Chapter 30: The Ninth Well (2)

  That was an extremely pale face, but not as I had imagined. It wasn't the look of little Rui when she was a child. That was a face I had never seen before, and the expression on that face wasn't painful. I saw her actually smiling at me.

  She didn't come out of the mirror, it was just for a moment, and then the mirror returned to normal, revealing my pale face inside. I gradually regained my strength, and I no longer dared to stay in the bathroom. I hastily turned around and opened all the lights. Just as I turned around, I felt that little girl looking at me from behind again.

  I forced myself to sit in the room instead of running to the hall like a madman, if there really were ghosts who wanted to harm me, it would be the same wherever I ran, and besides, I had no way out anyway. Although I was very scared, scared to death, but over such a long time, I have encountered many unbelievable things, my nerves and mental endurance are much stronger than before, if I hadn't gone through those things, I'm afraid I would be scared out of my wits by now.

  Maybe I'll be scared to death, I suddenly came up with this idea.

  The next few hours passed in a state of nervous anxiety, but fortunately nothing happened. As soon as it got light, I immediately checked out and rushed to the old mansion. I want to get to the bottom of all this as soon as possible and become a better horror novelist.

  As it's approaching early autumn, the weather has cooled down a bit, so I brought a few more things this time. When I started walking on the mountain road, I tasted the consequences of not exercising usually. In the past when I was with Erliang, he would always help me carry some heavier stuff, but now everything relies on myself.

  A person walking will always feel that the road is particularly long, and this time I brought a lot of things, so when I saw the old house again, it was already very late at night. The village was all elderly people who closed their doors and went to sleep early, if not for the few dogs that kept chasing me and barking, they wouldn't have come out to see what's going on. But precisely because of this, I happened to see Old He again, had hot water at his house, and ate some hot food with my own hands.

  He Lao Die still remembered me and asked, "What about that kid who came with you last time?" I didn't tell him that Er Liang was gone, saying he had gone on a long trip, so this time I came alone. As for the reason for coming this time, I casually made one up, saying I really liked this old mansion and wanted to take another look.

  He Lao Die nodded silently, finally saying: "Yesterday another kid came, also to see this old house. It's really strange, why have there been so many people coming to see this house in the past year or two?"

  I didn't think much of it and said, "Maybe the young people who went out from here talked about this old house outside, everyone is curious, so naturally someone will come to see.

  He Lao Die shook his head, with a resolute expression: "The rules of our ancestors will absolutely not be spoken to outsiders about the matters of this old house."

  I didn't quite believe what Old He said, but indeed very few people have come to visit here. According to Erliang, the government official who proposed tourism development last time also discovered it by chance when he came to inspect the work. The local township and village cadres would never mention this old house to outsiders, so I couldn't help but feel curious about this young man who came to the old house, and asked: "Has he left?"

  He Lao Die shook his head and said: "This kid has a temper just like yours, they've been sleeping inside for two nights already, plus tonight, that's three nights now."

  As soon as Old He said that, I immediately took a liking to this young man. If he was just here for adventure and didn't find anything after two nights, he would probably leave in disappointment. After all, it's not very convenient for one person to do anything here. Moreover, although the old mansion is big, two days are enough to look around several times. Without those legends, there's actually nothing special about the old mansion. In that case, this person must have come here with another purpose.

  I originally wanted to stay at He Lao's house for the night and enter the old mansion tomorrow, after all, it's still quite cold in the deep mountains at midnight, although I brought a lot of outdoor survival equipment, but no matter how good the equipment is, it can't compare to the warmth of a home quilt.

  I took out some small gifts I had brought for Old Man He, including a book of my own, and then, disregarding his attempts to detain me, shouldered my backpack and pushed open the door of the old mansion.

  I didn't shout loudly because I thought that if he was inside, I should be able to see the light from his own lighting equipment. I couldn't believe someone who had been sleeping in there for three nights would still be asleep at this hour, so it's fine to just go over and say hello later.

  I thought about how to start while shining my flashlight on the road ahead, but it was strange that there were no lights in the old mansion. Had that guy really gone to bed so early? I muttered to myself, but still decided to check the old mansion first.

  After several months, the weeds in the old house began to grow again. I walked slowly over there, and no one was found in each wing of the house. Where could that person be hiding?

  As I thought, I walked towards the backyard, and finally saw a glimmer of light. I hastened my pace, but the weeds in the backyard grew denser, making it more difficult to walk. The person apparently also heard the sound, turned around and shone their flashlight at me.

