Chapter 2 Chapter One An Old House

I was planning to write this article "Shadow" long after I finished "Bewitching", but I was delayed and wrote "Qimen".Then, I wrote several other articles, so the reason why it was delayed was because the story of "Shadow" was so fantastic, so fantastic that it could hardly be explained. No matter how fantastic the story is, there can be an explanation.For example, a strange creature came from space. It is not known what planet he came from, but it can always be known that he came from another unknown planet. That would be an explanation. However, "Shadow" is not the case. It is real and unexplainable, but the whole story process is also very interesting, and there is an extremely mysterious or terrifying feeling.

It happened many years ago, when we were all students.When I say "we", I mean Xu Xin and I. Xu Xin is my good friend. In the autumn of that year, Xu Xin and many classmates and I camped in the countryside. When we were young, we participated in many activities, and nothing was more interesting than camping. In the future, we will spend more time living in the wild, wandering and wandering. Thinking of the fanatical interest in camping in the past, there is always a bitter feeling, so let’s not talk about it. That night, when the campfire was gradually extinguished and the whole camp was silent, Xu Xin came to my tent suddenly, holding a flashlight, and with a mysterious expression on his face, he called my name in a low voice: "Come out, Show you something."

I shook him awake in my sleep, and looked at him with some doubts, but he had already stepped back. His expression made me feel that he must have something extremely important to discuss with me, so I He immediately picked up a coat, put it on, and walked out of the tent. We came to a small hill, his appearance was still very mysterious, I asked in a low voice: "What's the matter?" Xu said: "This is the letter I received this afternoon, look!" He handed me a letter from a lawyer.At that time, we were still young, and when we saw a letter sent by a lawyer, we always had a very strange feeling in our hearts. We were all boarding students, and the letter was sent to the school first, and then the school staff transferred it to the camp.

I took the first sentence from the letter and said, "You received the letter in the afternoon, why did you tell me now?" Xu Xin pointed to the letter: "You read it before you talk!" I pulled out the letter paper, and it was a notice. The lawyer told Xu Xin to receive a legacy. The legacy was a house, which was bequeathed to him by one of his cousins. Attached to the letter was a description of the house, which was a very large house with a garden of six or seven acres. After I finished reading, Xu Xin rubbed his hands excitedly: "You can't imagine, I have a big house!"

I'm really happy for him too, a young man with a big house is really something to be happy about.I said: "The camping will be over in five days. After the end, it will be a vacation. I think I may be the first guest in your house, am I not?" "You are half the owner of the house!" Xu Xin said solemnly: "I will give you half, but you must come with me and leave the camp immediately, I am really impatient, I really want to see that house tomorrow! " "Leave the camp?" I hesitated for a moment: "That will be punished by the school!" Xu Xin took my arm and shook it vigorously: "Think about it, we have a big house and a garden of six or seven acres, why do we care about the school?"

We were all young at the time. Thinking about it now, those words were really ridiculous, but at that time, I immediately agreed with Xu Xin's statement.Yes, I have such a big house, why do I care what the school does?So I immediately said: "Okay!" We came to the place where the bicycles were stored in the camp, rolled out two bicycles, rode on the bicycles, and stepped forward quickly. I remember very clearly that when it was getting bright and we were gradually approaching the city, the fog was surprisingly thick. When we got very close to a railway, we could hear the rumble of the train passing by, and we could feel the train passing by. There was a jolt of passing, but we couldn't see the train because the fog was so thick.

But we didn't slow down our speed at all, and finally, at dawn, we reached the city.We got out of the car, each drank a large bowl of soy milk and ate two pairs of flatbread fried dough sticks, and then moved on.When we got to the lawyer's office, it hadn't even started. We waited at the door for a full two hours before the procedures were completed. The lawyer congratulated Xu Xin first, and then told him, "The house is very old, and it cannot be lived in unless it is properly repaired." !" At that time, Xu Xin was so happy that he heard the lawyer's words clearly, he doubted, he waved his hand: "It doesn't matter, as long as the house is mine, I can live in it!"

