Chapter Twelve Two Fat Carp

  As for the origin of these eight characters, don't even guess: "Is it because Chinese monks gave Indian Buddha statues a light? Who cares, anyway, it was given by a superior person, trying it out won't hurt, and if it works, that's best; if not, it just means the old man and the master wife are too powerful, so we can't drag things on any longer, right?"

  It's this principle, but when he says it from his mouth, I just feel uncomfortable in my heart!

  Let's talk about it when we get home.

  When I arrived at the residential area, there was a crowd of people surrounding my building, with a moving truck parked on the side. The entrance to the corridor was blocked and water couldn't pass through. Standing by the flowerbed, I saw a woman wearing mourning clothes in the crowd, holding a black-and-white memorial portrait, next to her was a man dressed similarly, shouting at each other. I thought to myself, "Could it be that someone has died again?" But these two days, except for my building upstairs, there hasn't been any news of anyone having a funeral, and the old lady in the memorial portrait is someone I've never seen before, so she shouldn't be from our residential area.

  Don't stop the car, we two just separated from the crowd to go upstairs. A familiar aunt suddenly pulled me back and shouted loudly at the man wearing a mourning dress: "This is Xiao Wang from the 16th floor, your family has all arrived, including those living opposite and above and below you. Say it, how will this matter be resolved?"

  A group of people turned their heads to look over, leaving me at a loss for what to do. I asked the old lady what had happened, and she exclaimed excitedly: "Little Wang, didn't you know that the old lady from upstairs in your building passed away? You must have known! I saw your cousin helping out at her place when I went to burn incense, and everyone has been saying that you're a good young man!"

  Can't you be more tactful? Being so direct makes others blush!

  I didn't respond, and the old lady continued to shout: "We're all neighbors, if there's anything we can discuss together. Although it's not allowed to keep the body at home now, people are all made of flesh and blood, so everyone will turn a blind eye. But some people are really overdoing it, they agreed to keep the body for three or four days before the funeral, but on the day of the funeral, everyone was enthusiastic about helping."

  Old Mrs. Wang turned to me and said, "Little Wang, you don't know that the coffin they took to the crematorium that day was actually empty. They hid the old lady's body in a cabinet at home for seven whole days. If it weren't for today's move, we would all still be in the dark. Hmph, on the day of the funeral, her family didn't let us pay our respects, and now I know why."

  It wasn't until I heard this that I understood what had happened. According to local customs, the deceased elderly person should have been laid out at home for seven days.

  In the village, as long as your house has a yard, no one will bother you even if you park for a year. But it's different with apartment buildings, you have to consider the feelings of your neighbors. The problem is that my community used to be a village and was only converted into apartments after renovation. The people living here are quite conservative and also very fierce, if I'm not allowed to park my car, I'll fight back.

  So when a family holds a funeral, they will discuss with the neighbors and stop for three to five days in winter, and two to three days in summer, before the body starts to smell. The old lady upstairs was cremated on the fourth day, but now it seems that her children played a trick on everyone, hiding the body at home for seven days. In fact, there is no problem with the body itself, and nowadays the houses are well-sealed, making it difficult for any smell to come out. The reason why conflict arose was because they closed the door tightly when hiding the body.

  Superstition aside, the old lady's soul was trapped at home for seven days, definitely with a lot of resentment. Letting go is not up to ghosts, but dogs!

  So the residents of this building gathered together, demanding that the old lady's family make a public apology and compensation, and invite monks to perform rituals, because once there is a ghost, the easiest ones to be affected are the neighbors on both sides, so everyone hopes we will take the lead.

  But will I take the lead? What am I afraid of, I've even seen an old lady with my own eyes, who has the heart to care about these trivial matters.

  I had been thinking about going home to set up the altar, and exchanged a few lukewarm pleasantries. Just as I was about to leave the crowd and head home, my eyes landed on that portrait, and my heart skipped a beat. I pointed at the portrait and said, "Could this be the old lady from upstairs in my building?"

  The onlookers nodded in agreement, and I blurted out: "Really? I've never seen her before!"

  The person in the portrait is less than sixty years old, but the old lady I saw should be over seventy, and not to mention her age, just their appearance is completely different.

  I've lived here for less than a year, and one night around midnight, the sound of drilling was non-stop. I went door-to-door asking questions, and when the upstairs neighbor opened the door, it was an old lady I often saw. We even chatted a few times in the neighborhood later on, so I couldn't possibly remember wrong. And neither could the dozens of neighbors around me, nor would that young couple mistake their own mother.

  This is strange, I touched the back of my head and said to the person next to me: "How is it possible? I've seen her several times before. The one living upstairs in our building isn't the big mom in the portrait at all. Every time I see her in the elevator, she presses the button for the 17th floor."

  The neighbors were eager for compensation, no one cared about my broken things, and they just responded by saying I must have remembered it wrong.

  If it were in a different setting, I'd probably just forget, but how can I explain that woman I saw at my teacher's wife's house?

  The master wants to help the old lady upstairs take revenge, we met the old lady's ghost in her home, if this is also a coincidence, then there is only one situation, this building has two old ladies, coincidentally they both died recently, and even more coincidental is that these two people both know the master!

  I asked the old lady who had just grabbed me earlier if she knew an elderly person with a small mole on his mouth, short in stature and with a head full of white hair.

  The auntie said she didn't know, and told me to ask someone else.

