In the afternoon, Han Ling's aunt called again, saying that Dong's family had agreed to give me 2,000 yuan for hardship, whether it was successful or not, and the travel expenses would also be reimbursed, but I could only apply for a train ticket.

I hate bargaining the most. At that time, he refused, saying that he had been very busy recently, and he would talk about it later. Soon after hanging up, Han Ling called me and said something nice. She is introverted, not very polite in her speech, and even stumbles a little. I thought it would be too embarrassing to let her be a lobbyist, so for the sake of her old classmates, I agreed.

At noon the next day, I took a sleeper train to Shanghai, but I didn't say anything on the way, and woke up the next morning. It's already in place. This is my first time in Shanghai, and according to the address given by Han Ling, I arrived at the door of the bungalow in Yangpu District. This alley has an elegant environment, and both sides of the road are planted with French plane trees, which is said to be only available in the concessions of the old society. The bungalow has three floors and is half-hidden among a few towering trees. There is a small courtyard on the front. There are also iron fence gates. On the left side of the bungalow is the archives of a certain bureau, and on the right side is a long fence, I don't know what unit. The bungalow is made of light gray brick with green iron window frames, and the two bedrooms on the third floor have arched iron fenced terraces outside the windows, and the east wall has a half-wall creeper. Although the whole bungalow is half-new, it looks very imposing, and it looks like the residence of people with status back then.

A woman in her forties and fifties stood outside the iron fence and looked anxiously, and when she saw me getting out of the car and coming over, she hurriedly greeted me and asked me if I was Tian Qi. I nodded, and she said happily: "Finally I have you here, I am Han Ling's aunt, surnamed Luo, come into the house and talk!" ”

When I entered the front yard, I patted the bricks on the wall of the bungalow with my hand, which was very strong, and when I looked down, there was a small window less than 20 cm near the ground, indicating that the bungalow was actually four floors. There are three floors on the ground and one floor underground, which is quite exquisite. I was curious by nature, so I bent down and looked carefully into the small window, in fact, the outside was bright and the inside was dark, I couldn't see anything clearly, and when I straightened my waist, I seemed to see something flashing in the small window, I thought it might be a cat, so I didn't care.

Sitting on the big sofa in the living room on the first floor of the bungalow, Aunt Luo made me coffee, which was freshly ground coffee beans, and the house was full of fragrance. She is as white-skinned as Han Ling, and although she is middle-aged, her charm still exists. The clothes are more trendy than Han Ling, with a tight shirt and leggings, and she looks pretty good. She speaks crisply, behaves quickly, and is suitable for being a nanny at first glance. Aunt Luo said with a smile: "This coffee bean was bought by the owner, he has stayed in the United States, and everything is in line with the West, but it is foreign." Don't look at people who are rich, but they never put on a score, and people are also generous, everything in this bungalow that is particularly valuable and can be moved away is shipped to Canada. The rest of the stuff is here, and there are still a lot of things to eat and drink, so I can use whatever I want, so I borrowed it too. ”

"It seems that the owner of this bungalow still trusts you." I drank my coffee.

Aunt Luo said: "I came to his house last summer as a nanny, and their family loves to eat the food I cook, and they also said that I am diligent and reliable. Just after the Spring Festival this year, after their family completed the immigration procedures, they asked me to continue to stay and see the house, saying that I would rest assured. ”

I sneezed several times and said, "This house is so cool." ”

Aunt Luo replied: "Yes, I heard that this bungalow was designed by foreigners, it is really warm in winter and cool in summer, and it is not hot on dog days." ”

I asked, "You live alone in this bungalow at night, don't you say that this house is not clean?" ”

Aunt Luo's face changed, and she smiled reluctantly: "I've been divorced for six or seven years, I live alone, and I'm not a young girl, so there's nothing to be afraid of." But since three months ago, I ...... stopped talking and said: "Let's talk about it at noon, you have been on the train all night, and you are tired enough, go upstairs to sleep for a while, I will go to buy vegetables, and I will pick you up at noon!" Before I could reply, Aunt Luo had already gotten up and was ready to go out. I hurriedly said that I wanted to look around first, so Aunt Luo took off a bunch of keys and handed them to me, saying that all the keys to this bungalow should be seen by yourself, and then went out.

