Big brother, stop it.
It was late at night, and the hall had lost its nighttime noise. The furniture that had been moved out would not be moved back until tomorrow morning.
The other servants and temporary helpers left one after another, and the footsteps of two people were heard in the quiet hall.
For the first time, Li Zhu realized that the villa was very empty.
There were still some cups left in the kitchen that hadn't been cleaned up. He grabbed some kitchen paper and picked up a wet high-heeled glass to wipe it.
Aunt Chen unscrewed the cup and took a sip from the thermos, feeling a little regretful for bringing people down with her.
The Gao family doesn't like family secrets to be spread outside. Reminding Xiao Xu twice before was already a risk. If she talks about old things again this time, and Gao Congyu finds out, her pension will be gone.
"Auntie." Li Zhu shouted.
Aunt Chen's heart twisted. She put down the cup and whispered, "I'll think about it."
Li Zhu wiped it meticulously, his tone casual, "Then take your time to think about it. Oh, by the way, before I left this morning, I saw a pair of footprints at home. They were dark brown, like they'd been through mud."
Bang--
The glass in Aunt Chen's hand fell to the ground, and the residue splattered everywhere.
She hurriedly squatted down and cleaned it with a rag.
"Xiao Xu, please don't come here again... No matter if it's haunted or not, please don't come here again..."
In a moment of carelessness, the glass scratched the base of his palm, leaving a shallow mark and trickles of blood oozing out.
Li Zhu hurriedly pulled the man up and found a Band-Aid under her guidance.
Aunt Chen washed the wound, took the Band-Aid and put it on. The stinging pain made her sober up a lot, and she looked up at the still honest young man.
Xu Xiaozhe is about the same age as her son. Whenever Aunt Chen sees him being so obedient, she thinks of her own stupid son.
She doesn't ask her son to be rich and powerful, she just wants him to be safe and healthy.
This emotion also extended to Xu Xiaozhe.
"Why, Aunt Chen?" Li Zhu frowned in distress. "Mr. Gao has been so good to me. I can't be ungrateful."
"You idiot, I'm doing this for your own good." Aunt Chen was angry at his stupidity, but also relieved that he was a grateful person.
She turned her head to look at the empty space behind her and lowered her voice to the extreme.
"There's something wrong with this house. It probably started after Miss Liang passed away."
Li Zhu blinked, "Miss Liang is Mr. Xiao Gao's mother?"
"Yes, Miss Liang followed the master without any official status, and finally fell into the lake and died. It rained heavily the night she was fished out..."
Li Zhu: "How heavy is the rain?"
Aunt Chen: "It was the rainstorm like the one you stayed the night before. Oh, and every time it happens, the young master gets sick."
Li Zhu remembered that Aunt Chen said that Gao Cong'ai's mother died when he was three years old.
In children of this age, the hippocampus, which is used to manage memory, has not yet matured and is generating new neurons at a high speed.
New neurons may rebuild existing neural circuits, overwriting or interfering with early memories.
Some people say that they have memories before the age of three. In fact, these memories are reconstructed by the brain after seeing photos, family stories, and similar scenes later.
This is the case with Gao Cong'ai.
So when Ms. Liang's "death" was mentioned at ordinary times, he remained calm, and it could even be said that he had no emotional fluctuations.
But "Rainy Night" reconstructed Gao Cong'ai's early memories and dragged him back into the abyss.
When he was ill, he walked on tiptoe, imitating his mother's high heels, and spoke like a three- or five-year-old because he truly believed he was a child.
The time when Gao Cong'ai's mother was salvaged should be the same as the time when Gao Cong'ai went downstairs that night.
"Aunt Chen." Li Zhu wanted to verify his guess, "Was Mr. Xiao Gao's mother rescued in the middle of the night?"
"How do you know?" Aunt Chen was surprised.
Only the Gao family and some residents in the villa area knew about this.
The Gao family valued their reputation, so they made various arrangements afterwards to prevent the news from leaking out.
