I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

These houses have separate small "cellar rooms" that can be used to store vegetables, fruits, and grains in winter and to store miscellaneous items in summer.

The entrance to the cellar is usually located at the very back of the cellar, which is dug several feet deep from the ground. The four walls are reinforced with bricks and stones to prevent collapse, and the top is covered with stone slabs or wooden planks, and then covered with soil for insulation and moisture protection.

Inside the cellar, at a glance, apart from some miscellaneous items, there was no grain to be seen.

"County Commandant Zhou, has this room always been like this?" Yang Tongchuan felt that this cellar had been idle for quite some time.

"I don't know. My mother usually takes care of these things at home." Zhou, the county magistrate, has mainly focused on studying these days.

He had no idea where the food and household items were kept, or what was stored in the storage room.

Yang Tongchuan walked inside, gently patting the unused clutter as he went, hoping to scare the rats out.

Until we reached the very back of the cellar, where the entrance to the cellar should have been, there was a large vat placed on top.

The jar is cracked and can't hold water anymore. I guess the owner didn't want to throw it away, so they just left it here.

Yang Tongchuan squatted down, put his ear to the jar, and heard that rustling sound again.

"The rats are down there. If we open the cellar now, we won't be able to catch anything in the dark. Tomorrow I'll catch two cats, open the cellar again, and put the cats in this room for a day."

"It really is a rat! It scared me to death." As long as it wasn't a ghost, County Lieutenant Zhou felt relieved.

Once he saw that the matter was over, Yang Tongchuan didn't stay any longer. He left Zhou County Magistrate's house and went to the police station of the yamen to make do. It was better than sleeping on the floor in his superior's room.

The next day, at daybreak, Yang Tongchuan went to the kitchen and asked him to catch two cats, as the Zhou County Magistrate's family needed them.

Upon hearing that he was going to make a name for himself in front of the new county magistrate, the cook dared not delay and quickly caught two tabby cats in a chicken coop and handed them over to Yang Tongchuan.

It was lunchtime. Yang Tongchuan followed County Magistrate Zhou home with the cat. He first put the cat cage in the cellar, then moved the large vat to prepare to open the cellar.

The two tabby cats we brought started acting wildly as soon as they entered the cellar.

Yang Tongchuan didn't think much of it, assuming it was because he smelled rats.

Until he swept away the moisture-proof soil covering the cellar and lifted the stone slab covering it, the dust and smoke that had been sealed inside flew up.

A putrid stench, along with the smoke and dust, suddenly burst forth. The smell was like rotten meat mixed with the stench of mud, piercing Yang Tongchuan's nostrils and making his internal organs churn.

Yang Tongchuan's professional instincts told him something was wrong; something had happened.

The midday sun shone into the cellar, and a ray of sunlight pierced right into the cellar.

The scene below the cellar was photographed with exceptional clarity.

Yang Tongchuan was too late to block Zhou County Lieutenant's view. Poor Zhou County Lieutenant saw everything in the cellar and then turned around and vomited.

It was a highly decomposed corpse, with some of the bones already visible.

The exposed flesh outside the clothes was no longer recognizable; the dark brown, rotting flesh clung to the bones like rotten cotton.

After being gnawed by rats, the corpse's head had revealed its stark white bones.

The corpse appeared to be lying face down in the cellar, its limbs twisted into a bizarre arc.

The clothes were relatively intact, but there was a noticeable wound around the waist and abdomen, surrounded by black bloodstains.

Even more horrifying was the fact that something was hidden inside the clothes—a cricket pupa—which sent chills down one's spine.

Soon, several little mice scurried out from the cuffs and trouser legs.

The corpse's internal organs had probably already rotted into mud. These few newborn mice, who had probably just learned to forage, didn't know where to run after hearing the noise, so they could only squeeze in and out of the gaps in the rotting flesh, and finally managed to get out.

Yang Tongchuan covered his mouth and nose, and braced himself to observe the condition of the decaying corpse.

