Three days later.
In the late afternoon, the study hall of the private college within Huang Manor—situated near the great iron mine—was quiet beneath the waning light.
“I’m leaving, Juanjuan!”
A girl with double braids, a cloth satchel bouncing at her side, waved cheerfully at her friend still seated inside.
Song Yunjuan lifted her head and smiled gently.
“Hurry and go, or your parents will scold you again if you’re late.”
“Yea!”
The girl dashed away with a lively skip, fading into the orange-tinted horizon until she disappeared completely.
Only then did Song Yunjuan withdraw her gaze. The study hall around her was empty; everyone else had already gone, leaving her alone among the neat rows of desks.
“I should get back too.” She carefully gathered her brush, ink, and straw paper, tucking them into her small satchel. After straightening her clothes, she stepped out of the study hall.
Under the evening sky, Huang Manor seemed unusually still, wrapped in a faint quietness.
A few women who had been chatting by the wall quickly rose when they saw her emerge. They left in a hurry, their expressions tightening as if they didn’t wish to even look her way.
In the distance, several boys around seven or eight were playing noisily. But the moment they spotted Song Yunjuan, their laughter died. Panic flashed across their faces before they bolted.
“Run! The jinx is out!”
“This way!”
Song Yunjuan merely lowered her head, dusted off her satchel, and continued toward her home.
The Huang Manor was only a few li from where she lived—not far for an adult, but for a girl barely ten years old, it felt like a journey much too long.
Home had once been peaceful. A few years ago, her father, mother, and grandparents had all been alive and well.
But that changed two years ago. Big Bro had become obsessed with concocting pills for immortality, even abandoning the Annual Examinations. Day after day he muttered to himself, locking himself away with so-called cultivation methods and pill recipes. Worse, he squandered the family’s savings to purchase useless manuals and bizarre trinkets tied to immortality.
From that point onward, their lives took a steep plunge.
Grandpa and Grandma were the first to vanish—disappearing without a trace after a simple day of hiking. Before their family could even recover from the shock, tragedy struck again. While still mourning, Father and Mother suffered a fatal accident when their horse carriage tumbled off a cliff.
With no adults left to keep order, Big Bro spiraled out of control. He devoted himself to concocting pills and pursuing immortality with an almost possessed mania.
Her other brothers and sisters, unable to bear the chaos, eventually left one by one. In the end, only she and Big Bro remained in the once-lively manor. To fuel his obsession, he sold every valuable item in the household until the entire place was stripped bare—so desolate that even thieves no longer bothered visiting. The servants had long been dismissed, leaving only the two of them to inhabit the empty grounds.
Song Yunjuan’s delicate face dimmed with a faint sorrow. She missed her grandfather. She missed her father.
“Also, Mother’s osmanthus cake was really yummy…” she murmured, bowing her head as she rubbed at her moistening eyes. She quickened her pace toward home.
There was nothing left now. Fortunately, Mister Chen at the private college had taken pity on her situation. Though she could no longer pay the monthly silver, he had never driven her away and still allowed her to attend lessons.
She trudged along the path, using a straw string to tie back her shoulder-length hair. After a brisk walk beneath the deepening dusk, she reached the entrance of her house just as night fully settled in.
The main door of the Song Manor was unlocked, left slightly ajar. Darkness shrouded everything; not a single light stirred within.
Song Yunjuan had grown accustomed to such emptiness. She pushed the door open with both hands and slipped inside. Then she turned back, locked the door, and lowered the heavy wooden beam across it.
“Thud.”
Dusting her palms, she made her way into the courtyard.
Dead leaves and brittle twigs were scattered everywhere. Inside the rooms, not even a dim flame flickered; everything lay in pitch-black silence.
Guided only by the moonlight, she walked toward the side hall.
In the barren, lifeless rectangular courtyard, her footsteps were the only sound. Her worn deer-skin moccasins tapped steadily against the stone floor—tuk, tuk, tuk—reverberating through the stillness.
She was long used to the sight. Reaching the side hall, she peered inside. It was dark and empty; the barren dining table in the center reflected a sliver of moonlight.
Nothing lay on it.
“Ai…”
With a soft sigh, she headed instead toward Big Bro’s sleeping quarters.
Crossing the small stone bridge, she approached the largest room on the left and gently pushed the door.
“Ka-cha.”
The wooden boards scraped loudly against one another, the sound slicing through the quiet of the entire manor.
The room was dark and heavy with gloom. Only the faint wash of moonlight allowed Song Yunjuan to make out the vague outlines within.
The left corner was drenched in shadow. Beneath the pale glow, she could just discern the hulking silhouette of something massive.
She knew it was Big Bro’s pill furnace.
Turning her head to the right, she squinted toward the square table. A few bowls sat atop it, barely visible.
“Big Bro, you’re still concocting pills?”
Silence lingered for a moment.
“Mm, just concocted a few,” a male voice finally answered from within the darkness.
Song Yunjuan stepped inside. Feeling her way forward, she reached the dining table, found a pair of chopsticks, and prepared to eat.
But the moment she took her first bite, she paused. The dish was icy cold. She understood that fires couldn’t be lit at night, but… no heating at all? What sort of pill-concocting method didn’t even permit warming up food?
“Big Bro, you didn’t heat up the dishes again?”
“Yeah. I prepared them this morning and haven’t had the time to heat it up,” came the reply from the shadows.
