Chapter 235
Chapter 235
Beneath the cold moon, heavy snow swirled.
They began searching the room for the next clue.
Yet even after turning the whole room over, they found nothing.
Xia Ximo stared at the stove for a while, then suddenly stepped forward and reached toward it with her right hand.
Ren Fengjue’s heart nearly missed a beat at the sight.
He was about to stop her when she held her hand above the flame and moved it gently back and forth.
There was no scorching heat…
Then, before everyone’s horrified eyes, she thrust her hand straight into the stove and pulled out a booklet.
“…”
Xia Ximo’s face was expressionless. “Only an illusion.”
The moment she removed the booklet, the “roast rabbit” and stove vanished into thin air.
Ren Fengjue anxiously examined her hand. Only when he saw nothing wrong did he relax a little.
Yu Lang hurried to praise her. “Miss Xia, you really do notice every detail.”
The corners of Xia Ximo’s lips moved slightly, but she handed him the booklet.
“You can do it again.”
Vice Minister Yu did not stand on ceremony. He opened it and began reading at once.
*
“Your name is Changsheng. The young lady has bestowed it on you. Remember that.”
“Yes.”
Night lay deep at the foot of Mount Yuebei.
A boy followed an old man into Mingyue Villa.
The villa was extraordinarily quiet. Though they deliberately slowed their steps, every footfall was still clearly audible.
The boy followed closely behind. After they had gone some distance, he could not resist asking, “Uncle, is there anyone here besides you and me?”
“The young lady.”
“Only the three of us?”
“Yes.”
The old man stopped and turned. Perhaps it was because the light was behind him, but his eyes looked pitch-black, empty and lifeless, hardly those of a living creature.
“Here, you must speak little and work hard. You must not displease the young lady.”
He had repeated this many times already.
Though the boy still had many questions, he dared ask no more and merely answered softly, “Yes.”
The old man led him into a spacious room and instructed him, “This is where you will sleep. See the bell on that cord? When it rings, the young lady is calling you.”
He pointed upstairs. “She lives up there.”
“You must go up immediately and ask what she needs.”
The boy listened intently and committed every word to memory.
Suddenly he swallowed and asked, “Will the young lady beat me? If I do not do well?”
Looking at him, the old man abruptly gave a strange smile. His voice was eerie. “She will not beat you. If you do not do well, you will become fertilizer for the flowers…”
“Do you understand?”
The boy immediately thought of the flower beds in the forecourt. Even in the hazy darkness, the flowers had looked lush and full of bloom…
Fear gripped him. He nodded at once. “Uncle, I will work hard to do everything properly…”
The old man seemed satisfied. He patted the boy’s cheek and led him onward. “Come. I will take you to have something to eat.”
At the mention of food, the boy’s eyes brightened.
He was ravenous after walking all the way from Liangzhou City. Since entering this wealthy household, he had been hoping for a good meal.
Yet what was set before him was a bowl of a white, paste-like substance and a bowl of thick honey syrup.
The boy could not help asking, “Uncle, what is this?”
“Food.”
With that answer, the old man poured the honey syrup over the white substance. “Eat.”
The boy’s hands trembled. He had many questions, but dared ask none of them.
He merely copied the old man, stirring the “food” in his bowl before slowly putting some into his mouth.
As he had expected, it tasted like wax…
He even suspected that he really was eating a candle.
Yet strangely, the moment he swallowed it, he felt full. His hunger vanished completely.
After the “meal,” the old man took him to the bathing room and made him wash himself thoroughly from head to foot, leaving not a speck of dirt. Finally, he changed into clean clothes.
The old man hung a jade token around his neck. Two characters were carved on it.
“From today onward, you are the young lady’s servant. Your name is carved here: Changsheng. Remember it.”
“Yes.”
On his first night, the boy murmured his new name and sank into a heavy sleep.
To his surprise, it was still dark outside when he woke.
He heard the bell on its cord ring softly, an unsettling sound in darkness so thick he could not see his hand before his face.
The boy scrambled upright and climbed the wooden stairs beside him to the loft above…
No lamp was lit in the loft.
Yet he discovered that, for some inexplicable reason, his eyes could adjust to the darkness.
He saw a woman sitting on the floor, dressed in snow-white clothes, her skin equally white.
Her hair was very long, trailing over the spotless floor with a frightening kind of beauty…
“Young lady… what do you need?”
The boy hurriedly knelt, trembling all over.
The woman slowly turned her head. Her small face had a pointed chin and was just as deathly pale, without a trace of color.
She said softly, “My rabbit is missing. Go out and find it for me.”
The boy received the words as though they were an imperial decree. “Yes. I will find it at once…”
In his panic, he turned without looking where he was going, lost his footing, and tumbled down the stairs…
He landed heavily on the floor, but ignored the pain and scrambled up to go outside.
Suddenly, he found someone standing silently beside him.
“Y-young… young lady…”
She had appeared at his side without warning. There was not the slightest air of life about her.
The boy was terrified.
Remembering the old man’s warning, he immediately fell to his knees again, kowtowing and apologizing over and over.
“Please do not be angry, young lady. I… am too clumsy. I will find your rabbit right away.”
The woman stared eerily at him, then asked, “And who are you?”
The boy hurriedly cupped the token at his neck in both hands and held it out. “I am Changsheng… Young lady, I am your servant, Changsheng.”
“Ah, Changsheng.”
The woman suddenly smiled. Reaching out a withered hand, she gently stroked his face.
Her icy touch made him tremble inside.
He did not dare move.
“Changsheng, come and find my rabbit with me.”
Suddenly she took his hand and led him outside.
The boy could not refuse, nor did he dare. He could only let her pull him along as they left Mingyue Villa together.
In the vast darkness, only a faint outline of Mount Yuebei was visible…
Everything felt like a dream to him.
He even began to wonder whether the woman before him was human or ghost…
“Young lady, what does your rabbit look like?”
After they had walked some way through the mountains, his fear had become almost unbearable. At last, he braced himself and asked.
The woman paused and pointed nearby. “I can feel it. My rabbit… is over there.”
The boy followed her finger and saw a deserted post station.
Though it was government property, it had been left unstaffed at some unknown time.
“I… will go and have a look for you, young lady.”