"I guessed it." Li Zhu said.
Aunt Chen nodded. "It was in the middle of the night. I remember it very clearly. At twelve o'clock that night, the security guard of the villa area suddenly knocked on the door and said that a silk scarf was found in the artificial lake. It was the one Miss Liang was wearing when she disappeared."
"The master led his men over and, after confirming the situation, ordered them to salvage the body from the artificial lake. The body should have left the water around 12:30."
"Auntie has a really good memory. She remembers it so clearly."
"As soon as the master and his family left, the young master woke up. I heard the crying and just opened the door when the young master rushed over, shouting for his mother..."
The three-year-old child cried in a baby voice until he was hoarse.
Aunt Chen felt a little sad when she thought about this past event. "I held him back and tried to coax him, but he wouldn't listen and insisted on going out. So I called the housekeeper at the time...but the young master ran away while I wasn't paying attention."
Aunt Chen dialed her cell phone while rushing into the heavy rain and running all the way to the artificial lake.
Little Gao Cong'ai stood still and saw with his own eyes his mother's swollen body.
This emergency will not last more than twenty minutes in total.
It really matched, Li Zhu happily gave himself a thumbs up.
At around eleven o'clock that night, he saw Gao Congyu chase him up to the third floor after returning home. The two of them pushed and pulled each other for a while, which lasted only about ten minutes.
After eating some melon seeds and unable to sleep, I called Lang Feng to chat.
When he hung up, Li Zhu looked at the time. It was twelve twenty-three.
Afterwards, he heard Gao Cong'ai leaving the house.
"The young master was terrified, shaking violently, his face pale... I was also frightened by the scene. Before I knew it, the young master rushed over, grabbed Ms. Liang's hand, and said, 'Mom is asleep,' 'Mom, wake up.'"
Aunt Chen's mind flashed with the image of the white, gigantic corpse. She felt uncomfortable all over and inexplicably cold.
Li Zhu was puzzled: "The body would have floated after swelling, so how could it have been discovered after ten days?"
If Aunt Chen's previous expression showed her guilty conscience for talking about the master's past behind his back, then now, her face was filled with fear.
Li Zhu guessed it immediately, "Is there something tied to his body?"
"It was a stone tied behind her waist." A cool breeze blew in through the open window, and Aunt Chen's voice trembled. "So the Gao family thought she had had enough of life and jumped into the lake herself."
Li Zhu: "Does Ms. Liang love children?"
"What mother doesn't love her children?" Aunt Chen breathed a sigh of relief. She was really afraid that the young man would continue to ask about the body. "She has a gentle personality and rarely asks us to help take care of the children. She always does it herself. No matter how much the young master cries, she never gets angry. Even..."
She pursed her lips, and her already low voice dropped even lower. "Even when the young master deliberately played a prank on her, she didn't get angry."
How could a woman who loves children be willing to abandon her three-year-old child and commit suicide?
Considering Gao Congyu’s strange reaction every time Gao Cong’ai said “Mom is back”... there must be something strange about Miss Liang’s death.
Moreover, Gao Congyu and Gao Yanhe, father and son, are likely to be insiders.
Li Zhu calculated that when Gao Cong'ai was three years old, Gao Congyu was already twelve years old.
He is indeed an old hermaphrodite, poisonous since childhood.
Li Zhu was suddenly not afraid anymore. A woman with a gentle smile and a little boy who was left alone in a big villa appeared in his mind.
In comparison, the Gao family and this mansion are the most terrifying.
Li Zhu calmed himself down and put the polished cup aside. "What happened next?"
"The shadow of Miss Liang's death lasted for half a year. One morning, the young master ran to the study and told the master that someone in the family always walked around in high heels."
"The master didn't believe it at first, but then one night he heard the sound of high heels himself and woke everyone up. We followed the sound to the room where Miss Liang had stayed, which is... the guest bedroom you're staying in now. We found that the young master was walking around in his mother's shoes."
