Nan Zhi drove the carriage, but she was in no rush to leave through the city gate.
She circled around to the street where the City God Temple stood and pulled the carriage into a long-abandoned courtyard.
The courtyard was overgrown with weeds and thoroughly desolate; looking in from outside, one could only see a dilapidated house on the verge of collapse and wild grass standing half as tall as a person.
“Squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak!”
At the sound of footsteps, more than a dozen rat heads popped out of the grass one after another, like mushrooms sprouting after rain.
Recognizing a familiar face, the little rats lowered their guard and chattered non-stop:
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak!”
“Squeak, squeak, squeak!”
“Lady Zhi! You’re here!”
Shu Jiulang poked his body out of the grass and said gleefully:
“When Old Shu handles things, you can set your mind at ease! Those two drank our rat urine and are out cold like dead pigs. They won’t be waking up anytime soon.”
The large rat stepped back, revealing the unconscious Manager Wang and Wang Chen hidden in the grass.
Both had their eyes tightly shut. Their faces and necks were covered in red, swollen mosquito bites, and what bare skin was exposed bore quite a few rat paw prints.
Both were bound tightly with rope, showing no signs of struggle.
By the looks of it, they were indeed knocked out cold.
“Is Lady Zhi setting off on a long journey?”
Shu Jiulang had helped Nan Zhi hide the prisoners without prying too much. He merely giggled and plucked a tuft of rat fur from his own body:
“We rats are scattered all across the world. Though we may be small, being small has its own advantages.
I know I can’t help with much, but when it comes to gathering information, tracking people, and finding objects, if we rats claim to be second best, no one dares claim first!
Lady Zhi, take this tuft of fur with you. Wherever you travel, look for the largest locust tree in the area.
All you have to do is place this fur beneath the tree, and the local rat clan will know you are my friend and come to lend a hand!”
“Thank you.”
Nan Zhi cupped her hands: “I won’t say more for now, but once I return, I will definitely treat you to wine.”
Shu Jiulang’s eyes crinkled into two slits, looking quite sly:
“Hehe! Then Old Shu will be waiting to drink Lady Zhi’s fine wine!”
...
Nan Zhi hurried out of the city in the carriage, galloping along the road. Only when the city gates of Dingyuan County were completely out of sight did she rein in the horse.
“Thud!”
“Crash—”
A commotion echoed from inside the carriage, as if someone had collapsed onto the floorboards.
“Where is this? Who is driving the carriage out there—where are you taking me?!”
“Young Master, Young Master, are you hurt? Ah?”
Nan Zhi lifted the carriage curtain, greeted by two identical faces of terror.
Young Master Wang was in a wretched state, his robes in disarray, and both arms tied securely behind his back. Not a shred remained of the unyielding backbone he had once prided himself on as a scholar.
Manager Wang had slumped inside the carriage, seemingly attempting to help untie Young Master Wang’s ropes.
Alas, old and frail, he struggled for a long time without loosening the bonds even a bit.
Seeing Nan Zhi’s face appear outside the carriage, both startled and glared at her warily.
Young Master Wang glared at Nan Zhi, tearing away his hypocritical facade as he snarled maliciously:
“Where on earth are you taking me?! I am a scholar by imperial examination! Even if I am to be sentenced for any crime, it is not your place to do so!
If you have any sense, let me go home at once! Otherwise, when my wife reports this to the authorities, I will certainly sue you for disrespecting a scholar, acting lawlessly, and defying the law!”
“Did you lose your memory? Or did drinking rat urine fry your brain?
I told you before: I am taking both of you witnesses to Dongjing to beat the drum and complain of grievance. Did you think I was joking with you?”
Nan Zhi pointed at the ropes around them:
“Don’t bother struggling. This rope is what my father usually uses to tie up pigs. It’s soaked in water and will only get tighter and tighter. Unless you possess the strength of nine oxen and two tigers, you won’t break free.”
“Lady Zhi, we cannot go to Dongjing! If we go there, we are as good as dead!”
Manager Wang wept bitterly, begging relentlessly:
“The master has already passed away, and the young master is now the sole continuation of the Wang family lineage! If anything happens to him, I’m afraid the ancestors of the Wang family won’t be able to rest in peace underground!”
