Misty Rain of the Old Times

Chapter 207: Desperate to see through
The night was dark and cloudless, with no wind and no moon.

The prosperity of Mo City is concentrated in a few places, and most of them are areas where ordinary people live. These places do not have so many bright lights, and most ordinary people go to bed early, which can save a lot of lamp oil and candles, and also contribute to the population growth of Jingguo.

The summer night was a bit stuffy, and the chirping of insects and birds seemed a bit irritating, and the sound of the toad was particularly noisy.

But from another perspective, these sounds of nature make the night seem especially quiet.

Scattered lights dotted the dark night, even sparser than the stars obscured by clouds in the sky.

The haunted house that Chen Xuan had his eye on was located in the southwest of Mo City. The population here was not dense. According to his calculations, ordinary families lived in the area of ​​several square kilometers. It would be good if one family out of a hundred households could eat dry food three times a day.

The entire Mo City has a population of over one million, while this area has no more than 10,000 people. A rough estimate is that the per capita usable area reaches several hundred square meters.

Of course, this is how it is calculated, provided that it belongs to you. The word "average" is sometimes a huge irony.

Miaomiaoli is the general name of the place where the haunted house is located. God knows who came up with such a cute name in Chen Xuan's opinion.

There are about a hundred households scattered around, and the haunted house is located two or three hundred meters deep in an alley.

That day, Chen Xuan and his friends went to Mo Lake for a trip and took a shortcut through here, otherwise they would not have passed by here.

Dressed in grey, he was inconspicuous in the pitch-black night. Naturally, he had used the Thousand Illusions Technique to change his face and figure. As for who it was, he had seen so many people and could have just picked one randomly from his memory. In any case, it was not someone with a 'name'.

He came silently to a place not far from the house and stood in a dense bamboo forest. His body swayed slightly with the night breeze, and it was then that he really took a close look at the house for the first time.

After all, the house was once the residence of a constable, who was paid by the emperor and had a formal position. With such an identity, it was very easy for him to make money by just colluding with the gang. Therefore, the house occupied a large area and was a two-courtyard house. The nearest buildings were about a hundred meters away.

This place has been abandoned for many years. The yard is overgrown with weeds, the walls have collapsed in many places, and the roof is leaking in many places.

Anyway, it can't be called a ruin, it can just barely provide shelter from the wind and rain. If you want to completely repair it, it might be better to tear it down and start over.

There is a big locust tree in the yard, which is estimated to be at least a hundred years old. One person cannot hug it completely, and two people are not enough to hug it. Its branches and leaves are lush, like a canopy, covering most of the already deserted yard. When the wind blows, the big locust tree shakes, making the surroundings a little gloomy.

There is a well next to the big locust tree, and the stone well edge is covered with dry moss.

There was nothing else worth noting, just some broken doors and windows. Anything of value had probably been taken away long ago, and there were only some things like water tanks that were not worth taking away and had little value.

Overall, considering the atmosphere, beggars probably wouldn't want to go to this place unless they had to. I even heard that several beggars died here a few days ago.

With Chen Xuan's current martial arts skills, even in the pitch-black night it would be as bright as day, and he could naturally see everything in and out of the yard clearly.

He saw signs of human activity in a house with badly damaged walls, as well as a bonfire that had long been extinguished, probably left by the beggars who had gotten into trouble.

Chen Xuan didn't believe that this place was haunted, but after looking around for a while, he really couldn't see any clues.

After observing for a while, he found nothing strange. He simply walked into the abandoned building like a wisp of green smoke and observed carefully. No trace was left wherever he passed. He had been able to walk on snow without leaving any trace before, so it was naturally not difficult for him to walk on ashes without leaving any trace now.

Without turning anything over, he looked inside and out, but still found nothing. This was strange. Could it be that it was really haunted?
He even observed the well. This area was slightly higher, and the well was about five or six feet deep. There was water underneath, but no one had used it for many years. There were small animals in the water, such as toads, fish, and turtles. He didn't know if the former owner had put them there to test the water quality. But there were also some corpses of small animals, such as cats, dogs, and mice, which occasionally fell in and drowned.

It is highly unlikely that there is a ghost, it is definitely someone's doing.

In fact, if Chen Xuan was serious about it, it would not be difficult to find some clues, but that would require some effort to turn over some places. The situation was unclear, and he did not want to alert the enemy.

"I just want a place to try out some things. I don't necessarily have to buy this place. What's the point of buying it? Not only will it cost money, but I won't live there often. It will also be a lot of trouble to renovate it. Even if I buy it and renovate it, it won't attract attention if no one lives there. It's not worth it. I should first figure out what the situation is here before making any decisions."

After some thought, Chen Xuan left the abandoned building silently and returned to the bamboo forest not far away to continue observing secretly, hoping that the person or people who were pretending to be ghosts would show up on their own.

His efforts were in vain after staying up all night, as he didn't see a single person. He had to leave when it was almost dawn.

There's no rush, there's plenty of time, he doesn't believe he won't be able to wait...

However, after waiting for several days, he found nothing. He even wondered if he had guessed wrong, or if he was waiting at the wrong time, and the troublemaker would only appear here during the day?
If this was true, he was considering whether he should pretend to be an ordinary person forced by life and go somewhere to lure the snake out of its hole at night.

