"On the day we came back, Uncle Youliang said that our old house had been unoccupied for a long time and there wasn't even a place to sit. He invited us to his house for tea and a rest."
"We didn't want to disturb him because we heard from the village elders that Uncle Youliang had some strange illness and didn't have much time left."
"But he was especially hospitable, and we couldn't refuse his kindness, so we sat in his courtyard for a while."
Luo Xingfa looked at the quiet old tile-roofed house, his expression becoming increasingly grim as he spoke.
"What kind of strange illness?" Lu Fei asked curiously.
"I'm not quite sure; I didn't feel comfortable asking too many questions at the time," Luo Xingfa said with a frown.
"I heard that a few years ago, while working outside, he accidentally inhaled some toxic gas, and it affected his respiratory system and lungs."
"His voice was hoarse when he talked, but he still kept talking to us, playing with Hao Hao, and giving him candy."
"I smelled a stench like dead rats from his mouth, but I didn't feel right saying anything. I was worried the candy he gave Hao Hao might not be clean, so I quietly threw it away."
"Actually, we weren't very close to his family. I thought he was just lonely and wanted some company, since his wife and child had both passed away a few years ago due to illness and a car accident."
"So, it should be him." Lu Fei was already eighty to ninety percent certain in his heart, "Usually, only someone with a terminal illness would need to borrow life. He must have secretly placed the bronze mirror on Hao Hao when you weren't paying attention."
"That's too much! Suffering from a terminal illness himself, he wants my Hao Hao's life! We even felt sorry for him and gave him two thousand yuan at the time!"
Luo Xingfa was both angry and resentful, and immediately wanted to rush into the house to confront the person.
"Mr. Luo, calm down! The person who could produce such an odd bronze mirror and use the life-borrowing technique is definitely not ordinary."
Lu Fei held down his shoulder, signaling him not to act so rashly.
"Follow me, don't do anything reckless!"
"Okay, I'll listen to Manager Lu!" Luo Xingfa gritted his teeth and nodded, carefully following Lu Fei into the courtyard.
The little black dog was sniffing and looking around everywhere in the yard.
The house was completely silent, with not a single sound, exuding an eerie atmosphere.
Lu Fei felt that something was off, especially about the threshold that was missing a piece.
The thresholds in rural areas are usually quite high; scientifically speaking, it's to prevent bugs and the like from entering the house, and in terms of superstition, it's to ward off evil and block inauspicious things.
Therefore, people in the countryside pay a lot of attention to their thresholds.
However, this family's threshold was missing a piece, and it had not been repaired in time.
Was it forgotten, or was it intentional?
But there was no time to consider that now; they needed to catch the person first.
Lu Fei and Luo Xingfa approached the house quietly, only to find that the door was not closed and was slightly ajar.
"Be careful!"
Lu Fei signaled to Luo Xingfa, gently pushed the door open, and after checking left and right, he walked in.
The house was filled with a musty smell, everything was covered in a layer of dust, and there were many rat-like droppings scattered by the windows.
"No one here?"
Unexpectedly, the house was empty!
The two of them searched high and low, but found no one.
"Could it be that he knew we were coming and fled in advance?" Luo Xingfa became anxious.
Despite their hurried efforts, they still ended up with nothing!
"It shouldn't be the case."
Lu Fei pointed to the dust in the house and the fallen leaves and weeds in the courtyard.
"He must have stopped living here a long time ago!"
"How could this be?" Luo Xingfa was greatly shocked and even more anxious, "Then where should we look for him?"
Lu Fei was also very puzzled; last night, when he used Tongyou, the old man was clearly standing in this house.
The broken threshold and the bamboo grove outside the courtyard wall.
The view is exactly the same!
If it was an image from the past, the old man would not have been able to notice and cut off the connection with the bronze mirror.
But the signs of this house being unoccupied for a long time are absolutely genuine.
What could be the reason?
"Don't worry, let's ask around in the village." Lu Fei quickly calmed down.
A village is just a small place, if someone farts at the head of the village, you can hear it at the tail end.
If something happens to one household in the village, the others will definitely know about it.
"Yes, yes, I'll go ask around!"
Luo Xingfa hurried out of the courtyard.
Lu Fei called for the black puppy to follow.
By this time, it was already quite bright outside.
The villagers were starting to get busy one after another, and many of them saw Luo Xingfa, greeting him warmly.
"Aunt Wang, I passed by Youliang's house after picking up something and wanted to visit, but no one was home. Why is that?"
"Oh, he's not in the village anymore. Just a few days after you guys came back last time, he left."
"Where did he go?" Luo Xingfa asked hurriedly.
"He said he went to a big hospital in the city for treatment, saying his illness still had hope, and he wanted to give it a try."
"Which hospital?"
"We don't know. He didn't say! We think he might have been scammed. There are so many con artists nowadays... A few days ago, the village chief called him, but couldn't get through... We think things might be bad for him, maybe even..."
"Isn't there something wrong with his family's ancestral grave? A couple of years ago, his wife and children passed away, and now it's his turn. The symptoms his wife had before she died were quite similar to his, vomiting tumors..."
"Stop talking about it, it's too ominous..."
The villagers shook their heads, each expressing their own opinion.
The topic quickly changed, and they began to gossip about the affairs of the neighbors.
Luo Xingfa's face turned pale as he looked at Lu Fei weakly, "Shopkeeper Lu, what should we do if we can't find him?"
"Don't panic, there's always a way."
Lu Fei lowered his head in thought for a moment, then took out the peculiar bronze mirror to look at it, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"A trace of his soul is still within this bronze mirror!"
"Since the borrowing of life did not fully complete, his soul cannot return, and he cannot live like a normal person."
"I reckon that this is why he has gone into hiding."
Luo Xingfa's expression was one of bewilderment: "What does this mean?"
"It means he will continue to borrow life! Perhaps at night, he will sneak back home to perform the ceremony." Lu Fei analyzed calmly, "All we need to do is wait for him at his house, like waiting for a rabbit to run into a trap."
"But what if he doesn't come back?" Luo Xingfa asked, deeply worried, "Can't he perform the ritual somewhere else?"
"Your concern is valid, but if he could borrow life force in another place, there would have been no need for him to return home in the first place. We must have missed something; perhaps there is some arrangement in his house."
Lu Fei's eyes grew brighter.
Borrowing life force is not an easy task; it requires the right timing, location, and harmony. Otherwise, wouldn't all the emperors and nobles of ancient times have lived to a ripe old age?
"Let's go and search his house for any mirrors!"
The two immediately returned to Luo Youliang's house.
This time, they quickly found a mirror in the house.
The mirror was hidden in a corner, covered with a black cloth, which they had overlooked in their initial search for the person.
When Lu Fei lifted the black cloth, Luo Xingfa nearly cried out in shock.
On the surface of the mirror was a photo of Hao Hao!
The photo has very low resolution and was likely taken and printed by an old mobile phone.
It's in black and white, like a posthumous portrait.