Chapter Twelve Wells (Two)

  "That well!" I recalled the old man's words in the hospital, and now I finally saw that well. The mouth of the well was deep and dark, as if it would never be possible to see the bottom. I grasped the door handle tightly, trying my best not to collapse. That well seemed to have an extremely strong allure, and I felt like someone inside was calling me. I wanted to call out for Erlang to come up, but all my strength vanished in that instant when I saw the well, and if I hadn't been holding onto the door handle, I would have fallen over.

  "Ah Rui, Ah Rui, why haven't you come down yet."

  Luckily, Er Liang called me a few more times from downstairs. In that instant, the energy I had lost miraculously returned to my body. A series of footsteps sounded behind me, and Er Liang rushed up again, seeing me leaning against the door, asking: "What's wrong? Your face looks so bad?"

  I take a look ahead, it's just a white wall, no one, no well, maybe everything I saw earlier was just my illusion, and I'm too tired?

  I shook my head and said, "It's nothing, let's go." After thinking for a moment, I asked, "Erlang, you've lived in this house for quite some time now, have you seen anything strange?"

  I clearly saw Er Lang's body stiffen, then relax, and then I saw him put on a fierce expression and say: "Yes, there are several female ghosts inside, be careful not to get sucked dry."

  If he had made this face and played this joke with me in daily life, I would have taken it as a joke. But just now, I saw a well on the wall, and I don't think he's really joking.

  I raised my head and gave Erliang a cold glance. He clearly didn't expect me to react this way, so he was taken aback for a moment, then awkwardly smiled and said: "Just kidding, no need to be so serious. We're brothers, I wouldn't harm you."

  I forced a smile and said: "I was just joking with you, no need to be so serious. We're brothers for life, I wouldn't blame you."

  "Ha ha," Erliang laughed and said, "Let's go." I turned around to close the door, my eyes still fixed on that white wall. In that instant, I noticed Erliang's eyes were also staring at it, as if he was using his eyes to communicate something with the white wall.

  Is there really a ghost in this room or is it just Erlang's guilty conscience, or am I just overthinking and it's actually my own guilty conscience?

  I didn't continue thinking, Erliang had already urged me to hurry up and go to the hospital. When we rushed to the hospital in a hurry, the boss had already been transferred to the inpatient department. When we went in, he was sitting on the bed, his hands clutching the quilt, looking anxious. Seeing us come in, his face immediately relaxed, saying: "Come quickly."

  I sat with Erlian in front of the boss's bed, quietly waiting for him to speak. Since he said there were some things he wanted to tell us, let's give him the right to speak.

  The boss glanced at the door, looking more tense than usual. Erliang handed him a glass of water, he took it and drank it in one gulp, looked at us and said: "I'm in real estate, that dead guy Yang Hui was an old friend of mine."

  He specializes in demolition and sells cheap building materials. When I first started my company, he came to me and said he wanted to sell a batch of used bricks to me. Since we were old friends and I had just taken on a new project that needed bricks, I agreed immediately and paid him the full amount without delay as soon as the bricks arrived.

  He was very happy that day and said that after all, we were old friends, it was really righteous. To show gratitude, he insisted on treating me to dinner.

  I nodded, knowing he was talking about my family's old mansion, but I didn't open my mouth, afraid of interrupting his train of thought. The boss continued: "Many people have seen that old house, the central part is a wooden structure, and the outer ones may be built later, all made of green bricks, what Yang Hui sold to me were those green bricks."

  Yang Hui said that he sold this batch of bricks to two developers, but I was the most pleasant, not owing a single cent, so when he was happy and drinking, he had to give me a gift, saying it was found in that old house.

  Er Lang looked at me and I slightly shook my head: When we moved, we checked very carefully and didn't leave behind anything valuable. What could Yang Hui possibly find inside?

  The boss didn't notice my and Erlang's little movements, and continued to say: "Yang Hui took out a jade pendant from his pocket and gave it to me, saying that he found it in the old house. I looked at the jade pendant and thought its color was good, so I liked it very much. Yang Hui saw that I liked the jade pendant and was also very happy, lowering his voice to say: 'Do you know where this jade pendant came from?'"

