Chapter 27 Missing Head

Tang Qisheng moved slowly, following the late Madam's footsteps. In the moonlight, the scene had a strange harmony, as if it weren't one person and one ghost moving, but two ghosts.

His stiff footsteps fell on the bluestone slabs. Tang Qisheng tried to calm himself, but some things were beyond his control.

He wanted to survive, instinct driving him to distance himself from the late Madam, but reason prevented him from doing so.

In his heart, he understood that from the moment he discovered the embroidered ball, or rather lack thereof, and the missing head in the basket, his fate for the night was sealed.

After all, with a deviation in intelligence, and in such a situation, the possibility of escaping unscathed was slim. He could only gamble, betting that the late Madam was a headless corpse, and that the all-important embroidered ball was currently replacing her head, covered by the bridal veil.

But reality quickly poured cold water on him. Through a layer of cloth, the sensation from his fingertips told him that this was a genuine dead man's head, the skin's unique feedback impossible to fake.

Not the embroidered ball...

Tang Qisheng's blood turned icy, accompanied by deep doubt and unwillingness. Where was the real embroidered ball?

Without needing a close inspection, the late Madam's figure was relatively balanced, with absolutely no possibility of hiding the embroidered ball on her person.

The embroidered ball wasn't on the late Madam; Tang Qisheng couldn't accept this result.

But just as his fingertips touched near the late Madam's ear, Tang Qisheng's hand froze, and after a moment, his expression changed.

Everyone took in this scene. Even from a distance, it was easy to tell that Tang Qisheng had discovered something.

The next second, to everyone's surprise, Tang Qisheng suddenly turned his head and shouted in the vicinity, "Er..."

But as soon as he uttered the syllable, his voice stopped abruptly, and at the same time, Tang Qisheng's movements ceased.

Witnessing such a scene sent a chill through everyone's hearts. This scene was all too familiar. As the late Madam's stiff back receded into the distance, Tang Qisheng was completely transformed into a living statue.

Tang Qisheng had also fallen victim.

Once the late Madam had completely disappeared, everyone emerged from their hiding places, cautiously gathering in Tang Qisheng's direction.

Compared to Zhu Jie and Li Bai, Tang Qisheng now seemed somewhat terrifying. He maintained the posture of his last moment "before death," his mouth wide open, his eyeballs slightly protruding. He had clearly seen a terrible scene or thought of some extremely terrifying, extremely bizarre clue.

Looking at Tang Qisheng, everyone had an indescribable feeling. The unfolding events had exceeded their expectations.

Finally, the experienced Zhang Qizheng broke the deadlock. "You all heard, Tang Qisheng said the basket was empty."

"The basket is empty, so where is the so-called embroidered ball?" Yao Shunyu raised a question everyone had. "You all saw, there's no place to hide the embroidered ball on the late Madam's person."

"Tang Qisheng's expression when he touched the veil was very strange. He must have discovered something."

Everyone present clearly saw and heard that Tang Qisheng died before he could finish his last words. The first syllable was "Er."

To shout it out in such a situation was enough to prove the importance of the word. Tang Qisheng was almost determined to pass on the message even if it meant his death.

"Er... what exactly did he want to say?"

Fatty scratched his head. The repeated events had exhausted him. This feeling of having strength but nowhere to use it was the most torturous.

Jiang Cheng's eyes never left Tang Qisheng's face. Tang Qisheng's face was somewhat distorted in the night, looking creepy. "The three of us were relatively close. If I'm not mistaken, Tang Qisheng's finger last touched the side of the late Madam's head, around the upper and lower part of the ear."

"Ear..."

As soon as this hypothesis was spoken, after a few seconds, everyone's expression changed. Tang Qisheng wouldn't mention the ear for no reason. Everyone thought of someone, or rather, they weren't sure if it was a person, but if it had to do with the ear, then she definitely counted!

The Disaster Bearer...

The late Madam's Disaster Bearer from her lifetime, that's right, it was her!

Everyone remembered very clearly that the strange woman, after she inadvertently lifted the hair around her ear, the area covered by her hair had no ear, only a hole-like deformed auricle.

This guess couldn't help but make Fatty shudder. He immediately looked at Jiang Cheng, seeking confirmation. "So... so you're saying the woman just now wasn't the late Madam at all, but... but the Disaster Bearer?!"

Shao Tong suddenly tilted his head and smiled at this moment. "Be bolder, maybe there's no Disaster Bearer at all, that woman is the late Madam."

Shao Tong's words exploded in Fatty's mind like thunder. He had never thought of it that way, and the frightened expression on his face was genuine.

Unexpectedly, before Fatty could react, Jiang Cheng interrupted, "Impossible, the Disaster Bearer can't be the late Madam."

Jiang Cheng's reasoning was direct and simple. If the late Madam could really appear, then her first action would definitely be to seek revenge on the Marquis of Zhennan. Why would she cooperate with the Marquis of Zhennan and his party to harm them? That didn't make sense.

After all, tonight's mission to steal the embroidered ball was arranged in advance, and the person who initially conveyed the mission was General Yuwen, a confidant of the Marquis of Zhennan.

Yao Shunyu and Zhang Qizheng also expressed their opinions, supporting Jiang Cheng's conclusion.

On the other hand, Shao Tong didn't care, with a smile on his face, an inscrutable expression.

"But our mission tonight is to steal the embroidered ball. If the person under the veil just now wasn't the late Madam, but the Disaster Bearer disguised as her, then where is the real late Madam?"

"The entire marquis estate is so big, where exactly are we going to find the late Madam?"

"Could it be... could it be in the Yin House backyard, filled with tombs?"

In fact, when asking these questions, everyone had already believed Jiang Cheng's speculation. The fact that the "late Madam" didn't have the embroidered ball was very illogical, a huge bug. The only explanation was that this wasn't the late Madam at all, and the real late Madam was someone else.

Lu Qin spoke slowly at this moment, her voice somewhat serious. "Let's think about it from a different perspective. Tonight's crisis is definitely from the late Madam. The Disaster Bearer, disguised as the late Madam, couldn't possibly have such a bizarre killing ability. So those who were hit were definitely killed by the late Madam."

"In that case, the late Madam can't be too far from us." Lu Qin raised her head. "She's hiding near us."

"Hiding nearby..." Fatty was unsettled by Lu Qin's words, his eyes constantly looking around, as if at any moment, a ghost would jump out from some dark place.