You Understand the Female Ghost's Killing Pattern!

【Damn it. This female ghost's scheming runs deep as all this. She knows full well you cannot bear the sight of a slaughter so wretched, yet she still conjures an illusion of the whole village burned, killed, and looted by horse bandits, striking straight at your soft spot! You force down the urge to step in and help, and at once make up your mind to turn and run. You will absolutely not stay and walk into her trap. At the same time, deep in your heart, you swear it viciously: one day you will capture her and subdue her, and afterward set her in all eighteen positions and give her a thorough working-over, so she knows, clear as clear, what comes of scheming against you...】 【No! You do not mean to turn and run, because in a daze you have suddenly understood this female ghost's killing pattern! This is not merely an illusion! This is a dream shaped from the female ghost's obsession! This female ghost has something to ask of you! She needs your help!】 "???" This was asking for help? This was even more outrageous than you asking me to give you face!! Liu Xiu cursed that crazy, stinking woman in his heart, yet from it he indirectly understood that he truly did not have to turn and run. Though he had not been planning to run in the first place! Before the sound had fallen, his steps were already ahead. There was no hard, bitter fight. There were only blade-flashes bursting out without end, and screams. Oh. Right. And the sound of people dropping. "Gulp..." A gulp came from the throat of the female ghost playing the pitiful villager. She had only one thought: were scholars these days all this formidable? Pah—she should have said Daoist! "This Daoist knows martial arts too?" The female ghost was astonished, and merely took it that the Yin-Soul Locking Dream Art she cultivated had not reached a high enough realm, and had not fully shut out Liu Xiu's own memories. "Huff... It's been so long since I killed anyone. I nearly got rusty..." Liu Xiu panted lightly, thinking it in silence. Right. Forgot to say it. Before he knocked around the entertainment world, he had taken part in certain financial work that involved moving funds. On top of that, given how particular the setting was, the entertainment projects he joined all ran rather real. The whole point was that the play was real. Nothing to be done about it. Who made fake guns cost more than real ones? Just as he was about to leave, a voice rang out. It was not the female ghost's, but a middle-aged woman's. "Wuwu, wuwu, oh, my son! Why didn't you come sooner? If you had come sooner, my son would not have been killed by these horse bandits..." As she spoke, the middle-aged woman lunged at Liu Xiu with a savage face. Just as the female ghost rose, ready to go on according to the original plot— Shua— Thud— The middle-aged woman clutched the throat the broadsword had slashed, her face full of shock and blank confusion. Her gaze turned instinctively toward the female ghost. She meant nothing else by it. She only wanted to know whether she was supposed to fall or not. The original story was not like this! In the original story, she was to make trouble for Liu Xiu, and the female ghost was to clear him. But... how had she been killed too! "Damned horse bandits, daring to disguise yourselves as common folk!" Liu Xiu, the killing already easy in his hand, added a line. The female ghost came back to herself and signaled the middle-aged woman to hurry up and die. She was just about to speak to Liu Xiu when she saw him set down the broadsword, turn, and walk off. It was not a run. But the pace was extremely fast! The sight left the female ghost and the others looking rather stunned! "???" The female ghost blanked for a moment, gathered her skirt, and hurried after Liu Xiu. Swallowing, a little afraid, she set herself in his path, then bowed, and spoke through falling tears in a wretched voice. "Young master, stay your steps. I have a word to say. I am Madam Liu, first wife of Shen Yu of Lianshan. In serving my mother-in-law I labored day and night and never slacked. My husband was long away at trade. The concubine Mei'er envied me the charge of the household, secretly bought a strange poison, and murdered my mother-in-law in stealth. When the deed was done she destroyed the vessels and wiped away the traces, then bribed the servants, and with one voice they falsely accused me of poisoning my mother-in-law. When my husband returned he was misled by her slander. He did not look into the truth, but caned me and drove me out. The neighbors could not tell true from false, and vied to spread word that I was rebellious and unfilial. Spit and curses came down together. I had nowhere to rest, and drifted here. Now I have met you, young master. If Heaven shows pity, I dare beg you to lay the matter before the yamen for me, expose their wicked plot, and clear this injustice shut over me like an overturned basin. If my name can be washed clean, I will not regret it though I die nine deaths. I only ask the young master to see it clearly..." "......" What a string of ghost-talk! Liu Xiu, who had nearly failed to understand a word of it, tried to translate it in his heart. Once he had, he more or less got it. This female ghost surnamed Liu—her mother-in-law had been killed by the new concubine her husband had taken. But the concubine, while the husband was away, had colluded with