Part 2 Chapter 35 Yuan Zhen's House
He was so jumpy, I almost pissed my pants.
Not to mention looking back, he didn't even have time to look forward. He could only stare at the ground, afraid of falling, and then ran outside.
Fortunately, we had moved all the furniture away beforehand, so there were no obstacles when we ran.
When I was almost at the door, I suddenly remembered that I should remind Qin Yiheng that I saw the person on the skylight. Just as I was about to open my mouth, I heard a "crash" behind me, and then a clanging sound like something hit the wardrobe.
I subconsciously looked back and saw that the skylight was broken by something and the glass was scattered all over the floor.
In the rush, I couldn't take a closer look, and I didn't see whether the person was still there.
We ran all the way until we were out of the yard and a few hundred meters on the road before we stopped. After we had both caught our breath, I asked Qin Yiheng what happened.
He told me that now was not the time to talk about this, and that we had to find a place to settle down first and then make long-term plans. Then he took me to knock on doors one by one to see if we could stay the night.
After knocking on several doors, we finally found a place to stay. The family didn't plan to open the door for us at first, after all, it was late at night and we both had foreign accents, so no one was sure of us. In the end, I paid the price of a five-star hotel and finally got a shabby house.
I don't know what other people's houses are like, but judging from the house we stayed in, the living standard in this town is not very high. In comparison, that house seemed even more out of place.
After entering the house, neither of them was in the mood to sleep. I was waiting for Qin Yiheng to speak, but he was alone and seemed to be thinking about something.
After smoking several cigarettes, he finally told me: "It seems that the man on the skylight before is not here to harm us. On the contrary, he is probably here to warn us. He probably knew that there was something wrong in this house, so he wrote the talisman on the skylight."
"Strictly speaking, the talisman's warning function far outweighs its actual function. The reason why it was chosen is to warn us that there is something in this house that cannot be suppressed."
Qin Yiheng lit another cigarette and continued, "We only paid attention to the things in the closet before, and ignored what was under the closet. When you were out just now, I remembered it, reached out and knocked, and found that there was nothing under the closet."
After hearing what he said, I understood clearly that there was a door god on the closet door. It seemed that our previous guess was correct. There was an underground tunnel under the closet? When I asked Qin Yiheng, he shook his head and told me that he tried to distinguish it by sound. The empty space behind the closet was not big, so it was a bit far-fetched to say that it was the underground tunnel entrance. However, there must be something filthy in it, because when he touched it with his hand, he could clearly feel that the yin energy made people uncomfortable, so he was so anxious to take me out.
Things have turned out like this. I want to find out what is behind the wardrobe. I can only wait until daytime to check it out again , so I discussed it with Qin Yiheng. But he disagreed, saying that since someone has come to remind us, we should not go there easily. When we ran out, one of the skylights had been broken. I don't know if that will have any impact. What we need to do now is to have a good night's rest. After returning, we will ask the old man. I believe he will give us an explanation.
After that, he asked me, "Do you know why that old man wanted us to come to this house for no reason? I was confused before, but now I have a guess. However, this guess is outrageous. That is, the old man wants us to lure out the person who wrote the soul-calming talisman."
Qin Yiheng’s speculation made me completely sleepless. After all, I still couldn’t get used to the feeling of being surrounded by doubts.
It was almost dawn by this time.
I lay there for a long time before I managed to close my eyes for a while. When I opened my eyes again, I found that I had not slept for long.
Qin Yiheng slept soundly. When he woke up, we went to the noodle shop to eat something, then contacted the person who brought us to see the house and told him that we had finished looking and hoped he would take us back.
The man remained indifferent and didn't ask anything. After waiting for a while, he really drove over. I didn't know where he slept at night.
There is no need to say much about the journey back. I felt less nervous than when I came here, but more anxious.
I was mainly worried about whether the old man would tell us the truth. He looked cunning and I was worried that he would cheat us again. Besides, I thought about it and realized that there were too many questions I wanted to ask the old man.
When I asked Qin Yiheng if he had any plans, he said he would take it one step at a time. I simply gave up thinking about it and just let him speak when the time comes.
After a lot of trouble, I finally got home. I didn't rest much. I took a shower at home and called the old man according to the original contact information. I was worried that this phone would be like six fingers and I would never get through again. In the end, the other party answered the phone quite quickly. However, it was not the old man himself who answered the phone. I guess it was one of his followers. I didn't say much on the phone, just said that I had finished looking at the house and now I wanted to discuss it with the old man. The other party asked me to wait for a few minutes and then made an appointment with me to meet at the teahouse.
Qin Yiheng and I drove straight there.
We were walking fast enough, but the old man arrived earlier than us. I even suspected that he lived in this teahouse.
It was the same room, the old man was still wearing the same hat, and even the positions where the three of us sat had not changed. After we sat down, the old man still did not take the initiative to speak, and slowly drank several bowls of tea before nodding, meaning that we could chat.
Seeing the old man like this, I felt very unhappy. It was obvious that he had never wanted to discuss business with us. However, I did not show it. I lit a cigarette and waited for Qin Yiheng to speak.
Qin Yiheng didn't hesitate and asked the old man what was under the wardrobe. His question was very clever, indicating that we had found the wardrobe without saying that we had opened it.
In the end, the old man remained calm and answered with one word: "Well."
Then the room fell silent. Qin Yiheng didn't speak, and the old man didn't say much either.
After waiting for a long time, Qin Yiheng asked again: "Who is that person?"
After hearing this, the old man looked at me, shook his head, and then fell silent again.
The two of them were asking and answering each other like crazy, almost like they were using secret codes. I didn't dare to interrupt and could only worry in my heart.
