Chapter Ten: The Old Mansion (Part Two)

  "What's wrong?"

  I shook my head: "Nothing."

  We hung our heads and didn't speak, the atmosphere in the room was dull and oppressive. Erliang lit a cigarette, and the smoke gradually gathered and dispersed in front of him. Is there really a ghost in this world? I thought so, but I don't believe it. But how can that number be explained? How can the doll in Lao Chu's room be explained? It seems like I've missed something.

  Suddenly, it dawned on me and I grabbed Erlang's hand: "It's Chu Jiangshan, it must be Chu Jiangshan!"

  "What?"

  "I exclaimed excitedly, 'Do you still remember those two letters signed as Chu Jiangshan? The ones you showed me, he was extremely familiar with Wang Qiang and the old Chu family's situation, even knowing the arrangement of furniture clearly. It wouldn't be difficult for him to enter the old Chu's house at all. There are no ghosts in this world, once we find him, everything will become clear.'"

  Er Liang was also delighted to hear that, in fact, there were some things that both of us knew but didn't say: even if we really found this person, what could we do? It's just that maybe only we believe it's true, but whether or not it's real, we're powerless and can't condemn anyone. All we want is to dispel the doubts in our hearts and make ourselves less afraid.

  "There are no ghosts in the world, it's just us scaring ourselves." I said to Er Liang, he nodded in agreement with my point of view, and a bright smile appeared on his face, although I think he still has some worries hidden.

  But is there really no ghost in this world? I turned back to look at what was behind me, it was a snow-white wall, nothing was there.

  The atmosphere in the room eased up, Erliang patted my shoulder and said: "Let's go out for a midnight snack, I'll treat you."

  I got dressed while chatting with Erliang, and I deliberately avoided mentioning that mysterious phone number and "old mansion". Let me be an ostrich for once, as long as I don't mention it, it doesn't exist. Even if it's just deceiving myself, when I'm powerless, being able to deceive myself for a moment is still a moment.

  I live on the 5th floor, this is a rented house. My parents have never liked my ambition to become a writer because I've hardly made any money from it, but I persist and refuse to give up. To avoid arguments, I moved out of my own home and rented this place. The rent hasn't been paid at all, as it's an old house left by Er Lang's parents who have passed away, his older sister got married and moved abroad, and he himself bought a new apartment because of his good job, so this room naturally became my refuge.

  When I was about to leave the house, I turned back and looked around the room, still only seeing that white wall. I turned off the light and went downstairs with Erliang. I could tell that Erliang had something on his mind, but didn't know how to bring it up. In the end, it was Erliang who spoke first:

  "Do you still remember the old house I asked you about?"

  I nodded, of course I remembered, how could I not remember? I didn't open my mouth, waiting for Erliang to continue speaking.

  "These past few days, I've been having dreams about a very large house with a sign above the gate that reads 'Old Residence'. And also..." Erliang stopped in his tracks and looked at me, his face pale.

  "And what?"

  "And besides, I'm very familiar with this house, it's that old house of yours."

  I drew in a cold breath: "What did you say?"

  "I didn't think much of it at first, thinking it was just my subconscious starting to miss the childhood we spent together on that side, until you called me and I felt something was off. Ari, that old house of yours... is there something strange about it?"

  Er Liang hesitated for a moment when he said "weird", probably because he couldn't find the right words to express himself. When Er Liang was young, he often played with me in the old mansion, and of course, we still called it that even though the old mansion has been demolished now.

  I thought for a moment and shook my head, "No, you see I'm fine." As I said this, I couldn't help but glance back again, where it seemed like someone was watching me.

  "Or else, when shall we go back and take a look?"

  "Come back and see me."

  I remembered that mysterious text message, the old mansion has been demolished and rebuilt into a large leisure square, with a shopping mall on the side, business is booming, and it's in the city center, I don't have to worry about seeing anything else, nodded my head, I said: "Why not go now?"

  The street was very lively, and I walked slowly with Erliang on the square. Except for those mischievous devils wearing roller skates and bumping into people everywhere, as well as the male and female perverts who sat on stone chairs making some small movements but thought no one could see them, we didn't see any other ghosts.

  Er Jiang pointed with his finger at a place and said: "I remember that in the past, there was a jujube tree here. Unfortunately, we can't eat such sweet jujubes now."

  I nodded, and the place where I planted jujube trees that year is now a patch of flowers I don't recognize, very neat, but I don't like them. I said, "Let's go, we've seen enough." In my heart, I silently said another sentence: "I've come to see you," which was directed at the mysterious number.

