Chapter Eighteen: The Secret of the Basement

  "Is it very far?" Grey asked with some concern.

  "It's not very far, just a bit out of the way. That place was a village in the city many years ago, and there were still quite a few people living there. But then something happened, and there weren't as many people living there anymore. It's okay during the day, but if it's at night, definitely no car will take you over." The driver said this very mysteriously.

  "What's going on?"

  "You don't know?" I casually asked, and the driver suddenly became interested. He turned his head to glance at us and said: "Just by looking at you, I can tell you're outsiders. That thing back then was known all over the city."

  "What's going on?" Greg hated being kept in suspense.

  The driver looked at us with a bit of urgency and said, "It's said that the place is haunted, and it's really scary. At first, many people didn't believe it. But after just one week, almost all the residents in that area had moved away, and I even heard that someone lost their life."

  "Is this really happening?" I was a bit perplexed, wondering if it was just a coincidence.

  "He spoke with a nose and eyes, at the time there were people who saw the criminal police team take an old Taoist priest away." The driver's solemn expression was as if he had seen it himself. However, his description of the old Taoist priest reminded me of our group leader, Old God Stick.

  The driver looked at us and saw that we still didn't quite believe him, so he continued: "I've been to that place several times. No matter what time it is, there are always very few people on the road. The wind blows gently, but it seems like there's a pair of eyes staring at you from behind your back. There was one time...

  "Maybe!" I replied perfunctorily. The car had been driving for over twenty minutes, and the number of cars on the road was getting fewer and fewer. We turned onto a very remote road. The buildings on both sides of the road were all grayish, with weeds growing all around them.

  "That's it." The driver stopped the car by the roadside, and when Grey paid the fare, I took a look around and found that there was not a single person on the street, which looked desolate.

  We had just gotten off the bus when the driver turned the vehicle around and left. It seems he was really scared.

  "Jinsha Road 13th, it should be on this side." I took out my phone and checked the address again.

  "Let's go!" Gare's mood improved a lot. All around were green weeds, the weeds by the roadside were over half a meter high.

  After turning a corner, I saw the No. 13 house, which was a three-story small building with a very peculiar style, obviously self-built. The house had a not-so-small yard, surrounded by walls over two meters high, with rusty iron wire mesh on top. This kind of house was common when we were young, but now it's rare.

  The house looks like it hasn't been taken care of for a long time, with grass growing on the eaves. From where we stand, slightly higher, we can see part of the second floor and all of the third floor. The windows that are visible have layers of newspaper stuck to them.

  From its appearance, it looks just like the house painted with blood by Mrs. Hu. I even suspect that terrifying bronze cauldron is here too.

  Even from a distance, I can feel that this house is very gloomy, but compared to the surrounding ones, it's not that bad. All the houses in this area are like this.

  To get there, you have to go through a narrow and long alleyway. The air is very humid, the walls on both sides are covered with moss, which seems to be coated with a layer of mucus, looking quite nauseating.

  We walked to the door of the house, the old iron gate was corroded by moisture and was mottled, the ground was stained red with rust. Only the large iron lock hanging on the door looked a bit new. There were clear tire marks at the side of the door, which must have been left recently.

  "It seems someone has been here recently." I said softly. Maybe there are people with the same purpose as us.

  Grey pulled hard on the iron gate and said, "The door is still open, can be turned over."

  Looking through the gap of the door, the weeds in the yard are taller and can easily hide a person. The air is also more humid. All the windows of the rooms are closed tightly, and nothing can be seen inside the house.

  This house looks like a standard haunted house, but it doesn't look like it's been neglected. I saw the air conditioner installed on the outside, which is about 70% new and should have been installed in recent years. What's the point of installing an air conditioner for one person?

  It seems that I have to go in and investigate. I grasped the iron gate tightly, wanting to climb over it. Just as I had climbed up a few centimeters, my foot slipped and I fell back down.

  "Even a kid could climb better than you!" Greg pulled me back hard, and I had just managed to flip over the iron gate, getting myself covered in rust.

  Grei made a fat guy, like a monkey climbing up the iron gate, and with a flip of his body, he landed lightly on the ground, making only a small noise. There was no rust on his body at all.

  "Learn from it!" Grey said with a clap of his hands.

  I didn't have the energy to pay attention to him, a gust of wind blew through the grass in the courtyard, making a rustling sound. Some of the weeds still had white plastic bags hanging from them, which made a whooshing sound when blown by the wind.

  When the wind stopped, there was no sound in the small courtyard. This is very unusual, as summer is the time when all kinds of insects are most vigorous.

