Chapter Sixteen: Portraits (Three)

  That faint sound seemed to be coming from the soft-soled shoes walking on the ground, walking very slowly, and it was clear that someone was walking. All the pores on my body stood up, looking at Erliang, under the dim white light, I saw a hint of horror in Erliang's eyes too.

  The footsteps gradually approached our door, and we were so tense that we couldn't say a word. But the footsteps didn't continue to move forward, instead they turned around and walked back, the rustling sound gradually faded away, then gradually got closer again, as if someone was lurking in the darkness, wandering back and forth.

  "Who's there?" Er Liang shouted, and the footsteps outside suddenly disappeared. I and Er Liang plucked up our courage to get out of our sleeping bags, turned on the flashlight, but there was no one outside, and the door was also locked, it was impossible for anyone to come in.

  I and Erlang stared at each other, not knowing what to say. At this moment, a "creaking" sound suddenly came from above the house, as if something had fallen on the beam and was swaying back and forth. Our faces immediately turned white, and we simultaneously thought of my family member who had hanged himself. Without saying a word, we raised our flashlights and shone them towards the place where the sound was coming from.

  The flashlight only illuminated a single, pitch-black beam, and there was no corpse hanging as we had imagined. However, the creaking sound also disappeared with the light from the flashlight. I looked at Erlang, and Erlang looked at me, both of us feeling a chill rise up from the bottom of our hearts.

  "How about we go out and find a fellow townsman to borrow a place to stay?"

  "Er Lang hesitated for a moment and said: 'I'll accompany you to find lodging outside. I'll stay here.'"

  I jumped in fright: "Why?"

  Er Lang gave me a faint smile, I felt that this smile was somewhat strangely heroic, he said: "For my ideal."

  "Go to hell with your ideal!" I couldn't help but burst out in curses: "If you really have something going on, what's the point of talking about ideals? As a man, it's not about dying for an ideal, but living humbly for one."

  "My dream is right here," he said, pointing to the old mansion with his fingers.

  I think Erlang is really stubborn, but I still didn't go out to borrow a place to stay and chose to stay by his side. Originally, Erlang said that since we had already decided to stay here, we might as well take a walk around since we couldn't sleep anyway, but I firmly rejected it. So we turned on all the lights and sat on the floor chatting.

  "I asked, 'Erlang, can you tell me what your ideal is?' I was really curious about what kind of ideal could be related to the old mansion. After what happened just now, maybe it's a good time to ask him."

  He fell silent for a long time, then said, "If one day... I'll tell you." He didn't say what would happen that day, but I vaguely sensed some bad omen. I knew Erlang's temper - if he didn't want to say something, no amount of prodding would work. I didn't press him further, just gently patted his hand.

  Er Liang smiled and patted my hand, saying: "Actually, I don't know if this should be considered an ideal, a dream or a fantasy."

  I didn't say another word, and we both deliberately avoided the topic. I was afraid of hearing some bad omen from Erlang's words again, so I changed the subject, pulled out the photo from my pocket and said: "Someone said they would introduce you to me, take a look, isn't she beautiful? First, let's make a deal, you're not allowed to snatch her away.

  Er Lang took the photo and said, "Tsk, tsk" a few times. He said, "You young man have finally found someone, don't worry I won't snatch her from you. I'm the master of Peach Island, how could I possibly compete with you? I'm already busy enough myself."

  As the two of them chatted with each other, lost in their own thoughts, the sky finally brightened up, and a ray of light began to seep into the courtyard. To me, this ray of light was more lovely than any beautiful woman. Er Liang patted his buttocks and said, "Let's go take a look at what's inside this old house."

  The old house was full of weeds and some scattered broken bricks, probably left over from the last renovation. The wooden beams and walls that were hundreds of years old were still well-preserved, I don't know how the ancient people processed them. My old house that had been demolished was also like this, my father said it hadn't been renovated in hundreds of years but remained very sturdy.

  From the main gate, passing through the front hall and crossing the courtyard to enter the middle hall, I walked from room to room without seeing anything special. It wasn't until I reached the backyard that I saw it was all planted with vegetables and fruit trees. My father often lamented that how could the Hundred Herb Garden compare to our family's backyard? Unfortunately, those days are already gone. The backyard in front of me now is overgrown with weeds as tall as my waist, although they should have been trimmed last time, but now they've grown again. However, my eyes didn't notice these withered trees and dry grasses, what I saw was that small black house, like a standing coffin.

  Although Er Lang had also been to my old mansion when he was a child, after all, he wasn't born and raised here like me, so he wasn't very familiar with the structure and layout of the old mansion. Of course, he didn't know that the biggest difference between this old house and the old mansion was this small black room.

  I stroked the outer wall of the black house, on which some patterns I couldn't understand were carved on the green bricks. The wall had already begun to peel off, as if telling us about its vicissitudes. I walked around the black house and found a small door on one side, but the lock was rusty and I estimated it couldn't be opened. I bent down to find a large stone on the ground and smashed it down heavily.

  The lock fell down with a "click", and Erliang, who was bending down to search for something in the grass, was startled by my sudden noise. Seeing me open the door of the black house, he hurried over.

  He had only run a few steps when he suddenly let out a loud cry, which startled me as well. I hastily called out several times, and from the bushes came Erlang's voice: "It's okay, there's an old dry well here. I was in a hurry and the tall grass blocked my view, so I almost fell in. It's fine now, just twisted my foot." As he spoke, he limped out of the bushes.

  In the black room, there was nothing useful and no windows. I replaced the batteries in my flashlight and shone it around. On the inner walls of the house, apart from the same carvings of those incomprehensible patterns as outside, there was nothing else. I directed the light downwards, and Erliang, who was rubbing his ankle, suddenly exclaimed, "There's something strange here."

