117 ghosts swarming

, others as small as cups, rising up from the lake in a flurry.The whole sky seemed to be covered in starlight."Look! What are these They're so beautiful...""Whoa... so many... did some rich dude prop...Cheng Banxian sat in a chair beside me, weakly directing my brother to help him pack his things.

I used hot water to wipe down my dad's body. He takes good care of himself, and hasn't developed bedsores or anything like that. This several hundred thousand dollars in medical expenses wasn't wasted.

Jiang Qiyun had just dispelled the barrier when a nurse rushed in, staring at us warily and asking, "What are you doing"

"Visiting, the front desk has a record of it, this is my dad." My brother immediately answered.

The nurse's expression softened, just as she was about to speak, I heard my father suddenly groan in a raspy voice.

She was startled and immediately rang for the doctor, shouting. The patient who had been in a coma for several months had woken up. This was definitely newsworthy.

"Dad, Dad!" I rushed over, wishing I could slap his face to wake him up.

"Ouch... Little, Little Qiao... Cough... You, you chest... It's pressing me so I can't breathe..."

This stinky old geezer!!

I really want to slap him twice! We put in so much effort! He actually just started joking around as soon as he came to his senses!

Looking at Cheng Banxian's haggard appearance, I felt a pang of pity. I asked my brother to take him home to rest first, while I stayed in the hospital with my father.

Jiang Qiyun had been silently following me. I was afraid he'd be bored, so I told him he could go busy himself first and just remember... well, to remember to come back for a rest at night. His playful gaze made my face flush and my heart race.

My dad probably can't see him, but he can feel his presence. That old geezer is always giving me the side-eye.

"...See you tonight." he whispered in my ear.

I think he did it on purpose. My dad looked at me like I was about to explode, his face instantly turning red. He smirked and asked, "Xiao Qiao, what's wrong Why are you so red"

He lay for three months, his whole body muscles weak, and still needed follow-up massage rehabilitation. I stayed with him until the evening, and he urged us to go home, saying that he had exams to study for and didn't want to waste time.

I glanced at my brother, not daring to mention that our absences were almost up to the standard for expulsion.

On the way back, my brother sighed and said that maybe we should just go for an internship. It's better to get a diploma and bring it back home to comfort dad.

Just when we felt relieved, Uncle Cheng Su suddenly called us out of the blue.

Jiang Qiyun often keeps me up until late at night, so whenever my phone vibrates while I'm sleeping, he immediately swipes it away. I have no choice but to have my uncle call my brother instead.

I was half asleep when I heard my brother's voice outside the door: "Little Qiao, are you awake Can I come in... I said, Uncle, you really are something else. People are sleeping and you have me knock on the door!"

I struggled to open my eyes and replied with a weak voice. When my brother walked in, he saw that Jiang Qiyun was gone and let out a sigh of relief. "Your uncle is looking for you," he said.

I huddled under the blankets, listening to the phone call. Uncle Cheng's voice was a bit rushed: "Xiao Qiao, is your husband there"

"...He's not here. He usually appears at night."

"Then you and Yunfan come over here for a bit, there are some things I need your help looking at," Uncle Chengsu told them the address.

My brother was searching for an address in the car and was puzzled: "What's Huilong Village... what kind of place is this I've never heard of it, it seems to be near the new district..."

The new district demolished a lot of dilapidated houses, and now it looks like a construction site. While high-rise buildings are being erected on one side, there are also rows of dilapidated huts, resembling a slum area.

The indigenous people received relocation compensation a long time ago and are now considered wealthy. They rent out these dilapidated houses to migrant workers for cheap, which attracts many laborers.

Hualong Village refers to this area of dilapidated, winding houses. With cheap rent, it's populated by many workers who live there and do small businesses. As a result, the environment, sanitation, and security in this area are the worst.

I gazed from afar at the dense cluster of houses, seemingly shrouded in a grayish mist. I felt it shouldn't be called Huilong Village; Worm Village would be more fitting. Various makeshift sheds and earthen walls, with small courtyards, were already considered high-end residences here. The roads were extremely narrow, so cramped that even two people walking side by side felt squeezed.

"This neighborhood is definitely unsafe. What kind of people live here..." My brother sighed: "Even if I were poor enough to sleep in a bridge hole, I wouldn't want to live here."

There were a bunch of police officers at the alley entrance separating the crowd. I took a look at these onlookers. It was winter, but they were all dressed thinly, some cotton coats had run out of fluff, looking very poor. Some women wore short skirts and stockings, watching from afar with terrified expressions on their faces.

Uncle saw us and nodded to the police officers around us, then lifted the barrier tape to let us in.

"Xiao Qiao, what do you think of this piece"

"What's what"

"Feng shui, what do you think of the feng shui here"

I scoff, does this even need asking Anyone with a shred of knowledge can see that the feng shui here is terrible.

Surrounded by construction sites, the atmosphere is chaotic. The tall buildings gather all kinds of gloomy energy in this low-lying area.

And because the houses here are built close together to maximize rental value, ventilation and natural light are poor. A thick, murky and unpleasant air permeates the area, which can easily affect people who live there for a long time.

Here, the houses are almost all single-room structures. The door is right on the street, and inside, the entire house—eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, sleeping—all takes place in one room. The bed is directly facing the door.

In Feng Shui, "straight through" and "stagnant" are both taboos, this place basically encompasses all the taboos.

"Uncle, what happened here What can we do to help" I asked.

He led us to a corner and whispered, "We've been conducting a large-scale inspection recently, and I found that the security situation here is terrifying! There have been many murders, all very strange. But the local police station didn't report them before! When we questioned the chief, he was found dead at home... They said it was suicide, but it seemed suspicious to me... There was another incident here today, a couple arguing at home and stabbing each other with knives. A young woman who had just arrived reported the incident. The acting chief didn't try to cover it up, so he reported it to us."

"What use is it to come to us for this kind of thing" My brother was baffled. Family disputes happen everywhere, we're not mediators.

“You’ll see when you come.” Uncle Chengsu handed us our equipment.

He brought officers who mostly handled strange criminal cases. Each of them wore masks, gloves, and some even had on aprons like sanitation suits.

There was an old dog in the yard. It didn't move when it saw us. A heavy, musty smell filled the air, along with a stench.

I reacted strongly. As soon as I stood by the door, I covered my mouth and wanted to vomit. There was a section of an arm about the length of a forearm at the edge of the door. This rookie could spot something was wrong just by looking at it -smell on him—the mixture of blood and herbs.This man's face was drenched in blood. His eyelids and the skin around his mouth seemed to be affected throughout his entire body, as if it had been burned...