Chapter 2: Moving House
Xie Zhou settled down in the old house at the end of the village.
There were no movements either. The passersby saw that Xie Zhou’s parents’ graves had been cleaned up. The weeds were gone and two saplings had been planted at the side.
Xie Zhou did not interact with the villagers either and no one saw him come out.
Sun Chengfu led his uncle towards the end of the village.
When Xie Zhou returned, the one who was most worried about his return was Sun Chengfu’s uncle.
He had suffered for a few days. He was anxious and could not sleep well at night.
The house they were living in now was left behind by Xie Zhou’s parents. If Xie Zhou were to come and ask for the house one day, what should they do?
Sun Chengfu’s uncle then went looking for him.
Since Sun Chengfu was the village chief, he asked him to talk to Xie Zhou, to let them have the house.
Although his uncle liked to take advantage of others and didn’t have a good reputation in the village, Sun Chengfu often accepted gifts from him. Since his uncle had already mentioned it, he couldn’t ignore him.
There were people chatting by the small store in the village all day long.
Before he got closer, Sun Chengfu heard Li Cuihua’s voice.
“Hey, I heard that back then when that person died, he had a lot of money with him! Do you think the money is still with Xie Zhou?”
Li Cuihua was a gossip who always spread rumors.
“Shut up. Xie Zhou was trying to save someone out of kindness, not rob them. The person who died had ulterior motives and even implicated Xie Zhou!”
The owner of the small store could no longer tolerate her attitude. “Hey, Xie Zhou is such a pitiful child! Fortunately, he is out now!”
As soon as Sun Chengfu walked over, Li Cuihua asked curiously, “Village chief, do you know why Xie Zhou was released earlier?”
Sun Chengfu had the face of a village chief with a smile on his face.
“I heard that he had shown good behavior inside. It seems like he had made meritorious contributions and was even commended!”
Li Cuihua sneered. “You can be commended in prison? You must be a fool!”
Sun Chengfu reminded her, “Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. No matter what, we are from the same village. In the future, we will see each other often!”
When everyone saw Sun Chengfu walking towards the end of the village, they all followed him, wanting to watch the fun.
Sun Chengfu did not stop them. The more people there was, the more courage he had.
He really felt that Xie Zhou was very strange.
Sunlight could hardly shine into the end of the village.
The entrance was completely dark.
It was as if it was being isolated from the rest of the village.
No one had cleaned up the weeds at the entrance. It didn’t look like someone was living there.
Before he could get closer, he heard a sound, “Wu Yang~ Wu Yang~”, coming from inside.
The group of people who were originally chatting and laughing suddenly had a change in expression.
Sun Chengfu’s uncle was so scared that his legs were trembling. He wanted to retreat. “Chengfu, why don’t we go back?”
Sun Chengfu was also afraid, but he did not want to lose face in front of everyone. After all, he was the village chief!
He mustered up his courage and said, “Uncle, there are so many of us here. Everything will be fine!”
“Creak!”
Sun Chengfu pushed the door open with trembling hands. His attention was drawn to an axe that was lifted up high.
He immediately fell to the ground in shock.
The people behind were not any better.
Seeing that the axe did not land on him, Sun Chengfu finally came back to his senses.
When he saw that the person holding the axe was Xie Zhou, he was still in his sloppy-looking state. He had returned for a few days but had not cleaned himself up.
Sun Chengfu asked, “Xie Zhou, what are you doing?”
“Cutting a stick!”
Xie Zhou stepped on an iron tree branch. The sound just now was caused by the friction between the iron tree branch and the axe.
Sun Chengfu got up from the ground. He had no intention of catching up with Xie Zhou.
He said directly, “You’ve already been back for two days. I’m here to talk to you about your old house!”
His uncle interjected, “Xie Zhou, I was the one who went to the village to settle your parents’ funeral arrangements. We had agreed that this house would be mine from now on!”
Li Cuihua and the rest felt that this old man was shameless.
Back then, when Xie Zhou’s parents passed away, the villagers had gathered some money and settled it hastily.
The old man was the accountant in the village and was in charge of money. Because of that, he had to settle many things and eventually, took over Xie Zhou’s house.
However, because of his relationship with Sun Chengfu, the villagers did not say anything.
Now, all the more they would not say anything to Xie Zhou.
Rather than saying that Xie Zhou’s parents had died of illness, it would be more accurate to say that they had died from anger!
Their son was a murderer, and the villagers could not help but gossip.
His parents couldn’t stand the gossip and passed away in less than two years.
Speaking of which, everyone in the village had some responsibility.
Xie Zhou looked at Sun Chengfu and said, “I don’t want the house. However, this house belongs to me. The mountain and land that should be given to me must be given as well!”
“Of course, the village is discussing it. We will definitely give you a good area!”
He didn’t expect Xie Zhou to be so easy-going. Sun Chengfu smiled and said, “Although this house is a little dilapidated, it has lots of space. It’s pretty good!”
When the everyone heard Xie Zhou’s words, they all thought that the man had become a fool after going to prison. He had actually agreed to exchange the tiled-roof house for such a dilapidated “haunted house”!
Seeing that they did not get to watch the fun, everyone felt bored and quickly dispersed.