The manor was full of cold yin winds and ghostly emanations, exactly as the maidservant in blue had described. It was clearly not a place built for the living.
Li Qiuchen followed her as she crept along the base of the wall and slipped into a side room. She slid the bolt ho, pressed her face against the gap in the door to peer outside for a long ti, and only then turned around and patted her chest with relief.
Then she held out her palm toward Li Qiuchen.
Actually, the yang energy route would be a genuinely interesting experience.
It would improve the exploration score, wouldn't it? You could see the logic.
Li Qiuchen passed over a wayfaring coin. The maidservant took it cheerfully, blew on it, and held it up to her ear.
Does she think it's a silver dollar?
"May I ask how the young lady is addressed?"
"Scholar... no wait, husband, just call
Qingqing."
Qingqing tucked the coin into her clothing, trotted over to the bed, and gave it a pat. "This is my room. Husband can make do here for the night."
Straight to bed?
Li Qiuchen found it almost hard to believe. Was the rest of the scenario going to take place under the covers?
But looking around, the room was fairly bare, and he couldn't see anything else that might trigger a plot developnt.
In that case, he would simply have to go with the flow.
Hopefully there wouldn't be a Trial Failed screen popping up the mont he lay down.
He removed his hat, loosened his outer robe, took off his shoes, and got into bed in one smooth sequence.
The mont Li Qiuchen had the blanket over him, Qingqing squeezed in beside him.
Feeling the warmth of a living body beside him, Li Qiuchen said in genuine surprise, "Is the young lady truly a ghost? Why do you have body warmth?"
"I'm a ghost, not a corpse. Corpses are cold. Would husband prefer cold?"
That was entirely reasonable!
Li Qiuchen was montarily at a loss for a rebuttal.
Had he ever seen a ghost? How did he know ghosts had no body warmth?
Rakshasa ghosts were quite warm, after all.
"How does husband find the bedding?"
"Very clean."
"Can you sll my fragrance?"
Li Qiuchen thought to himself that he wasn't that far gone yet.
"Go ahead and breathe it in. No extra charge."
So there are extra-charge options available?
Li Qiuchen turned his head and found Qingqing's little dimples on full display, smiling like a fox that had stolen a chicken.
"Young lady..."
"Say wife."
"Wife's bedding, just washed?"
"Yes indeed. Mistress says bedding washed with rice water and soap pods lets a man sll a woman's fragrance."
Li Qiuchen stared.
"I don't have professional opinions in this area and wouldn't presu to comnt."
"Husband, look at this pillow..."
"Wife, could you tell
about the background of this manor's mistress?"
Qingqing, whose sales pitch had been interrupted, puffed out her cheeks and looked sowhat put out.
"Husband already has , and you're still interested in the other ladies of the manor?"
"Please don't misunderstand. I'm simply curious. This haunted house isn't quite what I expected."
Qingqing gave a grudging hum, and reluctantly began to explain.
"This manor of ours is called Five Lotus Manor. The story goes that the original master was a swordsman of great renown throughout the land, but that fa had made him many enemies in the martial world. On the very day his young mistress arrived as a bride, he drank too much wine, was goaded into a duel, and died unfortunately. The poor young mistress beca a widow on the very first night of her marriage."
"To protect the estate, the young mistress invited the sworn brother of the late master, a spiritual cultivator of deep ability, to lay formations and wards over the manor to keep away those who coveted it. But that cultivator turned out to be no virtuous man. On the surface he claid to be laying formations. In truth he used the lives of everyone in the manor as offerings, and used the young mistress and the master's younger sister as seedbeds to plant a pair of twin lotus flowers within the manor."
"Later he arranged to bring in a female knight-errant, a young lady from a scholarly household, and a celebrated entertainer from a river pleasure boat. After killing them and burying them together with the young mistress and the little sister, five lotus blossoms grew from the ground."
"Those lotus flowers were said to be a immortal dicine. Given a hundred years of nurturing, the one who harvested and consud the lotus seeds could achieve immortal life and ascend on the spot."
"Unfortunately..."
"Unfortunately what?"
"That cultivator didn't survive the hundred years himself. He went out once on so expedition and never returned, disappearing without a trace. Most likely he t the sa end as the original manor master."
"With no one else knowing that Five Lotus Manor existed, when the hundred years passed and the lotus flowers ca to full bloom, the young mistress and the other four ladies each cultivated to the level of ghost immortals, each claiming one courtyard of the manor. And so Five Lotus Manor ca to be what it is today."
The two of them were tucked under the blanket exchanging whispered conversation when a cool, detached voice suddenly ca from outside the door.
"Qingqing. Did a guest arrive at the manor?"
Qingqing imdiately clapped a hand over Li Qiuchen's mouth and called out loudly, "No! No guest! It's my husband who's co to visit. Please go rest, Miss Azi!"
"Nonsense. Since when do you have a husband?"
The woman outside raised her hand to push the door, only to find the bolt holding it shut.
"Open this door! Don't make
go to the Mistress and have the household rules enforced on you!"
"Not opening it! I'm going to sleep with my husband! Please go away!"
Qingqing buried herself under the covers and played dead.
Li Qiuchen was at a loss. This burying your head and pretending nothing is happening, how is it any different from a small child?
He pulled Qingqing's hands away and asked quietly, "Aren't you worried about disturbing the Mistress?"
"It's fine. The manor has rules. Once the door is bolted, no one else can co in."
