Unparalleled Duo

Mr. Zeng, surnamed Zeng and named Yun, styled Ruxuan, was born into a family of officials.

Being from an official's family meant having power; having power meant having money; his ancestors had money, so he was born with money too.

At that time, only the wealthy could afford education, so Mr. Zeng not only had wealth but also scholarly honors.

Of course, his honors were only sufficient to allow him to hire servants (without scholarly honors, one could not employ servants, even if they were wealthy), but he never held any official positions; he didn't need to, as he could live a life of luxury simply on the inheritance from his ancestors.

However, as the saying goes... those who do not plan for the future will find trouble at their doorstep.

Mr. Zeng was no fool; he understood that no matter how wealthy you were, without the protection of power, it would not be stable in the long run.

Thus, years ago, he cleverly married his only daughter to a promising young official in the court and spent a good amount of money to ensure his son-in-law's success; today, his son-in-law was the Minister of Ministry of Industry, and he had two grandsons; his son-in-law was very grateful to him. Additionally, the interests of the two families were closely intertwined, making Mr. Zeng a powerful figure not only locally but in the entire Great Ming.

However, in the late summer of the eighteenth year of Yong Tai, the normally peaceful Zeng Mansion suddenly experienced a series of unusual events.

Looking back now, the cause of the incident began about half a week ago...

In the kitchen of the Zeng Mansion worked two helpers, brothers, one named He Da and the other named He Er. One day, while they were pushing a cart to dispose of swill, He Er happened upon something shimmering in the sunlight on the riverside grass. Out of curiosity, he went closer and discovered it to be a carp made of glazed glass.

To us today, this item is akin to a "cheap imitation of a diamond," unimaginably low in cost, but with the chemical and industrial capabilities of the Great Ming, such an object was quite rare and could fetch a good sum of money at a pawnshop.

The He brothers were simple folk from the lower classes; they didn't possess the moral awareness to "find the owner of a valuable item immediately." Upon finding the object, their first thought was: "Heaven's finally shown us some favor, letting us stumble upon such a windfall."

In their eyes, once they found the object, it belonged to them, even if the rightful owner came looking for it later... they would at least want some reward for returning it.

Thus, on their way back to the mansion, they eagerly discussed how to sell the item, how to split the money, and what to do with it afterward.

That evening, both were too excited to sleep, but because there were others around, they couldn't openly discuss the matter and had to keep it to themselves.

At midnight, they were completely worn out and finally fell asleep one after another.

In a wealthy household, there were specific rooms for servants to sleep in, similar to modern dormitories; the He brothers shared a room with four others, sleeping on a large communal bunk with their bunks next to each other.

The "fish" they found during the day, for fear of being seen by others, was never taken out and was kept in He Er's arms all night, which didn't seem to bother him as he slept.

So it remained until the initial moment of the third watch.

In modern terms, this was after three in the morning, the deepest period of sleep.

Suddenly...

Outside the window of the servants' room, a strange scraping noise began to be heard.

At first, the noise was light, similar to the sound of tree branches being blown against the paper of the windows, but it gradually grew louder and more urgent.

The He brothers, exhausted from the day, slept deeply and heard nothing, but another house servant in the room with them, Zhao Daqiang, who was a light sleeper, was soon awakened by the noise.

Zhao Daqiang, just in his early twenties, a strapping young man in the prime of life, didn't think much of it. After sitting up to collect himself, he stood up and went outside to see what the noise was and to use the toilet on the side.

He thought he might hear a wild cat or an owl making noise in the trees, but when he opened the door and turned his head...

He saw, under the moonlight, an unidentified black mass emitting a fishy odor standing less than half a meter away from him, taller than him by half a head.

The moment the object came into his view, Zhao Daqiang's sleepiness vanished, and he felt as if he had plunged into an ice hole; his blood rushed from his feet to his head in an instant, making him dizzy, his pupils constricted, shaking uncontrollably.

And as his eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light, after a few seconds, he finally saw clearly... The black mass in front of him was a head of black hair, soaked in water for God knows how long and sticking together like wet seaweed, and amidst the strands of hair, there was a pale human face staring at him with rolled-back white eyes.

It was lucky he was a young man. Had it been a woman or an elderly person, they might have died of fright on the spot or fainted.

Zhao Daqiang just went weak in the knees and fell down on his buttocks; an attempted scream stuck in his throat and refused to come out...

Several seconds later, his pants were wet, the warmth of which slightly recalled him to his senses, and his throat was no longer blocked. He immediately shouted, "Help! There's a ghost!"