Volume 8: The Days of the Ghost Marriage
Ying Meng1
Do you hate?
The female ghost’s appearance was not that terrifying. It was just that she must have just come up from the well, so her clothes and hair were both dripping wet, and her lips had a purplish hue as if they had been frozen for a long time.
Excluding these things, her facial features were actually quite beautiful, and it was very easy to see——she must have been a great beauty when she was alive.
Shen Maomao, who was in the late stages of being a Yan Kong2, immediately stopped being afraid. Combining this with the previous singing incident, she even felt that the ghost was exceptionally amiable and approachable.
She fabricated an identity for herself and Lou Jingmo: “We actually snuck in to investigate the secrets of the Shao Manor… but we didn’t expect the Shao Manor to really be haunted…”
The female ghost’s gaze turned to the little girl lying on the bed, and she said in a tone that was neither salty nor bland3, “What secrets the Shao Manor has, I am not clear.”
“Then what about you? Why did you die? Why do you live in the Shao Manor’s well?”
The female ghost’s eyes abruptly turned red, and she turned to look at her ice-coldly.
Being stared at by her made the hair on Shen Maomao’s back stand on end, and she immediately pulled Lou Jingmo over to shield herself.
Lou Jingmo laughed and scolded feebly, “Don’t you think you’re being very excessive right now?”
Shen Maomao immediately apologized to the female ghost-jiejie, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to pry into your privacy!”
Lou Jingmo: “I’m f#cking saying, don’t you think you’re being excessive to me!”
“Am I?” Shen Maomao didn’t think so at all.
She and Lou Jingmo were prepared to be a couple of one heart, ready to perish together; this was nothing yet.
The female ghost was amused by them into laughing, her eyes no longer the blood-red from before. She withdrew her gaze, lowered her head to fiddle with her fingertips, and only spoke after a moment of silence, “Actually, I no longer remember the events before my death.”
Lou Jingmo looked at her and said faintly, “You are lying.”
The female ghost gave her an astonished look.
Lou Jingmo spoke again: “Do you hate it? Dying in that dark and sunless well, personally pushed in by the one you loved… are you reconciled to it?”
The female ghost shot up to her feet, staring at her almost fiercely, the reason in her eyes seeming to collapse and disintegrate bit by bit.
Shen Maomao’s heart jumped and her flesh trembled4 as she watched. She hurriedly tugged on Lou Jingmo’s wrist and said, “Why are you provoking her?! Don’t you want to live?!”
Lou Jingmo said calmly, “No destruction, no construction.”
The next second, she turned her head to the female ghost and said, “We can help you get revenge!”
Her tone was resolute and decisive5, without a hint of hesitation.
Just as Shen Maomao was about to retort, she saw Lou Jingmo making eye signals at her, which was simply a reminder——the female ghost was already this furious, so don’t do anything extra to provoke her further.
She could only purse her lips unwillingly and echo, “Yes, you as one person… uh, one ghost, have limited power. We can help you get revenge!”
The female ghost, however, eerily curled her lips and said faintly, “My revenge has already been taken.”
Shen Maomao: “!!!”
If we’re talking about who died in the Shao Manor recently… it could only be that Old Master Shao… could it be that this female ghost-jiejie did it?
Lou Jingmo spoke again, “But the Shao Manor hasn’t changed at all because of this. Old Master Shao is dead, but the property they obtained through improper channels is still retained, and it’s very likely that it will be passed down from generation to generation. At that time, perhaps more innocent women like you will tragically suffer a cruel fate…”
The female ghost raised her eyebrows in surprise, “You already know everything, so why are you still asking me?”
Lou Jingmo smiled, “It’s just speculation. I still need your verification.”
It’s no wonder Lou Jingmo wouldn’t let me investigate clues on my own, Shen Maomao thought. If I had come by myself, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to persuade the female ghost with these logical and clear speculations. I probably would have only been able to do something as embarrassing as hugging the female ghost’s thigh while crying and saying, “Female ghost-jiejie, please tell me.”
The female ghost gave her a deep look and compromised, “I was in my sleep when I was personally smothered unconscious by Shao Xuanmo6 and then thrown into the well.”
Her name was Ying Meng. When she was young, she was a famous opera singer who was all the rage in Jiangnan7 for a time.
In an era where all pursuits are lowly, only scholarship is noble8, no matter how famous an actor was, in people’s eyes, they were merely an entertainer, a plaything, not fit for high society. Among the many guests, only Old Master Shao, whose family fortune was far from its current vastness, treated her with sincerity. He even said he was willing to marry her and bring her home as a concubine. How could she not be moved?
Unfortunately, looking back now, it was likely that when he married her, there was little sincerity and much premeditation.
The Shao Manor was a strange, large family. The mistress of the house not only didn’t make things difficult for her, but instead sincerely took care of her and treated her with generosity. When she looked at her, her eyes would always uncontrollably reveal a trace of pity, as if sympathizing with her tragic past…
She thought she had found a place and support for the rest of her life, but she didn’t know she had stepped into a tiger’s den and a dragon’s pool9.
After she gave birth to her son, her whole world changed.
First, her newborn son was taken away without her knowledge, and then she was driven to live in the most remote courtyard…
The sweet words and honeyed phrases of the past seemed like passing clouds and smoke10; the past oaths as eternal as mountains and seas11 also seemed to vanish in an instant. She was confined just like that, without any clear reason, washing her face with tears12 all day. No matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t figure out what she had done wrong.
