Wei Xilou’s expression grew even stranger. He folded the handkerchief and placed it back inside his robes, then said with a smile, “Wasn’t it you who called me out? Why are you acting as though you don’t know me now?”
“I didn’t call—” Xu Muchan was about to argue that he had never called for him, but he hesitated and stopped halfway through his sentence.
He had summoned a god just now.
Could it be that summoning the god was what had brought this person here?
Xu Muchan frowned in silence, trying to analyze what was happening.
The man before him clearly did not know him, and his gaze was utterly unfamiliar. Yet he had exactly the same appearance and aura as Brother—even his tone and manner of speaking were remarkably similar…
Could it be that the ghost domain had affected Brother, causing him to lose his memory and forget Xu Muchan?
But what kind of ghost domain could be so powerful that even Brother had fallen victim to it without realizing?
Xu Muchan quickly thought it over and decided that it was most likely because this ghost domain was connected to the Wei family, which was why Brother had been affected.
Besides, before entering the tomb, Brother had warned him that this trip would be dangerous.
With that in mind, Xu Muchan tentatively said, “My brother’s name is Wei Xilou.”
Then he asked, “What’s your name?”
Wei Xilou’s smile widened, his eyes and brows relaxing completely.
“What a coincidence. My name is Wei Xilou too. As it happens, I find those several younger brothers of mine terribly annoying. How about you come and be my younger brother instead?”
Xu Muchan did not answer. He merely tilted his head and stared at him with a somewhat dazed expression.
Brother had rarely smiled so openly before. Most of the time, his expression was restrained and faint, as though an invisible gloom always hung over him—like a rainy day, cold and damp.
But now, when he smiled, he was like a spring breeze brushing across one’s face, and Xu Muchan could not help relaxing along with him.
Seeing that the boy only stared at him blankly without saying anything, Wei Xilou did not seem annoyed. He bent down, ran a fingertip along the side of Xu Muchan’s neck, and hooked out a thin red cord. The mountain god tablet hanging from its end swayed gently.
“An object that gathers yin energy?”
After examining it for a moment, Wei Xilou released the cord and looked at Xu Muchan.
“The effect of this yin-gathering object is rather ordinary. You would be better off following me. As it happens, I’m also short of someone to attend to me.”
Seeing that he recognized the mountain god tablet, Xu Muchan became even more certain that this was indeed Brother. After thinking it over, he agreed.
He needed to figure out what this ghost domain was as quickly as possible and, ideally, find a way to restore Brother’s memory.
The two reached an understanding, and the crisis was temporarily resolved. Only then did Xu Muchan remember that he still had a task to complete. He turned back and glanced at the overturned redwood food container, then said with unusual embarrassment, “Someone asked me to deliver some hibiscus cakes just now, but…”
But he had been so focused on finding Brother that he had casually thrown the food container aside.
Wei Xilou, whose memory had been lost, seemed to have an exceptionally good temper. He smiled and pinched Xu Muchan’s cheek, saying indifferently, “They’re only a box of hibiscus cakes. If you want to eat them, just have the kitchen send another box. Tell them it’s for me.”
Xu Muchan did not want to eat hibiscus cakes, but this was a good opportunity to go outside for a walk and investigate the situation in the residence along the way. So he nodded and said, “Then I’ll go ask for another box.”
After saying that, he ignored Wei Xilou, turned around, picked up the overturned food container, and walked away with light footsteps.
Behind him, Wei Xilou stood in the pavilion, his features hidden in the shadows as he stared at Xu Muchan’s retreating figure for a long time.
Xu Muchan had always had an excellent memory. Although the residence was vast, with deep courtyards and winding paths that twisted this way and that, he was still able to find his way back by following his recollection. It was only then that he realized the place where he had first encountered the girl in blue was actually the courtyard belonging to the kitchen.
The girl in blue was probably a servant of the Wei family. When she saw Xu Muchan returning with the food container in his hands, her expression immediately became as though she had seen a ghost.
“You… Why are you back again?”
