First Chapter 42: Day and Night
We didn't delay when we got there, and we contacted the owner of the dog meat restaurant directly. While waiting for the owner to come, I took a quick look at the door of the dog meat restaurant. The store was not very big, two floors, and the decoration was OK, but it looked like it had been closed for a while. From the outside, the whole house looked very lifeless. Qin Yiheng also walked around, but didn't find anything. We estimated that the owner would take a while to come, so we asked around the store. It didn't matter, but we really asked a lot of questions.
According to the owners of the restaurants around, this store was a family restaurant before. Because the owner died a few years ago, it was transferred to the dog meat restaurant family. Before the urban reconstruction, there was a river in front of their store, which was later filled into a road. In fact, the water depth is only half a meter. One night, the owner of the family restaurant didn't know if he drank too much, but he drowned in the river. The body was not found until the next day. The family restaurant was not big, and the owner was actually the chef. Now that the owner is dead, the restaurant can basically not survive. The owner's widow sold the store to the couple who opened the dog meat restaurant. It is said that the price was very low at the time. People around were talking about selling it so low, and they were afraid that there was something wrong with the house. But after the dog meat restaurant opened for a few years, no strange things happened again, and their business was pretty good. Over time, if it weren't for the death of this time, this matter would have been forgotten by people.
According to what people around me said, this house is probably a haunted house. Qin Yiheng didn't express his opinion, but just asked me to wait for the boss's wife to come and try to ask her indirectly how the boss died. After waiting for about half an hour, the boss's wife finally arrived. She looked quite young and dressed quite decently, but she didn't talk much. She just took the key to open the door, briefly explained the area and price of the house, and then said nothing more.
Frankly speaking, I was really surprised when I entered this house, because it could not be described as old, it was simply dilapidated, the dining table and chairs were all tilted and incomplete, and it looked like they had been smashed earlier. I saw that Qin Yiheng was also puzzled, so I casually asked the landlady what was going on? The landlady's answer was even more surprising. She said that she had hired someone to smash these.
Did you hire someone to smash it yourself? Aren't you just bored? I saw that the boss lady was in good spirits and didn't seem to have any violent tendencies. I looked at Qin Yiheng, but he nodded as if he understood. He turned around and asked the boss lady, "Are you still dreaming now?" This question made me even more confused, but the boss lady seemed to understand and shook her head at us twice, looking very aggrieved. Qin Yiheng didn't continue to speak, but walked around upstairs and downstairs.
At first, I was still trying to talk to the landlady downstairs, firstly because Qin Yiheng had told me before, and secondly, I also wanted to see if I could take the opportunity to bargain. Unfortunately, the landlady didn't say much, and I felt that I was asking for trouble after asking a few questions, so I just kept silent. Qin Yiheng walked around upstairs for a long time before coming down and winking at me. I saw that he looked quite relaxed, and I began to feel secretly happy in my heart. This trip was not in vain. After all, it has been a long time since the store was opened, so I was quite excited. Unexpectedly, he whispered to me and told me that this house was not easy to deal with. After that, he used his eyes to signal me to look at the tables and chairs that were knocked over on the ground, and asked me if I knew why the landlady would destroy her own place?
How could I know this? I told him not to keep it a secret and just tell me what he wanted to say. Qin Yiheng sighed and said, because this restaurant is open day and night, which is not what we now call 24-hour operation. To put it simply, it does business for people during the day and ghosts at night. He didn't hold back his voice when he said this, and it was obvious that he intended to say it to the proprietress.
After saying this, we both turned our eyes to the proprietress. As expected, her face changed and her eyes turned red.
Qin Yiheng saw this and said, "Don't worry. Now you should know that we are both sensible people. Just tell us if you have any problems. If it is easy to handle, we will buy the house." His tone was sincere. I saw that the boss lady's expression was obviously moved. After a few seconds of silence, she told us about their store.
The boss's wife was not very good at expressing herself, and she spoke in a disjointed manner, but I did understand the general idea. Before the couple took over the shop, the shop had already been open day and night. During the day, it was a restaurant as usual. When it was midnight and the shop was closed, the boss would hang an empty bowl upside down on the door, which was considered to be the start of "business". However, this ghost business was not like preparing food in a restaurant, but lighting incense and setting up "five dishes" on each table. When one incense stick was burned out, a table of five dishes would be placed on it. This continued until the Yin hour, which was three o'clock in the morning, when the boss would take down the empty bowl hanging upside down on the door and hang a small broom on it, which meant closing the shop and sending customers away. On the surface, opening day and night could not bring actual benefits, but the boss had no choice , because the business was not prosperous when it first opened, and I don't know who the previous boss listened to and said that doing so would open up a way to make money. Unexpectedly, after the boss tried it, the business really gradually improved, and the shop was opened day and night. But not long after, the boss drowned in the river. His family also knew that the shop would be open in the second half of the night, and they could not help but think that the boss's death was inevitably related to this, so they did not dare to sublease it at a high price, fearing that it would cause any more trouble. The subsequent dog meat restaurant owner had a set of ancestral recipes for making dog meat. At that time, he wanted to open a shop, but he had little capital. Hearing that the shop here was cheap, he also came here. It's better to come by chance than to come by chance. I don't know why the previous boss's family took a fancy to the couple and decisively transferred it to them when many people were chasing for this store. However, on the day of signing the contract, the previous boss's family may have had some conscience and told them about the day and night opening. The owner of the dog meat restaurant himself was a bold and unbelieving person. He refused to believe these weird things and still resolutely bought the shop. But he didn't expect that after the shop opened, he would always have some strange dreams every night, and they were all invisible people who came to ask him why the shop was not open.
