Ashes And DustCh9 - The Second Taboo

Warning: mention of gore/blood


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The little guest hesitated, but in the end he ran after them. He caught up to the three just as Tian Xihua was trying to soothe the still dizzy He Jin, ‘Hey, it’s alright. We’ll get you some water in a moment.’

‘Are you going to my house?’ The boy couldn’t help asking.

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Zhai Xiaoyi replied to him nonchalantly, ‘If that abandoned house is yours.’

‘What are you saying! There are only two houses nearby. Mine isn’t abandoned at all!’ anqMGi

Zhai Xiaoyi just shrugged and they soon arrived in front of the house. It seemed that the boy was right, as the house looked nothing like it did the day before.

The buildings looked like they had just been cleaned, and one look could make it obvious that the garden was taken care of on a daily basis.

This was of course, to be expected.

After all, everything around them changed during the night, it wasn’t much of a surprise that this house did too.

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They helped He Jin to the well, and brought up water for him to drink. After having somewhat calmed down on the way over, he accepted the water and went to wash his face. Watching him obviously feeling better, Tian Xihua sighed.

He turned to the little boy. ‘We know something big happened last night. Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone. You can tell us if you want to.’

The boy had already been appeased by Zhao Qi, which was why Tian Xihua was confident enough to be so straightforward with him.

Now the boy spoke reluctantly, ‘I, I don’t know what really happened. I went to sleep early last night.. At first, everything was as usual, but then I heard something strange and woke up in the middle of the night.’ NlfBwW

‘I was still half-asleep and I thought I had only imagined it, so at first I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t. And the noise just got louder, it was really too unbearable so I looked outside to see.’

‘What was the sound like? Footsteps, or fighting? Did you see anything?’ Tian Xihua asked.

‘It.. I didn’t see well. It sounded like something was being dragged on the floor in front of my door, and there was only the moonlight outside. I waited for some time, and when there hadn’t been any noise from outside for some time, I went to check.’ The boy frowned at the memories.

‘I went to my dad’s study first, because that was where the sound came from. I went in, and..’ He struggled to say it, but he had to. ‘He was sitting on the chair, but he didn’t look like he was awake. Then there was another noise that grew louder as I went in, and I realised. I saw him being.. eaten. The lighting was very dim and I only saw the outlines, but the noises couldn’t be concealed.’ jErbqm

‘My mother was also there, but that thing didn’t touch her. She was lying on the ground. She didn’t move at all, and then the chewing sounds stopped and…’

‘That thing looked up, and the moonlight shone on her face.. It was a woman.’

‘There aren’t many families that live around here, and I’ve never seen her before. She opened her mouth, and smiled at me. All of her teeth were so sharp, and there was blood around her mouth. I, I screamed and ran until I saw gates in front of me, and then..’

‘I thought I dreamt the entire thing and that I’d wake up at home in the morning, but instead I woke up in your room.’ jCuOsZ

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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He called Tian Xihua over to a distance where the boy couldn’t hear them talk and asked, ‘Should we have a look inside?’

He looked towards the main gates that were open just like the day before. aVJ47R

‘With him here? I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ Tian Xihua adapted to the situation quickly. ‘Send him back to the others with He Jin, and then we can go in.’

‘What can we send them back with? There is no good reason. Zhao Qi probably took He Jin’s place and.. Do you want to make them work in our stead?’

Tian Xihua nodded without any guilt in his expression. ‘They will work and we’ll work too. Isn’t that just fine?’

The boy and He Jin agreed reluctantly to go back. The little guest didn’t understand what they wanted to do, and He Jin simply didn’t care. His mental state was somewhat stable at the moment, and he felt that was more than enough to know. UdARWP

The house on the inside looked nothing like what they saw before. Some items they had looked through were still there, but everything looked much newer.

There was only one body in the study. It was the corpse of a young woman in her thirties in exquisite clothes and make up. The skin that was visible was dotted with purple spots, and the part that wasn’t was a waxen yellow. The woman didn’t look like she had died only the day before.

Moreover, there was no blood around her. Her limbs seemed to have been deliberately arranged to look like she was sleeping, but because she wasn’t alive, the pose looked extremely unnatural.