Xu Muchan returned the food container to her and casually made up an excuse.
“The Young Master said the hibiscus cakes weren’t made properly and needed to be remade.”
Those words made everyone in the kitchen stop what they were doing. They all turned toward Xu Muchan, their pitch-black eyes fixed on him as though they had just heard something unimaginably terrifying.
The girl in blue looked even more frightening. She stared at Xu Muchan and asked darkly, “You saw the Young Master?”
Xu Muchan did not understand why they were reacting this way, and his heart began to pound. But thinking that Wei Xilou’s position in this ghost domain was probably quite high, he forced himself to put on an imposing air and borrow the authority of the Young Master.
“Of course I did. Wasn’t it you who asked me to deliver the hibiscus cakes to the Young Master? His temper isn’t as bad as you made it sound, either. He even smiled at me. It’s just that the hibiscus cakes weren’t made well enough, and the Young Master wasn’t satisfied, so he asked for another batch. Hurry up, or the Young Master really will get angry later.”
The moment the girl in blue heard this, her terrifying aura deflated like a punctured balloon. She glared at Xu Muchan and said, “Wait here. It’ll be ready soon!”
With that, she disappeared into the kitchen to get to work.
Xu Muchan wandered around the kitchen courtyard. Looking at the red silk ribbons hanging from the trees, he asked curiously, “Is there going to be a wedding soon? Why are red silk ribbons hanging everywhere?”
A middle-aged woman nearby, who was picking vegetables, looked up when she heard him. Her eyes fixed on Xu Muchan.
“You don’t know?”
Xu Muchan found something indescribably strange about her expression and tone. She gave off an eerie, ghostly feeling.
But when he really thought about it, these people actually seemed more like living human beings than the ghosts and monsters Xu Muchan had encountered before.
This ghost domain truly was full of strange things.
“I’m new here,” Xu Muchan said under the woman’s cold, gloomy gaze.
“So you’re new…” The woman withdrew her gaze and continued picking vegetables with swift, practiced movements. In a warning tone, she added, “Don’t go poking your nose into things. The great matter of ascending to immortality isn’t something you can inquire about. Just do whatever your master tells you to do.”
“Ascending to immortality?”
Xu Muchan caught the key phrase and wondered whether it was meant literally or carried some hidden meaning.
“I told you not to ask so many questions!” The girl in blue came out carrying a new food container, shoved it into Xu Muchan’s hands, and glared at him viciously.
Xu Muchan knew he probably would not be able to get any answers, so he could only keep his doubts to himself. After thanking her, he carried the food container away.
After getting the hibiscus cakes, he did not immediately return. Instead, he pretended not to know the way and wandered around for a while.
The residence was far larger than he had imagined. It probably had five courtyards arranged in succession, and there were four gardens alone, each differing in size and style. There were even many places that appeared deserted, but whenever Xu Muchan accidentally stepped into one of them, someone hidden somewhere would suddenly jump out and block his path, declaring that passage was forbidden and asking in a gloomy voice which courtyard he worked in.
Xu Muchan could only bring out the Young Master’s name, his lifesaving talisman, before he was able to make a safe retreat.
Another strange thing was that the more Xu Muchan wandered around the grand residence, the more familiar it seemed. It was not until he saw the tightly closed vermilion gates that he finally confirmed it: this ancient, old-fashioned residence was the very Wei Residence he had seen inside the main burial chamber.
However, the Wei Residence he had seen in the main burial chamber had been filled with a sense of decay and decline, like a faded painting, dim and miserable, having lost all its former color.
The Wei Residence before his eyes, on the other hand, was clearly at the height of its prosperity. Bright red silk ribbons hung everywhere, and every person coming and going wore a smile on their face, as though a grand celebration were about to take place.
Only after roughly familiarizing himself with the layout of the residence did Xu Muchan finally make his slow way back to Wei Xilou’s courtyard.
As he entered, Xu Muchan noticed that this particular courtyard strangely had no plaque. The other courtyards in the residence all had plaques bearing elegant names.
