He Jian’s interjection came very suddenly, and Han Sha was momentarily stunned: “Go ahead.”
The young man touched his chin with a serious expression: “Didn’t you say they had scouts? I’ve heard that in many cases that happen around schools, gangs will have age-appropriate children do the scouting. Many of them are disabled, possibly even mute, which causes them to be unable to make normal sounds. Combined with the couple’s poor eyesight, perhaps the scouting child has been hiding beside them all along, and because they couldn’t bear to watch, they’ve been warning them constantly.”
I hadn’t expected this young man to be so realistic. I laughed: “Then since they couldn’t bear to watch, why would they stop the couple from calling the police?”
He Jian said: “Because if they called the police, the husband might not make it to the police station alive.”
“…”
A chill ran down my back, and I didn’t find this explanation particularly comforting either. I took a deep breath: “Anyway, regardless, the one delivering newspapers to me isn’t necessarily a bad person—that’s what you mean, right?”
Han Sha looked at me meaningfully: “They also hope you’ll leave.”
In the end, everything still had to circle back to this point. I gave a bitter smile: “Old Han, if I really don’t want to give up this shop, do you think renovating would help?”
Han Sha sighed: “If I told you that you had cancer, do you think getting plastic surgery would cure it?”
Now he was being scientific. I said helplessly: “Let me think about it some more. It’s not easy to finally make some money—asking me to make this decision is no less difficult than cutting flesh with a knife.”
Han Sha understood and said lightly: “Boss, I’m just advising you. Don’t worry, I always see things through to the end. As long as you’re still in this house and pay me on time, I’ll find ways to keep you safe… This is also something I’m doing for my daughter.”
After that, having triple-confirmed that there was nothing else in the house, I went back and lay down with difficulty. I slept very restlessly that night, and in the second half of the night I even dreamed I was sitting in a bathtub eating cake.
Clearly I had only taken a small bite, but the cake disappeared completely. When I looked up, I discovered that besides me, there were four pale-faced people in the bathroom.
As you can imagine, not getting to eat the cake and seeing ghosts to boot—tormented by such a nightmare, I woke up before seven o’clock.
To let the young man sleep well and grow properly, I went downstairs quietly to wash up, only to discover that Han Sha had woken up even earlier than me and was currently leaning against the doorway smoking.
“Do all people become like this when they get older?”
I pushed the door and went outside.
Even though it was midsummer, the temperature at this hour was very comfortable. Han Sha was tall and lanky with an ethereal appearance—draped in his clothes and blown by the wind, he looked even more the part. He offered me his cigarette pack: “Want one?”
I shook my head with a bitter smile: “I don’t smoke. My sister said that if she ever caught me smoking, she’d make me drink hot sauce through my nose. If it were a lollipop, I might consider it.”
Hearing this, Han Sha chuckled and actually pulled out a lollipop from his pocket. I was dumbfounded: “Did you calculate this too?”
“You weren’t wrong last time—after my daughter got sick, she’s always craved sweets… It’s just that we have to follow medical orders, so her daily diet is very bland. To satisfy her cravings, I buy these things to keep on hand. When the craving becomes unbearable, I let her taste them.”
Han Sha exhaled smoke, his tone flat: “She really liked the cake you made for her last time… I didn’t dare let her eat much, but she’s very grateful to you.”
“Grateful for what? I’ve looked up some low-fat, low-sugar recipes since then. Next time I’ll let her try some other flavors.”
Enjoying the gentle breeze and sunshine, this was truly one of the few normal moments at No. 29. I asked: “Speaking of which, you mentioned last time that too much contact with these things might have effects. How has your health been these past days? You know, you’re not without attachments.”
Hearing this, Han Sha’s gaze looked distantly into the distance. He was silent for a long time before saying: “Everything I’m doing now is for my daughter. Back when my wife died of cancer, before she passed she made me promise to take good care of Xiao Wan. But then my daughter ended up in the hospital too, and at that time my business also had problems, which made my daughter suffer a lot more… Since then I’ve been thinking, how exactly should I make it up to her?”
In the morning breeze, Han Sha’s voice was very light, as if he was asking himself, and also as if he was questioning my conscience.
As the saying goes, great rewards will surely attract brave men, but searching my heart, the wages I paid Han Sha wouldn’t make me brave either. Therefore, Han Sha being able to do all this for No. 29 could truly be called charity.
My heart warmed, and I said instinctively: “When my mother passed away, I used to think about this question often too. Later I realized that the most important thing was for me to live well and carry on with the intentions my mother left me.”
“Is that so?”
Han Sha exhaled his last puff of smoke at this moment. He stubbed out the cigarette, and that faint confusion on his face had already vanished in an instant.
He said: “If you want to live well, you shouldn’t be living in this house.”
Just like that, another ordinary day of making big money quickly began.
I was only grateful now that No. 29 was at least well-behaved—the haunting happened at night, while during the day business could be conducted as usual and money could be made as usual.
After all, for me, as long as Alipay made a sound, my previously overdrawn courage could immediately be recharged, and I’d feel capable again!
Because we’d added a stand mixer, plus Song Nanshi could now help out, our production capacity had increased, so naturally we sold more.
In the evening, looking at the day’s earnings, I felt there was nothing I couldn’t forgive. My mood immediately improved greatly, and I opened a more expensive hourly hotel room, sending everyone to bathe.
After all, as long as one’s thinking doesn’t slip, there are always more solutions than problems. At worst, I’d just keep the second-floor bathroom sealed forever. I could still afford to pay for my employees to take baths in hotel rooms, and in the future when I earned more, I could even treat them to foot massages, oil treatments, and full spa services.
