Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 252 Three Sisters

In the thick fog, a group of paper figures with bright red painted faces stood carrying bamboo stools.

At the feet of these paper figures, a dirty fox suddenly spoke...

This scene was somewhat eerie.

The three remained silent for a few seconds before Ran Qing asked, "Judging from your accent, you're not a local monster."

The environment shapes the people, and the same applies to mountain monsters.

Monsters all learn to speak like humans, so naturally they learn the dialect of the place where they become spirits.

The Southwestern Mandarin spoken in Zangke has a distinct muddy flavor.

The fox in front of them spoke with a strong regional accent, making it quite difficult for the three of them to understand.

Monsters from other places... This is even more sinister than encountering a monster in person.

Why are there monsters from other places?
Ran Qing stared at the fox with suspicion.

But the fox gave a dry laugh, grinned guiltily, and gave off a feeling that he had a very hard life.

"...The lord is right. Our family fled from Yuzhang. We are not local residents of Zangke."

“Our family of thirty-seven has never harmed anyone since we fled here. We were also law-abiding citizens in Yuzhang and never went down the mountain to kill anyone.”

"Who knew that disaster would strike, we had no choice but to leave our homes and flee to Zangke to escape for our lives."

"Grandma sent me to pick up the three gentlemen tonight because she wants to invite them to a banquet."

"Please, gentlemen, don't treat us like a menace and get rid of us. We don't harm anyone."

The dirty fox pitifully begged for mercy.

Its voice already sounded weak and lacking confidence, and now, as it pitifully begged for mercy, the feeling of its miserable fate became even stronger.

The three people in the cat temple looked at each other in disbelief, not expecting this situation.

They stumbled into the monster's lair by accident, thinking they were in big trouble that night, having to face both mountain spirits and evil ghosts at the same time.

But I didn't expect the foxes here to be so timid?
Ran Qing thought for a moment and said, "Where is your grandmother? Why didn't she come in person?"

"Also, we'll stay here during the day. If you have no ill intentions, you can come out and talk during the day, right?"

Ran Qing pressed for the reason.

The fox gave a dry, forced laugh: "Um... sir, you've sealed off this stone temple; it's our front door."

"You've sealed the gate, we can't get out, we can only wait until dark..."

The fox answered without any attempt to hide anything.

No matter how you look at it, this fox does indeed look pitiful and poses no threat whatsoever.

But Ran Qing didn't let her guard down; mountain demons and monsters are the most cunning. Even the dumbest of the mountain monsters, the Bianpo Mountain Demon, can deceive people, let alone this fox spirit who is clearly not stupid.

Ran Qing said, "Since your grandmother is in charge, please invite her out. We don't need to drink, but we do have something to discuss with her."

Ran Qing's words put the fox in a difficult position.

It chuckled dryly and offered a few more words of persuasion, but seeing that Ran Qing remained unmoved, it said with a forced smile, "Then please wait a moment, gentlemen, I'll go in and invite Grandma..."

With that, the dirty fox darted into the thick fog and quickly disappeared from the three people's sight.

Only the group of eerie, stiff paper figures remained, carrying bamboo stools and standing in the woods.

Mo Li asked curiously, "Yuzhang is more than 3,000 li away from here. It's strange that a group of monsters from other places would travel such a long distance.

Ran Qing was also curious about the group of foxes.

At this moment, Long Zongshu, who had been silent all along, suddenly tapped his head.

Then the three flames burning on his shoulders suddenly went out.

Immediately under Ran Qing and Mo Li's surprised gazes, Long Zongshu pointed to his mouth, gesturing for the two to come closer.

Mo Li and Ran Qing were stunned for a moment, then subconsciously moved closer to Long Zongshu's mouth.

But then they saw Long Zongshu's mouth moving constantly, and he actually made faint, seemingly distant sounds coming from it.

The owner of the voice was none other than the fox that had just left.

"...Great-grandmother, there were three young sisters, one female sister and two male sisters."

The fox's voice was so low it was almost inaudible, and it was clearly a local dialect of Yuzhang, with an extremely strange intonation. Ran Qing and Mo Li almost didn't understand it.

Ran Qing and Mo Li stared wide-eyed at Long Zongshu in surprise, never expecting their companion to have such methods.

—They clearly used some method to eavesdrop on the fox's voice!

Ran Qing was surprised.

Suddenly, from Long Zongshu's moving lips, came another low, weak, and extremely hoarse old man's voice.

"...Are those three girls fierce?"

The little fox's voice rang out: "Those two boys... the taller one isn't fierce, but he's on fire... the fire is very dark."

"The shorter one looked like a dead man. When I saw him... my legs were shaking... and he was even darker..."

"The remaining girl doesn't seem to have much ability... but she's pretty..."

After the little fox finished speaking, the hoarse old man's voice rang out again.

"...They called me out, didn't they? Maybe..."

Ran Qing immediately perked up her ears, eager to listen carefully.

Long Zongshu, whose lips had been moving, suddenly covered his throat and coughed painfully.

"Cough cough cough..."

I coughed for a long time with difficulty, as if I were coughing up my lungs.

He clutched his throat and said painfully, "I can't take it anymore... cough cough cough... I can't hold on..."

"First time using it... cough cough cough... my throat is so itchy..."

The three men's eavesdropping was forced to stop.

Mo Li exclaimed in surprise, "Your Long family has such abilities? How did you manage to eavesdrop from a distance?"

While rubbing his throat and coughing, Long Zongshu chuckled and said, "Of course, dealing with... cough cough cough... dealing with this kind of thing is our family's specialty."

Ran Qing frowned, pondering the conversation she had overheard, and said, "These two foxes said we're sisters... does that have any special meaning?"

The two foxes' conversation was entirely in the local dialect of Yuzhang, but fortunately, their accents weren't too strong, and if you listened carefully, you could still make out the content.

Ran Qing was instinctively wary of this peculiar and strange title.

Mo Li laughed out loud and shook his head: "This is Yuzhang dialect, it doesn't have any special meaning."

“In some counties and cities in Yuzhang, people are called ‘mei’ (妹). Men are called ‘nanmei’ (男妹), and women are called ‘numei’ (女妹).

Having traveled extensively, Mo Li is indeed well-informed and knowledgeable.

She shared this little-known fact that you would never know unless you went there, and it immediately cleared up Ran Qing's confusion.

Long Zongshu and Ran Qing were both surprised by this.

"There's such a way to shout..."

Ran Qing was about to speak.

But at that moment, the festive sounds of gongs and drums rang out again from the thick fog outside the Stone Temple.

Immediately afterwards, a group of swaying dark figures appeared in the fog carrying a bamboo stool.

However, the bamboo stool was not empty; a fat figure could be clearly seen slumped inside it.

This time, the shadowy figures didn't emerge from the thick fog, but instead stopped outside the stone temple, just within eye level of Ran Qing and the other two.

However, it did not approach the area where Ran Qing had driven seventeen Soul-Destroying Nails.

From within the thick fog, the hoarse, aged voice of an old woman rang out.

This time, I wasn't eavesdropping; I finally understood a lot more.

The old woman's voice was weak, as if she were about to die, giving people a sense of frailty.

—A world apart from the powerful voice he had when he was eavesdropping.

It said in a hoarse voice, "...Are you three gentlemen descendants of the Second Madam's lineage?"

This old fox demon actually knows how to interrogate Second Aunt...

(End of this chapter)