The two brothers made their decision and emerged from behind the wing room. Before they could approach Zhao Fusheng, they heard her ask faintly:
"My parents shouldn't have died from an accidental mishap as you originally said, but should have also died at a malevolent ghost's hands, right?"
Her sudden statement caught the Fan brothers completely off guard.
Originally prepared to seize control of the conversation and give Zhao Fusheng a show of force, intimidating her with words, Fan Bisi was instead frightened by her.
Fan Wujiu's face showed a guarded expression. The two brothers looked at each other, both showing several traces of panic in their eyes.
"..."
"..."
Fan Bisi, usually the most mentally nimble, had a completely blank mind. After a long while, he came to his senses and forced himself to remain calm:
"Correct—"
Zhao Fusheng's parents were already dead. Their corpses were laid out in the mourning hall. They died from ghost disaster—the evidence was conclusive. Refuting it would serve no purpose.
"Was I indeed also killed by a malevolent ghost yesterday?" Zhao Fusheng asked again.
"...Yes." Fan Wujiu reluctantly spoke. Before he could continue, he heard Zhao Fusheng say:
"Let me speak, you listen and see if I'm right."
Her back was to the two. She still wore yesterday's clothes. When the malevolent ghost killed her, it had torn through her heart and lungs. Blood had soaked her clothing completely. Now the congealed blood stains were black and hard, making her silhouette look terrifying.
Added to this, she might have controlled a malevolent ghost, which must now be hidden inside her body.
The more the two brothers thought about it, the more fearful they became. Instinctively, they retreated half a step.
"Speak." Fan Bisi's courage was much greater. Things had come to this point—he only wanted to cut through the mess quickly and solve the problem. He didn't want to keep avoiding it, so he forced himself to gather courage and nodded.
"Normally, a Demon-Suppressing Bureau should have a chief magistrate and magistrate assistants to maintain regional peace. After Wan'an County's Demon-Suppressing Bureau chief magistrate died, no matter what, this position couldn't possibly fall to a country girl."
As Zhao Fusheng spoke these words, she'd been thinking for a long time.
This world had ghosts!
Having just arrived, apart from some of the original's memories and what she'd seen in last night's dream, she mostly didn't understand the people and events of this time and place. She had deep wariness toward the Fan brothers, but she could also see that these two were very guarded against her resurrection.
Though she didn't know the reason, Zhao Fusheng decided to first try to bluff these two and see if she could extract some useful information.
"I suspect what you said about being guided by the previous chief magistrate to find me was probably a tactic to deceive me and my parents."
She suppressed her inner unease and deliberately put on a calm appearance, saying:
"The Demon-Suppressing Bureau suffered a great calamity, didn't it? This calamity is like a curse that implicates people in the bureau?"
This wasn't baseless speculation.
According to Zhao Fusheng's past memories, besides the Fan brothers and later 'her,' there were no other survivors in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau.
The Demon-Suppressing Bureau's existence should logically protect regional peace. If ghosts killed indiscriminately causing panic, the safest place in the world should be near the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. Yet the people on nearby streets had almost all moved away.
The few remaining shops were just coffin shops and spirit money and incense candle shops. Moreover, these people treated Zhao Fusheng like a flood or beast—whenever she approached, many people fled as if avoiding the plague.
The previous Zhao Fusheng was confused, thinking she was disliked for being from the countryside and unworthy of her position. But the current Zhao Fusheng felt these people might not fear Zhao Fusheng herself, but rather feared the death curse she carried.
Thinking of the nightmare where Zhao Fusheng was killed by the malevolent ghost, she felt somewhat uneasy, but it also proved that the 'curse' on the original Zhao Fusheng might be the malevolent ghost entangling her.
However, she deliberately stated it wrong to make the Fan brothers form a misconception.
The Fan brothers were indeed caught off guard by her sudden counterattack, but Fan Bisi still tried to maintain control and spoke in defense:
"This isn't a curse..."
