Ming Huazhang gave her a slight shake of his head, indicating it was fine, and then strode toward the body. The crowd that had been clamoring all at once went quiet, everyone staring at Ming Huazhang as though they had seen a ghost.
Ming Huazhang was unmoved. He circled the corpse and examined it carefully, then said to Xie Jichuan: “Xie Jichuan — come give me a hand. First let us get her down.”
Xie Jichuan stood in the crowd with a thoroughly unwilling expression: “This sort of thing — you needn’t think of me.”
He was just about to lift his foot when a figure came charging from the back of the crowd: “I’ll go, I’ll go!”
It was the dissolute young lord Jiang Ling. Though he was good-for-nothing in many ways, he did have daring. Xie Jichuan, who had only half raised his foot, naturally withdrew it again. Ming Huashang watching from the back asked: “Brother Xie, are you not going?”
Xie Jichuan gave a gentle smile: “I will remain here to protect you and Miss Ren.”
Ming Huashang glanced at Ren Yao — stiff all over and yet still forcing herself to appear unafraid — and said: “Then I shall trouble Brother Xie greatly. I am going to help Second Elder Brother see if there is anything useful I can do.”
Ming Huashang finished speaking and lifted her cape to walk out into the snow. Ren Yao drew a sharp breath, unable to help herself: “What kind of upbringing did those two siblings have? With something that gory — are they truly not afraid?”
Xie Jichuan gave a soft, almost inaudible laugh: “Indeed. I thought those siblings were not alike at all at first — but looking at it now, they do have their similarities.”
Jiang Ling’s mind was not sharp, but his physical strength was at least serviceable. Under Ming Huazhang’s direction, they finally managed to lower the woman to the ground in a stable manner.
The corpse fell, and the onlookers backed away another step as one, expressions of both terror and revulsion crossing their faces. Only Ming Huazhang, as though feeling nothing whatsoever, crouched in the snow and slowly turned over the woman’s garments to examine her.
Jiang Ling loved excitement and adventure the most, but even he found those hollow eye sockets of the dead woman’s to be deeply unsettling. He rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and felt a measure of pity: “Wei Zi was such a delicate beauty — those eyes especially, they spoke as plainly as words. To have them gouged out like that. Truly a pity.”
Ming Huazhang looked up at that: “You knew her?”
“Of course.” Jiang Ling said. “She was one of Princess Taiping’s most capable attendants. Anyone who goes regularly to the princess’s residence knows who she is.”
Ming Huashang had walked over and, hearing Jiang Ling, asked: “Then did you see her recently?”
“I saw her once, just when I arrived at the garden with Baby.” Jiang Ling said, then blinked and suddenly caught on: “You are not suspecting me, are you? I already said it was the snake ghost. How could it possibly have been me?”
Ming Huashang also blinked with equal innocence and asked: “What is a snake ghost?”
Seeing that Ming Huashang still did not know, Jiang Ling grew conspiratorial, leaned close, and lowered his voice: “I hear someone brought an unclean thing to the mountain villa. The snake ghost has possessed someone here and is looking for a substitute victim at the banquet. Do you know about snake ghosts?”
Ming Huashang shook her head. Jiang Ling, looking at Ming Huashang’s clear, finely curved eyes, felt his desire to show off surge, and began to hold forth: “They say that in the Fangzhou region of the Jiangnan West Circuit, miasma clouds the air thickly and snakes and insects cover the ground; many travelers are bitten to death by snakes. People bitten to death by snakes die with resentment in their hearts and slowly become snake ghosts, trapped in the miasma and unable to find release — unless they can find a substitute to die in their place. So when traveling through the mountains of Fangzhou, if you encounter a beautiful woman, never look up. If you do not look at her you still have a chance of survival; but if you look into her eyes, you will be bitten to death by a snake and become her substitute.”
Jiang Ling deliberately lowered his voice at the end, trying to create a frightening atmosphere. Yet the beautiful young woman before him did not stir in the slightest, only said “Oh” and asked: “If you look into her eyes you die?”
“Yes.” Jiang Ling said. “Have you not seen Chi Lan from yesterday and Wei Zi today — their eyes are both missing? Goodness knows which accursed soul came back from the miasma region possessed by a snake ghost without knowing it, and after the spirit entered Luoyang it was then brought to Feihong Garden by a guest. The snake ghost chose Chi Lan as a substitute victim; after Chi Lan died her resentment did not dissolve, so she chose Wei Zi; now Wei Zi needs to find someone else. Who will that be?”
Ming Huashang found this rumor too outlandish to be believed, and asked: “How do you know about affairs in Fangzhou? Surely you did not make this up on your own?”
Jiang Ling, feeling slighted, said angrily: “How would this young lord possibly deceive anyone! Have you not heard that there was a line of writing in blood found under Chi Lan’s body yesterday — that is the snake ghost selecting a substitute victim!”
Ming Huashang was still about to express further doubt when Ming Huazhang — who had been silent for a long while — stood up and said, cool and clear: “He is not lying. It is indeed a ghost from the Jiangnan West Circuit.”
Both Ming Huashang and Jiang Ling were taken aback at once, and turned to look at Ming Huazhang together. Ming Huazhang pointed at the corpse on the ground and said: “The thorns binding her are black thorns — a product native to the Jiangnan West Circuit that does not grow in the capital region.”
The three of them had been speaking loudly enough for the gathered crowd to hear. With even Ming Huazhang confirming it was true, the panic in the crowd grew even more severe. Suddenly someone pointed at the trunk of a tree and said in horror: “That writing…”
The crowd scattered with a burst of noise. Ren Yao looked back — and only now noticed that the trunk behind her was coated with blood, on which was written:
“Those who look upon me — die.”