Since both Chen Ying and He Xiaoxiao looked extremely frightened, Meng Wan asked Lao Xu to report the matter to the general and said that he would send Chen Ying and He Xiaoxiao home.
He Simu covered her face and wiped away the remaining tears, then raised her arm and pointed to a courtyard not far away: "Captain, you don't have to see me off, we will live here."
Meng Wan opened his eyes wide in surprise, looked at the courtyard and then at her, and said: "You live next to the prefect's mansion, isn't this arranged for..."
As she was talking, she realized something: "Could it be that the woman who saved the general today was you?"
He Simu nodded and covered his heart.
"It is me, the humble one."
Meng Wan's eyes suddenly lit up with fire, without any pity or worry. She took two steps forward and grabbed He Simu's wrist: "You really have bad intentions. You are so deliberate in trying to get close to the general. What do you want to do? Tip off your master? Frame our general?"
He Simu laughed twice, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world, and repeated in a low voice: "Master?"
After a pause, she said, "Don't worry, Captain. I don't know that Duke. If the assassin wanted to kill the general, I should have entangled the general and let him die obediently, right?"
Meng Wan's eyes gleamed: "Then you have other intentions!"
This... is true.
He Simu looked at Meng Wan's hand holding his wrist, thinking that this teenage girl was really difficult to deal with, so he simply said: "I do have other intentions. To be honest, ever since the general came down from heaven to save the people of Liangzhou from disaster, I fell in love with the general at first sight, so I wanted to get close to the general."
Shen Ying uttered a small wow, his eyes lit up, and his pale face regained some redness. It was obvious that at such a young age, he already knew the fun of gossip.
"You! The general comes from a famous family, and only a noble lady from Nandu can be his match. How dare a country girl like you dream..." Meng Wan was angry and looked disdainful.
He Simu suddenly approached Meng Wan, looked into her eyes and said, "Then are you a noble lady from Nandu?"
Meng Wan was choked by her and her face turned red: "I am not..."
"That's it. You are not a noble lady in Nandu, and neither am I. You can't marry Duan Xu, and neither can I. But you like Duan Xu, and so do I. We are so like-minded. Isn't it fate that we are destined to support each other? Don't you think so?"
He Simu smiled and patted Meng Wan's shoulder. The little girl was so choked by her strange theory that she was speechless. He Simu turned around leisurely and walked home holding the hand of Xue Chenying, who had not dared to interrupt.
She suddenly remembered something and turned to Meng Wan and said, "Captain Meng, thank you for saving me today. But if you don't have the talisman in your hand in the future, it's better for you to run away when you see these evil spirits."
She tilted her head and smiled. The night was dark and snow was falling. Her face was faintly visible under the black veil, like a black veil lamp.
"After all, even the bravest sheep shouldn't fight with a wolf, right?"
The long night returned to peace.
The serenity in the eyes of mortals.
Suddenly, a blue light flashed in the cemetery on the outskirts of the city, and a woman's figure appeared vaguely in the light. When the light faded, her cloud-patterned cloth shoes with pointed toes stepped on the soft ground.
She was wearing a rust-red, curved-hem three-layered gown embroidered with flowing cloud and honeysuckle patterns, a style that was popular a hundred years ago. She had a white jade pendant tied around her waist, carved into the shape of a fine hexagonal palace lantern, emitting a blue glow.
If the small jade pendant revealed its true form, it would be the dreaded Ghost King Lamp.
The woman's face was pale and lifeless, with slender willow-shaped eyebrows and phoenix eyes, and a small mole at the corner of her eye. The so-called icy skin and jade bones are bright and beautiful, and this is it. Even in a dead atmosphere, there is a dead beauty.
He Simu inherited her parents' beauty, and her true body was also a physical body. It was a pity that even if this body was revealed to the public, it would be obvious that it was a dead person.
She twirled the jade pendant on her waist, raised her dark eyes, smiled lazily and said, "Get out."
The woman in green appeared in front of her along with a puff of green smoke, and knelt heavily on the ground, shaking like a sieve.
"Your Majesty, spare my life..."
"name?"
"Shao... Shao Yinyin..."
He Simu raised her hand in the air, and the jade pendant on her waist flickered, and a thick ancient book with curled pages fell into her hand.
She casually opened the ancient book and said as she turned the pages: "Shao Yinyin, Shao Yinyin died on the seventh day of the third month of the Gengzi year in Muli Town, Daizhou."
