C23

Zhou Huan gently turned on the tap and dripped the water on his hands. Then, he smelled the fragrance on his fingers.

He had moved here for the past three days, but he still felt that there was something wrong with the water, a fishy stench.

This rented room was less than 30 square meters. It was at the end of the second floor. There was no balcony and the windows faced the corridor. The room was made of wood.

Due to the cheap rent and the fact that he only stayed for a month, Zhou Huan had to endure all of this. But the key problem was that due to the humidity, many of the furniture had already become moldy.

Zhou Huan was a journalist who had come all the way here to investigate a water conservancy accident. He had been reporting continuously for around a month, running around the site during the day and writing his report at night.

However, there was nothing he could do about it. This place belonged to a poor area, and there was only one rented room. If he lived in the county, then he would be too far away to do anything.

Previously, when he had asked the intermediary, he found out that this town was close to the river and had a small population. The agent kept boasting that the river air was good and the environment was good, but the result was quite different. This rented room was located in a dark and humid alley. There were a total of twenty or so families in the alley. Including him, there were six families living in this two story building.

In the next few days, Zhou Huan continued to endure the harsh environment. He drank as much mineral water as he could, and went to the scene of the accident five kilometers away on foot early in the morning.

That night, he busied himself until midnight. He was so tired that he fell asleep on the table. Who knew that when she woke up, the ground was covered with water!

He hurriedly asked his neighbor to borrow a mop and suck up all the water. After he was done, he carefully checked where the water was leaking, but he couldn't find the source of the problem.

He thought it was strange that everything in the house was fine. Even if it was the rainy season, there shouldn't be so much water seeping out.

With this, the air in the room was extremely humid. He had no choice but to open the window to take a breather.

That night, he was suffering greatly.

In the morning, after he went downstairs, Zhou Huan went to the store at the mouth of the alley to buy breakfast.

Zhou Huan decided to ask him for more information.

Zhou Huan bought two steamed buns first, and then, without leaving, he stood next to the store and asked when no one was around:

"Boss, is it raining often?"

Ah Feng didn't even look at Zhou Huan, and directly replied him: "Of course, there's more rain."

"Oh, I just moved in. I'm renting a house here. "But you said it hasn't rained recently, why is it that my room was filled with water last night?" Zhou Huan asked again.

"Sigh, there's nothing I can do about it. There's something wrong with the drainage system here. Every house is the same." Ah Feng raised his head and looked at Zhou Huan.

"Sleeping in the middle of the night and then filling the whole floor with water?"

Yes, this is a run-down place. It's been raining for a long time, and there's a problem with the drainage system. It's pretty wet all year round, otherwise why would this alley be called a wet alley?" Especially when the tide rises in April of each year.

Listening to Ah Feng's complaints and explanations, Zhou Huan finally understood. It seemed that the drainage system was indeed not perfect, or there was some problem with it, which caused the river to flow into the alley. He had also gone to the riverside to observe and discovered that the construction of the river dam was not very reasonable. Under the dam was another sloping plot of land, where many people grew vegetables. If the river crossed the dam, it could easily flow diagonally into the alley.

"What are you doing?" Just as Zhou Huan was in a daze, Ah Feng suddenly asked.

"Oh, my reporter."

"So it's a reporter!" I can't tell, but I definitely came to work, right? "

Zhou Huan smiled and nodded.

"Mm, not bad, not bad at all …"

Zhou Huan was not interested in idle chatter, so he casually greeted them and turned to leave for the construction site.

Along the way, he muttered the word wet alley in his mind. He felt that the way he addressed the alley was a bit unusual, and it made him feel uncomfortable.

When Zhou Huan returned in the evening, he saw that a house on the ground floor was open. An old lady was wiping the floor with a mop, while complaining, "Aiyo … It's all water, and my shoes are wet. I'll have to dry them for a few days. "

Zhou Huan thought, looks like he was not the only one who was in trouble, the others were also in trouble. According to the owner, April was the worst month, and now, it was almost April.

Facing this kind of environment, Zhou Huan felt somewhat helpless.

At night, he still worked, but he was more upset. When he had first entered the house, he had soaked himself in the water with a rag, but now the room seemed to be once again heavy with moisture, and he was sure that there was more water seeping from some corner of the room.

After he finished his work and laid down on the bed, he was disturbed by the damp air and couldn't sleep for a long time. However, at this time, he heard some slight sounds.

The sound was very soft, and if he didn't listen carefully, he definitely wouldn't be able to hear it clearly. Because it was currently quiet, he could barely hear it. It sounded like a wind pipe, but it also sounded like someone was snoring. Anyway, he thought it was a little strange.

Moreover, it was very difficult for him to tell if the sound came from outside or inside the room. It felt very ethereal.

It was as if the voice wanted to rush into his mind.

Zhou Huan could not help but sit up and turn on the light. He looked around the room and saw nothing amiss.

Because this house used a very old yellow light, the lighting was very bad. Zhou Huan had no choice but to crawl out of bed and examine the house carefully, especially in the dark corners.

In the end, after searching for a long time, he still couldn't find anything.

His voice was still sounding off and on.