In his hand, he held two large bunches of keys, which belonged to the house that the lawyer had just handed over to him. And those keys, most of them are made of copper, with a thick patina growing on them, and each key is tied with a small sign, indicating which door in the house the key is used to open. From the looks of the keys, they hadn't been used for at least ten years, which meant the house had probably been empty for ten years.But I agree with what Xu Xin said, as long as it is our own house, no matter how dilapidated it is, we can still live in it. We left the lawyer's office, and we were still riding our bicycles, speeding forward. We were so happy that we sang loudly at the same time, attracting the attention of passers-by.

The house is in a very remote location in the suburbs. Although we have lived in this city for a long time, it took us a lot of effort to find it. We first saw a long row of gray brick fences, a kind of wild climbing vines covered the long row of fences, and even the iron gates were full of wild vines. When we got off the car in front of the door, We can already see the house through the iron gate. It was indeed a very majestic house, it was three stories high, judging from its appearance.It has at least a few dozen rooms, and it has a surprisingly large garden. But the two of us stayed in front of the door, looking at each other with helpless eyes.

That house is so old! At this time, of course, we couldn't see the inside of the house, but just looking at the garden, we all had the feeling of wild adventure. There is a big pond in that garden, and there is a bridge on the pond, but at this time, the bridge has been broken into several pieces, immersed in emerald green water, I have never seen such a green pond water, that It was like a pool of green paste, brimming with lifelessness. There are many trees beside the pool, but most of them are also covered with parasitic vines, and the weeds are taller than a person's waist, most of them are yellow and swaying in the wind, and it is impossible to discern the way in the garden .

