am willing to work hard like a cow or a horse, and will never forget your kindness!”
Guan Huai stared at Fang Chang for a moment, then he let out a long sigh and said, “I have indeed lived in vain for more than three thousand years, so what? When He Simu suppressed the rebellion in the ghost territory and wiped out the twenty-four ghost temples with blood, she wasn’t even a hundred years old yet. Thirty percent of the Temple Masters were annihilated by her, which one of them wasn’t much older than her?”
“If it weren’t for her milder temperament over the past hundred years, what you said earlier would have been enough to get you annihilated ten thousand times over.”
Fang Chang was stunned, understanding that Guan Huai meant he would not save Shao Yinyin, and he unconsciously kowtowed on the ground in despair.
“After this matter is settled, go and apologize to the King on my behalf. Remember not to talk too much; the King rarely summons us when she’s on vacation, and dislikes being bothered even more.”
Guan Huai patted Fang Chang’s shoulder, then looked at the trembling Shao Yinyin on the ground, shook his head, and left.
He Simu, a Ghost King whose anger and joy were unpredictable, and the most talented in ten generations, was not someone he dared to offend.