  We all intentionally didn't mention going home to read and sleep, but Er Liang still insisted on eating a midnight snack. I thought about it, anyway, I wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at home either, so I agreed. The two of us found a big stall on the edge of the square, ordered three dishes and four bottles of wine, drinking while watching the people coming and going around us, saying some meaningless words.

  I was chatting with Erlian, while my eyes were wandering around, this is a habit I've developed over the years. When I was young and full of vigor, it was purely to discover more beauties around me, but later when I started learning writing, I took it as a way to cultivate my observation skills.

  My eyes were quickly drawn to two people, who were actually quite ordinary, but they looked like they had a lot on their minds. People like that are a dime a dozen on the streets, so it's not like they stood out in any particular way. But what caught my attention was that I felt like there was something familiar about them, something that reminded me of myself and Erlang.

  Yes, their expressions were just like mine and Erlang's, with fear revealed in their eyes.

  Er Jiang also found these two people, looked at me, meaning to ask me what to do. There are some people and things in the world that are really strange, you will always find that person unintentionally in the crowd, no matter whether he is sitting or standing, you can always find him at a glance, just like I found these two people.

  I pouted and motioned to look first, then talk. Of the two people, one was dressed in a suit and tie, with quite a bossy demeanor, while the other person's clothes were also high-end, but somehow looked like a nouveau riche. Er Liang whispered: "Guess he's a contractor."

  I smiled, in the past one or two years, real estate development has indeed fattened up a large part of people's wallets. The foreman-like person had a gloomy face, constantly drinking wine, but his eyes were devoid of any spirit. The boss-like person kept talking to him, seemingly comforting him about something. The two tables were not far apart, and I could vaguely hear a few words, it seemed that the boss-like person was advising the foreman not to think too much.

  That foreman didn't know if he had drunk too much wine, his emotions were a bit agitated, and suddenly raised his voice: "Why isn't it true? Just look at all the things related to that old mansion have happened, your two neighborhoods..." As soon as he said this, a boss-like person hastily stretched out his hand to cover his mouth, lowered his voice and growled: "What are you doing so loudly? Didn't I come with you to see this old mansion?"

  Although he lowered his voice, it was clear that he had been stirred up by what the foreman said, and his tone rose significantly. That one word "old mansion" was heard clearly by both me and Erliang, and we exchanged a glance, seeing surprise on each other's face, nodded, and stood up to walk towards that table.

  At this time, the boss-like person also discovered us two. Probably seeing that we were coming in a hurry, he hastily pulled out money from his pocket and threw it on the table, then grabbed the foreman and ran outside. We originally just wanted to talk to him, but now seeing them hiding from us, I knew something was fishy. My friend Erliang and I took off after them, but unfortunately were stopped by the boss, who shouted that we hadn't paid yet.

  When I threw the money to him from my pocket, the boss and the foreman had already rushed to the other side of the street. The boss-like person had opened the car door and got into the driver's seat. Erliang was anxious and didn't care about the cars coming and going on the road, he rushed over in a few steps and grabbed the foreman's clothes with one hand.

  At this time, the foreman-like person had already sat half of his body in the car. When he saw Erliang chasing after him, the boss-like person immediately started the car. Erliang was caught off guard and didn't grab on tight. His right hand fell down with force, making a "ripping" sound as it tore the foreman's pocket off. A bunch of things spilled out and fell to the ground, but by then the car had already sped away at an extremely fast speed.

  I panted and ran to Erliang's side, saw him holding a stack of photos in his hand, and asked: "What is this?"

  "Looks like some photos, seems to be taken in an old-fashioned house, huh, Ary, I think it looks just like your family's old house."

  I took the photos, and they really looked alike. Every image in each photo was almost identical to what I remembered, but I knew it wasn't. Although this old house had the same layout as my childhood home, I could still tell that it wasn't where I grew up. I was very curious - where was this old mansion? It seemed to have a history of at least several hundred years, and yet its layout was identical to my family's. If I had the chance, I really should go take a look.

  I shook my head, just about to say that this wasn't my old house, when Erliang suddenly said "Huh?" and said, "It really isn't your family's old house, I remember your family's old house didn't have a building like this." As he spoke, he handed over a photo.

  This is a black house, if it were built according to the layout of my old home, it should be located in the backyard, but my old home does not have such a house, perhaps this is one of the few differences between these two different old houses.

  I casually handed the photo to Erliang, he took it and just as I did, my eyes glanced over and I snatched the photo back, holding it in front of me. No mistake, I finally understood what the words engraved on the flat shovel in Wang Qiang's kitchen meant.

  I turned the photo sideways, and on it was a black house with one side big and the other small, resembling a coffin.