Chapter 64: Is there a ghost?

Hearing the continuous screams from next door, Fan Xiaoxiao yawned.

"Ha! Uncle, that's enough! Let's roll up the rope and go to sleep."

"Okay!"

Uncle Wang, who was squatting by the door, responded and pulled hard on the rope. A wooden wedge that was tied to the rope was pulled back. At the same time the wooden wedge was pulled back, the door next door seemed to open, and several more shrill screams were heard, followed by the sound of a person falling to the ground, as if they had fainted from fright.

Hearing this gave Uncle Wang goosebumps. He rubbed his arms, put away the wooden wedge, and turned to walk with Fan Xiaoxiao to the backyard. There was a ladder there, and Uncle Wang tiptoed up. After a short while, he brought down a paper figure that was also tied with a rope.

Looking at the gruesome appearance on the paper figure's face, Uncle Wang frowned and couldn't help but complain to Fan Xiaoxiao, "Oh dear, girl, this thing you drew is really creepy!"

Fan Xiaoxiao scratched her head, looking at the garlic-shaped turtle drawn on the paper figure's face, and finally understood what was so scary about it. Although it was indeed a bit abstract, it was still somewhat similar! How cute! Compared to the horror movies she had seen in the real world, this was nothing.

However, seeing the disgusted look on Uncle Wang's face, she still couldn't bring herself to say "It's alright." The two quickly disassembled the paper figure and stuffed it into the stove before going to sleep.

The next morning, Fan Xiaoxiao was awakened by a series of urgent knocks on the door. She irritably ruffled her hair, threw on a few clothes haphazardly, and went out of the room.

"Who is it! Can't a person get some sleep this early in the morning?!"

Madam Fan got up before her and opened the courtyard gate. Three figures suddenly stumbled into the courtyard, startling Madam Fan, who quickly stepped back.

"What...what are you doing!"

"There's a...there's a ghost! There's a ghost!!!"

"What's all the noise about! There's no ghost here!"

Uncle Wang emerged impatiently from the inner room, his tone full of hostility as he looked at the three people on the ground, tears and snot streaming down their faces. But his tone clearly had no effect on them; instead, Chen Ergou and the others, upon seeing him, stumbled over, grabbed him, and cried out, pointing to the next room, "A ghost! Really!!!! In the well!!"

Aunt Wang came out of the kitchen; she had just prepared breakfast for everyone. Hearing the wailing in the courtyard, her brows were furrowed deeply.

"Old man, go with them next door and take a look! They've been coming over so early in the morning, wailing and howling like ghosts! It's really annoying!"

Just then, Old Zhao got up too. Patting his back, he said to Uncle Wang, "Yes, Brother Wang. Let's go see them! What a terrible thing to do!"

After saying this, Old Zhao and Uncle Wang walked one after the other towards the neighboring courtyard. Seeing them leave, Chen Ergou and the others pushed and shoved their way after them. Madam Fan also wanted to go see, so she turned back and asked Fan Xiaoxiao, "Sister, are you going?"

Fan Xiaoxiao had been up all night and was so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. She waved her hand and refused repeatedly, "I'm not going. What's so interesting about that stuff! You go ahead and watch, I'm going to sleep a little longer. When the Ji family comes to deliver the wine, wake me up then."

"Hey? Girl! Where's breakfast?"

Aunt Wang's voice rang out behind Fan Xiaoxiao, but Fan Xiaoxiao couldn't hear it anymore. She staggered into the room where they were sleeping, covered her head, and lay down to continue sleeping.

When Fan Xiaoxiao woke up again, the sun was already high in the sky.

"Auntie! Auntie, wake up! Uncle Ji is here. Auntie!"

Xiao Bao shook Fan Xiaoxiao, who was still lying on the couch with her eyes half-closed, as if afraid that she would fall asleep again as soon as she woke up.

"Hey, Xiao Bao, stop shaking me! Get up, get up!"

