Notes on Longevity

Chapter 241 The courtyard is rumored to be haunted; Cheng Ye bows and engages with the ghost's senses.

The next morning, Cheng Ye went out early. His clothes were different from the day before. He changed into thick clothes, wore a woolen hat, and covered his face with a black scarf around his neck.

He then pulled out a money pouch from his pocket, which was full of loose silver. He weighed it in his hand and estimated it to be about fifteen taels.

He sighed softly, staring at the money pouch in his hand and thinking to himself, "Luckily, Xiang'er didn't find out about this little bit of silver."

Since Wanqing's death, he has been addicted to alcohol, spending his days in a drunken dreamland. If it weren't for Xiang'er, whom he couldn't shake off, he probably would have died in some unknown dreamland long ago.

He walked through the streets and alleys, looking for a house within his acceptable price range. However, after a morning of looking at several houses, the monthly rent was at least four taels. If he included his daily food, clothing and other necessities, he would have to spend at least ten taels a month.

Although they earned quite a bit yesterday, they had to plan for the long term. Four taels a month would amount to twenty-four taels in six months. Travel expenses would be considerable in the future, and they couldn't afford to make the same amount every day as yesterday, so their current money was simply not enough.

After leisurely strolling around all morning, his efforts finally paid off, and he found a vacant house in an alley. The price was within his acceptable range, but what puzzled him was that this house looked quite nice, no worse than the ones he had seen before, yet it only cost one or two taels of silver a month.

Are you sure you only need one or two ounces?

Cheng Ye stared at the obsequious middle-aged man, feeling somewhat uneasy.

The middle-aged man was a local broker; he was fat and greasy. Seeing Cheng Ye's disbelief, he quickly said, "It really only costs one ounce. However..."

"Just what?"

Cheng Ye was right; there was indeed something strange about this house.

A medium-sized house costs only one tael of silver per month in rent. People who travel to and from the area or those who live here for a long time would rush to get it, and they would fight tooth and nail to get it. But so far, only Cheng Ye has come here.

The real estate agent chuckled, his face full of unspoken words. He was afraid that Cheng Ye would turn around and leave if he heard this, as this was the only house he hadn't rented out yet.

So he changed his tune and said, "It's just that no one has lived here for a long time, so it's quite abandoned. You might need to fix it yourself."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Ye frowned and said, "Don't you usually take care of yourselves?"

The house broker said, "It was repaired before, but after those people moved in, they didn't know what to do with it. The house was in a dilapidated state. Later, people who came to see the house would stay for two days and then leave, so it has been abandoned ever since."

Cheng Ye sensed something strange in the words of the broker, but since they were newcomers and had no place to stand in Huangzhou City, he hesitated for a moment before pushing the door open.

Dust filled the air, and a foul odor filled Cheng Ye's nostrils. He quickly tightened the black scarf around his neck. Seeing this, Fang Yazi also hurriedly covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

As the spider webs spread throughout the courtyard, the flowers and plants in the yard withered and fell off, and even the wooden pillars at the entrance showed obvious signs of corrosion.

The door not far away was open, creaking loudly in the wind due to years of disrepair. Even though it was broad daylight, Fang Yazi still felt a chill down his spine when he heard the sound. Just then, a strong gust of wind blew by and closed the door behind them.

With a loud bang, the broker was so startled that he ran to Cheng Ye, looking at him with great fear, and said in a trembling voice, "Well... sir, I'll be honest with you, this place is haunted. How about I take you to see other places? The rent is negotiable."

Cheng Ye frowned and asked, "Haunted?"

Fang Yazi kept nodding, but Cheng Ye ignored him and walked straight towards the open door. He followed closely behind, filled with fear.

A faint light shone through the doorway, but stopped short of the entrance. The two figures' shadows swayed in the doorway. A dusty square table stood quietly in the room, with a chair in the main seat and a long bench on either side. The dimly lit room reeked of dampness and decay, and rats scurried about in front of them.

Cheng Ye stood quietly at the door for a while and then said, "One tael of silver is too much. Can you lower the price a bit more?"

Upon hearing this, the broker asked nervously, "Sir, are you sure you want to rent this place?"

"Nine hundred coins, that's the most I can offer."

Cheng Ye didn't want to say more to him. After quoting the price, he took out three pieces of silver from the money bag in his pocket. "I'll pay you a deposit first, and you can pay the rest in a month."