Song Yunjuan let out a soft sigh.
What she could not see was that behind the pill furnace, the darkness concealed nothing—not a single figure stood there.
No one was in that corner. Then where had the voice come from?
No one knew.
After only a few mouthfuls, she pushed the bowl aside. The meat tasted slightly rancid, nothing like something cooked earlier that day.
“Today I talked to Chen Meiqin. She said she’ll come over in a few days to play, Big Bro…”
“Mm, I’m listening,” the voice responded.
“Can you accompany me at home during the day?” she asked softly.
“I need to concoct pills.”
“You can’t accompany me for even a day?” Disappointment trembled in her eyes.
“I need to concoct pills.”
Yunjuan fell silent. Head lowered, she continued eating quietly.
She did not notice the tall, looming shadow slipping soundlessly out from the corner. It approached her, slow and deliberate.
Its face was pale, hollow, devoid of emotion.
It leaned over her shoulder, staring down at her. In its hand glinted a pair of scissors—fresh blood dripping from the tips…
“Bang, bang, bang!”
Suddenly, violent knocking echoed from the main door of the courtyard.
Song Yunjuan jolted to her feet.
“Who’s that?”
Hurrying outside, she reached the main entrance.
“Anybody home? We’re hikers in the area and happened to pass by. A fallen boulder blocked the mountain path, so we’re hoping to take shelter here for the night,” a crisp, warm male voice called out.
Song Yunjuan hesitated. Only she and Big Bro were in the manor tonight. If these strangers harbored ill intentions…
“Little girl, are any adults home? We can pay in advance—just one night is all we need,” the man called out again. “We’re not bad people. This is the fee for staying the night.”
“Swish.”
A sharp sound cut through the air as a string of oversized coins was tossed over the wall.
Song Yunjuan hurried over, picked it up, and examined it.
Eight large copper coins, each twice the usual size, were strung together with a black cord. They glimmered copper-black beneath the moonlight.
She counted them twice. Eight coins—enough to equal a tael of silver. To toss out that much without hesitation… Whoever this man was, he certainly wasn’t lacking money.
After a brief moment of thought, she remembered she still had Big Bro at home. Drawing a breath, she lifted the heavy door beam and pushed the door open with all her strength.
“Creak.”
The door swung wide to reveal three burly men standing at the entrance. From their physiques alone, it was clear they were young martial artists.
The one in front wore grayish-white Confucian robes, resembling a scholar. Yet even those loose robes failed to hide his broad shoulders and corded muscles.
Song Yunjuan’s eyes drifted down to the sabers hanging at their waists. Her heartbeat quickened instantly.
“Little miss, are you alone at home? My name is Lu Sheng. We passed through this area and were caught off guard by a landslide. For now, we can’t return. Among all the houses nearby, this manor is the safest—the walls can keep out wild beasts. That’s why we’d like to stay the night.”
He spoke gently, trying his best to appear harmless. But his overwhelming killing aura, the powerful build beneath his robes, and the long saber strapped horizontally across his back all made it painfully clear that he was far from an ordinary scholar.
“My Big Bro is home too. But he’s concocting pills, so if there’s no issue, don’t disturb him,” Song Yunjuan said seriously. “Also… it’s fine if you stay, but don’t light any fires. My Big Bro doesn’t like brightness.”
“How can we not light fires?” Duan Meng’an muttered behind Lu Sheng.
Song Yunjuan tightened her lips. The three before her felt dangerous—menacing. Fear pressed down on her, and she instinctively stepped back.
“If… if you really must light fires, then do it only in the room you stay in. Don’t bring it outside, or Big Bro will be mad. When he’s angry, it’s really scary…”
Lu Sheng narrowed his eyes and glanced into the manor. It was genuinely pitch-black inside. Dozens of lanterns hung along the walls, yet not a single one glowed.
“Alright. We’ll just light our own room. Is that alright?” he asked with a gentle smile.
Song Yunjuan clutched the string of oversized coins tightly. The household had truly run out of money; to her, this amount meant survival. With careful saving, she could even afford her school fees for the next half year.
“Come in.”
She stepped aside, letting Lu Sheng and the other two men enter.
“Bam.”
The main door closed firmly behind them, and she lowered the heavy beam across it once more.
Leading the trio through the courtyard, Song Yunjuan felt a flush of embarrassment rising in her cheeks. Fallen leaves and withered twigs carpeted the ground. Anyone could see at a glance that the manor had long fallen into ruin.
After showing each of them to a guest room, she turned to head back to her own quarters.
“Dong dong dong.”
Suddenly, another round of knocking echoed through the courtyard.
“I’ll go take a look.” Song Yunjuan hurried to the main door. She wasn’t overly worried that Lu Sheng and his companions might steal something—Big Bro had already sold everything of value. What remained were old, useless scraps that even scavengers wouldn’t bother taking.
Lu Sheng watched the girl rush off before letting his gaze sweep over the dilapidated courtyard and its eerie quiet.
“It’s hard on this little lass.”
“I didn’t expect anyone to still be living here,” Duan Meng’an admitted, a hint of tension in his voice.
“What’s strange about someone staying in this manor?” the third man, Ning San, replied. He was one of the men Lu Sheng had personally chosen for this expedition.
They had disguised themselves as ordinary travelers precisely so they could investigate the situation within this manor more closely.
ns216.73.216.33da2
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