【Damn it, I’m Little Lili’s husband! Lili’s good hubby is here (crying)】
【Yeah, yeah, I’m Lili’s husband—how haven’t I seen it? How did I miss out?】
【Huo Yin, hurry up and apologize to my wife! Quick, rub it and blow on it for my wife (angry)】
Huo Yin was speechless. He had always lived by the principle that one should bear the consequences of one’s own actions, but facing Luo Li like this, he felt he simply couldn’t shoulder the blame.
After all, he really had peeked. If Luo Li called him shameless, there was no arguing with that.
It was just that he was accustomed to looking down on others from on high and was an expert at putting on airs, but he wasn’t practiced at all when it came to lowering his head in apology.
“That… so what?”
Huo Yin braced himself and put on an air of nonchalance. “Wasn’t it because you lied first?”
He cleared his throat lightly and said awkwardly, “Besides, I only glanced once. We’re both men—what’s the harm in looking? Didn’t you also look at Huo Lan…?”
Luo Li’s almond-shaped eyes went wide. “You eavesdropped!”
“I just happened to overhear. And your… words, I just happened to see.” Huo Yin touched the bridge of his high nose. “So pink and tiny, like it hasn’t developed at all…”
A vein throbbed lightly on the young man’s neck as he recalled the scene from that day, his mouth going dry again.
Too damn cute. Such a pretty little boy.
“What, you want me to take responsibility or something?”
【I wanna see too! My mouth’s already watering like crazy】
【666, so you’re saying my baby girl just happened to fall asleep, her clothes just happened to get pulled up, and the lights just happened to turn on? Right?】
【Mouth says no responsibility, but why are your ears red? Fuck, you clearly wanna take responsibility—serves you right you haven’t even gotten a kiss yet. That’s what you get for running your mouth】
【I’ll take responsibility! I’ll take responsibility! I’m a cuckold slave】
Luo Li’s face turned beet red. “I-I don’t need you to!”
He shot Huo Yin a fierce glare. “I’ll just pretend a dog saw it.”
He thought the line packed a punch, but Huo Yin didn’t react at all.
He even bit his thin lip, his expression oddly strained.
Looking for all the world like he was getting off on it.
This jerk!
Luo Li was seriously about to cry from frustration.
Just then, Huo Cheng arrived.
The black-haired youth in white emerged from behind the door, sobbing softly with red-rimmed eyes. His small hands twisted tightly together, tears pattering onto the backs of them as he took tiny steps over to Huo Cheng to tattle.
“Why’d you take so long… I was scared half to death.”
He wiped at his tears and recounted his ordeal in a jumbled rush. “Just now, upstairs, I don’t know what came in, but it killed the servant right in front of me. I was so terrified I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in the ancestral hall.”
The boy’s voice was soft and plaintive, brimming with grievance. He really did look shaken, his tone trembling as he spoke.
He sniffled and asked, “You guys… are you here to catch that ghost?”
His story held up without a single flaw. If it didn’t contradict Huo Xing’er’s account so starkly, anyone would have believed it on the spot.
Huo Cheng gave a grunt of acknowledgment. “It’s probably hiding in the ancestral hall. Did you see it?”
Luo Li tensed up at once. “R-Really? I didn’t see anything. D-Don’t scare me like that.”
The way he said it made him sound like he was covering for the evil spirit.
Before the words had even faded, Huo Xing’er’s scream rang out again.
The woman pointed at Luo Li in terror, mumbling for a long moment before squeezing out a shaky whisper through gritted teeth.
“It’s you… it’s you…”
“He—he’s the one with that evil spirit!”
Her speech was still unclear, and neither Huo Yin nor Huo Cheng fully caught it.
Huo Xing’er just stubbornly repeated, “It’s him, no mistake! Xi Cai was killed by the evil spirit because of him… because of him…”
Huo Cheng frowned. “What do you mean ‘because of him’? Auntie, what else do you remember?”
Huo Xing’er muttered the same thing over and over.
Luo Li hunched his shoulders, blinking up in bewilderment first at Huo Cheng, then at Huo Yin. As if suddenly realizing something, a heartbroken look spread across his face.