Zhou Huan even opened his door to go to the corridor outside. At this time, the corridor was completely dark and the families were all asleep. A cold wind that came from nowhere blew across his face, causing him to feel a chill.

It was clearly inside the house. Why was there wind? Zhou Huan thought.

Zhou Huan felt that this place was very strange. If he didn't figure out the origin of the strange sound, then he probably wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.

Just as he was about to return to his room, something flashed behind him.

Zhou Huan stood very straight, all the hair on his body stood up, and because he was reflected on the wall, he could roughly see that thing.

It was a figure!

The figure was much shorter than he was, like a child.

Zhou Huan slowly turned his head, but it was completely empty behind him, with no one around.

He looked at his door again, thinking that if anyone passed behind him, they would have to go to his house. After all, he was the only one at the end of the second floor.

With a nervous heart, he returned to his room. The moment he closed the door, he once again felt that there was someone behind him.

He was certain that whoever it was, it had crept into his room, and he could imagine it cowering in a corner somewhere, watching him.

He felt a surge of fear and found himself looking for the "person."

There was something else that made him uneasy. The strange noise from before sounded even more distinct. It was as if he had accompanied the figure to his house.

As a journalist, Zhou Huan had seen many scenes that frightened him. In the past, when he was stationed at the public security department to do a documentary on a major murder case, he had always been very confident in his own courage and felt that there was nothing to be afraid of. However, at this moment, he gradually experienced what fear was.

There's something wrong with this house!

When Zhou Huan went back to bed, he came to this conclusion.

With regards to the words of the Ghost God, Zhou Huan neither rejected nor rejected them. However, he thought that as long as he didn't do anything evil, there shouldn't be any trouble bothering him.

He decided to find out about it tomorrow.

As a result, at dawn, Zhou Huan dialed a number. It was the number given to him by his landlord after the realtor had completed the rental procedures.

"Hey …" The voice on the other end of the phone was very lazy. It sounded like it was still sleeping.

Previously, Zhou Huan had met the landlord once, so he knew that the landlord was a fat middle-aged man with a good temper. Then he greeted the other and went straight to the point, saying that there seemed to be something wrong with the house.

"What's not good?" The landlord, who was almost awake, asked Zhou Huan.

"That's right …" "It's a bit strange. Was there anything wrong with this house before?"

"What do you mean something is wrong? Speak clearly!"

Zhou Huan knew in his heart that although he was unable to put it into words, it was still too difficult for him to say.

After all, this kind of thing always sounded like a groundless rumor. Especially in someone else's house, it was hard to just randomly talk about it.

"Honestly, I don't know how to describe it either." Zhou Huan laughed awkwardly.

"It's fine. Just tell me, if there really is a problem with the house, I'll help you solve it, right?"

"Yes yes yes, I understand."

"So …"

"So what?"

"What, brother, you have to tell me, tell me!"

Zhou Huan's face reddened, he realized that he was already incoherent, but the landlord's patience was beyond her expectations.

"Owner, let me ask you this, haven't the tenants in front of me responded to any questions?" Zhou Huan organized his thoughts and asked again.

"Nope."

"Not a single one?"

"No, this place has just been rented out. You're the first one."

"Oh, so it's like that. Then who lived there before?"

"Ugh …" I... A relative. "

"Then where did your relative go?"

"They... They're gone. "

Gone? What does' no 'mean? Zhou Huan was suspicious.

"Did you move it?"

"What?"

"I ask, did your relative move away?"

When Zhou Huan asked this question, the landlord was silent for a while.

After a long while, the landlord didn't reply, Zhou Huan even suspected that the landlord had hung up. When he was about to ask again, the landlord finally replied softly, "No no no, my body isn't well, I'm back home."

Zhou Huan felt that it was strange. Since they were going back to their home, then wouldn't it be similar to moving somewhere else?

Following that, Zhou Huan asked a few more questions, and realized that the landlord was always hesitating and hesitating when answering some questions. He even intentionally changed the topic, as if he was hiding something.

Until the end of the call, Zhou Huan still did not manage to get the answer he needed.

He had a knot in his heart and was prepared to ask around from someone else in a nearby alley.

The first person he thought of was naturally the Ah Feng who sold breakfast.

Zhou Huan immediately went out, and in five minutes, he was in front of Ah Feng's store.

Seeing that Ah Feng's business was a little deserted today, he thought to himself that this was the chance to ask about things.

Zhou Huan bought two steamed buns as usual, then exchanged a few words and quickly got to the main topic.

"You mean, that house, who used to live in it?" Ah Feng asked Zhou Huan.

"Right, right." Zhou Huan smiled and nodded.

"Oh, it should be Xiao Fei's house right? Actually, I haven't been here for more than a year, and I've been focusing on doing business every day. There are some things that I'm not clear about. " After replying, Ah Feng looked towards a shop that sold cigarettes. There was an old man sitting there, and Ah Feng seemed to be seeking the old man's confirmation.

"Yes, it's Xiao Fei's house." The old man nodded and said with certainty.

"If Lao Zhou says yes, then it must be!" Ah Feng laughed.

