This time, I no longer paid attention to the situation around the house. I just raised my head and carefully observed the charred roof.
The roof is an old-fashioned cross-top structure, with dozens of beams scattered in an orderly manner, and several columns standing below, supporting the skeleton of the entire room.
It can be seen that the beams are made of extremely valuable sea pine wood, so even though it was burned by the fire, only the surface was charred, and the overall structure did not change.
As I watched, my eyes focused on the top beam, and my pupils suddenly shrank!
In the middle of the beam, there was a deep mark that looked like it had been carved on it with a knife.
My eyes wandered, and I soon saw that next to the mark, I discovered the second, third... five knife marks in total!
There is a custom among the people in the north that if someone dies violently in the family, they will carve a knife on the beam to suppress the evil spirit. Now there are five knife marks on the beam. In other words, five people died in this house!
At this time, Bai Ze, Lonnie and others also discovered these knife marks, and a solemn look appeared on their faces.
"Knife marks suppress the evil spirit. It seems that this is an entire family that has been exterminated!"
Bai Ze looked at the knife marks on the beam and said in a deep voice.
I nodded and then looked back at the villagers who were surrounding me.
"Which of you knows who the owner of this house is?"
However, when faced with my question, the villagers shook their heads. No one knew the history of this house.
"Master Cheng, I heard when I was a child that this was the house of Zheng Youcai, the old landowner of our village!"
At this moment, the village chief squeezed out from the crowd and spoke cautiously.
"Oh? Who is Zheng Youcai? Do you know what happened to his family?"
When I heard that the village chief knew the clue, I hurried over and asked him a series of questions.
"I don't know much about this. I just heard my elders talk about Zheng Youcai when I was very young..."
The village chief scratched his head and then told us a story he had heard in his childhood.
It turns out that more than 80 years ago, there was an old rich man named Zheng Youcai in Mingjia Village. His family owned hundreds of acres of fertile land and countless cattle and sheep. He was one of the richest families in the country.
Although he has a lot of money, Zheng Youcai lives a very simple life, never pays attention to ostentation, and is good at charity. Most of the nearby villagers have received his kindness, so everyone is very grateful to him, and he is called the living Bodhisattva of Mingjia Village.
That era was very turbulent, and beggars and vagrants often found themselves on the streets. It was a very common thing at that time.
One day, Zheng Youcai just opened the door of his house and saw a homeless man lying in front of his house. He had fainted from hunger, so he quickly helped him into the house.
After the Zheng family's careful care, the homeless man finally came to his senses and learned that Zheng Youcai had saved him. He was moved to tears and immediately vowed to repay the Zheng family.
After washing up, Zheng Youcai discovered that the homeless man was actually a young man who was smart and smart, so he fell in love with him. After hearing that he was still homeless, he kept him as a servant of the Zheng family.
At the beginning, the homeless man was grateful in every possible way and said some sweet words to make Zheng Youcai happy. But as time went by, his true colors gradually emerged.
It turned out that this tramp was originally a criminal. Because he committed a crime, he disguised himself as a tramp to avoid being caught by the government, and finally hid in Zheng Youcai's home.
Zheng Youcai saw that he was becoming more and more lazy and dissatisfied, so he scolded him from time to time, but thinking that he was homeless, he never had the heart to drive him away.
Unexpectedly, because of his kindness, he brought disaster to his family.
One day, when Zheng Youcai came home from doing errands, he heard calls for help coming from the side room. He rushed over and kicked open the door, only to find that the homeless man was pressing his daughter on the bed, trying to do something evil. Things!
As soon as Zheng Youcai showed up, he immediately called the villagers over, tied up the homeless man, hung him up for a day and night, and drove him out of Mingjia Village.
Unexpectedly, the homeless man held a grudge because of this. A few days later, late at night, he quietly sneaked into Zheng's house and burned all four members of Zheng Youcai's family to death in a big fire!
"Because everyone in the Zheng family has died, and it has been too long. At least seventy or eighty years have passed. As the old people who knew about it gradually withered away, the young people in the village have no memory of this matter..."
After the village chief finished speaking, he sighed deeply, seeming to be extremely sympathetic to the Zheng family's experience.
It turns out that a massacre of family members really happened in this house. No wonder I felt a strong cold air as soon as I entered.
However, there were clearly five knife marks on the beam. But according to the village chief, there were only four people in the Zheng family back then. So what happened to the extra knife mark?
Also, so much time has passed. If there were no special means, even if Zheng Youcai's family turned into ghosts, they should have completely dissipated long ago. So how did Xiao Zhou and Xiao Liu die?
After listening to the village chief's story, I had more and more questions.
I raised my head again and looked towards the roof, and found that there was a mezzanine between the beams with knife marks and the roof. The uneasy gaze I just felt seemed to come from here...
"Village Chief, please ask someone to find a ladder!"
Although the village chief didn't know what I was going to do, he didn't dare to ask any more questions and quickly asked the two young men to go back to the village to get the ladder.
"Xiao Chengzi, did you find anything?"
Lonnie asked curiously.
"If I guess correctly, there should be some secrets hidden there that can answer our questions."
I nodded and pointed to the mezzanine on the beam.
"Brother Cheng, if you want to take the things above, I can help you. Why do you need to take the ladder?"
Bai Ze glanced at me and thought I was a bit unnecessary.
"No,"
I said in a deep voice: "Have you ever thought that since the thing is placed in that position, there may be some explanations. If it is moved rashly, what if some emergencies may occur?"
Bai Ze was stunned for a moment, then looked at the surrounding villagers, and seemed to realize that if there was any accident, although we have ways to avoid it, we cannot guarantee that these villagers will remain unscathed.
"Okay, if you think carefully, then I'll do as you say."
After a while, several young men came in carrying a bamboo ladder. I asked them to put the ladder in place and then climbed up.
After climbing to the beam, I carefully removed the floor and finally stuck my head into the mezzanine.