"Yes...slave..."
He Simu didn't wait for her to finish and called out, "Guan Huai."
The tone of her voice when she said these two words was different from usual, as if there was an invisible power contained in her voice, like a bowstring that was fully drawn and released, stirring the air.
As soon as he finished speaking, another puff of green smoke rose up and an old man fell out of the smoke.
The old man had wrinkles all over his face, a hunched body, white hair and beard that reached the ground, and he looked at least 100 years old from a human perspective. He seemed to be combing his hair before he was called over, with half of his hair tied up and the other half hanging messily on the ground, which was not only funny but also blocked his view.
"Your Majesty! Guan Huai is here!" He bowed in a panic, his voice too high-pitched and out of tune, like a broken gong.
"Master of the Ghost Palace, do I look like this tree?"
He Simu's voice came from behind him. Guan Huai lifted his hair and found that he was worshipping a dark locust tree. The locust tree was baring its fangs and claws as if it was mocking him. Guan Huai turned around quickly and almost tripped over his own hair.
"Your Majesty, please forgive my old and dim eyesight..."
"Master of the Ghost Palace, your hair has grown so long that it's a nuisance. Why don't you cut it off?"
Guan Huai immediately hugged his hair, and kept saying, "No, no, Your Majesty knows that our evil ghost's hair will not grow again after it is cut."
Under the King of Ghosts are the Left and Right Prime Ministers and twenty-four ghost ministers. Each ghost minister is in charge of a ghost palace. Guan Huai is the master of the Ghost Palace.
He Simu looked at him for a while, leaned against the tombstone and tapped the book, and said lightly: "Among the thirty-two golden wall methods, what is the third rule of the fifth one?"
Guan Huai was like a student in a private school who was being punished by his teacher. He trembled and froze for a long time before realizing, "Yes... ah, you are not allowed to eat children under ten years old!"
He Simu slammed the book shut and pointed at Shao Yinyin who was crawling on the ground: "The evil ghost in your hall wants to eat an eight-year-old child in front of me. It seems that the law is meaningless in front of the Lord of the Ghost Hall."
Guan Huai glanced at Shao Yinyin, who was shaking on the ground, and said with a smile: "This little girl has only been a demon for a short time, so she is not very sensible..."
"Not very sensible? Shao Yinyin, take out your black and white jar and let the Lord of the Ghost Palace see how ignorant you are." He Simu looked down at Shao Yinyin with a smile on his face.
Shao Yinyin's body was stiff, she almost sank into the dust, she shook her head pitifully and whispered: "I don't have any jars..."
He Simu narrowed his eyes slightly and said word by word: "I said, take it out."
The jade pendant on her waist suddenly emitted a dazzling fire, and Shao Yinyin screamed and tremblingly took out a jar with a big belly and a small mouth, with a pattern of babies playing on it.
As soon as he saw the jar, Guan Huai's face changed and he immediately shouted, "Fang Chang! Fang Chang!"
Another puff of green smoke came, and a tall and thin scholar in white clothes walked out of the green smoke. He knelt down with a pale face and saluted Guan Huai and He Simu.
"Greetings to the Palace Master, Your Majesty."
Guan Huai pointed at Fang Chang and said angrily, "I trusted you, and I entrusted you with the affairs of the Ghost Hall when I was in seclusion. How could you be so negligent in your duties that you didn't even notice that the evil ghosts in the hall were hoarding soul fire?"
This indignant accusation was a complete exoneration of himself. It was obvious that he knew he could no longer hold back and was looking for a scapegoat. His eyesight was blurry just now, but now it suddenly improved, and he could tell what the jar was at once.
"You are stringing the candied haws together one by one." He Simu smiled and took the black and white jar from Shao Yinyin's hand. The baby-playing pattern on the jar was a child wearing a bellyband playing Cuju, which was vivid and interesting.
In such a lovely jar, there are six soul fires of children under the age of ten, weak but pure.
"Killing a child under ten is the first crime, and hoarding soul fire is the second crime. What should be done according to the law?"
The pale scholar with a dignified face kowtowed and said sadly, "I beg you to be lenient and let Yinyin go! She didn't mean to disobey you. Yinyin had four sons, all of whom died in infancy. She finally died of dystocia when she gave birth to her fifth son. Yinyin had resentment in her heart and became a wandering soul. A hundred years later, she turned into an evil ghost. Her obsession as an evil ghost was to have children. She couldn't control herself. I beg you to spare her out of pity for her!"
