Chapter 3: A wooden chest was dug out of the hall

  This little black cat is not big, but very fat. If it were daytime, anyone would be tempted to pick it up and play with it. But in a haunted house like this, if a black cat suddenly jumps out, no one will like it.

  The black cat jumped onto the table and sat down, staring at me motionlessly like a statue, occasionally letting out a "meow" every now and then. The candles on the table probably wouldn't last more than a minute, and the door couldn't be opened. To avoid being plunged into darkness, I picked up a snake skin bag from the floor to use to light the candles.

  The black cat saw me walking over and immediately crouched down, its throat issuing a low warning sound, just like the two male cats that usually fight for the female cat before mating. However, since most places in Guangxi don't have stories about supernatural cats or weasels, I didn't think this cat was particularly dangerous, but what struck me as strange was why it was so aggressive - aren't cats supposed to be afraid of strangers?

  But a cat is always just a cat, it's not a wolf dog or a tiger, and I'm not afraid of such a small guy. I put the unconscious Kozaki on the ground, took off my jacket and grabbed it in my hand, rushed to the table in two steps, and slapped the black cat with force, trying to knock it out with one hit.

  However, my movements were still not as fast as it was. Although it looked fat, but it was very agile. Before I could even take a photo of my coat, the black cat jumped onto my head. Fortunately, it didn't attack me when it landed on my head and instead jumped to a nearby wooden ladder and then swiftly climbed up to the attic.

  I didn't chase after him, and immediately picked up the candle and entered the room. On Kosaki's bed, I retrieved my flashlight and turned it back on.

  Back to the hall, I started studying how to open this door. In fact, it was not locked, just a simple latch. If it were normal times, a gust of wind could blow it open. My guess is that there's some kind of evil entity blocking the door now, like an invisible tank, and using brute force on it would be useless.

  Just how to open this door, just as I was in trouble, the broom in the corner of the hall made me bright. This story has already been told at the beginning, the broom can drive away dirty things, people who are hit by a broom will be unlucky for three months, and ghosts who are hit by a broom will hurt for three months.

  I immediately picked up the broom and swept it back and forth across the large gate several times, and the effect was immediate. Before I even had a chance to use my hands to pull it open, the gate seemed to have lost its support and swung open automatically. I grabbed my coat, scooped up Xiao Jianzi, and rushed out of the door, turning back to glance at the house, which looked ominous and eerie like a ghostly portal.

  It's unbearable to think that if I hadn't come tonight, a four-year-old mute girl would have spent the night in such terror that even if she was scared, she wouldn't be able to cry out.

  The weather in spring is humid and changeable, it was still sunny when I came out this afternoon, but now it's raining lightly, so there are no pedestrians on the road. If someone saw me holding Xiao Duanmei, they would definitely think I'm a human trafficker, as soon as I thought of this, I quickly wrapped her in my coat and rushed home.

  She woke up and started crying as soon as she got home, sitting blankly on my bed wiping away tears, looking at me in terror but not daring to run. I went to the kitchen to make a bowl of ginger soup with some white sugar for her to drink.

  After drinking the ginger soup, her face turned from pale to rosy, and she looked at me with a pair of tearful eyes. I asked if she was hungry, but she didn't respond.

  I let her sleep and closed the door, then ran to my uncle's house. They were still awake, peeling peanut seeds for planting tomorrow. My aunt asked if I had eaten dinner, I said no, she wanted to cook for me, but I said it was not necessary. Then I took some leftover food from their table back home and grabbed a handful of peanuts too.

  Kojima must have been starving, wolfing down the food. After she finished eating, I gave her a few more peanuts to eat. This poor little girl has no one to care for her, and after going hungry all day without anyone knowing, with nowhere to find food, and unable to tell anyone that she's hungry... if this continues in the future, who knows what will become of her?

  After eating, I boiled some hot water and let her take a bath at a suitable temperature. Then I gave her some clothes that my sister had not thrown away to change into.

  When I fell asleep, Xiaojianzi fell asleep instantly. I tossed and turned but couldn't sleep. If someone knew that Chen Baoguo had just died, I would take Xiaoyan back home to sleep together in the same bed, who knows what they would think? I'm not a pervert!

  What's more, I was thinking about tonight's matter all the time. Although I encountered trouble in Chen Baoguo's house, I didn't give up and planned to go there again at dawn.

  The next morning, I came to the neighboring village again as soon as it dawned. I had been circling around Chen Baoguo's house for half a day, but didn't find anything unusual. Just when I was about to leave, Village Chief Chen Jiugui suddenly appeared in front of me, his arms crossed and hands grasped together on his chest, his big head tilted to one side with a puzzled expression as he stared at me.