  I found my home opposite, he didn't recognize me either. Finally, I got anxious and directly went to the old lady's opposite door, described her appearance, and said straightforwardly: "Uncle, don't say you don't know her, I'm sure she lives right across from your house."

  The uncle fell into thought, and after a few seconds, he pulled me to one side and said in a low voice, "She indeed lives opposite my house, but you can't have met her! When did you meet her?"

  I said we've been on and off for a year, how is it impossible?

  The old man said bitterly: "You moved here a year ago, but she passed away three years ago. Unless you saw a ghost!"

  I've also seen a ghost before, but I wasn't too scared, just had a big bite of whale meat. The reason is that the scene where I saw the old lady was very normal, day and night, in the neighborhood, at the vegetable market... If no one told me that the old lady had died long ago, I wouldn't have known she was a ghost... No, it's not just me who saw her, there was an image of us meeting once at the vegetable market, and she even interacted with the neighbors and vendors.

  Last time I sent gold jewelry, Wenjing also saw it...

  No, the gold jewelry was given by the old lady upstairs. Now it seems that there are two old ladies, one human and one ghost, upstairs, but I don't know who sent the jewelry.

  Don't just stand by and watch coldly. At this time, I explained that I had been ill for a while, my brain was a bit of a problem, and I estimated that I had hallucinations.

  Uncle Ke insisted that I must have seen a ghost, saying that even if it was an illusion, it's impossible to imagine an old lady I've never met before.

  I didn't bother with him, let alone drag me into the corridor. There was a coffin overflowing with stench in the elevator. I bowed three times and went up the stairs. Halfway through, I discussed this issue with You Wu, but he thought I was nagging. He already had a bunch of broken things to deal with, why bother with those idle thoughts? Once Wen Jing's troubles were resolved, we would hurry to move house, and even if the whole neighborhood was haunted, it had nothing to do with me.

  He didn't usually hum and haw when climbing the stairs, I stole a glance at him, feeling that this wasn't his style, he should have kept asking me what was going on.

  The house was dark, Wenjing sat on the sofa watching TV with her legs crossed, and Yuwei greeted me shyly before going to pour water. I asked her why she didn't pull open the curtains, and she said they had just watched a horror movie, so pulling the curtains created atmosphere.

  I thought it wouldn't be easy to create an atmosphere? Follow me for a few days and you'll be scared out of your wits.

  Every house has Feng Shui, good Feng Shui means the people in the house will naturally have a smooth and prosperous life. The middle-aged man asked me to make some changes to the Feng Shui of his home, such as moving the small fish tank on the TV cabinet to the window, and placing the beds in the two bedrooms against another wall... These small changes were done quickly, but what was special was that he asked me to place a large mirror facing the security door.

  At that time, I said there was a demon mirror at home. The middle-aged man hurriedly asked me to take it down or throw it away directly. Because the demon mirror bought from the roadside has low efficacy and can only provoke evil spirits rather than subdue them. It's better to use an ordinary mirror to reflect the evil spirits out, so Yu Wu and I dismantled the large mirror in the bathroom and placed it in the living room facing the anti-theft door.

  The toilet had a heavy yin energy, and dirty things were most likely to be hidden inside. I left the toilet door open for an entire afternoon, and at 7:00 in the evening, I carefully placed the Four-Faced Buddha on top of the water tank of the toilet bowl. Just as I was about to kneel down and kowtow, the Four-Faced Buddha fell to the ground.

  I thought it wasn't stable, so I put it down again, but it still fell. The surface of the white ceramic water tank is very flat and my phone can stay on it, but somehow the Four-Faced Buddha doesn't work. I started to mutter to myself, feeling that the bathroom was gloomy, probably because the yin energy hadn't been dispersed cleanly.

  Muttering Buddha's blessing, I flipped over the lid of the water tank. The other side was rough and had grooves, it should be stable, but as soon as I opened the lid, water splashed on my face. After wiping it off, I looked carefully and found that there were two big black carp squeezed in the water tank.

  My mom said that this fish eats anything, including corpses, and they are too ugly, so I never eat catfish, nor will I raise them for fun, let alone in the toilet tank. So I called Wenjing over and asked her what she meant by putting the catfish here.

  Wen Jing stretched her neck and looked around, exclaiming in surprise: "Huh? How can there be catfish here, they look so ugly!"

  It's not a quiet place, I looked at You Wu, he understood the inquiry in my eyes and loudly shouted: "Don't be kidding me, I'm raising catfish in your toilet, it's delicious!"

  I said it's not just us three, could this carp have swum through the pipes?

  Wen Jing furrowed her brow tightly and muttered something under her breath.

  I looked at her, and Wenjing said that there were guests coming to our house in the afternoon. They brought two catfish, but they were much smaller than these two. When Wenjing went to the kitchen to pour water for the guests, the guest received a call and left in a hurry. She didn't see if he took the catfish with him or not. Maybe he was too anxious and temporarily left the catfish at our house?

  The madam has raised a carp in the toilet bowl, I hastily asked her who had come.

  Wen Jing said with a hint of pride: "The big sister from upstairs who knows me, hasn't seen her for days, misses me!"

  As soon as I heard this, Yu and I were shocked to the point of our jaws dropping. In the afternoon, Shi Po came to my house to cause trouble, while Wen Jing still had a complacent look on her face. I was so angry that I couldn't help but question her about how she could let strangers into our home without distinguishing between good and bad people after all these years of education.

  No wonder the Four-Faced Buddha couldn't be placed, these two catfish are absolutely problematic!