After a few times, the owner of the dog meat restaurant became a little suspicious. In addition, business was really difficult at that time. Later, he was eager to make money, so he opened the restaurant at night with the idea of giving it a try. From then on, their dog meat restaurant was opened day and night.
The lady boss took quite a while to explain this, because she would be interrupted by sobs every few sentences. It seems that the couple has a good relationship. After she finished speaking, I kept staring at Qin Yiheng's face. He also looked quite serious. I asked him, is this store still opened like this?
Qin Yiheng said, "Yes." It is said that inns and taverns and restaurants since ancient times have reserved special tables and rooms. Even if they are full or occupied, they must be left empty and cannot be used by guests, because they are used to greet the ghosts coming and going. However, it is the first time he has heard of the "five stews" for entertainment. The so-called "five stews" are the livers of five kinds of birds, taken from wild geese, sparrows, pigeons, geese and hens. It is said that they were used to sacrifice to the river god in the early days. If they are given to those lonely ghosts, the specifications are quite high. It is no wonder that the road to wealth will open. These spirits have eaten the things in his house, so they will definitely not block the road to wealth. But this is not a long-term solution, because even if these ghosts are harmless, they gather together like this, and the yin energy is still very heavy. In addition, the time of the middle of the night itself suppresses yang and promotes yin. If the boss keeps guarding like this for a long time, it is probably inevitable that his life will be shortened.
After listening to Qin Yiheng's explanation, I have learned a lot. However, what I am most concerned about is whether this house is easy to deal with. After all, this is the issue at hand.
When asked, he curled his lips, turned around and asked the boss's wife how the boss died.
This sentence really touched the boss's wife's sore spot. She immediately burst into tears and said that she didn't approve of the boss doing such things at night. People are instinctively afraid of these things, but the boss didn't want to listen. Because she was worried, she always waited for the boss to come back home before she could sleep peacefully. But one day, it was already dawn, and there was no sign of the boss. She felt very uneasy and went to the store, only to find that the boss was dead naked on the second floor. There was a large steel basin used in the restaurant kitchen next to him. I don't know what was burned in it, and there was a basin of ash left. Later, he was sent to the hospital, and the doctor said that the boss died of heart failure. But the boss had always been in good health before, so why did he die? At that time, she thought of the previous boss who also died inexplicably, but she was unable to verify whether it was related to night business. But at least this store could not be opened, so she simply closed the door and went home, wanting to calm down for a few days and ease the pain of losing her husband. But after closing the shop, she actually started to have the same dream as her husband had before, for several days in a row, and later she was so scared that she couldn't sleep all night. Finally, she had no choice but to find someone who knew the business to take a look. The other party told her to wrap all the tables and chairs in the store with red paper. After she did it, she really felt peaceful for several days. But the good times didn't last long. After a while, she started to have the same dream every night. This time the dream was even more weird. She actually dreamed that those things came to scold her for being rude and driving people away so abruptly. She saw that the advice given by the person who knew the business couldn't solve the problem, and those things made her afraid and hateful. Finally, in a hurry, she found a few people to smash all the tables and chairs in the store. This time, she really didn't have any strange dreams again.
The more the boss lady talked, the more confused I became. Why did these things target this house? They are still not letting go even though they want to kill someone? Qin Yiheng seemed to have heard something. He turned his head and looked around the room, but did not speak. He did not express his opinion, and I could not make up my mind, so I quietly asked him what to do now. Qin Yiheng said, this, we have to go back and think about it first, but the boss's death has nothing to do with these little ghosts who come to eat for free!
I shuddered when I heard this. It doesn't matter? Then the boss's death was a coincidence? But one person can have a coincidence, and two bosses have died before and after. However, doubts are doubts. Since he said it, I had to tell the boss's wife that we have to go back and discuss it first. I hope she will wait for us for a few days, and we will try to find out the truth about her husband's death. The boss's wife agreed very much. She gave me the key without waiting for me to ask, and said that next time we want to come to the scene to see it, don't call her. This place was built by the couple's hard work, and it is inevitable that she will be moved by the scene.
This was convenient, since there was nothing to steal in the house anyway, and I didn't care about being suspected of losing something after taking the key. So, I said goodbye to the boss's wife and went back to the hotel first. When I got in the car, I asked Qin Yiheng, if it had nothing to do with the little ghost, how did the boss die? He said that he didn't know how the boss died, but if you talk about it in detail, it is actually very strange, because dog meat restaurants are different from ordinary restaurants, most of the dogs are killed and sold by themselves, so the boss is at least half a butcher. It is said that this butcher is full of evil spirits and it is difficult to attract evil spirits. Generally, evil spirits will stay away from him. However, this butcher who kills dogs is different from those who kill pigs and sheep, because dogs themselves are very spiritual animals and can recognize homes, so most of the dog slaughters are done at dark, because they are afraid that if they are killed during the day, they will remember the way back.
After listening to what Qin Yiheng said, I also muttered in my heart, thinking: "Could it be that because this boss killed a dog in broad daylight, he was cursed?"
When we asked Qin Yiheng, he shook his head and said that it might be related to this, but the boss's wife also mentioned that the boss burned something before he died. If we really want to buy this house, we need to go there again tonight.