This was Zhai Xiaoyi’s first time seeing a dead body. He had dealt with countless ghosts before, but most of those looked like people. When he looked at the woman though, although she was very obviously someone who had been alive and a human not long ago, he couldn’t see anything but a pile of rotting flesh. 1Ek4Zd

The more he didn’t want to, the more he stared. He felt nauseous and instinctively wanted to cover his mouth and nose even though nothing could be smelled in the room, other than strong perfume.

‘Don’t look at it anymore.’ Tian Xihua’s voice came from the side as he pulled down a drapery from the window and covered the body with it. This window’s placement was just right, it was perfect for scaring a certain little boy when the moonlight shone in.

It had been a blood moon the night before too. It wasn’t hard to imagine how frightening the scene in the study must have been.

Zhai Xiaoyi thanked him before walking over to the desk in the middle of the room. It was true that there wasn’t a body, but the blood still couldn’t completely disappear, he thought. kXKSWH

He was right. Even though not even a tiny lump of meat could be found on the chair, the cushion was thoroughly soaked in dried blood.

It reminded him of what they had found on Jin Huai’s bed that morning. Nothing but what was uncleanable was left. He asked Tian Xihua, ‘He said the sound he heard was something being dragged on the floor. Could it have been the corpse being brought to this room?’

Tian Xihua thought for a moment. He didn’t like horror movies or games, but he had seen corpses before, even if only on accident. He wasn’t accustomed to this type of murder mystery though.

‘Maybe. Maybe it was to frighten the man. But why would she not eat her in front of him then, and choose him instead?’ HPp5K4

‘Maybe she wanted to scare him into doing something. It could have been to blackmail him. But he didn’t talk and the both of them ended up dead instead. What could have been more important than his own life though?’ Zhai Xiaoyi was merely speculating. He felt somewhat calmer now that he couldn’t see the body.

‘You saw the corpse too. Did it look like she only died yesterday? I think she’s been dead for some time now.’ He scratched his chin. He didn’t want anything to do with this kind of death, but it seemed that he had no choice. If the dead body was an important clue, all he could do was suck it up and investigate the room as thoroughly as he could.

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‘It doesn’t have the smell though. I’m not sure. Maybe it just looks old?’ Tian Xihua frowned as he crouched down next to the body, lifting the drapery so that he could see the woman underneath.

Zhai Xioayi turned away from his direction, looking through the papers on the desk instead. The documents that they saw before were there, but they were mixed in with new ones. There was a big book under some documents that hadn’t been there the day before. 7Az yN

If it was missing, that meant that someone needed it in the period of time between the deaths and their arrival, and didn’t bother putting it back. Or maybe they realised that they had left behind a crucial piece of evidence, and decided to take care of it.

But now, it was yet to be taken. Zhai Xiaoyi opened the book that had the typical scent of old books, only to see that it was filled with numbers. This book was where the family had kept their financial records.

At the same time, in the field.

The boys worked hard, and soon only a little was left until they would be done. A96EwU

Zhao Qi looked up as he rested for a moment, shielding his eyes from the sunlight. He saw two figures approaching on the wide road.

One of them was a tall, sickly looking man and the other a shorter one with a big belly. The short man had a long beard and spoke to the sickly looking one with a serious tone. They were obviously walking towards the working boys.

Zhao Qi wanted to say something to Shi Mingdu who was crouching nearby, but the other stood up the moment he saw the strangers.

Shi Mingdu had a bad feeling. He had always trusted his intuition and it barely brought trouble on him before, so his expression changed for the worse as the two men approached the group. 0aMUBX

It wasn’t that he wasn’t right about the strangers bringing trouble, but that he hadn’t expected the greatness of said trouble.

‘You boys have been here all morning?’ The fat man asked. He didn’t wait for an answer, as if he truly did not care for anything they could say. ‘I’m a detective. Two people have disappeared in the past two days from the area. I have reasons to believe that you all have to do with those disappearances.’

The boys were dumbfounded. Green frowned, and was about to talk when Shi Mingdu stopped him.

‘Do you have evidence?’ Such a short sentence was enough to make the man choke on his words, even if only for a moment. iXqRHm

‘That doesn’t concern you. Of course I have evidence. And I know which one of you is the culprit!’ He closed his eyes quickly before blindly pointing at Cui Shenyu, ‘You are the murderer!’

Cui Shenyu, ‘….’

Cui Shenyu, ‘!!!!’

‘Me? Why me?’ He sounded panicked. Before the man could reply, Shi Mingdu patted him on the back soothingly. utiJVI

‘Don’t worry, he can’t do anything to you without any actual evidence.’ He said this while deliberately raising his voice to make sure the man heard him.

