That wretched vixen has disguised herself as my wife!

"A hefty reward is offered for this person; anyone who provides information will receive seventeen taels and five mace of silver."

Seventeen taels and five mace...

Such a rounded reward amount is extremely rare.

"Boss, who put up this notice?"

Xie Yunqi was now certain that this was a prank by a mischievous child, so he stood on tiptoe and waved to the boss to confirm.

"do not know."

The boss's tone remained as cold and hard as before, but his voice trembled slightly at the end.

"If you don't know anything about supernatural or superstitious things, just ignore them. There are many caravans behind us. If they see us, they'll definitely become suspicious and cause trouble."

Lu Zhao didn't notice the boss's unusual behavior. He smiled and reached out to pull the notice down from the bamboo pole.

"Don't pick them!"

To everyone's surprise, the boss immediately emerged from beside the stove, snatched the notice from him, and glared at him angrily with bloodshot eyes.

"I won't pick it, I won't pick it."

Lu Zhao was startled and had no choice but to raise his hand to indicate that he meant no harm.

"If all else fails, I'll re-attach it for you?"

The boss turned his head away and stopped looking at him, then turned and hung the notice back on the bamboo pole.

By this time, the sun had already set in the west, and the sky was gradually darkening.

A breeze stirred, causing the portrait on the notice to flutter gently, as if it had come to life.

Jiang Jingming turned to look at Fang Zhiyi. She was the first to notice the notice. He wondered if she had any other insights.

She simply smiled slightly, as if nothing had happened.

"Why are you looking at me? I've never seen you before."

Jiang Jingming withdrew his gaze with some skepticism, then looked at Aqing, who had been silent since earlier, and she shook her head as well.

"He doesn't act like a human being."

Aqing provides a fair assessment.

"Right, right! It must have been some kid playing around and drawing it."

Xie Yunqi looked confident:

"It's just drawing something on a piece of paper, then pointing at your friend and saying, 'You are you, he is he,' like that."

"..."

It was such a childish act, yet it was exactly the kind of thing a young lady like to do.

"Boss, have you ever seen what's in the painting before?"

Jiang Jingming thought for a moment, then took a few steps closer.

The boss had returned to the vicinity of the stove, as if only by staying close to the fire could he feel warm and safe.

He seemed not to hear Jiang Jingming's question, his expression blank.

Just when Jiang Jingming thought he wouldn't answer, he heard his dry and weak voice.

"If you haven't seen it before, don't look for it."

Why?

Jiang Jingming stared at the flickering firelight on his face, his tone calm.

The boss suddenly turned his head and stared intently at him.

"That's a man-eating monster!"

Chapter Forty-Two: Ghosts

"Do you think the boss has gone mad?"

Lu Zhao threw a piece of firewood into the fire he had set up, and the firelight illuminated his bewildered face.

"They say it's a man-eating ghost, but if that were true, who would bother to offer a bounty on a ghost?"

"Perhaps his painting skills were poor, and he saw someone committing evil deeds, so he mistakenly thought it was a ghost eating people."

Jiang Jingming sat cross-legged by the fire, skewering the dried beef onto wooden sticks to roast.

The remaining fat in the beef sizzled and released a wonderful aroma.

Xie Yunqi squatted down next to him, eagerly waiting to eat the skewer of grilled meat.

"But what exactly constitutes a ghost eating a person?"

Lu Zhao shook his head, finding it hard to imagine.

"Perhaps it was due to a great shock and stimulation that he imagined that person to be such a bizarre figure."

Fang Zhiyi looked over from across the firelight, her gaze warm and gentle.

Jiang Jingming slightly raised the meat skewers in his hand to signal her, and she smiled and shook her head.

“I once treated a patient who was very convinced that he had seen the legendary water ghost, and he even described what the water ghost looked like.”

"What does it actually look like?"

Xie Yunqi's attention was finally diverted from the meat skewers, and she tilted her head and asked curiously.

"According to his description, he was like an ape with long hair all over his body, hook-like fingers, and he swam extremely fast in the water."

Fang Zhiyi recalled the patient's agitated and incoherent explanation.

Jiang Jingming couldn't help but speak up:

"That description... I think it sounds more like a water monkey, doesn't it?"

"indeed."

Fang Zhiyi nodded seriously:

"I couldn't help but say that at the time."

"and then?"

"Then the patient got even more agitated, saying, 'I've never seen a water ghost, so don't talk. Who says a water monkey can't be a water ghost...'"

