A Guest in a Ghost House Chapter 61 The Legend of Our County

As soon as we opened the door to the apartment, everyone noticed the shards of a broken glass in the middle of the living room. My mother hurriedly picked up a broom and began cleaning up the glass. As she did so, she told us that the broken glass had nothing to do with her terrifying experience.

Xue'er had been holding my hand tightly, the poor little thing was still very scared. I hugged Xue'er, for a child only 7-years-old, this was a lot to take in.

I watched TV with Xue'er on my lap, while the Witch Yan looked at the photos that my mother had taken out. I wanted to go and have a look, but I had to take into account Xue'er's fear, so I stayed in my place while occasionally glancing in their direction.

Witch Yan was really good at what she was doing, I could tell because as soon as she saw the photo, she seemed to know exactly what was behind the photo. I could tell because when she put the photo down, she said: "As expected, it's happened again."

Upon hearing this, my mom began asking her questions. Witch Yan cut her short and began telling her story, I perked up my ears to better hear what was going on. Her story was very long. It started in the same way madman Zang's story started, "This all happened long ago…" It was filled with several clichés and I would even go as far as being willing to bet that there was no difference between witch Yan's and madman Zang's back story.

The story continued until we finished dinner. The whole story was very boring and I personally think it could be summarized in a 3minute monologue, but I had to be polite.

She had told us the legend of the county. Our county was very small, but it had a long history. In ancient legends, our county had always been one of the entrances to the underworld. Because of the intrusion of Yin Qi in the underworld, strange things often happened in our county over the span of countless years.

Thousands of years ago, a great master accepted orders from the emperor to search for the center of the world. When he passed through this very county, he felt the invasion of Yin Qi and used all means accessible to him to close the doorway to the underworld.

This closure was a good thing for the people living in the town, but for the underworld, and especially for the local "ghost officer". He had the privilege of entering and leaving both realms, and he knew this seal was big trouble. So the ghost officer of the time had a discussion with the great master and an agreement was reached. The local people would be the ones responsible for the ghosts and spirits in the county and surrounding areas.

The Master stayed in the area to preach his knowledge, each generation would bring forth a chosen disciple to take the mantle and responsibility of being the ghost officer in the county. A thousand years passed and the tradition was gradually left behind as the master couldn't find an heir to inherit the responsibilities of the ghost officer time and again. Fortunately, the inheritance always managed to continue because of a treasure left behind by the master. A treasure that would be passed on along with the title.

These photos were essentially a task for potential disciples to complete. A task that revealed the need for a ghost officer. Now that these photos were appearing in the homes of ordinary people, it could only mean that those who had inherited the position this generation had suffered some kind of unexpected event causing them to disappear. According to past practices, those who received photos were destined to become the new ghost officers.

Upon hearing this, my mother's spirit was almost broken. I wasn't doing too hot myself.

After all, this story seemed so outrageous that I simply couldn't accept it, even if I had already seen countless ghosts after my experience with the photographs.

After filling us in on the old legend, she added that the place that would be inherited along with the responsibilities that came with it, had been destroyed in the war, which meant that there would be no new heir for the position of ghost officer. The consequence of these actions were that the number of ghosts that ended up in the region would just keep growing and growing. In the end, though there was no access to the underworld anymore (or perhaps because of this), strange things would continue to happen frequently.

Witch Yan's words made my mom want to move to a different city immediately. However, if this was all true, I wasn't too afraid of this responsibility being inherited to me. I already lived in the ghost house, what could possibly be creepier or worse than that?

Mom urged witch Yan to stay in our house, to which she replied with a simple "Yes" and a grave expression. Of course, in her words, it was time to get judged.

I had to admit, I did feel that as long as the witch stayed here, a common ghost wouldn't be able to hurt my mom and Xue'er.

However, I wasn't without my own troubles. My mother had asked me to stay there with them for my own safety and I no longer had the excuse that I was on a business trip, since I told her that was over with.

As time went by, I began to act like a cat on hot bricks. While I was racking my brains to find an excuse to go to the ghost house, Witch Yan who was chatting with my mom suddenly said: "Wu, you should go, it's time to go to work."

Both my mom and I had the same look of confusion with a bit of shock.

Witch Yan continued: "Sister, your child is a very good young man and the work he does is very good right now. Although he must go out every night, he is safe, without a doubt."

Mom didn't know how to react to all this and looked at me with a puzzled look. Witch Yan whispered a few words in my mother's ear. I couldn't hear what she said, but my mom agreed to let me go to work. I figured witch Yan must have convinced my mother that I would be safe.

Mom didn't know the reason why I was going to work at this hour, but she didn't pry any further. She remained concerned about my safety and kept telling me to be careful out there. I felt like she wanted to say something else, but decided not to say anything in the end. It was very unlike her.

As I was about to close the door behind me, witch Yan called after me: "Say hello to Sister Hua for me." I felt as if my heart had skipped a couple of beats and my throat stopped working.

Xiao Lingdang immediately emerged from the bracelet and nervously patted her little chest: "That almost scared me to death! I didn't expect to see her!"

"Xiao Lingdang, you know witch Yan?"

"Of course! That is the daughter of the Yan Family, she is so wonderful!" she said. I had to admit that I was a bit surprised to learn that witch Yan came from a large family, she doesn't come off that way and seemed a bit more like a loner type.

"Xiao Lingdang, why is she so wonderful?"

"Oh, she's very powerful."

"Are there a lot of powerful people in this county?"

"Three, the power has been passed down to all of them by the disciple of the master."

"You know a lot, little girl."

"Everyone knows that the supreme master passed down secret magic to Yan, Luo and Zang."

Yan, Luo, Zang. Were two of those people the witch Yan and madman Zang? That would just leave one person I hadn't met yet, who was Luo? I continued to ask Xiao Lingdang questions, but I was no longer getting a reply. I looked back at Xiao Lingdang to see what was distracting her, sure enough she was secretly smelling a tray the night market stall owner was holding as we walked by. I wanted to stop her, but it was too late.

She happily ran back to my side, acting like a little mouse that had just stolen some cheese. I was a pretty far distance from the stall at this point, there was no way the owner would know that I had anything to do with what Xiao Lingdang done had done. Nevertheless, I still dragged her with me so we could quickly leave the scene and not be discovered.

Just as I expected, we took a few more steps and there was a loud roar behind me: "What kind of meat are you selling?"

All of my attention was taken up by getting Xiao Lingdang to behave in public, I didn't have time to ask her any more detailed questions. To be honest, I wasn't really concerned with any of this. I had the ghost house backing me up and that made me feel untouchable, especially since I'd soon be living in the ghost house. When that time came, I would do my best to get my mom, Xue'er and witch Yan to live in the ghost house with me. Even though I would just be a servant there, we wouldn't have to be afraid of anything any more.

Chapter end