The yamen runners all tied up Xiao Erlang. The Xiao Family members dared to cause trouble against outsiders like Manbao and her companions, but they did not dare to lay hands on the yamen runners.
The street neighbors, who had come to join in the excitement, now saw Xiao Erlang’s face and couldn’t help discussing among themselves, "It really is one of the Xiao Family’s kids."
"Was it their family that’s been haunting these past two years?"
"This is truly shameless. Since it was their Erlang causing the disturbances on purpose, why didn’t they say anything? My family has been afraid to go out at night, not even daring to leave the house to use the toilet."
"Who would have thought Xiao Erlang had this kind of problem?"
"It must be fake. He used to look quite normal. I never heard he had any crazy fits, and why didn’t we see him go mad before? Why only after the Yan Family was searched did he suddenly become crazy?"
Xiao Erlang cried and begged for mercy desperately, but when he saw it was no use, he quickly exposed Manbao and the others, "It’s not just me pretending to be a ghost, they were doing it too."
Manbao denied, "Not at all. We were hiding in the firewood stack to catch ghosts. You mistook us for ghosts yourself."
Bai Shanbao added, "That’s right, you were the one playing ghost and got scared, whose fault is that?"
"No, you were clearly dressed in white like me, and your hair was disheveled. You were intentionally trying to scare people by pretending to be ghosts."
Manbao said, "We’ve only been here for a few days. We were going to catch the ghost, and besides, there was only your fake ghost in the alley. Where was anyone else?"
Bai Shanbao, however, touched his chin and said, "You didn’t mention, I had almost forgotten. We were hiding in that firewood stack at first, and we didn’t see you come out from your house. You suddenly appeared at the end of the alley. Where did you pop out from?"
Xiao Erlang was so frightened that he immediately kept quiet, and the Xiao Family members also didn’t dare to move.
Their behavior was such that not only Bai Shanbao and his companions, but also the street neighbors, all sensed something was amiss.
The yamen runner saw that up until now, their stories were still murky and they denied many charges. He couldn’t help but pick up the whip and give Xiao Erlang a lash, barking, "Tell me, where did you come out from?"
Xiao Erlang was soaked in cold sweat and too frightened to speak.
Manbao said, "At the end of the alley is the Yan Family’s enclosure wall. You wouldn’t have come out from there, would you?"
Xiao Erlang nearly knelt to the ground.
When everyone saw this, they immediately turned to go check at the end of the alley. Xiao Family’s old grandmother immediately started crying out, "Erlang is a madman, ah, you can’t take seriously anything a madman does... "
Xiao Erlang trembled all over. "Mother——"
Bai Shanbao looked at Xiao Erlang with sympathy and told him, "If you shoulder this crime alone, it’s certainly going to be heavy. But if you share the blame, you might receive a lighter sentence. After all, there’s an old saying, ’The law does not punish the masses.’"
Bai Erlang said, "Is that how ’The law does not punish the masses’ is used?"
And how many people are in their family? That counts as ’the masses’?
Manbao didn’t bother with them anymore and ran outside as fast as she could. She was particularly interested in where Xiao Erlang came from.
Many people holding torches and sticks followed to add to the excitement. Zhou Silang naturally followed close by her side. The siblings were the first to reach the place where Xiao Erlang burned paper money.
There were still some unburned spirit money and ashes on the ground. Everyone saw this and believed Manbao and the others even more.
A bit further in front of the fire was the Yan Family’s enclosure wall. Manbao went up to take a look, and as someone lifted the torch closer, they all saw scattered stones on the ground and a large hole at the bottom of the wall.
The yamen runner pushed through the crowd to take a look. Upon seeing the hole, he drew his knife so quickly and pointed at the Xiao Family members, demanding, "Who exactly are you?"
Another yamen runner shouted, "Members of the remaining Yan Family?"
The crowd instantly dispersed, revealing the Xiao Family members.
Shivering, the Xiao patriarch finally spoke as he knelt on the ground, "Your Honor, our family has lived in the city for generations, and our neighbors can testify to that."
"Yes, yes, these are the Xiao’s people."
"Don’t bother anymore, tie them up," the lead yamen runner decided swiftly and reached for the ropes to seize them.
Seeing this, Xiao Dalang scrambled up from the ground and started to run, but a yamen runner kicked his leg, tripping him to the ground. The runner then struck Xiao Dalang’s back hard with the back of his blade, pressed him down, and caught him.
The yamen runners were angry and demanded, "Where’s the Land Officer? Go find the Land Officer!"
One yamen runner shouted, "Though the Jin Law does not punish families together, if you help a criminal escape, you will be guilty!"
They were only night patrol yamen runners, a team of three, one of whom was holding Xiao Erlang in the courtyard. With just two of them here and so many Xiao Family members, if they really decided to run, it wasn’t certain they could catch them all.
Therefore, they had no choice but to use intimidation first.
Hearing this, the neighbors immediately stepped back several paces, fearing they would get dragged into the matter.
Meanwhile, the two yamen runners tied up Xiao Dalang and drew their horizontal blades, declaring, "Resist and you die!"
The Xiao Family members were so scared that they collapsed to the ground.
Manbao and the others were also startled and leaned against the wall for a long time without speaking.
After the two yamen runners tied up the Xiao Family members and threw them aside, Manbao raised her hand and said, "Officer Brother, I can help you guys to take a look inside and see what’s there."
The yamen runner A had already been interested in them and couldn’t help but glance at her, "You child, you’re too brave. Aren’t you afraid of ghosts inside?"
"If there was a ghost, would he dare to come out?" said Manbao. "Since the ghost that’s been around for two years is fake, it’s clear that there are indeed no ghosts in this world."
The yamen runners were indeed curious about what was behind the wall, so they snatched a torch from a neighbor and handed it to Manbao, "Alright, you go."
Manbao was delighted, immediately took the torch, and started to crawl inside.
The hole wasn’t small; a sturdy adult might have had some difficulty, but there was no problem for young teenagers of twelve or thirteen years old.
Manbao extended the torch ahead, careful not to let it touch the ground, and then quickly crawled inside using her hands and feet.
Bai Shan followed closely behind her buttocks, and when Zhou Silang saw that Bai Er wasn’t moving, he kicked his buttocks, "Hurry up."
Bai Er still hadn’t come to his senses when he squatted down and crawled inside.
Zhou Silang slipped inside as well.
Daji backed up a dozen steps, then sprinted and with a leap, stepped off the wall and in two or three moves jumped to the top and down, getting into the courtyard even faster than Manbao.
The two yamen runners: ...
The two exchanged a look, gaining a deeper understanding of the people renting this room.
Manbao crawled into the courtyard and looked up to see a dark figure standing in front of her, which scared her so much that she sat down on the ground.
She immediately raised the torch to see, and upon seeing it was Daji, she couldn’t help but complain, "Daji, you have to make a sound!"
Daji replied, "Miss Man."
Then, to Bai Shan who crawled out after her, he called, "Young Master."
Bai Er crawled out and felt a sense of security when he saw Daji. He got up from the ground and ran to Daji’s side, asking, "Daji, when did you sneak in? How come I didn’t notice?"
Manbao and Bai Shan, holding torches, walked forward a bit and all exclaimed in unison, "We finally know why they were pretending to be ghosts."
Daji hurried to catch up and see.