Carrying his doubts with him, Xu Muchan stepped through the courtyard gate and discovered that Wei Xilou was still in the pavilion. The only difference was that there was now a drawing board in front of him, and he was holding a brush, painting.
Curious, Xu Muchan leaned closer, only to see several grotesque, twisted creatures drawn on the xuan paper.
In the center of the painting were two snakes. Their bodies twisted around each other and tangled into a knot, while their two heads emerged from the knot as though they had grown together. Their faces bore grotesque, humanlike expressions of pain.
Xu Muchan’s gaze, however, fell on the creature to the right of the snakes.
It was a man with a rooster’s head, identical to Zhou Yi, whom Xu Muchan had previously seen through the surveillance camera.
The only difference was that the rooster-headed figure in the painting sat cross-legged on a lotus flower like the Buddha, yet the small eyes marked with cinnabar radiated unmistakable malice.
The rooster-headed figure’s upper right was occupied by a dog. Its posture was equally bizarre. It walked upright like a human, and although its face was turned sideways, its eyes were slanted toward the viewer, as though it were staring through the paper at the person outside the painting.
Opposite the dog was a horse. But the horse appeared to have nothing but a layer of skin, while something that looked part monkey and part human was crawling inside through its abdomen. With nothing supporting it, the horse’s head drooped limply, its sinister gaze seemingly by coincidence also fixed on the person outside the painting.
Perhaps it was precisely because both dogs and horses were relatively docile animals that were close to humans that seeing them transformed into such bizarre and malevolent creatures was especially disturbing.
Xu Muchan frowned and looked away from the painting. He slowly exhaled, suppressing the intense discomfort rising within him, and asked Wei Xilou, “What are these things?”
Wei Xilou did not turn around. He focused on finishing the final stroke before setting down his brush. Then he said softly, “They’re monsters that eat people. If you see them in the residence, remember to pretend you didn’t see them. If they happen to notice you…”
He deliberately lowered and prolonged his voice, creating an atmosphere of suspense. Xu Muchan unconsciously widened his eyes and held his breath, waiting for him to continue.
But Wei Xilou suddenly burst out laughing. He reached over and ruffled Xu Muchan’s hair before finishing his sentence.
“If they notice you, just wait for Brother to come save you.”
Xu Muchan: “…”
Perhaps the speechless expression on his face was simply too obvious. Wei Xilou said, “You’re still young and growing. Go to bed early tonight.”
Xu Muchan glanced at the sky and thought that it had only just begun to get dark. How could he possibly go to bed this early?
But Wei Xilou’s decision was clearly not open to discussion. He grabbed Xu Muchan by the wrist and pulled him into the bedroom, saying as though it were the most natural thing in the world, “There’s only one room in this courtyard that can be used as a bedroom. From now on, you’ll sleep with me.”
With that, Wei Xilou tossed him beside the bed and went to bathe.
Xu Muchan comforted himself with the thought that this place was shrouded in mystery. Although Brother seemed to have lost his memory, staying by his side was probably safer than being anywhere else.
After convincing himself of this, Xu Muchan remained silent. When Wei Xilou came out after bathing, he went to wash up as well.
Only after washing up did he remember that he apparently had no change of clothes. Xu Muchan had no choice but to walk back out in his dirty clothes.
By then, Wei Xilou had already changed into loose sleeping clothes and gotten into bed. Seeing Xu Muchan come out still wearing dirty clothes, he could not conceal the disgust in his voice.
“There are sleeping clothes in the cabinet. Go change into a clean set.”
Xu Muchan was somewhat disgusted with his own clothes as well. Upon hearing that, he immediately obediently took a clean set of sleeping clothes and changed behind the screen.
Wei Xilou was a size larger than him, so naturally his clothes were much too big for Xu Muchan. He rolled up the sleeves and pant legs before emerging from behind the screen and silently climbing into bed.
Wei Xilou had claimed the outside position, leaving Xu Muchan with only the space on the inside.
