False evidence

Chapter 183 The Haunted House
Seeing that I turned my head away, Gao He knew I didn't want to talk more, so he changed the subject:
"Let's discuss Uncle Cheng's funeral arrangements. Given Fang Ling's current condition, I think it's best not to let her know for now."

I said, "You take care of Sister Ling. I'm being discharged from the hospital now and will go to Shuangshan Cemetery to make arrangements."

Most of the elderly people in the cemetery knew Uncle Cheng, and two of them had been to Monkey's clinic and recognized him. Moreover, Gao He had already called the cemetery before we arrived.

Upon learning of Uncle Cheng's passing, they expressed their sorrow and regret, and said they would help with the funeral arrangements, and could also assist with contacting the funeral home if needed.

Before leaving, an elderly staff member surnamed Hou said, "I just heard you say that Lao Fang's daughter is in the hospital? Sigh, father and daughter have been together for decades, it's inevitable... If possible, you should go to Lao Fang's house and tidy up his belongings and clothes. So that his daughter won't feel even more distressed when she sees them at home."

We thanked Uncle Hou.

We drove to Uncle Cheng's house. Although he gave me the key, it wasn't my own home. He said he needed to sort out his belongings, but Pidan, Monkey, and I didn't know where to begin.

Pidan reminded me, "Didn't Uncle Cheng leave you a letter? Why don't you open it and take a look?"

It was only then that I remembered this matter. I took out the letter, opened it, and glanced at it. My eyes couldn't help but sting a little again.

The first half of the letter was similar to what Uncle Cheng had told me that noon.

He truly had a premonition of something, and in the tone of an elder, he entrusted his affairs to me, his junior.

After reading all the content, I felt extremely heavy-hearted, and at the same time, I had some doubts.

Pidan asked me what the letter said.

I said, "He just wants me to take care of Sister Ling. He even wrote a power of attorney a long time ago, saying he would give me half of his assets."

The monkey patted my shoulder: "When Stinky Egg was buried, the old man could tell that someone who would give such valuable items to a cat as burial goods was someone worth entrusting your life to."

Seeing my furrowed brow, Pidan asked perceptively, "What else did he say?"

“He said that in the past two months, he felt that Sister Ling had become a bit strange, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong with her.”

I gave the letter to Pidan.

After reading it, Pidan also found it strange: "At the end of the letter, he said that he knew your personality and that you might not accept his inheritance, but there were three things among his belongings that must not be given to Fang Ling, or even seen by Fang Ling. He also said that his intuition told him that if Fang Ling saw or got those three things, she would definitely suffer a bad end."

"Did the letter say what those three things were?" the monkey asked.

“They didn’t say, they just said the things were together with the property certificate and bankbook.” Pidan looked at me.

I went into the room that originally belonged to Uncle Cheng, opened the wardrobe, and found a locked box under layers of old clothes.

He took out the key that Uncle Cheng had given him earlier and opened the box.

Upon seeing the stack of property deeds inside, Monkey exclaimed in amazement, "The old man is really something."

Removing the property ownership certificate means removing the passbook and bank card.

Below that were three envelopes and a porcelain bottle sealed with wax.

Thinking of the three items mentioned in the letter, I immediately picked up the porcelain vase, only to find a label on it that read:

Don't open it, read the letter first.

I recognized Uncle Cheng's handwriting, so I quickly put down the porcelain bottle and picked up the three envelopes.

It must be said that Uncle Cheng is very serious and meticulous in his work; he even wrote the numbers one, two, and three on the covers of the three letters.

I exchanged glances with Pidan and Monkey.

The monkey said, "The letter is for you. You can read it, but I'd better leave."

I didn't mean it that way, but he insisted on going to the outer room.

I had no choice but to open the envelope marked number one first.

Inside, besides a property transfer authorization certificate issued by a law firm, there were three sheets of letter paper.

Strangely, these three sheets of paper are not modern; not only is the paper yellowed, but the writing on the back is also vertical.

I unfolded the letter and immediately recognized it as Uncle Cheng's handwriting, but the characters were somewhat crooked, and there was a typo in the first two sentences. This was not difficult to explain.

Uncle Cheng once said that he was originally a farmer, but because of his father, he knew some remedies for treating people and livestock, and later became a veterinarian. Only after that did his education level improve to a certain extent.

The letter was only three pages long, but it took Pidan and me almost twenty minutes to read it all.

Because at that time, Uncle Cheng's level of education was really limited. Apart from a lot of typos, he had to read many sentences repeatedly to roughly understand their meaning.

The three sheets of paper contain a coherent narrative, but they are not a single letter; rather, they record events from a particular era.

The complete content can be summarized as follows:

On a certain day of a certain month of a certain year, Uncle Cheng's family was allocated this house.

Compared to their original home, the whole family should be overjoyed to have such an exquisite and spacious house.

However, Uncle Cheng's parents were not happy.

Because at that time, Uncle Cheng had tuberculosis, and it was already very serious.

Pulmonary tuberculosis is what we now call tuberculosis.

Modern medicine is advanced, but in the past, when Western medicine was scarce, tuberculosis was almost a terminal illness for poor families.

However, on the very night they moved into their new house, something extremely strange happened.

This incident can be said to have changed Uncle Cheng's life.

On the night they moved into their new home, Uncle Cheng's parents went to bed early because they were exhausted from the day.

Uncle Cheng was coughing so badly he couldn't sleep. He thought to himself, since he didn't have much time left and would be unable to take care of his parents after he died, he might as well do more for them while he was still alive.

When he was young, Uncle Cheng was a tough guy. He made up his mind to take three times the dose of cough medicine in one go so as not to disturb his parents.

Then, I began to carefully clean and tidy every room in the new house.

After cleaning everything except his parents' room, Uncle Cheng set his sights on the beams of the main house.

The specific customs vary from place to place, but most places don't sweep the dust off the beams.

But a new home should look like a new home.

So Uncle Cheng brought over a ladder, grabbed a small broom, and quietly climbed up.

But as soon as they reached the top of the beam, they suddenly felt something was wrong.

Intuitively, I felt that there was some living thing watching me from above.

At that time, most suburban areas did not have electricity and were lit by oil lamps.

Although Uncle Cheng had a feeling, he couldn't see what was on the beam.

While I was wondering what was going on, I suddenly felt a chill on my left hand.

Looking down and using the light from below, he was terrified.

A small red snake, about a foot long and as thick as a chopstick, was coiled around his wrist!

At that moment, Uncle Cheng only felt a numbness in a certain part of his left hand.

Then the little snake disappeared without a trace.

Uncle Cheng thought to himself, "That's it."

The more brightly colored a snake is, the more potent its venom.

Bitten by a venomous snake in the middle of the night, even if I immediately went to find the village doctor—that arrogant short-haired girl in a white coat who was only two years older than me—could he save me?

(End of this chapter)