Chapter 21: The Haunted House
Hearing Ming say that, Du Qingqing put her mind at ease a little. Du Qingqing said: "If Li Fu has something going on, we can't do this deal."
"A bill of 600,000 yuan." Yu Ming said: "Moreover, this is a confrontation between you and Liu Mang. Miss Du, are you going to give up?" It seems that Du Qingqing didn't pull herself in to take the fall as she thought.
Du Qingqing's face changed color and she stopped talking, having been seen through by Yu Ming. This child was something she couldn't bear to abandon, yet had no strength to raise. The thirty-kilometer journey passed quickly. Yu Ming picked up branches from the side of the road, scaring away snakes as he cleared a path, while Du Qingqing followed behind him. When they arrived in front of the ancestral hall, Yu Ming dialed Li Fu's cell phone number, and Li Fu's phone rang from its location at the side of the ancestral hall. Yu Ming and Du Qingqing exchanged a glance, then climbed up the dozen-or-so-meter earthen stairs, after which they saw Li Fu lying naked in front of his grave, his phone beside him.
"All the American agents have been caught." Yu Ming's heart sank. Li Fu had set out with confidence and preparation. He signaled to Du Qingqing to wait, and went forward to check, still alive. Looking at his hands and feet, there were no signs of resistance, not even a clenched fist. There were no injuries on his body, and his face showed no fear, not even a hair out of place.
Yu Ming took out clothes from his travel bag to help Li Fu put them on. Although Yu Ming often pretended to be a ghost, he couldn't figure out one problem. Suppose there were really Taoist, Buddhist, Islamic and Christian gods. How would their jurisdictions be defined? Li Fu was a Christian, originally the enemy was the devil and vampires, but they encountered Buddhist and Taoist ghosts, how would the combat effectiveness of both sides be calculated?
Du Qingqing asked Ming, "Are you okay?"
"Miss Du, seeing someone faint, can you still be shy?" It seems that Nai Qiu was right, Du Qingqing didn't have any romantic feelings for Li Fu. Yu Ming said: "Alright." Yu Ming patted Li Fu's face and shouted: "Li Fu, Li Fu!"
After repeating several times and being fed ice-cold Coke, Li Fu slightly opened his eyes and said: "Blood, so much blood."
"Where?"
"On the ground, it's all blood, blood." Li Fu struggled to sit up, excitedly saying: "So many, so many, and there are red-clothed female ghosts, white-clothed headless ghosts. It's real."
"Alright, alright. Calm down, the ambulance is arriving soon." Yu Ming moved away from Li Fu's heel. Du Qingqing covered her mouth and stared with wide eyes. She saw that Li Fu's left heel had a faint red substance on it, which looked like bloodstains. Yu Ming checked Li Fu's body again and indeed found no bleeding spots. Could it be... Li Fu wasn't dreaming or hallucinating?
Li Fu woke up, but his mind was still unclear. The ambulance followed and arrived, the medical staff lifted Li Fu onto the ambulance, Du Qingqing drove to follow the ambulance back to the city, Yu Ming said he would stay behind to look for Li Fu's clothes. Du Qingqing nodded: "I'll come pick you up at noon."
Yu Ming pushed open the main gate of his ancestral home, and the wooden door creaked as it swung open. As he stepped into the main house, a cold wind blew in, making him feel chilly all over. Although the old house had been renovated, it still retained its traditional style. Upon entering, there was a living room with a hard earthen floor. To the right, there was a door that led to a small courtyard. In the center of the courtyard stood a locust tree, under which was a stone table and four stone stools. On the left were three rooms, their doors slightly ajar. The same on the right, all with wooden floors - not just any wooden floors, but very old ones made from traditional wooden frames. Yu Ming pushed open one of the rooms, inside which were dry straw, broken grass mats, and an old bed. On the bed was a straw pillow and a torn mat. The electric light in the room was on.
Yu Ming crouched on the ground and looked for a while, then turned off the light and came out. He walked towards the front. After climbing five steps to the front, he found that it was a concrete floor, obviously renovated later. This was a large hall with more than a dozen memorial tablets placed high and low in front of him. In front of the memorial tablets, there was a pile of ashes and some unburned wood. Obviously, Li Fu had made a fire here last night. If it weren't for Li Fu's boldness, this would be the only place where he could make a fire without worrying about triggering a fire disaster.
There are four old armchairs in the hall, three of which are covered with dust and one is very clean. Yu Ming saw a bag of beef jerky packaging and other food brought by Li Fu. Behind the ancestral tablet in the hall is a wooden chamber pot, which was used for storing fertilizer in rural areas at that time. On the right side of the hall is the toilet, an 80s rural toilet, not to be described. On the left side is the kitchen, inside the kitchen is a stove. There are Li Fu's instant noodles and several unopened packages of tea leaves inside. The kitchen has a water storage tank, and the water is introduced from the mountain spring through a bamboo tube cut in half.
Yu Ming was very familiar with it, and with a flick of the bamboo strip, the water flowed into the pool. With another turn, the water flowed into the ditch. Yu Ming also found Li Fu's teacup. However, nowhere in the entire ancestral house could be found Li Fu's bag or clothes.
After checking, I went out of the ancestral house to make a phone call. As Du Qingqing said, there was no signal inside the ancestral house at all. Du Qingqing said: "The examination is over, and Li Fu's body is fine. But his emotions are a bit agitated, and the doctor gave him a sedative injection. It's estimated that he won't wake up until this afternoon. Have you found Li Fu's clothes and pants?"
"No. I didn't see any bloody spots either." Yu Mingdao said: "It's hard to say if this place is really haunted. Miss Du, do you still want to continue investigating?"
Du Qingqing: "I'll hang up first."
"Tsk, tsk, the first general has fallen." Liu Meng sighed and said: "Qingqing, if you really can't do it, just write: This house is haunted, investigation ended. Who knows, the client might be very satisfied and nod in approval, giving you double the commission."
"Liu Mang, you bastard, knowing the inside story and still handing me the bill?"
"You can refuse, but if you ask me, I can take back this order." Liu Meng smiled slyly.
Du Qingqing said: "You're dreaming, we've already taken this order."
"Haha, got it. Qingqing, who else can you send?"
"...I'll go myself." Du Qingqing said with a huff.
"Hahaha." Liu Mang burst out laughing for three seconds, then suddenly stopped: "I'll add 10,000 yuan, if you dare to spend the night there. But think carefully, if a man is stripped by ghosts, it's nothing. If a woman is stripped and happens to meet a ghost who likes to go online, you understand? It's no big deal either, in the underworld internet, after tens of years when you're dead, people will have long forgotten about you."
"Do you deliberately want to see me make a fool of myself?"
"Haha, haha!" Liu Mang laughed loudly: "Just looking at jokes is fine, communication has no limits. What if the underworld accidentally sends your beautiful photos to the world of the living? Tsk tsk, that's not just looking at jokes anymore."
"Is it ten thousand?" Du Qingqing asked back.
"Are you serious?" Liu Mang said straightforwardly, "No problem, I'm a man of my word. As long as you can spend the night in the ancestral house, no matter what happens, I'll give you 10,000 yuan. By the way, you have a university student and a thief to accompany you. Three P? I'm really looking forward to the photos."
Du Qingqing said viciously: "You wait for me."
"I've been waiting for you." Liu Mang added in a low voice: "Make a fool of yourself."
PS: Thanks to netizen YaoYaoYao for providing the cover.