a thief of the house and pinned the mother-in-law's death on her. When the husband came home, he believed it! She was given a beating. She was not beaten to death, but she was divorced. Then a foul name clung to her. Then she would not accept it, and so she came to him to wash the injustice clean! Granted, he did not understand how this female ghost surnamed Liu, dead for nearly a hundred years already, was still supposed to clear her name. Did that mean going down to the underworld? And you set up a scene this big only to have me clear your wrong? Are you sure this counts as asking for help? Is this the attitude of someone asking a favor? What, so in the old days you kneel, and I beg you to get a little something done for you, for me? The commentary in Liu Xiu's heart did not stop. He looked at the female ghost without expression, inclined his head slightly, and a mild smile came onto his face. "Speak, then. How am I supposed to help you!" A pity he could not call up his thunder arts at present, nor summon that Heavenly Thunder Sword. Otherwise he would certainly have given this female ghost something to remember! "Simple. The young master need only help me slip into my former husband's house, and find evidence that the venomous woman colluded with a thief of the household to frame me!" The female ghost rejoiced inwardly and spoke in a rush. Liu Xiu frowned to hear it. "So much trouble? What if I just help you kill them all?" "???" In the end, was he the ghost who harmed people, or was she? The female ghost's beautiful eyes went wide, her small mouth fell open, and she shook her head at once. "The young master truly need not go so far. I already have a plan..." "Oh, oh..." Appeal in the underworld, and dissolve the obsession? Liu Xiu muttered it in his heart. On the surface he gave nothing away. Just as he was about to ask in more detail, the surroundings changed all at once. In the turn of an eye, the small mountain village from before became a study bright with lamplight. The clothes on him were replaced with a manservant's clothes as well. The clothes on the female ghost surnamed Liu were changed into a maid's outfit too. And he had to say it—this woman was one fine hey... Liu Xiu, not faking it in the least, looked this female ghost surnamed Liu carefully up and down. Though she wore a plain maid's costume, that proud figure was hard to conceal. She had on a short jacket of plain coarse cloth, collarless, its broad lapel crossing to the right, and over it a sleeveless vest of blue-green satin. A deep-red waist cloth at her waist drew out the delicate curve of a slender waist. Below, she wore a long skirt, plain and elegant, the hem swaying lightly with her steps. Her face was fresh and lovely, her neck long and jade-fair. A plain silver hairpin sat slanted in her bun, and a pair of phoenix eyes held a grief and a pride that seemed there and not there. Farther down, because the clothes were a little small, two points stood out all the more. In the mind of Liu · Scholar · Xiu, a passage of description appeared of its own accord. The cloth across this woman's chest was stretched tight, ready to burst. Her waist was cinched by the waist cloth until it was a soft handful, and the line of her hips rose in rounded swells beneath the skirt. She could definitely bear sons!! This was the first thing Liu Xiu's senses told him! "Young Master Zhou, what are you looking at me like that for? We had better hurry and find the evidence that the slut colluded with the steward to frame me..." Madam Liu stopped her rummaging, cheeks faintly flushed, and said it to Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu's brows drew in slightly. "Actually, I still think killing them is the fastest. That way we save ourselves the..." "Uh... there is truly no need. I only want to prove my own innocence..." Madam Liu bit her lip, astonishment on her face. But in her heart she let out a breath when she saw Liu Xiu answer the moment he heard the words Young Master Zhou. What she feared was that he had not been affected by her Yin-Soul Locking Dream Art. Having said that, she did not wait for Liu Xiu to answer and went on. "I only want my innocence cleared. I have never dared stir a thought of killing without cause. If I washed this wrong clean with blood, how would I be any different from that slut?" At these words, the rims of Madam Liu's eyes reddened. That full figure trembled faintly under the coarse clothes, like a white rabbit startled, yet still forcing itself to keep calm. Truly it was panic with stubbornness showing through, and softness with backbone hidden inside. "???" Hell—I've seen a ghost. Where am I getting all these words to describe her! Liu Xiu was astonished in his heart. He was just about to speak when he saw Madam Liu draw close. The very picture of pitiful delicacy, she threw herself into his arms. "I beg Zhou Sheng to clear this buried wrong for me. I have nothing with which to repay you. If the young master does not disdain that I was once given in marriage as another man's wife, I am willing, with this frail body of rush and willow, to serve the young master upon pillow and mat, and so repay one ten-thousandth of so great a kindness..." "Ah... right here?" Liu Xiu froze and looked around, his expression a little blank. No way. They were in her ex-husband's house right now, searching for evidence. Though, like this, it did seem rather thrilling!