  I hastily covered my eyes with my hand and shouted: "Don't take a picture, I'm here for adventure too."

  He moved the flashlight away and walked towards me. After my eyes recovered a bit, I saw that in front of me was an extremely handsome young man who looked to be only around twenty years old. Seeing me sizing him up, he very naturally stretched out one hand: "Hello, my name is Tao Ding Tian."

  I stretched out my hand to hold his, feeling a chill of ice-coldness, I was startled, and just as I raised my head, I saw a wisp of sinister smile on Tao Dingtian's face.

  This smile made my good impression of Tao Ding Tian disappear, I quietly pulled out my right hand and said: "I'm also here to explore, heard from Old He that you live in this face, so I just walked in, anyway, the more people the less afraid."

  Tao Dingtian nodded and said: "Then let's go to sleep first, it's getting late." After finishing speaking, he led the way out.

  I clearly saw him looking at something very seriously just now, but he suddenly said he wanted to sleep. I feel that there must be some strangeness here, and involuntarily looked at the place where he was standing just now. Following the light of my flashlight, I saw clearly that Tao Ding Tian's previous position was right next to the small black house.

  He was just looking at the small black house, what was he doing in the middle of the night? My heart inexplicably tensed up, could this have something to do with my purpose for coming here? I didn't want Tao Ding Tian to see through my thoughts, so I quickly followed closely behind him for a few steps, then turned back to look at that small black house, in the darkness it looked even more like a coffin.

  I originally thought that Tao Ding Tian would definitely not be willing to sleep in the same room as me, but unexpectedly, he actually took the initiative to suggest sleeping together. I was already a bit uneasy about the old mansion, and also wanted to see what this suddenly appearing Tao Ding Tian had come here for, so naturally I agreed without hesitation.

  Two people crawled into the sleeping bag, and from his equipment, it was clear that he had been prepared for a long time. This made me more vigilant about the young man beside me. I pretended to ask casually: "How did you find this place?"

  Tao Dingtian didn't answer me directly, but instead asked: "What about you?"

  When I asked Tao Ding Tian this question, I had already thought that he would ask me the same thing, so I had already prepared an answer in my heart. I didn't plan to casually make up a reason and say it was something I heard from someone else, because this place is basically uninhabited, nor did I intend to foolishly say that I stumbled upon it by accident. From my equipment, you can tell that I, like him, came prepared, so I told him a half-true, half-false statement: "I came here because this is the old house left behind by my ancestors."

  "Oh?" Tao Ding Tian seemed very interested in my answer, and instinctively sat up from the sleeping bag, but after moving a bit, he couldn't get up. He hastily crawled out of the bag, disregarding the cold, and casually threw on some clothes before running to my side and squatting down, asking: "You say this is your ancestral home?"

  I nodded, Tao Dingtian's face was full of excitement, and he asked: "Then have you ever heard the legend about this old mansion?"

  What other legends can this old house have, it's all what Old He said, I shook my head, Tao Dingtian was full of disappointment and asked: "Then how did you know about this place?"

  I reckon Old He should have told him that I and Er Liang had been here before, because for the elderly, being able to stay inside for one or two nights without a hitch is an extremely rare thing, so he must have mentioned it to others. So I didn't plan to hide it either, saying: "I also accidentally discovered that someone took photos of this place and found that it looked very similar to my house that had been demolished, so I followed this clue to find it. I've been here once before, and this time it's a revisit."

  Following the light of the lamp, I found that Tao Ding Tian obviously let out a sigh of relief after hearing me say these words, but then he asked nervously: "Is there another house in your family that is exactly the same as this one?"

  I nodded and said, "Yes, but it's been dismantled."

  "Then have you found anything different here? For example, have you found a well?"

  My heart started racing violently, and Tao Dingtian was indeed a bit strange. It turned out that he had also come to find the well, but I pretended to be ignorant and asked: "Our family has many wells, I don't know which one you are referring to?"

  Tao Dingtian seemed at a loss for words, scratched his head and said: "How many wells are there in your family?"

  I was taken aback, although I grew up in the old house since childhood, but I really haven't counted how many wells there are. At this time, I counted it in my heart and replied: "Including the dry well, there are eight wells in total."

  As soon as I spoke out, I immediately thought of that one short message: "Find the ninth well."