Of course, there was none.
Manbao didn’t regret having hit Bai Ning, and she wasn’t very scared either, but seeing Silang so worried he was nearly pulling his hair out, she still carefully thought about what herbs could make them look particularly pitiable.
Manbao searched her limited knowledge, checked and double-checked, and finally shook her head, "No."
Zhou Silang asked with a pained expression, "Then what do we do?"
Bai Shan finished applying the medicine and thought for a moment, "Since we can’t fake an external injury, why not pretend it’s internal?"
No sooner had he said this than he clutched his belly, "Ouch, I’ve got internal injuries from being kicked, there’s bleeding in my stomach."
Manbao watched for a while before clutching her head, "My head hurts, I think I bumped my head, I feel so dizzy."
He raised a paw to his chest and asked Manbao, "So, should my heart hurt?"
Manbao: "Heartache my ass, the heart is on the left side—you pressed the wrong spot."
Bai Erlang then shifted his hand over to his left chest and cried out, "Ah, my heart hurts."
A courtyard full of onlookers: ...
Mr. Zhuang, who had watched the whole scene from the door of the study and felt a headache coming on, moved out a chair and placed it in the courtyard, asking with curiosity, "Why are you fighting with Bai Ning? And gang up on her, outnumbering her?"
Although his three disciples were fairly clever, they were still quite principled at times. For instance, they wouldn’t gang up on a common foe, mostly adhering to the rules of justice.
If he recalled correctly, the Second Young Master from the Bai family next door was about the same age as the three children, shouldn’t it have been a one-on-one situation?
How did it become three against one?
Zhou Silang was also curious.
Manbao lowered her voice, "Teacher, Silang, do you remember the cries from our house a few nights ago just after dark?"
Mr. Zhuang shook his head, "I don’t remember."
Zhou Silang said, "I remember!"
Mr. Zhuang couldn’t help but look at him.
Zhou Silang said, "Teacher, it wasn’t from our side, it was coming from the Xiao Family opposite where we live. Was that his doing? I thought so, it’s just imprisonment for someone from the Xiao Family, nobody died, why would there be ghosts? It made me hide back here for the past couple of days."
Mr. Zhuang: "...So you moved back here these past few days because the place across was haunted."
Zhou Silang gave Mr. Zhuang an embarrassed chuckle.
Ever since Zhou Silang rented the Xiao Family’s courtyard across from theirs, Datou and Second Son would occasionally use their own bullock cart to deliver medicinal herbs and vegetables to their home.
Liulang had also basically moved out of the Zhiwei Restaurant and now lives across the street.
Even Zhou Lijun had moved over, and the Zhou family mostly lived and ate there, saving them from paying for living expenses on this side.
But for some reason these past two days, not only had Zhou Silang and Zhou Lijun moved back, but even Zhou Liulang, after finishing work in the evening, would come straight to Zhou Silang’s room to share his bed.
Since Datou and Second Son were away, the Xiao Family house was left suddenly empty.
Mr. Zhuang had thought they moved back because it was too cold and they didn’t have enough blankets, but now upon hearing this...
Mr. Zhuang asked, "What’s this about hauntings?"
"It’s not about hauntings!" Manbao said with some disappointment, "We checked it out and it was a Little Girl from the Bai Residence crying..."
When Manbao and the others first heard from Silang and Liulang that the Xiao Family was haunted again, they were a bit excited.
But since they had prior experience, they didn’t think it was a ghost but rather someone pretending to cry like a ghost.
However, the crying was genuinely realistic and didn’t seem like an attempt to scare people. They searched carefully and found that the person was not crying in the alley, but instead in the Bai Residence, right across the wall. At that moment, even Manbao started to doubt and wondered if it really was a haunting.
So, on a night when the sky was dark and the wind was high, which wasn’t actually all that dark because it had just gotten dark after they had finished their evening meal and were walking back...
The crying from across the way began right about then.
With Daji watching, Manbao and the others climbed up the wall and then lit a red lantern before jumping down, scaring the Little Girl who was crying in seclusion so badly that she fainted.
Luckily, Manbao was quick with her hands and knew first aid, preventing the girl from being scared to death.
But when the Little Girl woke up, she was still terrified. Seeing Manbao, she immediately burst into tears, saying she hadn’t meant to harm her...
Manbao was confused, thinking the Little Girl must have mistaken her for someone else, but the girl kept holding onto Manbao’s hand tightly, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing as she wept, "Miss Zhou, I really didn’t mean to, I’ve been punished too, please spare me..."
Manbao took a careful look at her, and after a while, exclaimed, "Ah! You’re the Little Girl who was supposed to guide me but got lost."
The Little Girl lifted her head and looked at Manbao with tears and snot all over her face.
Bai Shan furrowed his brow, asking, "What do you mean by that? Did she intentionally get lost to harm you?"
The Little Girl, realizing there were other people around, nervously looked up to see Bai Shan and Bai Erlang standing by, only then belatedly realizing the situation.
Right, Miss Zhou hadn’t died, she had left alive and well and without being humiliated. Why would she turn into a ghost to seek her out?
But under the gaze of three pairs of eyes, the Little Girl still trembled with fright because she might have let slip something incredibly damning.
Bai Shan stepped forward, encircling the Little Girl on the ground with Manbao and Bai Erlang, and under the pressure, the girl burst into tears, pleading, "Miss Zhou, please have mercy on me. It was the Second Young Master’s orders, I didn’t mean to harm you."
Bai Shan’s eyebrows knit together, "Bai Ning? What did he tell you to do to harm Manbao?"
The Little Girl sobbed so hard she hiccupped, "Not much, just... just... on Winter Solstice feast day, he had me lead Miss Zhou to the most secluded part of the garden. It’s thick with trees there, creepy, and I was just supposed to say some scary things to spook Miss Zhou, make her embarrass herself a bit."
Bai Erlang scratched his head, "And you’re crying here just because you failed to harm Manbao?"
The Little Girl shook her head frantically, "No, no."
How could she be so wicked as to cry over such a thing?
She explained, "I didn’t expect Miss Zhou to know her way around, she found the lotus pond on her own before we even got to the spot," the Little Girl said, "The Second Young Master came back the next day all angry, then he broke a cup and blamed it on me, saying I’d done it. He had me moved to the garden to do the grunt work. I have to do so much every day, and by the time I get back, all the food is gone. I was just so hungry and I felt so wronged, so I found a place where no one would see me and cried..."
Little did she know, even though she had sought such a hidden spot, she was still discovered, and by Zhou Man of all people.
Not daring to cry loudly, the Little Girl could only sob softly.