Until one day, Old Master Shao, who hadn’t appeared for a long time, showed up before her again. For several days in a row, he took her to go to the clouds and rain13 and even repented his faults to her, saying that Madam Shao had forced him to do everything. He said he was willing to divorce Madam Shao and elevate her to the position of the main wife14.
She was immersed in the sweet future Old Master Shao painted, almost forgetting the days in the small courtyard when she was in a desperate situation with no one to help15… Then, at her most relaxed moment, Old Master Shao personally used a quilt to smother her unconscious, and then ordered his men to throw her into the well in the courtyard.
Shen Maomao had a sudden realization, “So the Eldest Young Master is actually your son?!”
Ying Meng was a bit dazed.
More than twenty years seemed to have passed in the blink of an eye. She had long forgotten what her own child looked like.
After her death, she was muddle-headed for a long time. When she became clear-headed again, her heart was filled with hatred. For a long time, she didn’t think about the child she had given birth to, nor did she make a special effort to see him.
It seemed the only reason she was brought into the Shao family was to give birth to a child. Once the child was born, she was useless and could be discarded at will. After all, for an orphan like her with no parents, even if she went missing, not too many people would notice…
Later, when she recalled the events of her life, she always felt that Old Master Shao taking a fancy to her had been premeditated long ago.
“That child…” After a long while, she finally gathered the courage to ask, “How is he now?”
“You don’t even go to see him?” After asking casually, Shen Maomao answered truthfully, “From what I’ve learned these past few days, he seems to have been raised to be a profligate young master16 who has to flirt with any pretty girl he sees. Also… tonight’s ghost marriage seems to be held for him.”
Ying Meng’s hands trembled slightly. “It wasn’t enough for them to kill me… they also want to harm my son…”
A surge of killing intent condensed in her chest, difficult to disperse for a long time.
These twenty-odd years of living in the well, the separation from her own flesh and blood17, the betrayal by the person she loved most—one by one, not a single one of these things failed to deepen her hatred. Now, recalling the pity she saw on Madam Shao’s face when she first entered the household, she feared it was because she had long known what her fate would be.
She couldn’t understand what she had done wrong to be treated this way by the Shao family. Was it because she was the lowliest of actors, and an actor’s life was worthless?
Tears of blood flowed from her eyes. The clothes on her body and the black hair on her head seemed to come to life, baring fangs and brandishing claws as they spread out in all directions.
“Wah…”
“Wah…”
From somewhere, the shrill cries of a baby suddenly rang out. As a conditioned reflex, Shen Maomao looked at the little girl on the bed, but her eyes were tightly shut, and she seemed to be sleeping soundly; it was impossible for her to be making the sound. Besides, she was already four or five years old, whereas the child crying didn’t even have much strength, sounding as if it had just been born.
“Wah…”
The baby was still crying loudly. She followed the sound and finally found its source——right on Ying Meng’s head.
Shen Maomao thought of the face on the back of her head that Lou Jingmo had mentioned, and her scalp instantly tingled. She grabbed Lou Jingmo’s sleeve and asked anxiously, “Th-th-this, is she going crazy?! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do?!”
“Shut up, you.” After rolling her eyes at the flustered Shen Maomao, Lou Jingmo fiercely slapped the table and said in a stern voice, “What do you want to do?! Go out on a killing spree18?! Besides you, there are many different kinds of ghosts and monsters living in this manor. Are you sure you can defeat all the ghosts and rescue your son?”
Ying Meng was stunned for a moment. “There are… more?”
Shen Maomao nodded hurriedly. “The Shao family has eight wells, distributed exactly in eight directions. Except for the well at the entrance, which is empty, all the other wells have people like you living in them… or rather, ghosts.”
Lou Jingmo added, “Your son should be fine. Although the wife he is marrying is a ghost, it should be in preparation for filling the eighth well.”
The baby’s cries stopped, and Ying Meng’s flying hair and clothes became docile again. She turned her head to look at the little girl sleeping on the bed and said softly, “So… is her mother the same as me?”
Following her narration, Shen Maomao finally learned that when Ying Meng was thrown into the well, she was actually already pregnant with Old Master Shao’s child, who was the original Second Miss Shao the little girl had spoken of.
This child was never born, but because of the resentment and hatred from not being born, she became an even more terrifying Sha19, and was now attached to the back of her head.
And the little girl lying on the bed had been suddenly thrown into this courtyard one day.
Ever since she died here, no one had ever set foot in this courtyard again. But one day, this scrawny little girl barged in and even saw her in her ghostly state.
Although the girl was a young miss, her living conditions were not even as good as the servants’ in the manor. She was as thin as a monkey, which stirred the motherly love in her heart that had nowhere to go.
Later, she found out the girl’s identity and had thought she was the daughter of Old Master Shao and Madam Shao. She had once wanted to drag her into the well to drown her, but in the end, she gave up.
Until one day, she saw Old Master Shao again. The old man, no longer young and handsome, was pressing down on his own daughter’s thin and weak body, wanting to stuff her into the well too…
The author has something to say:
Why do you all think Maomao is hitting on girls ah hahaha, it’s clearly because she doesn’t know what to ask so she can only act cool and say how much you know is how much I need to know ah hahaha
Also, Luan Luan is one thing, but now there’s a Mang Mang, what’s up ah, why so many nicknames hahaha20
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