Jiang Si looked down at the trowel in her hand and suddenly understood.
This wasn’t a gardener’s trowel carelessly left by the wall, but a tool for the two servants to bury bodies at any time!
No wonder the trowel was so sturdy…
This thought flashed through Jiang Si’s mind, and she knew she couldn’t wait any longer.
Neither of the servants was a fool. They were doing heinous deeds and would be on high alert. The missing trowel would certainly raise their suspicions.
Her hiding place was far from ideal, barely concealing her form, relying only on the cover of night.
If the two servants came back to search, they would easily find her. Escaping then would inevitably alert them.
Tonight’s discoveries were significant, and Jiang Si had no intention of letting that happen.
In this critical moment, Jiang Si turned her right-hand palm up, calming her mind. A faint light appeared in her palm, quickly detaching and flying swiftly towards the two servants.
At first glance, the dim light resembled common fireflies, but much fainter.
Jiang Si hadn’t expected to use this so soon.
This was called a phantom firefly, made from a precise mixture of white horn grass powder and various herb powders, ignited with beef tallow to attract them, and fed with human blood to lie dormant within a person’s body, ready to be commanded.
The phantom firefly had no killing power but could induce hallucinations. Of course, it couldn’t easily induce hallucinations under all circumstances.
For instance, when a person was calm, the phantom firefly would find it difficult to take advantage.
In the current situation, Jiang Si wasn’t worried at all. If someone committing murder and arson showed no psychological weakness, they would be a demon, not human.
Although the phantom firefly was unusual, it was still a type of insect, known as “gu” among the Wu Miao tribe.
Jiang Si was reluctant to call the phantom firefly “gu.” The term “gu” often evoked mystery and even malevolence, but these were simply lovely, beautiful little insects. Her raising these insects was no different from others keeping cats or dogs.
The phantom firefly flew to the two servants, entering through their left ears and exiting through their right, finally returning to Jiang Si’s palm, its faint light dissipating.
This process was extremely swift and completed in an instant.
“Did we forget to put it back last time and leave it in the flower bed?” An Zi wondered aloud.
Lu Zi, holding the trowel, frowned. “No, I clearly remember putting it away. It couldn’t have been left in the flower bed.”
“Then what’s going on?”
“Could someone have moved it?” Lu Zi’s tone suddenly became tense.
“That’s impossible. The gardener tidied up once at the beginning and we scolded him. He hasn’t dared to touch anything since.”
“What if it was someone else?” Lu Zi said ominously.
An Zi was startled. “Brother Lu, don’t scare me.”
They weren’t nervous about burying bodies on this night because they were used to it, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be anxious if someone discovered them.
Lu Zi, thinking of something, suddenly turned around.
An Zi instinctively turned with him.
A woman stood before them.
The woman had disheveled hair, and a pale face, and in the moonlight, they could see bloody gashes beneath her tattered clothes. In her hand, she held a trowel.
The two men slowly turned their stiff necks to look at each other, both seeing suffocating fear in the other’s eyes.
“G-ghost!” An Zi tried to scream, but fear choked his voice to a whimper. He turned and ran.
Lu Zi fared no better. After a few steps, he fell hard, scrambled to his feet, and fled without daring to look back, desperately chasing after An Zi.
As the two disappeared, Jiang Si stepped out.
She didn’t know exactly what they had seen, but she could guess it was probably the female corpse.
This was easy to deduce. The phantom firefly could induce hallucinations, but not randomly. The visions were triggered by the person’s most intense emotions at the time, be it great joy, deep sorrow, or extreme fear.
The two servants had been discussing the missing trowel, subconsciously including their suspicions about the female corpse. The phantom firefly’s effect was merely to magnify this most improbable guess in a specific scenario.
So when they turned around, they saw the image of the female corpse holding the trowel.
Jiang Si approached the corpse with the trowel and crouched down.
Even in the deep night, the pungent smell of blood was unmistakable.
Jiang Si took a deep breath and lifted the sheet covering the corpse.
She wanted to see the woman’s face.
The last person buried here should have been the daughter of the suicidal woman she had encountered at Willow Dyke. Knowing that poor girl’s identity, Jiang Si didn’t believe it was a coincidence.
She preferred to believe it was fate, that heaven’s net casts wide but lets nothing slip through.
Perhaps she could find clues about this corpse’s identity as well.
Jiang Si knew she had to act quickly. The two men, frightened by the illusion, would surely return once they calmed down.
There was still a corpse lying there. No matter how scared they were, they would come back to bury it. Otherwise, if the body was discovered at dawn, they would be in trouble.
The blood-stained sheet was lifted, revealing the corpse’s face.
The face was clean, but the eyes were wide open, unable to close in death.
It was a delicate and beautiful face, far too young, looking no more than thirteen or fourteen years old.
Jiang Si felt a pain in her heart, almost biting her lower lip to bleeding.
This was just a child. How could that beast do such a thing?
Ignoring the overwhelming anger surging in her chest, she quickly searched for clues on the corpse.
A small sachet hung around the corpse’s neck, visible above the collarbone.
Without hesitation, Jiang Si tore off the sachet and tucked it into her pocket, then continued her examination.
The corpse’s upper garments were in tatters, with only a skirt below, hastily put on. Probably originally—
Jiang Si couldn’t bear to think further. Finding no other clues, she placed the trowel in the corpse’s open right hand.
Since the two servants would return, she might as well frighten them again. When they saw the quietly lying corpse indeed holding the trowel, they would no longer be able to comfort themselves that it was just an illusion.
Suspicion breeds paranoia. After this night, the two servants would likely have many sleepless nights.
Jiang Si pulled the sheet back over the corpse. As she did so, her gaze inadvertently passed over the corpse’s left hand, and she paused.
While the corpse’s right hand was limp and open, the left hand was tightly clenched, as if grasping something.
Intrigued, Jiang Si quickly lifted the corpse’s left hand.
The poor girl had died recently, her hand still soft. Jiang Si easily opened the tightly clenched fist to see what the girl had been holding.