Unparalleled Duo

If this incident were to calm down, another year or maybe two, Zeng Su may have just made it through… By that time, he would have grown accustomed to the mentality of carrying the burden of human lives, but now, he clearly wasn't up to the task.

So, in his dreams, everything returned to the beginning…

That day, the second lady of the Zeng family suddenly summoned him to her room, weeping and asking him when he would finally take her away to a distant place.

Zeng Su was at a loss for words.

The second lady of the Zeng family was thirty-two years old this year, while Mr. Zeng was sixty; the so-called "a blooming pear tree over a crabapple tree." In such wealthy households, it was not uncommon for an old man to have a young wife.

In fact, Zeng Su wasn't young either, already forty-three this year, but compared to Mr. Zeng, he could still be considered strong and energetic.

He and the second lady had kept their affair well concealed. Aside from themselves, only the second lady's personal maidservant was aware of it; initially, she was coerced and bribed into covering for them, but as time passed, she became an accomplice, bound by the same fate. After all, once things had progressed to a certain point, should their affair be exposed, both the adulterer and the adulteress were destined for the pig cage, and the maidservant would surely be beaten to death by the master.

If they had kept their heads down, they might have kept living this way. After a few years, if Mr. Zeng died, they might even become bolder.

Yet the second lady was young and unwilling to resign herself to such a life… She had aspirations and did not want to continue their secret liaisons; she wanted to take a haul of the Zeng family's valuables and run away with Zeng Su.

Zeng Su, on the other hand, wasn't without the courage—it was the brains he lacked—or rather, not such a foolish brain.

What was he thinking? The Zeng family, was that just any ordinary family? Run away with the master's second wife? Could you really escape? Unless you could flee beyond the borders of Great Ming, you were certain to be caught.

Faced with the second lady's repeated crying and intimidation, Zeng Su knew that this matter was growing increasingly difficult to settle, so he decided… to run away himself.

He had already planned it out. He would leave a letter for Mr. Zeng, admitting his guilt for being greedy, confessing that he had stolen a hundred taels of silver from the chest. Unable to face Mr. Zeng, he could only leave this letter and flee, begging his master to remember their years of association and not report him to the authorities, allowing him to leave.

Zeng Su had calculated precisely; the amount of money was neither too much nor too little. It wasn't so much that Mr. Zeng wouldn't be able to let go, nor was it so little that his escape would seem insincere.

Once he took this silver and fled far away, he wouldn't worry about making a living in the future, and the second lady could only give up her hopes. If that woman truly continued to cause trouble, she would just be courting death, and it would no longer concern Zeng Su.

He had already prepared to put this plan into action when, unexpectedly… the day before he was set to flee, he encountered someone.

It was a woman.

A "faceless" woman.

Each time she appeared before Zeng Su, she would have a different face.

Sometimes she was a graceful and charming young matron, sometimes a hunchbacked old crone, and at other times she would turn into a beautiful young girl.

That day, this woman approached Zeng Su proactively; she knew martial arts and was very persuasive.

She knew everything about Zeng Su, including his affair with the second lady and his plan to escape alone.

She told Zeng Su that she had a way to let him continue as the butler at the Zeng Mansion, and to make the second lady "silence forever."

Initially, Zeng Su didn't agree, but he quickly realized the other party wasn't offering him a "choice," but was threatening him…

Between being exposed and sent to the pig cage, and killing the second lady and continuing as the butler at the Zeng Mansion, Zeng Su didn't struggle for long.

He followed the woman's instructions, placing the "glass fish" at a spot frequently visited by He Da and He Er, intentionally letting them discover and pick it up.

He collaborated with the woman to play tricks on spirits, frightening Zhao Daqiang until he fell ill.

He used the medicine the woman provided to lure He Er out at night, knocked him unconscious, took the glass fish from him, and then pushed He Er into the pond.

He poisoned the water Zhao Daqiang drank with the woman's venom, leading to Zhao's death.

