Chapter 5: Almost Immortal
Deng Shuyuan’s words were a bit chilling. Qin Liu originally wanted to come out of Hong Yu to listen, but after hearing this, she was so scared that she shrunk back.
She only had one question: what kind of underworld place was this Longdong Village, and why was it so haunted?
Didn’t anyone do anything about it?
Unlike Qin Liu, Liu Haoyu asked with great interest.
“What is the relationship between the client and the victim? What are his requirements?”
“The victim’s name is Liang Zhisheng, a second-generation rich man in his thirties. However, his parents are dead. He started his own business with his inheritance. He also has a girlfriend, and this commission was sent by his girlfriend.”
Deng Shuyuan was a private detective, so receiving such a commission was normal.
“Brother Liu, everyone knows your strength. If I hadn’t had your help last time, I would have died there for sure. This time, I want to play it safe. Let’s go together, and the reward will be split 6-4, with you getting 6 and me getting 4, how about it?”
“Don’t be so hasty…”
Liu Haoyu still had many questions to clarify. After thinking for a moment, he asked Deng Shuyuan.
“What is she looking for? Logically, even if the house is haunted, it should be safe to go during the day.”
“Oh, Brother Liu, you don’t know this. I’ve been to that villa, and the resentment is very strong. It’s definitely a place where someone has died, or even more than one person. With that kind of resentment, let alone during the day, even entering at noon, being able to come out alive… is a long shot.”
“After the owner of this villa disappeared, naturally, some fearless people wanted to go in and steal something. Guess what happened?”
Deng Shuyuan spoke with a storyteller’s flair.
“Of the villagers who went in, one jumped into the river, one was killed by the corpse in the river, and another… went missing for two days. When he was found, he had gone mad and kept repeating one sentence…”
“‘Move… move…'”
“But no one knows what was supposed to move.”
“In the following days, every night, when people passed by that place, they could hear extremely strange and terrifying footsteps, as if some heavy corpse was walking with a limp.”
“Isn’t that strange? The police have already sealed off the villa and are not allowing anyone to approach it. So, even if the client wanted to go in during the day, she couldn’t.”
After Deng Shuyuan finished speaking, Liu Haoyu fell into silence.
If what Deng Shuyuan said was true, then this villa was indeed very strange and dangerous.
It could even be said that there must be extremely terrifying fierce ghosts inside, otherwise, so many people wouldn’t have died.
“So, Brother Liu, I estimate that I can’t handle this alone, but with you, we definitely can. The reward they offered is very generous, and it won’t disappoint you.”
Facing Deng Shuyuan’s invitation, Liu Haoyu finally nodded.
In fact, knowing about such a dangerous place, even without the reward, Liu Haoyu would still go and investigate.
The reason was simple.
He was a ghost exorcist.
“Okay, let’s take action tonight.”
“Hey, I knew you’d come, Brother Liu.” Deng Shuyuan poured Liu Haoyu a glass of juice, while he picked up a glass of wine and said, “I know you don’t drink, so I’ll use juice as a substitute. Let’s have a toast.”
“Clink~”
With the sound of glasses clinking, Deng Shuyuan downed the white wine in his hand and let out a sigh of relief.
“Haha!! Refreshing!”
After a drink, Deng Shuyuan’s already eloquent mouth became even more talkative.
“Speaking of which, Brother Liu, have you found a girlfriend recently?”
“Why do you say that?”
Liu Haoyu was a little confused. He didn’t look like someone who had found a girlfriend, did he?
Not to mention that he didn’t have the mood or time to look for a girlfriend.
But to this, Deng Shuyuan gave his answer.
“Brother Liu, you have a very fragrant scent on you. Although I’ve been with women, I know it must be a woman’s scent. Plus, you look so exhausted, maybe you’ve been having too much sex.”
Deng Shuyuan’s words made Liu Haoyu a little embarrassed.
It also made Qin Liu, who had poked her head out to eavesdrop, a little embarrassed.
This little ghost knew that the scent on Liu Haoyu was probably left by her.
When Liu Haoyu had said earlier that Qin Liu smelled good, this little ghost had gone to verify it.
It was indeed true.
