My Years in the Jianghu with the Prince: A Time of Unethical Conduct

Chapter 39 Mass Grave

Five kilometers east of the city gate of Yongcheng, there is a mass grave.

Not only are there broken tombstones and rotten coffins everywhere, but also the bones of many birds and animals scattered around.

The air was permeated with a lingering stench of decay. Therefore, travelers from all directions avoided the area, fearing they might be tainted by something unclean.

Even if they have no choice but to pass through here, some people will wait until the time of day when the yang energy is at its peak before daring to pass by.

Just now, at noon, an oxcart came rushing from the other side of the road.

Sitting in the car were an elderly man with gray hair and his grandson.

The old man's surname was Wang. He had traveled this road countless times because he often had to transport goods into the city.

Having walked this far so many times, this mass grave was nothing more than a mound of earth in his eyes. He wasn't afraid; on the contrary, he felt sorry for the nameless people buried there.

But this time was different; Old Wang's precious grandson was with him.

So he left early and waited until this time to pass by, since children are the easiest to attract unclean things.

So Old Wang cracked his whip to urge the ox on while sternly scolding his grandson sitting next to him, "Sit still! Don't look around!"

Boys are still in their early teens, a time when they love to play and make a fuss. The more you forbid them from doing something, the more they want to do it, and they are the most mischievous.

He pursed his lips, and taking advantage of his grandfather's focus on the journey and lack of attention, he immediately turned his head to carefully examine the mass grave.

It's nothing serious. It's not as terrible as Grandpa described. It's not even as disgusting as the time he and his friends played with a kitten until it was gutted.

Just as he was dismissing it, he suddenly caught a glimpse of something emerging from the deepest part of the grave.

It was a pale, slender hand, with a centipede thicker than the fingers wrapped around its dark fingers.

Xiao Wang: "!!!"

The next second, a woman's head slowly emerged from the ground. Her body was not visible; only her eyes were fixed on Xiao Wang.

A moment later, the woman's lips suddenly parted into a strange smile, her lips a vivid red like blood.

"Ahhh! There's a ghost!"

Xiao Wang screamed in fright, struggling and crying on the cart. Old Wang was startled and didn't dare to turn his head, using all his strength to whip the ox and run away.

The oxcart sped away like a gust of wind, and the mass grave returned to its tranquility.

In the deepest part of the grave, a hoe lay on the ground. Uya stood in the deep pit she had painstakingly dug, rolled her eyes, and flicked out a Gu worm that followed her.

That brat! Where in the world is there a ghost as pretty and cute as her? If we don't teach that brat a lesson, she's not even a liar.

Once she realized the Gu worm had attached itself to its target, Wuya let out a soft hum, dusted off her hands, and continued with her work.

She bent down and gave the half-buried, dilapidated coffin protruding from the ground a critical look. She stroked the centipede in her hand and said affectionately, "Don't worry, my darling, Mommy will feed you now."

"It's not like our southern Xinjiang, where we can often get fresh food. Just make do with what we have."

While talking incessantly to her precious Gu worm, Wuya took out a small knife to pry open the nails on the coffin.

"Huh? Why is it so tight?"

Logically speaking, this coffin looks very old, but the nails are still so firmly in place, and there is not much rust on the outer layer.

Uya frowned and kept knocking and banging, and it took her a long time to finally pry out a few nails.

With a creak, she forcefully lifted a section of the coffin lid.

Under the sunlight, something flashed inside the coffin, followed by a strong stench of decay.

Uya held down the Gu worm that was about to crawl into the coffin lid, peered inside, and her expression suddenly turned somewhat surprised. "This is..."

At the same moment, Xie Yan looked at Meng Lan inside Qianjin Tower and speechlessly rubbed her forehead.

He glanced at Chu Ling, who was leisurely drinking tea beside him, and sighed, "The prince's subordinates often remind me of an idiom."

Chu Ling put down his teacup with interest, raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "Oh? Is it a gathering of heroes?"

"Do not."

Xie Yan shook her head and said, "No, it's about being wise in a foolish way."

That's an interesting description.

Chu Ling chuckled twice, "I wonder who it is that deserves such high praise from you, Young Master Xie."

Xie Yan raised a finger meaningfully, "Tao Xian is wise."

Then erect a second one, "The remaining blank space is like foolishness."

Finally, pointing to Meng Lan in the distance, "And that one is Ruozhi."

Chu Ling: "..."

So this idiom can be used in this way.

Xie Yan marveled at her own talent, never expecting that so long after the college entrance examination, she would still be so eloquent.

Suddenly, the Gu worms inside his body began to stir.

Then Xie Yan's ears twitched, and she keenly caught an extremely faint "buzzing" sound approaching her.

He tilted his head and listened carefully for a while. The sound was getting closer and closer, as if something was flying from the southeast.

Xie Yan suddenly stood up, which made Chu Ling look at her curiously.

Then Xie Yan noticed a small golden insect had landed on her hand. With a look of confusion on her face, she turned to him and said, "Wuya seems to have something urgent to tell us."

The two followed the little insect all the way out of the city and arrived at the mass grave.

"I never imagined there was such a place outside the city."

Xie Yan chased away the stray dogs that came looking for food, and looked at the debris and bones of some animal or human that she couldn't tell what they were, and clicked her tongue in amazement.

But what Chu Ling found even stranger was the young girl who was sleeping soundly with her hands on her stomach, lying on a coffin lid.

Hearing the noise, Uya rubbed her eyes and got up, jumping off the coffin and lazily yawning: "You guys are too slow, I'm getting sleepy waiting."

As the two approached, they discovered that, apart from the patch of ground beneath the coffin lid where she lay, the surrounding area was riddled with pits of varying sizes.

Xie Yan remained silent for a long time before speaking with mixed feelings: "Don't tell me that you suddenly left the manor mysteriously last night because you spent the whole night digging graves here."

Uya said matter-of-factly, "You guys definitely won't let me find food for my babies on the street, so I guess I have no choice but to come here."

After glancing at the unusually oily and slippery Gu worm behind her, the two of them inexplicably didn't want to delve into what her babies were actually eating.

"And you should thank me, because if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have discovered this."

Uya proudly put her hands on her hips and patted the coffin lid she had just been lying on.

The two men's initially puzzled gazes slowly turned into astonishment as the coffin lid was lifted to reveal what lay beneath.

"This is?!"