It would be easy for her to fall with her small feet in high heels, but Gao Cong'ai walked steadily with her back straight.
It was as if someone was holding him from behind.
Aunt Chen was stunned by this thought for the first time. She thought that it must be Mr. Xu's mention of "haunting" that had led her astray.
"Anyway, it was finally determined that the young master was sleepwalking."
"Did Gao Cong'ai admit it?" A sleepwalker will not remember what happened. If it is certain that Gao Cong'ai did it, he will definitely say "I don't remember" or "No".
Aunt Chen shook her head and said, "No, he said it was Miss Liang who was teaching him to walk. The master got furious and locked him in the storeroom and starved him for three days before letting him out."
Li Zhu believed that three-year-old Gao Cong'ai would not lie. It was true that he heard the sound of high heels walking, and it was also true that he was later taught to walk.
365: "Host, how can you be sure that he won't lie? You are not a worm in his stomach."
"Because Gao Congyu's friendship towards me is beyond normal, I have developed unwavering trust in him." Li Zhu felt ashamed when he argued, and he also became greasy.
365: "Don't mess up the mission by being too blind."
"It's impossible to mess it up. It has been confirmed that Gao Congyu is the murderer, and it is estimated that the task is more than halfway completed." Li Zhu was worried about how to find out the reason behind it.
And how to fight back.
Aunt Chen didn't notice the young man was distracted. "After that, the young master mentioned several times that someone in the family was wearing high heels, but the master ignored it again. He just asked the doctor to prescribe more medicine so that the young master could sleep more soundly at night and not disturb others' sleep."
"You beast." Li Zhu couldn't help but curse, "How can a child so young take medicine every day?"
"Well, who says it's not true?" Aunt Chen said, "During that time, the young master slept almost from morning till night, only waking up for a few hours during the day, and became as thin as a bean sprout."
Li Zhu: "How long have you been taking the medicine?"
"About three months. The doctor recommended reducing the dosage. About a week after the dosage was halved, the first rainstorm of the summer arrived. The rain and thunder were so loud that none of us noticed the young master had run away from home. It was only when the housekeeper came into the house that morning to wake everyone up that we realized he was missing."
"When we found him, he was standing barefoot by the lake, pointing his finger at the surface and mumbling, 'Mom has climbed up.'"
The childish voice powerfully painted a vivid picture for everyone present. From top to bottom, everyone shuddered and unconsciously moved away from the artificial lake.
Gao Yanhe, who was the first to come to his senses, slapped him in anger.
"From then on, every time the young master had an attack, he would imitate the way women walked in high heels and the way three-year-olds talked. Later on, he would go out on rainy nights and come back barefoot, deliberately making the house dirty."
"But Aunt Chen, those footprints are clearly women's size. Gao Cong'ai's feet are not that small."
"Who doesn't grow from a child into an adult? I saw him with my own eyes, staying up late at night, walking around the living room barefoot. Later, when his legs grew longer, he must have used some other method..."
"According to what you said, Mr. Gao's mental illness is very serious. Then why didn't the Gao family lock him up in a mental hospital, but instead took him home whenever his mood stabilized?"
"Of course it's because of family ties..." As she said this, her eyes moved uneasily.
"Do you really believe it?" Li Zhu observed her expression and said softly, "You've actually suspected the house was haunted, haven't you?"
Aunt Chen: "Don't talk nonsense, I didn't."
To earn this money, she must tell herself that everything is man-made.
But a voice deep in her heart told her that there was something wrong with the house and with the Gao family.
They were like being tied together by a rope. Even though the relationship between the brothers was bad and the sick young master was terrifying, they had to live under the same roof.
"Aunt, admit it, you know very well who else lives in the villa besides the two Mr. Gao and you."
Li Zhu's voice was floating, like a gentle hand, helping her outline a woman's face.
That woman had helped her treat and bandage her wounds when she was injured. She had handed her a thick envelope without hesitation when she needed money. She had also comforted her and helped her get a divorce after her husband beat her...
