Chapter Ninety-Six: Strange Tales of the Inn

Shangguan Chuci’s words made the inn’s atmosphere turn even eerier.

The sea breeze from the East Sea swept through the hall, carrying the sound of the tide. It moaned and wailed with a bone-deep chill, as if countless vengeful souls were weeping among the inn’s flying eaves and carved brackets.

The main hall itself was deathly silent. Only a single lonely lamp burned at one corner of the counter, its dim yellow glow casting everyone’s expressions into half-light and shadow.

Seeing that all eyes had turned to her, Shangguan Chuci slowly raised one jade-like finger and said with unhurried calm:

“First: if the three of you hear a little girl crying in the middle of the night, do not panic, and do not pay it any mind. Just turn over and pretend it is a stray cat yowling outside the window in heat.”

Seeing Lin Jianyan’s pretty face pale slightly, she added, “Otherwise, she will think you want to play hide-and-seek with her. And once that game begins, it will not end until she is satisfied.”

“In ordinary games, the loser only gives up something external. But when you play with her, what you wager is your very life.”

“Losing to others costs you money. Losing to her, I’m afraid, means you may not even have the chance to become a ghost.”

As soon as she said this, Lin Jianyan’s face turned even whiter. Remembering the doll’s strangeness and terror, she knew Shangguan Chuci was not speaking at random.

The young woman said with lingering fear, “This one is real. If you truly hear it, you must not be curious, especially not enough to peek by means of secret arts…”

The brother-and-sister pair were both startled; the elder brother could not help but tremble slightly.

Setting aside the fact that they did not even know any secret art for spying on such uncanny things, what in the world would they see if they truly looked?

Was the place they were staying in now an inn, or some haunted dwelling of malevolent spirits?

They had thought their own sect was already dangerous enough. Who would have guessed that this inn could be even worse.

The younger sister, meanwhile, began to doubt herself. She was no longer sure whether she had truly made a mistake by not insisting on going to the Demon Suppression Office earlier.

Shangguan Chuci was very pleased with their reaction, especially Lin Jianyan’s added remark, which was simply a stroke of genius.

If not for fear of ruining the mood, she would already have praised her for having a real talent as a straight man in the act.

“Second: Shopkeeper Lu usually lives in the back courtyard. Unless there is truly an emergency, do not go back there to disturb him.”

“You may hear him speaking softly at night, as though soothing a disobedient child to sleep. Please, by all means, pretend you heard nothing.”

Remembering the little girl’s crying mentioned in the first rule, the younger sister faintly sensed some connection between the two. Her face pale, she asked:

“Why is that?”

Shangguan Chuci looked at her and said, “Because curiosity like yours will make the child in his arms curious about you as well. Believe me, that will definitely not be a good thing.”

Just then, an ominous gust blew in from the direction of the back courtyard, lifting a few dry leaves that spiraled into the hall. The lone candle flame was blown so low it nearly went out.

The elder brother’s expression froze instantly. Swallowing hard, he hurried over to Lin Jianyan and said with utmost sincerity:

“Sir, I was wrong. Truly, I was wrong. I should not have despised your office’s prison before, nor should I have argued back at your officials. Now it seems your office is practically a paradise of blessed seclusion! May I ask one thing: if my sister and I surrender ourselves now, will we receive lenient treatment?”

Lin Jianyan hesitated. “This…”

“Actually…”

Lu Chenyuan had intended to explain, but upon seeing Shangguan Chuci signal to him with her eyes, he could only give up with a laugh, half exasperated and half helpless.

Shangguan Chuci smiled faintly and continued in Lu Chenyuan’s stead:

“In truth, the inn is not that terrifying. So long as you follow these strange rules I’ve told you, I promise nothing untoward will happen.”

“And besides, since you are already here, you ought to settle in. Do you really think Shopkeeper Lu’s inn is the kind of place you can simply walk into whenever you please and leave whenever you want?”

