First Chapter 25 The Old Man Who Lingered
Although the journey was not far, it took some time to get there, and it was already evening when we arrived at the city. I got off the train and called Qin Yiheng, but his phone was still turned off, so I had to go straight to the house with Liu Quezi, hoping to meet Qin Yiheng first and then make plans.
When I showed the address to the taxi driver, I asked him a few questions. The location of this house is really good. Although it is not in the city center, it is also on the main road of the city. It is convenient to go anywhere. In addition, there is a well-known university next to it. The environment and geographical location are ideal. However, what surprised me was that this house is not a haunted house. Not only is it not haunted, but there are people living in it. After knocking on the door, an old lady opened the door for us. She was not young, but she looked very energetic. I told her the purpose directly and asked her if she wanted to sell the house. The old lady nodded and let us in.
Qin Yiheng hadn't arrived yet at this time, and I thought he might have been delayed for some reason. However, since I had already arrived, I would simply ask about the situation of the house first, which would save some time when Qin Yiheng arrived.
The old lady spoke slowly and calmly, and she looked very cultured. She said that this house was previously occupied by her husband and wife. But her husband passed away a while ago, and her children were all abroad, so she planned to sell the house and live abroad with her children. This would not only save her from missing him , but also provide her with support in her old age. I got up and walked around the house. It had three bedrooms and two living rooms, and it was about 140 square meters. Although the decoration was not luxurious, it was elegant. After a simple look around, I was quite satisfied with the orientation and layout, so I sat down and asked the old lady about the price.
The old lady offered a very cheap price, and I was a little tempted at the time, but after thinking about it, I felt that Qin Yiheng asked me to come to this house, and I was afraid that it was not so easy to pick up a bargain, so I asked the old lady directly if there was anything wrong with the house. The old lady hesitated for a while and said that there was actually nothing wrong with the house, but if I wanted to buy it, I hoped to add a condition to the contract, that is, I could only live in it myself, and the bedroom inside must always remain the same.
Her condition was too harsh. To put it bluntly, it would be like throwing away the house if I bought it. So I asked the old lady why she had such a request.
When asked this question, the old lady's eyes became red. She pointed to the inner room and said that her old man had not left and was still in that bedroom. She didn't want to leave either, but it was not a solution to stay here all the time. Moreover, she didn't forbid others to move into the bedroom. It was just that her old man had a bad temper and would throw things in it from time to time. He would break a teacup or something. If you didn't give him something to throw, he would pace back and forth in it at night and walk all night. She also felt sorry for her husband being tired, so she could only send a few cups in whenever she had something to do. She was afraid that he would scare others. After all, this was her husband. She would feel bad if she scared anyone.
I thought to myself: "You still call this no big deal? Isn't it obviously haunted?" But from what the old lady said, the thing didn't seem to have any special abilities other than breaking a few cups, but even if it didn't have any special abilities, it would still be a problem. I hesitated whether to wait for Qin Yiheng to come before making a long-term plan. Unexpectedly, Liu Quezi was quite brave and asked the old lady to take us into the bedroom to have a look. I followed behind.
The bedroom was very clean, with one wall made into a large bookcase, which was basically filled with books. And just as the old lady said, there were several cups on the small bedside table next to the bed. I didn't feel uncomfortable when I entered the room, but Liu Quezi seemed to sense something and frowned.
After taking a quick look, the three of us left. Liu Quezi asked the old lady a question: How did the old man die?
The old lady opened up now, so I will give a brief summary. Basically, the old man in their family was a professor in the university. He had two hobbies in his life, one was research, and the other was playing chess. After retirement, he basically focused all his energy on playing chess. From time to time, he would always invite some chess friends home to play chess, and he could play chess for a whole day. Just half a month before his death, he might have met someone who was particularly good at chess. The old man dragged that person home every day to play chess, and he was still not satisfied every time he finished. After several times, the old man's body probably couldn't take it anymore. One night, he had a heart attack and passed away. The old man was sleeping next to her at the time, and she didn't know he was dead. She found him in the morning when she pushed him and his body was stiff.