Next, the woman disguised herself with He Er's voice, placed the glass fish in He Da's room, again playing ghost to scare He Da; Zeng Su followed closely with house servants to the rescue.

He Da was terrified and spilled everything he knew. Zeng Su used this as evidence to report to Mr. Zeng, linking all the incidents together to confirm the story that "the glass fish was an evil object that had brought ghosts," and pinned the responsibility on the He brothers.

Afterward, He Da left the Zeng Mansion, and, following Mr. Zeng's instructions, Zeng Su led men to bury the glass fish in the wilderness.

But that evening, he quietly doubled back and dug the object up again.

After accomplishing these tasks, finally, it was time to act against the second lady; as long as she was found dead with the glass fish in hand, her death would be attributed to the same nature of the previous "hauntings."

After killing the second lady, Zeng Su narrated the whole "ghost story" in front of the gathered government officials, telling it to Chief Arrest Officer Zhou, thereby letting it spread throughout the alleys and streets.

On the other hand, after leaving the Zeng Mansion, He Da felt something was suspicious; he wasn't interested in the truth but was afraid the evil object would seek him out again. So, he visited the pawnshop once more, hoping to ask the Shopkeeper about the actual situation concerning the glass fish.

But what he didn't know was that the Shopkeeper was also bought by that woman, merely engaging in deceit.

Consequently, He Da's actions led to his own fatal disaster; Zeng Su received instructions from that woman, went to the inn where He Da was staying, and during their conversation, quietly poisoned his tea, effectively silencing him.

Up to this point, Zeng Su had four lives on his hands.

Indeed, he wasn't caught and retained his position as butler of the Zeng Mansion; he wasn't afraid of the so-called "Flying Dragon Sun Honglei" and "Xudong Old Immortal Huang Xiaose," considering them charlatans masquerading as mystics.

But Zeng Su feared ghosts. He feared that there really were ghosts in this world, that those he had killed would come for his life; he also feared the "faceless" woman, because he still didn't know why she had instructed him behind the scenes to do all this.

Sss-scratch—sss-scratch—

The eerie sound awoke Zeng Su from his sleep.

He hesitated in the darkness for a moment, confirming the sound was not an illusion, then quickly got up and lit the oil lamp on the table.

"Ah!" the moment the room was illuminated, Zeng Su cried out in alarm.

Because he saw a glass fish placed on his desk.

Sss-scratch—sss-scratch—

The sound outside the door seemed to remind him that the fish was not the most terrifying thing.

Zeng Su numbly turned his head, following the sound to the window, only to see… a familiar woman's shadow standing there, as if peering in at him through the window.

He recognized it; that was the second lady's shadow…

Actually, even if Sun Yixie and Huang Xiaose hadn't moved the second lady's corpse over today, just having any woman stand there would, in this atmosphere, lead Zeng Su to conjure up the second lady in his mind.

"Namo Amitabha, Namo Amitabha…" Overcome with extreme fear, Zeng Su retreated to the corner farthest from the door and windows, closed his eyes, brought his hands together, and began to recite the only Buddhist scripture he knew, praying that the ghostly spirit would be dispelled.

He was overthinking it…

Seconds later, he heard a "creak—" sound.

His room door was opened a crack.

Butlers, like other servants, were not allowed to lock their doors, which could be opened from the outside with a push…

In fact, Sun Yixie had quietly entered just a moment before to place the glass fish; it's just that Zeng Su was still asleep then and didn't know.

"Namo Amitabha! Namo Amitabha…" As the door opened slightly, Zeng Su's chanting grew faster and more frantic, but this time his eyes didn't close again; he was afraid that he wouldn't see whatever terrifying danger was approaching if he did.

Unexpectedly, after the door opened a crack, it suddenly became quiet outside, and the woman's shadow also disappeared, as if everything that had happened was merely an illusion…

If not for the glass fish on the table, Zeng Su might have really started to wonder if it was just the wind.

Just when Zeng Su's heart was slightly relaxing, suddenly! The second lady's head dangled sloppily through the gap at the doorway, her lifeless eyes fixed straight on Zeng Su.