We stayed for a while, and I was the first to say, "Honey, I bet this house has been vacant for at least thirty years!" Xu Xin was a little embarrassed, because the house had excited him so much, but he didn't expect it to be so dilapidated.He took a breath. "Anyway, it's our house. We can get someone to clean the garden, or we can do it ourselves." I rubbed my hands: "I'm right, quickly find the key to the iron door, let's go in and have a look." Among the five bunches of keys, Xu Xin found the key to the iron door and inserted it into the keyhole, but we couldn't open the iron door because the entire lock had turned into a piece of rusted iron. After spending a full half an hour, we gave up trying to open the iron gate, and using our hands and feet, we climbed over the iron gate, turned into the garden, and landed in the weeds that reached our waists. We parted the weeds and walked forward. Within a dozen steps, our trousers were covered with "stolen clothes" with spikes. We walked around the pond and found that there were still a few withered yellow spots floating on the water. On a lotus leaf, there is a big frog looking at us curiously. We continued to walk forward and came to the stone steps of the house. Even the steps were covered with weeds, of course, not as dense as in the garden.There are eight gates in total, the lower half is made of wood, and the upper half is made of glass, but we can't see the inside of the house through the glass at all, and the glass has almost turned black due to the accumulated dust. As soon as we came to the door, on the eaves, we chirped and flew out a large group of sparrows. There were more than a hundred sparrows in the flock. After flying around, they got into the gaps in the eaves again. I laughed: "Living here has one advantage, you can live by eating sparrows!" But Xu Xin's expression was a little angry, he said: "I want to drive them away, that's my house!" I remind him: "Hey, I have half, don't I?" Xu said: "Of course you have half, but if you are not satisfied with this house, you can give up that half at any time." I said, "Where is your sense of humor?" "I don't have a sense of humor," Xu Xin said seriously, "I've fallen in love with this house!" I laughed: "I'm in love with it too, will there be trouble between us?" Xu Xin seemed very happy: "Of course not, don't forget, it belongs to the two of us." I pushed the door, but it was locked. I glanced at the rusty keyhole and frowned. Xu Xin had inserted the key into the keyhole and twisted it vigorously, while I shook the door for him. , I was busy for five full minutes, and due to the vibration of the door, the dust from the eaves fell down, covering our heads and faces. We finally pushed open the door, and Xu Xin let out a cheer: "Let's go in together!" I shook hands with him and walked in together. After we stepped in, we couldn't help being stunned. It was a very spacious hall. In the hall, there was a complete set of furniture. In the center was a chandelier. In the dense cobwebs on the chandelier, several big spiders lay motionless. There is a thick layer of dust on everything, and I have never seen so much dust in a room. There are many calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall, but none of them are complete. On the display racks, there are many antiques, most of which are porcelain. In several large vases, there is a "squeak" sound , a few big mice, clinging to the mouth of the bottle, looking at us with their evil eyes. On the ceiling, many plasters have been cracked, and small wooden strips appeared one by one. On many small wooden strips, bats were hung. When we opened the door and walked in, the bats flapped their wings. , Then they became quiet again, still hanging upside down one by one. Xu Xin and I looked at each other, this situation is really beyond our expectations! I wanted to say a few more joking words, and I wanted to say that it would be nice to have this room loaned out to a film company for a horror movie.But I knew that if I said it, Xu Xin would be very upset. Therefore, I restrained myself from making a sound, while Xu Xin sighed: "Are you confident in tidying up this room?" I nodded: "We can take our time, and we can always clean it up." We continued to walk forward, and the floor under our feet made "creaking" and "creaking" sounds. Suddenly, a long strip of floorboards turned up, and dozens of mice jumped out from under the floorboards. . After they sprang out, they stopped and looked at us. Xu Xin waved his fist: "I want to raise ten cats!" To be honest, judging from so many mice, raising ten cats may not be enough for one meal for the mice! No matter how much Xu Xin expressed his love for this house, when he saw so many mice jumping out from under the floor, he couldn't help but stand still, shook his head and smiled wryly. Moreover, because the mouse was suddenly frightened and running around, Xu Xin and I also immediately discovered a very strange phenomenon! There was a huge mouse that slammed into a cup while sprinting across the top of a table, and the cup was naturally full of dust. The cup fell to the ground and broke, which made us notice that there were still many cups on the table. It seemed that five or six people were drinking coffee and chatting around the round table, but in the middle of the conversation, they stopped. It was like leaving suddenly, so the cup was left on the table without clearing it away. Moreover, we saw that next to an easy chair, there was a book, that book, half eaten by mice, but that was not where the book should be. The only explanation is that someone was there Sitting in the easy chair and reading a book. However, when he was reading, he suddenly encountered something, so he put down the book and left. Then, although the two of us stood still, we found more evidence that the people in this room left in a hurry. I was more careful, and I saw several light switches were down, that is, Said that when the people in the house left, they were in such a hurry that they didn't even have time to turn off the lights! There were also cups and saucers on the table, and on some of the saucers there were small forks for eating cakes. Of course, there was no cake left, and even if there were, the mice must have eaten them all. When we