“You… you don’t suspect me, do you?”
His lips pressed together, his soft white cheeks puffing out. He seemed a little indignant but held it back. “I really don’t know anything… I’m not a ghost. Why won’t any of you believe me?”
Huo Cheng started to say something, but Huo Yin tugged at his sleeve and whispered, “Hold on. Auntie like this—she might not remember accurately. Better ask more before jumping to conclusions.”
He paused. “What I mean is, don’t fall into Luo Li’s trap. We can’t trust anyone lightly.”
Huo Cheng nodded. He settled the mentally rattled Huo Xing’er to the side and patiently asked her exactly what she’d seen.
But Huo Xing’er just stared fixedly at Luo Li by the door, her throat tight like it was stuffed with a stone. She couldn’t spit out a single word for the longest time.
“Looks like Auntie really doesn’t remember anything else.”
Huo Yin noticed, though, that she spoke fluidly enough about other things. But the moment the dead servant Xi Cai came up, her mood turned exceptionally volatile.
Could it be that Xi Cai showing up in that room involved some other secret?
He bent down. “Auntie, did you see what Xi Cai did before he died?”
At those words, Huo Xing’er’s pupils contracted sharply.
She still didn’t speak. Just as Huo Yin thought they wouldn’t get anything more out of her, she murmured ever so softly.
“…Undressing.”
She said, “Xi Cai took off his skirt for him.”
Dead silence fell around them. Luo Li’s sobbing cut off. Only the woman’s stiff voice echoed, like sleep-talk in the night.
She probably didn’t even realize what she was saying, just mechanically mumbling on. “Xi Cai pinned him down on the Master’s bed and asked where exactly he wasn’t feeling well. He didn’t say anything, so Xi Cai went on, ‘Little Madam must be tired from the pregnancy. How about this servant rubs your belly for you?'”
Huo Xing’er paused.
“He said he wasn’t uncomfortable, but Xi Cai didn’t believe him and insisted on rubbing his belly anyway. As he rubbed… he started pinching his chest.”
“And then they started kissing. Xi Cai undid his belt while kissing him. He was kissed until his tongue lolled out, and Xi Cai said… said…”
The three Huo brothers all wore deeply uncomfortable expressions right then.
Huo Yin swallowed hard. “Said what?”
Huo Xing’er stared at Luo Li. “…He said, ‘How come the Little Madam’s pregnant and this is still just so tiny?'”
Luo Li’s cheeks flushed crimson in an instant.
He refuted in a panic, “I didn’t!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he realized the timing made it sound all wrong.
“I-I don’t mean my chest isn’t small… uh, no, that’s not…”
The more he explained, the worse it got.
Huo Xing’er’s fingertip trembled as she pointed at Luo Li. “That evil spirit must have some illicit affair with him! Otherwise, why would it fly into a jealous rage and kill Xi Cai…”
Luo Li’s face was a picture of utter panic now, all the composure he’d been faking shattered by those words.
Huo Cheng patted his aunt’s shoulder. “Okay, I understand.”
Then he advanced on Luo Li step by step.
The young man was tall, his sword-like brows furrowed over his eyes, his nose bridge prominent. Backlit like that, his face resembled a grim statue, radiating oppressive menace. For a fleeting moment, he looked just like Huo Jieqi risen from the dead, standing before Luo Li.
What courage the boy had instantly deserted him. His legs went weak, and all he could stammer from his mouth were broken pleas. “It’s not… I didn’t…”
Huo Cheng had just one question. “That evil spirit really isn’t in the ancestral hall?”
The boy’s misty almond eyes brimmed with desperate begging. “It’s really not.”
Huo Cheng nodded. “A Yin, A Lan—we’re going into the ancestral hall now.”
~~~
They stepped back into the Ancestral Hall Cave. It was still as dark and damp as before, devoid of any hint of living presence.
Huo Cheng swung the oil lamp around in a full circle but found no sign of the evil spirit.
