A Clash of Gods - Chapter 88

Chapter 88 The Long Vertical Flute
As they agreed, Qi Feng led five guards to the old house of the Qi family at dusk. There were many rooms in the house, so their accommodation was no problem at all.

Yang Ning had planned to tell Qi Feng to go to Jingzhou City and find the governor of Jiangling, inquiring about the escort of the tax silver in the name of the heir of the Marquis of Honor, to check if Jingzhou City really sent soldiers to protect the silver, but it was getting dark, so he told Qi Feng to set out next morning.

Although Qi Feng arrived on time, Qi Cheng didn’t return on schedule.

Gu Qinghan stayed in the accountant’s office till dusk and was exhausted. She checked the tax in recent three years carefully but didn’t find anything wrong.

Gu Qinghan was clear that so many accounts were finished in detail, which couldn’t be completed in two or three months. Otherwise it couldn’t have nothing amiss. If these accounts were false, it meant that since three years ago, the people in the old house had two accounts, with one true and one false.

She had thought that Jiangling was the backyard of the Qi family, its foundation, and the old house was the most important, so there wouldn’t be anything wrong, but this time she found that the old house was much more complicated than she imagined.

If all these accounts were true, then the tax silver must have been sent to the capital one month ago, but why didn’t the people in the marquis’ mansion see any silver? The silver sent to the capital couldn’t have wings and have flown away. She wanted to ask where the silver had been sent to, but Qi Cheng was nowhere to be seen, while Cui who was in charge of sending the silver followed Qi Cheng to Jingzhou City. She couldn’t see them, so she was unable to trace it to its source.

These days they were on the way every day and night, and she didn’t sleep well last night. After working for a whole day, she was weary today. And Yang Ning pushed her, so she went back to the room first. There were maids in the old house who served her when she had a bath, and Qi Feng brought their luggage here, so she had clothes to change into.

While Yang Ning wasn’t anxious to have a rest. He had many doubts about what happened in the old house and wanted to see how Qi Cheng would explain after he came back.

He waited till midnight but didn’t see Qi Cheng back. Then he felt that it was not simple.

It was quiet at night, and the moon in autumn was like water. Yang Ning walked in the courtyard of the old house at leisure, and unconsciously or subconsciously, when he raised his head and had a look, he found that he had come to a path near the courtyard with a ghost. He looked up at it. Under the moonlight, that courtyard was deadly silent and appeared frightful.

Yang Ning thought it was not a good place, so he turned around and walked for a while. Then he stopped and looked back again.

Wei Dong had said that there was a ghost in the courtyard, and Yang Ning certainly didn’t believe it, but he felt it strange. Two people entered that courtyard and died for no reason at last. Were they really scared to death by the ghost?

He was always curious. If Wei Dong and Gu Qinghan didn’t describe the courtyard as so mysterious, he might not care, but both of them said that courtyard was weird and he couldn’t get close to it, so he was curious about it.

He was fearless. Although he was frightened while looking at that creepy courtyard, he still felt since the old marquis forbade anybody to enter that courtyard, there must be some secrets in it.

Wei Dong mentioned that before the two people died, they seemed to jump over the wall and enter the courtyard after the sounds of the vertical flute appeared. If it was the ghost who played vertical flute and there was no sound now, would it mean that the ghost was not in the courtyard?

While thinking, he turned around and slowly approached that courtyard.

The leaves were shriveled in autumn and the tree shades were dense. The withered vines twining on the wall were like thousands of poisonous snakes. Yang Ning walked to the door and glanced at it under the moonlight. Then he was all ears and listened. It was silent in the courtyard without any sound.

The wall around the courtyard was not tall, and it was easy for Yang Ning to jump over it. After a moment’s hesitation, he walked to the wall and looked around. After confirming that there was nobody, he grabbed the withered vines and climbed the wall with no effort. He squatted on the wall and looked down, only to see that the courtyard was not big, and a single house was in the middle. The courtyard was full of vines.

Under the cold moon, the house looked terrifying and stood in the middle of the courtyard. A gust of wind blew, and Yang Ning felt a chill down his spine.

He hesitated for a while but gritted his teeth at last. Then he pulled out the Cold Blade and grabbed it in his hand. Afterward, he jumped down from the wall and fell on the ground in the courtyard.

He slowly moved closer to the house and found many parts of it had collapsed, but the door was half-open and had become putrid because it was in disrepair.

He had the Cold Blade in his right hand and gently pushed the door open with his left hand, with a creak which sounded scary. After he opened the door, a musty smell inside intruded his nose and it was unpleasant. He raised his hand and fanned his nose. Then he entered the house. There were three rooms with one on the left and one on the right, and the one in the middle was a spacious living room.

