Chapter 167: Midnight Cries

"Looking for her face?" Could it be that the female ghost's face had truly been cut off?

Boss Tang sighed and said, "She is the daughter of the house's previous owner. She was tortured and killed after having her facial skin peeled off alive. After death, she has been wandering in this house, refusing to leave, searching for her own face."

So this house was indeed a haunted dwelling!

I always had a lingering suspicion that this Boss Tang was hiding something. There were plenty of vengeful ghosts who died tragic deaths, and given his advanced age, he must have seen a great deal. There was no logical reason for him to feel such profound pity for that female ghost unless he was born with the heart of a compassionate Bodhisattva. Yet, the look he had given the female ghost earlier clearly carried a trace of sorrow and heartache.

I asked, "Why don't you help her cross over and leave?"

With Boss Tang's abilities, it should have been an effortless task.

"Burial requires a complete body. With her remains incomplete, even if she departs, her soul will find no peace."

"Was the murderer never caught?" I asked.

"The murderer was caught, but her face was missing," Boss Tang replied.

Her facial skin was missing? How could that be? Could someone have taken it away? Or had it been dragged off by cats or dogs? The mere thought of the latter sent an inexplicable chill down my spine.

"Are you just going to let her wander like this?" Whether it was taken by a person or dragged away by stray animals, so much time had passed that it was certainly long gone.

Boss Tang sighed without answering. Instead, he said, "When I first arrived here, she would wander the house every night, endlessly repeating, 'Where is my face? Who took it?' It was I who used my arts to confine her territory to the hallway and muffled her voice to avoid frightening others."

So that was why the female ghost only roamed the hallway, making those steady tapping footsteps.

It was evident that Boss Tang was not very fond of discussing the female ghost. Whatever connection existed between him and that ghost was his privacy; since he preferred not to speak of it, I would not pry.

After a brief silence, Boss Tang remarked, "I never expected that old codger Old man Ma would take on an apprentice. The fact that he was willing to take you in means you must possess some extraordinary talent. You should study diligently, kid, and do not let him down."

This was probably the first affirming remark I had heard since entering this profession. Old man Guo's words back then did not count; that old fraud always spoke one way and thought another, completely untrustworthy.

However, as for any high expectations, I honestly hadn't sensed any. Old man Ma had treated me with utmost disdain from the very beginning, and on top of that, he frequently retaliated against me through both overt and covert means!

Boss Tang continued, "Old man Ma belongs to the older generation after all, and many of his views are rather old-fashioned. As his apprentice, you should humor him on the surface, but remain cautious nonetheless. After all, you are still young; there is no need to get yourself entangled in certain matters."

This Boss Tang was clearly someone who avoided trouble, yet his words also aroused my curiosity.

"Listening to you, it sounds like he is much older than you?" I asked.

Boss Tang looked at me, a faint smile spreading across his plump face. "He is much older than me indeed. But since he didn't volunteer to tell you, it wouldn't be proper for me to say more. In short, that old fellow draws a sharp line between righteousness and evil, seeing everything in strict black and white. Just go along with his ways. Those are old-fashioned notions anyway; nobody draws such clear lines nowadays."

Having followed old man Ma for so long, I had accepted whatever he said as absolute truth, always believing this profession was strictly divided between righteousness and evil. But hearing Boss Tang put it this way, the reality was apparently far more complicated.

Moreover, old man Ma's wariness regarding Tu'e seemed to stem from something beyond mere concepts of good and evil, carrying a very specific connotation.

What on earth did that character "Gen" signify?

I contemplated whether I should ask Boss Tang about it, but he most likely wouldn't tell me either. I might as well ask about something else instead.

I asked, "Are you and my master friends?"

Hearing this, Boss Tang chuckled twice. "You flatter me. Strictly speaking, he is my senior martial uncle, and since you are his apprentice, by seniority, you and I are peers."

Huh? Although I was quite shocked when I learned he was two generations senior to that old fraud Guo, because of their adversarial relationship, I had felt somewhat smug about it. But hearing this round-faced Boss Tang state that we were peers felt thoroughly awkward no matter how I thought about it.

Yet, old man Ma had once mentioned that although I was his apprentice, my affiliation was registered under Old man Chen's lineage, making me actually one generation junior to Boss Tang.

This generational ranking was truly chaotic—even more baffling than the family trees in a remote village.

Boss Tang looked at me with a meaningful gaze. "There are some things old man Ma doesn't tell you for your own good, so you shouldn't press the matter. They are all things of the past, having nothing to do with you. Knowing them would only bring needless trouble. It's getting cold, go get some sleep. You can rest easy and stay here for the next few days."

With that, his round, plump figure turned around and ambled back into the house.

Hearing these familiar words left me somewhat displeased. Dragged inexplicably into a mess of troubles, kept in the dark about everything—was this supposed to be for my own good, damn it? I wasn't asking him to reveal every detail of "past events," but at least let me know something. At the very least, tell me what kind of grievance existed between Guoxiaomei and old man Ma. Let me know the reason why we had been hiding all this time.

I was no longer a three-year-old child; I could weigh right from wrong myself.

Watching Boss Tang's heavy frame squeeze into the room before the door closed, I apathetically walked back to my own room.

The bedding was so bone-chillingly cold that I had no sleepiness left in me. Tomorrow, I would have to ask Yazhou for an extra quilt, otherwise sleeping over the next few days would be impossible.

Suddenly, a low sound of sobbing drifted over—desolate and sorrowful, its echoes lingering—accompanied by muffled, incoherent murmurs: "My face... Where is my face? Who took it... Where is my face..."

I shivered involuntarily, a sudden chill sweeping down my spine. This was the female ghost moaning! Didn't Boss Tang say he had suppressed her voice?! So muffling her just meant keeping her quiet while she walked, but not when she cried out!

"Wuwuwu... My face... Where is my face... Who took my face..." The eerie, desolate voice echoed continuously.

Damn it, this was far more terrifying than the sound of footsteps, and Boss Tang's methods were far too sloppy. How was I supposed to fall asleep under these conditions?

I considered grabbing a talismanic paper to subdue the female ghost once and for all, but Boss Tang held an unusual attachment to her. If I did that, he would certainly be displeased. I had no choice but to wait and discuss it with him tomorrow.

The female ghost's weeping continued unabated until the approach of dawn before finally fading away. Having spent the entire night sleepless, I drifted in a hazy, half-dreaming state.

Bang! A tremendous crash suddenly shattered the silence.

I jolted awake instantly, my eyes snapping open as I sat straight up in bed and blurted out, "I'll get up and exercise right now, just give me a moment!"

Turning my head, I saw Yazhou standing by the doorway, holding a birdcage and staring at me with a puzzled expression.

Damn it! It was just this kid! Why did he have to make such a loud noise opening a door? He might be mute, but he wasn't deaf! I actually thought old man Ma had come to drag me out for morning exercises at the crack of dawn! Staying in that village had truly left me with psychological trauma!