Chapter 45: The Peacock Flies Southeast (Part 1)

  "Fei Bai, save me! I'm over here!"

  The sound of the zither surged up, like a thunderbolt tearing through the vast sky, illuminating the dark and gloomy blackness. The sound of the zither seemed to be responding to my cry for help, completely overpowering the sound of the flute, filled with sorrowful sweetness, the madness of losing and regaining, and also seemed to be comforting me quietly, promising me secretly, and slowly entering my heart.

  My tears gushed out, Fei Bai was nearby, but Qi Fang Ming said that the elder brother's reinforcements would enter the city at dawn, could it be that Fei Bai had entered Zi Yuan?

  I was about to shout again when the whistle suddenly became shrill, as if it had become angry. The little boy who was carrying me on his shoulder poked my mute spot and continued walking silently.

  My calf's fresh blood dripped down, listening to the distant sound of the flute getting farther and farther away, the sound becoming more and more mournful and clear, yet I couldn't speak, extremely anxious, where were these two little creatures, like living dead men, going to take me?

  The moon was shining brightly, and before our eyes, a girl with a white umbrella floated silently down. She stood there, dressed in white, with a white dress and a white parasol, slowly turning around. On her forehead was a streak of white powder, and on her head was a white hairpin. Her face was as pale as a ghost's, with a thick layer of white powder, her eyebrows were deeply furrowed, and her eyes seemed to be flying. Those lips were red enough to seem like they would bleed. At nightfall, she was even more terrifying than that eerie little boy.

  She flew past our side, her white umbrella lightly spinning around, and the two little children hadn't even had time to react before they were torn apart.

  My eyes were about to heavily fall to the ground, her black fingernails stretched out and gently supported me, single-handedly helping me up, but she didn't untie my four limbs' acupoints, instead she untied my mute acupoint, clutched me under her armpit and flew forward. I was in so much pain that I couldn't open my mouth to cry for help, looking at her seductive profile, I was too scared to speak. After a long time, I mustered up the courage: "P-please, who are you?"

  The white gauze on her head fluttered long in the air, slid across the sky, and floated over the clear moon. She slightly tilted her head, and her rippling gaze glanced at me, making me dare not speak again. Her delicate eyebrows were lightly furrowed with worry, and her vermilion lips opened: "Not yet dead."

  Her voice was slow and soft, yet it evoked a sorrowful echo in mid-air. This scene made me feel that even the little Xiang from the Legend of Meng Jiangnu was not as sad as this. My hair stood on end like never before, so I just shivered and closed my mouth there.

  The sound of the flute came, and around us, there was again a shadow of a small child floating by. The faint sound of a non-white zither also came, as if searching for me. That dead person in the air sobbed a few times, like a ghost crying softly, and sang: "Like snow on the mountain peak, like the moon between the clouds. I heard you have two hearts, so I came to make a decision with you. Today we'll fight at the wine meeting, tomorrow at the head of the ditch. Walking along the imperial canal, the water flows east and west. Sorrowful, sorrowful, don't cry for marriage. Wish to get a person with one heart, white-haired but not separated. Why is the bamboo pole so thin? Why is the fish tail so short? A man values his honor, why use money and knife?"

  She was singing the White-Haired Girl's lament, a voice that was clear and melodious yet pierced through the air like a sharp arrow, and in an instant the sound of the flute disappeared without a trace. The little boy's figure hesitated in the western forest, the non-white qin sound suddenly broke off, the tail tone changed and hid in the empty space.

  My eardrums throbbed with pain, my head spinning, and blood gushed out from my throat. In a daze, the ghostly woman brought me to the entrance of a familiar mansion, where she stopped her incantation, released my acupoints, and pushed me inside. I slowly came back to consciousness, only to be shocked that she had actually led me into Xifeng Garden.

  The house in Xifengyuan was not burned down, and the Masonic temple stood there under the moonlight, looking at us coldly. The courtyard was covered with a thick layer of snow, which Wei Hu and Su Hui used to sweep clean every year. Last year, I even built a snowman with Su Hui in the snowy ground, and Xie San Niang found a red dress for it from her trunk to make us happy. The red dress fit the big snowman perfectly, and Su Hui joked that it must be Xie San Niang's wedding dress when she married his father. Xie San Niang tried to hit him with her fat palm, but he hid behind Fei Bai's wheelchair. Fei Bai still had a cold face and scolded Su Hui lightly, but his beautiful eyes were staring at the snowman in the red plum rain. I knew that he actually liked the snowman too.

  Memories of the past floated one by one in my mind, and I stood there stupidly thinking. The ghost pulled me into the Xīn Táng Pavilion, and she whispered in my ear: "Tell me where the entrance to the Dark Palace is?"

  "I don't understand what you're saying?" I said coldly, taking a step back and keeping some distance from this widow whose intentions were still unclear. It was unwise to trust her too quickly. Unexpectedly, she crept up like a ghost and grabbed my neck with both hands, lifting me up: "Since you're acting as the substitute for Yuan Wuyou, leading one thousand brothers-in-arms out of the secret estate, how could you not know how to enter the secret palace?"

  "You also know I'm from the Dark Mansion, where would I know what the Dark Palace is?" I gasped for breath.