The furniture in the living room was simple. A table was in the middle with two chairs next to it. There was a screen frame in the corner, but the screen was decayed, and only the frame stood there. Maybe the material of the table and chairs was high-quality, and they were not rotted, but there was a cloud of dust on them.

Yang Ning looked around and quietly walked to the room on the left. The room door was closed but not locked. He pushed it gently and it was opened soon.

The moonlight came in through the window. Although it was dark in the room at night, with the dim light, he could clearly see a small table by the wall facing the door. There was something on the table seemingly. He entered the room and had a look inside, to see a bed in the corner. There was no quilt on it, but the bed was complete, not decayed.

Yang Ning was surprised.

As Wei Dong told him, this courtyard had been locked decades ago and nobody entered it since then. If what he said was true, the furniture in the house couldn’t be complete after so many years. Even if the furniture was made of solid wood, he hadn’t seen any spider net after he came in.

He was clear that there must be spider nets everywhere in the house even if nobody lived inside for several years, not to mention decades. However, no matter in the living room or this room, there was no spider net, which was abnormal.

Then he remembered that he touched the table in the outer room, and there was a cloud of dust on it indeed. However, according to his experience, if nobody cleaned the room for decades, the dust on the table must be thick, but he just felt a little dust earlier. He estimated that it hadn’t been cleaned for only several months.

Was there really a ghost in the house? And the ghost could clean the rooms?

Or did Wei Dong tell a lie? Somebody came into this courtyard occasionally to wipe away the dust?

The furniture was simple. Yang Ning took a few steps forward and moved closer to the table facing the door. Then he finally found it was a dressing table. He immediately remembered that Gu Qinghan told him that a woman died in this courtyard. Seeing the dressing table, he knew that it must be the woman she mentioned who lived in this house in the past.

He couldn’t help but think of a female ghost with long hair covering her face. With a shiver down his spine, he looked around and took a deep breath. He checked carefully and found a dressing box on the table. The box was closed but not locked. He grasped the Cold Blade in his right hand and reached out his left hand, opening the dressing box.

The dressing box was not empty but there were rouge and face powder as well as a pair of earrings and a bracelet in it. The earrings and bracelet were exquisite but made of copper, not expensive. Yang Ning thought that the Qi family was an aristocratic family in Jiangling and this woman lived in a single courtyard, so she was certainly not an ordinary maid but was in a high position in the family. Logically, even if she didn’t have a gold bracelet, she must have one made of silver at least, but there was only a copper bracelet in the dressing box, which was not fit for the prestige of the Qi family.

The rouge and face powder were already dry and congealed, and there was nothing else.

Yang Ning gently covered the dressing box and found a drawer in the middle of the dressing table. He opened it and there were merely two things in it, one portable copper mirror and a long and thin thing covered with black silk fabric. At the moment, he didn’t want to touch that copper mirror. If he looked into the mirror in such a creepy room, he might see something dirty in it.

He picked up the stuff covered with silk fabric. Since it was packed carefully, it must be valuable. He opened the silk fabric and the stuff in it was revealed.

Surprise was shown on Yang Ning’s face in an instant.

A vertical flute.

It was a long vertical flute that was covered with black silk fabric.

Yang Ning instantly thought that Wei Dong said there were sounds of the vertical flute from this courtyard every year. Was this flute the source?

This long vertical flute was beautifully made. Although it looked old, it was spotlessly clean.

“It’s a person…” Yang Ning mumbled. He seemed to realize something. In his opinion, they said that there was a ghost because somebody died in this courtyard in the past and then nobody was allowed to enter. After a long time, nobody was around, so it looked deserted and frightful. Once something was mysterious, it would make people imagine.

He believed that the one who played vertical flute must not be a ghost. It could be that somebody came here every year, playing vertical flute and even cleaning the house.

There were sounds of the vertical flute now and then from a courtyard where nobody lived throughout the year, so it was no wonder that somebody would think that there was a ghost.

He believed that the two people who jumped over the wall and entered the courtyard had been killed by the person who played the vertical flute. After all, when they sneaked in, there were sounds of the vertical flute. At that time, the player happened to be here and the two ran into him, so they had been killed miserably.

Yang Ning frowned. If he guessed right, and the one showed up in this house was not a ghost but a person, who would come to this courtyard, clean the house, play vertical flute for several nights successively every year for decades and even kill the people who broke in?

What did he have to do with the Qi family?