Wu Xin: The Monster Killer

Chapter 82 Peeping

Savi was terrified and at a loss, because she had heard old stories that ghosts were afraid of wicked people. With nowhere to retreat, she simply stood on the ground and began to shout and curse. There was only one wall separating the bedroom from the outside, and as soon as she made a sound, the person in the other room immediately became aware of it.

She wasn't on guard against Sheng Yi; the door was ajar and unlocked. So before she could finish speaking, the door was flung open with a thud, and Wu Xin and Sheng Yi rushed in together. Sheng Yi, still wrapped in a blanket, tripped and fell flat on her face as soon as she entered. Wu Xin, wearing only a shirt and shorts and barefoot, stood in front of Sai Wei, spreading his arms in a protective stance. He looked ahead and then breathed a sigh of relief.

He walked step by step to the dressing table and bent down in front of the glass mirror. He took out a needle from his shirt pocket and gently pricked the ball of light in the mirror with its tip. The needle touched the cold, hard, smooth surface of the mirror and, of course, couldn't penetrate deeply. However, the ball of light, as if it had a life of its own, flickered and went out with his touch.

He straightened up, clutching the needle thoughtfully, and smiled at Saiwei and Shengyi without turning around: "It's alright."

After cursing, Savi instinctively held his breath, only catching his breath now: "How can there be light?"

Wuxin smiled and shook his head: "No need to think about it too much. It's just a wisp of a remnant soul. It can't even protect itself, so naturally it won't harm anyone. As for how it came to be, I need to think about it some more. However, ordinary people can't see it. Once you see it, it means your yang energy is insufficient, and it's not a time of good health and luck. From now on, you should be careful in everything you do."

Shengyi, clutching a blanket, snuggled up to Saiwei: "Sis, I'm not going out to sleep. Let's all stay here until dawn!"

The second concubine's bed was a double bed. Saiwei and Shengyi lay sprawled out, while Wuxin sat nearby, acting as a night watchman. Alone in the darkness, he intently toyed with the iron needle in his hand. A wisp of soul from the mirror earlier—whether it was the second concubine or not—had been drawn to the needle and was now clinging to it, appearing as a rather beautiful light to Wuxin. Xiao Jian squeezed a bloodied little head through the crack in the door. Afraid of needles, he dared not approach, only staring blankly at him. After a while, seeing that he ignored him, he drifted away listlessly.

Wuxin pondered for a long time while looking at a needle, finally getting a vague idea in his mind. Turning to look at the brother and sister beside him, he found they were already asleep. Moonlight from the window spilled onto the bed, casting varying shades of light and shadow that outlined their features—flat eyebrows, double eyelids, clean and delicate thin faces. Because they were thin, they looked as if they hadn't fully grown up, with a slightly immature appearance. After spending a few days with them, Wuxin knew they were far from immature; the bodies of young men housed the souls of fiery young mistresses. If it came to ideals and ambitions, they might lack them; but if it came to petty schemes and tricks, they were both top-notch. Different strokes for different folks, and these siblings were one such example. However, Wuxin was extremely lonely, and being able to spend some time with them already felt like a great honor and happiness.

Before dawn, Saiwei woke up first. Sitting up, she looked at Wuxin with sleepy eyes and asked, "You haven't slept at all?"

Without thinking, he turned to look at her: "It's still early, go back to sleep!"

Saiwei shook his head, stretched out of bed, and groped for his slippers: "I'm not going to sleep. I don't know what kind of trouble will come up today. When we had Mom, although she wasn't as clever as us, she always seemed to have a backbone. Now that Mom is gone and Dad isn't home, we can't afford not to be careful."

She gave a serious speech, then went out to call the maid to bring hot water. After washing up, all three of them were clean, and Shengyi asked the maid to prepare breakfast. Breakfast was Western-style cake, milk, and coffee. Saiwei and Shengyi clearly had little interest in the food, sitting opposite each other like two large birds, taking only a few bites and considering themselves full. Seeing that he had no appetite, Shengyi suddenly became playful and pushed her cake plate towards him: "Here, I only had one bite, do you want some?"

Saiwei felt a little protective of Wuxin, and seeing Shengyi's smug grin, he snapped, "Stop bullying me! Who wants your leftover cake?"

Wu Xin smiled slightly, showing her good temper: "It's okay, if you don't like it, just leave it all for me."

赛维没言语，自顾自的想：「胜伊什幺都好，就是狗眼看人低。将来我若真是和他结了婚，恐怕胜伊都要笑我。没人要的浪蹄子，竟敢笑我，混帐，欠揍！」

As she pondered this, she clenched her fist, ready to pick a fight with Sheng Yi, when suddenly a greeting came from outside. Turning to look out the window, she saw Mrs. Ma. Mrs. Ma wore a grey serge robe, had jet-black hair, a round face, and large, clear eyes that still retained a touch of youthful innocence. In short, she was a beautiful young woman.

Without waiting for instructions, Wuxin grabbed the cake from the plate and left, retreating all the way to the bedroom. Mrs. Ma, led into the room by the maid, nodded with a wry smile to the two children: "My room is too far from the front. I only heard this morning that there was a fire last night. Your father isn't home, and I'm indecisive, so it's been tough on you two children. From now on, you're adults, so you need to know how to take care of yourselves. If you encounter any difficulties, just come to me."

After saying this, she rose and left with a sorrowful yet dignified air. Saiwei led the way, seeing her all the way to the courtyard gate; but as soon as he turned back into the house, he heard Shengyi gossiping to Wuxin: "Our mother, and the eldest brother…"

Saiwei, hearing him speak so recklessly and shamelessly about family matters, immediately stopped him. However, after a second's pause, she couldn't resist offering further explanation: "So you see, although she's not old or ugly, Dad hasn't paid any attention to her for a long time. If you don't want people to know, don't do it in the first place. How about now? My eldest brother moved to Tianjin and has become distant towards her too."

