Chapter 158: The Sound of Midnight Opera

Li Muyang was slightly taken aback, as if he understood what I meant. He nodded and awkwardly straightened his posture. Sister Yu covered her mouth with a chuckle, looked at Li Muyang, and said, "I'll let you have a taste later, then you'll know."

Li Muyang gave a cheeky smile and nodded. I let out a sigh, wondering inwardly why I had to cross paths with such a comical character like Li Muyang, as if my world wasn't quiet enough already.

I turned my head to look at Du Jiawei instead and said, "Tell me, what's going on at your house?"

Du Jiawei nodded and began to recount: "It was about ten days ago. I had a business banquet to attend, so I came back late. I had also drunk some alcohol at the time, and when I got back, I took a shower and collapsed onto the bed to sleep. In the middle of the night, I woke up to use the restroom and suddenly heard a faint, melodic singing coming from the room downstairs, sounding just like traditional opera. Thinking that the alcohol hadn't worn off yet, I grabbed a flashlight and went downstairs. Following the sound, I walked all the way to the door of a side room downstairs. That side room was specifically used for storing miscellaneous items and was usually unoccupied. Summoning my courage, I pushed open the door to the storage room, but there was nothing inside, absolutely nothing. Feeling extremely sleepy at the time, I walked back upstairs and went back to sleep. The next day, everything seemed completely normal. However, when night came around again, I heard that opera singing once more. It was very high-pitched, and hearing it in the dead of night was deeply unsettling. My wife heard it too. That night, knowing I hadn't been drinking, I was certain it wasn't an auditory hallucination, so my wife and I went downstairs together. In the hallway, the only sounds we could hear were our own footsteps and the opera singing coming from the storage room. My wife was terrified, clinging tightly to my arm, but when we walked over and pushed the door open, there was still nothing inside. I convinced myself again that I was just too exhausted and hallucinating, so I went back upstairs with my wife to sleep. On the third day..."

"Hold on, hold on. Cut to the chase. Do you plan on recounting all ten days? If you do, we'll be here until dawn. You just need to tell us what happened, the essential details."

I listened attentively halfway through, but finally couldn't help myself and interrupted Du Jiawei. Du Jiawei gave an embarrassed smile and nodded, saying, "Over the next few days, we were continually haunted by the singing. We couldn't sleep at all at night and were terrified. My wife finally couldn't take it anymore, saying there were unclean entities about and urging me to move out immediately. But as a businessman, I didn't believe in those things back then. I ignored my wife, thinking she was just under too much pressure. However, however, on the fifth day, the opera singing grew even louder, and there were loud banging noises from downstairs, as if a table had crashed onto the floor. Hearing the commotion, I bolted upright, fully awake from my dream, and prepared to go downstairs to check. My wife was terribly scared, but she still followed me down. We went to the storage room for the third time, and after pushing the door open, I suddenly discovered—discovered that something which had no business being in that storage room had actually appeared."

Listening intently, I nodded and asked, "What appeared? It's fine, go on."

Du Jiawei swallowed hard, nodded, and said, "My wife and I saw a rocking chair appear inside the storage room, and it was rocking back and forth, making a creaking sound. My wife let out a scream and collapsed limply onto the floor. I hurriedly shut the storage room door and carried my wife back to our bedroom."

Seeing Du Jiawei breathing heavily and involuntarily panting as he reached this point in the story, I furrowed my brow, looked at him in confusion, and asked, "Isn't it completely normal to have a rocking chair? Could it have been bumped by some stray cat or mouse, causing it to rock back and forth?"

Du Jiawei shook his head, raised his gaze to look at me, and replied, "A rocking chair is normal, but the next day when I asked the maids and servants at home, they all claimed they hadn't placed any rocking chair in there. I even checked the security footage, and it didn't show anyone carrying a rocking chair inside. It was as if—as if the rocking chair had simply materialized out of thin air. Over the following days, our entire household was terrified out of our wits by this horrifying atmosphere. The maids and servants packed up and left one by one, and my wife and I moved into a hotel. Right now, there isn't a single person in that house. I genuinely don't dare to go back because I'm afraid something even more terrifying will happen if I do. My wife keeps talking about returning to Hong Kong, but with such a massive company here, how could I bear to just leave?"