Guan Huai immediately glared at Fang Chang fiercely.
He Simu looked up and down at the scholar-like evil ghost for a while, and said lazily: "Her life story is clearly written in the ghost book, why are you repeating it to me? I don't care whether she intends to disobey me, but I am in this position for a day..."
He Simu paused, his eyes gradually colder: "My laws must not be disobeyed."
Fang Chang lowered his head and gritted his teeth. He Simu walked closer to Fang Chang, bent slightly in front of him, and smiled, "Do you like Shao Yinyin?"
"Your Majesty..." Fang Chang glanced at Shao Yinyin quickly.
"So you feel sorry for her, indulge her, and conceal the truth?"
“Absolutely not!”
He Simu stroked the jade pendant on his waist and said nonchalantly, "There is a saying in the world that spoiling a child is like killing him, and the same is true between lovers."
Fang Chang seemed to want to say something else, but Guan Huai spoke first. Guan Huai scolded him, "Your Majesty is right! Every meal should be appreciated. You learned the principles when you were a human, but you forget them when you become a ghost? You should cherish the rice when you eat it, but you can be so careless when you eat people?"
Guan Huai winked at Fang Chang to tell him to stop talking, while glancing at He Simu's expression.
Shao Yinyin fell to the ground and stammered, "I hope Your Majesty will give Yinyin a lenient sentence considering that this is her first offense."
He Simu glanced at Guan Huai, who was righteous and awe-inspiring, and laughed: "This is the evil ghost in your temple. Logically, you should deal with it."
Fang Chang showed joy when he heard this, and Guan Huai shuddered. As expected, He Simu walked up to Guan Huai and patted his hunched shoulder.
"You deal with her, and I deal with you, how about that?"
"Old minister..."
"I am taking a rest now. Jiang Ai and Yan Ke will supervise the ghost realm on my behalf. You go and receive your punishment today. You don't have to tell me how you will deal with her. If her name is still on the ghost book after seven days, we will discuss it again."
He Simu didn't even look at Shao Yinyin and Fang Chang on the ground. He patted Guan Huai's shoulder again and disappeared in a burst of blue fire.
"Your Majesty, this old minister respectfully bids farewell." Guan Huai bowed deeply, then breathed a sigh of relief, as if He Simu was a mountain pressing down on him. As she walked, her back straightened a little.
He slowly turned around, lifted up his funny white hair, looked at Shao Yinyin and Fang Chang who were kneeling on the ground, and said angrily: "Fang Chang, Fang Chang, what can I say to you? It's ok for you to protect your lover, but you dare to talk back to the king? The things that Shao Yinyin did, even if you tell the king to the sky, he will not let go!"
Shao Yinyin looked at Fang Chang with a face full of panic. Before she could plead, Guan Huai scolded her again: "Are you scared now? You were so happy when you were hoarding soul fire to kill children!"
He was obviously a very old man, and his voice was like a broken gong, but when he scolded people he was full of energy, and his beard was blown up a foot high.
Fang Chang soothed Shao Yinyin's back with his slender palm. He showed a determined look on his face and kowtowed, "Palace Master, you are the oldest in the ghost realm, and the king must respect you. Fang Chang begs you, please help Yinyin. I am willing to work like a cow or a horse and will never forget your kindness!"
Guan Huai looked at Fang Chang for a while, then he sighed and said, "I am over three thousand years older, so what? He Simu was less than a hundred years old when she quelled the rebellion in the ghost realm and massacred the twenty-four ghost halls. Thirty percent of the hall masters were wiped out in her hands, and which one of them was not much older than her?"
"If her temper hadn't softened over the past hundred years, the words you just said would have been enough to turn you into ashes a thousand times over."
Fang Chang was stunned for a moment, and realized that the meaning of Guan Huai's words was that Shao Yinyin would not be saved. He could not help but fall to the ground in despair.
"Once this matter is settled, you can go and apologize to the king on my behalf. Remember to keep your mouth shut. The king rarely looks for us when he's resting, and he doesn't like being disturbed."
Guan Huai patted Fang Chang's shoulder, looked at Shao Yinyin who was shivering on the ground, shook his head and left.
He can't afford to offend He Simu, the moody ghost king with the strongest talent in the ten generations.