From the atmosphere in this village alone, if someone were to say there's nothing going on in this village, Mu Yu would actually find it hard to believe.

The middle-aged man looked at the young and old who stopped and stared at the village in front of them. He smiled obsequiously and said, "This is all caused by that female ghost. Now people are scared and nobody has the mind to work."

The Taoist priest Qingfeng looked around and had a rough idea in his mind. He flicked his duster in his hand and gestured for the middle-aged man to continue leading the way.

"He took the two of them to a small one-story building, but now everyone lived in tile houses. This single-story building was not commonly seen, and the family living there was definitely wealthy. It was likely that they were the village chief's family."

Sure thing! Here's the translation in American English:

Sure enough, as soon as they crossed the threshold, a man in his fifties, dressed in a neat Zhongshan suit, greeted them. With his dignified appearance, he seemed like an official and stood out amongst the rugged and unkempt people they had encountered outside.

"The village chief politely invited them to sit down and served them tea. 'Daoist, we have been eagerly awaiting your arrival. Our village has never experienced anything like this before, and you must help us deal with this female ghost...'"

The Qingfeng Taoist interrupted him with a raised hand and said, "Just say it directly, when did this matter start?"

The village chief pondered for a moment, "If you want to hear about it, it all started seven days ago. Before then, little sister went missing for two days. Then, suddenly one night, someone heard her singing opera. That person even opened the window and greeted her twice. After that, more and more people heard the singing and saw ghostly figures outside their doors. Livestock died one after another as if struck by a plague. We invited two experts over before, but they shook their heads and left, unable to restrain the situation. Taoist priest...if we don't get rid of this ghost, we won't be able to survive."

As the village leader was about to burst into tears, the Taoist priest hurriedly stopped him and asked, "Who is that young girl you're talking about?"

The village chief steadied his mind and carefully explained to Daoist Qingfeng.

The younger sister's original name is Huang Xiaomei. When she was twelve years old, the troupe master saw her and took her to learn the craft. She stayed with them until she was eighteen years old. Last year, the troupe disbanded and she returned home, where she married a "scholar" who had only studied a few days. The "scholar" was often ill and soon passed away, leaving Xiaomei alone.

But suddenly, the young woman discovered she was pregnant again. Others advised her to have an abortion and remarry while she was still young, but she stubbornly refused. The child in her womb was only five months old, and she never imagined something like this would happen. She didn't know which wicked person had caused her death.

"My little sister also thinks about her past affection. Although she comes out every night, she has never harmed anyone. I advise you, she holds a grudge but cannot leave. If you want to deal with her, beware that everyone is afraid when they hear she is a pregnant female ghost."

"Mù Yù frowned. He noticed that these villages always had a shortage of widows. As a child, he had heard that this was due to some problems with the feng shui of these villages."

After listening, the Taoist nodded, "In that case, lead me to the place where she died and let me take a look."

In the middle of Xinghuang Village, there is a small round lake that everyone uses to wash clothes or bathe during the summer. However, ever since the discovery that the little sister died in the lake, no one dares to go near it. The few households living closest to the lake immediately fled to distant relatives when the incident occurred and are too afraid to return home.

Muyu wasn't really afraid as he looked at the heart of the lake. He had been scared by ghosts since he was a child, but he had also dreamt of that little sister before and she was quite pretty. In short, as long as it wasn't that Jiaohun, he wasn't really afraid.

Muyu squatted curiously by the lake and looked into the water. The Daoist Qingfeng did not stop him. Muyu was a bit different from ordinary people. Who knew what he might discover?

"The lake water was a vivid shade of green, so green it seemed to border on blue. There's a saying that goes something like 'water that's too green will drown a person,' but he couldn't quite recall the exact words."

The water was not clear, so nothing could be seen underwater. Mu Yu was about to shift his gaze, but then noticed that there seemed to be something where he had just been looking.