Fang Yazi wanted to persuade him again, since he had previously thought that Cheng Ye would just look at the house and leave like everyone else, but he had rented it directly. Fang Yazi hesitated for a moment and said, "Alright, it's up to you, hero. However, you may need to take care of things here yourself. Everyone in the city knows that this place is haunted, and almost no one comes here. Even people from nearby areas would rather take a detour than pass through here."

"Sure, but I can't manage to tidy up by myself. How about I give you another tael of silver to stay here and help me tidy up the house?"

As Cheng Ye spoke, he took out another piece of silver and stared at Fang Yazi.

"Huh?" He exclaimed in surprise, but was forced to agree under Cheng Ye's fierce gaze.

The two spent three hours tidying up, and by the time everything was finished it was already evening. During that time, he even took the time to go back to the inn to pay for an extra day's room. When he saw Wan Dou, who had finished eating and was now sleeping with the silver coins in her arms, he smiled and said softly, "How wonderful it would be if someone were willing to take care of you."

He rushed back to the rented courtyard with his gun before dark, waiting for night to fall.

A deckchair rocked back and forth, a fallen leaf swayed, a stray cat flew across the roof, and a man slept with a gun in his hand.

Cheng Ye asked the broker for a straw mat, but he wasn't in a hurry to get a new one. He had heard from the broker that the place was haunted, and he wanted to see what the ghost looked like.

However, Cheng Ye waited until midnight but saw nothing, except that the house was much colder than usual.

Cheng Ye was getting drowsy waiting, and finally, sleepiness overcame him as the moon waxed and waned.

"Meow!"

He didn't know how much time had passed when a sharp meow startled Cheng Ye from his dream. He frowned and stared at the wide-open door, carefully sat up, and gripped the long spear in his hand tightly.

Just then, a gust of wind suddenly blew by and slammed the open door shut with a "bang"!
Cheng Ye was on high alert. He jumped off the bed, holding his spear in both hands, his eyes fixed on the main room opposite the doorway.

He walked slowly, his expression tense, to the door of the side room, and the tip of his gun entered the main room first.

The tip of Ruyuehan's spear gleamed. Cheng Ye picked up the spear and strode inside, but there was only a square table and two long benches; nothing else.

Cheng Ye frowned, wondering if he had misjudged the situation. He sighed and turned to open the door to go out and take a look, but at that moment he suddenly sensed something was wrong and quickly turned back!

Cheng Ye, having roamed the martial world, had heard tales of ghosts and gods. However, he didn't believe them back then, until he met someone. That person said he was an extraordinary figure in the martial world, coming from a place called Qumu Town. All the legendary and extraordinary people people had heard of lived there.

The two traveled together for a while and chatted with each other. The man also saw Cheng Ye's talent. When they parted, in addition to teaching him how to refine his martial arts, he also passed on many skills that belonged only to extraordinary people.

The moment Cheng Ye opened the door, he realized something was wrong and immediately turned around. But before he could take a closer look, the chair that should have been in the upper seat, which had been missing, came straight at his forehead. Caught off guard, Cheng Ye and the chair burst through the door.

Cheng Ye flung the chair away with the gun, quickly regained his balance, and stared intently at the indistinct, dazed figure at the doorway.

He frowned, muttered something to himself, then raised his spear and charged forward. However, his figure was unusually blurry and difficult to see clearly. He turned into white smoke and disappeared the moment he touched the spear tip.

Cheng Ye was unusually vigilant at this moment. He looked around but could no longer see the figure. Suddenly, a pair of pure white hands that shone brightly appeared from behind him and gently hugged him. A woman's voice with a mournful tone rang in his ear: "This is my home. Please leave."

But Cheng Ye turned around and kicked the figure away, then threw a spear at her. The white figure disappeared again, leaving only a spear firmly stuck in the wall.

Cheng Ye was panting heavily; that last shot had almost exhausted all his strength, but he still hadn't seen what the female ghost looked like. Only the words, "This is my home, please leave," echoed in his ears.

Cheng Ye walked back to the main room, took out his gun, and then looked around again, but no longer as wary as before.

This reminded him of what the broker had said earlier, "I don't know what the people who moved in here are doing." Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief and said, "It seems I'll have to go ask him again tomorrow."