Wei Xilou watched as the boy climbed over him to the inner side, then skillfully crawled under the covers and settled down without moving. Turning onto his side, he twirled a strand of the boy’s hair that had fallen across the pillow around his finger. There was something peculiar in his gaze.
“Do you often sleep with your brother?”
Xu Muchan gave a perfunctory “Mm,” not wanting to explain.
Wei Xilou fell silent and continued lying on his side, staring at him.
For a while, he played with Xu Muchan’s hair. Then he tugged at the blanket covering Xu Muchan’s nose and mouth. Even more annoyingly, he reached over and pinched Xu Muchan’s cheek, repeatedly rolling a small piece of skin and flesh between his fingertips.
Unable to bear it any longer, Xu Muchan opened his eyes and glared at him sleepily through the haze.
“Didn’t you say we were going to sleep?”
Wei Xilou withdrew his hand and propped himself up on one arm beside his head. As though he could not tell that the boy was annoyed, he remained smiling and good-natured.
“It’s my first time sharing a bed with someone else. It’s a little novel. Please forgive me.”
Xu Muchan met his gaze. His heart inexplicably skipped faster for a moment. He turned over, presenting his back to Wei Xilou, then pulled the blanket over his head again and burrowed completely underneath it.
His muffled voice came from beneath the covers.
“Then I’ll go to sleep first.”
Wei Xilou stared at his back. After patiently waiting until he had fallen asleep, he turned him over so that they were facing each other, then contentedly watched him for the entire night.
And just like that, Xu Muchan somehow ended up staying behind and became someone who lived in the Young Master’s courtyard.
Wei Xilou claimed that he was keeping Xu Muchan around to attend to him, but in reality, Xu Muchan was the only person in the entire courtyard. There was simply nothing that required him to do anything.
Three meals a day were specially delivered from the kitchen. Someone came to clean as well, and even the tea was brewed and brought over for them. However, Xu Muchan noticed that, for some reason, these people were extremely afraid of Wei Xilou. They deliberately avoided him and tried their best not to cross paths with him.
Even when they happened to encounter him, they would bend so deeply at the waist that it seemed they wished they could bury their heads in the ground, and even their voices trembled when they spoke.
Xu Muchan could not understand it at all. Wei Xilou had never said anything to them, and he even wore a smile on his face, yet these people feared him as though he were some terrifying beast.
“Why are they so afraid of you?” Xu Muchan asked exactly what he was thinking.
Wei Xilou was leaning against the window of the study, reading a book. At the question, he raised his head from the book and stared at Xu Muchan for a long while before smiling and asking, “It’s normal for them to fear me. But you—why aren’t you afraid of me?”
Xu Muchan thought to himself: Of course it’s because you’re my brother.
Besides, after losing his memory, Brother was no longer so unpredictable. He gave off a feeling like a gentle spring breeze, so Xu Muchan was even less likely to fear him.
In fact, Xu Muchan had been somewhat afraid of him in the past. Brother’s temperament was far too unpredictable, and he could not communicate like an ordinary person. His understanding of things that were not human always made Xu Muchan worry that he might accidentally anger him, so he had always been extremely cautious.
But ever since Brother had gained a physical body, Xu Muchan seemed to have not experienced that feeling for a long time.
He attributed it to Brother having a physical body and therefore being closer to a human rather than one of those non-human beings.
Seeing that Xu Muchan did not answer and had lowered his eyes, apparently lost in thought again, Wei Xilou did not urge him. Instead, in an apparently good mood, he reached over and ruffled Xu Muchan’s hair before turning back to continue reading.
This was a bad habit he had recently developed. Xu Muchan suspected that Wei Xilou had begun treating him like some kind of kitten or puppy, giving him a few strokes whenever he was in a good or bad mood.
Xu Muchan dared not complain openly. He could only secretly glare at him before getting up and saying, “I’m going out for a walk.”
Wei Xilou reminded him, “Don’t wander off. Be careful.”
Xu Muchan gave a casual response and hurried outside.
