Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Chapter 20: Half a "Ghost's" Face

It was midnight when Li Lianhua returned to his room after he met with Guo Dafu. He was in a happy mood, though his mind was a bit muddled.

Although Guo Dafu was said to be a refined man, he didn’t have much to say, which made for a good time when one just wanted to relax.

Moreover, the scenery and dishes were quite exquisite. Li Lianhua thought to himself that his fall into the river earlier that day was well worth it.

He was especially interested in the wedding dress that had been passed down through the Guo family. The dress was indeed unique and gorgeous. Compared with the fengguan xiapei of the Han people, it had a unique beauty.

It was a sapphire blue wedding dress, with brocade embroidery depicting trees, flowers, and people doing things like digging wells, singing, and dancing in circles, melons and fruit on the ground, and even the sun, moon, and stars. Lastly, there were two Phoenix-like birds flying majestically through the sky of the brocade design.

Every inch of the dress shined with bright colors. It even shimmered in a dimly lit room.

The dress had seven strings of ornaments strung into a necklace, and a huge flower made of gold was sewn onto the bodice and strung with silver and gold beads. The sapphire embroidery of the dress was held together with golden and silver threads, and the fabric was studded with small but brilliantly shining crystals.

The waistband was made of jade, and the skirt was very narrow and straight so that the art depicted on the skirt was visible and evenly patterned around the entire dress.

And finally, there was a silver chain of bells strung across the hem of the skirt.

In a man’s eyes, the dress was a magnificent heap of gold and silver treasures; in a woman’s eyes, even if she thought herself ugly, she could put on this dress and look like the most youthful and beautiful woman alive.

But in Li Lianhua’s eyes, the dress’s skirt was particularly strange. First of all, it seemed way too narrow. Plus, it had so much gold and silver jewelry strung to it. A wedding dress worn by three women, and yet all three of those women died horribly… Was it really just a coincidence?

He yawned as he lay on his bed, facing the big open window that looked out at the lotus pond. His thoughts returned to the “poem” he wrote for Guo Dafu. He wondered if Master Guo discovered the mystery hidden in the writing.

Li Lianhua gazed at the stars outside the window, and he began to feel sleepy. As his elegant lashes fluttered with heaviness, his bleary eyes suddenly focused on half of a face looking at him from the corner of the window.

Li Lianhua stared blankly at the strange face. Though he only saw half, the face was unfamiliar to him, with a tanned nose and cheeks, messy hair, and an emotionless, bloodshot eye that had a surprising brightness to it. He stayed like that for a long time, all the while thinking that he was just dreaming. Suddenly, just as the face moved away and slowly disappeared, Li Lianhua’s eyes widened as he began feeling more awake.

But there was only the lotus pond and a narrow stretch of wet ground beneath his window. Why was the face standing there? He had heard the sound of footsteps leaving, so whatever it was, it at least walked on two legs like a person.

Could it have been a ghost? Li Lianhua thought to himself. Even though he hadn’t ever seen a real ghost before, it didn’t seem to be one. Maybe it was a person? Speaking of people, Li Lianhua believed that a person dressed as a ghost was far better than a ghost dressed as a person. But who in the Guo family would dress as a ghost and stare at him creepily through the window in the middle of the night? If Li Lianhua had fallen asleep, he would’ve felt sorry for whoever went through the trouble only for him to be sleeping peacefully. It really was strange…