Chapter 20: The Haunted House

  After their car drove away, Liangzi asked me: "What's going on? Do you know this guy?"

  I stood there for a long time, trying to recall who this person was. Just as I was getting confused, I heard an angry voice shouting: "Oh my god, whose father's car is this? Does he think he's driving a tank? Get out of the way!"

  As I looked up at the sound, I saw two traffic police officers walking towards me, one in front of the other, scolding loudly. I thought to myself that this was really going to be the end of me. Just after shaking off those mysterious robbers, now I had crashed into a police car. At that moment, I didn't care about anything else just to escape with my life, but now I'm left standing here with a bitter smile, not knowing what to do.

  "What's with the big show, hurry up and get off, now!" a traffic police officer continued to yell.

  Everyone quickly got out of the car with a smile to greet them, and Liubao didn't mention being robbed either, just saying that he had accidentally stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake.

  The traffic police officer was firm and didn't listen to his nonsense, shouting: "You think you're performing a sketch? With the lights flashing like that, you can still get hit. Driving on the road like this is irresponsible to the masses. The fine is nothing, your attitude is probably suffocating."

  I took a look and this isn't going to work, if the Sixth Treasure's * gets revoked, then with my and Liangzi's level of skill, if we encounter another unexpected situation, we'll only have the fate of being at others' mercy. So I patted Liangzi on the shoulder and said: "Liang young master, hasn't it been a long time since you last called home? Do you want to ask about your old man?"

  "I was afraid of running into this kind of thing, and opening my mouth would inevitably lead to being scolded." Although Liangzi was very reluctant, he had no choice but to blush and stutter as he made a phone call to his old man.

  After about an hour or so, a off-road vehicle with a white license plate came over. The driver got out and chatted with the traffic police for a few words before walking up to us with a smile: "Let's go, guys, get in my car and I'll take you back."

  Everyone felt relieved and got into the car under the unpleasant gaze of the traffic police. No one spoke on the way, until we arrived at Liu Bao's restaurant and got out of the car one after another. Liang rubbed his head and said "thank you" to the driver, who smiled and replied: "Don't be polite, don't worry about your car, I'll have someone come to clean it up." Then he nodded at us a few times and drove away.

  The old man's face was full of surprise, and he excitedly asked while pulling at Liangzi: "Hey, I didn't expect it, you little scamp has such a strong backing, what does your old man do?"

  "Scram, don't ask about this again later... Let's go inside and have a drink." Liang Zixian looked very unhappy, pushed open the door and went into the restaurant.

  We were drinking and discussing the recent series of events, but everyone was confused, no one could figure out why. If we said that everything that happened before was just a coincidence, it might have been believable, but this incident involved only a few people who knew about it, let alone us encountering robbery as soon as we got on the highway, which is absolutely impossible to be a coincidence, no matter how you look at it, it must have been carefully planned by someone.

  After drinking for a while, Liangzi said to everyone: "If you ask me, this painting is definitely a treasure, we should get rid of it as soon as possible, lest the night is long and the dreams are many."

  Lao Lu quickly chimed in, "That's right, I'll go find the business card of that old man who bought my 'ashtray', it should sell for a good price, and we can use the money to repair Six Treasures' car."

  I drank wine and thought for a long time before saying no, this painting is too thorny, now it's hard to get rid of the trouble that will be brought out again, let alone we want to know the ins and outs of things, as long as there is a painting, don't worry about having no clue.

  Although everyone was eager to see the money, they also thought what I said made sense. So they drank some more wine and as it was getting dark, they bid each other farewell and returned home one by one. I didn't feel at ease letting them take the painting, so I pulled Liangzi along with me to my house to stay over. I felt that if something happened to us, at least we could look out for each other. On the way back home, I also bought a knockoff Apple phone because my previous one was snatched away by a strange monkey in the underground palace.

  The house I rent is a total of six floors, and I live on the top floor with one room and one living room, as well as a small attic. Because Liangzi often comes to stay, there is one bed in the living room and one in the bedroom.

  After returning home, both of them felt very tired, and after drinking a lot of wine, they chatted casually for a few sentences before Liangzi fell asleep on the living room couch. I went back to the bedroom, opened the painting again, and took another look. Every time I saw the white fox's melancholy eyes, I always felt uncomfortable all over my body. After looking at it for a while without figuring out what was going on, I rolled up the painting and pressed it under the pillow, then felt my eyelids starting to fight, and soon fell asleep.

  I was in a daze and didn't know how long I had slept. I vaguely felt like I heard a woman crying, and at first thought it was just a dream. After struggling for a while, I woke up and opened my eyes to find everything pitch black in front of me. I thought this wasn't right - I clearly remembered not turning off the lights when I went to sleep. This is also one of my habits: every time I drink too much wine and go to sleep, I get up to use the bathroom, so I'm too lazy to turn off the lights.

