r18novel Chapter 17 Ancestral Hall
Chapter 17 Ancestral Hall
"At the time, I was really scared to death and could only hide in the ancestral hall. I didn't expect that there was a problem with the ancestral hall as well." Old Li finished his cigarette after saying only a few words.
"Is it that stone statue?" Sun Rui asked.
"Yes! I was leaning against a pillar with my flashlight on. The light shone on the statue's eyes, and bloody tears started flowing from them. I didn't care about the flashlight anymore and just ran out. But I felt like I was going around in circles for ages. I finally managed to get out just before dawn." Old Li's hands were still shaking as he said this, clearly caught up in a terrifying memory.
"That's why I told you not to go back. Just call your family, isn't that enough?"
"Thank you for reminding me, but I still have to go back, otherwise I won't be able to explain it clearly," Sun Rui said.
"Oh well, whatever." Old Li rode away on his motorcycle, not taking the money Sun Rui had given him.
At this moment, the middle-aged man next to him immediately drove his motorcycle in front of Sun Rui: "Take my ride. Don't believe Old Li's nonsense. 40... no, 30 is fine. I'll get you to Luoshan Village in half an hour."
The man was afraid that Sun Rui would run away, so he quickly lowered the price.
"Okay, let's go." Sun Rui was genuinely uninterested in money; as long as he was alive, he would have an inexhaustible supply of money.
After getting on the motorcycle, the two headed towards the path leading to Luoshan Village.
Along the way, the motorcycle driver talked a lot. Sun Rui learned that the old Li he had mentioned earlier was named Li Maolin. He was an orphan who was adopted by an old man in the neighborhood who specialized in retrieving corpses when he was young. He had been dealing with dead people since he was a child, so he had some taboos about them, which is why he believed in ghosts and gods.
"Then the old man suddenly passed away, and he became an orphan again," the motorcycle driver said.
"Sudden?"
"Yeah, the water overflowed. Everyone around was saying that he angered the water ghost while retrieving the body, and that the water ghost dragged him down... Hey, we're here, it's just ahead. I'll drop you off at the village entrance, is that alright?" The motorcycle driver changed the subject.
"Let's get off here." Sun Rui could already see the houses in the village, just a few steps away.
"Okay, you can call me next time you're back in town." The motorcycle driver parked the motorcycle steadily on the road and stuffed a piece of paper into Sun Rui's hand. It had his phone number on it.
Sun Rui put the note in his pocket, paid the money, and walked alone towards Luoshan Village.
The village is small; you can see the whole thing at a glance.
"Why is the village so quiet at this hour?" Sun Rui arrived at the village entrance, and there wasn't even a dog barking.
"Let's ask someone first." Sun Rui arrived at the door of a two-story building and gently knocked on the door.
A short while later, the owner of the house came out. She was a woman in her late twenties, with a plump figure and fair skin. Although she had some wrinkles on her face, they couldn't hide her charm.
"What's the matter?" the woman asked.
"I came here on foot as a tourist, and I was wondering if I could find a place to stay," Sun Rui said with a smile.
"Tourism? What's so interesting about our place? I really don't understand you city people... How long do you want to stay? I do have a spare room." The woman saw that Sun Rui was carrying a bag, so she obviously believed him.
"About two or three days." It only took Sun Rui three days to deliver the letter.
"Okay, 200 a night. Nobody else will let you stay here," the woman said.
"Why?" Sun Rui wasn't asking about the price, of course.
"Things haven't been peaceful in the village lately, so we don't really welcome outsiders. Please come in first." The woman swayed as she walked inside.
Sun Rui followed him inside. The house wasn't very big, only about 70 or 80 square meters. It had two floors. The first floor had a living room, and there was a small courtyard in the back.
"My name is Qin Qiuyun. You can just call me Sister Qin. There are two bedrooms upstairs. The one on the right-hand side of the stairs is yours. It's fully furnished. Please pay first." Qin Qiuyun stretched out her hand.
Sun Rui handed over the money for the past few days' lodging: "Sister Qin, could you tell me what's been happening in the village these past few days?"
"The dogs, chickens, and all the stuff in the village disappeared last night. I suspect an outsider stole them." Qin Qiuyun took the money and her face lit up with a smile.
After getting the information he wanted, Sun Rui went to the bedroom where Qin Qiuyun had been staying for the past few days. The room was not big, but it was clear that Qin Qiuyun tidied it up often, as it was very clean.
He placed the backpack on the bedside table and took out the body bag from inside.
"Li Maolin said he came here around three o'clock and found the village was strange. Combined with what Qin Qiuyun said, there are indeed supernatural events happening here, but the degree of harm is not significant." Sun Rui sat on the edge of the bed and thought.
According to current information, this vengeful ghost is only at the C-level restricted level. However, the danger and terror of a vengeful ghost are not closely related. No matter how terrifying a ghost is, if it only kills one person at a time, has a small impact range, and is fixed in a certain area, then it can be considered a C-level vengeful ghost.
Above these, there are B-level, A-level, and S-level vengeful spirits that can destroy a country if they cannot be effectively contained.
Sun Rui didn't wait until dark; he first took a walk around the village to familiarize himself with the terrain, which would make his actions at night easier.
"It seems Qin Qiuyun wasn't lying." Sun Rui felt the suspicious looks from the villagers.
However, Sun Rui wandered around the village for a long time but still couldn't find the ancestral hall.
Around mealtime, he returned to Qin Qiuyun's house.
Qin Qiuyun prepared dinner for Sun Rui to eat with her, and he did not refuse, because there was still a tough battle to fight that night.
"Sister Qin, do you know where the ancestral hall in the village is? I want to go and take a picture," Sun Rui asked.
"It's in the mountains behind the village. You can only go there during the day; it closes at night."
"Okay, I understand."
After finishing his meal, Sun Rui went to look in the direction Qin Qiuyun pointed.
Although it's called an ancestral hall, Sun Rui thinks it's more like a small temple, with gray brick walls and blue tiles on the top. The stone plaque above the door is a bit faded, but you can still vaguely tell that it's a clan ancestral hall.
"Strange, ancestral halls shouldn't have stone statues." Sun Rui peeked through a crack in the door.
The altar in the ancestral hall was covered with countless wooden memorial tablets, but he did not see the stone statue that Li Maolin had mentioned.
"Perhaps things will only change in the village at night." Sun Rui stroked his chin.
Suppressing his doubts, Sun Rui returned to Qin Qiuyun's house and lay on the bed, quietly waiting for darkness to fall.
Time passed quickly, and it gradually got dark. At this moment, Sun Rui closed his eyes as if he were asleep.
"Bang~ Bang~ Bang~"
Around 10 p.m., there was a knock on the door of Sun Rui's bedroom.
Hearing the noise, he immediately opened his eyes. He hadn't fallen asleep; he had just been resting with his eyes closed.
"Who is it?" Sun Rui noticed that there was someone outside the door.
"It's me, Qin Qiuyun. Do you want some late-night snacks? I've made some." Qin Qiuyun's voice rang out from outside the door.
"No need, you can eat it yourself," Sun Rui said.
"Okay." The footsteps faded away, and Qin Qiuyun went downstairs.
A while later, a sudden bark rang out in the village, but Qin Qiuyun had said that all the livestock in the village had disappeared, and Sun Rui had not found any livestock when he was observing the village.
"Perhaps... they're just stray dogs that came from somewhere else?"
Just as he was thinking this, there was another knock on the door, but before Sun Rui could answer, Qin Qiuyun's voice came from outside.
"It's me, Qin Qiuyun. Would you like some late-night snacks? I've made some."