I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

Lu Ban glanced around and indeed didn't see the boy who had been staring at him earlier.

So that person is...

"Oh, then you'd better be careful."

Lu Ban pondered for a moment, gave a word of advice, and then added a sentence.

"I think he might be holding a grudge, so you'd better not stay here overnight."

Upon hearing Lu Ban's words, the girls' faces turned even paler.

But it seems that they are hesitant because the daily rental price is very expensive.

"Okay, if you have any questions, you can contact me directly. This is my phone number. I'll be staying here tonight."

Lu Ban gave out his number, said goodbye to the others, and returned to his villa.

After a while, he heard the singing next door stop, and then there was no more noise.

As evening fell and the night deepened, Lu Ban looked at the villa next door, where the lights were still on but there was no sound of people, and felt something was wrong. He took out his phone and made a call to the real estate agent.

"Hello, I'm from the short-term rental area. I wanted to ask, didn't you say there were no rentals around this villa? Why are there college students having a party next door?"

"...Indeed, there are no rentals. I'm in charge of this area, and I can confirm that no one else is renting the rooms."

"They're still here. I can take a picture if you don't believe me."

Lu Ban went into the yard, took a picture of the brightly lit villa next door with his phone, and prepared to send it to the real estate agent via WeChat.

But when Lu Ban selected the picture, he felt something was strange.

He clicked on the photo and zoomed in.

Then I saw several young men and women standing at the second-floor window, where there had been no one before.

Their clothes varied, but all were stained with blood. The young men who had taken Lu Ban's roasted lamb chops that afternoon were pale-faced with dark eyes that had no whites. They all raised their right hands, as if waving at Lu Ban.

When Lu Ban looked up at the villa again, it was completely dark, with no trace of anyone having ever been there.

[Motionless]: Maybe I'm seeing things.

Lu Ban sent a WeChat message and didn't bother the agent anymore.

He returned to the empty house and used his phone to search for keywords related to the villa and the college student case.

Soon, Lu Ban discovered that a case involving college students had occurred in the villa area about three years ago.

It was a gathering of classmates when an argument broke out. The group, who had been on good terms, suddenly started fighting each other, and no one survived. When the real estate agent arrived at the villa the next day, all he could see was bloodstains all over the house.

However, after carefully counting the number of victims and the number of college students he met, Lu Ban found that there was still one extra.

"...The people on the second floor of that building don't seem to be one of their university students."

Lu Ban quickly realized this.

That person was a bit younger, like a high school or junior high school student.

He continued his investigation but found no further information.

After thinking it over, Lu Ban decided to call He Youwu.

"...So you're finally going to turn yourself in?"

He Youwu was still somewhat dazed when he said the first sentence, subconsciously.

"In the Jiangcheng XXX villa area, a college student was murdered three years ago. I want to know if there were any other cases in these villas before that. The victim may have been a junior high school or high school student."

Lu Ban didn't tease her; he went straight to the point.

"???"

Are you the police or are we the police?

He Youwu mentally complained, but out of curiosity, he still started looking at the electronic case files.

After a moment, he was somewhat surprised.

"Yes, it happened ten years ago. In this villa area, there was a family whose parents worked away from home, leaving only their son, a high school freshman, at home. He was awakened by thieves in the middle of the night and went to check on them, only to be murdered by the two thieves. Their bodies were dismembered and hidden in the swimming pool and garden..."

Upon hearing He Youwu's words, Lu Ban immediately understood.

Was it the lingering resentment of the initial victim that led to the subsequent infighting among college students?

In addition, dismemberment...

"Have the perpetrators from ten years ago been found? They were also involved in dismemberment, so they should be highly suspicious."

Lu Ban offered a reminder.

"...Right, I'll check right now. I don't have the necessary permissions to see the details on this computer."

He Youwu immediately stood up.

He glanced at the computer screen and said something else.

"By the way, how did you know all this?"

“I’m at number 81 in this villa area right now. I noticed that the lights were on next door, but there was something strange inside, so I checked it out.”

Lu Ban looked through the window at the neighboring house.

"what?"

He Youwu paused for a moment, then glanced at the computer again to confirm before speaking.

