Haunted Houses’ Chronicles – Vol.1, Chapter 5

For more than half a month, we stayed put.

It was not that we didn’t want to continue, but there were not many leads to get hold of. We searched desperately but never managed to locate any reliable source. This couldn’t be helped, as looking for haunted houses was nothing like that of normal houses. News about haunted houses could only go through words of mouth. After all, whoever inherited the haunted house wouldn’t bluntly announce that the place was haunted, for he was still hoping to sell it away at as good a price as possible. Moreover, it wasn’t like every city would have a haunted house, and even if that was the case, it was impossible for us to inspect each and every in person. With all that, our business of buying and selling houses came to a deadlock.

A while later, a real estate agent suddenly came to find us, offering to help us turn the situation around. He introduced himself as Yuan Zhen. He adorned a flashy style and his face exuded apparent slyness, so much so that you could tell this man was born to work in sales. He expressed that he occasionally heard people talk about us – a duo who scouted for haunted houses all over the country – and that coincidentally, he was working as a real estate investment consultant. He ran around the country all year round, thus having lots of contacts and helpful news in hands. He was looking for opportunities to collaborate with us, in which he would introduce us to the property and receive commission should the transaction go through. In this way, both parties would benefit.

Qin Yiheng and I swiftly weighed the pros and cons of his proposal – this was exactly the kind of help that arrived at the perfect moment. We reached an oral agreement with Yuan Zhen at once. If he travelled to any city in the future, he would help us collect information about potential houses and share the most valuable leads. If the deal became a success, we would base on the value of the transaction and give him a percentage commission.

Yuan Zhendeng was indeed capable; only 4 days later, he called to introduce us to a house. He not only was efficient but also helped us to explore the details of the house in advance.

The house was an old residential building with only four floors, so old it appeared as though it might collapse soon. Its architecture seemed to date back to the 1970s.

We could tell that the profit to be earned from buying this house wouldn’t be great, but it was a special house. Most houses became haunted because people died there, but this house was different – two cats died here.

Previously, a retired elderly couple resided in the house. The two had much liking for cats, so as they spent their retirement years, they raised a pair of cats. These cats could be considered ‘good friends’ who accompanied them.

One night, the two cats were playing on the balcony. For some unknown reason, the old couple decided to lock the cats out and not allowed them to enter the house. That night, a heavy rain came. As the balcony was old-styled and had no shelter, there was no way the cats could avoid the rain. The next day, both of them died.

Seeing that it was springtime and the weather wasn’t that cold, the death of the two cats was indeed strange. However, neither of the old couple showed any grief. They went on to nonchalantly discard the bodies. Looking at how they used to love the cats so much, something seemed starkly different.

The neighbourhood became curious, but the old couple didn’t spill even a single word about the whole incident. A few days later, the couple left the place. At first, the neighbours thought they were picked up by their children. Only when their children turned up at the house did the neighbours found out that the couple actually left on their own accord. What was most peculiar was that everything in the house, even their money, was left intact. The elderly couple seemed to have disappeared into thin air. The children informed all the relatives and put up Missing Persons notice, but after a long time, still no news came. 

After a year, the children gave up and rented out the house. However, when the new tenants came in, they could hear strange movements on the balcony every night. They went to check but found nothing. Over time, no one dared rent again. Half a year later, a stout-hearted student that just freshly graduated decided to move in. No one could have guessed that just a week later, the student jumped off that building. After such incidents, the house was said to be haunted, and no one had the courage to ask about it anymore. The story I will tell you this time is the story of this old residential building.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t that interested in this terribly old house, because even if I waited for it to be demolished to be replaced with a new building, it would take quite some time. But Qin Yiheng was convinced that the place had some potential for us to earn good profit, because the location was rather ideal.

We contacted the elderly couple’s daughter to briefly express our interest in the house. The daughter immediately brought forward the key and took us to the house. It seemed she also wanted to have this dealt with quickly.

As we reached the house, the neighbours learnt that someone wanted to check out the ‘haunted’ place, so many of them watched from afar, lively chatting among themselves. I sensed the uneasiness crawling up, but Qin Yiheng felt that there was no need to feel weird about ourselves. After all, the way we earned money was exactly what the ordinary man would never dare try.

The daughter opened the door and straightforwardly took us around the house. The old furniture left by the old lady was still there, but they had already accumulated a lot of dust. The house wasn’t large, about 40 square meters in size. It was piled up with a lot of tables and chairs, therefore giving the impression of having little space. 

After a quick glance, I discussed with the daughter about the price. Following our earlier arrangement of who needed to do what, Qin Yiheng continued to look around the house carefully. I pressed the price to a very low amount, and the daughter seemed reluctant. That said, perhaps she was desperate for money, so after some minimal hesitation, she agreed to my offer. Seeing that I had settled on the price, Qin Yiheng nodded to me to signal that the deal could be made. We wrapped up the conversation with the old couple’s daughter, promising to sign the contract right that afternoon.

As we were bidding farewell to the daughter, on the way out, Qin Yiheng took out a tortoise shell from his bag. He asked me to touch it, and I could feel that it was wet at the top. I had no idea what he was up to, for at the time, the sky was bright and sunny; there was no sign that it would rain anytime soon. Also, we were in a northern city where the air was fairly dry.

