Heavenly Official Sends Evil

Chapter 906 The Room is Full of Listeners
The storyteller's tale continues.

After several days of this uproar, public opinion finally calmed down a bit.

That day, Magistrate Meng Longtu, accompanied by his clerk, dragged his weary body back to his residence.

As soon as he stepped through the door and took off his official hat, he sensed something was amiss. In the past, when he arrived here, people would come to greet him warmly, but today there was no one there.

He and his advisor cautiously made their way inside, their hearts growing colder with each step. There was no one at the entrance, no one in the courtyard, no one in the side hall, until they pushed open the door to the main house and finally saw...

hiss!
The storyteller gasped, his voice rising an octave.

On the roof beam, there were more than a dozen white silk ribbons hanging neatly, with the lady, concubines, young masters and young ladies, clerks, stewards, maids and servants all hanging there, their eyes staring straight at him!

Meng Longtu was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground and dared not stand up for a long time.

It was the advisor who helped him up and whispered in his ear, trembling:
"My lord, today is the seventh day after that woman's death!"

Meng Longtu shuddered suddenly. He hadn't expected this vengeful ghost to be so ferocious, even daring to haunt his residence. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly noticed that among the people hanging from the roof beam was none other than his advisor. So, who was his advisor...?

The hand supporting Meng Longtu turned icy cold, and the clerk's voice seamlessly transformed into a woman's mournful tone:

"I'm so wronged!"

The storyteller drew out his voice, trying his best to make the sentence sound eerie. Because his storytelling skills were so high, even though he was naked, the audience was still drawn in.

"Only after that day did Meng Longtu realize that Su Qishi had been wronged. He immediately dispatched officials and constables to search the entire city for the real culprit. The first place they investigated was a brothel!"

"This brothel is no ordinary place. The young masters of the four great families often fight over the girls here, sometimes even getting their heads bruised and bloodied, causing a lot of trouble. Perhaps the massacre of the entire family started because of this."

"Guess what will happen after the constables finish their investigation and leave?"

Wu Xian sat up straight. He realized that some changes had begun to happen because... the storyteller puppet, which had been naked just moments before, was now dressed!

Snapped!
The storyteller struck the gavel again, startling the newlyweds in the audience. The storyteller, his face filled with terror, said:

"All the beautiful women in this building have vanished, leaving only overturned rouge boxes, torn curtains, and broken tables, chairs, doors, and windows—it looks like a ghost building!"

"The second place to be searched was the restaurant. Judging from the fierce and menacing looks of the officials, anyone with eyes could see that this was not a case investigation, but a raid on their property!"

"Manager Wang, who was standing across from the brothel, slapped his thigh and looked terrified. Could these people be looking for those seven treasures?"

The storyteller switched to a narrator's tone.

"You may not know this, but two hundred years ago, Xuanling County suffered a great disaster. Bones were exposed in the wild, no chickens crowed for miles, and packs of wild dogs with human faces ate people. Later, a Taoist priest with a black face and red hair came here to slay demons and leave behind seven magical artifacts to suppress them. Only then was peace restored to the area, and that's how Xuanling County came to be."

"That brothel must have ended up like this because it refused to hand over its treasure. The restaurant will probably suffer the same fate as it." Thinking of this, Manager Wang looked up at the upstairs...

At this point in the story, not only Wu Xian, but even the newcomers realized something was wrong.

One guest after another walked in and sat at the surrounding tables and chairs. They drank tea and listened to stories just like Wu Xian and the others, their expressions full of enjoyment. The number of guests increased so much that the first floor was eventually filled!
The storyteller, too, transformed from a puppet into a flesh-and-blood being.

At the counter of the accounting office, you can see a man wearing a hat, looking uneasy, beating his chest and stamping his feet, as if he has encountered something terrible. He must be the teahouse manager Wang mentioned in the story.

Looking out the window, the sky had inexplicably darkened.

Even the scalding hot tea couldn't warm the people's icy bodies. The storyteller's tale came to an abrupt end, and as he looked at the packed teahouse, he couldn't help but tremble.

The people of Xuanling County are in a state of panic. He has no choice but to come and tell stories in order to make a living, and he will tell stories even if there are only five customers.

But what happened today?

There are so many customers in the teahouse! Even on busy days, there aren't this many people!

In this kind of world, would so many people really come to listen to audiobooks at night?

The storyteller's expression changed drastically, and he stared at the guests, creating an eerie silence in the teahouse.

During this quiet period, the couples and newlyweds gathered together and discussed things in hushed tones.

Wu Xian was the first to speak:
"According to the storyteller's tale, the brothel must have been destroyed by the yamen runners. The people inside were either arrested or all of them were killed. Judging from this tragic scene, the treasures may not have been stolen."

"The restaurant is probably being ransacked by the yamen runners. If we go in, we'll probably have a head-on confrontation with that yamen runner terracotta figure."

"At some point during our listening session, the scene we were in changed. It was either a dreamlike place like the Su Mansion, or something like being trapped in a maze. In short, we were no longer in the exhibition hall."

Wang Wei smirked: "Have you observed the guests next to you?"

Hao Ze quickly whispered, "I observed that when they drink tea, they only take a sip, and then the tea loses its heat!"

Yang Lin then said to Wang Wei, "They walk without making a sound, just like you."

Shi Yan clutched her clothes, her delicate face filled with terror: "The first person to come in was a scholar, the second was a butcher, and there were more than a dozen others who came together, they looked like..."

"Like Meng Longtu's entire family who were hanged."

Wu Xian picked up the conversation:

"This eloquent scholar tells stories of the dead, which naturally attracts the dead to listen. Apart from us, the other guests are all people who were tormented to death by the imprisoned woman on the second floor during the haunting!"

"But they don't necessarily come here just to hear stories."

"If the magistrate wants to find treasures, evil spirits may not be so reluctant to do so."

"Judging from the story just now, Mr. Wang, the owner of the teahouse, should know the location of the treasure. Once Mr. Wang makes a move, these tea-drinking ghosts will probably not be so quiet anymore."

As soon as Wu Xian finished speaking, Boss Wang walked out from behind the accounting counter and hurriedly headed towards the stairs leading upstairs.

The staircase was originally cut off by the ceiling of the exhibition hall, but now, going up further, the ceiling can no longer be seen!
Wu Xian and his group now have two choices.

Leaving through the door now will ensure your safety, but you'll miss out on the treasure.

If you follow behind Boss Wang, you might end up facing a room full of ghosts and monsters!
But Wu Xian and his group came for the treasures, so how could they let this opportunity pass? Thus, they followed Boss Wang up the stairs.

The audience members in the teahouse also stood up at the same time.

(End of this chapter)