INSIDER Chapter 33

Aunt Wang’s words gave Lu Chu a shock.

“Not trapped here”—what did “here” mean?

Did it mean the village, or perhaps the “situation”?

While Lu Chu was still pondering and was about to ask something, Aunt Wang interrupted his question. She took off a copper coin strung with a red thread from her neck, placed it in Lu Chu’s open palm, and then closed his hand around it, leading him outside. She said, “No need to ask so much, child. Take this and go. The matter here should end now.”

After that, Aunt Wang closed the door.

On the way back, Lu Chu kept thinking about what Aunt Wang said: “You are different from us who are destined to be trapped here.” Her last words also echoed in his mind. Why did she say the matter here “should end again”? The word “again” felt particularly meaningful.

Lu Chu realized that both Qi Li and Aunt Wang seemed to know a lot of important things. Qi Li had promised to tell him everything he wanted to know in the future, while Aunt Wang only said a few vague words before stopping the conversation.

This game, whose reasons and objectives were unclear, was becoming increasingly complex.

As he thought, Lu Chu arrived back at the Lu family home.

Seeing him, Song Gui and the others gathered around. Li Jiapeng asked anxiously, “Did Aunt Wang tell you anything in private?”

Lu Chu shook his head. “Aunt Wang only said she knew the vengeful spirit appeared because someone in the village had done evil, but she didn’t know who or why.”

Hearing this, both Li Jiapeng and He Mingde showed disappointed expressions. Li Jiapeng frustratedly messed up his hair. “What should we do now? It feels like we have no clues again.”

Lu Chu thought for a moment and said, “Let’s send a few people to visit Wei Rong again.”

Li Jiapeng questioned, “Go again?!”

“This time,” Lu Chu said, “we’ll sneak in.”

“Sneak in?”

Qi Li chimed in, “Good idea. We can see if there’s any clue in Guo Jianping’s house.”

Wei Rong now lived in the house Guo Jianping had bought when he decided to settle in the village. He and his two wives had lived there later. Guo Jianping mainly spent his time in two places: the school and home. The last two times they had visited Wei Rong’s house, it was dirty and empty, with even the usable wardrobes taken away by relatives. They assumed there was nothing useful left. But now, with the trail cold and Liu Cuihe nowhere to be found, they might as well re-examine the suspicious places thoroughly.

What if they had missed something?

So, after some discussion, they decided that Lu Chu, Song Gui, and Qi Li would go.

Before they left, Li Jiapeng pulled Lu Chu aside and asked nervously, “Is ‘it’… is ‘it’ there?”

Lu Chu smiled. “Do you hope it is or isn’t?”

Li Jiapeng swallowed hard. “Both hope it is and isn’t.”

“Hope it isn’t because you’re still scared, and hope it is because you’re afraid ‘it’ might kill a fourth person?” Lu Chu asked.

Li Jiapeng nodded with difficulty.

Lu Chu reassured him, “Relax, what will come can’t be avoided. All we can do now is quickly find out the truth.”

He Mingde said, “You go ahead, Li Jiapeng and I will be fine here.”

The three then prepared and set off for Wei Rong’s house.

It was their third time visiting Wei Rong’s house, and it was nighttime. No one in the village went out at night anymore. The village had always been lifeless at night, and now it felt even more deathly still. The three climbed over the wall and entered Wei Rong’s yard.

The overwhelming stench greeted them. Wei Rong was not asleep yet, nor did she light a lamp. In the darkness, her neurotic muttering was especially eerie. Lu Chu signaled the others to be quiet and led the way to the west room.

Wei Rong’s yard had a typical layout: a main room to the north, where the mad Wei Rong now lived, a west room for living, a kitchen next to it, and in the southeast corner, a toilet, a storeroom, and an enclosed area for raising chickens and ducks. After Guo Jianping’s death and Wei Rong’s madness, the small area for chickens and ducks became a place to store junk, piled with wood and rotten furniture.

Wei Rong’s muttering came from the main room. They needed to search her and Guo Jianping’s house without alerting her. Since Wei Rong was mad, no one knew what she might do if disturbed. If she was alerted, tonight’s search would be fruitless.

The west room’s door was not locked but was covered in thick dust, unused for twenty years. The door was an old two-panel wooden door that had to be pushed open from the middle. Lu Chu gently pushed the door, which creaked under the strain. He stopped and, after exchanging glances with Song Gui and Qi Li, pushed again with even more caution, finally opening a gap just wide enough for two people.

The sky was cloudy, and the moon appeared and disappeared, causing the yard to alternate between pitch darkness and a white glow as if covered in frost. They carried three flashlights: two strong ones brought by Song Gui and an old one from Lu Chu’s home, which was rusted and emitted a dim orange light. Only Lu Chu’s flashlight was on, as its weak light was less noticeable than the strong ones.

The west room, like the main room, was empty except for a bed and a broken table. After searching for a while without finding anything useful, they decided to check other rooms.

Turning around, the moonlight reappeared, casting a shadow through the door crack.

Wei Rong stood there, her side illuminated ghostly by the moonlight, staring at them with wide, unblinking eyes.