  I was taken aback: Didn't you say it was picked up from the old house?

  Yang Hui apparently saw through my thoughts, hehe smiled a few times, lowered his voice and said: 'Don't you think this old house is a bit strange?'

  I was stunned again, this old house is located in the city center, almost everyone in this city knows it, and I often pass by and take a few glances from afar, what's strange about it?

  At that time, I was also attracted by everything the boss said. Since I grew up in this old house since childhood, I really didn't think there was anything strange about it. Now I want to hear what's wrong with it from an outsider's perspective.

  The boss continued: "Yang Hui leaned forward, lowering his voice and said: 'Have you noticed that this old house has a lot of wells? I've demolished so many old houses, some even older than this one, but none have as many wells as this one.'"

  The boss said that, and I suddenly felt that the old house seemed to have more wells than usual. The old house was very large, with a front yard and a backyard, covering an area of over 3,000 square meters, with 40 or 50 rooms. However, there were at least five wells in the courtyard. When I was young, I didn't notice these things when I grew up here. Now that the boss mentioned it, I realized that so many households couldn't use so many wells. So why did they dig so many wells? At this point, even I felt that something was strange about this matter.

  The boss continued: "Yang Hui said that this jade pendant was found by him in a dry well. He originally wanted to dismantle the stone materials on the edge of the dry wells and sell them together, but he saw some reflection at the bottom of the well and went down to find it was a jade pendant."

  I originally quite liked this jade pendant, but after hearing him say that, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. This old house is a bit strange, and it's said that jade can ward off evil spirits, but what if there's something unexpected inside? I had the intention of returning it to Yang Hui, but I was afraid he would be unhappy, so I could only put it away for now."

  "Where is that jade pendant now?" I was very interested in this jade pendant from the old well of my family's old house. There were only a few wells in the old house, unfortunately Yang Hui died, otherwise I could ask him which well he picked it up from. Now that there is no one to ask, I can only take a look at the jade pendant first.

  The boss took a look at me and said, "Sell it."

  "What?! It's actually been sold?!" I've always had an inexplicable feeling towards the things in this old house, and now that I hear the jade pendant has been sold, I'm afraid I'll never have the chance to see it again. My heart is stirred up and my voice rises involuntarily.

  The boss obviously didn't expect me to react so strongly, and was startled. He immediately stopped talking and stared at me. Erliang hastily comforted him with a few words: "It's okay, my friend here loves collecting antiques, maybe he's interested in your jade pendant, that's why he got impatient. You can take your time, who did you sell the pendant to?"

  The boss said "oh" and said: "That day I was looking at the jade pendant on the side of the road, thinking that there was no good way to deal with it. If I gave it away, I was afraid that something bad might happen and I would owe someone an apology. If I threw it away, I felt a little wasteful. Just then, a voice sounded beside me: 'This piece of jade... how much do you want to sell it to me for?'

  I was quite surprised that he didn't ask me if I wanted to sell, but instead asked how much I would sell it to him for. It seemed like no matter what, he was going to buy it anyway. Curious, I lifted my head and saw a plainly dressed man standing in front of me, his eyes fixed intently on the jade pendant as if he wanted to swallow it whole.

  I knew this person must have really liked the jade pendant, so I quoted a very high price. Unexpectedly, he immediately asked me to follow him to the bank, withdrew the money and bought the jade pendant. He left happily, without even looking back at me once.

  I hastily asked: "Do you still remember what that person looked like?"

  The boss nodded: "When I see that person, I always feel like there's something unspeakable about him. And since he likes this jade so much, I'm worried that if it's really a treasure worth a city, I'll be the one to lose big. Since I spoke first, I couldn't back down now, so I secretly took a photo of him with my phone and plan to follow him later to see how he handles the jade pendant."

  "What about the photo?"

  The boss picked up the phone beside the pillow, opened it to find a photo, and handed me the phone. Erliang also came over to take a look at who bought this jade pendant.

  At that moment when I saw the photo, Erliang and I both raised our heads, and we saw surprise in each other's eyes, because the person on the phone was someone we both knew, he was Lao Chu.