Chapter 18: Let’s talk about it after tonight

Before entering the house, I felt like it was a junkyard. After entering, I realized that it was even worse than a junkyard, a veritable garbage dump!

The yard was so big, and it was full of bottles and other things that I didn’t know what they were. It smelled bad in the dim light. The moment I entered the house, the clean-freak Chengxin immediately frowned, and Yue tried to restrain herself, but she couldn’t help covering her nose and mouth. Only I could still barely show that I was adapting. After all, in their eyes, I was a ‘wild animal’ with an amazing ability to recover and adapt.

“Rough man,” Cheng Xin Ge once thought these five words were tailor-made for me.

The old man in front of us didn’t care about our reactions, and walked straight into his own dark room. After coming out, he threw us two sets of keys and said, “These are the keys to the east and west wings. You can stay as long as you like. The money is settled every day. Now give me today’s money first.”

After saying that, he held out his hand and thrust it in front of me. I didn’t hesitate and gave him 300 yuan. Even if this was a dump, we didn’t have any better options.

After receiving the money, the old man was obviously very happy. He locked his main house and was about to leave.

But before he left, he suddenly turned around and said to us, “You don’t seem to be short of money, and you don’t look like bad people. You can’t just go into my house.”

After saying this, he left. I was a little depressed. There was no need to tell us about this.

At this time, Cheng Xin had already taken the key and opened the doors of the two rooms. Before entering the room, he was coughing and retreated because of the pungent smell inside. Then, throughout the afternoon, this man with a strong sense of cleanliness and Ru Yue transformed into “cleaners” and began to clean the entire courtyard and the two rooms.

According to Chengxin, if they didn’t clean up, they wouldn’t be able to live here, they would be smothered to death, and how could they find their master? Since the old man only said hello and couldn’t enter the main house, the other things were fine.

As a girl, Yue naturally agreed with Chengxin’s argument, but it was a pain for me to be forced to help them out.

I have to say that cleaning the house for this old man is a “heavy labor” job. Such busyness makes us unable to think of anything else. When the entire courtyard and house are completely new and ready to live in, a crescent moon is already hanging in the sky. It’s already past 7:00 p.m.

At this time, the whole town was unusually quiet. The strange thing was that not even the dogs could be heard barking. If it were a normal place, at this time, it would not be very lively, and the sound of the TV in each household could always be heard. The old man lived in a place that was not remote, but here, there was not a single sound of this kind. It seemed that the people here did not even have the usual activities of modern humans, and they lived an ancient life.

After cleaning up, we sat in the east room eating dry food. How could we not notice such a strange thing? This made me look forward to something happening at night. In my memory, the only places more decadent than here were the villages around the Black Rock Miao Village, and the only place where you couldn’t go out at night was the village outside the Lake of a Thousand Ghosts. Both of these places hid a terrifying truth. Could it be here as well?

“This is really interesting.” Cheng Xin is not a smart person, but he is a ‘naughty’ person who always likes to join in all kinds of fun. In this strange silence, he habitually squinted his eyes and licked the dry food crumbs around his mouth, commenting on it.

He looks really ‘perverted,’ I thought to myself. I’m a man, and his appearance has no effect on me.

Ruyue didn’t bother to pay any attention to the two of us. She was the only one who behaved like a normal person, her face full of concern. After thinking about it for a long time, she couldn’t help but say to me and Brother Chengxin, “Brother San, Brother Chengxin, this town is so strange, and Master Ge didn’t mention it. Could it be that the three of us can’t do it? Otherwise, after tonight, can we contact everyone again?”

I shook my head and said, “It’s too noisy to investigate. I’m afraid it won’t work.”

“This is not the real Ghost Bay. We three can do it, Ruoyue. If you don’t believe in yourself, you should believe in that fighting beast and your fat worm.” Chengxin gently comforted Ruoyue, but his words were getting more and more tasteless. I couldn’t help but give him a cold look, but he was very calm. I guess his style was influenced by the young fox in the depths of his soul.

Ru Yue was still a little uneasy. After all, women are always more afraid of strange things than men… At this time, the sound of the door opening and some stumbling footsteps were heard in the courtyard. I couldn’t help but push open the window and take a look. I found that it was the old man who came back with a bottle of wine in his hand and mumbled to himself.

Seeing the clean and tidy yard, he muttered something in a dialect that I didn’t know, then turned and staggered out again. After taking a few steps, he seemed to remember something and turned around to take a closer look at the yard.

