“By the way, how did you end up crossing paths with this group of people?” Luo Chen did not press further for details about the Rong family’s ancestral estate. He had only vaguely heard Zhou Huihui say that the place was haunted. Now, experts from all walks of life were arriving one after another, and there was certainly going to be a major battle ahead! As soon as Luo Chen brought up this topic, tears welled up in Zhou Huihui’s eyes again. “Because of my ex-boyfriend.” Zhou Huihui took a tissue handed to her by Professor An, wiping her tears as she began to speak.
Zhou Huihui was originally an international student herself, and her boyfriend was a year or two younger than her. Zhou Huihui’s family background was actually not very good. She came from a single-parent family, and they could barely afford to support her through university. However, Zhou Huihui was exceptionally driven. Before she even graduated, she had already secured an internship at a large company in Fushan. After graduation, she relied on her own abilities and talents to gain recognition from that major corporation. In just two or three years, she climbed from the grassroots level to become a department manager, and her monthly income grew from a few thousand RMB to tens of thousands.
At this time, Zhou Huihui’s boyfriend, Feng Ke, was still in university. Naturally, Feng Ke’s family did not have much money either, so Zhou Huihui paid for his subsequent studies abroad. She even gave Feng Ke a small BMW at his graduation ceremony, a car she had saved up for a long time by scrimping and saving. After he graduated, Zhou Huihui used her connections to naturally arrange for her boyfriend to join the same large company where she worked, and placed him in her own department. Hearing this, Luo Chen could not help but shake his head and sigh, knowing something must have gone wrong.
“I never expected that while I was secretly buying an engagement ring, he would get involved with the boss’s daughter, and now he is trying every possible way to drive me out of that company!” Zhou Huihui said while crying. It was a highly melodramatic yet very realistic situation. Even Luo Chen felt this matter was incredibly cliché, but it had indeed happened. “That group of people just now must have been brought in by the boss’s daughter to deliberately make things difficult for me.” Zhou Huihui wiped her tears. Ever since Feng Ke got together with the boss’s daughter, the two of them had definitely been trying their best to fire Zhou Huihui. However, firstly, Zhou Huihui had no real flaws in her work for them to exploit, and secondly, she had a contract. Added to the fact that this matter was not exactly glorious, they did not dare to act openly and fire her directly. So they kept withholding her salary, trying to force Zhou Huihui to leave voluntarily.
Out of helplessness, Zhou Huihui had to sing on the streets after work to earn some living expenses. But the other party would not let it go, finding people to constantly threaten and pressure Zhou Huihui to leave the company. “That beast!” Unexpectedly, Professor An was particularly angry. After all, seeing Zhou Huihui reminded Professor An of his own daughter, An Lingyu. Luo Chen did not say much, but he also looked down on Zhou Huihui’s boyfriend, Feng Ke. “He is the son-in-law of the company now, what can anyone do to him?” Zhou Huihui said while wiping her tears. She had given her youth and her money, only to end up with such a result. Professor An comforted her for a few words, and the meal ended up taking a very long time.
“Why don’t you both come and stay at my place?” Zhou Huihui finally extended an invitation. The houses there were single-storey bungalows, and there were several empty ones near where she lived, and she happened to have the keys. Moreover, Luo Chen and Professor An were definitely not bad people, and being Chinese themselves naturally made Zhou Huihui feel a sense of kinship. Luo Chen hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded. Placing Professor An near Zhou Huihui was fine, as at least the two of them could look out for each other. “The place you live, was that formerly the Rong family’s ancestral estate?” Luo Chen asked this time. “Yes, everyone says it is a bit unclean there, but I have not really paid much attention to it, after all, we live in an era that advocates science now.”
“However, it is said that in the past, because those unclean things were causing too much trouble there, the Rong family had no choice but to move away.” “In the past, an area of fifty miles around there all belonged to the Rong family,” Zhou Huihui said, having heard it from the people who used to live there. “I also heard it from the elderly there. Now fewer and fewer people live there. A few girls I used to know moved away inexplicably without even saying goodbye.” “Let’s go then.” Luo Chen actually felt that the place should be quite interesting, as he had already sensed something out of the ordinary. After hailing a taxi, the three of them left.
“Brother Ba, are we following them?” a voice came from a Cayenne in the distance. “No, let Quan Tianying deal with her own mess later.” “But I will definitely not let the person who hit me today get away with it!” Brother Ba said fiercely while covering his face. Meanwhile, Luo Chen’s car quickly arrived at the destination. This place was like a massive estate, with the houses built very meticulously, resembling a village, except the scattered lights made it look sparsely populated. Logically speaking, the landscaping and the interior decoration of the houses were all extremely luxurious, yet no one was willing to live here. The locals said that this place used to be a mass grave on a battlefield, where over a million people were once buried. Even a top family in Korea like the Rong family could not suppress the evil spirits here, so they had no choice but to move away.
“When I rented the house, I only rented one unit, but the landlady gave me the keys to two extra ones,” Zhou Huihui said as they walked. “No one usually lives in those two units, but the landlady hires people to clean them regularly, so they are perfectly habitable.” Zhou Huihui arrived next to a house and unlocked the iron gate with her key. Pushing the door open, there was a well in the courtyard, followed by the house itself. Judging by the luxurious construction and decoration, it was no less than a small villa. “Such a good place, yet no one lives here?” “That is why it is so cheap, and that is why I can afford the rent.” Zhou Huihui smiled. “I do not know why, but it just cannot be rented out. No one wants to live here, but I have lived here for so long and there does not seem to be any problem,” Zhou Huihui confessed frankly. Luo Chen, on the other hand, looked at the well in the courtyard with great interest. It was pitch black inside, looking like a dry well.
“Every courtyard here has a well. Some are sealed, and some are not,” Zhou Huihui mentioned, seeing Luo Chen’s interest. After settling the two of them, Zhou Huihui went to rest in the courtyard next door. Professor An was in another courtyard, and Luo Chen was in the middle one. After the two left, Luo Chen sat on a deckchair in the courtyard, rocking back and forth while looking at the starry sky. In the quiet night sky, apart from the sound of Luo Chen rocking his deckchair, there was no other sound. Until the small hours, around three something in the morning, a child was sitting next to the well in Luo Chen’s courtyard at some unknown point. The child sat by the well, with their back to Luo Chen, head lowered, looking into the well.
“Big brother, do you have any food?” “I really want to eat my mother’s flavour, I have not had it in a long time.” “Are you sure it is your mother’s flavour?” A cold smile crossed Luo Chen’s lips. “Yes, my mother’s flavour.”