He'd barely begun when Zhao Fusheng nodded:
"Indeed not a curse. This should be ghost disaster."
"..."
With this statement, the Fan brothers looked at each other, exchanging glances filled with both terror and helplessness.
Neither had expected that the originally timid and ignorant quail-like Zhao Fusheng, after resurrection, seemed to have become much smarter.
Her various reactions made even Fan Bisi feel somewhat troubled, even giving him a feeling of being suppressed by her instead.
Could it be that after controlling ghosts, not only did one's strength increase, but mental capacity was also enhanced?
The two brothers' hearts were in chaos. Fan Wujiu looked at his elder brother and called out: "Brother—"
Fan Bisi steadied himself, calming his heart so he wouldn't lose composure. Finally, taking a deep breath and settling his anxiety, he said:
"You're quite right."
He vaguely sensed that he and his brother had probably picked the wrong person to target—they'd lifted a rock only to drop it on their own feet.
Zhao Fusheng's current performance wasn't just smart—it was smart enough to make him uneasy.
"What do you want to know?" He was decisive. Temporarily not wanting to clash directly with Zhao Fusheng, he decided to seek another approach and try to negotiate with her.
"What can you tell me?"
In this verbal sparring, Zhao Fusheng held a slight advantage.
She realized the Fan brothers were yielding to her. This yielding naturally couldn't be entirely due to her resurrection. Very likely, there was something else about her that made these brothers wary.
What that reason was, she temporarily didn't know. This sense of unknown made her somewhat uneasy, but she forcibly pushed this trace of unease to the bottom of her heart and instead calmly countered Fan Bisi with a question.
Fan Bisi remained silent for a moment, then suddenly said:
"Fine, I'll tell you everything from start to finish."
Having said this, he wiped his face and kicked his brother:
"Wujiu, go bring the Demon-Suppressing Bureau's past registers together, and bring a chair for the chief magistrate to sit."
His words seemed to acknowledge Zhao Fusheng's position as chief magistrate. Zhao Fusheng felt even stranger but didn't stop him.
Fan Wujiu hesitated, glancing at his elder brother, then at Zhao Fusheng, before going inside to get things.
"Three years ago, our Wan'an County's Demon-Suppressing Bureau actually had one chief magistrate, two vice generals, and eight magistrate assistants."
After both sides tested each other, they more or less understood the situation. Fan Bisi, seeing some matters couldn't be hidden from Zhao Fusheng, simply told the story from the beginning.
"That is to say, three years ago, Wan'an County's Demon-Suppressing Bureau had as many as eleven people."
This number was still somewhat small, but considering that those dealing with ghosts were a minority with special powers, having eleven ghost expellers in one county already matched Zhao Fusheng's original estimate.
"Not just that."
Whether because after Zhao Fusheng's resurrection, whenever the Fan brothers spoke with her they were always suppressed in words and momentum, Fan Bisi felt somewhat unwilling. Hearing her speak now, he always wanted to find fault with her words, having a feeling of wanting to turn things around:
"Actually, adding twenty-three servants, there were thirty-four people in total."
At that time, Wan'an County's Demon-Suppressing Bureau could be said to be the most powerful among nearby county prefectures.
"Oh." Zhao Fusheng responded indifferently.
"..." Fan Bisi felt like punching cotton—powerless. Anger arose in his heart and he was about to lose his temper, but then saw Zhao Fusheng hadn't turned to look at him.
Her gaze had been looking toward the main hall. Fan Bisi's anger immediately stalled, as if someone had poured a bucket of cold water over his head. His thoughts suddenly cleared considerably.
After Zhao Fusheng's resurrection, her entire temperament had changed dramatically.
In their verbal sparring, she was extremely calm, while he seemed somewhat unable to keep his composure like Fan Wujiu, as if everywhere in the conversation she was leading him by the nose.