The next day, Cheng Ye dragged the landlord by the ear all the way to the place he rented, pointed to the door lying on the ground and said, "I met that female ghost last night."

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Fang Yazi immediately wanted to run away. He had wondered why Cheng Ye had brought him here so early in the morning; it turned out he had encountered a ghost.

"Where to?"

But Cheng Ye wouldn't let go, and Fang Yazi couldn't run away. Instead, his ears were being pulled painfully by Cheng Ye, as if they were about to fall off.

"Sir, please loosen your grip, or your ear will be gone."

Upon hearing this, Cheng Ye glanced at Fang Yazi, whose expression was pained, glared at him, released his grip, and asked, "Do you know what happened here?"

Fang Yazi stammered for a long time without being able to speak. Cheng Ye immediately understood that he must know something, so he asked sternly, "I'll ask you one last time, what happened here before? If you tell me now, I can help you solve it. After I leave in six months, other people can move in. Otherwise, if I don't know the reason and can't get rid of her, you can just prepare to leave this house to rot here."

Fang Yazi didn't believe Cheng Ye's words. He rubbed his ears and said, "We even invited a Taoist priest before, but he couldn't solve it. Can you, hero, solve it?"

Cheng Ye rolled his eyes at him and said, "What I do is none of your business. You just need to tell me what you know."

Fang Yazi was dragged here by Cheng Ye early in the morning, and he was feeling sullen. He didn't believe that Cheng Ye had such ability, otherwise why didn't he rent a better house, but instead rented this one for nine hundred coins.

However, he didn't dare to speak directly to Cheng Ye, and could only mutter to himself. But under Cheng Ye's repeated urging, he began to talk about the past of this place: "Twenty years ago, a talented couple lived here."

"The man was a failed scholar, while the woman was stunningly beautiful. Unfortunately, the man lost his spirit after failing the exam and spent his days drinking and gambling, eventually accumulating a mountain of debt."

"His creditors knew he had a stunningly beautiful wife, so they demanded that the man give her to them. The man, having been plied with alcohol, actually agreed. And he brought his gang here with him."

"After that... well, that happened."

Cheng Ye hissed as he listened to what the broker said. He felt like he had heard the story somewhere before, so he asked, "Is the man named Guo Zikang and the woman named Du Shiwei?"

Fang Yazi found it strange and frowned, asking, "How did you know, sir?"

Cheng Ye frowned, took out a few taels of silver from his pocket and gave them to the broker, saying, "It's alright, you can go back now."

Fang Yazi was puzzled, but he didn't want to stay in this godforsaken place any longer. He took the money and ran away, leaving Cheng Ye all alone.

Cheng Ye took a deep breath, then stood at the door and bowed three times to those inside, saying, "That old conman used to tell me a story, I never expected to meet you here."

As soon as Cheng Ye finished speaking, a pair of figures appeared in the dimly lit room. They swayed and were indistinct, but their voices clearly reached Cheng Ye's ears.

“You know us.”

The voice that spoke was a man's. Cheng Ye looked up at the yellowish-brown shadow and said, "You must be Guo Zikang. Do you know that old conman who was summoned here before?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Zikang intended to leave the room, but the scorching sunlight blocked him from entering. Du Shiwei pulled him back to her side and said to Cheng Ye, "This humble woman, Du Shiwei, greets the great hero."

"Junior Cheng Ye greets both of you."

Cheng Ye clasped his hands in a gesture of respect.

The blurry figures of Guo Zikang and Du Shiwei exchanged a glance, then with a wave of their hands, the once dilapidated and empty courtyard was transformed. Withered flowers and plants sprouted new buds, quickly flourishing and turning barren vines and old trees into shady spots. At the same time, the two disappeared again, and when they reappeared, Guo Zikang and Du Shiwei were already seated at a stone table under a lush tree.

Guo Zikang was a famously handsome man who aspired to study hard during his lifetime, but unexpectedly failed the imperial examination.

As for Du Shiwei, Cheng Ye remembered that the old conman used two lines of poetry to describe her. The first line was: "In the South there is a beautiful woman, whose beauty is like that of peaches and plums."

The second line is: "In the north there is a beautiful woman, peerless and independent."

Now, as Cheng Ye looked at the two people who had revealed their true forms and were drinking tea under the tree, he felt that these two lines of poetry were even more fitting for her.

Her appearance was beyond words.

(End of this chapter)