"That's right."
Xiao Qi's thoughts raced through his mind several times before he finally decided to go along with Lin Yuesha's wishes.
It's a good thing the little girl is a bit cautious; she won't be so impulsive as to visit alone at night in the future.
"Could someone have really died in this courtyard?"
Lin Yuesha had already decided that she and Xiao Qi would buy a chicken tomorrow morning, kill it, and scatter the chicken blood in the yard.
"Not this courtyard, it's next door."
Xiao Qi lit the lamp wick and began to make up a story. In fact, it wasn't really a story; he was just going to exaggerate the facts.
The house next door was haunted, so Lin Yuesha became very careful with her breathing, waiting for what would happen next.
"That happened two years ago."
The family living next door consisted of three people: the man, his wife, and the man's mother.
The three were not locals; they came from out of town and settled there.
The man works away from home and doesn't come back for eight or ten days at a time, while his wife torments her daughter-in-law all day long.
They whipped her, scalded her with hot water, and made her kneel in the yard during the coldest days of winter.
"Aren't the people around doing anything about it?"
Lin Yuesha was furious. What kind of family was this? And why didn't that young wife resist?
"The gentleman once went to the neighbor's house to reason with them, but the old woman threw mud at him, saying that he had an affair with his daughter-in-law."
Because of this, the daughter-in-law was severely punished again, while the husband, being a scholar and a very reasonable person, was slandered by his wife and became seriously ill. In a fit of anger, he moved out of the house.
As for why his daughter-in-law didn't know how to resist, Xiao Qi didn't mention it.
Lin Yuesha fell silent, feeling distressed. Such was the way of the times; if women could resist so easily, there would be no tragedy like Chen Dahua's.
"And then what?"
Although Lin Yuesha felt uneasy, she couldn't help but continue asking.
"Later, the daughter-in-law, unable to bear the humiliation, slit her throat on New Year's Eve and collapsed in the snow."
The daughter-in-law was indeed dead, and the fact that she lay in the snow was just something Xiao Qi said casually, only to make the story more believable.
"No wonder the female ghost was a white shadow."
Everything makes sense now. I've heard that the ghost of a woman who died unjustly harbors deep resentment and her spirit lingers, always wanting to return to the place where she lived.
The haunted house is next door; the female ghost must have just been passing by.
Xiao Qi: "..."
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