Mu Yu opened her eyes wide and carefully observed, not willing to miss any tiny detail. It was a strip of red cloth, floating and drifting in the water, followed by a strand of hair that resembled water plants.

Mu Yu had already faintly guessed what he was seeing. Sure enough, in a moment, there was a swollen face, shoulders, and a large belly, with arms floating upwards, from the soaked foam.

Suddenly, the Taoist placed his hand on his shoulder, causing Mu Yucui to fall to the ground in surprise. Looking back at the water, the corpse had disappeared without a trace, and there was nothing out of the ordinary around them.

The Taoist priest Qing Feng asked, "What did you see?"

Mu Yu cleared her throat and used her hand to compare, "So big... no, it's the size of a head!"

"You've got some guts, kid!" chuckled Qingfeng Taoist, amused by Mu Yu's description. On the other hand, the village chief looked pale and refused to approach the lake, even though he gestured towards it."

(Note: I have translated some of the Chinese names as per standard pinyin transliteration.)

The Daoist priest Qingfeng turned back to ask the village chief, "Was the corpse not retrieved?"

The village head shook his head like a drum, "No, no. Even if we knew where she was, who dares to fish her out after this kind of thing happened?"

The Taoist priest Qingfeng glanced up at the sky and said, "Go find a few strong men and a bamboo raft. We'll pull this girl up and who knows, this matter might be resolved in our village tonight."

The village chief quickly responded with a sound and when he left, his steps were at least three times faster than when he arrived. Maybe he had never encountered such a thing in his life and he was scared in the past few days.

Half an hour later, following an urgent notification from the village chief, all the strong men in the village arrived at the lake to shake the ground. Although their legs were trembling, the increasing number of people naturally made them less afraid.

There were three sturdy men who bravely boarded a bamboo raft, preparing to explore every corner of the lake.

The Daoist Qingfeng took a glance at the lake and reminded them, "Start fishing from the corner on the west side."

Upon hearing these words, the burly man steered the bamboo raft towards the west. However, to his surprise, when he arrived at that location and was using his bamboo pole to propel the raft, it suddenly hit something and then, with one strong push, started sinking down.

Seeing that the expression on the boatman's face was wrong, the other two hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? What happened?"

The boatman remained silent, keeping his bamboo pole steady, as if the tip of the bamboo had caught a strip of cloth and he was slowly levering the corpse up with the buoyancy.

Mu Yu stood behind Qingfeng Dao's tall figure, watching the movements on the lake. When a red object emerged from the water, he suddenly turned his head away and stopped looking.

Her head was even bigger than Mu Yubi's, and her whole body was bloated. It is likely that those who saw her corpse today would not be able to eat tonight.

Three strong men took a deep breath and pulled the corpse, maneuvering the bamboo raft. In a short while, the three of them managed to bring the corpse ashore.

The Taoist priest Qingfeng approached and inspected the swollen corpse with an unchanged expression, but there were no visible clues left on the body.

The Taoist priest took out a bowl and placed a handful of rice in it. He then placed the bowl on top of the corpse's head and asked, "Can you call Little Sister?"

"The rice in the bowl suddenly jumped a little."

"Are you nineteen years old this year?"

"A few grains of rice jumped out of the bowl."

"Are you attempting suicide?"

"There was no movement or sound in the bowl."

"It seems someone killed you and left you at Qi Lake. Judging from the tattered piece of cloth on your body, were you raped?"

The rice in the bowl suddenly rose a few inches high, as if extremely angry. Even though all the rice had jumped out of the bowl, the bowl itself jumped up and smashed onto the ground with a loud "clang clang" before finally shattering with a sharp "crack".

"You should bury her properly," said the Taoist priest as he stood up and looked at the village head who had his back facing the lake. "Village head, you should investigate who would dare to harm a pregnant woman."

The village chief took a long time before responding, but he was also a bit hesitant. Without any clues, how could they find it?