Near

Lian Qiao had never seen such a spectacle.

She vaguely remembered that Lu Wu Jiu knew some medicine, so she pointed a finger. “He does!”

A sea of pleading eyes instantly turned to the indifferent Lu Wu Jiu.

Under the circumstances, Lu Wu Jiu naturally couldn’t stand by and watch.

He could only rise gracefully to his feet.

However, as he passed by Lian Qiao, she clearly felt a dagger-like glare.

She quickly pretended to be thirsty and lowered her head to sip her wine.

Yet, Lu Wu Jiu was an extremely particular person.

It was almost impossible for him to have contact with strangers, even if it was a matter of life and death.

He frowned slightly, and then a thin thread suddenly emerged from between his fingers, hovering gently over Miss He’s wrist.

Lian Qiao was speechless.

‘To avoid touching Miss He, he actually resorted to using a suspended thread for the pulse diagnosis. Was that really necessary?’

The Miss He in question also seemed a little embarrassed.

However, saving a life was more important.

After taking her pulse, Lu Wu Jiu’s fingertips condensed, and he infused a stream of spiritual energy into the space between Miss He’s eyebrows.

Instantly, all of Miss He’s symptoms vanished, and she was as lively as ever.

She stared at Lu Wu Jiu with gleaming eyes and gave a shallow bow. “Thank you for your great kindness, immortal master. May I know the immortal master’s name?”

However, in that gleaming gaze, besides gratitude and admiration, there seemed to be a hint of affection.

Lian Qiao snickered. ‘Looks like we’ve got some drama to watch.’

Yan Wushuang looked shocked. “N-no way?”

Lian Qiao snorted. “Absolutely.”

With her years of sharp observation from watching all those young girls hand Lu Wu Jiu love letters, there was no way she could be mistaken.

Miss He’s gaze was identical to those of the other girls.

Yan Wushuang, who had only ever known how to fight, had never seen such a thing. She was dumbfounded. “Then what should be done? Her stomach… it doesn’t seem appropriate, does it?”

Lian Qiao whispered, “What’s not appropriate? Buy one, get one free. What a bargain.”

At that moment, she suddenly felt a chill in the air.

Looking up, she saw Lu Wu Jiu staring at her.

She stared back, deliberately twitching the corner of her mouth.

Lu Wu Jiu’s gaze was cold, but he didn’t say anything in front of everyone.

However, it was Councilor He who suddenly looked terrified, and Miss He also looked nervously at Lian Qiao.

The smile on Lian Qiao’s lips froze instantly, and she felt a little awkward.

‘Alright, alright, it really wasn’t right of me to secretly laugh at others. But I didn’t actually say anything. Is it necessary to look at me with such horror?’

Lian Qiao smiled faintly, trying to make it as gentle as possible as she attempted to explain. “Um—”

But just as she took a step forward, Councilor He and his daughter took a step back, a look of terror on their faces as they kept glancing out the window.

Lian Qiao finally realized something was wrong.

They didn’t seem to be angry, but rather… afraid.

‘Strange, what are they afraid of?’

Lian Qiao quickly turned to look behind her.

Fortunately, there was nothing there.

Yan Wushuang and Zhou Jiannan were also very confused.

Lian Qiao couldn’t help but ask, “Councilor, what’s wrong?”

Councilor He looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “Fairy Lian, were you just laughing?”

Lian Qiao was instantly ashamed. She’d been found out.

She gave a sheepish, placating smile. “My apologies, I meant no harm. I was just lost in thought for a moment, I meant nothing else…”
However, before she could finish, Councilor He took another step back, trembling. “Fairy, whatever the reason, you… please don’t laugh again.”

Lian Qiao realized they didn’t seem to be talking about the same thing.

She was worried about being caught making fun of someone, while Councilor He and the others seemed to be concerned with the act of laughing itself.

Lian Qiao asked, puzzled, “Councilor, are you saying… I cannot laugh?”

Councilor He immediately nodded like a pecking chicken. “That’s right, no laughing is allowed!”

