The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 550 - 539 Scary

Chapter 550: Chapter 539 Scary

Mr. Zhuang couldn’t stand the noise anymore, and when he came out of his study, he saw Bai Shan and Bai Er pressing someone down and beating them, while Daji leaned against the door to block the outside shouts and banging.

Zhou Si had disappeared to who knows where, his eldest disciple was running around the courtyard with a copper basin, banging it incessantly and shouting nonsense.

Mr. Zhuang felt that he might have read books for too long today, as he felt a bit dizzy for a moment.

Mr. Zhuang leaned against the door frame and called Manbao’s name twice in a row, but Manbao was so excited about the copper basin that she didn’t hear him. She kept banging on it and even ran to the base of the wall on the other side, shouting in the direction of another house, "Come and see the ghost-catching, we caught a ghost, come and see the ghost seeking justice..."

Mr. Zhuang looked at her helplessly. He glanced at the fake ghost in white, lying on the ground and shielding his head, moving to avoid attacks from two other disciples, then sat down on the threshold and sighed sorrowfully.

The sound of the copper basin was loud, and Manbao’s voice was not weak. It had alarmed not just the entire lane of houses but even those outside the lane.

Including the yamen runners who were patrolling the night.

The rumor of a haunted house on Kangxue Street had been around for a long time, and especially in the past year and a half, every once in a while there would be a disturbance.

Originally, the house had been vacant for half a year, and everyone had only heard about the haunting, but very rarely heard the ghostly cries and screams of a woman at night again, but no one expected that it occurred again last night.

So today, not only the homes in this lane and Kangxue Street were talking about it, but the rumors had spread outside as well.

Everyone said that because the rented house was close to the Yan Family’s house, the ghost of the Yan Family had moved into this house, and as soon as someone moved in, it would start to be haunted.

But since the house belonged to someone else, they couldn’t exactly stop them from renting it out, could they?

However, the families in the same lane were indeed a bit more cautious, fearing to anger the female ghost again. Who knew that just after nightfall, they heard a piercing scream, and the shout of "Ghost—ah—" almost reverberated to the heavens, heard by half the street’s residents.

As everyone was on edge, the sound of gongs began, and someone shouted that they had caught the female ghost. The people in the same lane were skeptical and didn’t dare to come out.

But soon after, they heard the yamen runners calling out, and then some people quietly opened their doors, carrying lanterns to follow and see what was happening.

When they reached the end of the lane, they saw the Xiao Family, their old neighbor, banging angrily on the door of their new tenant.

The yamen runner, with a saber in hand, stepped forward and called out, "What are you doing, what are you doing, making such a commotion in the middle of the night?"

The Xiao Family, seeing the appearance of the yamen runners, turned pale and instinctively stepped back a few paces. Then, as if remembering something, they were about to lodge a complaint when the tightly closed door suddenly opened from the inside.

Manbao, holding the copper basin and a mallet, rushed out first. Seeing the head yamen runner and the neighbors behind them, she immediately said, "Brother runner, you’ve arrived just in time. We caught the female ghost, come in and take a look."

The yamen runner looked at them skeptically, "You can catch female ghosts?"

"That’s for sure," said Manbao excitedly, "we’ve been lying in ambush all night, and as soon as the ghost started smearing tears and crying for justice, we caught her. Turns out, it wasn’t a woman, but a man," Manbao gesticulated broadly, "and that’s not all, we were able to catch and hit him too. Ghosts can’t turn invisible at all, isn’t that strange?"

The night patrolling yamen runners understood, and so did the neighbors behind them, who snickered and said, "What’s so strange about that? Isn’t it just a person pretending to be a ghost?"

"So it turns out that the disturbance at the end of the lane these past two years was the work of humans?"

Everyone went inside and saw the woman lying on the ground, dressed in white, her hair disheveled, clearly a ghost at first glance.

The Xiao Family followed and squeezed in. Seeing him lying motionless on the ground, they were startled, and the old lady shouted, "Erlang, my Erlang..."

Daji quickly moved his wooden stick in front of her, and Zhou Silang, finally getting his clothes organized, came out and said, "So the ghost is your kid, huh? No wonder we’d just caught the ghost and you were banging on our door like crazy."

The old lady lifted her head and glared with fury, "I’m telling you, if anything happens to my Erlang, I’ll never let you off the hook."

Zhou Silang put his hands on his hips, ready to argue with her, but Bai Shanbao pulled him back and said, "Why argue with them? Let’s take this matter to the yamen. Tomorrow, we’ll also have a word with the landlord. They specifically dressed up as ghosts to scare people, which disturbs public order. Clearly, the whole family was in on it."

Bai Shanbao continued, "Apart from the losses suffered by the families in this lane over the past two years, just the shock that everyone has gone through is enough to bring a case to the yamen. At the lightest, they’ll get a beating and a few years in jail. At worst, they could be exiled. So, what’s the point in arguing with them?"

Manbao jumped in, "Exactly, exactly, we won’t be seeing them after this, anyhow."

She looked up with pity at the Xiao Family, their faces pale and deeply shaken, and waved her hand with a smile, "If you have anything to say, say it all tonight. After tonight, we won’t see each other again."

The Xiao Family was frightened stiff, their legs going weak, and they nearly collapsed to the ground.

Seeing them go silent, Bai Shanbao was finally satisfied and turned to the silent yamen runners, "We saw with our own eyes how he suddenly appeared and started burning joss paper outside our courtyard wall. Then he imitated a woman’s voice, crying and wailing, constantly exclaiming how unjustly he died. Clearly, the rumors of hauntings these past two years originated from him. Aren’t you going to arrest him?"

The yamen runners looked at each other and took out a rope, "Of course we are."

The fake ghost lying on the ground shivering finally couldn’t bear it any longer. When the yamen runners picked him up, he fell to his knees begging for mercy, "Spare my life, please spare me. Father, mother, save me. I... I didn’t mean to scare people by pretending to be a ghost."

"Not intentional? Can pretending to be a ghost be unintentional?" Manbao said, "Such insincere lies, it’s apparent he’s not truly repentant."

Erlang stood behind him and gave him a kick in the butt, scolding, "That’s right, at least come up with a better excuse."

Madam Xiao was trembling, but quickly found a reason, "Your Honor, he, he has somnambulism, it’s not... not intentional scaring people by pretending to be a ghost."

Bai Shan raised an eyebrow, "Somnambulism that requires dressing up as a female ghost?"

The Xiao Family bit their lips and teeth, arguing, "He also has madness, when night falls he goes mad, thinking he’s a female ghost, that’s why."

In short, it wasn’t intentional scaring people by pretending to be a ghost.

Mr. Zhuang, who was somewhat dissatisfied with Bai Shan and Manbao fabricating legal threats to scare people, finally settled back on the threshold, leaving them to it.

Indeed, one reaps what one sows, and if he had confessed honestly, the yamen would have at most fined them some silver and given a beating.