Seeing that the day for Wu Sanniang to deliver the goods was getting closer and closer, and the three thousand taels of silver were still nowhere to be found, Chen Xuan considered waiting for a few more days, and if that didn't work, he would just do it.

In reality, he was bored, and usually spent his daytime study time at the academy with Xiao Gao, leading a normal, uneventful life, just to amuse himself. Otherwise, with his means, tens of thousands of taels of silver, let alone thousands, would be a piece of cake. This was also why he wasn't in the least worried about owing a large sum of money. At worst, he could still make it on the day of delivery.

As the saying goes, if you keep thinking about something, there will be a response. Before the day he carried out his plan to lure the snake out of its hole, a turning point came.

The sky was high and the clouds were light that night, and the moonlight was as bright as water, illuminating the world. He once again came to the bamboo forest outside the yard to wait.

After squatting for about half an hour, he silently chanted in his heart: "The second watch gong strikes, and every household has a long and prosperous life..."

The night watchmen have arrived in this area. It is already the second watch of the night. Chen Xuan has become familiar with their presence in the past few days. They pass by here every time at this time.

They usually work in groups of three, one person beats the bangzi, one beats the drum, and one beats the gong. They also say something while announcing the night watch, probably to give themselves courage. But after all, it is the middle of the night and the banging and beating will disturb the residents, so they also say some auspicious words while announcing the night watch.

As he expected, the night watchman passed by here on time. As soon as the words of the night watchman who was silently chanting fell, the drummer also spoke: "The second watch drum sounds, and the children and grandchildren are full and there is more than enough food."

Then the one who struck the gong continued, "The second watch, the gong clangs, mountains of gold and seas of silver are being brought home."

Three voices echoed in quick succession, striking the clapper drum and gong simultaneously, saying in unison: "It's the second watch, the weather is dry, be careful with fire..."

After saying this three times, they finally calmed down and walked away, and then repeated the same thing again when they were a few hundred meters away.

At the beginning, Chen Xuan thought that these night watchmen were quite interesting, and could be regarded as a special culture of this era. But after listening to them so many times, they became boring and even noisy.

Looking at the direction they were going, Chen Xuan thought to himself, is this place really that scary?

The three night watchmen obviously quickened their pace when passing this area, and their words of reporting were almost perfunctory. It was obvious that they did not want to stay in this area for too long, and they slowed down and relaxed only when they were far away.

His ears twitched, and Chen Xuan withdrew his gaze and looked towards the side of the abandoned house, thinking, could it be that hard work pays off and he finally got what he waited for?

Someone is coming quickly in this direction.

Following the direction of the imperceptible movement, under the bright moonlight, Chen Xuan clearly saw someone moving in the night. He was wandering in a remote place, seemingly trying his best to hide himself.

It can be seen that the man has certain skills and moves quickly. He does not make much noise wherever he passes. His strength may not be as good as Geng Hong, but it should be better than Zhao Erhe.

It was a man in his forties, holding a knife with blood on it. He looked in pain and was obviously injured. He was covering his shoulder with his hands. Blood soaked his clothes and stained his hands red.

He suppressed the pain and didn't make a sound, looking behind him from time to time. He must have done something and was running away. Only when no one was chasing him did the tense expression on his face relax a little.

When he came not far from the haunted house, he seemed to be unable to hold on any longer. He leaned against a tree and looked around. When he saw the gloomy and deserted house, he frowned. He must have heard about the evil things here.

After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and entered the house. If he didn't treat his wound, it would be life-threatening if he continued. He couldn't care less. Moreover, the weird rumors here might give him a chance to breathe even if someone was chasing him.

Before entering the deserted house, he did not forget to cover the bloodstains left where he stayed with dust.

Chen Xuan was a little disappointed when he saw this scene. He thought that the guy was playing tricks here. It seemed that he was just an ordinary night watchman. He didn't know what he had done to get injured and fled here.

"That's good too. Maybe his arrival can lead to the source of this trickery, so I don't have to lure the snake out of its hole myself."

Thinking of this, Chen Xuan remained motionless and waited silently.

After the injured person entered the deserted house, he quickly hid in the corner of an abandoned house. Chen Xuan changed his angle and continued to observe silently.

He ignored the surroundings, leaned against the wall, suppressed the pain and gasped, his face pale, then he took out the medicine bag from his arms, lifted up his clothes and sprinkled a bag of white medicine powder on the injured area. During the process, he was in so much pain that his whole body was twitching, and he tried his best to suppress it so that he didn't make any sound.

There was a foot-long wound on his body, from his left shoulder to his chest. The wound was so deep that the bones, skin and flesh were visible. Chen Xuan, who was in the dark, felt the pain just by looking at it.

Anyway, he warned himself in his heart that there was no need to fight or clash with others in the future. How embarrassing would it be if he got hurt and rolled on the ground in pain?
"Ohh Ohh ohh……"

Just when Chen Xuan was beginning to suspect that the injured person was the ruthless person who was "sprinkling lime" on him, a faint crying sound suddenly rang out. It was barely audible at first, but gradually became clearer and clearer.

The wind blew, the shadows of the trees swayed, and along with the plaintive crying, you know what, it was really a bit scary...

(End of this chapter)