Lian Qiao said, “…Why?”

Though it was good not to be found out, wasn’t this rule a bit too strange?

Councilor He also found it strange. “Fairy, didn’t you see the boundary stone when you arrived? This town is called No-Laughing Town. Naturally, laughing is not allowed.”

Lian Qiao: ?

‘Well, I’ll be damned. After all this time, it turns out Unfilial Town’s ‘filial’ wasn’t about ‘filial piety,’ but about ‘smiling’!’

Although, the name Unfilial Town was a bit strange.

But changing it to No-Laughing Town was even stranger, wasn’t it?

However, thinking back carefully, it seemed that no one had smiled since they entered the town.

Needless to say, the mother and son who had turned on each other didn’t.

At the He residence, the butler was very serious and steady.

Although Councilor He was respectful, he had never smiled either.

Could there be such a strange thing?

This time, even Zhou Jiannan, who prided himself on being well-read and learned, was quiet. He was dumbfounded. “No, how can there be such a strange town name?”

Councilor He was also at a loss for words.

He sighed. “To be honest, this town used to be called Joyful Town. But a month ago, a strange thing started happening. Whoever laughed would have their heart ripped out. Gradually, no one dared to laugh anymore. Over time, this name spread. To be safe, we even carved a stele to remind passersby. There are twenty inscriptions on the stele. Didn’t the immortal masters see it?”

Lian Qiao scratched her head. “When we arrived, the two groups were arguing fiercely. That stele was splashed with dog’s blood.”

“I see.” Councilor He was quite ashamed. “It was our recklessness that has implicated the fairy. Now that the fairy has laughed, the demon is probably aware. What should we do?”

Lian Qiao raised an eyebrow. “It’s coming for me? Isn’t that even better? I insist on laughing. I’d like to see what kind of demon can’t tolerate others laughing.”

With that, she deliberately opened the door, unafraid that the demon wouldn’t be able to find her.

However, apart from the rustling of the bamboo forest in the night wind, there was no other movement.

Lian Qiao pouted. “See? Nothing’s happening.”

Councilor He wiped his sweat. “It’s nighttime. This demon prefers to strike during the day.”

Lian Qiao was slightly surprised. Generally, demons and ghosts liked to cause trouble under the cover of a dark and windy night. This demon was a special one.

“Does this demon have any other quirks? Tell us everything, it might give us a clue.”

So Councilor He explained in detail, “If you must call it a quirk, it’s that it doesn’t allow people to laugh, and it likes to kill during the day. Oh, right, all the dead, although their hearts were ripped out, had smiles on their faces.”

Lian Qiao was lost in thought.

Logically, having one’s heart ripped out should be extremely painful, yet these people could still smile at the moment of death.

It seemed this demon was likely also proficient in illusions, perhaps setting up some kind of illusion to make people willingly have their hearts torn out.

“Anything else?”

“Anything else?” Councilor He frowned. “Just what I told you immortals before. It especially likes to target brides. Butcher Wang’s daughter died just like that.”

At this moment, Lian Qiao thought a little deeper. “Are you sure it’s because she’s a bride? A bride on her wedding day is bound to be very happy. Could it be because she laughed?”

Councilor He said, “We naturally thought of that as well. So, a few days ago when someone else’s daughter got married, we repeatedly warned her not to laugh. To be safe, we even glued the bride’s mouth shut with paste. But… two brides in a row still died!”

‘Hates seeing people laugh, likes to appear during the day, loves to rip out hearts, and especially loves to target brides…’

Lian Qiao couldn’t recall any demon with these characteristics for the time being.

So she said to Councilor He, “For the next two days, I will first look through the ‘Compendium of a Hundred Demons’ to see if I can find any clues. If this demon comes to our door, that would be even better. It would save me the trouble of searching for it.”

Councilor He was naturally endlessly grateful and also sent over the case files from the past few days.

“However,” Councilor He mused again, “there is another matter at hand. Seven days is not long, but it’s not short either. The town is small, and we don’t have that much food. What should we do…”

Lu Wu Jiu said, “Isn’t the county magistrate’s office in the neighboring town to the west?”