The elder brother forced out a smile that looked worse than crying and asked, “May I ask if there is anything else we should be careful about?”

Shangguan Chuci said, “Third: do not stare directly at Shopkeeper Lu’s shadow, especially when he stands alone beneath the moon.”

As she said this, the brother and sister’s eyes unconsciously drifted toward Lu Chenyuan. The dim lamplight shone from behind him, casting a long shadow across the floor.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the outline of that shadow seemed to ripple ever so slightly at the edges.

Both of them immediately felt a chill crawl up their spines. Shangguan Chuci’s eerie voice came again:

“If you keep watching, you will find that the shadow suddenly twists and warps, becoming much taller and larger than he is. As for what that shadow truly is, I strongly advise you not to be curious.”

At that, Lin Jianyan could not help but think of the scene earlier, when Lu Chenyuan had used a Stabilizing Spirit Talismans and had intervened to help her resist the corruption of the filthy current.

As her thoughts surged, she became curious about the relationship between Shangguan Chuci and Lu Chenyuan. She seemed to know his circumstances very well.

The elder brother sucked in a sharp breath and asked in a trembling voice, “A-and… anything else?”

“Of course there is more.”

Shangguan Chuci narrowed her eyes slightly and said slowly, “If, in the middle of the night, you hear a rustling sound coming from within the walls or beams, just assume it is mice tunneling through.”

At this, everyone actually looked up in unison at the thick crossbeam overhead. Spiderwebs covered it thickly, and the light was too dim to see clearly, yet they seemed to genuinely hear that faint, gnawing sound in their ears, enough to make one’s scalp prickle.

“Do not investigate what is hiding inside. Just face the wall and whisper ‘eat well, drink well’ three times, and you will sleep safely through the night.”

This rule made everyone even more horrified, and they felt that every brick and tile in the inn was steeped in some indescribable evil.

Having said this much, Shangguan Chuci snapped open her folding fan with a swish, gave it a light wave, and made as if to go upstairs.

“The last rule is also the most important.”

The elder brother had already pricked up his ears, terrified of missing even a single word and thereby losing his life in the inn.

Shangguan Chuci paused at the foot of the stairs, then suddenly turned back with a smile.

The dim candlelight fell neatly across half her face, while the other half remained hidden in shadow. Though her smile was dazzling and beautiful, it was also filled with uncanny danger.

“If, late at night, you suddenly see me coming downstairs from the second floor, and my folding fan is closed, do not speak to me.”

The elder brother drew in a sharp breath, all manner of dreadful reasons flashing through his mind. His lips dry, he asked, “And why is that?”

Seeing everyone’s uncertain and alarmed expressions, Shangguan Chuci could barely suppress her laughter. In the end she could only cough once, turn around, and say leisurely:

“Because at that time, owing to tossing and turning without sleep, I will probably not be in a very good mood.”

“If you offend me then, I shall have to sit you down and reason with you very thoroughly.”

With that, Shangguan Chuci went upstairs on her own.

The elder brother was still dazed when he suddenly heard a soft chuckle. In an instant, the oppressive ghostly air in the hall lightened somewhat.

The brother and sister looked toward the sound, only to see that Lin Jianyan, who had always been timid and reserved, was now unable to hold back a smile. Even the light of the glazed palace lantern she held in her arms seemed to grow brighter and warmer.

The elder brother then finally realized that while the other rules might or might not be true, the last one had certainly been fabricated by that incomparably handsome young man to mock them.

Feeling somewhat embarrassed, he said irritably, “That gentleman was half true and half false, just making fun of us, and yet the inspector even finds that amusing.”

Lin Jianyan shook her head with a smile. “I was simply thinking that compared with the little girl who cries in the night, or those strange sounds in the inn after dark…”

“Being lectured by a gentleman who cannot sleep well may already be the gentlest tale of the uncanny in this entire inn.”