  The widow's hand tightened slightly, and she said in a low voice: "The entrance to the Dark Palace is also the entrance to the Dark Villa. You should know that if you don't speak up now, you will never see that person who has been with you for so long again."

  My vision began to blur, and I muttered: "Not being able to see him is my good fortune." She secretly put me down, her red eyes dimming slightly as the killing intent dissipated. She looked at me dazedly for a while, softly repeating my words: "Not being able to see him is my good fortune."

  "But I still have to see him," she stared blankly ahead: "I've been searching for him in the Western Regions for many years, there are some people you must meet, and some things you must face."

  She suddenly stopped being dazed, and smiled eerily. Her other hand secretly twisted my injured leg, and I immediately heard the sound of my leg bone breaking. The wound that was originally just bleeding due to the silver threads of those ghostly children had now torn open a big gash, with blood flowing out like water, pain piercing through my heart. Drops of blood fell onto the glazed floor of the Xīn Yuè Pavilion from my dangling calf.

  She finally knocked me down heavily, I fell sitting in my blood pool, covering the wound that wouldn't stop bleeding and scolding loudly: "You crazy woman, I have no grudges against you, why did you harm me?"

  "Don't blame me, nor can you blame me," she said faintly: "Who told you to be liked by the men of the Yuan family? The men of the Yuan family are all demons. Anyone who is liked by a demon will have the most miserable fate in this world. Therefore, the men of the Yuan family must die, and the people of the Yuan family must also die."

  Her eyes gleamed with cruel excitement: "Because only when the people they love most die, will the men of the original family be more painful."

  "I don't even know what you're talking about?" I said coldly. "I'm just a small servant, not some pampered person from the Dong family."

  "If you were just a little servant, how would that little scoundrel dare to risk breaking her heart and veins to block my magic sound? Little scoundrel? Then she and the Yuan family are either enemies or friends, my life is really bitter, I've just escaped the tiger's den and entered the wolf's lair!"

  She stood up, her eyes slowly scanning the room, finally falling on the portrait of Mrs. Xie's ancestral hall, where the mechanism was located. Her gaze flashed at me and turned the painting axis.

  The portrait of Mrs. Xie was taken away, revealing a hidden door. She smiled strangely and dragged my injured leg into the dark door. I screamed in pain as I entered the dark world.

  A soft rustling sound, a burst of flames erupted from the slender fingers of a black jade hand, faintly illuminating the dark world around us. Suddenly, two massive passageways unfolded before our eyes. Her gaze turned to me again, and I panted: "I was following someone else in flight, it was pitch-black, I had no idea which path."

  She smiled lightly and swayed her waist, chanting: "Dreams within dreams are all dreams, bright roads and dark roads are all roads."

  She swept her long water sleeves and dragged me to the right passage. I secretly cursed, actually I vaguely remembered that Wei Hu brought me and Su Hui into the dark mansion through the left passage before.

  She giggled: "Xī Fēng Yuàn has always been the entrance to the original family's secret palace. Those who can live in Xī Fēng Yuàn are also the future masters of the secret palace. Since Second Brother gave Xī Fēng Yuàn to your family master, he must know the secrets of this secret palace."

  How is this woman so familiar with this place? Isn't she also a member of the Yuan family, and if so, why does she harbor such deep hatred towards the men of the Yuan family?

  My master is Fei Bai. Since her Second Brother gave Xifengyuan to Fei Bai, isn't the Second Brother in her words Yuan Qingjiang?

  I coldly said: "You say you are a widow, listening to your tone, aren't you the original family's widow?"

  She stopped her mad laughter, and a hint of nostalgia appeared in her eyes: "In the past, this place was called Xiquan Garden because there were healing hot springs here. But Big Brother didn't like the name, so he changed it to Xifeng Garden. Second Brother would often sneak me in to play with Big Brother, and later Xifeng Garden became Second Brother's. At that time, Second Brother was still willing to share all his secrets with me, so I and Minglang moved in to live with him."

  She suddenly opened her mouth and poured out a lot of gossip, leaving me dizzy and disoriented. I couldn't help but ask: "What about your older brother?"

  She turned to me, under the dim light of a lamp, her face painted with oil colors leaned close to me, and her eyes that were drawn too brightly sparkled with a hint of evil. She looked at me as if I was a bit strange, I didn't know what this question meant, her vermilion lips whispered: "He's dead."

  I shivered, but she continued to speak nervously: "He was too weak, mistakenly entered this underground palace, encountered a hidden killer, and could no longer escape," She stretched out a slender pale finger, pointing at me: "He died right where you're sitting now."

  I leapt up on one leg in fright and hopped away to a different spot.

  "He's too weak, in the Yuan family he can be a servant or a slave, he can be ruthless and unscrupulous, he can be despicable and shameless, he can be foolish and crazy, but he just can't be weak," she said with disdain, as if she wasn't talking about her own brother. "In the Yuan family, weakness means death, he can't even handle a small assassin in the dark palace, how can he possibly take over Father's legacy and the Ming Palace? The rules of the dark palace are that except for the master of the Ming Palace, no one is allowed to enter or leave at will. Logically speaking, as the eldest son and heir of the Yuan family, the dark palace should have let him go back up, but at that time the Dark God was too arrogant, he thought that his brother couldn't even lead the family, let alone the most powerful dark palace of the Yuan family, so he allowed that assassin to beat him to death."