I thought to myself that this Aunt Luo is really a fiery character, the opposite of Han Ling. I had slept on the sleeper train for eight or nine hours, and I felt sleepy, so I looked around in the living room of the bungalow. The bungalow is typically French style, with an old-fashioned fireplace, a large German grandfather clock and a grand piano in the living room. I touched this, looked at that, and was curious about everything. Up to Hongba.

There are many large and small photo frames hanging on the west wall of the living room, and the photos inlaid in them are obviously some years old, all black and white, many of which have been yellowed. The photos are very rich, including group photos in Manchu clothes, as well as dresses with freshly cut braids, as well as a combination of men and women in suits and cheongsams. Several of the photographs are group photos of many people, at least twelve or thirteen, and two people dressed as maids are also standing on the outermost side, which seems to be the family portrait of the original owner of the bungalow.

As I was looking at it, I suddenly noticed that the color of the necklace of the five poisonous oils on my chest had changed, from almost transparent to slightly yellowish. I took a few steps back, the yellow color was gone, I thought about it, and remembered what Fang Gang had said to me when I first arrived in Thailand. He said that certain things that look ordinary can actually gather yin energy, and photos are one of them, as well as clothes, jewelry, mirrors, and other items. As for why the photo can gather yin qi, Fang Gang's explanation is that there are realistic human figures in the photo, otherwise why would the head descender use the photo as a material to give people a fall. I remember that I was still making fun of it at that time, saying that Cixi Lafayette was afraid of taking pictures, thinking that she could take away people's souls, but now it seems that she is still a little prescient.

I simply took off the necklace, put the necklace in the palm of my hand, as if looking at a pocket watch, and observed the changes of the five poisonous oils as I walked around the living room. I walked around all corners of the living room a few times, and found that only the place where the photo frame was hung on the wall had yin qi. I thought to myself, Aunt Luo is not at home anyway, so I just go around to see if there is anything abnormal.

On the first floor, in addition to the living room, there is a dining room, a small bedroom, a kitchen, and a utility room, and on the second and third floors there are four rooms and bathrooms each. I went house by house, and I didn't find anything unusual, but I was particularly interested in this kind of old bungalow before liberation, although Aunt Luo said that it was not clean, but I still hope to live here instead of Aunt Luo to take care of the house, and I am willing to give no money. I usually drink coffee and sit on the sofa, and I feel that I have become a big comprador in the old society.

I came to a small foyer on the east side of the living room, there was a small door, locked, I found the key to open the door, inside was a wooden staircase down the board, it turned out to be the basement, and I could clearly feel a cool air escaping.

Walking down the wooden staircase to the basement, you can smell an obvious musty smell, turn on the electric light at the entrance, the space is quite large, basically the same as the single-story area of the bungalow, not to mention seven or eight hundred square meters. There are a lot of miscellaneous items, there are more than 20 camphor wooden boxes alone, as well as a large number of old books, packages, old furniture, and a billiard table in the corner. I walked over to see that the table was covered in thick dust, and unlike the current pool table, there was no mesh pocket on the border, and I didn't know where the ball was going.

I put the Five Poison Oil Necklace in the palm of my hand and circled around the basement, but I didn't find anything out of the ordinary. As I walked near the large pile of camphor boxes, the color of the oil began to deepen. I stopped and took a closer look, each of these camphor wood boxes was nearly two meters long and more than one meter wide, and more than 20 were neatly stacked together, with pure copper locks at the mouth of the boxes. If you don't wipe off the dust with your hands, you won't be able to see the color of the wood itself. All the boxes piled up outside, the copper locks have been pried open, judging from the violent marks on the copper locks, they should have been smashed with hard objects.

There were a few boxes with locks alive, I pushed hard, barely opened the lid of the box, and shone it with a flashlight, it was full of old books, and I pushed open several boxes in a row. I tried back and forth around these boxes with a necklace, and it was strange to say that if a certain box had yin qi, as long as I got close to it, there would definitely be a different display. But I tried for a long time, and I found that the yin qi near these boxes was exactly the same, could it be that there was something wrong with the contents of these boxes?

Just when I was confused, I heard Aunt Luo's call from the staircase above, and I walked out. Seeing that Aunt Luo had bought a lot of vegetables, including fish, meat, eggs and vegetables, Aunt Luo saw me coming out of the basement, her expression changed a little, and she asked, "Nephew Tian, why did you go to the basement?" ”