  Chen Jiutong, originally named Chen Jialong, was the village head of this village. Because he loved to drink and could hold his liquor extremely well, almost never getting drunk, people called him Chen Jiutong. He had an older brother who worked as an official in Nanning, and it's said that over the past few years, he has been rapidly promoted, with a fairly high-ranking position, though I don't recall whether it was at the department or deputy department level - in any case, it was not a small post. Due to his brother's connections, Chen Jiutong would soon be taking up the position of vice-town head, and being village head was just an interim arrangement. His home was not far from Chen Baoguo's, and at this moment, he appeared before me, for reasons unknown.

  I awkwardly smiled and was about to leave, but Chen Wine Barrel blocked my way, furiously asking: "Sneaking around, which village are you from, what kind of evil are you doing here?"

  I quickly thought of a name and told the second aunt that it was her sister's husband who had come to lift the coffin yesterday and dropped the key, and he went to plant beans today and asked me to find it.

  Chen Wine Barrel frowned, possibly he didn't know who helped Chen Bao Guo carry the coffin yesterday, so he didn't scold me this time. He just said that he had already bought this place and told me not to come here again without his consent next time.

  I repeatedly agreed to not come again, and hastily left the village. The more I thought about it on the road, the more I felt that something was off. Why did Chen Jiutong suddenly appear? Why did he want to buy Chen Baoguo's house and courtyard? Did he know that this house had become a haunted house? There must be some ulterior motive behind this matter. I'll go investigate again tonight, but this time I won't be so foolish - I have to bring the Ghost-吸珠子 with me.

  After returning home, Xiaojianzi was still in bed. I borrowed a big yam from my aunt's house and came back to cook soup. Xiaojianzi, who was sleeping soundly, woke up when he smelled the fragrance and quickly got up to stand in front of the pot with his own bowl.

  A mute little girl is really a headache, can't talk to her, so it's useless to ask anything. However, this little loli is a born beauty, looking cute and about 80 cm tall, estimated to be only up to Tongtong's chin, after all, two years younger.

  At noon, I took Xiaojianzi to my aunt's house to play. They all asked me whose child this was. When I said it was the adopted daughter of Chen Dapao from the neighboring village who had passed away, both my aunt and uncle frowned, asking me why I brought this little mute girl back home, wasn't I looking for trouble? People in the neighboring village will say you kidnapped a child, what would you do then?

  I said nonsense, no one in that village took care of her, yesterday she didn't eat all day and no one sent her food. I took her away and those people were probably overjoyed. In addition, I also plan to raise this little girl. If conditions permit, I want to find a doctor to cure her vocal cords and send her to school.

  My uncle and aunt didn't say anything after hearing the news, after all, they saw that I was also a person who could take care of another child. At that time, family planning had just begun, and in rural areas, whoever did not have three or four children were so poor that they couldn't even afford pants. Every household was extremely biased towards boys over girls, how would they be willing to adopt a mute girl? Her foster father Chen Dapao had conflicts with my uncle and died, originally it should have been my uncle who took care of this little girl, but now he is nowhere to be found, so I had to take care of her instead. Of course, I was also very happy to do so.

  In the evening, I took Xiaojian to my aunt's house for dinner and let her sleep with her eight-year-old cousin for a night. Meanwhile, I sneaked out like a thief, carrying a flashlight and that pearl, crossing a field of rice paddies to arrive at the neighboring village.

  As soon as Chen Baoguo opened the door of his house, the room...

  A faint cry of an old man came from under the bed, I knew it was Chen Baoguo's ghost crying. Chen Jiugui bought this house base, if he didn't drive away Chen Baoguo's ghost, in the future if a house is built here, the people living here will not be able to live in peace.

  I locked myself in the room after closing the door, and with the ghost-absorbing beads on me, I wasn't afraid at all. Moreover, there was a dormant Tongtong inside who could come out to guide me at critical moments. As I walked into the room, the crying sound was still there, but when I shone my flashlight under the bed, I couldn't see Chen Baoguo's ghost, only faintly hearing the crying sound.

  I ignored the crying and walked out of the hall to inspect everywhere, finding that the floor in some areas was newer than the surrounding area. When I stepped on it with force, the sound was different from the surrounding floor, feeling empty. How could Chen Baoguo's family, who were so poor, afford to spend money to cement the floor? I took a pointed pickaxe from another room and dug a few times, smashing the thin layer of cement, revealing a wooden board underneath. Then, I pried open all the cement on the wooden board, discovering it was a wooden box.

  How is it that there is a wooden box, what will be inside? I found that the wooden box was not buried, but was placed, because the pit for placing the wooden box had wooden boards fixed around it to isolate it, and the wooden box could move.

  Because the wooden box was not fixed, I tried to grab two corners and pull it outwards. Although it was very heavy, I managed to pull it out onto the ground. The wooden box measured 80cm in length, 80cm in width, and 60cm in height, painted black with a weight of around 100 catties. There was a small lock on top, but I easily opened it. When I lifted the lid, I was shocked to the point where my tongue was hanging out.