To think she would state it so brazenly right in front of her. Gu Qingyun found a chair, sat down, and said in a slightly hoarse voice:
“What deal did she make with you? And who harmed her? You’d better tell me everything truthfully. You should know that even if you’re inside her body, I can still force you out. If you refuse to cooperate, I’ll make sure you can’t even remain a ghost.”
The female ghost slowly turned around, staring straight at her. A faint smile curled the corners of her crimson lips as she spoke in a mournful voice:
“If you knew what this girl had been through, I don’t think you would kill me.”
Her voice carried a sorrow and desolation characteristic of women from Jiangnan, sounding like a young woman barely out of her teens.
Moreover, it was evident that the female ghost had done no evil since possessing the body. She had deliberately suppressed her Yin Qi, taking great care not to harm the girl’s physical form.
Gu Qingyun spoke in a calm, measured tone:
“Even if you bear her no malice, you are still a ghost. You haven’t possessed her for long, so her body can still endure it. But over time, the Yin Qi on you will completely erode the Yang Qi in her body, and she won’t survive. Is that what you want to see?”
The female ghost looked at her, remaining quiet for a long while before speaking faintly:
“How do you know she wants to live? It was her overwhelming desire to die that woke me. I was sleeping quite peacefully underground until then.”
Gu Qingyun was taken aback. What did that mean? The girl didn’t want to live—could it be that the female ghost had actually saved her?
The female ghost didn’t give her much time to wonder, stating bluntly:
“If not for me, she would have died yesterday. That’s why she made a deal with me: I will help her take revenge, and this body belongs to me. When this body is no longer of any use, she will become my family, and the two of us will keep each other company so neither of us is lonely.”
Gu Qingyun’s lips twitched.
“Hasn’t she not died yet? First tell me who harmed her. She can report it to the yamen—the County Magistrate won’t simply ignore it.”
“No! I have a deal with her. What good would reporting it do? Could it kill those people? You know as well as I do that the yamen won’t execute them. Since when have the lives of the poor mattered as much as the rich? What she wants is for them to beg for life, yet beg for death in vain. I’m already a fierce ghost—what does it matter if I take a few more lives? Every single one of them deserves to die.”
By the time she finished, her voice had turned chilling and venomous, the cruelty and murderous intent in her eyes practically condensing into substance.
Seeing the black mist roiling continuously from the female ghost’s body, Gu Qingyun barked sternly:
“Insolent!”
With a flick of her hand, a burst of spiritual energy struck the female ghost, scattering the dark energy around her. In no time, the ghost looked noticeably weaker than before.
“Can you speak properly now?” Gu Qingyun said coldly.
“My Lady, I didn’t mean to. I’m just so furious over what happened to this girl.” The female ghost prostrated herself on the floor, tears streaming down her face.
Unable to bear seeing her pitiful state, Gu Qingyun waved a hand.
“Stand up and speak.”
Intimidated by the aura emanating from Gu Qingyun, the female ghost hurriedly scrambled up from the floor.
“My name is Yun Xiu’er. I can no longer remember where my home was, only that I grew up in an acrobatics troupe. Later, the troupe leader sold me to a wealthy merchant. In the beginning, I had some good days. But after that merchant took several bed-warming concubines, he locked me away in a small courtyard specifically to entertain his guests. I don’t even remember how many men I was forced to accompany, only that they used all manner of bizarre, twisted contraptions on me.
“When I died, there was barely any uninjured flesh left on my body. My Lady, it was agonizing when I died.”
Gu Qingyun felt a headache coming on, seeing that she had rambled on at length without getting to the main point.
“Let’s put your past aside. Didn’t you already wipe out the merchant’s entire household? Otherwise, where would this black mist, dense enough to solidify, come from?”
The female ghost paused, sorrowfully stroking her own hair.
“Sigh, you have no idea the torment I suffered while alive. If it had only been sleeping with men, I might have resigned myself to it—after all, I was just a performer to be bought and sold. The wrong was that they tortured me relentlessly. My resentment refused to disperse, and that was how I turned into a fierce ghost.
“This very courtyard was the one I used to live in. Oh, I forgot to mention—the girl I possessed is named Yun Yanxi. She shares the same surname as me. Don’t you think she and I share quite a destined connection?
“Even so, she’s even more pitiful than me. I had no family, and from the moment I entered the acrobatics troupe, I knew I was destined to serve men with my beauty. But she was personally offered up by her own family to be ruined by others, all to earn some silver to support her older brothers. What else could happen when she was born so pretty? For an ordinary family, beauty is a curse.
“Do you know? To put it accurately, I was summoned by her. Seeing her reminded me of myself. Even if she hadn’t made a deal with me, I would have wanted to help her.
“Just look at them. Her whole family could have gotten by just fine running their grocery store, but people are insatiable. Once they had her, this golden goose, in just two short years they not only bought a grand three-entry residence, draped themselves in gold and silver, but even purchased two more commercial storefronts. Every bit of that was money earned from selling Yun Yanxi’s body! Tell me, how could she not fall into despair? How could she want to go on living when it was her own family who sold her out with their own hands?
“To maximize their profits, they even locked her up in this small courtyard, bringing a man in every few days—sometimes more than one. These are all things I discovered from her memories. After enduring all that, how could her mind not shatter?
“In her memories, she was in so much agony. She hoped her brothers would come save her, and she kept crying out for her mother, but none of them ever came. Her mother was cowardly and couldn’t save her, while her father, her brothers, and her sisters-in-law were all busy counting their silver.”
Reaching this point, Yun Xiu’er’s expression became somewhat vacant again.
“Do you know what was the most utterly deranged part? Her father and brothers told her sisters-in-law to give birth to more girls, saying that nieces take after their aunts, so maybe they’d get a few more girls just like her, and then their family would never have to worry about money for the rest of their lives! Tell me, is that something a human being would say? Tell me, what right do people like that have to remain in this world?
“If this was reported to the authorities, how do you think it would be handled? Wouldn’t they just gloss it over as a family affair? That’s why I want to help her. I beg Your Ladyship to grant us this!”
Gu Qingyun gripped the saber in her hand tightly. She didn’t know what to say; any words of comfort were entirely hollow in the face of such brutal, bloody atrocities. Taking a deep breath, she walked over to Yun Xiu’er, raised her hand, and rested it atop her head, only pulling it away after a long moment.
“I’ve placed a restriction in your mind. It will prevent you from losing control and keep you clear-headed. Tonight, I never came to this courtyard, nor did I ever run into you. As for the matter of Yun Yanxi, I have heard nothing of it.”
With that, Gu Qingyun opened the door. Her figure flickered, light as a swallow, and in an instant, she reappeared at the entrance of the alley.
Standing there, she stared blankly at the courtyard for a long time. If it had been her own family suffering such a fate, she would have made the exact same choice. Let it be, then. She knew nothing.
With that thought, she wasted no more time, darting swiftly through the county town to conduct a general inspection of all areas. Seeing that the sky would soon break into dawn, she hurried back toward the yamen.
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