Night-Watching Old Man

Liu Haoyu carefully observed the house.

Just from its exterior, the residential building looked extremely sinister.

Few people would use red to decorate the outside walls of a house. At least, no normal person would choose such a color.

What was even stranger was that the entrance of the residential building faced not the road, but the direction of the barren mountains.

That orientation was practically like telling wandering ghosts, "Come on over to my house and play."

Combined with the house's bright, ominous red color, Liu Haoyu felt that Zhu Xingxue's survival for so long meant his fate had to be incredibly tough.

His ancestors must have pulled plenty of strings down below.

But unfortunately, when you walk beside the river, how can you avoid getting your shoes wet?

In the end, this man had still died at the hands of a Fierce Ghost a few days ago.

The red house now held a massive amount of resentment. Any normal person would feel uncomfortable upon seeing it and instinctively want to keep away.

But clearly, Liu Haoyu was not a normal person.

He shone his flashlight and walked up to the house, but he did not hurry inside.

Instead, he circled the house twice and set up a few things.

At the same time, he noticed that the candle was currently lit.

That meant there was a ghost beside him...

"Qin Liu, go inside Red Jade."

"Oh."

Qin Liu, who had been curiously examining the house, sensibly entered Red Jade.

But even so, the candlelight only dimmed slightly.

It seemed there was something extremely sinister nearby.

Liu Haoyu examined the exterior wall behind the house.

There were quite a few pieces of graffiti that looked like they had been drawn by children.

In an adult's eyes, there was something rather unlucky about this house.

But children did not care about such things. To them, the empty patch of grass behind the house was their favorite little world.

Liu Haoyu walked up to the wall and carefully examined the messy graffiti.

The graffiti was extremely disorderly, and the handwriting varied greatly. Clearly, Zhu Xingxue had not stopped the children from playing around.

But among the graffiti, Liu Haoyu discovered several particularly jarring sentences.

"Where did my little sister go?"

"My little sister is missing."

"I'm going to find my little sister."

The three short sentences made one feel increasingly horrified the more one thought about them.

Liu Haoyu did not know who had left these words, but judging from the chicken-claw-like handwriting, it was probably still an immature elementary school student.

Afterward, Liu Haoyu found quite a few more pieces of writing left by this child on the wall.

"Daddy is so mean. He's always hitting Mommy."

"Why can't Mommy see anything?"

"When I grow up, I'll definitely protect Mommy..."

Perhaps because the child's education had been limited, the words read with a clumsy, awkward feeling.

Looking at the handwriting, Liu Haoyu felt quite puzzled, but he also recalled a few things.

As far as he knew, Zhu Xingxue's wife was disabled.

She was blind in both eyes, and her left leg had been amputated.

Moreover, this had not been a normal marriage. In the 1990s, Zhu Xingxue had paid money to buy a wife.

Given that era, and the fact that this was still an impoverished, backward village, such a thing was not unusual.

This also showed that Zhu Xingxue's family life had not been very happy. As for the writing on the wall, it had probably been written by Zhu Xingxue's son.

But... Liu Haoyu remembered that Zhu Xingxue's household registration listed only one son and no daughter. What was going on?

Liu Haoyu's mind was filled with doubts, but just then, an old man carrying a lantern spotted him.

"Hey! What are you doing there?"

Hearing the old man's scolding, Liu Haoyu noticed that the candle in his hand was burning more fiercely.

"I was just passing through and wanted to find somewhere to set up a tent and rest for a while."

"Why is there another one? Go back, go back!"

The old man spoke with great impatience.

"Does this place look like somewhere you can set up camp?!"

Although Liu Haoyu said that, in the old man's eyes, he was just a young man who had heard a supernatural rumor and come looking for thrills.

"Old man, let me ask you something. Didn't a family of four live in this house? Why is no one living here now?"

Liu Haoyu deliberately emphasized "a family of four." Perhaps he could probe out something useful.

But after hearing this, the old man froze for a moment. He also saw the graffiti on the wall, and for some reason, he grew even angrier.

"Dead, dead! They're all dead! Leave, now!"

Seeing how furious the old man was, Liu Haoyu took a stack of bills from his pocket and held them out in front of him.

However, the bills belonged to the "Heaven and Earth Bank."

They were ghost money.

When the night patrol old man saw the stack of ghost money, he not only failed to get angry, but stared fixedly at Liu Haoyu's hand.

"Tell me about it."

"..."

The old man fell silent for a while before speaking.

"It really was a family of four—a husband and wife, a son, and a daughter. But a year ago, it seemed the daughter came down with some strange illness, and we never saw them again after that."

"Thanks. I'll set up camp here."

Money could make a ghost turn a millstone, and that was no joke.

After the old man accepted the stack of ghost money, his previously furious expression eased considerably. He even kindly warned Liu Haoyu, "Young man, this place is extremely sinister. Two young people went inside yesterday, and they still haven't come out. If you really want to camp overnight, the village committee square not far away would be better."

"Hahaha, there's no need to trouble you. I still have to make a fire and cook, and I'm worried I'd disturb you. This place is secluded and peaceful. It's quite good."

Seeing that Liu Haoyu refused to listen, the lantern-carrying old man could only let out a sigh.

He seemed to be lamenting that "you can't persuade a ghost determined to die, no matter how kindly you advise it."

Watching him leave, Liu Haoyu narrowed his eyes and put the Thunder Shock Talisman away.

This was merely a harmless guardian spirit of the land, something akin to the local earth deity.

"So it really was a family of four..."

Liu Haoyu muttered, took out a climbing rope, and tossed it upward. After confirming that the hook had caught, he climbed to the top floor with practiced ease.

A layer of grain had been spread across the rooftop, but because it had rained, much of it had already sprouted.

The place had clearly been abandoned for quite some time.

Liu Haoyu took a crowbar from his backpack and pried open the rooftop door.

The moment the door opened, a filthy, foul stench rushed toward him.

It was as if he had walked into a slaughterhouse.

On top of that, every window in the house had been locked shut, causing the smell to ferment into something nauseating.

Liu Haoyu dug a gas mask out of his backpack and put it on. Only then did he feel a little more comfortable.

But when traveling outside, aside from facing the threat of ghosts, one also had to stay alert around the people one encountered.

You never knew what was in another person's heart. It was just like what had happened to Deng Xiaolin when she encountered those people at the reservoir.

If she had not run fast enough then, something might really have happened.

Liu Haoyu might seem careless, but compared with Deng Xiaolin, he was still much more cautious.

Moreover, the old man had said there were two other people inside the house.

So, to prevent any danger from arising, Liu Haoyu took the Fire Axe from his backpack and held it in his hand.

As an exorcist, carrying an axe was perfectly reasonable, right?