Qingqing gave a confident smile. "Azi won't go to the Mistress anyway. If the Mistress learned you were here, Azi wouldn't get any benefit from it either."
Outside, finding that threats weren't working, the woman imdiately changed her tone.
"Qingqing, dear Qingqing. How have I always treated you? Have I not always thought of you when there were good things to be had? And now here you are keeping all the good things for yourself. Is this any way to treat the sisterhood we've built over all these years?"
"Don't listen to her."
Qingqing's resolve remained iron firm.
"She's the most stingy person here. Her own fine gentlen, she never once shared with . I'll have you know, you're the first man I've encountered in all these years. Azi is quite different. The n who died at her feet number in the hundreds..."
"She has particularly appealing feet?"
"..."
Qingqing looked at Li Qiuchen sideways. "Husband, I've noticed you have a remarkable talent for focusing on the relevant details."
Li Qiuchen shook his head. "That's beside the point. The point is that if this Miss Azi keeps standing outside your door without leaving and draws attention from the others, what then?"
"Qingqing, dear sweet Qingqing~"
The voice outside was growing increasingly soft and plaintive, taking on a quality that resisted detailed description.
Qingqing's face twisted with indecision.
"So, is there any way to handle your Miss Azi?"
"If husband doesn't mind having all his yang energy drained..."
"Sothing other than that. Does she want money?"
"You have more?"
"I do."
"Hmm..."
Qingqing gritted her teeth. "You're my husband right now. How can you spend our household money on a woman who has nothing to do with us?"
When did it beco our household money?
Li Qiuchen said helplessly, "Is there any other thod?"
"There is one that isn't quite a proper thod, but I doubt husband could actually manage it."
"Qingqing."
"Hmm?"
"How can you say your own husband can't manage sothing?"
"..."
Qingqing stared at Li Qiuchen with a thoroughly unimpressed expression.
"Simply put, it involves resisting the temptation of beauty. If you genuinely feel no desire for Azi, she'll have no power over you. But husband, even though we've only just beco a couple for one night, I can already tell you're not the sort of person who can ignore physical beauty."
"I can try to rise to the challenge."
Qingqing sat upright, appearing genuinely annoyed.
"I'll say this clearly beforehand. If you actually open the door and let Azi in, I'm not responsible for what happens to you, and there will be no refund."
"Understood. No problem."
Li Qiuchen nodded. "I promise you, tonight you are the only wife. No matter what she tries, I won't waver."
"I'd sooner believe pigs could climb trees."
Qingqing muttered under her breath, reluctantly got up, and went to open the door.
Li Qiuchen climbed out of bed and had just finished straightening his clothes when a wave of fragrance hit him.
"Scholar oh my"
Accompanying the coy exclamation, the first thing that entered his field of vision was a formidable expanse that defied asurent.
Good heavens. After a long stretch of plain vegetables and clear soup, suddenly confronted with a seafood banquet of this magnitude, Li Qiuchen's composure nearly failed to hold.
But it held in the end.
Because he was genuinely curious about one thing. In the face of such fearso weapons, why exactly had all those n died at her feet specifically.
He moved his gaze downward, and imdiately understood completely.
Perfectly understandable!
These were extraordinarily long, straight, beautiful legs, smooth and fair without a single blemish.
It was well known that dancers, models, and gymnasts cut the sides of their fitted garnts very high to make their legs appear longer.
Miss Azi had taken a different approach entirely. There was simply nothing below.
Two strips of fabric, front and back, connected by interwoven purple cords, allowing an unobstructed view from the toes all the way up to the western hemisphere.
Lord He truly understood what he was doing.
"Scholar~"
Li Qiuchen hadn't even gotten a proper look at her face when the overwhelming frontal assault bore down on him with unstoppable montum.
"Please wait, young lady."
Li Qiuchen raised a hand and calmly held back the crimson lips that had launched toward him like a missile, and said with an easy smile, "Miss Azi, Qingqing and I are already husband and wife, joined by mutual affection. I ask that you please conduct yourself accordingly."
"That makes it even better, doesn't it?"
Li Qiuchen stared blankly.
The beauty in purple, held at bay by his hand, licked her lips and said with a delicate laugh, "She's just a little maid. What does she know about the ways between n and won? Why don't you and I enjoy so ti together, and let her watch from the side and learn? It would help her serve you better in the future."
Sothing is very wrong here!
Which of them was supposed to be the worldly one, and which the innocent party?
Li Qiuchen's expression shifted, and he caught the woman who was winding around him like a water snake and pressed her flat onto the bed.
The woman laughed sweetly. "If scholar enjoys this kind of play, I don't mind at all. As it happens I have so rope on . Would you help
untie it~"
Li Qiuchen said with complete seriousness, "No. My tastes run more intense than that. Qingqing, would you be so kind as to fetch a rolling pin from the back kitchen?"
Qingqing looked completely baffled.
The woman went silent.
The situation, which had been on the verge of total disorder, finally settled into quiet.
Li Qiuchen pinned the beauty's hands behind her back and asked gently, "May I ask what this young lady's na is?"
"Just call
Azi, scholar don't hold so tight, it hurts this one a little"
"Azi is too intimate. I'd like to know your full na."
Li Qiuchen's words were gentle, but his grip didn't loosen by so much as a fraction.
"This one doesn't have much of a full na. In the martial world, people just called
Zisu."
[NEXT CHAPTER]
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