  Grey found a wooden stick by the wall, poked around in the grass for a couple of times, and stopped until there was only rustling sound. The grass was lush and green, but not even one insect was found.

  I've come up with a theory that insects' sense of touch is stronger than humans', some very subtle changes that people can't feel, but insects can. Places without insects are generally places of great evil.

  The grass was deep and dense, and Grey didn't dare to go in either. I walked up to the door of the house, where a thick layer of dust had accumulated on it, looking like no one had entered for a long time.

  "Want me to pry the door open?" Grey was looking around for tools, ordinary detectives wouldn't normally force their way in, but we weren't ordinary detectives, we were Team Zero.

  I tentatively pulled the door with my hand, just wanting to try if the door would open. Who knew that with a creak, it opened.

  The foul air brought a pungent smell that hit me in the face, which was completely beyond my expectation. I subconsciously took a few steps back.

  "The door isn't closed!" Grey leaned in at the doorway, his club gripped tightly in his hand.

  "I'll go in first, you follow behind me, be careful." Grey lifted his leg and was about to step inside.

  "Wait!" I grabbed him, the door had obvious signs of being pried open recently. The person who did it was an expert, the lock remained largely intact and wasn't violently dismantled.

  I stood at the door and listened for a while, the room was very quiet, there was no sound at all, it was as silent as death.

  "Is anyone inside? We are police from Operation Zero." I called out softly.

  The sound echoed through the house, but no one answered.

  "It looks like no one's home!" I gestured for Grey to go ahead and enter.

  Gail gripped the wooden stick and walked into the room. As soon as she entered, it was a living room with old-fashioned furniture covered in dust. There was nothing special about the room.

  We took a few steps inside and were hit with a blast of cold air, sending shivers down our spines. The air conditioner in the room was turned off, but the temperature was at least five degrees lower than outside.

  The windows were all blocked by newspaper, the paper had turned a bit yellow. The sunlight that came in was a dull yellow color. The room was a gloomy gray, and my first impression of this house was similar to Xiao Ping'an's house, except without that eerie feeling that sent shivers down your spine.

  "Wait here!" Grey quickly searched the first floor, except for the living room, all the other rooms were empty, nothing was found. He came back and went upstairs, I could clearly hear his footsteps from downstairs.

  This room is too quiet, so quiet that it's unbearable. I used to like the quiet, but now I think noise is good too, at least it proves someone is active.

  Less than five minutes later, Ge Lei came down from upstairs with a shrug of his hands and said: "All the rooms are empty, there's nothing! Did we get it wrong?"

  "It's impossible!" I believe that there must be 'something' in this room, otherwise Xie Ping'an wouldn't have hidden the house so secretly.

  I personally went to search carefully, but still didn't find anything and returned to the living room on the first floor.

  "Why don't we give Old Man Thompson a call and have him take a look?" Gray suggested.

  "Wait a minute! I need to think quietly for a while." I still want to find clues by my own ability, we are newcomers and need to prove our abilities. The best way is to beautifully complete the first case.

  Grey sat down on the sofa and said, "You think slowly, I won't disturb you. But dinner time is almost here."

  "Don't let me delay your meal!" I turned around the room again and finally focused on the furniture. The whole building only had furniture in the living room, which was neatly arranged, definitely with a purpose.

  I walked around the furniture in a circle, deliberately treading heavily.

  Clap Clap Clap Bang Bang Clap Clap Clap!

  I stopped in my tracks, the footsteps didn't sound right, I pushed back and stomped a few times, and heard a hollow thud, it was empty below!

  "I've found it! There's something down here!" I shouted loudly.

  We pushed the sofa together and found a secret passage underneath. After pushing open the cover, we saw a very long staircase that extended all the way down into darkness.

  I said with great satisfaction: "See, I found it."

  "Awesome!" Gray gave a thumbs up and said: "Tell me what's below."

  "Go down and take a look, then you'll know." I took out my phone. The incident happened too suddenly, we didn't have time to find lighting tools, so we could only make do with our phones.

  Grei held the phone in one hand and a stick in the other, walking at the front. The narrow path allowed only one person to pass through. The pale cold light from the phone screen cast on our faces made us look somewhat pale.

  The phone light could only illuminate a very small area, but fortunately the corridor was not long, only five or six meters. Walking to the end, there was a small iron door. Grey pushed it hard and the iron door made an ear-piercing scraping sound as it opened.

  The space inside the door is particularly large, I only saw one corner, with many shelves, and a lot of things of various sizes are placed on them.

  "My goodness! My goodness!" Gray exclaimed loudly. The shelves were filled with antiques, at least several hundred pieces.