Chapter Thirty-Six: Ghostly Happenings in the House of Shadows

“Ten years ago, the developers dug up a nest of yellow weasels,” the security guard said with grave seriousness.

“Where exactly did this happen?”

“Right under the foundation of Building 44 as it stands now!”

It turned out that a decade ago, when the developers were laying the foundations for this complex, they unearthed a coffin. In earlier days, because there was no centralized management, some poor families, needing to bury their loved ones, would dig wherever they could find space. After digging a hole, they’d simply lower the coffin in and consider the burial complete—so finding a coffin during construction was not particularly unusual.

The construction crew, made up of common laborers, didn’t think much of it and set about opening the coffin without hesitation. Even the poorest families would bury a few small keepsakes with the deceased, and after a quick discussion, the workers began to entertain dishonest thoughts.

But to their astonishment, when they opened the coffin, there was no corpse inside. Instead, they found a nest of lively yellow weasels, chittering and squeaking energetically.

People back then were courageous, and the sight didn’t scare them much. Soon, they all gathered around the discovery.

The developer, however, was thrown into a panic. If such spiritual creatures were unearthed here, would it be possible to complete the building? The feng shui master they’d hired waved his hand and declared, “Keep digging. This is a feng shui nexus. If this building isn’t constructed, no one will buy in this entire development.”

Gritting his teeth, the developer steeled himself and ordered the crew to continue digging through the night. Little did they know what lay beneath. Only a few more meters down, everyone was stunned—the foundation concealed a neat row of gold ingots, weighing over ten kilograms.

As soon as the gold was uncovered, the weasels from the coffin swarmed around, clinging to the treasure and refusing to budge no matter how hard the workers tried to chase them off.

After a hurried conference, the workers, tempted by the gold, made a ruthless decision. They raised their shovels and killed the nest of weasels right there in the pit, spattering the gold with fresh blood.

At this point, the security guard paused.

“And then?” Old Liao, thoroughly engrossed, pressed for more.

The guard’s expression grew strange. “A couple of days later, every worker who’d taken a share of the gold was found dead in their homes. During the police autopsies, they discovered all the gold ingots inside the men’s stomachs.”

“Brother, how did the building ever get finished after that?” I asked the guard.

This incident attracted the attention of the local government at the time. The police investigated repeatedly but found nothing conclusive. Under mounting pressure, the developer sought every possible solution and eventually invited a Taoist priest to help. The priest declared that they’d angered the Wild Immortals of the Huang family, having killed their young and stolen their treasure.

So the developer paid out of his own pocket to cast ten kilograms of gold ingots, which he placed back into the pit. He arranged for the weasels’ bodies to receive a proper burial at the original site, complete with a spirit tablet. He also generously hired a group of bold laborers, including the security guard himself, to carefully restore the pit and the spirit tablet, covering them up just as they were before. After that, no more deadly hauntings occurred.

Back then, the Taoist priest had real skill and repeatedly warned that the land should never again be used for building. Thus, during the first phase of development, the largest and most central plot of land remained empty, a bare patch in stark contrast to its surroundings.

But half a year later, the owner of Lijing Garden intervened. It was said he’d made his fortune in the underworld and was ruthless in his dealings. He reopened the pit and began construction anew—not just building, but erecting the grandest villa on that very spot.

The weasels’ spirit tablet was unearthed again. The boss, showing no hesitation, burned the tablet and began work in earnest. As for the gold ingots, no one could say what became of them.

Gradually, the barren land of Building 44 transformed into the most impressive villa in the complex. The adjacent open space was converted into a private garden, and the price of the property soared.

Oddly enough, every woman who bought the villa became pregnant within a year. Yet, when they went for ultrasound scans, the results were always the same as Liu Juan’s: a pitch-black shadow, with no trace of a child. Even as medical technology improved over the years, and four-dimensional ultrasounds became standard, nothing changed—the baby remained invisible.

“With such a haunted history, how can people still live here?”

“At first, lots of people didn’t believe in such things. The design and location were exceptional, attracting many prospective buyers. But as more supernatural events occurred, the price dropped steadily. Initially, you couldn’t buy it for less than ten million, but the last time it sold, the price was only around 1.3 or 1.4 million.”

“People these days are pretty savvy. Most check the feng shui before buying a house, especially with so many strange incidents. Why would Liu Juan agree to buy this one?” Old Liao asked, perplexed.

“That’s hard to say. Maybe she just wanted a bargain…” The security guard shrugged helplessly.

Suddenly, he slapped his forehead as if recalling something, and rummaged through his phone before showing us the screen. “Look, this is a photo of that nest of yellow weasels.”

Old Liao and I leaned in for a look. Though the image quality was poor, we could just make out a litter of weasels, still looking very young.

Old Liao took a picture of the photo with his own phone and scrutinized it carefully, but neither of us could discern anything unusual.

“I almost forgot! We actually have an expert on this!” I quickly called Aji from the Hu family up in the northeast.

“Beep… beep… The number you have dialed is temporarily unavailable.” I opened up King of Glory, and sure enough, he was online! I sent him a direct message: “Hu Ji, help me take a look at a photo of some weasels. I’ll send it to you on WeChat.”

“If I win this match, I’ll check it out for you.”

“Check it out for me, and I’ll help you reach Platinum.”

The Millennium Fox has left the game.

Before long, Aji replied, “These are just ordinary weasels—nothing to do with the Huang family. The Fourth Young Master of the Huang family is right beside me. Do you want to talk to him?”

“No, no, that’s not necess