  I thought it was Liangzi who got up in the middle of the night to close it, and just as I was wondering when this kid had become so diligent, I suddenly heard a cry of "Woo... woo... wooo... Hmph..." coming from above my head.

  I immediately sat up in bed, and my whole body was covered with goosebumps, because this sound I had heard before, just like the strange monkey in the underground passage. I waited quietly for a while, but the crying didn't happen again. I thought to myself, could it be that I've been stimulated too much lately, and after being frightened too many times, I'm starting to hallucinate?

  Just about to turn on the light switch, then that 'Woo... Woo...' crying sound came again, this time I heard it very clearly, it was coming from behind the ceiling of my head, I was immediately scared and broke out in a cold sweat, did that strange monkey follow me home?

  I frantically felt for the switch and went to press it, but after repeating this several times, the light still didn't respond. Having no choice, I again reached under my pillow to grab my newly bought phone, and as soon as the screen lit up, I wanted to take a look at what was going on. As I turned around, following the light from the phone, I saw a huge black head in front of me. I let out an "ah" before I could even scream, and immediately someone grabbed my neck, with one hand covering my mouth.

  Right after that, I heard a very soft voice whispering in my ear: "Don't make a sound... something's off... there's something upstairs..."

  As soon as I heard the voice was Liangzi, my hanging heart finally put down half of it. I gently patted his hand to indicate that I knew, and after he let go of his hand, I asked softly: "What's going on... when did you come into my room?"

  Liangzi told me that he was previously woken up by being urinated on, stretched out his hand to turn on the switch but found that the light couldn't be turned on, and then heard a crying sound coming from upstairs in my bedroom. At first, I thought you were playing tricks on me, but when I entered the bedroom, I realized something was wrong.

  I heard that the heart that had just been put down was hanging again, although I also understand that in a modern city, it is impossible for any ghosts to appear, but the sound was indeed heard by both of us, which means there must be something on the attic.

  Liangzi asked me what to do next? Should we go up and take a look?

  I think there's no other way but to go up, otherwise two grown men would have to run downstairs crying and call the police saying our house is haunted.

  So I opened the drawer beside my bed and found a flashlight, Liangzi borrowed the light to find a mop beside the bedroom door, picked it up and prepared to use it as a weapon. I was both scared and amused, it seemed that he and the mop were really destined, using it as a weapon for the second time in one day, last time was to hit someone, this time who knows.

  The attic staircase in my bedroom was modified by the landlord himself, without any turns, just a straight line inclined to the top. The stairs are very narrow and the beams are so thick that it's impossible for two people to go up together. Liangzi took the lead with courage, I followed behind him holding a flashlight ready to turn it on at any time.

  My attic has been used as a warehouse since I moved in, and it's rare for me to go up there. As my friend and I were halfway up the stairs, bent over at the waist, the crying sound started again for the third time. This time we were absolutely sure that it sounded like a resentful woman who had suffered great grievances and was grieving alone.

  Liang Zi's courage was great, and he might have been unable to bear the oppression of being cooped up for too long. He ran up a few steps, kicked open the door with a loud crash, and shouted loudly: "Who is it that dares to be so reckless here?"

  Right after that, my flashlight lit up and the light shone out. The two of us simultaneously took a step back, and I almost lost my balance and was knocked down the stairs by him.

  Because what I saw was a completely expressionless big pancake face, with a flat and large head, two small eyes staring straight at us, it's impossible to see what it is, maybe my flashlight had dazzled his eyes, for a moment he didn't have any reaction.

  I felt that Liangzi's body in front of me was also slightly trembling, but in an instant he recovered, shouted "Ah..." and raised the mop handle to start mopping.

  But this time it didn't hit, the thing flashed a black shadow and jumped to the top of the shed. I immediately followed with my flashlight and saw that it was crawling on the top of the shed at an extremely fast speed, its movements were extremely difficult, something that humans absolutely cannot do.

  Liang Zijue held up his flashlight and scolded again, but still didn't get his way. In a rage, he jumped up and shouted: "Damn it! If you have the guts, come down here and face me!"

  I thought you and it were just playing tricks, not much use, I was about to find something to help, when that monster jumped onto the window sill with one leap, turned its head back, opened its mouth, and let out another cry like a resentful wife's "Woo woo woo...", then crawled down along the outer wall.

  I and Liangzi quickly leaned against the window to look down, and saw a humanoid monster crawling downwards with its head facing down. In the blink of an eye, it reached the bottom from the sixth floor, then jumped and crawled along the highway for several steps before disappearing behind the trees by the roadside.

  Liangzi turned around and looked at me, I was also shocked and bewildered. Although I thought the monster's cry sounded a bit like the strange monkey in the underground palace, its appearance and movements were absolutely not the same thing. Moreover, this monster's appearance seemed to have several points that resembled a human being.