Chapter Thirty: The Mourning Hall Within the Window

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Night.

Inside the secluded mountain villa, the atmosphere at dinner was eerily calm.

Boss Hu kept raising his glass to Ma Wenwen, while Butler Ma held his wineglass and let his gaze sweep over every face at the table.

Throughout the meal, the only sound was the particularly grating clatter of utensils.

“The hour has come.”

Ma Wenwen set down his glass and rose. Beneath the yellow cloth, his “gaze” swept across everyone present.

“Master Ma, from here on, everything will depend on you.”

Boss Hu rose as well. As he spoke, he lifted his wineglass and called out boldly, “Everyone, stand up and toast Master Ma. May everything go smoothly and without mishap!”

Before anyone could respond, Ma Wenwen raised a hand to stop him.

“Boss Hu, I said the hour has come!”

“Ah… Master Ma certainly is meticulous. Then hurry, hurry—everyone, get ready.”

At his repeated urging, the sitting room soon filled with curling smoke.

“Boss Hu, when I begin the ritual this time, I don’t want anyone to be absent. Otherwise, if something happens again, people may misunderstand and think I was the one who frightened you.”

Hearing this, Boss Hu gave an awkward laugh and cast a reproachful glance at Butler Ma. Then, in a stern offhand warning, he ordered everyone not to wander about and to remain on the first floor.

Once everything was ready, Ma Wenwen formed a hand seal. One by one, the talismans spread across the table suddenly rose into the air, floating in strings.

The display left everyone present astonished. Boss Hu was so excited that he nearly applauded.

This was far more impressive than Zhao the Real Man’s frantic hopping and leaping!

Just as everyone waited expectantly for Ma Wenwen’s next move, his hands paused. He turned to Le Dong and said,

“This matter is of great importance. Le Dong, go stand watch by the courtyard gate. Don’t let stray cats or dogs disturb the ritual altar.”

Le Dong’s heart leaped—this was the signal!

He deliberately muttered his reluctance as he headed outside, casting a purposeful sidelong glance at Butler Ma in the corner. The butler’s expression remained composed, as though he had not the slightest interest in Le Dong’s movements.

“Hmph. What an old fox.”

Le Dong muttered the curse under his breath, but did not dare slow his steps.

It was a little after nine. Moonlight flowed like water outside. Le Dong pretended to pace near the courtyard gate. The moment Ma Wenwen’s chanting rose from inside the villa, he immediately crouched low and darted toward the drainpipe.

At night, the rear of the villa was almost invisible. Apart from a faint glow spilling from the first-floor windows, everything above was swallowed by darkness.

“Creak…”

He had barely climbed a few steps when the rusty drainpipe groaned beneath his weight, as though it could no longer bear the strain.

“Easy… steady…”

Only after his footing had stabilized did Le Dong summon all his strength and climb to the window outside Old Master Hu’s memorial room.

Perhaps driven by curiosity, he instinctively glanced inside.

By the dim moonlight, he could just barely make out a large bed within. All around it lay heaps of dark shapes whose nature he could not discern.

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“There’s nothing…”

Relief loosened Le Dong’s heart. But before the words could leave his mouth, they caught in his throat.

On the other side of the window, a dark human shape suddenly rose from the large bed. Even worse… Le Dong could sense it slowly turning its head, as if searching for the voyeur outside.

His breath caught. The knuckles gripping the drainpipe instantly turned white.

He wanted to jump down, but the source of everything was right before him—how could he flee? Yet if he climbed upward, the instant the shadow appeared, all the strength had already been drained from his body.

And besides…

The shadow had already seen him at the window.

I shouldn’t have stopped there like an idiot…

Regret churned in Le Dong’s mind as he stared fixedly at the shadow approaching him.

One step…

Two steps…

Three steps…

When the shadow stood only a pane of glass away, Le Dong still could not see its features. It was as though what stood before him were nothing but a mass of dense fog—formless and indistinct.

“Did you take my gold?”

The decayed, senescent voice rang out suddenly, as though someone were whispering directly beside Le Dong’s ear.