At eleven at night, before going to sleep, I confirmed with Han Sha one last time that the big sister in the second-floor bathroom seemed relatively well-behaved.
Although Han Sha no longer had a bell to suppress her, as insurance he had stuffed all the gaps around the bathroom with yellow talismans, plus the red strings wound crisscrossingly on top—the visual effect was so eerie that even Lin Zhengying would have to say it was outrageous if he came.
Han Sha said that if we were lucky, this might calm things down, but there was also a strong possibility it would make her more defiant.
After all, even in his professional career, he’d never heard of a house where four people had died consecutively. Working on this level of haunted house, using our typical working person’s terms, was basically equivalent to working directly at Alibaba up to Ma Yun’s secretary position.
At this point, I could only pray that No. 29 would calm down from now on. However, facts proved that nothing in the world can withstand being constantly mentioned, especially for someone with my kind of luck—the more you mention it, the more things will go wrong.
At 3:30 AM, the moment I opened my eyes I knew something was seriously wrong.
It wasn’t urgency to urinate nor could it be called natural awakening—me being alert at this hour had only one possibility.
With the psychological trauma from He Jian’s sleepwalking last time, I sat up abruptly. Fortunately, Xiao He was sleeping properly in bed and the room door was closed, but somehow, there had just been a strange chill that seeped through the bedding and forcibly awakened me.
It couldn’t be that thing from last night again, could it?
Just thinking about that big face made my back tingle. Squinting my eyes, I tremulously looked under He Jian’s bed—
It was empty.
Just then, another slight cold breeze brushed across my back. I whipped my head around toward the door, realizing that this breeze was coming from outside.
Song Nanshi had mentioned before the intermittent chill in the house. Logically speaking, there were no windows in the second-floor hallway, especially at night when all doors were closed—where was such a cold breeze coming from?
Once a person has such thoughts, it’s impossible to fall back asleep. I climbed out of bed quietly once again, originally just wanting to see if the bathroom door was still properly closed. However, this look was shocking—
The red rope that had been wound properly just a few hours ago had now silently fallen all over the floor. Not only that, but the bathroom door was also wide open, and the yellow talismans that had been stuffed in the gaps were scattered throughout the hallway, extending from the bathroom all the way to the stairs.
Shit.
I sucked in a cold breath.
Clearly there was still one day left before the 72 hours were up, but obviously, the big sister on the second floor could no longer be contained.
Encountering this situation, how could I hold it in? I immediately woke up Han Sha, and once again No. 29 was brightly lit in the middle of the night. Everyone looked at the bathroom situation and couldn’t help but exchange glances.
“I indeed cannot control it.”
After a long moment, Han Sha let out a sigh. He wasn’t too surprised by the current situation, just wearily drew the peachwood sword from his room, used the blade to cut open his right hand, and dripped blood into the bathtub.
“Old Han!”
I really didn’t want him to go this far, but Han Sha’s attitude was very resolute this time: “I said last time that approach wouldn’t work. This time I’ll try once more. If there’s still no way, then I truly have no way left.”
With that, Han Sha lit the talisman paper.
Having stayed up two nights in a row, everyone’s complexion looked poor, and Han Sha looked especially pale as paper from the continuous exhausting battles. I was afraid he might collapse directly in the bathroom while wielding the sword. After thinking it over, I decided to go downstairs to get some chocolate reserves for the next day. After all, using it on my own people wasn’t too much of a loss.
It seemed I really needed to make a decision quickly.
While taking things from the refrigerator, I was still indignant—it was rare to have such good fortune in life, so why did it have to be so bumpy? Surely even heaven wasn’t helping that bastard father of mine force me to go back.
You have to know, I could be spineless about everything under heaven, but this one thing—I absolutely would never give in.
Gritting my teeth, I viciously slammed the refrigerator door shut and strode upstairs. Who would have thought that halfway up, a cold light appeared in the kitchen from the corner of my eye, as if the refrigerator door hadn’t closed properly.
When a person is unlucky, even the refrigerator works against you.
I rolled my eyes and went back down. Sure enough, I saw the refrigerator door had opened a thin crack. You have to know that for someone running a dessert shop, everything in there was the foundation of the next day’s livelihood. If it all melted, I’d lose at least half of tomorrow’s business.
Thinking of this, I had to suppress my anger and carefully close the refrigerator door again. After confirming there were no problems, I picked up the plate and headed upstairs. But before I’d made it even halfway, once again, that faint blue light appeared in the kitchen.
…This can’t be serious.
This time, a surge of cold air shot up my back, and I immediately froze on the stairs.
Standing in this position, I could even vaguely hear Han Sha chanting. Who could have imagined that while this ritual was being performed, the first floor could still be having a graveyard rave?
Cold sweat seeped from my palms. After hesitating, I finally put down the tray and slowly went back.
I had to see just how many things in this house were working against me.
Sneaking into the kitchen, I suddenly turned on the kitchen ceiling light. Sure enough, there wasn’t a single person in the small kitchen, only the refrigerator door opened to a finger’s width, and nothing inside seemed to be missing.
It couldn’t be that newspaper delivery person again, just coming to scare me?
I tried to speculate about these stubborn residents’ feelings with my greatest goodwill. Closing the door for the third time, I took a deep breath and spoke righteously:
“If you want to eat or drink, you can take it yourself, but please—I still need to do business, so after you’re done eating, could you please help me close the refrigerator door? Don’t make me kneel down and beg you!”
A wise person adapts to circumstances—if being tough doesn’t work, I could only be a bootlicker.
Once again, I anxiously walked up the stairs. Just as I was about to reach the top, suddenly a thin cold breeze brushed against the back of my neck. I shivered and heard an eerie breathy voice from the darkness on the first floor:
“…Over here.”