I felt quite embarrassed when the old man looked at me. After all, the two of us had made his house quite a mess, and he felt a bit guilty.
This kind of situation was very uncomfortable. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore, so I followed the old man's question and asked, "What's in the well?"
The old man smiled at my question, but still didn't say anything. He just took a stack of papers from the chair next to him and handed it to me. I took a look at it and became even more puzzled.
I have seen this a lot in the past few years. This is a copy of a house purchase contract, but the content of the contract has nothing to do with the old man's house. It looks like the location is in another city. I have been to this city before, and I had a house in this city before.
The contract was obviously processed later, and many key parts were blocked when it was copied. I looked at it for a few times but couldn't see anything special. When I finally turned to the signatory, I was stunned. The buyer's signatory was also blocked, but the seller's name was retained.
I looked at the old man and he was looking at me.
I don't know what my expression was like, but it probably wasn't very good, because I was very familiar with the name on the contract, it was Yuan Zhen. I handed the contract to Qin Yiheng and asked the old man what it meant. To be honest, I tried my best to control my emotions, but my voice was still a little trembling.
The old man took a sip of tea and said slowly, "You have worked hard before, and I will not let your hard work be in vain. If you are interested, then the house on the contract is yours."
Qin Yiheng didn't express his opinion, and I couldn't refuse immediately, but I had already made up my mind that I would never touch this house no matter what.
The old man's intention was very clear. He probably wanted us to go detect mines again.
However , after Qin Yiheng finished reading the contract, he winked at me. It seemed that he was tempted. I wanted to persuade him, but it was not easy to open my mouth in front of the old man. Fortunately, the old man said he wanted to go to the toilet and opened the door to go out, so I had the opportunity to discuss with him. Qin Yiheng said: "We still need to take a look at this house. Just like the old man's previous house, although we can't figure out the old man's purpose, we are not without gain."
Although what he said made sense, I still objected. This was probably the first time I refused so firmly. After going through so much, I was really tired. I had made enough money, and the coffin lid thing might not be true. Even if it was true, I would rather enjoy life in the next few years.
I thought so in my heart, but I didn't say it to Qin Yiheng. After all, I did owe him a lot, and now that I'm quitting, it really hurts his feelings.
When he saw that I refused, he didn't say much, just nodded.
After the old man came back, he wrote down the exact address of the house, told the old man that they would go back to discuss it, and then said goodbye to the old man.
The old man had no intention of seeing us off. If we could say he saw us off, we could only watch him go.
After leaving the teahouse, I just wanted to go back and have a good sleep. To be honest, I don't know what happened to me. Maybe I was too nervous to bear the burden. I suddenly felt that many things were unimportant.
It feels a bit like you have been running a marathon, and at a certain point, you suddenly don't want to reach the finish line anymore. No matter how bad the result of the race is or how many people surpass you, you don't care anymore.
On the way back, I asked Qin Yiheng why we only asked a few questions and didn't get any information except for one well.
He said that it was useless to ask, and if we wanted the old man to talk, we had to have bargaining chips that he wanted to exchange. And when we talked, we had already revealed all our cards, but the old man was not interested at all.
I asked Qin Yiheng again what the well was about. He briefly explained it on the way back, saying that the well has been a very important part of people's lives since ancient times. After all, not all families live close to the river, so if they want to get water, they must dig a well. Many wealthy families have their own wells, and for ordinary people, dozens of families share one well.
Because of the importance of wells, there have been many sayings about wells since ancient times. First of all, wells are dug downwards, and many people believe that ghosts and monsters in the underworld can crawl out of the well to harm the world. This is why when plague broke out in ancient times, many people mistakenly believed that it was caused by well water and thus sealed the well.
Moreover, in the folk customs of some places, when there is no need to draw water, the well rope should be placed outside the well, and cannot be left hanging in the well all the time. This is also to prevent any filth from climbing up along the well rope.
I believe many people have heard in stories or rumors that there are always some people who choose to commit suicide by jumping into a well, or fall into a well and die innocently. This is called filling the gap in the so-called superstition, which is actually similar to the water ghost looking for a substitute, but the gap to be filled is not the filth in the well water, but the gap to balance yin and yang. To put it simply, it is a bit like the well mouth has a certain suction force on souls, so many people with extremely low luck or suicidal thoughts always rush there for some unknown reason.
Because of this, people have a certain reverence for wells, so in many areas, there are some objects hanging in the wells. These objects are not for warding off evil spirits, but are generally a little man kneeling or bowing, but it is possible that they are replaced by other things. This is called "gong" in the jargon of alchemy, which literally means respect. Later, with the improvement of living standards, many places no longer drink well water, and this "gong" needs to be put in by people who know the business, so, except for some old people, not many people know about it.
Qin Yiheng said he didn't know whether this "gong" had any effect, but "gong" had another use in the art. According to legend, if you take out the "gong" from a dried-up well and hang it on the saddle, you won't be called by ghosts or teased by ghosts when you are walking at night. Because of this, he had the honor of seeing one with his own eyes earlier. The Gong he saw was not good-looking. In his words, it looked a bit like a deformed Ronaldo.
Moreover, many wells that are about to dry up are the most likely to swallow people. Many wells seem to have clear water and sufficient water, but they will dry up without any signs. The only thing that can be detected is that they will definitely kill several people before they dry up. It is said that the older generation knows this.
Qin Yiheng said so much, but to be honest, I didn't hear much. Asking questions has become a habit for me.
I thought about it. If what he said was true, the old man hid a well in his house. Could it be that he was hiding a corpse? That's why the Yin energy was emanating from it? Or was he really trying to draw something out from the underworld? If that was the case, this would be a big deal.
