Chapter 4: The Mysterious Box

  "Don't you care about our past relationship? We used to be so good." Zhao Ling's tears started flowing again, and she slowly moved closer to Ling Fei. In the past, whenever she made a pitiful face like this, Ling Fei would soften up. Now, she wanted to try it again. If she could get back on Ling Fei's good side, she thought she'd definitely be better off than now - even that rascal Lian Biao wouldn't dare mess with her, and she could swagger around the neighborhood with ease.

  But Zhao Ling soon froze, because Ling Fei's icy gaze was like the latest popular ice bucket game, directly making her heart emit a chill, and with one tremble, Zhao Ling couldn't move.

  "Consider the feelings? Ha, you've even found your gang to beat me up, and you still have the nerve to talk about feelings with me? Do you think everyone can be as shameless as you? You'd better send the money over quickly, or else you know the consequences." Ling Fei gave Zhao Ling a cold glance, now he felt that he had been blind in the past to fall in love with such a woman.

  "Alright, I'll give you the money, don't regret it." Zhao Ling's face suddenly revealed a resentful and venomous expression, and then she turned around and walked away.

  "Wait a minute, sign it. If you don't sign, just walk away like this, what if they don't give us the money? How will they find us?" The old policeman said, while the policeman who had been sneering beside him handed over a notebook: "Sign it, do you think others can bear to have dinner with someone like you? Do you think others can swallow their food when looking at you?"

  "Little Lei, don't talk nonsense. We are police officers and can't apply personal preferences to this case. What kind of person she is, we know in our hearts, that's enough. Talking more will only dirty our mouths." The old policeman said with a stern face: "Go back and brush your teeth, what bad luck."

  Scolding people without using foul language, this police officer is indeed a master. Ling Fei suddenly found it a bit funny and also gained some respect for these few police officers. Who says there are no good people in the police force? Today, he saw that they were all good people.

  "Listen, kid. You may have gotten your revenge today, but that guy isn't a decent person either. Be careful in the future, it's easy to dodge an open attack, but hard to guard against a sneak one. And this woman doesn't seem trustworthy either. If you can get the money back, great, if not, forget about it. As they say, it's better to offend a gentleman than a petty person. Women can be more ruthless when they want to harm someone than we men are." When things were settled and it was time to leave, the old policeman whispered to Ling Fei: "If you have any problems, come find us police officers. We're not as bad as you think."

  "I know, thank you," Ling Fei said, then shook hands with the old policeman. As they shook hands, the old policeman suddenly chuckled quietly: "Very normal hand, strange, huh? What's this thing?"

  Ling Fei followed the old policeman's gaze to his right hand, and was surprised to find that there was a strange pattern on his palm, with a purplish edge and a black center that looked like a few withered branches. It made him feel a bit creepy.

  When Ling Fei came to his senses, the police and Old Cow had already left. At this moment, Ling Fei realized that in this alley where people's hearts were no longer kind, he still had someone who cared about him, like Old Cow. Although he knew those people were thugs, he was willing to take risks to help him find the police. From now on, as long as it was something related to Old Cow's family, he would definitely go all out to help.

  "Brother Fei, I was just thinking..." Ling Fei turned his head, and the door beside him opened. A man who usually liked to brag walked in with a fake smile on his face, wanting to speak, but when Ling Fei's eyes locked onto the man, the man's expression froze.

  "Bang." Ling Fei pushed open his own door, then forcefully closed it. Of course, the lock was already broken and could only be considered as just closing it to prevent thieves, but it would probably be difficult. He would have to go somewhere else to stay tonight.

  He walked to the sink and started washing his hands. Although he had a feeling that the strange pattern on his right hand was unlikely to be washed away, he still held onto a glimmer of hope, hoping to wash it off. Otherwise, how could he work in the future? As soon as he stretched out his hand, he would probably scare people away, especially women who were timid and would scream for half a day over just a caterpillar.

  Cold water splashed onto his hand, and Ling Fei's head cleared up a bit. Just now, his right hand was a bit eerie, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became. Who has ever seen a hand turn around to control the body's movements on its own, and not listen to the brain's commands? This isn't a movie shoot, could there be a ghost inside?

  "Bang." A loud noise suddenly came from behind, scaring Ling Fei to jump up, and then he rushed out of the kitchen. Only when he reached the door did he dare to turn his head back to look.

  The kitchen was empty, what was that noise just now? Ling Fei's back suddenly broke out in cold sweat. Was it really so eerie? Just now he thought of a ghost, could it be that a real ghost had come?