"But the crime scene was at No. 81 in the villa area."

Chapter 094 Can you give me a ride?

The moment Lu Ban heard He Youwu's words, the light in his room flickered for a moment and then went out.

The room was plunged into darkness, with only moonlight filtering through the windows, bringing a few glimmers of light.

"Hello, hello, can you hear me...?"

The phone signal seemed to be malfunctioning; He Youwu's voice became distorted and intermittent, and soon, there was no sound at all from the receiver.

Lu Ban saw that the signal was now crossed out, which meant that he was unable to contact the outside world.

"No wonder no one rents this villa around here; it turns out it's a haunted house."

Lu Ban muttered to himself.

"I heard that haunted houses are very cheap. If I could buy one, could I exchange it for another one?"

He quite liked this kind of outdoor swimming pool.

Lu Ban glanced at the courtyard. The water in the swimming pool appeared even more intense and deep under the moonlight, like it was stained with blood.

Ten years ago, that poor child was probably murdered by a vicious criminal who then dumped his body in a weed-covered swimming pool, where it wasn't discovered until many days later.

Feeling someone breathing on him from behind, Lu Ban turned around.

Several college students stood in the living room, their expressions sinister, waving mechanically at Lu Ban like puppets on strings.

"You were bewitched and killed each other. After death, your souls were bound here, becoming the child's puppets, just like the 'Chang Gui' (a type of ghost in Chinese mythology)?"

Lu Ban remained calm, took two steps forward, and sat down.

"You invited me into your house during the day to scare me and make me leave as soon as possible?"

The college students remained expressionless, only waving their hands slowly and continuously.

"Or are you saying that if I invite you into the house, you can harm people at will?"

There is a legend that ghosts are generally not allowed to enter other people's houses. Only when the homeowner invites them can a ghost enter. Just now, Lu Ban told these college students that if they were afraid, they could come to his house, which seemed like an invitation.

“I am just an ordinary law-abiding citizen. If you have grievances, you should not come to me, but go to the person who harmed you. Has he not been brought to justice yet?”

Lu Ban tried to reason with the ghost.

He felt a gust of cold wind beside him, turned his head, and saw static on the television screen. In a flash, a young man dressed in blood-stained clothes appeared on the television screen, his eyes were black, and he was shedding tears of blood.

"I sympathize with you, but if you hurt innocent people, wouldn't you be the same as the person who killed you?"

Lu Ban looked at the person with a ferocious expression on the TV screen and said.

Just then, someone patted his shoulder. Lu Ban turned around and saw the young man's face, covered in blood, right in front of him.

"How about this, you go on your way and I promise you, I will definitely find the murderer who killed you, is that alright?"

Lu Ban's fingers tapped rhythmically on the armrest of the chair.

He felt as if a rope was wrapped around his neck, making it difficult to breathe. His ears were ringing, and blood rushed to his brain.

But the melody in Lu Ban's hands had already begun.

It is Du Danping's "Midnight Qin Music".

Lu Ban can play this melody in any situation using any object that can make a sound, and this melody has the effect of calming people's minds and warding off evil.

As Lu Ban played, he felt himself calm down. The mechanically waving college students slowed down, the television screen disappeared, and before he knew it, only a young man covered in blood was left standing in the room.

"Go in peace."

Lu Ban sped up the pace of his performance.

The young man's expression was complex, seemingly a mixture of resentment and anticipation, before he finally disappeared.

Under the moonlight, the entire mansion was silent.

After a long while, Lu Ban finally stood up and glanced at the swimming pool.

It remained deep and rich inside, seemingly tainted by blood.

"Oh, it's my blood. Then it's alright."

He inspected the villa, and only slowly walked downstairs when He Youwu and Chen Danshen arrived in their police car.

"So the murderer in that theft and murder case hasn't been found yet?"

After giving a brief explanation, Lu Ban inquired.

"We found one, or more precisely, we found one of the bodies."

He Youwu felt that although the room was brightly lit, it still felt eerie, as if something was shrouding it. Coupled with the description he had seen in the files, he couldn't help but feel uneasy.