The Mysterious Case of the Deserted Mansion

  "Look quickly, someone is going to the haunted house."

  "What? Old Lady Li really found someone to look at the house?"

  "Alas... this young man looks immature at first glance, and he didn't even ask around. That courtyard is haunted every night, how dare he still live there?"

  He walked alongside Mrs. Li, while at the same time glancing over at a group of people not far away who were pointing and gesturing at him. It had been like this the whole way, although he couldn't make out what they were saying, but he felt as awkward as a monkey in a zoo.

  After walking for a while, Old Lady Li finally stopped in front of a courtyard and pointed at the house, saying to Zhang Yi: "Young man, this is the house I wanted you to see."

  Zhan Yi looked in the direction of her fingers, and what entered his eyes was a small courtyard with an area of about 300 or 400 square meters. Two red large doors were tightly closed, covered with a lot of dust and some spider webs, as if they hadn't been cleaned for hundreds of years. On both sides of the door grew weeds that were over half a person's height, adding to the desolate atmosphere.

  Looking at the yard, a hint of doubt arose in his heart. He had thought that what the old lady let him see should be some kind of factory or warehouse, but he didn't expect it to be such a small courtyard.

  Moreover, this small courtyard looks like it was built just a few years ago, and the architectural style is also very good. But why isn't it rented out? On the contrary, they want to hire him to take care of it? This made Xianyi extremely puzzled, and he couldn't help but ask: "Auntie, why don't you rent out such a good house?"

  "Hmph, it's just that some people have been spreading rumors that this house is haunted, and as a result, the tenants are all afraid to stay. Young man, I just want you to live here for two months to prove to them that there's no ghost in this house. Then we'll see what those turtles have to say... it's enough to make an old lady like me furious..."

  Zhan Yi listened to Old Lady Li's angry muttering, and then looked around at the pointing and whispering of the people nearby. Unconsciously, she understood something - it wasn't that there was anything special about her today, but rather this small courtyard was a haunted house in everyone's eyes.

  But soon a smile spread from the corner of his mouth and he said magnanimously: "Don't worry, I'll definitely help you prove it."

  It's not that he's brave, but rather he doesn't have the usual fear of ghosts. His grandfather was a well-known Taoist priest and fortune teller in their hometown, and from a young age, he had heard and seen too many things about ghosts and spirits. Moreover, he knew that those ghosts and spirits would be scared away by him whenever they saw him.

  At first he didn't understand why, but later asked his grandfather and found out that his fate had a strong yang energy, ordinary ghosts didn't dare to get close to him, so he was immune to ghost stories early on.

  Mrs. Li looked at Xuan Yi's nonchalant expression and nodded in approval, as if she had found a kindred spirit: "Hehe, you're quite bold, but don't worry, as long as you can stay here, I'll give you 1,500 yuan a month, and you can choose any room inside."

  He walked to the front gate at a steady pace, opened the large lock on the door, and with a creaking sound, helped by the old lady, pushed open the large gate. The cool breeze blowing in the yard made him feel his body hair stand up slightly.

  As they looked around the courtyard, except for the small path leading to the pavilion in the middle and a patch of red brick pavement, the entire yard was overgrown with weeds, just like both sides of the gate, and even taller than those outside. After the two entered, all that could be heard was the sudden fluttering of a flock of sparrows rising from the grass.

  "Hehe, young man, this place hasn't been lived in for a long time, it's a bit messy, but it's okay, I'll get a few people to clean it up this afternoon." Li old lady said with a smile, looking at the messy courtyard.

  "Alright, Auntie, I'll help with the harvest this afternoon too." With a gentle nod in response, Xianyi followed the old lady towards the three-story small building in the center of the courtyard.

  The small building looked quite new, and the architectural style was also very novel and beautiful. However, the dust on the door seemed as if no one had lived there before. The old lady quickly opened the house door, and the two of them walked inside.

  As he walked into the living room, Zhan Yi found that the decoration here was not luxurious, but it was much stronger than the school dormitory. However, the house was very messy, with discarded paper all over the floor and most of the furniture overturned. In particular, there was a pile of burnt gray things in the center of the living room.

  Zhan Yi walked over, taking advantage of the not-too-strong light in the house, and lightly kicked the pile of things with his foot. A yellow object caught his eye, and after another kick, the yellow object finally revealed its true appearance amidst the ashes - it was an unburned half-paper ingot.

  This made Yan Wu stunned for a moment, he couldn't understand how this thing could be here, because everyone knows that only the dead would burn such things, but who died in this building and why didn't they clean up after burning so many things.

