The Night Watcher of Great Jing - Chapter 34

[New Quest: Hide-and-Seek]

[Quest Description: Ding-dong—he’s finished hiding! Will he find you first, or will you find him?]

[Note: Perhaps the key to solving the problem lies in the game?]

Zhao Li had no time to study the system’s new quest notification. She strode forward and drew her saber a few inches from its sheath, then lightly ran her middle finger across its edge. Several bright-red beads of blood immediately welled up.

She raised her hand and pressed that finger to the man’s brow.

The man convulsed as if struck by lightning. A crimson fingerprint appeared between his brows, and he rolled his eyes back before crumpling to the ground.

“When was he born?” Zhao Li put her finger in her mouth and sucked at the cut. “Was it in the fourth lunar month?”

“I think so.” The men looked at one another, none entirely certain.

“All right! Anyone born in the fourth lunar month, anyone recently injured or weakened by a loss of qi and blood, and anyone who had intercourse yesterday and expended his yang—leave Xingping Ward immediately.”

As soon as Zhao Li gave the order, Hundred-Household Commander Ma, Lu Zhao, and Lu Jianxing scattered to pass the word.

Several men carried the unconscious Jingning Guard agent away in a flurry of hands.

Shen Yan took a handkerchief from inside his robe and offered it to Zhao Li.

“Lord Shen, you should leave first.”

Zhao Li accepted the handkerchief, wound it around her fingertip, and pressed it over the cut.

She did not explicitly say that this place was dangerous, but her meaning could not have been clearer.

“I was born in the twelfth lunar month, and I have not been injured.”

Nor had he expended his yang through intercourse.

Shen Yan left that second sentence unspoken. He merely stood in silence beside Zhao Li, with no intention of leaving.

But you’re the one in charge!

Zhao Li was still wondering how to drive him away from this dangerous place when a stiff figure walked toward them from the distance.

“Almost found you. Almost found you,” the man muttered as he advanced.

He crossed the threshold of the Zhang family’s abandoned residence, and his figure gradually faded as though someone were erasing him. Then, all at once, he vanished.

Zhao Li’s expression hardened. She grabbed Shen Yan. “Back.”

There was no need for her warning. After a moment’s surprise, Shen Yan caught her hand and rapidly pulled her backward.

Whoosh—

A bone-piercing wind swept past.

Zhao Li and Shen Yan halted.

The scene before them changed.

A blood-red sun was about to sink below the horizon, bathing the entire world in a golden crimson light.

Still holding hands, the two stood before the Zhang family’s old residence.

But the old house had changed.

The decayed front gate that had lain crooked on the ground was whole again, standing slightly ajar. As if time had flowed backward, every trace of fire had vanished from the once-ruined residence.

“A ghost domain,” Zhao Li murmured.

“What?” Shen Yan tightened his hand around hers, not understanding at first.

“Some supernatural anomalies form an isolated domain in space and time around themselves. Within it, a certain period of the past repeats endlessly until its rules are broken—or the anomaly disappears.”

Zhao Li pulled her hand from Shen Yan’s grasp. “It seems we’ll have to venture inside, Lord Shen.”

Beneath his sleeve, Shen Yan’s fingers rubbed lightly against each other twice. He said evenly, “I will naturally accompany you.”

“Hee-hee.”

A child giggled inside.

The courtyard gate slowly swung open.

Four children had gathered together. One crouched on the ground with his eyes covered while the other three held hands and circled him.

“Are you all hidden?” the child covering his eyes asked.

The other three scattered with giggles. One, wearing a little bib, ran toward the rear courtyard.

Another child paused as he passed Zhao Li and Shen Yan, then tipped his head back.

Someone had gouged out his eyes, leaving two horrifying black holes behind.

“Big brother, big sister, hurry and hide! If he catches you, you’ll have to be the ghost!”

Shen Yan’s entire body tensed. He drew his saber and extended an arm to shield Zhao Li behind him.

The setting sun cast its light across the child’s deathly pale face, and the empty sockets were enough to make anyone’s scalp prickle.

Having delivered his warning, the child skipped away. The topknot standing upright on his head bobbed with every step.

“Should we hide?” Shen Yan asked. As he spoke, he removed the saber with the black sheath from his waist and handed it to Zhao Li.

When she looked at him in confusion, he explained, “I heard that a killing blade is needed to deal with supernatural anomalies, so I asked His Majesty to retrieve this saber from the imperial treasury. It once belonged to a Northern Border General of the previous dynasty.”

He simply had not found a chance to give it to her.

“This blade accompanied that general through half a lifetime of war. Try it and see whether it suits you,” Shen Yan said.

Zhao Li was sorely tempted. She was just about to offer a polite refusal when the child covering his eyes called again from the distance.

“Are you all hidden?”

The childish voice drew out the final word, now tinged with impatience.

Zhao Li and Shen Yan exchanged a glance. As if by prior agreement, they both sprinted toward the rear courtyard.

“The kitchen.” Zhao Li led Shen Yan in that direction.

Without the system’s hint, she would have taken him somewhere far more obscure and taught the little ghost just how devious adults could be.

But according to the system, the master of this ghost domain was likely the Zhang family’s child who had burned to death.

Their task was to find the Zhang boy without being found themselves, thereby ending the game.

“I’m coming to find you!”

As the child giggled in the distance, the patter of his footsteps headed straight for Zhao Li and Shen Yan.

Cursing the little ghost for not playing fair, Zhao Li swept her gaze around for somewhere to hide.

Shen Yan caught her hand and pulled her into an open room.

Its furnishings were simple and plain.

Only the wardrobe and the space beneath the bed looked large enough to conceal a person. Zhao Li was not sure how intelligent the seeking ghost might be. While she hesitated, Shen Yan tugged her hand and pointed somewhere else.

…

Dead silence filled the room.

Footsteps thudded along the covered walkway. They passed the door, then seemed to recede into the distance until they could no longer be heard.

Like Shen Yan, Zhao Li covered her nose and mouth to quiet her breathing.

Just as she gradually relaxed, Shen Yan rested a hand lightly on her shoulder.

Zhao Li followed his gesture with her eyes and cursed inwardly.

At some point, the child had returned and hidden behind the door. Half of his bloodless face peeked into the room, his hollow eye sockets staring inside.

After a long wait, the pale face edged farther past the door and turned from side to side.

The ghost child entered.

He stared at the wardrobe and approached with a sinister smile.

One bruised, bluish hand closed around its handle. Just as he was about to pull it open, he abruptly froze.

In a blur, he dashed to the bed and bent at the waist at an impossible angle, shoving his head beneath it.

“Found you!”

He shouted, a dreadful laugh spilling from his mouth.

And yet—

There was nothing beneath the bed but years of accumulated dust.

The grin stretching to the ghost child’s ears went rigid. He slowly straightened, the smile gradually falling from his face.

He cocked his head at the wardrobe, walked over, grasped both handles, and yanked the doors open.

Apart from a few garments, it was empty.

“Why, why, why?”

The enraged little ghost shrieked and tore the clothes into ragged strips.

Riiip. Riiip.

Scraps of cloth soon covered the room. Clenching a strip of blue fabric between his teeth, the ghost child paced several circles before finally leaving in frustration.

Only after a long while did Zhao Li poke her head down from the ceiling beam.

“He’s gone,” she whispered.