Fang Zhiyi helplessly shrugged.

"And then what?"

"In the end, all we could do was prescribe some calming and sleep-aiding medications for him. For us doctors, mental illness is the most difficult to treat."

Fang Zhiyi smiled and sighed.

Lu Zhao stoked the fire until it burned brightly all night before sitting back down, pouting as he said:

"I think that boss also needs a few doses of this medicine."

"If it's really a misunderstanding, then so be it."

Jiang Jingming shook his head, handed one piece of the roasted jerky to Xie Yunqi, and another to A Qing, who had been silent all along.

"The problem is, putting aside the portrait, what if there really is a cannibalistic villain nearby?"

After he said this, everyone fell silent for a long time, and for a moment the only sounds were the night wind and the soft crackling of the fire.

Finally, Xie Yunqi broke the silence.

"Impossible. So many caravans pass through this area every day. If such a rumor were true, it would have spread long ago!"

Jiang Jingming used the wooden stick in his hand to draw a straight line on the ground.

"We set off from Shulan City, and because we were traveling light, we were at the very front of all the caravans, and we didn't encounter any caravans coming from the Posuo River all day long."

When he said that, everyone realized it was true.

For an entire day, not a single caravan was traveling in the opposite direction, which was truly unusual on the trade routes of Yongzhou.

"So, if there are any rumors, then we should be the first to discover them."

"This tea stall is about half a day's walk from the Posuo River, where there is a small village."

Aqing looked down at the line he had drawn on the ground and placed a small stone at the end of the line.

Lu Zhao understood what A Qing meant and suddenly realized:

"The tea stall owner is from that village! If he knows about this rumor, then there must be others in the village who know about it too. We just need to go and ask him on our way."

"What kind of village is it?"

Jiang Jingming had no recollection of this; he was the only one here who had truly been a recluse for ten years, oblivious to the ways of the world.

"A small village with only a few hundred people, all of whom rely on the docks of the Posuo River for their livelihood. Usually, they replenish supplies for passing boats or provide a place for travelers waiting to cross the river to stay."

Lu Zhao carefully explained:

"We stayed overnight in the village the day we arrived from Beijing. The villagers were very welcoming, and it wasn't difficult to get any information from them."

"Please, please, why are you all acting like you've already accepted that this cannibalistic monster really exists?!"

Xie Yunqi stretched out his palm in disbelief and waved it in front of Jiang Jingming's eyes as if performing a ritual:

"Demons and monsters, leave quickly... demons and monsters, leave quickly..."

"I don't think such a ghost really exists, at least it wouldn't actually look like the portrait."

Jiang Jingming pressed her arm down, seemingly lost in thought.

"But I don't think the tea stall owner is crazy either."

"why?"

Xie Yunqi pursed his lips nervously.

"That notice must have been posted by him, and the reward he could offer was seventeen taels and five mace, with some change and some less, which was probably all his savings."

Jiang Jingming stroked his chin and continued:

"He poured all his wealth into this, so there must have been some compelling reason. But then he advised us not to get involved if we hadn't seen it, which means he didn't expect anyone to kill the ghost; he just wanted to know where it was. This doesn't seem like something a madman would do."

"Yes."

Fang Zhiyi nodded:

"He must have been frightened by something and mistook someone for the ghost in the portrait."

As Lu Zhao listened to their words, his expression gradually became serious.

"If it's a ghost, that's fine; we should find a Taoist priest. But if it's an evil person, we have no choice but to deal with it."

"But what if it really is a ghost?!"

Xie Yunqi clutched the skewer of beef, not daring to eat it for a long time, nervously looking around.

Jiang Jingming then realized that this fearless young lady had been avoiding this topic all evening.

Are you afraid of ghosts?

He lowered his voice and leaned closer.

"Laugh, laugh, laugh, what a joke!!!"

Xie Yunqi shuddered, then jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"How could I possibly be afraid of ghosts?! I already told you it's just a prank drawing by a naughty kid! How could anything that looks like that exist in the world?!"

If it were in the past, Jiang Jingming would definitely have reacted the same way she did.

But things are different now. He's seen poisonous creatures that can turn people into zombies, powders that can instantly melt corpses, and even merfolk created through secret techniques...

After experiencing all this, even if ghosts really exist, it doesn't seem so hard to accept.

"In that case, let's take turns keeping watch tonight, just like we always do."

Lu Zhao tapped the red-hot charcoal on his hand.

"I do not want!"