  "Granny, how did these things end up here?" His deep puzzlement could only be expressed by turning to ask Mrs. Li, who was not far away.

  "Alas... A former tenant who lived here was very superstitious, and after hearing rumors from others that this place was haunted, he would often burn some ingots and candles. Later, when he moved out, no one came to collect them, and it ended up like this." The old lady let out a soft sigh, seemingly feeling helpless, yet also missing her former tenants.

  Zhan Yi listened and became even more certain that this was the idea of the ghost mansion. He knew that although the old lady didn't believe it, if nothing really happened, the people living here would never do such a ridiculous thing.

  However, he didn't say much more and walked around the house for a while, listening to the old lady's brief introduction to the structure of the house. When they had roughly understood it, the old lady seemed to be getting a bit tired too. She turned her head and looked at Xianyi, saying: "Young man, you've seen that the house is quite big. I won't accompany you upstairs. Here are the keys, go take a look yourself, and if there's anything, come back and tell me."

  "Alright, I know, Auntie. You just sit here and I'll go take a look." Xianyi took the keys from Mrs. Li's hand and stepped towards the upstairs.

  As he stepped up the stairs, Wing unfolded his head and looked around, discovering that no one had lived here for a long time. The handrail on the stairs was covered with dust, and there seemed to be a musty smell in the air.

  He arrived at the second floor and found that the layout was similar to the first floor, except there was no living room, only a long corridor with dimmer lighting, followed by rooms that seemed to be specifically designed for rent.

  Holding the key to open one by one house door, found that many houses have simple furniture, and even some places have some daily necessities, but all covered with a lot of dust, and most of them are as messy as the living room on the first floor, it can be seen at a glance that people were in a hurry when cleaning up.

  He walked along the corridor, turning from room to room for half a day, until he reached the last room at the end of the second floor corridor. He took out his key and unlocked the door, but just as he raised his hand to push it open, he suddenly found that on the door were written three bright red words: "You've arrived."

  This made Xianyi stop in his tracks, staring tightly at the three words, thinking to himself, what was going on, he clearly hadn't seen any writing just now, had he misseen it, or...

  He reached out to touch the character, and the door suddenly opened. Then something came tumbling towards him, forcing him to dodge to one side. He looked down to see that it was a clothes rack.

  He spread his wings, squatted down and picked up the coat rack, then walked into the house. He found that this house seemed to be different from other houses, although there was a lot of dust, but things were arranged very neatly.

  However, what he found strange was a dresser at the entrance, on which there were some neatly arranged bottles of cosmetics, but the mirror above the dresser was covered with a white cloth, and on the white cloth, three bright red characters "You're here" were written. Under the dim light, it looked so eye-catching, as if someone was talking to him.

  Zhan Yi didn't care about that, took a step forward and lifted the white cloth with his hand. Just as he had just lifted the white cloth, he suddenly saw a flash of white shadow at the door behind him in the mirror. Although it was only for an instant, it made his heart move.

  He quickly turned back and ran to the door, looking in the direction where the white shadow had flashed by, but found that except for the wall at the end of the corridor, there was nothing else. Was it just his own mistake again, or was the ghost that had just flashed by the legendary ghost of this haunted house?

  He was thinking constantly, and now he's getting more and more interested in this house. If at first he came to help people look for houses just to have a place to stay during the summer vacation and earn some money, now he really wants to know what happened inside.

  He looked around the room again and found that the white shadow still hadn't appeared. Xianyi shook his head, locked the door, and headed towards the stairs to the third floor.

  He went up to the third floor and found that the lighting here was much better than on the second floor. Although the layout was similar, since it was the top floor, several skylights were opened on the roof, making the entire corridor very bright.

  Opened the door to take a look at each room, the interior decoration is similar to that of the second floor, but many rooms are clearly uninhabited, it seems that those rooms were not rented out when renting houses before.

  After finishing the decoration of the third floor, Zhan Yi felt very satisfied. This place is not only beautifully decorated indoors, but also has a great location, nestled in the mountains and by the water. Not far away is General Mountain in N City, and behind the courtyard there is a small pond. If this place were to be tidied up a bit more, it would really look like a villa.

  Thinking that he would be living here in the future and also earning money, he felt happy. If he could find a daytime job as well, he would be able to earn enough for next semester's expenses during this summer vacation.

  As he wandered aimlessly, he walked down the stairs to the third floor. He had originally intended to go straight downstairs, but just as he was passing by the corridor on the second floor, a room door not far from the stairwell suddenly emitted a creaking sound and slowly opened automatically.