Chapter 142: Whose Portrait Of The Deceased
Feng Congqian turned around upon hearing the sound and saw Aunt Zheng standing at the courtyard entrance at some point, holding a cleaver, wearing a floral shirt, and staring at him vigilantly.
Before Feng Congqian could speak, Nan Yuanman, who had finished packing her things, heard the sound and ran out with pattering footsteps. Her face lit up upon seeing Aunt Zheng: “Aunt Zheng!”
“Oh! Yuanman!” Aunt Zheng, who had been fully vigilant, lit up upon seeing that familiar little figure: “How come you’re back?”
Aunt Zheng seemed to remember something and looked at Feng Congqian suspiciously: “Could it be that the family who took you away doesn’t want to raise you anymore and sent you back? How could that family be so morally bankrupt?”
Feng Congqian’s brows furrowed slightly, his expression turning cold. Nan Yuanman was somewhat speechless and sighed like a little adult: “Aunt Zheng, if you talk like that, you’ll get hit!”
“But you’re right about one thing. The family who took me away is indeed morally bankrupt. The person who came back with me this time isn’t with them. He’s my father, my real father!”
When the little girl said the last part, her tone carried a hint of pride.
She still remembered how people in the village used to say she was a child without father or mother.
Now she had come back with her real dad. Let’s see if they dared to say she had no father or mother anymore.
It was the first time Feng Congqian heard Nan Yuanman call out “Daddy,” and his mind buzzed as his eyes grew slightly hot.
Aunt Zheng was also shocked. She looked at the tall, long-legged man in front of her with outstanding temperament and excessively good looks, her mouth opening and closing: “My goodness, this… this is your dad?”
Nan Yuanman’s mom looked skinny and small, but she didn’t expect the man she found to be so handsome. He also looked quite rich!
Nan Yuanman nodded vigorously: “Yes, yes!”
Feng Congqian restrained the excitement in his heart and nodded slightly to Aunt Zheng: “Hello, I am Nan Yuanman’s father. My surname is Feng.”
“Thank you for taking care of Yuanman before.”
Aunt Zheng was slightly awkward: “All good, all good. I’m relieved now that you’ve brought Yuanman back.”
“Yuanman, what are you back for this time? Where’s your grandpa? Did he go with you too?” Aunt Zheng asked, her face showing some hesitation: “Um, how many days will you stay here this time?”
“To get things. Grandpa went with me to S City for treatment. We’ll come back once he’s cured.” Nan Yuanman replied to her: “What’s up? Do you need Grandpa for something? Is someone buying a coffin?”
“No, not buying a coffin, it’s just…” Aunt Zheng hesitated: “My brother recently ran into some trouble and wants your grandpa to take a look. If he can’t, see if you… if you’re free, could you help take a look?”
After experiencing Zhou Ying’s incident, Aunt Zheng naturally assumed Nan Yuanman had inherited Old Master Nan’s mantle, so she didn’t find anything wrong with asking her for help.
Her appearance here today wasn’t coincidental either. A few days ago, her maternal family called her about those matters, so she came specifically to see if Yuanman or Old Master Nan had returned.
If Nan Yuanman and Old Master Nan hadn’t come back in these couple of days, she was even planning to go find a spirit medium or endong from another village to check it out.
Aunt Zheng: “Don’t worry, I’ve prepared the fee for the reading. I won’t let you do it for nothing.”
Nan Yuanman instinctively looked toward Feng Congqian. He lowered his gaze and asked her warmly: “Have you packed everything?”
Nan Yuanman patted her small shoulder bag: “All packed.”
Not just the coffin, but also the paper figures, paper lanterns, and all sorts of miscellaneous things Old Master Nan made in his spare time—she had packed them all. Now there wasn’t even a single mouse left in the warehouse.
“If you want to check it out, then go ahead.” Feng Congqian said, holding her hand.
He knew Nan Yuanman was different from ordinary children, so as long as she wanted something, he would try his best to fulfill her requests.
Nan Yuanman happily bounced on her tiptoes and looked at Aunt Zheng, who was full of eager anticipation: “Okay, okay! Lead the way, I’ll go check it out.”
“Great! I’ll give them a call, then we’ll head over.” Aunt Zheng said happily, directly sticking the cleaver into the gap of the wooden door, clapping her hands, taking out her mobile phone, and making a call.