  Just then, Ling Fei suddenly felt a flash of light in his eyes. Upon closer inspection, he found that a piece of tile had fallen off the ground, and on top of it was a small metal box stuck to it. Wasn't this the most mysterious treasure of his grandfather who passed away a few years ago?

  Ling Fei's grandfather was not dead, he was also a famous figure in this area, himself a master of massage, many hospitals had no way to cure strange diseases, and finding his grandfather to massage once would have an effect, doing several courses would be fine. Moreover, the most important thing is that Grandpa has some weirdness, seems to understand some kind of evil door thing, he just saw Grandpa slap his hand, and actually cured a schizophrenia patient, which is absolutely unscientific.

  Later, Ling Fei was forced by his grandfather to learn massage, and he became even more puzzled. His grandfather's massage techniques were actually quite ordinary, how could they possibly cure some strange diseases? He had tried them on his own patients before, but the results were not as effective as what he learned in school. So from then on, he became interested in the box that his grandfather opened every day.

  Unfortunately, his grandfather never let him see it, saying the time had not come and that something would happen if he saw it. Just a month before his grandfather's death, he secretly found the box but hadn't had time to open it when his grandfather slapped him, causing him to faint. When he came to, the box was gone and his grandfather had fallen ill, never recovering until his death, without ever revealing where the box was hidden.

  Ling Fei walked over, took down the box, and then looked up at the wall. It turned out that it was stuck about half a meter off the ground, hidden so well. He didn't know that there was also a secret compartment on the wall. I guess he shook the wall too hard when he was messing around, and it fell down.

  Inside, there was a stack of papers. Ling Fei took them out and suddenly he was stunned. They were receipts for donations, all to remote mountainous areas, and under two names: Nie Hong and Wen Qin. The latter name sounded pleasant, warm and gentle. Could it be that Grandpa had an old flame? No wonder Grandpa had earned so much money over the years but never spent it lavishly.

  He let out another yawn, and Ling Fei could only take the iron box into the bedroom to pick out two sets of clothes to change into. He still had money on him, but he felt it wasn't safe to stay at home. Moreover, his right hand was already back to normal, so if those thugs came looking for trouble again, wouldn't staying at home be asking for death?

  Half an hour later, Ling Fei was lying in a standard room of a four-star hotel, snoring loudly. He really felt very tired, and as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep. However, his hand still tightly hugged the box, and when he woke up, he would look at it again.

  At 10 o'clock in the evening, Ling Fei finally woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he found that his mobile phone was ringing non-stop. He grabbed the phone with his left hand and answered it, while holding the iron box tightly with his right hand: "Hello, who is this?"

  "I'm Old Cow, you must be careful these few days, it's best if you don't come back to live here. Just now your house suddenly caught fire, it was lit by a man in black clothes. I reckon they're planning to take revenge on you." On the other end of the phone, Old Cow panted and said: "I chased for over 200 meters but didn't catch up."

  "Has it started?" With a sudden movement, Ling Fei got up, and indeed, just as he had thought. The other party was not willing to give up like this, and Zhao Ling's appearance instantly appeared in his mind, absolutely related to her. This woman is a poisonous snake.

  "Yes, fortunately you weren't inside. The things your grandfather left behind are all wooden, and once they catch fire, it's hard to put out. Officer Zhang asked me to tell you that you shouldn't come back recently. They will do their best to crack the case and must catch that guy and the mastermind behind him." Old Cow said with a very serious tone.

  "Old cow, you'd better be careful too. To tell the truth, I really don't know why you're so good to me." Ling Fei suddenly felt a sour nose, after his grandfather passed away, he always felt like he was alone, but now he had a neighbor who was so good to him, and his heart was truly warm.

  "You and your grandfather have helped us too much, don't worry about me, I still have some friends outside, no one will bother me. Alright, that's it, I'll go back and see my wife who is waiting for me to return home." Old Niu smiled foolishly and then hung up the phone.

  Forget it, let the fire burn then. It's just an old two-bedroom one-living-room house anyway, nothing much to lose if it burns down. Didn't we get 110,000 yuan during the day? We can use that to buy a better second-hand house. As for this old house, we'll just find someone to fix it up later and rent it out.

  Thinking of this, Ling Fei let out a sigh of relief and then opened the iron box. He had to take a look at what it was that his grandfather would not let him see no matter what. It couldn't be that his grandfather had secretly taken some indecent photos for personal enjoyment, could it?