first walked into the room: we were all very excited. Although we felt that the room was too dilapidated, we didn't feel anything else. But now, I can tell from Xu Xin's expression that we all have a sense of eerieness in our hearts! I opened my mouth to express the feeling in my heart: "Xu Xin, I'm afraid there is something wrong with this house. It seems that something strange happened suddenly, so everyone escaped!" Xu Xin's face was also ugly, and when he spoke, his tone was not so fluent, he said: "Don't...don't talk nonsense, this is a good house, it belongs to the two of us." I pointed to the cups left on the table, the books on the floor, and the evidence that several other people in the house had left in a hurry, and said: "Look at these, and, I see, this room must have been inhabited in the first place." Few people, but your cousin, why did you suddenly not want this house, let it sit vacant for so many years, and only gave it to you when he died?" Xu Xin shook his head and said, "Then how do I know? My cousin is a very rich man. You have to know that when rich people do things, they are sometimes inconceivably weird." The doubts in my heart became more and more serious: "Have you seen him?" "I've seen it a few times, but I don't have much impression." "This is also a strange thing," I said again: "You don't have much impression of him, and he must not have a deep impression of you. Your relatives are also very distant. Why should he put it in the will?" , give you this house? I think we'd better—" When I say this, I feel chills all over my body, because all these things are so incomprehensible! Xu Xin hesitated, he naturally knew that what I hadn't finished was suggesting that we leave this room and not come back at all. In his heart, although he also had the same idea, he was very reluctant, so he was still hesitating. But at this moment, there was a "bang bang bang" sound from the iron gate of the garden. The sudden sound startled both of them. In comparison, I was more courageous, because Xu Xin's face turned blue when he heard the sound, and he immediately grabbed my arm tightly, but although my neck felt stiff, there was still enough strength. Calm down, turn your head and take a look. I saw three or five people standing outside the iron gate, and there was also an RV parked. The cars of that year were almost all black, and this one was no exception. The garden is very large, I only saw a woman and a tall man who knocked on the door, I couldn't see anything else. I patted Xu Xin on the shoulder: "Someone is knocking on the door, let's go out and have a look." Xu Xin then turned his head and breathed a sigh of relief: "These people, why did they knock on the door without making a sound?" I just felt funny in my heart, Xu Xin's complaints were naturally just to cover up the panic in his heart, he let go of my arm, and we all retreated out at the same time, we retreated, not turned around, Going out.At that time, we didn't think about why we did that at all. It wasn't until we thought about it later that we realized that we had extreme fear in our hearts at that time, for fear that something would jump out of the room and rush behind us, making us unable to move. For precautionary reasons, we faced the house and withdrew outward. When we came to the garden, we turned around and ran to the iron gate. The person knocking on the door saw us running towards the iron gate and stopped knocking on it.We ran to the door, panting, and saw a woman in her fifties and two servants standing outside the door. The old woman was dressed in gorgeous clothes and had a graceful expression. The other two men were both physically strong. One was probably a driver, and the other was probably a manservant. As soon as Xu Xin saw the old woman, he was taken aback for a moment, and he was a little uncertain: "Is... Auntie?" The old woman hurriedly said: "You still remember me, we haven't seen each other for three or four years, right?" Xu Xin called the old woman "Auntie", and I immediately thought that the old woman might be the widow of Xu Xin's weird cousin. Sure enough, Xu Xin's introduction proved this point, so I politely called her "Aunt Xu". The old woman said: "You open the door and talk about it." Xu Xin smiled wryly, and said, "Auntie, I can't open this door, we crawled in." The old woman turned her head and said, "You two knock the door open." The driver was younger, and immediately agreed. The male servant seemed to be in his fifties, and he was more cautious: "Madam, I don't think you should go in, let us go in!" Xu Xin's face suddenly became very red, and he raised his voice: "Auntie, my uncle stated in his will that he gave this house to me, and now, this is my house!" Xu Xin was a very stubborn person. From his demeanor of resolutely defending his rights and interests, we can see this. He said again: "I don't want the iron gate to be smashed down." The old woman was stunned for a moment before she smiled and said, "Ashin, we are our own people, this house is yours, so I can't come in!" "Of course, but I am the master!" The old woman said: "Yes, but have you noticed the content of the will, I have the right to take back some things in this house?" Xu Xin and I glanced at each other. We both heard the lawyer read the will, but we didn’t listen carefully, because at that time, we were all immersed in the frenzied excitement of owning a large garden house. Xu Xin's expression became less nervous immediately, and he said: "Of course, even if there is no stipulation in the will, I will ask my aunt to pick up the things, but the door really can't be opened, so my aunt can crawl in." The old woman frowned, and the driver said: "The lock is probably rusted, I have lubricating oil, you can try again!" He took out lubricating oil from the car and poured it into the drill hole. Xu Xin handed him the key, and he twisted it vigorously. There was a "click" sound in the lock, and a lot of rust fell. It took him about seven or eight minutes, and finally, with a "click", he turned the lock and pushed the iron door open forcefully. When the iron door was pushed open, it made an unpleasant "creaking" and "creaking" sound. As soon as the iron gate was pushed open, the old woman came forward, and the manservant hurriedly followed