Holding a lantern, guiding souls across, Lady Hou comes from the underworld.

The boy didn't understand the meaning behind the young lady's words, yet he felt inexplicably horrified.

He hurriedly took a few steps back, but just like in his dream that night, he tumbled down the stairs.

My whole body crashed to the ground, but I didn't feel any pain.

Even a horrifying memory surfaced in his mind—he saw his own corpse.

Inside Liangzhou City, a frail young boy lay dead in the street.

The boy couldn't help but scream and looked back, only to see the young lady slowly descending the pavilion.

She rarely comes downstairs on weekdays.

At this moment, she walked slowly to him, her long skirt swaying gently on the ground.

He thought she would get angry, kill him, and then use him as fertilizer...

However, the young woman slowly squatted down beside him and asked, "You remember now?"

The boy dared not answer.

The young lady then said, "You are already dead."

"I brought your soul back from the streets of Liangzhou."

The boy opened his mouth, "I... am dead?"

He subconsciously looked down at himself.

I don't know when it started, but his skin also became as fair as the young lady's.

It was completely devoid of color, almost transparent.

The young woman nodded, her expression indifferent: "Everyone dies."

The boy mustered his courage and asked, "And what about the young lady?"

"I won't."

"Is that young lady like me?"

"no the same."

He was about to ask something when he heard a cough outside the door. The old man stood at the door and said respectfully, "Miss, it's midnight."

At midnight, the moonlight is at its brightest at Mingyue Manor.

The white flowers in the flowerbed need to be watered and pruned at this time.

Those flowers that cannot receive moonlight will soon wither.

The old man said that the young lady would get angry if she saw the flowers wither.

Therefore, withered flowers need to be removed promptly.

The boy, however, was somewhat absent-minded, his mind constantly replaying the young lady's words.

"You are dead."

So, he is a ghost now...

He remembered that ghosts had no shadows.

But at this moment, under the moonlight, there were two shadows on the ground.

One was him, and the other was the old man beside him.

"The shadows on the ground do not belong to us."

The old man suddenly spoke up to clear up his confusion: "They are the young lady's true servants."

The boy asked, puzzled, "Who is the young lady's real servant?"

The old man smiled and took out a jade pendant from his neck, on which were engraved two characters: "Zhongbo".

"Chang Sheng and Zhong Bo".

The boy was stunned.

Changsheng is his new name, which shows that this wasn't his original name...

The old man continued, "People die, and ghosts also scatter their souls. Miss cherishes the past, so she left behind a fragment of their souls."

"And we, simply transformed into their forms, continue to accompany Miss."

"When our souls disperse, there will be new 'Chang Sheng' and 'Zhong Bo'."

The boy was speechless for a long time.

"We are Miss's ghost servants. Our souls have been bound to Miss. Until our souls are scattered, we will be loyal to Miss and have no disloyal thoughts."

As the old man spoke, he placed the freshly picked flowers and dew into a jade cup and said to her, "Go on, it's time for the young lady to eat."

The young man, bewildered, continued to carry the jade cup as usual, and arrived at the pavilion.

From afar, I could see the young lady's lonely shadow reflected on the window frame, with a rabbit beside her.

Remembering what the old man had said, the boy thought that perhaps the rabbit was in the same situation as them.

The boy gradually accepted his "identity" and continued to live a life of "not knowing the years" in the manor.

He didn't know when he would "disappear," but not long after, Uncle Zhong disappeared without a trace.

Before she could even grieve, the young lady brought home a new "Uncle Zhong".

There is no joy or sorrow in Mingyue Manor; everything seems to follow a cycle.

Life continued as before, and they did the same things together.

The manor is rarely visited, but every now and then, a man clad in armor and exuding a menacing aura will come.

The boy noticed that every time the man left, a new scar would appear on the young lady's wrist.

He could vaguely guess that the man had come here to take something from the woman…

As for what exactly he took, the young man dared not ask. He simply rushed over to check on the young lady as soon as the man left.

That night, there was another knock on the door.

When the boy went to open the door, he was slightly surprised.

There were two people standing outside the door.

They said they were just passing through and wanted to stay the night.

The boy couldn't make up his mind, so he turned to ask the young lady.

To everyone's surprise, the young lady did not refuse.

"I allowed them to come. I arranged a room for them and told them not to make any noise. They should leave on their own early tomorrow morning."

The young man relayed the young lady's words to the two of them and led them into the manor.

They left early the next morning.

That evening, someone else came, and the young lady gave the same answer.

But this "guest" did not follow the young lady's instructions and died in the flowerbed the next day, becoming fertilizer.

After that, people would come every night, but very few of them were able to leave safely.

The white flowers in the flowerbed are beginning to show color.

It changed from pure white to light pink, then to pale red, and finally to blood red.

And the young lady's skin began to have a rosier glow.

She looked different, but the boy couldn't quite put his finger on what was different...

Then, the deafening knocking on the door rang out again.

That man came again.

He went straight to the attic, but his eyes suddenly darkened.

"Where is the young lady?" the man asked.

The boy and the old man immediately knelt on the ground, unable to answer.

The young lady suddenly disappeared; no one knew where she went, as if she had vanished into thin air.

There was no trace of her anywhere in the entire Mingyue Manor, or even in the entire foothills of Yuebei Mountain.

The boy thought the man would fly into a rage and kill him and Uncle Zhong.

As a result, he simply walked to the flowerbed, stood there for a long time, and showed no emotion on his face.

Finally, she asked them calmly, "Did you kill many people, Miss?"

The boy raised his head and mustered the courage to meet the man's gaze.

One glance was enough to send shivers down his spine.

"Yes."

The man sneered, then said, "She really is going to betray me..."

"But it's okay, she'll come back."

As he spoke, he suddenly took two steps closer to the boy, pointed a finger at his forehead, and whispered, "From now on, there will be no one who enters Mingyue Manor."

The man didn't kill him, and turned to leave.

As the gates of the villa closed, the flowers in the flowerbeds withered and never bloomed again…

-

After listening to this third story.

The expressions on everyone's faces became even more complicated.

Yu Lang, the storyteller, couldn't help but scratch his head. "Could this young lady of the manor possibly be the daughter of the Marquis of Zhenbei?"

Yan Zhengchu scratched his head and commented with two words: "Strange."

Ren Fengjue glanced at Xia Ximo, seemingly observing the subtle ripples on her face.

He said, "At least now we can confirm who gave us the 'clues'."

Following his words, Yu Lang thought carefully and asked, "Is it immortality?"