On a dark and empty street, the carriage came to a slow stop before the Tianjin Guards branch office.
Cao Gaoshan swung down from his horse and looked up at the tightly shut, pitch-black estate before him. Hu Rui'an and the others then stepped down from the carriage as well.
The moment they arrived at the Tianjin Guards branch office, the shadow of what Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong had encountered the previous night set their nerves on edge, and they immediately stayed close to Li Musheng's side.
Li Musheng swept a look over the Tianjin Guards branch office before him. Seeming to detect nothing unusual, he gestured for the group to open the gate.
Cao Gaoshan, seeing that Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong were clearly somewhat afraid of the estate before them, had no choice but to go in himself by climbing over the wall, then opened the main gate of the Tianjin Guards branch office from within.
"Your Highness, last night I encountered the ghostly shadow and laughter as I was passing through one of the halls inside," Hu Rui'an said as they entered.
Once inside, the estate was utterly silent. Not a single lantern was lit anywhere, and not a soul was in sight, exactly as it had been the previous time.
He led Li Musheng straight toward the hall where he had seen it before. The purpose was clear enough, since they had not come to wander idly.
Before long, Hu Rui'an came to a stop before the hall from the night before and looked it over. Tonight the situation was identical to last night. Every other room and hall in the estate was locked, doors and windows firmly shut, while the only exception was this unassuming little hall, which had a gap in its door left open.
He looked around at the surroundings, then waited quietly for a moment. When neither ghostly shadow nor laughter appeared, he raised his foot and started toward the small hall.
Hu Rui'an climbed the steps one by one, his gaze fixed on the gap in the door the whole time, his presence locking onto the entire hall.
And right at that moment, the large black cat appeared on cue, suddenly slipping out through the gap in the door and letting out a meow.
"My, what an enormous cat."
Li Musheng's eyebrows went up at the sight of it. It was the first time he had seen a cat of such a size.
The cat's fur was a deep, dark black throughout, and whatever it had been eating to grow up on, its build was remarkably large. Without a close look one might easily have mistaken it for a large black dog bounding out.
The black cat, for its part, seemed to have been startled as well. It stopped abruptly at the foot of the steps, then fixed its bright green eyes on Hu Rui'an and the others assembled before the hall and looked them over.
"Here, kitty, come here."
Li Musheng crouched down, looked at the large black cat before him, and clapped his hands to coax it over.
Back when he used to go to parks, he would often come across stray dogs and cats. Generally if he encountered one that was good-looking he would play with it for a while, though naturally he would not bother with ugly ones.
Seeing Li Musheng calling to it, the large cat stared at him with its pupils narrowing slightly, let out two meows, and stood where it was looking somewhat hesitant.
But in the next instant Li Musheng moved and appeared beside the cat, then reached out and began scratching it.
"There must be quite a few mice in this Tianjin Guards branch office, to have fed this cat up so well."
Li Musheng stroked the cat and glanced back at Hu Rui'an and the others as he spoke. At the sight of it, Shen Anran's eyes lit up and she quickly came over to Li Musheng's side in short steps.
Looking at the large black cat with its glossy, sleek fur, she could not help but reach out a soft white hand and give it a pat.
The cat immediately turned its head and its fur bristled, fixing Shen Anran with a hard green-eyed stare.
However, seeming to sense that Li Musheng was nearby, it did not turn and swipe at her.
Instead it let out a rolling purr, raised its tail high, and walked off to one side.
"This cat seems a little fierce," Shen Anran said with a slight frown.
Hu Rui'an watched the large black cat, his expression thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I have always felt this cat and the ghost in this estate are connected somehow."
After he had seen the black cat the previous night, the ghostly shadow and laughter had appeared almost at the same moment. And beyond that, the cat lived in the Tianjin Guards branch office alongside whatever ghosts were here, seemingly without any trouble at all. That was genuinely unusual.
Shen Anran looked thoughtful and said, "Perhaps the cat belongs to the ghost."
At that point Li Musheng stood up and glanced at Hu Rui'an, then waved a hand, saying, "It is simply a rather well-fed cat. There is no need to jump at shadows, Commissioner Hu."
Then he turned to look at the small hall before them, saying, "Since Commissioner Hu says there is something inside, we may as well go in and have a look."
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an looked at the large black cat, which had settled itself on the steps before the hall, then swept a look around at the darkness surrounding them. Tonight there was no sign of any ghost appearing.
A flicker of suspicion crossed his gaze, but he said nothing more, answered in agreement, and headed once again toward the small hall.
The door creaked as it was pushed fully open. The interior was pitch black. Hu Rui'an drew a fire-striker from inside his robe, blew it alight, then stepped across the threshold and walked inward over the stone floor.
Wu Shang, Cheng Zhong, and the others followed at Li Musheng's side and entered the hall as well.
Very quickly, Hu Rui'an came to a stop in the center of the hall. He pinched a tongue of flame between his fingers and flicked it lightly, sending it scattering outward to light the oil lamps standing around him one by one.
In an instant the entire small hall brightened, revealing the general layout of its interior.
The place appeared to be a storeroom of the Tianjin Guards. Neatly arranged wooden shelves stood around the walls, and on those shelves rested volumes upon volumes of scrolls alongside numerous wooden cases sealed with strips of white paper stamped with red characters.
Hu Rui'an looked around briefly, then began examining the room, clearly hoping to find some clue within it.
At the sight of this, though Wu Shang and Cheng Zhong both felt considerably safer staying near Li Musheng, they could hardly stand idle, and steeled themselves to begin searching through the hall as well.
Shen Anran and Cao Gaoshan naturally lent a hand, and after searching for a while the group had gone through the entire hall without finding anything at all.
The case files and wooden cases on the shelves showed no signs of having been disturbed. The place appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary storeroom.
Hu Rui'an's brow furrowed. He had also considered looking for hidden mechanisms, but still had no idea where to begin.
"Sir, perhaps we should look around the other parts of the estate. Running into the ghost in this hall last night may have simply been coincidence," Wu Shang came over to Hu Rui'an and suggested in a low voice.
Hearing this, Hu Rui'an said nothing, and instead glanced at Li Musheng.
By rights they had been inside the Tianjin Guards branch office for some time by now, and a group of their size had made no small amount of noise. Yet strangely, the ghosts had not appeared at any point.
This only made him more certain that the ghosts were genuinely afraid of the prince before him, and did not dare to show themselves.
But just at that moment, Li Musheng suddenly looked toward a section of wall in the hall and walked over to it.
"Have a look at these claw marks on the wall here. Do you notice anything unusual?"
He pointed at the wall and turned to ask Hu Rui'an and the others.