Mu Hong’s words to Lu Qing and Zhu Yu were not unexpected, and indeed not surprising. Zhu Yu’s comments were meant to draw Mu Hong into continuing his story.

Perhaps the painful memories had been pent up for more than twenty years without anyone to confide in, the feeling was not easy to bear, those sorrows could only be buried in the heart, tormenting oneself over and over again. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Now that someone was willing to listen, Mu Hong could no longer hold back: "Back then, to protect our family and the people on the manor, my father had to obey that person’s orders and concoct some horrifyingly effective fragrances as per his instructions. That person was present every day, watching whatever my father did.

Initially, we all thought that person was simply there to supervise us, afraid we might disobey, but turned out his mind was more malicious than we imagined, and his intelligence exceeded our expectations.

His daily presence was not just for supervision, but he was secretly learning our family’s techniques for making perfumes, and soon mastered them.

After he felt he had fully grasped the art of perfumery, he began to target the people on our manor one after another.

Initially, it was those apprentices working with my father, who suddenly fell ill, and soon passed away, afterward my father fell ill as well.

As I attended to him beside his sickbed, he secretly took out two pills when no one else was around, telling me they were given to him secretly by my grandfather, a fake death medicine concocted during the years of chaos when the family sought to avoid disaster. These pills were not used back then, and now he intended for us to use them at a critical moment to save our lives.

Father said he knew his illness was unusual, likely leading to inescapable death, and urged me to prepare for escape while he was still alive.

Later... I kept looking for opportunities, during which I secretively stored things that might be useful, but because I hadn’t found a suitable chance, I couldn’t execute the plan.

Until later, when that person personally transported a batch of prepared fragrances to the capital, delivering them to Prince Lan, temporarily leaving Mu Family Manor, it was with the help of a kind soldier that I wrapped what I wanted to take in layers and hid myself among a pile of corpses.

It was then that I realized, without noticing, many people on the manor had been poisoned to death while helping them grind and refine some bizarre herbs.

I hid in the corpse pile for a day, and when they came the next day to haul these villagers’ corpses away for disposal, I took the fake death medicine in advance and was not detected, discarded together with the others’ corpses in a ravine.

When I woke, surrounded by wild dogs scavenging for meat, I was almost devoured.

Afterward, I fled all the way here, discovering a tomb that had evidently been raided at some unknown point in time, presumably abandoned as the raiders feared being spotted. I stayed here, using a small wooden building they had erected as my hiding place."

"So this small building is not built by you, and those things on the windows aren’t barricades from you?" Zhu Yu asked.

"Those were indeed done by me." Mu Hong appeared extremely candid at this moment, "I was afraid of being discovered here and that others might come later, so I sealed all the windows.

Never thought, in the end, someone would still find their way over, luckily I carried a lot of seductive fragrance our family concocted for protection.

Afterward, people elsewhere spread rumors of evil spirits haunting here, groups came to exorcise, also scared off by me, I pasted their talisman papers and painted with cinnabar outside the wooden building, creating an appearance of intense haunting.

After that, no one came here for a long time, quiet until you arrived, genuinely startling me."

Lu Qing and Zhu Yu listened to his story, realizing it matched what they heard in the previous small town, it appeared Mu Hong hadn’t concealed anything from them.

Mu Hong seemed to have guessed something from their brief silence, sighing: "I know previously I deceived you twice, so perhaps you don’t fully trust me.

But I assure you, I speak the truth, not trying to put you on.

These twenty years, though alive, it was no different from being dead, the fact you didn’t kill me outright upon capturing me led me to bet you’re not one of Prince Lan’s people, so I want outsiders to know about the Mu Family Manor’s situation, I must be truthful."

Lu Qing nodded to the rune beside him, who quickly went upstairs, soon returning, holding the cloth carefully removed from the window.

The fabric originally should have been very sturdy, but after years of exposure, its color faded, and it became fragile.

If it weren’t for the Qilin pattern embroidered on it, it would have long been eroded beyond recognition, they wouldn’t have discovered it.

The rune carefully presented the cloth before Lu Qing, Mu Hong, and Zhu Yu.

Zhu Yu’s gaze settled on Mu Hong’s face, watching his expression at this moment.

Mu Hong appeared very calm, not nervous, even showing a hint of confusion.

"You don’t recognize this?" Zhu Yu asked.

Mu Hong shook his head, suspiciously glancing at them: "What is this thing?"

"You don’t know what this is? Isn’t this what you sealed on the second-floor window?" The rune suspected Mu Hong was playing dumb, questioning with hostility.

On this matter, Zhu Yu disagreed with the rune’s suspicion, feeling perhaps Mu Hong’s reaction was genuine.

If he knew what the Qilin pattern represented, perhaps he wouldn’t dare to blatantly hang it on a window as a seal.

Previously they focused on the Qilin pattern appearing in such an isolated wooden building in the wilderness, coupled with being twice knocked unconscious and thrown outside by Mu Hong, inevitably affecting their emotions, momentarily overlooking this issue.

Lu Qing’s calm reaction reflected his complete composure at this point, recognizing this detail.

After listening to the rune’s words, Mu Hong realized where the cloth came from, suddenly understanding: "So it was the cloth I used to seal the window... All these years I’ve not dared to go to the second floor, afraid of being accidentally seen from outside. Without you removing it, I would have forgotten.

It was a piece of wrapping cloth I stole when wrapping myself in things!"