After saying that, Fan Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth and sat up abruptly, only to be hit by another wave of dizziness. She leaned on the couch for a while before she recovered.

"My body is still too weak," Fan Xiaoxiao thought to herself. She sighed. It seemed she would have to find a doctor to treat her when they arrived at the next place.

After dawdling for a while, Fan Xiaoxiao finally finished washing up and came out of the room. At this time, Steward Ji was in the yard looking at the things drying in the middle of the yard and shaking his head.

"Manager Ji, what are you looking at?"

Fan Xiaoxiao peeked over and saw two broken bones on the ground, as well as an opened jar of white powder.

Her eyes flickered, and she asked, feigning surprise, "Who put this here?"

Aunt Wang came out carrying a warm breakfast, handed it to Fan Xiaoxiao, and gestured for her to eat first. Then, glancing at the two items, she rolled her eyes and grumbled, "Who else could it be! It's the neighbors! And that butcher Zhang and Zhang Shi!"

They asked my husband and Brother Zhao to retrieve the thing from the well. We had barely glanced at it when the Zhang couple fainted again. When we went over to check, we realized that the two of them had a fever.

As for Chen Ergou, he wasn't in much better shape. He was shouting and yelling for the old man to take the thing away, shivering all over, and looked like he'd caught a cold. "Ugh, what a hassle for us this morning!"

Manager Ji clicked his tongue repeatedly as he listened: "Tsk tsk, I heard early this morning that the Zhang family had fallen ill due to being possessed by an evil spirit. Their daughter even specially invited a shaman to their door. I thought it was a joke, but I didn't expect it to be true!"

Fan Xiaoxiao hadn't expected the Zhang couple to be so easily frightened; a garlic clove and a jar of shell powder had scared them so much. She wasn't paying attention and choked on her porridge.

"Pfft, cough cough cough"

"Oh dear! Girl! Eat slowly! Xiao Bao, bring your aunt a bowl of water!"

"good!"

Seeing that Fan Xiaoxiao was choking on her tears, Aunt Wang didn't bother to talk to Steward Ji anymore and quickly went over to help Fan Xiaoxiao catch her breath.

Fan Xiaoxiao, whose face was red from choking, finally managed to swallow the mouthful of porridge that had choked her after taking a couple of sips of water from Xiaobao.

She breathed a sigh of relief and smoothed her neck: "Phew, I almost choked to death."

"Pah! Pah! Miss Fan! Don't talk nonsense! It's bad luck!"

Seeing the apprehensive look on Steward Ji's face, Fan Xiaoxiao was somewhat amused and exasperated. She didn't really believe in ghosts and spirits, but she didn't intend to explain herself to Steward Ji too much.

So Fan Xiaoxiao changed the subject: "Hey, Auntie, let's throw these unlucky things into the river later! They're just getting in the way here!"

"Manager Ji! You've come to pick up that rice wine, haven't you? The wine's ready; I'll take it to the recipient with you in a bit."

"Xiao Bao! Xiao Bao went too!"

Upon hearing that he was to deliver wine, Steward Ji remembered the purpose of his trip. He slapped his forehead and exclaimed, "Right, right! Look at my memory! I have to go deliver wine to Xiao Miao!"

Fan Xiaoxiao nodded and told him to wait for her in the yard for a while. Then she went into the kitchen and took out the rice wine. The glutinous rice had been fermenting for a day and a night, and now it was a full jar of rice wine.

She took out the prepared wine pot, filtered the glutinous rice through gauze, and then poured the rice wine into the pot and sealed it. As for the filtered glutinous rice, she put it back into the original jar, where there was still a little rice wine left. In the evening, she could use this to make a sweet rice wine with egg for everyone.

After doing all this, Fan Xiaoxiao came out with the wine pot.

"Let's go! Let's pay a visit to Xiao Bao's benefactor!"

(End of this chapter)