"Later, I secretly went there and bribed his family to find out that my father's body wasn't very peaceful in his cold storage!"
"Not peaceful, but how exactly is it not peaceful?!" I continued to ask.
“When I pressed for more information, the funeral home owner found out. And he didn’t know much, only that they had previously captured some inappropriate noises on the surveillance footage.”
"Did my father never actually leave? Did he hate me for not burying him and come back to take revenge on us?!" Zhao Jianguo's mental state was clearly on the verge of collapse.
"Give me your home address first, and we'll head over there now," I said in a deep voice.
Zhao Jianguo doesn't sound like an unfilial son.
One of the reasons he gave for not returning to his hometown for burial was that it was inconvenient to burn incense and visit graves, which shows that he still has some filial piety and probably wants to burn paper money for his father more often.
Besides, no matter what, Zhao Laoshuan is still his father. No matter how angry his father is, he would never treat his son's family like this. This is worse than being an enemy!
I've heard countless stories of unfilial sons and daughters in the countryside, but I've never heard of any father or mother who, after their death, tormented their son so much that he became such a wretched child.
Zhao Jianguo nervously gave his home address, which Luo Tianhe wrote down. I hung up the phone.
“This matter cannot be just a simple case of a lingering vengeful spirit. I feel it may also involve problems with the funeral home itself, or some unusual change may have occurred to Zhao Laoshuan’s body while he was at the funeral home.”
I glanced at Li Huai and Luo Tianhe, and said with a solemn expression.
“You’re right. If there hadn’t been any problems at the funeral home, they wouldn’t have concealed it from Zhao Jianguo first, and then started speaking evasively,” Luo Tianhe nodded and said.
"Alright, we won't get anywhere guessing here. Let's go to his house first, then to the funeral home. Maybe that will reveal the truth." Li Huai waved his hand. Before seeing the ghost, his mind was still quite clear.
But after seeing a ghost, my mind becomes like mush, and I always do stupid things.
Of course, Li Huai wouldn't act like that when he encounters ordinary ghosts. After all, with his destiny, he has encountered quite a few ghosts, possibly even more than I have!
Unfortunately, we basically only play high-level matches.
After chatting for a few minutes, we set off and drove to Zhao Jianguo's house. It was just an ordinary residential area, but the environment was quite nice.
Although it's far from being as nice as the neighborhood where Luo Tianhe lives, it's still quite good for an ordinary person.
It didn't take long for us to find his house. Zhao Jianguo opened the door for us and bowed and scraped as he invited us in.
As soon as we entered, we felt a chill wash over us.
It wasn't the kind of cold you get from air conditioning, but a chill that seeped into your bones.
Something was definitely wrong.
I sized up Zhao Jianguo. He looked to be in his forties, thin, and his face was incredibly haggard.
They were pale and emaciated, like refugees, clearly having suffered greatly.
His wife, also looking terrified, sat blankly in the living room, holding her silent, pale-faced son.
Their wedding photo hangs in the center of the living room. In the photo, the two of them have rosy complexions. Although they are still quite thin, not fat, they are obviously in much better condition than they are now.
"Where is the mourning hall you set up for your father? Take me to see it."
I turned to Zhao Jianguo and asked.
When we met, Zhao Jianguo became less talkative. He led us to a guest room that had been decorated like a mourning hall, with white candles still burning.
The portrait hanging in the mourning hall did indeed have an eerie feel to it.
In the black and white photo, Zhao Laoshuan has a stern face and sharp eyes. He doesn't look like a funeral portrait, but rather like someone on a video call.
However, the person on the other end of the phone seemed to harbor resentment.
I took the photo down and tried to rotate the frame. I found that even with force, there was a slight sense of pressure, as if the person in the photo didn't want to be rotated.
"Master, what have you discovered?" Zhao Jianguo asked tremblingly.
Perhaps he sensed from the phone call that I was probably young, but he didn't expect me to be that young, and for a moment he felt a little uncertain.
I didn't rush to answer him. Instead, I gently ran my fingertips across the surface of the photo and could feel a faint, eerie aura, like a maggot clinging to a bone.
What's even more unsettling is that the eyes in the photo seem to be staring at me, no matter where I stand.
"Something's wrong with the photo, and something's wrong with your house either; it's very eerie."
I said in a deep voice.
"Master, please save me! To be honest, I am definitely not an unfilial son, I am not that kind of person. Why does my father insist on clinging to me?" Zhao Jianguo finally couldn't hold back anymore and knelt down with a thud, tears streaming down his face.
I reached out and patted him on the shoulder, trying to pull him up:
"Don't worry too much. I've made some progress. If you really are not an unfilial son, as you say, then it's probably not your father's problem. The problem might be with the funeral home."
"The funeral home?" He was stunned when I said that.
Although he knew the funeral home was hiding something from him, he thought the funeral home staff were afraid of taking responsibility and didn't dare tell him about the strange things they saw, which made him feel guilty.
In his view, if he were a funeral home worker, seeing these strange things, he probably wouldn't want to cause any more trouble.
After all, with a monthly salary of a few thousand yuan, why risk your life? It's better to avoid trouble.
"Here's a few talismans for you. Keep them safe; they might come in handy at a critical moment. I'll give two to your wife later. We'll take the photos with us first. Now, lead the way. We need to go to the funeral home to see your father's body, where it was stored before cremation, and to find out the specific circumstances at the time."
I took out a few yellow talismans and handed them to Zhao Jianguo.
Zhao Jianguo glanced at the yellow talisman a few times, then carefully put it in his pocket and nodded.
"I'll take you there now."
......
The Yong'an Funeral Home in the south of the city is quite old, with mottled exterior walls covered with ivy.
Moreover, this funeral home is quite well-known; most people in the city choose it as their first option when it comes to cremation.
Upon entering the funeral home, one is greeted by a faint, unpleasant smell of disinfectant and incense ash.
We were greeted by a director surnamed Wang, around 50 years old, with shifty eyes. He must have met Zhao Jianguo several times before, and clearly didn't want to talk much.
After we explained our situation, he gave a perfunctory, bureaucratic reply:
"Zhao Laoshuan's body? It's just been stored in a normal way, what could be wrong? Are the family members overly grieving and hallucinating?"
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