Chinese Folktale

I am a 32-year-old native of Chengdu. I am cheerful and optimistic. I have always been an atheist. When I was a child, I was particularly afraid of ghost and supernatural events. However, I am a stubborn person. The more afraid I am, the more I want to overcome it. So, since I was young, I have watched ghost movies, listened to ghost stories, and searched for information about supernatural events everywhere. Gradually, I changed from being afraid to being curious. Later, film and television works could no longer satisfy my curiosity. So I became keen on exploring haunted places and had four experiences in exploring haunted places.

My friend Li Zhongping is in his thirties and is an outstanding young man. He has bought several houses in Chengdu through his own efforts. In the summer of 2018, a group of us came to a homestay in Qingcheng Shenyun Community in Jiezi Ancient Town, Chongzhou City, on the periphery of Chengdu. This homestay is a row of small villas. The first floor and the second and third floors are beautifully decorated and the environment is good. Moreover, as soon as you leave the community, you are at the scenic spot of Jiezi Ancient Town, which is very attractive. But the lighting here is poor and it is extremely damp. Unexpectedly, Li Zhongping took a fancy to the house in this community and said that he wanted to buy a set here for vacation. Everyone thought he was joking. Unexpectedly, in less than two months, he really bought the second-hand house we had rented. The homestay owner said that this house was bought by a local official for his mistress or someone else around 2013. Later, due to anti-corruption efforts, the official sold it at a low price to cash out and run away. The owner bought four sets and then sold one to Li Zhongping at the market price. Li Zhongping didn't bargain much and took it. Because the house is beautifully decorated, all he needs is to add a set of floor heating.

One year later, in August 2024, we came here again for vacation. After staying for two nights, we found it was really too damp. The quilt and bed sheet were still wet when the air conditioner was on for cooling. On the third day, we planned to go back. Li Zhongping called a housekeeping service to thoroughly clean the mold on the wall. I have a good relationship with him, so I stayed to help. When the cleaner was cleaning the lamp, when the lampshade of the chandelier was removed, there was actually a yellow rolled-up paper in each lampshade. When opened, it was similar to the spell in the movie. Li Zhongping and the cleaner were both frightened. But I wasn't afraid. I even joked that there must have been a death in this house and someone had performed a spell to imprison the soul here. Then we contacted the homestay owner. The owner said he had never seen these things. Then, curiosity drove me to conduct a thorough cleaning in the house. First, I took pictures of the spell to show off on Moments. Then I searched from the third floor to the first floor, leaving no corner untouched. I even wanted to cut open the wall to see if there was a corpse, but I didn't dare for fear of being arrested. Later, when I was lying on the bed and heard a creaking sound, I found that the steel pipes of the bed's support legs were filled neatly with old copper coins. We also found three dead mice in the air conditioning duct. They had already decayed to only bones. They should have been put in after there was no smell. The two cleaning ladies were scared away. We found new cleaners to continue the cleaning. Li Zhongping told me that when installing floor heating last year, there were many red and black woolen threads under the floorboards. They were in an orderly manner one by one, as if they had been deliberately stuck on the ground. My curiosity flared up. I wanted to pry up the kitchen tiles to see, but found nothing.

Later, we burned the spell, asked the cleaner to clean up the dead mice, and put the copper coins in the safe at the property management office for safekeeping. That night after returning to Chengdu, we called our friends out and told them the whole story. When I was telling it, I embellished it a bit to scare the girls. But when I took out my phone to show everyone the pictures, I found that the pictures of the spell, copper coins, mice, and even the group photos of us and the house from three days ago were all gone. The pictures on Li Zhongping's phone were also gone. Our friends were half-believing and half-doubting. A friend suggested going to see it the next day. Although some people objected, everyone was very curious, so we agreed to go together the next day.

The next morning, we set off. Just as we got on the elevated road at Chengdu-Wenjiang Interchange, the tires of my car and Li Zhongping's car burst almost simultaneously. Fortunately, the speed was slow during the morning rush hour. After we fixed the tires and arrived at Huaiyuan Town, Chongzhou City, we found a very famous restaurant for lunch. This restaurant claims to be an authentic old store and has good business. We ordered special dishes. As a result, the stir-fried twice-cooked pork was stinky, and the frozen cake also had a strange taste. After the boss treated us to a new meal, we continued on our way to Jiezi Ancient Town. When we arrived at the destination, Li Zhongping went to the property management office to get the copper coins, but found that they were gone. The surveillance showed that Li Zhongping had put something in, but no one was seen taking it. When we came to the house, the kitchen floor was intact as before. There was no spell in the lampshade of the chandelier, and there was nothing in the support legs of the bed either. Li Zhongping called the housekeeping company to ask who the cleaning ladies were yesterday. The housekeeping company said that we had only made one reservation. Two minutes later, we said we didn't need it anymore, so they didn't send anyone. But Li Zhongping clearly only called a second housekeeping company once and said that he wanted the cleaning ladies from yesterday to come again because the cleaning was not done properly. After waiting for about two hours, the aunt came. We asked the aunt if she saw us pry up the kitchen floor yesterday. The aunt said that we had been chatting on the balcony all the time. Later, we went upstairs and said we wanted to take a nap. After she finished cleaning and called you (pointing at Li Zhongping), you came downstairs and gave us money. You (pointing at me again) also gave me a black bag and said there were old woolen threads inside and asked me to throw it away. We took the money and left. We didn't see you guys working on the kitchen. At that moment, I was like being struck by a bolt from the blue. I didn't know what Li Zhongping was thinking. I was really so scared that I slumped to the ground. Thinking about me, a burly man 1.78 meters tall and weighing over 170 pounds, being so scared that my legs gave way and I slumped down in such a comical way. Now when I think about it, I still find it funny. Our friends are still half-believing and half-doubting. What makes them doubt is that this thing is too strange and there are many things that can't be explained. But what makes them believe is that Li Zhongping wouldn't randomly say his house is a haunted house. Telling such a lie has no benefit for him.

Less than a week later, Li Zhongping put the house up for sale. A month later, the house was sold. This incident made me change from an atheist to a theist. To this day, I still think this incident is extremely strange and there are many things that can't be explained.