The corpse's ten fingers were twisted, and the surrounding ground was covered with scratch marks, as if it was making a final struggle before death. The fingernails had fallen off, revealing the blackened flesh underneath.

Yang Tongchuan couldn't take it anymore, so he grabbed County Lieutenant Zhou and ran out of the cellar.

The sweltering heat of June shone on Yang Tongchuan, slightly dispelling the chill he felt.

"County Lieutenant Zhou, I'll stay here. You should go to the yamen and call my brothers and the coroner over." Yang Tongchuan actually wanted to go and call them himself, but judging from County Lieutenant Zhou's appearance, he probably didn't dare to stay here.

"Good, good, good." County Lieutenant Zhou said several times and ran off in a flash.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the officials arrived with their tools and the coroner.

"What happened, Constable Yang? County Lieutenant Zhou said someone in his family died." The constables rushed over as soon as they heard that something had happened to County Lieutenant Zhou's family.

"Keep your voice down, don't make a fuss." Yang Tongchuan quickly arranged the work.

"Leave four brothers behind to help the coroner transport the body back and expedite the autopsy; the one inside has been dead for some time. Send two more men to bring back the broker who rented the house. The rest of you, guard the scene until I return."

Yang Tongchuan didn't see any of Zhou County Magistrate's men. After all, the incident happened in Zhou County Magistrate's family, and there were many things he still needed to ask about.

Poor County Magistrate Zhou was terrified and was lying in his mother's room, being attended to by a maid.

"County Commandant Zhou, are you feeling any better?"

"I told you it was haunted, but none of you believed me. The noises I heard were definitely made by a ghost," County Magistrate Zhou continued, still rambling on.

"Even if there is a ghost, it knows you are a good official and came to plead your case," Zhou County Magistrate's mother comforted him from the side.

"Grandma Zhou, you've lived in this house for so long, haven't you cleaned up that cellar?" Yang Tongchuan was genuinely puzzled.

"It's too hot, and we just moved here not long ago, so we haven't had time to tidy up yet." Grandma Zhou thought that since there were no places we wouldn't need, she wasn't in a hurry to clean them up.

"Mother, we can't live in this house anymore. Pack your things first, and I'll send someone to take you to an inn for a couple of days. Once I've found a new place, we'll move." County Magistrate Zhou was a filial son, and at this moment, his first thought was of his mother.

"No need, staying at an inn is too expensive. Why not save that money and do something better? I'm an old man, I'm not afraid of these things. If you're scared, you can stay at the yamen for a few days." Most elderly people have seen life and death, so they don't have any taboos.

"If you don't mind, the old lady can stay at my house for a couple of days. Once County Magistrate Zhou finds a new house, she can move in directly to the new house," Yang Tongchuan suggested.

"That would be too much trouble for Officer Yang."

While saying he was troubling Yang Tongchuan, County Magistrate Zhou was instructing the maid to quickly pack his elderly mother's personal belongings and leave as soon as possible, as the place was too frightening.

As for County Lieutenant Zhou himself, he will first stay in the duty room of the yamen for a couple of days.

Yang Tongchuan glanced at the maid who was packing things. She wasn't wearing coarse cloth, and she had a silk flower pinned in her hair. She didn't look like someone who could do housework.

"Officer Yang, the broker who rented the house has been brought back." The constable who had been sent out brought the man back.

"Don't ask him anything. Just lock him in the torture chamber and leave him there until I get back to deal with him."

Yang Tongchuan first took Old Mrs. Zhou back to his own home and handed her over to Xiangxi for care.

Xiangxi tidied up the east wing room for Old Madam Zhou to stay in temporarily.

Yang Tongchuan only told him that this was County Magistrate Zhou's mother, that they had some family matters to attend to and could not stay at his house for the time being, and that he should take good care of her, before turning back to the yamen.

Although Xiangxi was still unclear about the current situation, she was obedient and did so as her husband asked her to take good care of Old Mrs. Zhou.