“I don’t have a girlfriend, and I don’t plan to find one. You know, in our line of work, we could die at any time.”
“Hiccup~”
Perhaps it was because he had drunk alcohol, Deng Shuyuan’s courage to speak had increased significantly.
“As the saying goes, when life is good, you should enjoy it to the fullest; don’t let the golden goblet be empty in the moonlight. Brother Liu, you don’t need to be so pessimistic. Isn’t living just about being comfortable? Finding a girlfriend shouldn’t be difficult for you. If you say you’re irresponsible to the other person after you die? I say, people shouldn’t think of themselves as that important.
It’s just a girlfriend, not your loved one. Even if you really die, at best, she’ll just say a word of regret. To truly grieve for you? That’s probably overthinking it…”
Deng Shuyuan’s words were indeed reasonable. As a private detective, he had seen too many emotional entanglements and knew that so-called love was simply a joke.
“As the ancients said, husband and wife are like birds of a forest; when disaster strikes, they fly in different directions. Just enjoy the present, and let your future self worry about the future…”
Seeing Deng Shuyuan talking more and more erratically, Liu Haoyu couldn’t help but sigh and say.
“You’re drunk.”
“I’m not drunk, I’m just anxious about your personality, Brother Liu.”
As they drank and chatted, twenty to thirty minutes passed.
Deng Shuyuan drank another glass of white wine, let out a breath, and slumped on the table. In a daze, he seemed to see a red figure.
Perhaps because he was drunk, his vision was very blurry. He only knew that it seemed to be the figure of a girl, but he couldn’t see her face clearly…
So, Deng Shuyuan smiled and said.
“Still… still saying you don’t have a girlfriend? The one in red next to you… isn’t that your girlfriend?… Huh? Why… I can’t see clearly…”
Deng Shuyuan rubbed his eyes, but no matter how he looked, he could only see a red phantom.
And for some reason, the longer he stared, the more fear and unease he felt.
Cold sweat began to break out on his body, and his breathing became rapid.
Until finally, his eyes went black, and he collapsed completely.
“Wo Ri?”
Seeing Deng Shuyuan faint, Liu Haoyu hurried to check on him.
It was not a problem when he didn’t look, but when he did, he found that the yellow-haired guy’s breathing had become very faint, and he looked like he was about to die!
As evening arrived, Liu Haoyu walked out of the hospital with a darkened expression.
It turned out that this guy only drank alcohol and didn’t eat, and ended up with acute alcohol poisoning.
He had planned to take action tonight, but with this delay, he could only wait until tomorrow.
Moreover, because he had been busy with this alcohol poisoning fellow all day, Liu Haoyu hadn’t slept at all.
It had been almost 48 hours, and he had only slept for two hours in between.
This situation could not be considered cultivating immortality; it could be considered achieving immortality.
“Hiccups…”
Walking in the dim sunset, Liu Haoyu let out a big yawn.
At this moment, his walk was a bit unsteady, and he looked as if he was half-dead.
“To be honest, I think you should stay in the hospital for a night before leaving.”
Qin Liu’s voice appeared beside Liu Haoyu.
At this moment, this little ghost looked at Liu Haoyu’s appearance with great concern.
“I have a feeling you’ll collapse right here within a few steps.”
Hearing Qin Liu’s words, Liu Haoyu couldn’t help but smile.
“Is this you worrying about me?”
“No, I’m just afraid you’ll turn into a ghost and come looking for me after you die.”
Qin Liu’s retort made Liu Haoyu laugh out loud.
Under the setting sun, this young man silently lit a cigarette.
After exhaling the smoke, he slowly said.
“Let’s go home, it’s getting late.”
“Home?” Hearing this word, Qin Liu was stunned, then seemed to think of something, and subconsciously said, “That’s my home!”
“The property deed is with me, you are the outsider.”
Qin Liu thought more and more, becoming angry. Finally, like a puffed-up pufferfish, she muttered, “How can I, a dignified fierce ghost, live in a subordinate position for a long time…”
“What did you say?”
Liu Haoyu, who was extremely sleepy, naturally didn’t hear Qin Liu’s words.
“Nothing, I’m telling you not to sleep too soundly tonight, or you might be crushed by a ghost!”
