Chapter 236
Chapter 236
The boy pushed open the post station’s dilapidated courtyard gate and felt a chill begin crawling upward from the soles of his feet.
After only a couple of steps, an unreal sensation came over him, as though countless hands beneath him were catching at his legs.
Looking down, he discovered an unknown kind of purple vine growing wildly throughout the courtyard, almost covering the entire outside of the building.
There was no sign of life anywhere. Never mind a rabbit; he could not even see a rat…
At the sight before him, the boy wanted to retreat. But remembering the old man’s words, he steeled himself and headed into the station’s hall.
There was no telling how long it had stood empty. Tables and chairs lay overturned, the floor in disarray, clearly showing the aftermath of a fight.
Large dark-brown stains marked the floor, the counter, and even the walls, looking like dried blood.
After one glance, the boy involuntarily stepped back, his scalp beginning to prickle.
Yet just as he was about to leave, he caught a shadow flitting through the hall from the corner of his eye.
He looked over in alarm. It was a rabbit.
A rabbit!
At that moment, the boy had no time to think. He followed the rabbit toward the rear courtyard.
“Stop!”
The rabbit was very fast, but the boy was agile too.
He chased it all the way into a corner beneath the rear courtyard wall.
With nowhere left to run, the rabbit actually stopped moving and allowed him to scoop it up.
“Young lady, I found your rabbit! I found it!”
He rushed excitedly out of the station. In the distance, he saw the woman standing in the deep night. As the cold wind blew past, her body looked as thin as paper…
Hearing him, she slowly turned. There was no joy on her face. Instead, it was icy.
“Young lady, your rabbit…”
The boy hurried to offer her the rabbit.
But when he looked down, all that remained in his arms was a bloody corpse.
The rabbit’s belly had been slit open and its blood drained. It was dead…
The boy screamed, throwing the carcass to the ground in fright. When he turned again, he met a pair of eyes blazing with murderous intent.
“Young lady…”
He collapsed onto his backside. “I did not kill the rabbit! Please do not be angry! I do not want to become fertilizer!”
He shut his eyes, sobbing and screaming, then abruptly jolted awake from his dream.
It was still dark outside.
At some point, the old man had come to sit beside his bed. “A nightmare?” he asked.
The boy could not shake the terror. Still crying, he said, “Uncle, I dreamed about a dead rabbit…”
The old man clapped a hand over his mouth and warned him, “If the young lady hears that, she will be angry.”
The boy blinked in confusion.
The old man explained quietly, “The young lady once had a rabbit. It had been with her ever since she moved into this villa.”
“A year ago, the attendants at the post station below the mountain caught it.”
“By the time she found it, they had slit its belly, drained its blood, and set it over a fire to roast.”
The boy immediately thought of the rabbit’s corpse in his dream. His hands began to tremble.
The old man patted his back and continued, “The young lady was angry. She killed everyone in the station.”
“Killed… all of them?”
“Yes.”
Terror filled the boy’s face. “Is killing… not against the law? They were government servants.”
The old man smiled slightly. “There is no one in all of Liangzhou City the young lady would not dare kill. Except one person, of course.”
“Who?”
“Do not ask any more. You will know in time.”
The boy stayed at Mingyue Villa.
Gradually, he discovered that whenever he went to sleep, it was dark, and whenever he woke, it was still dark.
He never saw daylight again.
The villa was always silent. The young lady rarely called for him. She spent all her time in the loft, holding a rabbit of unknown origin that looked exactly like the one in his dream.
The boy dared ask nothing. His daily duties were few: wash after waking, eat, and clean.
Around midnight, he went with the old man to tend the white flowers in the garden beds.
Only later did he learn that those white blossoms were actually the young lady’s “food.”
She drank the dew from them and ate their petals one by one…
The first time he witnessed this, the boy was astonished. Later, he gradually grew accustomed to it.
After all, the “food” he and the old man ate was hardly normal either.
Sometimes he would think dazedly that Mingyue Villa was very much like a tomb.
Otherwise, why had he never seen daylight again? Why could he no longer tell what day it was?
The boy thought the days ahead would remain just as quiet.
Then someone came to the villa.
That night, the knocking was as deafening as drums on a battlefield.
The boy hurriedly rose. He was about to open the door when he saw a towering figure at the entrance.
He had never seen anyone so tall. Standing before the door, the man looked like a mountain.
“Open the door.”
The command came in a low voice like muffled thunder.
The boy could only steel himself and open it. He was about to ask a question when a hand beside him caught his collar and lifted him outside.
The old man stood to one side, bowing and nodding. He covered the boy’s mouth to keep him silent.
Helplessly, the boy watched the towering man in armor enter the room and climb to the loft.
“Young lady…”
Thinking she was in danger, the boy struggled, trying to go and stop him.
The old man slapped him across the face. “Do you know who that is?”
The boy shook his head blankly. “What is he going to do to the young lady?”
The old man’s gaze was icy. “Do not interfere. Stand here.”
Upstairs, all was deathly still.
Not a sound emerged.
After an unknown length of time, the man slowly descended from the loft.
The boy could not help looking up. Perhaps it was an illusion, but the man seemed much younger than when he had gone in.
Though his temples were still white, his face was ruddy and his eyes bright.
As he passed, he looked the boy up and down, then instructed him, “Serve the young lady well.”
The old man immediately prostrated himself, pulling the boy down to kneel with him.
“We shall obey.”
Satisfied, the man left.
The boy rushed up to the loft. The young lady was still sitting on the floor, holding a rosewood comb.
At the sound, she turned and handed it to him. “Changsheng, comb my hair.”
The boy dared not refuse. He approached in trepidation and noticed a pale-red cut on her wrist.
It looked as though something had slashed her…
“Young lady, are you hurt?”
He hurriedly took her hand, his first thought to bandage the wound.
Only then did he remember that Mingyue Villa had no Household Physician, nor any medicine…
They lived here, yet they were nothing like living people.
The young lady smiled and explained, “Changsheng, I am not hurt. Nor can I be hurt.”
She lifted her hand to show him. The pale-red cut had already disappeared.