Meanwhile, Huo Yin was in charge of watching Luo Li. The boy sat huddled in a corner. Though only his ankles were bound to prevent escape, he didn’t dare move a muscle.
He gazed pleadingly at Huo Yin, but the young man’s lips were pressed thin—he wasn’t even looking his way.
…Not that Luo Li had any more lies left in him anyway. He’d already exhausted a lifetime’s worth of fibbing just to spin that last long tale. And now, with his butt hurting to boot.
The stone beneath him was icy and unyielding.
He hung his little head like a wilted flower, but even so, he didn’t want to let Wa Wa out.
Yes, just a short while ago, he’d given that evil spirit a name. Wa Wa—a naughty little imp who would protect him.
But Wa Wa wasn’t the leader boss. How strange. Did this instance not have a leader boss? It couldn’t possibly be him, the Little Waste, could it?
Huo Lan stood not far off. He clearly wanted to help Luo Li but was blind and had no say in front of his big and little brothers. He couldn’t do a thing.
Feeling dejected, Luo Li looked up to see Huo Yin striding over with a taut, handsome face. The young man shrugged off his overcoat, folded it roughly, and padded it under Luo Li’s rear.
The wool was soft, but Huo Yin’s gaze dropped to the row of buttons now squished beneath him.
Luo Li said softly, “…They’re poking me.”
Damn it.
Just a few buttons.
“You some kinda Pea Princess? That delicate?”
For all his words, he still flipped the coat over.
He hadn’t said anything harsh at all, yet upon turning back, he saw the youth hugging his knees, his eyes silently welling up with tears.
The teardrops gathered beneath his thick lashes, hot breath escaping from his slightly parted pink lips to form wisps of steam in the frigid cave. It lent his exquisite little face an even more heartbreaking fragility.
He looked just like an innocent maiden who had been bullied yet didn’t dare speak up for herself.
“You treating me like this… Master Huo will get angry,” he said.
He deliberately hiked up his trouser leg a bit higher, exposing the string of bright red blood beads in an attempt to intimidate the villains before him.
“If Master were still here, he definitely wouldn’t allow you to bully me like this.”
As he spoke, his voice choked up once more.
Meanwhile, Huo Cheng, who had been searching over there, suddenly called out, “A Yin, come here.”
Huo Yin walked over. Huo Cheng was standing before the stone wall behind the incense table and spirit tablet, his palm pressed against it as he gave a push.
The rock embedded in the wall shifted slightly, and moments later, he pried it loose.
Behind the rock lay a hidden compartment containing an aged sheepskin scroll and a headless stone statue.
Huo Yin took the sheepskin scroll while Huo Cheng examined the statue. “This must be something else Father left behind too. I saw this statue when I was little, back when it was still intact. That year, I fell deathly ill, and Father brought me to the Ancestral Hall to pay respects before it. After that, I started to recover.”
Though the statue was headless, the countless arms protruding from its back and sides remained perfectly intact, lending it an even more sinister air.
The sheepskin scroll was rolled up and needed to be unrolled sideways. The writing on it was quite faint. Huo Yin peered at it closely under the candlelight, murmuring the words aloud at first, but gradually he fell silent.
Huo Cheng came over for a look. “What’s wrong?”
Huo Yin’s expression had turned grim.
“There’s a record here about the blood beads.”
In their memories, the string of blood beads that Huo Jieqi had worn without fail during his lifetime was a Huo Family heirloom—an artifact capable of suppressing evil spirits.
But if they thought about it carefully, was there a single photo among those Huo Jieqi had left behind that showed him wearing the blood beads?
No.
So what had planted that impression in their minds, convincing them that the blood beads belonged to the Huo Family?
Under the influence of the evil spirit’s curse, memories could be tampered with. But the physical remnants left behind would never change.
Thus, the photos were real.
The memories were false.
On the sheepskin scroll that Huo Yin slowly unrolled, they could clearly make out a depiction of the malevolent spirit statue. Dangling from its twisted, ferocious arms was a string of bright red beads, strung together as if from beads of bloody tears.
This string of blood beads did not belong to the Huo Family.
It belonged to… this evil ghost.