Soon, Aunt Zheng rode her electric scooter ahead to lead the way, while the Feng family driver drove the sedan carrying Feng Congqian and Nan Yuanman slowly following behind.
Aunt Zheng’s brother lived in town. According to Aunt Zheng, the house in town was a building they had bought from a big boss not long ago at a very good price. It was a fully furnished place, saving them a lot of renovation costs.
But after moving in, they kept encountering strange things.
Either the freshly prepared meal suddenly lost its flavor, or fruit placed on the coffee table mysteriously disappeared. Clothes hung out to dry would suddenly fall from the rack, and at night while sleeping, they always heard someone knocking on the water pipes, bang bang bang.
At first, Aunt Zheng’s brother thought someone was playing pranks at night and even got up to curse them out.
After cursing, no one knocked on the pipes at night anymore, but he and his wife kept having nightmares while sleeping. They dreamed of a fierce, malevolent old man wielding an axe chasing them to chop them down!
The first time they dreamed it, they didn’t take it to heart, but for several consecutive days, they both dreamed of the old man chasing them with an axe.
Even more terrifyingly, Aunt Zheng’s brother accidentally got chopped on the hand in the dream, and when he woke up the next day, he found his arm covered in blood with a wound exactly where the axe had struck in the dream!
No matter how thick-skinned Aunt Zheng’s brother was, he felt things had gotten serious, so he panicked and went to Aunt Zheng for help to find someone to check it out.
He knew Aunt Zheng’s family had also gone through some weird incidents recently and had connections in this area.
Aunt Zheng was lucky too, happening to run into Nan Yuanman who had come back to get the coffin.
It only took twenty minutes from Batang Village to town. Soon, Aunt Zheng stopped in front of a building, where a thin young man wearing a gray T-shirt with a bandage wrapped around his arm and a pale face stood at the building’s doorway.
Aunt Zheng stopped her electric scooter, said a few words to the young man, pointed to the black sedan slowly pulling over to the roadside, then got off and walked over with the young man.
The black sedan stopped steadily. Feng Congqian got out first, and after standing steady, he turned around to lift Nan Yuanman down.
The young man looked respectfully at Feng Congqian: “Are you Master Nan? Hello, I’m Liu Jiawei. I’m troubling you with this matter.”
Feng Congqian calmly reached under Nan Yuanman’s armpit and lifted her up to face Liu Jiawei: “I’m not. She is.”
Liu Jiawei’s eyes widened looking at the five-year-old little girl in front of him: “????”
Aunt Zheng slapped her forehead and pulled Liu Jiawei aside: “Ah! Look at me, I forgot to tell you. Yuanman is the master. This is her father.”
“Yuanman, this is my brother. Help me take a look. What’s going on with him?”
Nan Yuanman looked at the young man in front of her whose glabella was dark and who was practically steeped in ghost energy, then at the building behind him that looked somewhat eerie even in daylight, tilted her head, and said: “Uncle does have ghost energy on him, but whether it’s this house that’s the problem, we still need to go inside to check.”
Liu Jiawei came back to his senses and instinctively looked at Aunt Zheng: “Sis, this…”
Aunt Zheng slapped his face and smiled at Nan Yuanman: “Then let’s go inside and check. Little Wei, is your wife home?”
Liu Jiawei shook his head honestly: “No, after I had the incident, I had her go back to her maternal family.”
With that, Liu Jiawei led the way ahead with Aunt Zheng, somewhat hesitantly, while Feng Congqian carried Nan Yuanman behind them.
Liu Jiawei couldn’t help turning back to look at her and asked in a low voice: “Sis, this… is this kid really reliable?”
She looked like she was still in diapers. Could she really solve his problem?
Aunt Zheng rolled her eyes: “Who I found could possibly not be reliable? Don’t worry, if Yuanman isn’t reliable, then there are no reliable masters in this town or the nearby villages!”
As she spoke, she stepped into the first-floor hall. Just as she entered, she felt the temperature around her drop dozens of degrees, freezing her into a shiver: “Hiss! Why is it so cold? Did you leave all the air conditioners on?”
Aunt Zheng looked up as she spoke and froze in place. Her gaze fell on that black-and-white portrait of the deceased, staring in horror at the person in the photo grinning weirdly at her.
