"I nodded vaguely, anyway these things aren't my concern.I'm feeling extremely sleepy now. I can barely keep my eyes open just after a meal. My brother saw me rubbing my eyes constantly and said in a...This man, who claimed to be a doctor, spoke Cantonese with a heavy accent. I felt like he was trying to scam me.

Seeing this unfamiliar face of mine, it's the perfect opportunity to use me as a disposable pawn.

What a million dollars, I'd have to believe his ghost stories, I guess I could only receive one million underworld coins.

But he has contacts who can get me in. That's a good thing, at least it won't cause a commotion right off the bat.

A woman with a seductive gait just walked over from the entrance of the manor, carrying a basket of flowers. She narrowed her eyes, sizing me up and then glancing at the man beside me who had introduced himself as a doctor.

"Are you looking for this girl" the woman asked, sounding somewhat incredulous.

Damn, she speaks Chinese! I thought she was a local. She's really good at blending in.

"Well, she's pregnant," the doctor said softly.

The woman raised an eyebrow and smirked, "What a coincidence! The boss is getting tired of the food here lately. It'd be nice to have some fresh faces to spice things up..."

"I'm not a nanny." I said, frowning.

The woman laughed and said, "It's okay, as long as I have an excuse to get close to the BOSS... He has been taking care of pregnant women for days, all the poor families' daughters-in-law are willing to come here, with food and housing provided, just give birth to a child and breastfeed."

Damn it… How terrifying is Sister Lu's husband

He's so obsessed with this

I frowned and said nothing. The woman laughed, "Don't be afraid, now we can only raise you up, see if you have a chance to get close to the BOSS, hihihi... Come with me."

I lowered my head and followed her, catching a glimpse of the darkness within the bamboo house from the corner of my eye.

Brother Xie was staring at them quietly over there.

My little wife should come looking for me, right I steeled myself and followed that woman into the back half of the estate.

Here, built by the water, the evening was somewhat chilly. As I neared the main house behind me, I felt a growing chill.

This chill resonated with the rising steam from the water surface, shrouding the latter half of the estate in a veil of moonlight and mist.

It seems somewhat tranquil and ethereal, yet the silence is eerily unsettling.

The deeper you go, the stronger that strange feeling becomes. A wisp of ghostly energy lurks in the darkness, as if everything here is desperately trying to conceal this aura, yet it's impossible to hide completely.

As a manor's boss, the front half was all about gambling stones and living lavishly, but the back half was eerily silent. There were almost no servants or guards here.

“Hey!” a woman’s voice suddenly rang out.

My heart skipped a beat, and I ducked my head, hiding behind the woman who brought me here, wrapped in my veil.

This woman blocking us has a round waist and thick shoulders, she must be at least 5'10"!

The plump woman said a few vulgar things, and my woman raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, returning a few impolite words. The fat woman glared at me fiercely and then left on her own.

"Who is she What did you say about her" I couldn't help but ask.

The woman scornfully curled her lips: "What else could it be, a country bumpkin from the countryside! She's addicted to being a nanny, eating and drinking well here, look how she's turned into a sow! Even buried as fertilizer she'd be too greasy! Coming here to fight for attention and food Doesn't she even look in the mirror!"

...My goodness, what kind of worldview is this

"Hmph, little girl, don't be surprised. Looking at you so fair and clean, you must be from a wealthy family who doesn't know hardship—these poor people are content as long as they have food and clothing, let alone jade and precious stones."

She scoffed to herself, "Jade...gemstone...hmph..."

"You… what are your intentions" I whispered quickly, "I have no conflict of interest with you. If you're willing to say more, maybe I can even cooperate with you…"

She looked at me in surprise: "Aren't you here to gamble on jade"

"No, I'm here to find someone."

She nodded. “I thought I didn’t know you, but the man who came with you is a familiar face, so I let you in… I’ve been working here for three years, and in these three years, I’ve discovered a secret.”

Secret

She glanced around furtively and led me to a shadowy recess in the corner.

"...This mine is legendary in the underground black market. It's said that the boss here can sense jade veins, and any stones he chooses will yield jade of excellent color when cut."

Well, I just heard about that.

But through my observations and lurking, I found that it wasn't the boss here who had the ability, but... he was raising someone here—

What did you raise

Before I could even ask with my eyes, she suddenly covered my mouth and, grabbing my waist, flipped through the window of the bamboo hut!

She whispered "Shh!" in my ear, motioning for me to be quiet.

What's going on Someone's here

My hearing and eyesight are far better than the average person's. There's definitely no one around us, so what could she have seen

A cool sensation wafted up from beneath the bamboo floorboards.

Here below is the shallows, with water.

There were even gaps to look through.

Glittering water reflected the moonlight, sending something towards them and gently depositing it on the shallows.

I couldn't see what it was from the crack, but I soon heard the sound of water—someone was rowing a boat over, and two people were talking.

They were speaking in their native tongue, which I couldn't understand. I only saw them using a long hook to snag something that was lodged beneath the floorboards.

That thing was a large, black mass. It was hooked several times, tearing open its skin to reveal a human—no, a corpse with a swollen head.

My eyes widened, and goosebumps erupted all over my body.

The little boat brought the body ashore and drifted away, leaving the back half of the manor in a quiet state once more.

"What's going on" I asked with my eyes.

The woman's face was slightly pale. She whispered, "It's probably someone who secretly snuck in before trying to steal the essence of jade. They usually get stuffed into sacks, tied up with stones and sunk to the river bottom... This one must have had their ropes severed by fish and floated back up. The servants chased after it and retrieved the body."

"Are there a lot of people here" I asked, frowning.

"...I didn't know before, but since three years ago, people have been dying a lot. Even some wet nurses have died mysteriously. They told everyone they paid them and they went to live in the big towns."

"What exactly is the essence of jade Do you also want that thing" I asked.

The woman narrowed her eyes and nodded at me. “Yes, we've been laying the groundwork for two years, just waiting for an opportunity. Recently, we heard that the BOSS wasn't satisfied with things, so we were waiting for a new person to come in. But we can’t wait any longer! We have to hurry up——”

A wisp of blue smoke drifted in through the cracks in the bamboo building. The moment I smelled it, I immediately reached out and covered my nose.

The eldest sister's voice echoed faintly from outside, not near nor far, indistinct and ethereal.

"You can't wait to do what, huh~~ Little mice, don't you underestimate our manor~~ No one guarding it doesn't mean you can just barge in..."is mostly achieved through the passage of time, few achieve it overnight. Look at those fairies, demons, immortals and deities; they all fear their hundreds or thousands of years of cultivation being...