The Zhou family of three moved from the hospital's family compound to a dilapidated yard on the outskirts of the city.
The place is big enough, with eight main rooms, seven of which have great lighting. On a clear night, you can even see the stars in the night sky while lying in bed!
"Is this a place where people can live?" Zhou Mingming worked very hard and cleaned up for a whole day, but the room was still covered with dust and dirt.
Lin Yi, fully armed with a mask, dust goggles, and homemade protective clothing, said in a muffled voice, "What can we do? This is the cheapest!"
Under Ling Shuang's command, Zhou Mingming struggled to move a water tank in the corner. Several big rats and a group of small rats scattered wildly in the room. Zhou Mingming and Ling Shuang were not afraid at all. They kicked them one by one and killed a bunch of them in an instant.
Lin Yi had already jumped onto the broken bed, holding his shoulders and shivering. He said tremblingly: "This is definitely not a place for people to live..."
Ling Shuang: "The environment is a bit poor, but it's cheap. For so many years, our salaries have been used to clean up your son's mess except for daily expenses. We have no savings at all. Renting here is at least a place to stay. But if you have the ability to rent a better one, I have no objection."
Zhou Mingming didn't want to take the blame: "I, I, I, I've only been a little naughty in recent years. How much can I ask you to pay? Don't put it all on me."
Without saying anything, Ling Shuang went to the yard where the luggage was stored and pulled out an account book. He handed it to Zhou Mingming: "Look for yourself. Every income and expenditure is recorded in detail. In the past two years alone, I spent more than 130,000 yuan on you, almost 140,000 yuan."
"Impossible!" Zhou Mingming flipped open the notebook and flipped through a few pages randomly. He saw an item of 30,000 medical expenses and 80,000 injury compensation, (⊙o⊙)... He had an impression of this.
This should have happened last summer vacation. At that time, he was obsessed with marble guns. He saved up some pocket money and bought all the marbles. He also skipped classes to go hunting and shooting birds in the wild woods. As a result, he had poor aim and injured a cyclist, causing him to lose hearing in his right ear.
The family spent nearly 120,000 yuan to settle the matter, and my grandmother even took out 20,000 yuan for the coffin...
Afterwards, he behaved himself for half a year, but as time went on, his bad habits resurfaced and he became lawless.
Zhou Mingming closed the notebook suddenly, stuffed it back into Ling Shuang's arms, said nothing, and took the initiative to clean up the dead rats on the ground.
Lin Yi quietly asked Ling Shuang: "How did you find this place? How much is the monthly rent?"
Ling Shuang smiled slightly and held up two fingers.
Lin Yi: "Two hundred? Two hundred isn't expensive, but this house is a bit too shabby. Do you really want to live here for half a year?"
"The landlord pays us 200 a month!"
"Is there such a good thing?" Even if the house is a bit run down, it can just be left there. It's not worth paying 200 yuan, right? Is the landlord really expecting the tenant to fix it up and decorate it for free? That's a nice thought.
Ling Shuang: "A murder occurred in this house. In this very room, a family of three of the tenants were robbed and murdered. The murderer has not been found yet."
Zhou Mingming also pricked up his ears~
Ling Shuang's lips curled slightly when he saw this. "Later, this house became a haunted house and could not be rented out. The owner and his family did not dare to return to live there. The house became increasingly dilapidated.
Two years ago, an elderly couple who were scavenging moved in secretly when they saw that there was no one here. When the landlord found out, he didn't drive them away. Seeing that the elderly couple looked quite pitiful, he even didn't charge them rent and let them live there as they pleased.
Later, the old lady got cancer and had no money for treatment, so she died in this house. The old man stayed in the house with the old lady's body for three days. Look—" She pointed to the bare beams: "She hanged herself here."
This room is the only one in the yard with an opaque roof...
Zhou Mingming rubbed his arms, feeling a chilly wind blowing all around him. He threw down his broom, pulled Ling Shuang and Lin Yi out, and said, "We're not staying here."
The three people stood in the yard and conducted three-way negotiations.
Lin Yi: "I don't want to live here either. I'm afraid of rats~, and maybe cockroaches, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, bats, snakes..."
Zhou Mingming: "I'm not afraid of insects, I...I..."
Lin Yi laughed: "You are not afraid of insects, you are afraid of ghosts..."
Ling Shuang held her son's hand expressionlessly. "There are no ghosts in this world. You don't have to be afraid. Besides, I'm not asking you to live alone. The three of us will sleep in the same room. Mom will protect you."
Lin Yi took her son's other hand and said, "Yes, Mommy will protect you and Daddy, right?"
Ling Shuang rolled his eyes.
Zhou Mingming didn't feel comforted and was still very resistant. "It's not a ghost. Didn't you just say that the murderer has never been caught? What if, what if they come back, can we defeat them? Anyway, I don't live here. I'd rather continue to move bricks at the construction site and live in the tin house there."
He began to rummage through the pile of luggage for the bedding roll he had brought back from the construction site.
Lin Yi's voice echoed faintly behind him, "The contractor is already taking a huge risk by letting you stay there for a week. You're only fourteen now, and it's illegal to employ child labor. They won't accept you."
Zhou Mingming sat on his luggage and cried. For the first time, he felt the pressure of reality.
Lin Yi said again: "What a pity."
"What a pity?"
"It's a pity you don't want to study! Otherwise, you could become a boarding student, living in a six- or eight-person dormitory on campus. It's better than living in a haunted house, right?"
Zhou Mingming wiped the tears from his face fiercely, stood up and looked directly at Lin Yi: "This is what you want! Fine, I'll study and go back to school. Will that satisfy you?"
Lin Yi scoffed, "Don't force yourself. We've come to terms with it. Whether you want to study or not is your own business. Besides, after your mother and I resigned, our household registration was moved back to our hometown. Even if you want to go to school, you have to go back to your hometown. Otherwise, the tuition alone will cost more than 10,000 yuan a year. Our family can't even afford the return trip."
This is not allowed, that is not allowed, even going to school is not allowed! Zhou Mingming was anxious.
"I'm still a minor. You have the obligation and responsibility to raise me and pay for my education! I want to go back to school! I don't want to live in a haunted house! Why don't you go to work? Why don't you go make money?"
He picked up a broken axe from under the wall and began to chop the window frame of the crime scene. The rotten wood was broken into pieces by his few strokes, and small shards of glass shattered all over the floor. Some pieces even splashed on his arms, leaving bloody marks in an instant.
After venting his anger, he squatted on the ground with his head in his hands and cried loudly.
Ling Shuang and Lin Yi looked at each other and nodded.
It’s almost cooked.
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