I nodded and said, "I understand. How about this: tonight, give me the keys, and the three of us will go stay at your house for a night to see what's going on."

Du Jiawei was momentarily stunned and asked, "Would that be alright? I'm worried..."

I waved a hand to cut him off and said, "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Just as Du Jiawei was about to speak, the waiter brought over five cups of coffee. I said thank you, picked up my coffee cup, and took a sip. The moment the liquid hit my tongue, my expression changed instantly. Li Muyang happened to catch this and asked in confusion, "What's wrong, Lin Xuan?"

I shook my head, swallowing the intensely bitter coffee. We sat in the coffee shop a little longer, but I simply couldn't endure the overwhelming bitterness, so after finishing half of it, we left. At the street corner, I took the keys to Du Jiawei's large estate, and he headed back to the hotel by himself.

The three of us walked along the street. Just as Du Jiawei had described, the street was exceptionally quiet, and practically not a soul was in sight. Li Muyang walked beside me, glanced at the occasional passerby on the street, and remarked, "Hey, tell me, why on earth did Du Jiawei buy a house in a place like this? What time is it even, and you can't see a single person on the street. Who knows what was going through his head."

Gazing at the street ahead, I walked with my hands in my pockets and smiled, saying, "Rich people's brains are all wired a bit strangely."

I tapped my temple, and Sister Yu chimed in, "Lin Xuan, are we really going to stay there for the night?"

I nodded, looked at Sister Yu, and said, "I want to see what kind of mischievous phantom is making all this trouble. Sister Yu, are you scared?"

I said it jokingly. Sister Yu was momentarily startled, puffed out her chest slightly, and retorted, "What's there to be scared of? There's nothing your big sister hasn't seen."

I awkwardly averted my gaze. Truth be told, Sister Yu was quite well-endowed; any man would find her appealing. We chatted and laughed all the way until we finally arrived at Du Jiawei's mansion. Glancing at the keys in my hand, I muttered, "Even the keys look like this. Keys like these are pretty rare nowadays, aren't they?"

I shook the key ring. The keys were quite long with multiple locking notches, resembling ancient-style keys. Li Muyang nodded and said, "Indeed, they're quite rare. Practically antiques."

With a murmur, I smiled and said, "Well then, let's head on in. Whatever is going to happen will happen, right?"

Sister Yu smiled and said, "Let's go."

Li Muyang nodded as well. I directly pushed open the grand front gate and strode inside. The courtyard was dead quiet; not even the sound of a single cricket could be heard. As the three of us walked through the courtyard, the sound of our footsteps seemed exceptionally loud and jarring in the stillness. I took out my phone, turned on the flashlight feature, and said, "Du Jiawei didn't even bother to mention where the light switches are when he left. You guys split up and look for the stairs. With a courtyard this big, it's pointless for one person to search alone."

Li Muyang and Sister Yu both acknowledged with a "got it" and turned on their phone flashlights. The three of us searched separate directions. After a short while, I heard Sister Yu calling out. Turning around, I saw Sister Yu standing in place, waving her hand and calling, "Stop looking, it's right over here! Are you guys both nearsighted or something? You couldn't see a staircase this huge?"

"Where, where?" Li Muyang trotted over eagerly, and I followed suit. Indeed, a wooden staircase leading straight up to the second floor came into view, located right on the left-hand side as soon as you enter the main entrance. Looking awkwardly at the stairs, I offered, "It was too dark; I honestly didn't see it just now."

Sister Yu rolled her eyes at me and said, "Let's go, let's go up and take a look."

Li Muyang and I nodded. Since we planned to sleep here tonight, each of us had already decided to claim a room. Living the life of wealthy people certainly looked different; though the exterior resembled an ancient mansion, the interior bedrooms were no different from modern villas, creating a rather jarring contrast. After bidding goodnight to Sister Yu and Li Muyang, I headed to the room I had chosen for myself. Fortunately, there was Wi-Fi access here. After washing my feet, I dove straight into bed. I had to complain—this bed wasn't nearly as comfortable as my own. Whether it was due to unfamiliarity with sleeping away from home or something else, I lay awake for a long time, unable to fall asleep. Feeling restless and bored, I simply turned on the television to watch.