The truth?

"Angus?" Lin Feng immediately recognized the man not far ahead from his back, his short and chubby stature and slightly balding head leaving a deep impression. "Is he the one causing trouble here?"

At this moment, Angus had not yet noticed the movement behind him. His attention was completely focused on the dark, imposing stone wall in front of him. This abrupt stone wall cut off the tunnel, turning it into a dead end. Angus was anxiously feeling the wall, as if trying to find some hidden mechanism or secret passage. However, it seemed to be in vain, and it was unclear how long he had been struggling here.

Angus wore a headlamp and carried a strange black box on his back, resembling a portable sound system with its own power source. It was evident that he had come prepared, rather than stumbling into this place by accident. Considering the strange sounds emanating from the small chapel earlier, and the fact that he was the one who first reported the "haunting of the castle" incident, even Lin Feng, despite his usual cluelessness, should have understood what was happening. He took two steps forward, no longer concealing his footsteps, finally catching Angus's attention. The short and chubby innkeeper trembled all over at the sound behind him, then stiffened as if struck by lightning. Lin Feng and the others waited patiently for a few seconds before seeing Angus awkwardly turn his head like a poorly oiled puppet.

The beam of the headlamp swept over the dark tunnel, and a strange, undulating black mist lingered in front of Angus. Could anyone with a normal worldview accept such a sight? The innkeeper immediately let out a strange cry, "Ah—"

The cry was so sudden that even Lin Feng was startled, unsure who was scaring whom. Vivian gestured for him to keep quiet, then cleared her throat and spoke in a sharp, eerie tone, "What are you doing here?"

Lin Feng glanced at Vivian strangely, thinking that this vampire had quite a variety of tricks up her sleeve, even carrying a mixer with her wherever she went.

Upon hearing the terrifying voice from the "black mist," Angus felt that communication with the "evil spirit" was possible. He calmed down slightly and, although still trembling, managed to speak, "I-I'm just a small merchant nearby, I really didn't mean to disturb you... I live near Joford, yes, I'm a Jofordian, also considered one of your subjects. Could you let me leave, in the spirit of chivalry?"

Clearly, Angus mistook the black mist and the terrifying voice from within for real castle spirits. Although he was pretending to be mysterious, he seemed quite cowardly and at a loss when faced with the unexpected.

This misunderstanding seemed opportune, so Lin Feng didn't reveal the truth, just followed his own train of thought and continued, "Are you the one causing trouble here every day? Are you behind the recent incidents in the castle?"

Upon hearing that the black mist could actually talk to him, Angus felt that communication with the "evil spirit" was possible. He calmed down slightly and, although still trembling, managed to speak, "Y-yes, it's me, but I'm just moving around upstairs. I didn't intend to disturb the spirits down here..."

"Why are you pretending to be a ghost?"

Angus wondered why the "knight's spirit" in the black mist was so curious, but he didn't dare to say much at this point. Whatever the other party asked, he answered, "My inn is not doing well, so I thought of creating a big sensation... but I didn't expect it to be this big!"

With this, the truth came to light.

The widely-publicized haunting of Joford Castle turned out to be a hoax orchestrated by a small innkeeper to attract outsiders. Perhaps Angus hadn't anticipated the situation escalating to this extent at first. He clearly underestimated the curiosity of the idle media and the enthusiastic "ghost hunters." A small ghost incident, when televised, had grown into the current situation, which was beyond his expectations.

Taking advantage of Angus's cooperation, Lin Feng quickly asked about the situation tonight, gradually clarifying the details of his deceptive acts. The "ghostly fires" in the castle were simply lights set in the crevices of rocks in advance, and the howling wind was even simpler, coming from the large speaker box behind Angus... Everything was so ludicrous.

Angus was a long-time resident of Brushall town, having grown up there. As a teenager, he was a wild child who loved to roam around. Many years ago, he often came to explore this castle, and it was then that he coincidentally discovered the intact underground palace system under the castle—this was a secret known only to him.

This remote town had never had many outsiders passing through. A few years ago, the situation was better, but in recent years it had deteriorated, making it increasingly difficult for Angus's small inn to survive. Finally, when the business was on the verge of collapse, he turned his attention to the neighboring castle.

Brushall was not an economic hub, with no special products or major transportation routes. The only thing that could attract outsiders was the castle. If the castle became a tourist attraction, the problem of the inn's business would naturally be solved.

So, Angus came up with a bold idea: to fake haunting, create a sensation, and attract people.

His haunting tricks had been going smoothly these days. He was familiar with the castle's layout and knew where he could hide his props for pretending to be a ghost. He was also cautious, always tidying up everything before the brave "ghost hunters" arrived. The underground passages in the castle were another advantageous condition for his activities. Even if someone ran into the ruins to investigate, he could easily move or hide in various hidden doors inside the castle: no one knew that these things existed in the castle.

With Angus's "hard work," every curious person who came to the castle to investigate became a free promoter. Thus, the Joford Castle haunting incident became a big sensation. Of course, another important reason for the news to spread was the mischief of the people. Everyone knows that the haunted house adventure in the park is fake, yet so many people still go. What's more, there's a "real" one here?

The only thing that was hard to explain was the "many people seeing the firelight coming from the castle direction" that Angus mentioned in his initial report. That wasn't just his claim, and now, in front of Lin Feng, Angus was also patting his chest, affirming that he had definitely seen the sky lit up with flames that night. It was because of this mysterious firelight incident that gave him the "inspiration" to play the ghost.

What was the story behind the firelight?

The castle was tens of kilometers away from Brushall, and even though the terrain along the way was flat with nothing obstructing the view, it was unlikely that anyone in town would see the firelight coming from the castle direction. How large a scale fire would that require? It would probably need the entire plateau to be on fire.

However, the details of this matter are unknown, and Angus doesn't know what happened. The only thing that can be confirmed now is that, except for the initial firelight report, all the haunting incidents during this period—were all done by the fat boss alone.

But is this really just a

 case of pretending to be a ghost?