This is the real reason why she dared to stay in this weird villa.
Aunt Chen's defenses collapsed, and tears couldn't stop falling.
Li Zhu quietly accompanied her to vent her emotions, and when she had cried enough, he handed her a tissue.
Aunt Chen sobbed, her voice hoarse, "There's another strange thing."
"When the young master was five years old, the eldest master kicked the young master because he accidentally touched the corner of his clothes. The old master happened to be back from a business trip at the time. When he saw the young master sitting on the ground, he threw him into the storage room without asking if he was right or wrong."
"At twelve o'clock in the night, I heard some movement upstairs, but I didn't think much of it. About half an hour later, the master, who had already gone to bed, suddenly yelled. When the housekeeper and I ran up, he was lying on the ground, his hands covering his chest..."
Li Zhu: "Heart attack?"
"It wasn't a seizure, it was a sudden heart attack. He'd had a comprehensive checkup six months prior, and he'd always been in good health." Aunt Chen licked her lips and glanced out the dark window. "He kept yelling, 'Go away, don't come over here, go away!' Afterwards, the housekeeper asked him what exactly happened in the room, but the master refused to say."
"But he blamed the incident on the young master, saying he was a jinx, a calamity that would bring bad luck, and so he… threw him into an orphanage…"
"What?!" Li Zhu gritted his teeth. "Calling him a beast is an insult to beasts. He's just scum."
Gao Cong'ai had a miserable childhood.
If it were someone else, they would have dragged their entire family down with them to death.
Li Zhu felt heartbroken and wanted to rush upstairs to pull the person into his arms and hug him tightly.
Even those paranoid and weird mumblings became less twisted and scary.
"Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. He is worse than an animal." Aunt Chen finally said what she had been holding back for years, and she felt much better.
She continued, "After the young master left, the situation didn't improve. Every night, the old master would scream and yell, and soon he had his personal belongings moved to another residence. But after only two days, he moved back in again, and even took the young master home from the orphanage. His attitude towards him changed drastically. He ordered people to send the young master to school and arranged a driver for him. If the eldest son dared to lose his temper with the young master, he would be beaten."
"After that, I don't know exactly what happened. The eldest young master's attitude also changed. Although he would curse him verbally when he couldn't help it, he didn't dare to touch him again. I thought at the time that he was willing to accept this younger brother."
Aunt Chen smiled bitterly and looked around. "Now that I think about it, they were hindered by... by Miss Liang."
Li Zhu: "Auntie, aren't you afraid anymore?"
Only then did Aunt Chen realize that she had started to relax without knowing when.
The shaking hands stopped shaking.
Li Zhu's fingertips touched the glasses one by one, causing them to retreat into a straight line. "You've always known that this villa is not clean."
"I was deceiving myself." Aunt Chen lowered her eyes.
Li Zhu remembered something, "Oh, where did the previous housekeeper go?"
"Retired." Aunt Chen rubbed her red and swollen eyes. "When I came to the Gao family, he was already seventy years old."
Li Zhu asked, "Can you find him?"
"What do you want to do?" Aunt Chen nervously grabbed Li Zhu's arm. "Young man, listen to my advice. If something's wrong with the Gao family, we won't come here anymore. But don't ask for trouble."
"Don't worry, Auntie, I'm just asking casually." Li Zhu grinned and turned on the faucet to rinse his hands.
Aunt Chen stared at him closely and said, "I don't believe it."
"Auntie, if possible, please leave as soon as possible." Li Zhu looked behind him. The dining room connected to the kitchen was empty. "Mr. Xiao Gao told me that the house is very noisy. It's giving him a headache, and it's getting noisier..."
Aunt Chen's face was pale, and the young master had advised her to leave before.
There were only three living people in the house.
The eldest master would not speak to her unless necessary, and the younger master locked himself in his room all day long.
You don’t have to guess who is arguing and what they are arguing about.
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