Chapter 221: Her Strange Behaviors Are Quite Ordinary
“It’s such a relief that you’re both safe!” Xu Mu exclaimed. Then, with a sudden look of guilt, he added, “When I saw the fire on the mountain last night, I wanted to go up and check, but I’d already come down the mountain. First, I thought there wouldn’t be much I could do, and second… I know this will sound unbelievable, but I encountered a passing procession of ghosts.”
“It’s the thought that counts, Mr. Xu.”
“No, really! I encountered a whole line of ghosts, at least dozens, moving southward from the north,” Xu Mu said earnestly, fearing they wouldn’t believe him. “They even noticed me! I don’t know if it was luck or their strict discipline, but they didn’t trouble me...”
“Mr. Xu, you are a dutiful son and a good-hearted person—perhaps even ghosts wouldn’t wish to bother you.”
“If that’s true, then why is my mother…?”
“Let me have a look.”
“Yes, yes… Please,” Xu Mu replied, gesturing to invite them inside.
Housing in Zhijiang County was nothing like the crowded accommodations of the capital. The Xu family, though not wealthy, had a modest courtyard within the town.
The courtyard, however, was more like those of rural farmers, encircled by a low earthen wall with a few vegetable patches inside. The main rooms were sturdier than village dwellings but lacked the refinement seen in the capitals of Changjing or Yidu.