“I can tell that there is indeed ‘something’ in the house, but it doesn’t seem evil. Judging from the situation, there was a lingering feeling of being wronged. ‘This thing’ doesn’t intend to harm others,” Qin Yiheng said. “However, this means that there must be things left unexplained about the college student jumping to his death.”

“Then is ‘the thing’ in the house that college student?”, I asked.

Qin Yiheng shook his head, “I’m not sure either. This one isn’t a very angry spirit. It looks vague and isn’t easy to distinguish.”

Although the identity of the spirit in the house was unclear, Qin Yiheng believed it should be harmless. He said that this method of measuring the auspiciousness of the place using a tortoise shell is called “tortoise divination¹”. He only knew of the basics, while a real master could even figure out whether someone was destined to move overseas. It was believed that the wetness above the shell top was caused by the tears of the spirits, and these tears showed that the spirit in the house had been wronged. But this was only hearsay; what exactly these tears were – that we couldn’t tell.

¹ 龟卜 [gui bu], lit. translated as “divine with a tortoise”, is a Chinese divination method which looks at the pattern of the tortoise shell to estimate the outcome of a situation.

We took a break after lunch and promptly went to sign the contract in the afternoon. After the deal was made, we took the key and headed to the house. Prior to the contract signing, Qin Yiheng bought a lot of glutinous rice papers. We glued the papers on the doors and windows, after which he brought me outside to take a stroll.

He explained that doing that would help us see whether ‘that thing’ would eventually show itself. If it only quietly stayed in the place, that would pose no danger; but if it came and went freely, that would be more complicated. We strolled around until the clock hit 5pm, then returned to the place.

Qin Yiheng checked again and concluded that ‘the thing’ didn’t go out of the house. Hearing this, I felt a sense of relief, even though I was aware that ‘something’ was in the same room as I was, and it might even be standing in front of me, staring at me intensely. Qin Yiheng reassured me that the situation was truly in our favour and easy to deal with. We should go back to rest, then find a lucky day to come over and clean up the whole place. ‘That thing’ would naturally give up the house to the new owner. As his tone sounded relaxed, I was thrilled. Compared to the previous houses, this money was much easier to make.

Four or five days later, Qin Yiheng decided on the lucky day, brought plenty of cleaning tools and asked me to come for a thorough cleaning. Originally, I planned to call a pay-by-hour cleaner, but Qin Yiheng insisted that the house had to be cleaned by the new owner, else it wouldn’t work out. There was no other way – we had to do it ourselves. Entering the newly bought house, we moved all the broken furniture into the corridor and later called the workers to move them downstairs.

Seeing us putting up such a grand display of spring cleaning, some kind neighbours even came to remind us that the house was ‘not clean’. I just laughed and didn’t say anything, thinking to myself that if it was clean, what would I buy it for? After the furniture was moved, Qin Yiheng took out a large bucket of rice, then rinsed all the rice through water. Thereafter, we dipped a broom into the rice water and used it to sweep the floor³. After a few rounds of sweeping, Qin Yiheng suddenly froze, his brows furrowing into anxious arches. Looking at his expression, my heart skipped a beat.

³ T/N: By now, we have seen rice and glutinous rice being used quite a few times in the duo’s cleansing or exorcism rituals. This is because Chinese culture believes that the Five Grains namely rice, glutinous rice, sesame, wheat and beans have the power to shoo away evil energy.

Qin Yiheng put down the broom, ran to the window and looked over it cautiously.

“Shit, something else has come into the house,” he gasped as he turned to face me.

Lucky for me it was daytime, otherwise seeing him being that frightened might have me piss my pants. He pulled me out of the house, still continuing to talk about that something else.

“‘The thing’ that originally haunted the place doesn’t come out, but some other thing has come in from outside,” he huffed. “We must stop the cleaning. Especially during a lucky day, ‘that thing’ must not be angered.”

“It is quite a prosperous day today. If such a day became entangled with ‘unclean things’, everything might turn out disastrous.”

As I listened to his words, a state of panic overwhelmed me. I wondered if it was because I had run out of luck. Every time, it was only at the most critical moment that bad things came up.

Having no mood to pack things up, we both quickly headed back to the hotel to discuss the next plan. Qin Yiheng thought about it for a while, then told me that the contract had been signed, so we couldn’t retreat anymore. The only way was to find a solution.

I agreed with what he said. In any case, I just had to wait for him to figure out something. Judging by the ‘resentment’ surrounding this house, I believed that it wouldn’t be anything more serious than the villa that we had dealt with.

At noon the next day, Qin Yiheng dragged me back to the house before I even had time to eat. He carried the tortoise shell and walked around the house for a long time, then stared at the shell and bit his lips nervously.

I walked over and touched the tortoise shell. This time, it wasn’t wet at all. I was alleviated, thinking that the unclean thing had gone. I totally couldn’t guess that Qin Yiheng would snap and yell at me, asking who the fuck allowed you to touch it. His sudden outburst had me startled. I felt dejected – wasn’t it him who told me to touch it the other day? What would be the issue if I touched it today?

Qin Yiheng didn’t say a single word to me after that. For some time, he just looked at me, his eyes full of sorrow. He later asked me to go to the burial accessories shop to buy some incense sticks. I didn’t dare delay his order, but I kept mumbling to myself on the way to the shop. Did I just create trouble?