He had already been in the Wei Residence for several days. During that time, he had often used the Young Master’s name as a free pass to wander around the residence, and he had already memorized the entire layout and the locations of the guards.
Four generations of the Wei family lived in this enormous residence.
The oldest in terms of seniority was Old Master Wei. According to what Xu Muchan had learned, the old man was already over ninety years old and had difficulty walking. He usually rested in Tai’an Courtyard, and ordinary household matters would never disturb him. The old man disliked noise, so ordinary people were not permitted to enter Tai’an Courtyard, lest they disturb him.
Below Old Master Wei were the head of the household, Master Wei, and Madam Wei. The two lived in the largest and most imposing main courtyard.
Master Wei was the father of the Young Master, Wei Xilou. Besides the Young Master, Master Wei also had two other sons and one daughter. However, neither his parents nor his brothers and sister were close to Wei Xilou. During these days, Xu Muchan had never seen Wei Xilou leave his courtyard, nor had he seen any other member of the Wei family come looking for him.
Besides them, Master Wei had three younger brothers, representing the Wei family’s second, third, and fourth branches.
These three branches had each married and had children of their own, making for a large number of people. They each occupied a large courtyard on the eastern side of the Wei Residence, though Xu Muchan had not yet had the chance to find out the details.
The Wei Residence was roughly divided into four sections.
One was Old Master Wei’s Tai’an Courtyard in the north. Another was the main courtyard in the center, where Master Wei, Madam Wei, and their other children lived. The third was occupied by the Wei family’s remaining three branches in the east. And the remaining courtyards in the west belonged entirely to the Young Master, Wei Xilou.
Very few people came to the western section, making it even quieter than the other parts of the residence. During his investigations over the past few days, Xu Muchan had unexpectedly discovered that, apart from the courtyard where the Young Master lived, there was another courtyard hidden behind a bamboo grove in the west.
There were people guarding the outside of that courtyard, and ordinary people were not permitted to enter or leave freely. Xu Muchan could only hide nearby and observe. He discovered that every day, people carried things in and out of the courtyard, as though they were preparing for some kind of ritual.
Xu Muchan guessed that the unusually festive atmosphere in the Wei Residence was very likely connected to whatever was about to happen in that courtyard.
He had already been trapped in this ghost domain for several days, and Brother still showed no signs of regaining his memory. Xu Muchan therefore planned to find an opportunity today to investigate the hidden courtyard. Perhaps he could find some clues there.
Over the past few days, he had already figured out the frequency with which things were delivered to the courtyard. When another group of people came carrying large boxes and the guards were busy checking and inspecting the contents, Xu Muchan crouched low and slipped into the bamboo grove beside them.
The bamboo grew extremely densely, almost completely concealing Xu Muchan’s figure.
He successfully avoided the guards along the passage outside and reached the vicinity of the courtyard. He secretly poked his head out and glanced toward the courtyard gate, only to discover that there were guards there as well. Without hesitation, he climbed over the nearby wall.
After climbing inside, he did not move immediately. Instead, he patiently waited until everyone who had delivered the items had left before emerging from his hiding place.
Inside the courtyard stood a three-story wooden pagoda.
Judging from its height, the pagoda was clearly much taller than the surrounding buildings. Ordinarily, it should have been visible from outside, yet strangely, Xu Muchan had never seen it before.
It was as though the pagoda could only be seen after stepping inside this courtyard.
At this moment, all the things the people had carried in from outside had been placed around the pagoda. Xu Muchan heightened his vigilance and carefully approached for a closer look.
He discovered that the heavy wooden crates were all filled with incense, candles, and thick stacks of hell money.
There were also some strange objects whose purpose he could not identify, but his instincts told him that they were probably also items intended for a ritual.
Frowning, Xu Muchan walked to the entrance of the wooden pagoda and peered inside, wanting to see what exactly was being worshipped there.
But strangely, the lotus pedestal inside the wooden pagoda was completely empty.
There was nothing there at all.