  The ground inside the black house was much higher than outside, paved with green bricks. Under the bright light, it was clear that there was a place on the ground that was different in color from the surrounding area. Erliang pointed to it and said: "This place must have been turned over by someone, although it's not something that happened recently, but it's absolutely not what it originally looked like."

  I trusted Erliang's professional vision, handed the flashlight to him, and squatted down to use a small tool he carried with him to pry open the green bricks one by one, revealing the mud underneath. Erliang wiped away the surface mud with his hand, revealing a wooden board.

  I quickened the pace of digging bricks, Erliang said while rubbing his feet: "Your family is really strange, two places are dug so many wells, I don't know what they are used for?"

  My body suddenly stiffened, and Er Lang also noticed that something was wrong with me, asking: "What's wrong?"

  I slowly turned around and said: "At this location in the backyard of my old house, there is no small black room, but...but there is a dry well at this location."

  I don't know if it was my words that carried a deep chill or my slow turn that scared Erlang, but he didn't say a word, staring at me nonstop until I got goosebumps. Only then did he say, "Let's... dig down and take a look."

  Without using much effort to dig, we pried open the obviously relaid blue bricks, swept away a layer of mud that wasn't very thick, and exposed a wooden board. The color was similar to the wallboards of the old house, all with a dark brown hue, needless to say it also had enough years on it.

  I patted the wooden board with my hand, and it was empty underneath. I looked up at Erliang, who nodded. I felt around the edge for a while, found the edge of the board, and together we used force to pry the board open. A chill ran down my spine as a foul smell wafted out, and in front of us appeared a well opening.

  Because the sunlight can't shine inside, and the flashlight can't see that far, we don't know what's at the bottom of the well. The dark and mysterious well mouth in front of us seems like a giant eye, tempting us to enter the well. Erliang picked up a green brick and threw it in, it's a dry well, judging from the sound, it should be around 10 meters deep.

  The two of them struggled and said: "I'll go down."

  I glanced at him: "You still want to act with feet like yours? I'll do it."

  "Er Liang insisted on not letting me go, saying: 'I'm professionally trained and have seen a lot of things. You're different from me, what if something really happens, I'm afraid you'll be scared.'"

  I understand what he means, he's probably worried that there's a corpse at the bottom of the well, and for someone like me, it might be scary enough to get nervous breakdown, but now there's no other choice. We can't stay here for several days waiting for Erliang's foot to heal before exploring the secrets of the well again. Moreover, there is one thing that I didn't tell Erliang: "Since someone wants me to come back and see it, then no matter what, I have to go down. This is like my fate, escape or not. The old mansion isn't just one, apart from the one that's been demolished, there's another real old mansion here."

  Erlang hesitated, but eventually handed me the rope he had prepared earlier and tied it around my waist, with the other end tied to his own waist. He then handed me both flashlights and said, "Be careful."

  I nodded and slowly climbed down along the well mouth. Because it had been dry for a long time, my hands touching the well wall did not have a wet and smooth feeling, which also reduced the difficulty of my descent. Erliang shouted at me from above every few seconds, I knew he was worried that something would happen to me, so I loudly replied: "I'm fine, nothing's wrong."

  Finally, I reached the bottom. There was no mud under my feet, only some weeds, perhaps because they didn't get enough sunlight, so the grass below wasn't lush or tall. I shone my flashlight around and saw that the well was quite large, with a diameter of about one meter. In the middle of the weeds were some broken stones. Thankfully, I didn't see any corpses inside.

  I raised my head and shouted loudly: "I've arrived, there's nothing, don't worry, I'll take another look." Erliang responded from above: "Be careful yourself, if there's nothing, come up early."

  "I replied, 'Got it.' Looking up from the bottom of the well, perhaps it was a rare ray of light coming in through that small door, allowing me to vaguely see the mouth of the well. For an instant, I had an illusion - from where I stood, it seemed as if the outside world was at the bottom of the well, and I was at the top, while Erliang was at the bottom."

  I was stunned for a while, then I quickly gathered my thoughts and started the exploration work at the bottom of the well. However, except for that small pile of rubble, there was nothing else. I squatted down to use my hands to clear away the rubble, and underneath, a slightly larger stone appeared, half of which had already sunk below the ground. The surrounding area was carefully filled with small stones to fill in the gaps. After thinking about it, I realized that this should be used to block the underground water spring, because after the old house was demolished, my father wanted to dig another well in our new home, but the relevant department did not agree, and in the end, they could only use this method to seal the spring.

  I continued to clear away the rubble, and suddenly my hand touched something papery. I hastily shone my flashlight on that spot, and indeed, something emerged from the pile of rubble, which seemed to be a rolled-up paper. I carefully removed the rubble from the edge of the paper, and gradually its entirety was revealed, looking like a scroll painting.

  I had the flashlight clenched between my teeth, and carefully unrolled the scroll. Just as I saw the contents clearly, my mouth opened wide in shock, and the flashlight fell to the ground, hitting a large rock. The bottom of the well was instantly plunged into darkness, but I didn't even think about turning on another flashlight. All I felt was that this well seemed like a monstrous abyss that had swallowed me whole, and my heart sank deeper and deeper, as if it had sunk to the very bottom of the well, never to resurface again.

  What I saw was a woman in ancient costume, under the light of the flashlight, she was smiling at me, I saw that between her lips were blood-red teeth, but none of this scared me, I closed my eyes, and my mind kept thinking of that face, it was so familiar, exactly the same as the photo mother gave me.