Chapter 84: Lingering at the Door
This novel is translated and hosted on bcatranslation
After wandering around the village, nothing particularly unusual was observed. Everything seemed calm and peaceful. Yet, this tranquility unsettled Miles. According to the information he had, supernatural events were reported to occur in this area. The company, or whatever organization it was, couldn’t have possibly lured Miles and the members of the “Cockroach Club” here with false news. Deception without a clear motive would only bring endless trouble.
“There must be something unusual in this place that I haven’t noticed. Perhaps I should ask someone,” Miles thought to himself.
Unknowingly, he found himself at the back of the village where an elderly man, appearing to be in his sixties, was tending to his vegetable garden.
Approaching the old man, Miles greeted, “Hello sir, are you gardening?”
The elderly man glanced over and then continued with his work without responding.
“Sir, I came from the city to visit this village. It seems unusually quiet here, and I noticed a funeral taking place at the entrance. Did something happen?” Miles inquired.
“Go away!” The old man replied tersely.
Undeterred and remaining calm, Miles continued, “Sir, do you know how the young man at the village entrance died? He seemed young and good-looking. It’s such a pity.”
“Go away!” The old man’s response was clear and forceful, with an emphasis that seemed practiced.
“Can’t you just talk properly? Or is that the only word you know?” Miles probed.
“You young folks, get lost! Can’t you see I’m busy?” The old man retorted, his eyes slanting with clear annoyance.
Miles pondered for a moment and then pulled out a hundred dollars bill from his pocket, proposing, “Three questions for a hundred dollars. How about it?”
Seeing the money, the old man paused. Then, with surprising agile speed, he set aside the seedlings he was holding and swiftly approached Miles, snatching the bill right out of his hand in one swipe. “Look at you, a generous young man! Ask away. There’s nothing in Yellow Hill Village that I don’t know about.” He said with a broad smile.
The power of money was indeed formidable.
Sighing inwardly, Miles asked, “Has Yellow Hill Village always been this quiet, or is it just recently?”
“It’s always been like this,” the old man began, “The young folks from the village have moved to the city to buy homes and start their lives there. The village only gets lively during festivals and holidays. On regular days, it’s mostly us elderly folks here.”
“Has anything strange happened in Yellow Hill Village recently?” Miles prodded.
“Nothing out of the ordinary,” the old man shook his head.
“And the deceased at the village entrance, whose family does he belong to?” Miles inquired further.
“I don’t recognize him,” the old man stated. “There’s no one by that description in the village. He might be a relative from another family.”
Not recognize him?
Miles was taken aback. How could a villager not recognize someone for whom there was an ongoing funeral in the village? It didn’t make sense. In traditional rural customs, if someone dies, the news spreads quickly.
“What I’m really trying to ask,” Miles decided to be direct, “is whether there have been any haunting incidents in Yellow Hill Village recently?”
Haunting?
The old man paused, seeming momentarily taken aback, but then began rubbing his fingers together, hinting for something.
Miles almost forgot. This was the fourth question. This old man sure meant business.
Pulling out another hundred dollars, Miles handed it over.
Only then did the old man speak, “Every year, there are rumors of hauntings. This has been going on for decades, but nothing concrete has ever been seen. You seem educated; are young people nowadays interested in ghost stories?”
“Not particularly. I was just asking out of curiosity,” Miles responded casually, feeling somewhat disappointed. He hadn’t obtained any useful information. Did Yellow Hill Village really have supernatural occurrences?
“By the way, sir, do you know of any place I can stay? I’d like to spend a few nights here,” Miles inquired.
“I have a spare room in my house. A hundred dollars per night. Interested?” the old man offered, effectively turning their conversation into a business transaction.
And just like that, Miles temporarily rented a room in the old man’s home.
The old man’s name was Genrong, one of the few remaining elderly residents of the village. He mentioned that both his sons lived in the larger Spear City and would only return if there was a family emergency. His wife had passed away the previous year.
“I plan to stay here for just three days. If nothing unusual happens, I’ll return to Spear City and settle accounts with Sun,” Miles thought to himself. “Even if there are supernatural occurrences here, if the entity hides well and doesn’t reveal itself, I don’t have the time to search indefinitely.”
With these thoughts, Miles drifted off to sleep in Genrong’s house. However, his sleep was restless, troubled by the agitation of an awakening ghost. He felt paralyzed, tortured, and it felt as though something was trying to take over his body—a peculiar sensation that he couldn’t put into words.
But while Miles was asleep, a faint, feeble coughing sound suddenly echoed from downstairs.
“Cough, cough.”
The sound seemed to come right from Genrong’s front door.
Instantly, the noise jolted Miles awake, his paralysis replaced with alarm.
“Is that the same sound I heard during the day?”
“Wait, something’s not right; someone’s coming upstairs.” Miles’s face paled instantly as he heard heavy footsteps echoing from the stairwell.
He was staying on the second floor of Genrong’s house while the old farmer resided in the room next door. This meant that no one was supposed to be on the ground floor at this time. Moreover, it was pitch dark outside, and the front door was locked. It seemed impossible for anyone to just walk in.
“Could my luck be this bad? Why now, of all times?” Cold sweat formed on Miles’s forehead.
He was paralyzed at the moment, unable to move.
“Thud, thud.”
The heavy footsteps resonated through the hallway, growing closer.
One could clearly discern from the sound that someone was making their way upstairs, taking each step deliberately. Their movements seemed lethargic.
Miles tried to glance towards the entrance. While his neck was immobilized, he could slightly move his eyes. However, with the lack of light, he couldn’t see clearly in the direction of the door.
Suddenly, the heavy footsteps from the staircase ceased.
Whatever it was, it had reached the second floor.
At this moment, Miles wasn’t concerned about how or where this thing had come from. He was more worried about whether it was here for him or Genrong.
However, there was also the possibility that its visit was random. Given the simple structure of village homes, the doors to the two rooms on the second floor faced each other. If its intentions were indeed random, there was a fifty percent chance Miles wouldn’t be chosen.
“But wait, it doesn’t seem to have entered.”
Suddenly, he heard the footsteps again. It felt as if someone, or something, was pacing back and forth outside the door.
“Cough, cough.”
The sound was reminiscent of someone on the brink of death as if they could expire at any moment. The entity outside didn’t seem to want to leave.
Back inside, Miles stared intently in the direction of the door, tension gripping him, fearing the thing outside might burst in. Given his current state, he couldn’t even if he wanted to flee. He could only hope and pray.
“It probably won’t come in, right?”
After a while, noticing that the footsteps outside didn’t seem to indicate any intention of entering, he felt a slight relief. “There’s no way I’m this unlucky.”
But then he remembered the tales of a ghost from his school that killed by knocking on doors. What if this entity outside didn’t need to open the door to kill?
“No, that’s impossible. If there were truly a ghost outside with such abilities, there wouldn’t be any villagers left alive by now,” Miles reassured himself, dismissing his internal fears.
However, just at that moment, the footsteps outside the door came to an abrupt halt.
“Creak.”
The unmistakable sound of the door slowly opening in the enveloping darkness could be heard, causing Miles’s heart to constrict in fear.
Was the ghost, which had been lingering outside the door, now about to enter?