“Don’t worry. The Wang family ancestors don’t have time to care about you right now—they’re probably being pinned to the ground and beaten by the Qu family down below.”
Nan Zhi took two wads of cloth and stuffed them directly into their mouths, feeling oddly like a movie villain:
“We still have to cover ground today, so you’ll just have to endure this posture for a while. Once we reach an inn, I’ll untie you.”
Having said that, she retrieved an oil-paper umbrella from the carriage.
This oil-paper umbrella was something Nan Zhi had brought from home.
Unlike the faux-antique paper umbrellas of later generations, this type of umbrella was crafted by artisans who hand-split bamboo strips, piecing the ribs together bit by bit before applying layer upon layer of tung oil.
It was remarkably durable.
Swish—
With a crisp snap of the umbrella ribs, the canopy unfurled, casting a patch of shadow over Nan Zhi’s head.
The sun was not particularly harsh, nor was it raining.
Opening an umbrella on a clear day would surely have drawn mockery from passersby for doing something completely unnecessary.
Yet in the very next second, a plume of misty black qi welled up beneath the umbrella, gradually condensing into a human figure—
“Mmm... Staying in this umbrella for so long makes this one’s bones feel completely limp.”
Holding the umbrella and cradling a human head in her arms, Wanniang’s gorgeous face showed a hint of teasing:
“I didn’t expect you knew how to drive a carriage. Though your skills leave much to be desired—on the way here, this one was nearly shaken to death inside this umbrella.”
Seeing a ghost materialize beneath the umbrella, the two inside the carriage instantly shut their mouths, not even daring to open their eyes.
“This is my first time driving a carriage too. You should thank the heavens that I managed to get it moving at all.”
Nan Zhi gave a soft snort and gestured behind her with the whip:
“These two have been smuggled out, but we can’t just let them sleep and lie around all the way to Dongjing.
Otherwise, even when we arrive, people might think I tortured them with lynching, and no one will believe their confession or testimony.
Do you have any method to make them behave obediently?”
“That’s easy.”
Wanniang’s gaze swept across the old man and the youth, and she broke into a sudden, gentle smile:
“All we need is to make them swallow a few hair worms.
The hair worms will burrow into their bellies. If they disobey, the worms will slowly gnaw away at their hearts, livers, and intestines.
Come to think of it, this is all thanks to that dead ghost Wang Fugui. If not for him, I wouldn’t even know I could be this formidable!”
Wang Fugui was indeed a dead ghost now.
Nan Zhi silently quipped to herself.
Although Manager Wang and Young Master Wang expressed intense disgust and resistance toward ‘eating hair,’ in the end they had no choice but to surrender to Nan Zhi’s tyrannical might.
The hair worms were indeed wondrous.
The moment either of them harbored thoughts of escape or opened their mouth to call for help, they would immediately spasm and collapse to the ground as if suffering an epileptic seizure.
Nan Zhi scrolled through the map and discovered it would take two days of travel to reach the next town.
However, a problem arose: she still had to go to work in reality.
Thus, a stroke of inspiration hit Nan Zhi, and she came up with an ingenious, brilliant idea.
She handed the driving duties over to Young Master Wang and appointed Wanniang as the supervisor.
Ghosts required neither food nor drink, nor did they need rest, making it exceptionally convenient for Wanniang to supervise.
At this moment, if any passerby happened along, they would witness a peculiar scene:
A refined, fair-faced scholar was driving a carriage, beside whom sat a woman in mourning clothes holding an umbrella.
The scholar looked ashen and fidgety with dread.
The woman was all smiles, her gaze tender and gentle.
If the scholar showed the slightest hint of unhappiness or reluctance, the woman said nothing—she merely smiled.
Immediately after, the scholar would put on a mournful face, clutch his stomach, and wail in agony.
It truly was quite a bizarre combination.
It seemed...
Wanniang actually rather enjoyed this task.
Nan Zhi rubbed her chin, leaned back against the carriage wall with peace of mind, and crossed her legs to go AFK.
The next second, her consciousness returned.
Back in reality, Nan Zhi stretched her body thoroughly.
Rate on N.U.
