t
The laughter slowly faded away…
Ji Yunshu immediately chased after it through the side doors, Jing Rong following closely behind.
In contrast, the man manservant's legs had gone wobbly with fear and he could merely remain on the spot, shivering with fear and helplessness.
The two doors that flanked the altar led to the backyard garden. But by the time they followed the laughter out, it had already disappeared. All that was left before their eyes were those toppled boulders that still haven't been cleared away.
Some of the decorative stone had fallen into the pond at the back while others had simply fallen on the ground, crumbled into smithereens.
Jing Rong looked at their surroundings. There wasn't a single sign of anyone else around them.
"There aren't any children in the estate at all." Ji Yunshu told him.
"Then you think…"
"Anyways, it's not a ghost, but a person causing mischief."
"This prince naturally doesn't believe in ghosts either, but if it were really a child who was playing pranks, it's impossible that this Prince was unable to catch them or even get a glimpse of them."
With Jing Rong's skill in martial arts, it truly was inconceivable that he would be unable to catch up to a child. Could that child have better skills than he did? That would be too bizarre then!
Ji Yunshu was also mystified. Next, her gaze fell onto that decorative rock garden. She walked forward a little to inspect it, bringing the lantern up to illuminate where the boulders had been messily “uprooted” from the soil. How much strength would such an action require?! It was impossible for a single person to accomplish it.
But if many people were needed to topple a boulder, then why did nobody notice them? In other words, if many people had worked to demolish the rock garden, then why were there no clues at all left behind in the surrounding area?
Suddenly, Ji Yunshu narrowed her eyes and crouched down to take a closer look at the holes left behind when some of the boulders had been uprooted.
“This is the rock garden?” Jing Rong asked.
“Mn. I passed by last night but didn’t take much notice of it. Marquis Kang said that this was the work of the ghost, but look here…” She pointed at the smaller holes beside the larger pit.
Jing Rong didn’t understand what he was meant to look at. Isn’t it just several large and small holes in the ground?
Actually, it wasn’t too surprising that he didn’t understand. Ji Yunshu explained slowly, “I now know how the ghost managed to topple the boulders. He must have found a long and sturdy metal rod, then placed a small rock beside the boulder. He stuck one end of the rod into the soil, the center of the rod resting on the small rock and using it as a fulcrum. When the end of the rod in the air was pushed down, the end of the rod in the soil would be forced upwards and result in the boulder being ‘uprooted’. Hence, there are small holes around the larger pits where the boulders used to be. The man pretending to be a ghost left behind the small holes when he used his small rock to lever the boulders upwards. If it were really a ghost, it would clearly be able to topple the boulders with no effort of all, so why would they bother to use this method? Thus, it is plainly the deliberate work of a human.”
Eh? How does that work? In plain terms, this was the principle of levers at work. Jing Rong naturally would not know about them.
The only thing that surprised Ji Yunshu was the intelligence of this man behind the ghost, that he could think of using a lever to topple the boulders.
“Who could this person be then?”
Ji Yunshu started to analyze it. “It could be possible for someone to topple these boulders deep into the night without anyone else noticing, but to leave behind a child’s handprint on the estate’s signboard, as well as entangle several trees together like those at the entrance of the estate without drawing attention is impossible. Besides, the outer doors of the estate are guarded; wouldn’t it be too difficult for someone to play tricks under the nose of these people?”
“What ideas do you have?”
“I thought about what Mo Ruo said.”
Eh?
“He said that the dozens or so people who had been cursed were not ill at all. I wouldn’t believe it if it were any other ordinary physician, but this is Mo Ruo and I believe him. If they weren’t ill, then why would they all feign illness?” How bizarre!
Jing Rong thought for a moment. “This prince shall make a conjecture. Supposing that the estate staff are all colluding, someone could have deliberately stolen away that pair of shoes in order to achieve some hidden agenda. If we presume that Cai Da was the one who stole the shoes then, and also the one who coordinated the dozens of people to make a show of the hauntings, including the main door guards, then it would have been a breeze to produce that handprint on the signboard.
“In order to have others believe that a ghost is haunting the estate, the same people would all pretend to fall sick and make the hauntings even more mysterious. However, Granny Lin seemed to want to dissuade Cai Da, so she stopped him when he returned at the hour of the ox to continue creating the strange happenings. Thus, the two of them got into an argument and Cai Da killed her by accident.”
Ji Yunshu listened intently to his hypothesis and nodded when he finished speaking. “Your analysis is logical and justifiable. But why would Cai Da want to do this? And how did he create the sound of that little child just now?”
“We’ll have to ask him about that then!” Everything will be revealed after Cai Da is questioned.
Caw! A crow suddenly flew out of the darkness and landed on one of the fallen boulders. Caw! Its inky black figure rested haughtily on the boulder. It lowered his head and pecked at the rock a few times, then threw its wings out and flew away again. Caw! It disappeared into the pitch-black night sky.
Meanwhile, Jing Rong’s guards arrived at the place where Cai Da was imprisoned. Two people were guarding it outside, crouching together as they talked. They hurriedly stood up when they saw someone arrive. After all, this is someone from Prince Rong’s entourage, so they were more polite than usual. “Bro, how can we help you?”
“His Highness has ordered us to bring Cai Da over.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Hurry up, don’t let His Highness wait.”
“Yes, yes!” The two of them quickly complied. One of them fumbled for a set of keys and opened the doors. There was no light inside and nothing could be seen clearly. He took out a firestarter and lit a candlestick inside, then light slowly illuminated the medium-sized woodshed.
That person lifted the candlestick and brought it forward as he called out, “Cai Da.”
The next moment, he screamed, “Ah!”
At the same time, his candlestick landed on the ground with a clatter and the room turned dark again. The two people who had gone in just moments before scrambled back out, eyes wide and wild with terror. The two of the tumbled to the ground, pointing inside, “Cai Da, he… he…” They were unable to finish speaking.
The guard detected their unease and went into the room himself, picking up the fallen candlestick and relighting it.
The light slowly spread to highlight Cai Da, where he was seated on the ground, back leaning against the wall. His head was tilted to one side, eyes rolled up, and mouth filled with blood. A section of tongue that had been bitten off had landed on the floor, gleaming with fresh blood. The corpse didn’t look too tragic, but it certainly looked extremely disgusting.
Upon witnessing this scene, the guard suddenly tasted bile in his mouth and almost vomited.