At this time, the three of us had already left the house, and the owner had returned. We were still huddled in the room, which was a bit inappropriate. Although it was just a transaction, after all, it was the first day, and we still had to behave politely, otherwise in this town, we would really only be able to live on the street.

“Did you clean it up?” Under the moonlight, the old man’s voice sounded a bit slurred, but his thinking was still clear, and he was obviously not too drunk.

Although his tone was disdainful, I sensed a hint of emotion in his eyes under the moonlight.

I didn’t say anything, but Chengxin brother leaned against the wall behind me, holding his chest, and said lazily, “If you don’t clean up here, it’s almost the same as living in a garbage dump.”

“Anyway, you’re cleaning it, and I won’t charge you less.” The old man turned his face away, trying to act tough and indifferent, but a drop of crystal clear liquid hanging from his side betrayed him.

I looked at the old man and suddenly became curious. The people in this town are extremely indifferent, and this old man is not only indifferent but also a bit of a rascal. Why does cleaning a house move him to such a state?

But obviously the old man would not give us an answer. His wine seemed to have sobered him up a lot. He wiped his face with a gesture that he thought we couldn’t see, then walked toward his house, slammed the door, and then there was no more movement.

“Strange man.” Cheng Xin brother shrugged his shoulders and commented, then turned and went into the house. I also followed him into the house. Only Ru Yue looked at the old man’s closed door thoughtfully for a while before following us into the house.

After eating some dry food and chatting for a while, the night passed unknowingly. At 7 o’clock, the town was quiet, and now at 9 o’clock, it was even quieter… We got used to the quietness. When it was almost time, I accompanied Ruyue to the old man’s kitchen to boil some hot water. After washing up, we rested.

According to the arrangement, Ruyue lived in the west wing alone, and I and Brother Chengxin lived in the east wing.

Because Ru Yue was afraid to be alone, she insisted on having me accompany her while she waited for the water to boil. During this time, we were chatting, when suddenly we heard footsteps behind us. When we turned around, it was the old man who had come up behind us.

He looked at us without saying a word, which made me very surprised. I couldn’t help but ask, “Do you have something to say?”

He still didn’t say anything, but fumbled around in his chest and pulled out two crumpled hundred-yuan bills and some loose change. He stuffed them into my hand and said in a somewhat stiff tone, “It’s now past 9 o’clock at night. You should leave tonight. I won’t shelter you anymore. I used forty-seven yuan of the money you gave me to buy wine and food. I don’t have any money to pay you back, but if you come to find me next time, I will definitely pay you back.”

I didn’t know what to say for a moment, I didn’t care about the forty-odd yuan, but I was curious about how you lived in the town without money? And I wasn’t at all alarmed by his words, but I stuffed the money back into his hand and said, “The thing about transactions is that the money and goods are exchanged and rooted! If you give it back to us, we won’t take it, and the natural person won’t leave, and we can’t drive them away, at least not until after tonight.”

The old man was stunned. He didn’t expect a seemingly civilized city person like me to be such a rogue. He didn’t know what to say for a moment. After all, it was unrealistic for an old man to force three people to leave.

I smiled at him and looked at him. Just as the water boiled, I helped Ruoyue carry the boiling water from the stove, while Ruoyue was busy making cold water. No one paid any attention to the old man.

Seeing our attitude, the old man stamped his foot and said, “You really should leave. If you don’t leave, then… Hey… you have your own good life to live. Why are you here?”

“You’re living well in this town, too, aren’t you? Why are you saying such scary things?” I looked at the old man and smiled innocently. In fact, I knew clearly that something was wrong, but if I didn’t say it, I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get some words out.

“Oh, living well? Do you think people in this town are living well? What do you think is normal? Take my advice and leave! Don’t spread what you see and feel here… otherwise no one can help you if you get into trouble.” The old man said very seriously.

I looked at the old man and said, “Are you cut off from the world? There must be more than just the three of us strangers in this town. Hasn’t anyone noticed anything strange?”

“Huh…” The old man suddenly sighed and then turned and walked away, saying, “I did advise you, but you wouldn’t listen. Who can you blame?”

“Without a diamond, how can you dare to take on a porcelain job?” I suddenly added a seemingly unrelated remark.

The old man suddenly turned around and looked at me, looked at me for a long time, and then said, “Let’s talk about it after tonight.”