—————
Since he was too sleepy, Liu Haoyu took a Didi back.
Upon arriving at his destination, although the driver’s drifts and take-offs were indeed cool, his escape was also very pathetic.
As for Liu Haoyu, he walked into the haunted house in a daze.
He didn’t even know how he got into bed.
“Tsk… sleeping so soundly.”
After Qin Liu put Liu Haoyu on the bed, she used her resentment to cover him with a blanket.
In fact, before getting into the car, Qin Liu had advised Liu Haoyu to find a hotel to sleep.
But this man took out his wallet and opened it… there were only a few coins and a few ten-yuan bills.
The balances in WeChat and Taobao were even more pathetic.
It could be seen that being a ghost exorcist was truly a life of poverty.
“Thinking about it, if all the time is spent catching ghosts, where will the income come from without a job?”
Qin Liu sighed, sat on the edge of the bed, and quietly watched Liu Haoyu sleep.
She didn’t make any movements or have any thoughts, she simply felt that this way, time could be passed.
In the past, she would just stare blankly at the outside world, wasting the boring time.
Now, watching people was not bad.
Qin Liu slowly extended her hand and placed it on Liu Haoyu’s chest.
His chest rose and fell, his breathing and heartbeat were very obvious.
Qin Liu’s hand touched her own chest, and it was very calm. Even though she felt breathing and heartbeat, it was very weak.
Although she didn’t know why there was still a slight fluctuation, it was certain that this was not the heart rate of a human.
“Alas… humans and ghosts have different paths…”
Although there was no direct evidence, Qin Liu was certain that Liu Haoyu’s increasingly haggard appearance, this house full of resentment, and her own ghost nature were inseparable.
As Qin Liu said at the beginning, the human body is yang, and staying in such a yin place, how could there be no problems.
Coupled with Liu Haoyu’s frequent all-nighters, even the nearly continuous 48 hours of sleeplessness just now.
It could be said that it wouldn’t take long before his body would have problems.
Just like Deng Shuyuan, who only drank alcohol and didn’t eat, he would eventually be crushed by that last glass of strong wine.
In fact, even now, Qin Liu sincerely hoped that Liu Haoyu would leave here and get together with Deng Xiaolin.
But looking at the moon outside, Qin Liu’s thoughts were not quite the same.
She left the bedroom, passed through the eerie and terrifying first-floor corridor, and came to the grass outside the house.
The moon was not very round tonight, but it was surprisingly bright.
But Qin Liu’s heart was filled with gloom and helplessness.
“God… am I really reincarnated with a mission?
Or is my reincarnation just as ordinary as the birth of ordinary people?
If there is a mission… why have so many years passed, and I am still so inconsequential here?”
Gazing at the bright moonlight, she lay down on the grass and slowly closed her eyes.
When she first became Qin Liu, she had considered many possibilities and fantasized about whether she might be the protagonist of a novel.
Or, like the protagonists of some novels, she would grow and overcome obstacles, finally becoming a figure at the pinnacle.
However, the reality was… she was just guarding this dilapidated house through the seasons, so much so that she had forgotten how many years had passed here.
Until Liu Haoyu arrived…
Qin Liu fell asleep, and tonight, she dreamed of many things.
She dreamed of the fierce ghosts of Longshan Vocational High School, the middle-aged woman at the hotel front desk, and Liu Haoyu’s haggard face, like that of a dead person…
By the time the sun rose the next day, Liu Haoyu in the bedroom opened his eyes.
“Hmm…”
To Liu Haoyu at this moment, his head ached terribly.
“Something feels wrong, why am I so tired all over?”
Liu Haoyu sat up with difficulty, then rubbed his shoulders. When he touched them, he felt a severe numbness, like the kind that comes from squatting on the toilet for too long.
“Maybe I was too tired yesterday? I should sleep earlier from now on.”
Looking at his haggard self in the mirror, Liu Haoyu sighed.
As a ghost exorcist, he understood what had caused him to become like this, and it was definitely not just due to staying up late.
But Liu Haoyu did not regret it.
There is a Chinese saying, “To die under the peony is to be a romantic ghost.”
There is also a Chinese saying, “If a man is not for white stockings, heaven and earth will destroy him.”
