The beautiful woman frowned. Sure enough, her expression changed a bit, but she quickly calmed down and said, “He’s pretty handsome, so I’m not really losing out.”
Now, it was Qiu Honglei’s turn to be bewildered. She became upset and snapped, “A monster is a monster! What a shameless woman. We should just kill her and be done with it!” She took out her sinister dual blades and prepared to attack the woman.
“Please have mercy!” someone suddenly cried out in alarm. It turned out to be the female ghost Little Ying, who ran inside while holding the hem of her dress.
She had previously run away because she was scared of Grandmother, but then she became worried about the handsome young master and secretly snuck back in. Who could have thought that the invincible Grandmother would be restrained?!
Zu An was a bit surprised. He asked, “Are you pleading for her life? Aren’t you scared of her?” Because of ‘A Chinese Love Story’, he reflexively thought that this Grandmother was oppressing such unfortunate female ghosts.
“Grandmother is really fierce and I’m scared of her, but she actually treats us really well,” Little Ying said timidly.
Zu An and Qiu Honglei exchanged a look. They hadn’t expected things to develop like this!
When she saw that they didn’t believe her, Little Ying quickly said, “It’s because of Grandmother’s protection that I wasn’t captured by the Ghost King’s subordinates. Grandmother strictly ordered us not to harm others over the years and only allowed us to suck out yang energy from some greedy and perverted garbage men. We never threatened their lives! They were all able to recover after resting for a while.”
“That’s nonsense!” Qiu Honglei snapped, her expression cold. She continued, “I clearly heard that many people were found dead in Ruo Lan Temple. Do you think we didn’t know about that?”
Wei Suo nodded. He had accepted the villagers’ task and came here to deal with the ghost rumors precisely because he and the female ghosts could have a lover’s rendezvous… ahem, precisely because he could get rid of the village’s problem!
Little Ying quickly explained, “We really didn’t harm anyone! Those were all people killed by some bad people, and they were thrown near Ruo Lan Temple to frame us!”
Zu An and the others were stunned. They hadn’t expected things to be like this.
“Little Ying, there’s no need for you to explain these things to them!” the beautiful woman snapped, feeling a bit irritated. She clearly felt disdain toward such pleas for mercy.
“But that Great Sister of yours seemed to have sucked out blood essence more than a few times,” Zu An said coldly. That thing had clearly had a malicious look on her face. She had quite a bit of blood on her hands.
Little Ying said weakly, “Sometimes, Great Sister indeed couldn’t hold herself back and secretly sucked some people dry. But due to her misgivings toward Grandmother, she didn’t do it that much.”
The beautiful woman’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, “There was something like that? Why didn’t you ever tell me before?!”
Little Ying shivered. Grandmother’s accumulated prestige clearly had quite an effect on her. She said, “Because Great Sister and Grandmother are of the same race, so I didn’t dare to mention it.”
“The same race?” the woman replied, her expression cold. “I merely taught her a few things out of pity back then. How could she and I be considered of the same race? If I had known she was so vicious, I would have killed her long ago!”
Zu An said with a smile, “In that case, then, there should be no grudge between us any longer. As a favor for Little Ying, I can let you go, and you can save my friend. What do you think?”
The beautiful woman hesitated for a moment, but then she nodded and said, “Fine!”
“To show my sincerity, I’ll let you go first,” Zu An said, opening his hand and taking a few steps back. Qiu Honglei was a bit worried, but Zu An gave her a reassuring look. It wouldn’t be hard for him to restrain her again at all.
A look of surprise appeared on the beautiful woman’s face. Then, she reached her hand toward Wei Suo, and countless green lights flew out of his body. Afterward, the tree buds and flowers all vanished. Wei Suo rubbed his entire body. He was so happy that he began to laugh in a silly manner.
The beautiful woman turned around and began to walk away, saying, “Little Ying, we’re leaving!”
“Please wait!” Zu An called after her.
The beautiful woman suddenly turned around and said, “Humans can’t be trusted after all!”
Zu An said with a smile, “The lady has too many misgivings. We aren’t thinking of troubling you. We only wish to ask you some questions. Have you met any of these women…” He then described Yan Xuehen, Yun Jianyue, and Xie Daoyun’s appearances to her.
“I didn’t expect you to be such a romantic,” the beautiful woman said with a sneer. “I haven’t.”
Based on their previous interaction, it didn’t seem as if someone with her personality would tell lies. Zu An was disappointed, but he continued, “Right, what’s the deal with that Ghost King you mentioned?”
1. Jing is a surname that can mean ‘bright’ or ‘scenery’. Teng means ‘vine’. ☜