Just arguing with her about how many people were in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau—in his past view, this was pointless posturing, something he wouldn't deign to do. Yet he seemed unable to control his anger.
Realizing this, Fan Bisi furrowed his brow.
He quickly regained composure, stopped rambling, and said:
"There were indeed only eleven ghost expellers in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau."
This person's temperament was quite steady—even after being provoked by her words, he could calm down so quickly. Zhao Fusheng became even more wary of him. Fan Bisi then continued:
"Our chief magistrate at that time was surnamed Zhao, named Qiming. He was a ghost controller."
When he mentioned Zhao Qiming, his tone was somewhat complex, but this emotion only existed briefly. Soon he controlled his emotions again.
Zhao Fusheng keenly caught his unusual reaction. She speculated: It seems this Zhao Qiming had quite a connection with the Fan brothers.
But she didn't rush to investigate this point now. Instead, she asked about another piece of key information that concerned her more:
"Controlling ghosts? What does this mean?"
Though she'd performed extraordinarily after resurrection, before this she'd only been a country girl with limited horizons and insufficient knowledge.
Regarding this world, the original Zhao Fusheng only knew there were ghosts and that ghosts killed people. As for where ghosts came from and how to deal with them, she knew nothing.
Seeing her ask this question, Fan Bisi strangely felt a huge sense of relief.
Perhaps earlier she'd seized the initiative and, with limited information, deduced many things, making him feel threatened. Combined with her possibly harboring a malevolent ghost attachment, it had even thrown him off balance.
"Ghosts cannot be completely killed," he said calmly. "You didn't know this?"
"I didn't." Though Zhao Fusheng's heart jumped heavily hearing this news, she truly didn't know about ghost matters. She couldn't fake this, so she could only honestly shake her head.
Her reaction was normal. Fan Bisi pondered for a moment, organizing his words mentally:
"Indeed, many people don't know this. The court has always concealed it, fearing it would incite rebellion."
Those who knew were people in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau. Those in the bureau were constrained by the Life-Soul Register, so naturally they didn't dare violate the court's orders and carelessly spread this information.
After speaking, he said seriously:
"Ghosts cannot be completely killed. Currently, we have only two methods for dealing with ghosts after encountering them." He paused. "One is to drive them away, making them leave Wan'an County's boundaries."
"What?" Hearing this handling method, Zhao Fusheng was genuinely surprised.
"Drive them away?"
"Correct." Fan Bisi nodded.
"If we only drive them away, won't they still kill people wherever they go?" Zhao Fusheng asked doubtfully.
From the original Zhao Fusheng family's deaths, one could see how terrifying malevolent ghosts were. If encountering such ghosts couldn't subdue them but could only drive them away, wasn't this just treating symptoms rather than root causes?
"Right. The more people they kill, the more resentment they absorb, and they might even advance and grow, forming large-scale ghost disasters."
Fan Bisi knew she didn't understand these situations well, so he simply explained everything to her:
"Once the ghost domain's coverage area grows larger, it becomes harder to deal with."
"Then what happens?"
Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng found it incomprehensible.
"There's no solution." Fan Wujiu said.
"If driven to other counties, what about those counties' common people?" She asked again.
"As long as it's not in our Wan'an County's territory, ghost disasters aren't our concern. Wherever the ghost wanders to, that county should worry. If the ghost disaster is too great, the court should worry." Fan Bisi's expression was somewhat cold when saying this.
"What if the ghost disaster is so great that even the court can't resolve it?" Though Zhao Fusheng considered herself to have lived through years with her temperament worn cold by society's rules, hearing Fan Bisi say such things still shocked her somewhat.
"If even the court has no solution, they can only abandon that place and let it fend for itself."
"..." His words made Zhao Fusheng pause, then fall silent for a moment, momentarily not knowing how to respond.
"Continue." She sighed silently, frowning as she suppressed the uncomfortable feeling in her heart.