‘Hnph. I have all the evidence I need. Tell me, where did you hide the bodies?’

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This was the moment when He Jin and the little boy got back, even though a bit late.

‘What’s the situation?’ He Jin was stunned. He could hear the last couple of sentences even from far away. He turned to Shi Mingdu, not really caring about the men at all. ‘The others said they still had something to do but we came back to help. How many potatoes are left?’ mLdMc6

Shi Mingdu smiled. He thought that the best way to anger the strangers would be simply not acknowledging them anymore, so that was exactly what he did. ‘A bit more than half a basket. We’ll be done in about a quarter of an hour. This one, don’t pay attention to him. He’s just speaking nonsense.’

The fat man didn’t know how to refute him. He had never met such a disrespectful player before! He should have been scared out of his wits when he accused someone, yet he didn’t even stutter when he rebutted him.

He hmphed a couple of times, and spoke to the man next to himself, ‘The one I said is the murderer, I am quite sure. You, let’s go back so we can talk about the payment. If anyone else disappears, make sure to arrest him properly!’

The tall man hadn’t said a word this entire time. His expression was gloomy, and he nodded slowly before turning to walk away. The fat man hurried after him as he kept talking. AKtjnO

As the group watched them depart, He Jin spoke to Shi Mingdu, ‘What was he talking about? Jin Huai’s death?’

Shi Mingdu bit at the inside of his mouth as he thought. ‘Probably. He said there were two disappearances recently. If one of them is Jin Huai, who is the other one?’

He looked around, his gaze landing on the little guest. The smile still hadn’t disappeared from his face, and looking like this, he seemed like an extremely lovable child.

The little boy opened his eyes wider as if to signal that he absolutely did not know anything. Shi Mingdu’s smile grew wider, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he waved for them to get back to work. D60Mlk

‘We’ll be done soon. Let’s get back and talk there.’

The boys agreed, and in less than half an hour they really managed to finish everything.

‘They can only hope for rain. The ground is still a bit damp because of last night’s weather, so I think it should be fine if we don’t go out of our way to water it.’ Cui Shenyu had already regained his composure after the shock.

As they walked back, he turned to Shi Mingdu. ‘Do I have to worry about the accusation? Is it like another taboo? Or was it only to make us more stressed?’ ShgIYT

‘I’m not sure. If as the second to have stepped into the house, you get accused, it might be because you managed to call the NPCs’ wrath on yourself. Do you remember if you were the second one?’ Shi Mingdu didn’t expect him to remember, but unexpectedly Chu Anzhi spoke.

‘He wasn’t. The second to go in was the seer kid. He only went in after him.’

‘Then it shouldn’t be the case. Maybe you’re just unlucky.’ Shi Mingdu couldn’t tell him anything else so he just shrugged. ‘We won’t sleep tonight, maybe that way we’ll manage to see something. If you did bring ill will on yourself, maybe you’ll get attacked and we can see the murderer.’

Cui Shenyu gulped. He didn’t want to be the bait for the ghost, but if he didn’t do it, the others might not be able to survive either. It wasn’t like he had a choice regarding getting murdered or not if the ghost wanted to kill him anyway. kGlh3O

They arrived at the house before noon. Zhai Xiaoyi stood at the gates waiting for them, and Tian Xihua was nowhere to be seen.

Under his arm, he had a bunch of sheets of paper folded up neatly. He narrowed his eyes with a slight smile as he looked at the approaching group.

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He asked them as if he was just making casual conversation, ‘Are you guys hungry? How about we help with the cooking so we can eat earlier?’

Shi Mingdu understood his intentions right away. The other must have found something important! He looked around, gaze finally locking on the little guest as he said, ‘That’s a good idea. She’s been so good to us all this time, it is time we repay it. You, you can’t cook, right? You’re a guest, it is best if you just rest even if you can. We’ll make sure to call you over when we’re ready.’ maB9kM

The little boy nodded, not finding anything strange with the situation. He walked towards the study curiously, while the group went into the dining room, harboring no intentions to actually look for the kitchen.


The author has something to say:

The ghost woman: It is the day after the full moon, ah. The best time for planting potatoes!

On another note, while editing this chapter I found a bunch of grammatical errors, which there usually are’n this many of. In case I missed some please be so dear and let me know! gBRdzI

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