Chapter 23 Vanity

But at this moment, the Ye Residence was filled with female ghosts whose courage had shattered and souls had taken flight.

Successive sisters had already been scattered to the winds, souls and spirits dispersed three or four at a time, and the young mistress could no longer bear to watch. With tears in her eyes, she stepped forward, knelt down at the front, and kowtowed to the Second Crown Prince, saying, "I am willing to reveal the truth!"

"You! You scoundrel, get back here!" the old mistress cursed and scolded, snatching up her walking stick and smashing it toward the young mistress. Her desperate attempts to hide the secret stripped her of all the dignity and solemnity she once carried.

She mercilessly beat the young mistress with the walking stick, scolding, "Do you want to doom the entire Ye Family for your selfish desires!"

"The Ye Family is long gone!" the young mistress cried out, her face streaming with tears as she turned to retort.

"You!" The old mistress was so infuriated she was at a loss for words, and in her desperation, she indiscriminately beat her with the stick, shouting, "I told you to stop talking nonsense!"

Perhaps it was the long-suppressed secrets and emotions that finally found an opportunity for release. The young mistress was filled with indignation, despair, excitement, and a sense of relief as if a great burden had been lifted off her—so many emotions were evident. She had indeed endured for a long time, her heart weary from the burden.

She turned and roared at the old mistress, "It is because of your misguided persistence that the Ye Residence has turned into a haunted estate! Do you not feel any remorse?"

"The true Ye Family was consumed by a great fire long ago! How much longer will you deceive yourself!"

Nobody in the Ye Family had expected that it would be the young mistress who would be the first to unveil the secrets of the Ye Residence, nor did they expect her to hold such disdain for the Ye Family, for what it had become today.

"To retain your presence in the mortal realm, you gathered corpses of women and buried them behind the mansion to amass yin energy. Do you truly believe this is the Ye Family's return to prosperity? This is nothing but a sinister dwelling full of chaos and spirits!"

Seated cross-legged on the bed, the young master of the Ye Family recited slowly, "'Greed, anger, stupidity, hatred, love, evil desires; unable to obtain, unable to let go, self-made hell from which one cannot escape...'"

Living within the young master of the Ye Family was a monk who had practiced for more than eighty years. Upon his arrival, he sensed that the mansion was steeped in an excess of yin energy and had his suspicions, but he found himself inexplicably in the body of their young master.

He had initially planned to observe quietly, but now, he no longer wished to take any action. That was because there was a formidable figure present.

He was just a monk who had practiced for over eighty years, barely attaining the ability to distinguish between human, ghost, immortal, and Buddha.

He was not sure of the identity of this young, esteemed figure before him, but he knew this was no ordinary being, very likely someone so exalted that no one could be aware of it. Thus, at first glance, he seemed like a mortal, like a noble mortal, but he was not.

What kind of realm must one be in to hide one's accomplishments in such voidness?

So, he had his guess. He speculated that the identity of this young, esteemed figure must be divine, above all divines. He was excited and thrilled about this incredible encounter, but as a monk who had left the secular world, he was supposed to be pure and free of desires. He felt ashamed knowing that his eight decades of practice had been in vain.

...

The young mistress was unaware of what had happened to her husband, who now behaved like a monk who had renounced the secular world, causing her heart to ache as if it were splitting and bleeding. But at this point, she had no time to worry about what had happened to him.

Dispensing with all those cultured manners, she wiped the tears from her face and said to the seated young master of the Ye Family, "I do not know who you truly are, but since you have taken my husband's form, I shall treat you as though you are still my husband. You have every right to know the real situation of the Ye Residence, so I will tell you everything."

The Second Crown Prince, who was observing, poured himself a fresh cup of tea and listened leisurely to her narrative.

However, the old mistress relentlessly pulled at the young mistress, hissing through gritted teeth, "You treacherous wretch, I will kill you, you lowlife!"

The young mistress pushed the old mistress away with one hand, and none of the other concubines stepped forward to help, leaving the old mistress to steady herself against the doorframe. Undeterred by the old mistress's near fall, the young mistress was determined to continue her story.

"That year when you went to the capital to participate in the imperial examination, one night a fierce gang of bandits burst in, raiding and plundering, committing acts of unspeakable evil. They were enraged that the Ye Family had nothing of worth, and in their fury, they began to massacre everyone, not sparing a single soul in the Ye Residence, and even the mansion was burnt to the ground."

The young mistress's emotions seemed more stable as she spoke, as if her heart had grown cold long ago, the memories no longer raw wounds.

"The old mistress harbored resentment, and so did I. It was this resentment that kept our spirits lingering in the mortal world."

Tears began to fall again as she spoke.

"Later, the old mistress listened to the wandering spirits from the mass burial hills who said that if the mansion's yin energy was strong enough, it would enhance their ghostly powers, turning stones into silver, dirt into jewels, and even enable the rebuilding and renewal of the Ye Family's old mansion."

At this point, the young mistress turned to look at the coquettish concubines, her emotions deeply entangled.

"Over the years, the concubines the old mistress took in for you included vengeful spirits of women who died unjustly, spiteful ghosts of women who killed themselves over their husbands' infidelities, spirits of those who died of serious illness without proper treatment, and even courtesans from the brothels named Ying Hua."

Her gaze suddenly fierce, she stared at the old mistress, her voice trembling with choking emotion.

"In earlier years, taking advantage of her past affair with Doctor Wang from the city, the old mistress used his assistance to exhume everyone's remains and reinter them on the hill behind the mansion to gather yin energy. And what would a spirit, wishing for a peaceful existence in this world, do?"