Councilor He said, “Yes, Immortal Master Lu, are you thinking of borrowing grain from the west? To be honest, our county magistrate is probably not that easy to deal with…”

Lu Wu Jiu said in a deep voice, “I have my own way. The councilor need not worry.”

Councilor He glanced at the Three-legged Golden Crow on his robes.

Later that night, he saw him command a young boy to deliver a sealed letter with a wax seal to the western county magistrate’s office.

Since Lu Wu Jiu had already started, Lian Qiao was naturally not one to be left behind.

She quickly began reviewing the case files from the past few days.

The main theme was: if Lu Wu Jiu didn’t sleep, neither would she.

Yan Wushuang next door couldn’t take it anymore.

She opened the side window and stuck her head out angrily at Lian Qiao. “It’s so late already, it won’t make a difference to wait a little longer, will it?”

Lian Qiao, with a case file in her left hand and the demon compendium in her right, didn’t even lift her head. “It’s all Lu Wu Jiu’s fault. His light is still on. He must be secretly reviewing them too. I knew it. He puts on a cold and aloof act during the day just to confuse me and make me lower my guard. At night, isn’t he just secretly working hard behind my back? He definitely wants to figure it out before I do.”

Yan Wushuang glanced at the leisurely shadow on the opposite window. “…Somehow, that shadow doesn’t look like it’s reviewing case files.”

Lian Qiao scoffed. “An illusion. It must be an illusion. He’s definitely hiding it behind another book, so I won’t find out.”

As the two were talking, the window of Lu Wu Jiu’s room opposite slammed shut with a bang, and the light went out instantly.

Lian Qiao bit her pen, her face full of certainty. “See? I was right. He’s angry because I exposed him, isn’t he?”

Yan Wushuang was speechless.

‘Is that what happened?’

But since Lu Wu Jiu had blown out his lamp, Lian Qiao also blew out hers.

Just as Yan Wushuang yawned, thinking the night was over, Lian Qiao pulled out a luminous pearl from her pocket to continue reading in secret.

She called it—’Just now was keeping pace, now this is called overtaking.’

Yan Wushuang: ???

‘I give up on you smart people who work so damn hard!’

She slammed her window shut with a bang.

The more she thought about it, the more anxious she became.

Just then, Zhou Jiannan next door suddenly started snoring.

Yan Wushuang kicked the wall, shaking Zhou Jiannan awake from his dream.

He scrambled around in panic, clutching his quilt. “Is it an earthquake? Is it moving?”

Yan Wushuang was speechless.

‘Fortunately, there’s someone even more useless than me.’

Only then did she lie down with satisfaction and peace of mind.

Lian Qiao’s eyelids were about to close.

Finally, as the moon began to set in the west, she estimated that Lu Wu Jiu should be asleep.

She let out a long yawn and finally put down the case files.

But for some reason, it seemed a bit hot tonight.

She tossed and turned in bed, too hot to sleep.

She couldn’t help but open the window and ask Yan Wushuang if it was a bit hot tonight, only to be met with a pillow thrown out of the window…

So she decisively shut her mouth before the irritable woman could do worse.

And then, the heat became stranger and stranger.

Lian Qiao finally realized something was wrong.

This familiar heat, this feverish feeling all over her body… it didn’t seem to be simple heat.

It was that blasted Gu, and it was acting up at this very moment!

And, just like with Lu Wu Jiu, this flare-up seemed even more intense than the last one.

But Lian Qiao would absolutely never admit that she was on the same level as Lu Wu Jiu!

‘Endure.’

She refused to believe that such a tiny Gu could actually kill her.

A quarter of an hour later…

Lian Qiao lifted the curtain.

‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die. This Gu can really kill me!’

If she didn’t get over there soon, it felt like her blood would boil.

Lian Qiao had no choice but to wrap herself up from head to toe, furtively making her way toward Lu Wu Jiu’s room.