At that same instant, a chill spread across his back, and an inexplicable weight settled onto his shoulders.

He instinctively looked to either side.

One glance was enough to make his heart contract violently.

Two withered arms had somehow drooped over his shoulders. Even in the dim light, he could clearly see that the fabric covering them was a deep-red burial robe.

Am I… carrying Old Master Hu on my back?

Le Dong held his body rigid. He did not dare move. The terror in his mind made him dizzy.

He had originally thought Butler Ma was merely pretending to be Old Master Hu’s ghost, but only now did he realize how laughable that assumption had been.

“If you won’t speak… then let me search you…”

The elderly voice behind him continued. The hands resting on his shoulders moved away and began gliding over his body as though truly searching him.

The icy sensation spread through Le Dong’s entire body, like two small snakes writhing beneath his skin. His body seemed bound in place; even swallowing became almost impossible.

“Why can’t I find it?”

The voice behind him sounded baffled. Just as Le Dong thought it might give up, the two snake-like hands suddenly darted upward. Their dry fingers pressed against his chest and began digging in, one slow increment at a time.

Was it trying to tear Le Dong’s heart out while he was still alive?

“Ghh…”

The sudden turn of events threw Le Dong into panic, yet he seemed to have lost control of his body. He could only watch helplessly as five fingers pierced his skin and pulled out a glittering golden… heart?

What… is this?

Le Dong’s consciousness blurred. He could not understand how a golden heart had appeared inside his body. But before he could think for more than a few seconds, weakness spread through him, and his hands slowly began to release the drainpipe.

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“Haah!”

The violent sensation of weightlessness jolted Le Dong awake. His hands, which had nearly slipped free, clamped down again with all their strength.

“Huff… huff…”

Breathing heavily, Le Dong looked around. Aside from gusts of night wind, there was no sign of Old Master Hu’s ghost anywhere. As for his chest—let alone a missing heart, even his clothes were completely undamaged.

“Was that… an illusion? A dream?”

Through the glass, everything inside the room was calm and undisturbed. There was no black mist, no shadowy figure. Even so, the vividness of what he had just experienced left him shaken.

“I can’t stay here any longer…”

After catching his breath, Le Dong gathered himself. He did not care whether what had happened was real or not; being alive was all that mattered. If he stayed any longer, even an illusion might become reality. As for the rest, he could only return and ask Ma Wenwen.

Burdened by unease, Le Dong immediately quickened his pace. In his frantic haste, the rust tore several bloody gashes across his fingers.

Fortunately, he still managed to climb to Butler Ma’s windowsill.

He pushed at the window, but it did not budge.

Le Dong hardened his resolve. Hearing the commotion from Ma Wenwen below, which was loud enough to mask the noise, he pulled out a brick and smashed it viciously into the glass.

Crash!

The shattering sound was swallowed by the night wind.

Le Dong climbed through the window. The moment he entered the room, he sensed something was wrong.

First of all, the bedroom was far too small—barely large enough for a bed and a chair.

Yet judging from the building’s layout, this room should have been roughly the same size as the second floor. The second floor alone contained the bodies of Hu Dawei and his wife, along with all that furniture.

Something was off.

That was Le Dong’s immediate conclusion. He carefully felt along the walls, searching for a flaw. After tapping and probing, he discovered that one section of wall was hollow.

Knock, knock, knock—

The crisp sound made excitement flash in Le Dong’s eyes. He even felt certain that whatever lay inside was the source that had drawn him into all of this.

He switched on his flashlight and shone it over the wall, searching for some way to open it.

But after several minutes of searching, he found nothing unusual. Just as he was about to give up, a rattle drum on the wall-mounted storage shelf caught his attention.

An old man… keeping a rattle drum in his bedroom… No matter how he looked at it, something was wrong.

Puzzled, Le Dong reached out and touched the rattle drum. The moment he tried to move it, he found it surprisingly heavy.

“Is it really that heavy?”

As he spoke, he increased his grip. Inch by inch, he pulled the rattle drum down. At that very moment, the wall behind him slowly slid to the right.

Revealing a hidden chamber…

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