behind her, calling: "Madam, ma'am!" The old woman walked more than ten steps before standing in the bushes. Her expression was very excited and angry, and she kept saying: "Ah Shang, look at it, Ah Shang, look at it!" "Ah Shang" was naturally the old servant's name, he looked around and sighed again and again. The old woman said humanely: "Ah Shang, look, the good house has become like this, the master doesn't know what's going on!" A Shang was defending his male master: "Madam, Master must have encountered something strange at that time, so he didn't want this house. Therefore, you'd better not go in. The house has been empty for too long, I'm afraid there will be people inside." There's something... something!" I listened attentively to the conversation between Ah Shang and the old woman, because I could tell that both of them had lived in this house before, and they were two of the many people who left the house in a hurry. I asked: "At that time, why did you not want this house?" Ah Shang and the old woman glanced at me, but neither answered my question. The old woman continued to walk forward, shaking her head and sighing as she walked. When she came to the stone steps of the hall, she saw the hall. In the situation, she felt as sad as if she wanted to cry. Xu Xin hurriedly said: "Auntie, there are thousands of mice in the house, what do you want to get, I will get it for you!" The old woman said stubbornly, "No, I'll go by myself, Ashan, driver, follow me!" The five of us walked into the hall together, and I was the last one, my mind was very confused, I was thinking, the things that Xu Xin's aunt was going to pick up at this time must be extremely important things. This also proves that when she left the house, she was in the utmost haste.Why on earth would she leave the house in such a hurry?According to her own statement, it was "Master lost his nerve", but A Shang said, "Master may have encountered something." Why did they leave, I'm afraid they don't know! After walking into the hall, Xu Xin helped his aunt, because the old lady looked as if she was about to faint. The situation in the hall is really horrifying. Xu Xin and I are both young and strong young men who fear nothing and no fear. As soon as we entered, we felt a chill run down our spine, let alone an old man. woman, not to mention that she lived in that house. Her complexion became very ugly, and Ah Shang hurriedly said: "Madam, I think you should not go up. If you want to fetch something, I will fetch it for you. Madam, you can trust me!" The old woman stopped walking forward, panting, and turned around. Xu Xin was still supporting her, and the group retreated outside the door again. She took a deep breath: "Ah Shang, in my bedroom, there is a closet inlaid with Luodian, you know it." "Of course, I remember." Ah Shang replied. "The bottom drawer of the closet is opened, and there is a secret compartment underneath. In the secret compartment, there are two boxes—" Mrs. Xu paused for a while when she said this. Then, as if she had made a lot of determination, she spoke out: "Of the two small boxes, one contains my jewelry, including my dowry; the other contains several places. Land deeds. When your master was alive, he would never ask me to get them back. Now that he is dead, I must get them back. I don’t need anything else. I want these things.” When she said "must", she looked extremely excited. And I couldn't help being dumbfounded when I heard her say that. Based on various circumstances, I have long inferred that the people in this room were in extreme haste when they left the room, but now, hearing Xu Xin's aunt say that, the situation seems to be in a hurry than I imagined! Because she didn't even have time to carry such an important thing, it's really hard to imagine what it was like at that time! When I thought of this, I couldn't help asking: "Auntie, why did you leave in such a hurry?" But she didn't answer my question, she just glanced at me with an air of distrust on my face. Although I desperately wanted to know the real situation at that time, I naturally didn't want to make fun of myself, so I didn't ask any more. A Shang has repeatedly agreed: "Okay, I'll get it!" After he agreed, he glanced at the hall, but flinched a little: "Master nephew, how about you go with me!" Xu Xin was more scared than Ah Shang, and he looked at me again: "You also go together, okay?" A Shang immediately agreed, "Okay, okay, it's always good to have a few more people. Whatever happens, you can be more courageous." I hesitated for a moment: "Okay." I agreed to Xu Xin's request, not because of anything else, but because I thought, from Xu Xin's aunt, I couldn't find any reason, but from A Shang's mouth, I could find some reason. The three of us walked into the hall together. This is the second time I have walked into the hall. The eerie feeling has been relieved a lot. Xu Xin is still talking and laughing: "Oh, I don't know how much it will cost to come here. Repair this house, I hope my cousin has money to stay in the house." A Shang said mysteriously: "Master nephew, I know that there are a lot of silver coins and gold bars in the master's study. When he leaves, there must be no time to take them away. I'm afraid they are still there!" Xu Xin happily said: "Ah Shang, if you are really rich, I will give you some of it. You already have your coffin." A Shang hurriedly said: "Thank you, Master Nephew!" I took the opportunity to ask: "Ah Shang, back then, why did your master and his family leave this house in such a hurry, can you tell me?" At this time, we have come to the stairs. Hearing what I said, Ah Shang stopped and sighed: "This matter is really strange, I can't finish it in a while. But the master never allows us to mention it." I hurriedly said: "Your master is dead!" A Shang said: "Yes! Yes!" Although he said "yes", he didn't intend to tell me what happened, and I didn't force him anymore, because I already saw that he didn't want to tell me. I said, "Now Mrs. Xu is waiting for us to give her the two boxes. Let's talk about it when we have a chance." Standing at the entrance of the stairs and looking up, I saw that the stairs were originally covered with carpets, but now, the parts of the carpet that were bitten by mice were more than the rest.