After listening to the old lady, I also became confused. He should have died of old age, and he should have been reincarnated. I turned my head to look at Qin Yiheng out of habit, but I only saw Liu Quezi, who also looked confused.
I saw that the matter had come to this point and I could only wait for Qin Yiheng to come to solve it. So I made an appointment with the old lady for the next day and told her that if someone with long hair came to see me, I should say that we had been there and asked him to call me. When I went out, Liu Quezi smacked his lips in confusion. I asked him what was wrong. Liu Quezi said that he thought this matter might be a little strange, because when we went to see the bedroom just now, there was a wall of books. Strictly speaking, books can ward off evil spirits because the words are all positive. As the saying goes, evil cannot prevail over good, which is why libraries are usually very clean places. In this case, it is definitely unreasonable for the old man's ghost to stay in that bedroom.
Although Liu Quezi didn't know much, his words made sense. Words can ward off evil spirits, this should be true, otherwise how can the words written on the talisman paper have the effect of exorcising evil spirits? Unfortunately, neither of us knew much about metaphysics and couldn't discuss it, so we could only find a hotel to stay in. I didn't sleep well, always worried that I would miss a call from Qin Yiheng, and I woke up and slept until dawn, but there was still no news from him.
If Qin Yiheng doesn't come, there's no way to get this house. Now, I'm in an awkward situation. If I go back, I'm afraid he'll come and we'll miss each other; if I don't go back, I can only wait here.
Liu Quezi suggested that I wait a little longer. At worst, we could go to the house and ask more questions. Maybe we could find a solution, because in many cases, these strange things don't need to be solved by magic. The old man didn't leave, and it's possible that he was attached to something. I thought, what he said makes sense. Didn't the official of the Qing Dynasty refuse to reincarnate because of the imperial edict? Maybe their family also has something that the old man can't let go of.
So, the two of us went to the house again. On the way, I was thinking, what if the old man was obsessed with their old lady, then this matter would be completely hopeless.
The old lady was quite hospitable, probably because she was bored. We sat down and chatted about random things, and the topic turned to chess. The old lady couldn't help but talk about how obsessed her old man was with it, saying that his chess set had not been touched and was still in the bedroom.
After listening to it, I thought for a while, could it be that the old man was nostalgic for his chess friend? Maybe he didn't play enough before, so I casually asked the old lady if there was any news about the chess friend. Who knew that after the old lady finished speaking, my head buzzed, because she said that the chess friend had never come since the old man died, and she couldn't contact him, and she didn't even know his name. She only knew that the old man in their family called that person Xiao Liuzi, because that person had six fingers.
I think I may know why Qin Yiheng asked me to come to this house. He must have received the news through some channels before. But now he is not here, which makes it very difficult.
I wanted to discuss it with Liu Quezi, but he didn't even know the origin of my relationship with Liu Zhi. For a moment, I was really clueless, so I had to take advantage of the day to go to the bedroom inside and take a look. Sure enough, there was a chess set on the windowsill. It should be made of wood. It looked very delicate and probably expensive. I didn't dare to touch it with my hands. I could only observe it from a closer distance. Suddenly, a cup broke behind me, which scared me.
The old lady hurried over from the living room, and while skillfully picking up the broken glass, she reminded us not to touch the chess set, saying that maybe their old man had just played half of a game with someone else, and he would be very unhappy if we moved the pieces.
Although I was still in shock, I felt that things were beginning to make sense. The problem was probably in this chess game. Although I was not proficient in chess, I could still get a rough idea. The red side on the chessboard had been basically killed by the black side and had no way out. I guessed that the old man was holding the red side's pieces. No wonder he was so upset after his death. He basically lost this game.
I told Liu Quezi about my guess, and his eyes lit up. He told me that he had always heard about some magic and supernatural things before, and this time he really encountered them, he was willing to give it a try.
I asked him, how to test it?
Liu Quezi came over to me and said mysteriously, why don’t we come over in the evening and continue playing chess with the old man? Why don’t we just lose to him on purpose?
