Chapter 53 The Ancient Robe Woman (2/2)

“Namo Amitabha. Namo Amitabha.”

The security man inside seemed to be reciting Buddhist texts.

Hey. Buddhist people.

I thought it was interesting, so I stood at the doorman's window and listened for a while to find out what the doorman was talking about.

When I heard, I understood.

Because the doorman was saying: “Buddha, I do not hide the truth, but if I say anything, no one will believe me. You bless those two people who went into the twenty-fifth villa. Too many have died in that villa. Amitabha, Amitabha.”

The doorman had to know something. Why else would he bless us?

The men who entered the twenty-fifth villa were me and Feng Chunsheng.

I thought that the doorman seemed to know some secrets that would be useful for our business. I knocked on the door.

Bang, bang, bang!

I shot three consecutive knocks. The doorman who was knocking on the wooden fish asked: “Who’s there?”

I said nothing, just kept knocking.

After knocking several times, that guard was a little angry, and opened the door, swearing: “I asked you who you are and you’re not answering, what...”

He did not finish. He saw it was me, with Feng Chunsheng beside me.

The doorman said nothing. Like a rocket, he ran to the small bed in the guard room and plunged into the quilt, shivering: “I did no harm to you. Every injustice has its perpetrator; you find the person who harmed you. Namo Amitabha! Namo Amitabha!”

When I watched the doorman I wanted to laugh. He must have thought that Feng Chunsheng and I had died and we were ghosts, there to kill him.

I grabbed his two legs and pulled his head out of the quilt.

I scolded: “Damn it, get up. We are not dead.”

”You can't clearly tell a man from a ghost? And you just recite?” Feng Chunsheng closed the door of the guard room.

The doorman listened to us. After he turned to look at us, he was tempted to ask: “Are you human?”

”Nonsense, of course we are.” I pulled over a chair impatiently and sat down.

”Thank goodness, Buddha bless.” The doorman shook his head.

Feng Chunsheng gave a cigarette to the doorman and said: “Alas. Let me ask you, is there a problem with the twenty-fifth villa?”

”Yes, there are big problems.” The doorman nodded fiercely and said.

”Then tell us.” Feng Chunsheng sat on the edge of the little bed.

The doorman was almost fifty years old. He should be the elder in this villa area, he must hear lots of things.

The doorman sighed and trembled, lit a cigarette, and said, ”Two brothers, I advise you, since you are alive, don't ask, or you will die. You must leave.”

I shook my head and said to the doorman: “Brother just offended, I’m really sorry. You have something to say to me. The resident of the twenty-fifth villa is pregnant with a ghost embryo. She is dying.”

Hearing the words ‘ghost embryo’, the doorman immediately knelt on the ground, kowtowed to the ceramic Buddha in the guard room and said, ”Sin, sin, these two people will die in the twenty-fifty villa.”

”What are you talking about? We are not dead yet.”

”You must die, no one can save you.” The doorman said, ”Not only will she die, but also her men.”

”So strange?” I grabbed the doorman and said, ”Then you have to tell us. These are two lives, you cannot helplessly watch us die.”

The twenty-fifty villa was full of strange things. The flickering lights, the face with the long black hair, the female shadow wearing ancient Tang dynasty robes, the ghost embryo.

I didn't know what happened to her, but I thought she had a story.

The doorman, perhaps, knew the story.

We persuaded the doorman after a long while. He said: “Alas. Since you want to know, then I will tell you. In fact, I used to say this to others, but they did not believe me and still went into the twenty-fifth villa, so I didn’t know what else to do.”

“Brother, speak,” I told the doorman.

The doorman pointed at the villa and said, ”This villa is the oldest villa in the city, did you know?”

Of course I knew.

I heard this villa had been there for more than twenty years.

The doorman said that this villa had been standing for more than twenty years, but its predecessor, called the ‘Dragon Villa’, had a ten-year history.

Therefore, this villa was more than thirty years, all combined.

The doorman said that when the villa had just been built, he came to work there. That year, he was eighteen years old.

At that time, the country had a shortage of food and clothing. Although Dragon Villa was called a villa, it was, in fact, not a villa, but a row of small private houses.

When the Dragon Villa was just built, the workers dug up a coffin in the ground.

”Dug up a coffin?” I asked the doorman.