Sheng Yi nodded: "Yes, that cripple has no conscience." Then she winked at Sai Wei: "She's really gone crazy, she even wants a cripple."

Then the brother and sister chuckled. Although they weren't married yet, their precocious nature made it particularly interesting for them to ponder Mrs. Ma's troubles. Sheng Yi laughed as she picked up her coffee cup, delicately stirring the coffee with her small spoon, like a scheming young woman, before tilting her head back and downing it in one gulp.

Without waiting for urging from outsiders, the siblings put on mourning robes and rushed to the ruins of the fire in the dim light of dawn. Wuxin stayed alone in the room, closed all the doors and windows, and continued to stare blankly at the iron needle in his hand.

The remnant spirit on the iron needle had dissipated, indicating that although it possessed some power, it wasn't strong. The human skull is the hardest bone; inserting it into the second concubine's heart wouldn't have been easy. It's said that the second concubine felt unwell early in the morning, then suddenly passed away; the doctor's autopsy confirmed that it was indeed a heart problem. If there's no element of deception, the iron needle must have been inserted after death. The Ma family is a large, self-serving clan; if they truly wanted to tamper with the second concubine's corpse, it wouldn't have been difficult.

Wuxin's understanding deepened with each thought. He carefully hid the needle close to his body and began to wander around the bedroom. For some reason, Saiwei and Shengyi trusted him implicitly. Under the second concubine's dressing table, a row of small drawers were unlocked. He opened one and saw a jumble of silk flower hair ornaments and beaded chains. The items weren't particularly valuable, but they were still worth something. He opened several more, thinking he should wait a little longer; otherwise, rummaging through them without permission would raise suspicion of theft.

He closed the drawer and straightened up, noticing a worn-out cosmetic box in front of the dressing table mirror, filled with various odds and ends. He casually lifted the lid and saw several tubes of lipstick, a powder puff, and a few eyebrow pencils of varying lengths. The pencils were all high-quality, with soft, black leads. Two stood out, sharpened to the length of a little finger in a messy, ill-fitting manner—definitely not the maid's work, but likely the second concubine's own, and not in a calm, even manner, manner.

Uninterested, I examined the eyebrow pencil. After looking at it, I noticed that the crevices below the mirror weren't clean; they were filled with white powder stains, black pencil shavings, and red blush residue. A black streak ran across the wide frame, clearly left by the eyebrow pencil as well.

Without thinking, he reached out and touched it, leaving a black mark on his finger. Although the servants were careless in their work, they would come in every day to wipe everything down, so the black mark was quite fresh. It was probably left by the second concubine before she died. Once a person dies, the usual cleaning and sweeping will naturally stop. Everyone is busy with the second concubine, so who would think of continuing to clean the house?

A black mark was drawn on the right side of the mirror, so Wuxin subconsciously glanced to the right. To the right was the large bed against the wall, nothing unusual. Wuxin walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, thinking to himself that the second concubine was truly awful, not even leaving her children a clear word.

Then he looked up at the glass window in front of him and was startled. Curtains hung on either side of the window, with a gap in the middle, and behind the gap, there was an eye pressed against the glass.

He straightened up, took a few steps forward, and forcefully pulled open the curtains. The face outside was revealed—a boy of about twelve or thirteen, dressed in a suit and tie. Judging from his appearance, he had a crew cut and a somewhat unremarkable face, with features resembling the Savi siblings. He glared at Wuxin with an air of superiority for a moment, then suddenly turned and ran away. Wuxin turned and left the bedroom, finding the old woman and asking, "Who is that little boy who just came in?"

The old woman, true to the Ma family style, never spoke well of anyone behind their back: "It's the Fifth Young Master, that little devil who runs around so quietly. If he hadn't run away, I wouldn't have even known he was here. No wonder the Master doesn't dote on him; he's a perfectly good young master, why is he always acting so sneaky?"

He nodded absentmindedly and went back to his room.

As far as he knew, the second concubine spent her days either playing cards to save money or enjoying a life of luxury in her own courtyard, keeping herself well-fed and pampered. This led Master Ma to treat her kindly, seeing her as a kind and fortunate person. The second concubine's behavior before her death was unusual, so she couldn't have gone completely mad. The bedroom was definitely worth searching, but he couldn't act alone; he had to wait for his siblings to return before making a decision.

He made up his mind, decided not to linger, went outside, went around to the back of the house, and found a secluded corner to sit down. Daylight broke, and Xiao Jian had disappeared somewhere. He kept his ears open, feeling that the Fifth Young Master wouldn't be spying on him without reason.

Sure enough, less than an hour later, he heard the Fourth Miss's voice: "Oh, Aunt Zhang, have you seen Junjie?"

Junjie is probably the fifth young master's name, because the old woman immediately replied, "The fifth young master just came and ran around, he left a long time ago."

The fourth young lady continued, "It's quite chaotic up ahead, I'll go in and rest for a bit. I heard that Third Brother brought a friend back, how interesting! He went to Shanghai and even learned how to socialize! Aunt Zhang, are there any strangers in the house? If so, I won't go in."

The old woman immediately replied, "Please come in, Fourth Miss. There's no need to look. The Third Young Master's friend just went out."

The fourth young lady sat in the room for more than half an hour for no apparent reason, and finally took her leave.

Wuxin had never dared to show himself. Although he was a lonely wanderer, he understood the struggles within the large family. Even before the second concubine's death, the undercurrents had already begun to surge. Now that he had the chance to meet Saiwei and her brother, he was determined to protect them from harm.

(End of this chapter)