This was completely beyond Xu Muchan’s expectations. Frowning, he walked inside and looked around. Apart from the extraordinarily ornate and exquisite caisson ceiling at the top of the wooden pagoda, with numerous yellow prayer flags hanging down from above, there was nothing else.
Could it be that the statue of the deity they worshiped had not yet been brought back?
Xu Muchan stared at the empty lotus pedestal, lost in thought. Just as he was distracted, he suddenly felt a scorching sensation as though countless needles were pricking his back. He snapped back to his senses and cautiously surveyed his surroundings.
But there was no one else in the entire courtyard besides him.
Yet that feeling of being watched was definitely not an illusion. Xu Muchan tentatively took two steps and discovered that the gaze piercing him from some unknown direction followed his movements as well, as though something invisible were staring straight at him.
And it wasn’t just one thing. There were many of them.
There was something inside this wooden pagoda.
The hairs all over Xu Muchan’s body stood on end. Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately left the wooden pagoda, intending to climb over the wall and escape. But strangely, although he was clearly walking toward the wall, after walking for a while, he somehow turned back and stopped in front of the wooden pagoda again.
From the empty wooden pagoda came gazes that seemed almost tangible, piercing his skin until it faintly hurt.
Cold sweat broke out across Xu Muchan’s back. He retreated several steps, then turned and ran toward the courtyard gate. There were guards there—
The courtyard was not very large, and this time he did not inexplicably end up walking in circles and returning to the same place. With those probing gazes pricking his back, Xu Muchan finally reached the gate and saw the guards standing there with their backs to him.
He was just about to call out to them when he abruptly fell silent. He slipped sideways into a recess behind the wall, his back slick with cold sweat as he pressed himself tightly against it.
The guards at the gate seemed to sense something. They turned their heads, and Xu Muchan was horrified to see that they had two dog faces.
Their red eyeballs rolled around as their noses twitched, and they walked toward the place where Xu Muchan was hiding.
Xu Muchan held his breath and carefully climbed over the wall.
At the exact moment he landed, the two dog-faced men also reached the spot where he had been hiding.
Hearing the sounds coming from just on the other side of the wall, Xu Muchan did not dare linger. He quietly slipped into the bamboo grove and ran toward the outside.
Even after leaving the bamboo grove, Xu Muchan’s heart was still pounding.
He brushed the bamboo leaves off his clothes, steadied his breathing, and walked back toward Wei Xilou’s courtyard as though nothing had happened. But today, the residence seemed especially lively. Xu Muchan encountered several groups of people along the way, yet as he walked on, every single one of them ended up following behind him.
Xu Muchan’s heartbeat, which had only just settled down somewhat, began racing again. He pressed his lips tightly together and quickened his pace toward Wei Xilou’s courtyard.
But when he was only a dozen or so meters from the courtyard gate, another group emerged from a small path beside him and blocked his way.
The two groups surrounded him from the front and behind.
Xu Muchan’s throat tightened. He had initially wanted to say something and struggle a little, but the moment he met their gazes, he fell silent—
The people before him had faces as white as paper, while their eyes were pitch-black. But even more disturbing was the fact that every single person wore the exact same eerie expression. They stared straight at Xu Muchan, opened their mouths, and said in unison:
“Those who trespass into the ancestral hall must die.”
“Those who trespass into the ancestral hall must die.”
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Die.”
“Die”…
The dense chorus of voices surged over Xu Muchan like a tide. He felt a suffocating dizziness as though he were drowning, and in an instant, he became completely unable to move, pinned to the spot as his body swayed precariously…
The perfectly synchronized voices grew increasingly hurried and vicious, like a piece of music approaching its climax. Yet just before the climax arrived, it was abruptly cut off by the sudden sound of a door opening.
The surroundings suddenly fell silent.
Wei Xilou pushed open the tightly closed courtyard gate and unhurriedly walked into the middle of the crowd, taking the swaying young man into his arms.
He let out a helpless sigh.
“Didn’t I tell you not to run around? You’re such a naughty boy.”