Chapter 267
Chapter 267
Many things must have happened on the night of the Luo Mansion Massacre.
But speculation remained speculation. We needed more evidence to support it.
The letter describing Seven Deaths for Life Exchange bore a specific date. We could use that date to make a determination.
Had the letter been sent while Xiuzhu was alive, or after her death?
If it arrived while she was alive, then Seven Deaths for Life Exchange was most likely intended to resurrect the Seventh Concubine. If it arrived after Xiuzhu’s death, it may have been intended to resurrect Xiuzhu.
If the letter predated Xiuzhu’s death, it would also support the idea that the Seventh and Ninth Concubines were sisters.
Unfortunately, although we knew the date on the letter, we did not know the exact dates of the other events. We did not know the year, month, and day Xiuzhu died, or precisely when the Ninth Concubine married into Luo Mansion.
Without those dates, we had no way to decide.
“Xu Xiu is the Ninth Concubine’s name, and Xu Changming has the same surname,” Seventh Master said. “They’re very likely relatives. If two members of the Xu family were both targeting Luo Mansion, that indirectly supports the idea that the Seventh Concubine was also a Xu.”
I nodded, preparing to search the other rooms with Seventh Master.
The moment we pulled open the door, a pair of pupilless eyes was staring straight at us.
They belonged to a man in his forties or fifties. He wore expensive clothing, his skin was grayish white, and his face held no expression.
Seventh Master and I both flinched and stared at him in horror.
The man seemed to be Master Luo!
What made my scalp prickle was the feeling that he could see us.
Neither Seventh Master nor I dared move. We froze where we stood, barely even breathing.
We still clung to a sliver of hope. No one else here could see us, so there was no reason Master Luo should be able to.
Maybe staring blankly was simply a habit of his.
“What are you two doing in Ah Xiu’s room?”
Then Master Luo spoke. His sinister tone wiped my mind blank.
Seventh Master and I were the only people in the room. He was talking to us.
I turned to Seventh Master. Cold sweat had broken out on his forehead too.
“Run!”
He kicked Master Luo to the floor, grabbed me, and bolted out of the Ninth Concubine’s room.
We ran without daring to look back.
“Seventh Master, what’s happening? How can he see us?”
“How should I know? This is completely bizarre!”
Seventh Master was injured and could not run quickly. Pain twisted his face with every step.
Master Luo should not have been able to see us. Was he the ghost?
What else could make him so different?
Seventh Master and I ran from the side rooms to the main hall. We were about to cross the area outside and hide near the place where I had found Seventh Master when, to our shock, Master Luo appeared inside the main hall as if from nowhere.
He stood in the center, staring at us without expression.
“Why have you come to Luo Mansion?”
He could see us again. He seemed to regard us as intruders.
“Aah!”
I screamed and ran, only to hear Seventh Master’s anxious voice behind me.
“Chen Mo, wait for me!”
I looked back and realized he had fallen behind. I hurried back, grabbed him, and pulled him along.
More people were approaching from ahead. Men and women in rough, homespun clothes, all with white eyes and no pupils, just like Master Luo.
They seemed able to see us too!
“Aah!”
“What’s happening?”
“How can they suddenly see us?”
Seventh Master and I fled blindly, taking any path we saw. We wanted to hide in a room, but Luo Mansion was so goddamn large that we ran forever without finding one.
At first, the people behind us simply appeared without warning ahead of us and tried to block our way. As the chase continued, however, they stopped trying to intercept us and began running after Seventh Master and me.
Master Luo led the group.
The way they charged with arms outstretched made it look as though they wanted to devour us.
Holy shit!
Had this entire group been bitten by zombies?
At last, Seventh Master and I spotted a room ahead. We planned to hide inside and barricade the door with furniture. Staying alive was the only thing that mattered.
Before we could reach it, however, the door suddenly opened.
Despair filled our faces. We had finally found a room, only to discover an ambush inside.
But then we realized it was not an ambush. A small head peeked out, and I recognized Xiuzhu immediately.
“Xiuzhu!”
I called to her.
This Xiuzhu seemed to recognize me too. She hurriedly beckoned to Seventh Master and me.
We raced over, rushed into the room, and slammed the door.
“Quick! Find something to brace the door! Don’t let them in!”
Seventh Master and I frantically dragged over tables, chairs, and stools while Xiuzhu watched from the side.
After a long struggle, we finally barricaded the door completely.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Pounding soon came from outside as the crowd tried to break in.
Seventh Master and I froze, barely daring to breathe. After watching for a while, we realized they continued to hammer on the door but could not enter.
Once we were sure it was safe, we dropped to the floor and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
I looked at Xiuzhu. She had hidden beneath a table, as though she did not want the people outside to discover her.
“Xiuzhu, why are you here?” I asked.
She ran over and hid behind me. “I came to find you. You said you wouldn’t abandon me.”
The words stabbed at my heart and brought back the sight of Xiuzhu’s terrible death.
This was the same Xiuzhu we had encountered at the construction site.
I turned, gathered her into my arms, and asked Seventh Master, “What’s happening here? How can Xiuzhu come and go freely, and why is she different from everyone else?”
Everyone in Luo Mansion, including Master Luo, seemed abnormal. Only Xiuzhu remained exactly as we remembered her.
Seventh Master shook his head. “There are too many strange things in this world. I traveled across the country with my Master from childhood, but that doesn’t mean I understand everything. I’ve never encountered anything like this.”
I asked the girl in my arms, “Xiuzhu, do you know who’s controlling the people here?”
She nodded. “My father.”
Master Luo?
“And your father is the person you’re hiding from now?” I asked.
She nodded again.
Seventh Master and I looked at each other. Could Master Luo truly be controlling this place?
He had been the first person we saw after opening the door to the Ninth Concubine’s room, and he had led the people chasing us.
But that made no sense. Master Luo was the person with the deepest resentment here?
Had being cuckolded by several concubines twisted his mind?
I suddenly remembered something and hurriedly asked Xiuzhu, “Xiuzhu, what was your mother’s name?”