Old men always liked to drink a few pots of small wine and loudly crunch away at a dish of peanuts when telling stories.
The old man hadn't been willing to say much to them at first, but Gu Mian still managed to coax him out with just a few words.
Now the few of them were already sitting in a small-to-medium-sized eatery nearby, and the old man was sitting happily in front of the table, not even watching the front gate anymore.
He picked up a peanut, tossed it into his mouth, and chewed away relentlessly, making several people like Yuwen Hao beside him swallow a mouthful of saliva.
"If we're talking about Zhou Guanglei and Zhao Wen, they both kicked the bucket two years ago, but their times were over two months apart."
"Let's talk about Zhao Wen first. Zhao Wen stopped working here before he died, and the people in our factory at the time thought he had gone somewhere to make a fortune. Who would've thought that in less than three months, word came that he was gone."
"Life and death are common occurrences, after all. Although the people at the factory were surprised when they heard about this at the time, they didn't dwell on it for too long."
"It wasn't until two months later, when Zhou Guanglei—who was very close with Zhao Wen—also died, that some people began to suspect their deaths weren't normal. They had no idea how Zhao Wen died, but Zhou Guanglei's death was fishy enough."
"Before he died, he kept saying someone was knocking on his door and even suspected it was us. Later on, he didn't do anything else in the middle of the night, just making phone calls to people. Even I, this old man, received a call from him..."
"Later on, I heard he died in his own house, lying on the bed and strangled to death by a telephone cord. You tell me if that isn't bizarre—can a living, breathing human being lie on a bed and get strangled to death by a telephone cord?"
"We all knew his death was unusual, and normally we didn't dare talk about this much. There were always people who felt that the deaths of both Zhao Wen and Zhou Guanglei were fishy, yet they couldn't find the slightest connection between them."
"But as for how Zhao Wen died, while they might not know, I certainly do! My nephew works down at the station."
"I heard my nephew say that when they investigated Zhao Wen's family members, his relatives also said that Zhao Wen always heard knocking sounds before he died."
Gu Mian and the others already knew all of this, but they didn't interrupt the old man's words, letting him continue.
The old man picked up another mouthful of side dishes, took a sip of wine, and then continued: "Speaking of the source of this knocking sound, others might not know, but I do. My nephew is at the station, hehe."
Hearing this, Yuwen Hao and Qing Huan exchanged glances; the origin of the Knocking Ghost had finally been tracked down.
"Speaking of this knocking sound, I have to mention a fire at our factory seven or eight years ago. A person was burned to death in that fire. Tsk tsk tsk, I was here back then too, and I watched with my own eyes as that person was carried out charred completely black."
When Yuwen Hao and the others were investigating Zhou Guanglei yesterday, they had also heard people mention this: three people had died connected to this factory, one died in a fire, and the remaining two were Zhao Wen and Zhou Guanglei.
"Seven or eight years ago, probably around 1995, our factory hadn't been built for very long and was brand new. Getting into the factory back then was a very sought-after gig, and quite a few young fellows scrambled and fought to get in."
"The one who burned to death that year was a young lad named Yu Hai. I heard he came from a rural village not far from here, wanting to make a name for himself in the small county town, but he never imagined he'd lose his life just after arriving."
"The fire broke out in the middle of the night. Since we were a new factory back then, the leadership was also serving as leaders for the very first time. They were so petty-minded that they were terrified someone would sneak in during the middle of the night and dismantle the factory doors."
"Then our leadership arranged for a few people to work the night shift. I was also at the factory that day, and I was the doorman."
"That young lad Yu Hai was on night shift in the office. The office had a small bedroom attached to it with a bed inside, and even the workshop had people keeping watch."
"I was dozing off when the fire started, which should have been around two in the morning. I was actually woken up by the person on night shift in the workshop."
"When I woke up, the fire was already towering! I hurried and rushed over there, only to see that entire row of offices completely burned down! It was so fierce..."
Speaking up to this point, the old man clicked his tongue and shook his head, seemingly still marveling at the ferocity of the fire back then.
"Back in 95, telephones weren't even widespread in our small county town, let alone cell phones. Only the leader had a big brick phone, as long as a newborn baby."
"We had no way to call the police, and we didn't know where the fire station was either; the police station was too far away. We could only run out to find the leadership so the leader could use that big brick phone of his to call the police."
"But it was too late. The person who went out to find the leader back then made me guard that row of burning offices. After he left, I heard noises coming from inside that row of offices..."
"It was Yu Hai's voice inside... Ah, he must have been trapped in the office's small bedroom."
"I heard him shouting inside—screaming miserably! He was also pounding on the door bang bang bang, as if the bedroom door couldn't be opened, and he was shouting desperately inside."
"I also wanted to rush in to save him, but the fire at the time was truly too big. It directly swallowed the entire row of offices, and you couldn't even see where the door was. Going in meant certain death."
"I could only listen outside as Yu Hai kept slamming on the door inside, just keeping on slamming, but it wouldn't open no matter what. In the end, his voice grew fainter and fainter, but he still kept desperately knocking on the door inside..."
"By the time the fire truck arrived, there hadn't been any sound inside for a long time. The fire department spent a huge amount of effort to finally put the fire out, and when the person was found, he was already as black as charcoal..."
"Over these past seven or eight years, wave after wave of people have changed at the factory, and they aren't too clear on the matter of the fire back then. They only know that a person burned to death."
"But I still remember it crystal clear. I still remember Yu Hai desperately knocking on the door in the fire that night trying to come out, so when I found out about Zhao Wen and Zhou Guanglei's situation, the first person I thought of was Yu Hai."
Speaking up to this point, the old man put down his chopsticks and let out a long sigh, unable to swallow the food in his mouth anymore.
Gu Mian stroked his chin. It seemed this Yu Hai was the Knocking Ghost following him, though Yu Hai's death was fishy—he might have been killed by another ghost.
He looked at the old man: "What did the police say later?"
"My nephew said this fire was extremely fishy. It didn't look like an accident, nor did it look man-made. It was more like a fire that suddenly appeared out of thin air..."
"Did Yu Hai experience any supernatural events before he died?"
Now the ghosts corresponding to all five of them had appeared. It seemed they weren't far from the source, and the ghost that killed Yu Hai might well be the source of the curse.
"How would I know that? He was a bachelor. I heard his parents died long ago, and he grew up eating food from a hundred families. He was a big goofy guy who didn't talk much with people either, but from what I saw, he didn't seem to have encountered any supernatural events before, otherwise he would have been scared to death long ago."
"Then were there any other bizarre things at this factory before?"
"When Yu Hai died, this factory was still quite new and hadn't been built for very long. How could it experience any supernatural events in such a short time? If you want to find them, you'd have to start looking from before this factory was built. I heard that this patch of land used to be a textile workshop."
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