“There’s a trap in the deep woods… heck, no one lives here. Come on, we’re almost at the place.”
Ha Gwai was terrified and followed me closely, fearing there were other traps.
As expected, there were a few more traps along the way, but they were all alarm traps, not harming anyone, and the traps were probably laid out to protect against wild animals.
After half an hour of walking through the various alarm traps, three detached villas appeared in front of us.
Both Xia Gehuai and I were dumbfounded. The yards of the three detached villas had gra*s growing in them, but not very high, with some creepers crawling on the walls, and the iron gates of the yards were locked.
The gates in the villas were also locked and the windows were all in good condition.
We flipped through the iron gate and looked inside through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the furniture inside was scattered and a few books were still on the floor, Xia Gehuai said, “Zhang Chao, you’ve flipped this time, no one really lives in this place.”
“Let’s go in and have a look first.”
“No key, do we have to break the window?”
I ignored Shaggy White and walked to the front door on my own, who followed, joking, “You’re not going to knock, are you?”
I laughed in exasperation, broke the wire on the key fob straight and poked it into the keyhole, and with a click, the lock opened and the door opened in response.
The house was messy but not dirty, there were clothes and scrap books scattered everywhere, I picked them up and looked at them, a few of them were martial arts manuals.
“I can’t believe this house has all the electric lights and phones inside, where did they get the electricity?”
“There’s a small generator outside the house, I bought the diesel myself and came back to generate electricity.”
Xia Gehuai marveled, “Awesome, but how did you carry it in? I was half-exhausted when I walked in.”
“I saw several diesel barrels in the yard when we came in, it couldn’t have been carried in manually, let’s find out if there are any tunnels here. If not, it might be by water, there’s a mountain stream further west where you can take the goods when the current is strong.”
“Who do you think could be living here? Is it Han Kun? Then why isn’t he living here again all of a sudden?”
I shook my head, it was no accident that Han Kun would come to Ha Shan County, but it was hard to say if this place had anything to do with him.
But this place must have been inhabited by a family of Jianghu people, as evidenced by the martial arts manuals all over the place and some children’s clothes that hadn’t been taken away in time.
Xia Gehuai wandered around with his snipe while I stared at the ceiling in the living room.
The more I looked, the stranger I felt. After a while Xia Gehuai also came back and told me that several rooms were empty.
“Look at the appliances in this house, they’re quite new, this TV is new from last year, I wanted to buy it at the time but couldn’t afford it. My God, there’s a PS4 here, but unfortunately there’s no electricity, otherwise we could have a game.” Xia Gehuai rummaged around, “Look, what’s this.”
Xia Gehuai pulled open a drawer, and in the drawer was a photo album.
The album was thick, but there were not many photos inside, and almost all of them were in black and white, very old.
“It must be the family that lived here.” Xia Gehuai said to me, pointing to the photos.
I pulled the photo out and looked at it closely, it was taken quite a few years ago, not only was it black and white, but the background was the same kind of bungalow.
Although it wasn’t a building, the bungalow looked to be in very good condition, and there were two stone lions at the entrance of the bungalow, so it was a rich family in those days.
The photograph is of a family of a dozen people sitting in front of their house for a group photograph. In the middle of the photograph is naturally a man and a woman, the head of the family, and on the left and right are standing people of the same age as them, and in front of them are youngsters, only five or six years old.
I put it back and turned to the next photo, still in black and white, a solo photo of a girl with a sweet smile and a mouthful of missing teeth.
“Why do I get the feeling this chick looks familiar, have I seen her somewhere before?” Xia Gehuai stared at the picture of the girl.
I said, “Looking at the age of this photo, the chick should be 40 or 50 years old now. Could it be that you and that older lady forgot about each other and this is a childhood photo of that older lady?”
“I’ll f*ck you. Look at this one, the chick is so pretty when she’s all grown up.”
Xia Gehuai turned the photo album over, and this page was full of photos of this girl, probably around ten years old, not yet developed, but already a beauty.
“This album should be this chick’s personal photo exhibition, flip back further to see what the chick has grown into.”
Xia Gehuai eagerly flipped over and over was the picture of the little girl growing up to the age of seventeen or eighteen.
“Tsk, a stunning beauty! She looks a bit like Joey Wong, I said why does she look so familiar? Huh, Zhang Chao what’s wrong with you?”
My face bristled with misery and I said in a trembling voice, “This is my mother.”
“sh*t.”
Xia Gehuai’s hand loosened and, like hell, he threw the album out.
“It’s really your mother? So you’re a mum? Didn’t your mum die when you were little? Then what is this place, holy sh*t, it’s eerie, let’s go ……”
I rolled my eyes, speechless, “That’s my mum not a ghost. I’m sure it’s my mum, I still remember what my mum looks like.”
“So, then what is this place?”
I sighed helplessly, “I don’t really know.”
I picked the album back up and flipped back a few pages, there were pictures of my mother in her twenties, already in colour, and one of her standing in front of the Suran Fisheries factory with my dad.
“Either this is where your mum lives, or this is where the guy who has a crush on your mum lives.”
“Oh, my mum was gone over ten years ago, so it’s hard for her to turn into a ghostly company of ps4s?” i let out a long sigh and said, “but I suspect this might be where Han Kun lives.”
Xia Gehuai mentioned the person who had a crush on my mum, and the first thing I thought of was Han Kun.
Of course, there was that pervert Jiang Ming in addition to Han Kun, but Han Kun was more likely.
“Han Kun has a crush on your mum?” Xia Gehuai said, “Holy sh*t, what a big gossip. But your mum is quite pretty, so it’s cheaper for your dad, the little white guy.”
I laughed dryly, my dad was not a white boy, my dad was a master of the Thousand Sects and the founder of the huge business empire of Junran, he was a proper high roller nowadays.
I took the photo album and sat down on the sofa with a flourish.
The group photo at the top of the album must have been a group photo of the Kee family, and the couple in the middle of the picture were my grandparents.
The black and white photo distorts them so much that I have the feeling I’m looking at a history book. Han Kun and my mother grew up together and it was normal to get this photo.
“But it’s not like anyone has lived here anytime soon, look at the mess it’s in.”
“Do you have any chewing gum?” I asked.
“Why do you need it all of a sudden, yes.” Shaggy White muttered, handing me a Green Arrow.
I chewed it twice, then pulled out a very small monitor and stuck it under the couch.
“Okay, let’s go.” I said.
Xia Gehuai sat on his butt on the floor reluctant to get up, “No, rest a little longer, we’ll definitely be able to leave in time before dark.”
I said, “How come you’re not afraid of ghosts now?”
“Where are the ghosts? This place is inhabited by living people. And no one has come to live here for so long. Maybe Han Kun used to live here, and every year he missed your mother and your father running away. Now he’s tired of living here, so he’s moved somewhere else.”
I laughed, “You really believe that no one lives here?”
“I believe in my wise eyes.” Shagwai took both hands and pointed to his eyes.
I grabbed his fingers, scratched them on the table and then put them in front of his eyes and said, “Look again for clarity.”
“Long, strong, round, a good pair of hands, what’s wrong?”