Seeing that the Lao Zhou was probably a local person, he was sure that they knew about what was happening here. Thus, he went around Ah Feng and directly asked the Lao Zhou: "Who is it, is it a child?"

"How do you know?" The Lao Zhou asked.

Zhou Huan was guessing randomly, but he immediately thought of the figure behind him last night.

"I was just guessing, where is the child now?"

"Ai …" It's gone! "

He's gone again? Zhou Huan immediately realized that the words the Lao Zhou used were the same as the landlord's.

"What does' no longer 'mean?" Zhou Huan asked the same question.

"A few months ago, something happened!" The Lao Zhou answered straightforwardly.

"He died?"

"Hmm, didn't they tell you when you rented the house?"

Zhou Huan shook his head, his expression becoming gloomy.

"That would be dishonest, but this kind of thing... People usually don't know how to rent out a house, right? " Lao Zhou looked at Ah Feng with a face full of schadenfreude.

Zhou Huan finally understood why the landlord stuttered at him. It was a house that had just died, no wonder the rent was cheap.

Afterwards, Zhou Huan continued to ask the Lao Zhou for information and found out that there was a mother and son who lived in the house previously. The child was called Xiao Fei, and was born with mental retardation. Every morning, the mother would ride her bicycle, and Xiao Fei would sit in the back seat with her mother to the place where they worked. The people in the alley had a deep impression of him and his mother.

After that, Xiao Fei's mother unluckily fell off the bicycle and broke a leg. From then on, Xiao Fei's mother laid on the bed and died because of illness, Xiao Fei became left without anyone to take care of him and his relatives refused to take care of him. In the end, a few days later, Xiao Fei actually climbed onto the dam and chose to jump into the river to commit suicide.

After hearing this story, Zhou Huan's heart felt a little uncomfortable.

"How long ago was that?" Zhou Huan continued to ask.

"That foolish child committed suicide a few months ago. I remember it was winter. The riverside is especially cold. Did his mother break her leg …" It should have been two years ago. " The Lao Zhou said.

"What have they been doing these past two years?"

"I suppose so. Sometimes, their relatives would also send them some stuff, but it's very little."

"The house is still theirs, isn't it?"

"Yes, but they are all dead. The house can only be kept by their relatives, I heard that it's that foolish child's second uncle. He should be the landlord that you contacted, right? I reckon the house will belong to him in the future too. "

Zhou Huan thought that the mother and son pair's relatives did not treat them very well when they were alive, but in the end, they were able to obtain the benefits of a house.

Zhou Huan suddenly pitied the mother and her son.

"Why would that child commit suicide? Isn't he a retarded child? " Zhou Huan wanted to know more.

"We can't go on any further!" If his mother died and no one raised him, how would he live his life? However … "Speaking of which, when that child died, it was quite strange."

"The devil?"

"Yeah, almost everyone here knows about it."

"According to what the Lao Zhou said, what evil techniques are there? It is just a group of people making wild guesses." Ah Feng said from the side.

"It's fine, it's fine. Tell me about it." Zhou Huan really wanted to know.

"Oh, yeah. I heard you're a reporter, right? "I understand, I understand. No wonder it was so exciting." Lao Zhou laughed.

Actually, when Zhou Huan asked about this matter, he did not think about it at all. It was purely out of curiosity.

"So, what do you want to know? I'll tell you. Help us advertise this place in the newspapers and take care of our business!" Lao Zhou laughed.

Zhou Huan thought for a while before replying, "Alright, it's a small matter."

Of course, he was just being perfunctory and wouldn't do it.

"That day, early in the morning, Xiao Fei went to the river bank. The people in the alley haven't even woken up yet …" The Lao Zhou started to narrate, "On the other hand, a fisherman and his wife who were sleeping on the boat woke up early again, and coincidentally saw Xiao Fei."

"Then watch him jump into the river?"

"That's right, but jumping off the river isn't that surprising. In my impression, there are at least a dozen people who died in the river nearby. So it's another thing, a little strange! "

"Hurry up and tell me." Zhou Huan urged Lao Zhou, he realized that this man liked to keep people in suspense.

Lao Zhou deliberately lowered his voice, and said softly: "When that child died, he wore no other clothes, only a red apron, it was his mother's dowry when she married!"

Zhou Huan found it strange as expected, and asked: "Red bellyband? Are you not wearing any other clothes? Include... Pants? "

Zhou Huan also knew that these kinds of clothes were not common anymore. Only the rural areas would occasionally have one, but taking into account that it was his mother's dowry when she married, he had to push it forward for many years.

"That's right!" Lao Zhou answered with wide eyes, "My whole body... Wearing only a single undergarment, it's winter, it's a few degrees below zero! "

"Will you... "Because that child is retarded …"

"No!" "Impossible!" Before Zhou Huan finished speaking, the Lao Zhou interrupted him, "Although there is something wrong with that child's brain, he shouldn't be so foolish. It is normal for him to wear clothes and eat food, and every winter, his mother would wrap him up completely.

Zhou Huan thought that this made sense. Ordinary mentally retarded people were adept at following fixed patterns and would find it hard to change. From this point of view, many normal people were not as good as them.

"Did you discuss it afterwards?" Zhou Huan asked again.