It happened in the early years of the Republic of China.
There was a businessman named Huang De in Jinan. Huang De started his business by selling antiques. By the time he reached his later years, he was already wealthy, so he left his business to his son and retired at home, hoping to spend his old age in peace. He felt that the old house was low-lying and narrow, so he asked a Feng Shui master to choose a piece of land in a secluded place and build a new house. Huang De chose a good day and moved into a new home. The new home is very spacious and comfortable, but he only has one son and one daughter-in-law, as well as one servant. There are only five people living in Ruoda's house, which makes it look deserted.
Unexpectedly, not long after, the house suddenly became haunted. In the middle of the night, Huang De's family was often awakened by shrill ghostly screams, which were terrifying. The Huang family was so frightened that they had no peace every night.
One night later in the middle of the night, the ghost screamed again. Huang De and his family got up secretly, got up and took a look. They saw the hall flickering in and out, and several evil spirits wearing ancient red robes, ancient gauze hats on their heads, holding knives, forks, swords and halberds. The ghost was staggering around. The ghosts are all very tall, half as tall as a human being, and their heads are almost touching the ridge of the roof. The Huang family members were so frightened that they trembled all over and dared not speak out. They also saw a ghost bending down and walking out of the hall, to the backyard, grabbing two chickens from the chicken coop, snapping the chickens' necks and sucking out their blood. Another ghost took out the wine jar and drank the wine in one gulp. After finishing the wine, the ghost fire disappeared and the ghost disappeared. At this time, the sound of a rooster was heard from the neighbor's house, and the sky in the east had turned white.
Since his home was haunted by ghosts, Huang De has spent money to hire many monks and Taoists to do magic to drive away ghosts, but to no avail. Ghosts still "visit" the Huang Mansion from time to time, and there are more and more ghosts, gradually increasing to more than a dozen. After struggling like this for a month, the neighbors knew that Huang's house was haunted and advised him to move quickly to prevent evil spirits from causing trouble. But Huang De couldn't bear to part with this newly built house and garden. He said: "The ghost just ate a few chickens and drank a few jars of wine. It didn't harm anyone, just let it make trouble!" Even though he said this, he secretly went around inviting relatives and friends, and persuaded them to live in his house. If one thinks that one's popularity is high, then one's ghostly energy will naturally recede. Unexpectedly, his relatives and friends knew that his house was haunted, and no one dared to come to live there. When Zhu Huangde saw that his relatives and friends refused to come, he was so angry that he refused to move.
At the end of the year, Huang De kept all the tens of thousands of silver coins he had received at home.
That night, many evil ghosts came again and killed four members of Huang De's family with big swords. Even the servants were not spared.
The next day, the neighbors found that the door of Huang's house was closed, and they saw crows flying in and out of Huang's house. They felt something strange, so they climbed over the wall and discovered that the four members of Huang's family and five servants had been brutally murdered. . The scene was horrific. All five people had their heads cut off and their chests and abdomens cut open. There was no complete body.
Neighbors rushed to report to the police station. After hearing the report, the police chief immediately led two police officers to Huang De's house to inspect. Upon inspection, it was found that nothing, including clothing and property, was missing. Huang De's relatives and friends who came after hearing the news found that tens of thousands of silver taels were missing while assisting the police station in the inspection. The Sheriff concluded it was a bandit robbery.
The police chief's surname was Wang, and he was originally a policeman in the Yamen. After the dynasty changed to the Republic of China, he was retained as a police sergeant. Sheriff Wang has solved several difficult and major cases. He carefully inspected the scene and found that both the front and back doors were intact, and there was not a single footprint or suspicious sign inside or outside the house wall. He couldn't help but wonder: Where did the robber come in? Moreover, killing several people in a row is not something that two or three people can do. Why is there no sound at night? Is the robber's method mysterious and unpredictable, or is there another reason?
At that moment, Sheriff Wang ordered people to collect the body and clean the haunted house.
That night, he stayed there with two police officers. After nightfall, the surroundings were silent, except for the rustling of leaves in the wind, which added to the terrifying atmosphere. The two young police officers were so frightened that they sat in the hall and did not dare to move a step.
But Sheriff Wang didn't care at all. He wandered around the house alone.
I thought to myself, if it is really haunted, it would make sense for the evil ghost to kill people, but what is the use of the ghost robbing money? This must be a robber disguised as a ghost to confuse people in order to achieve the purpose of seeking wealth and death.
Chief Wang and two police officers stayed in the haunted house for several nights, but they didn't see any sign of the "ghost".
That night, Sergeant Wang suddenly realized: "If the ghost is disguised as a robber, why would he come to this house after achieving his goal? However, since the ghost is disguised as a human being, he naturally does not have any invisibility skills. Why?" The ghost has been disturbing Huang's family for several months. No one knows where the ghost came from. What's the mystery in Murphy's deep compound?
Sheriff Wang heard that the places where evil ghosts used to haunt were all in the hall, so he suspected that there was something abnormal in the structure of the hall. After daybreak, he took an iron rod with him for self-defense, climbed to the ridge of the roof, and carefully inspected the connection between the rafters and the beams.
Upon inspection, I found that one beam was particularly smooth. The house is newly built, and the wood usually has some white residue, but this beam is different.
He looked carefully and found a few blood stains on it. He touched it with his hand and found a small hole, which looked like it was made by hand. He inserted the iron rod into the hole, twisted the iron rod, and the beam rotated slightly. Before it was halfway turned, a large hole was exposed on the ridge of the roof, which could accommodate several people.
Sheriff Wang was very happy when he discovered this important situation. He believed that solving the case was not far away. He gently twisted the iron rod back to restore the roof ridge to its original shape and climbed down.
Sheriff Wang went to find Dong Biao, the foreman who built the house, but found that the door of Dong Biao's house was closed. Neighbors told him that Dong Biao had moved away with his wife and children a few days ago. Sheriff Wang was given an address. Sheriff Wang searched for the address but found that it was a fake address. Sheriff Wang thought Dong Biao must be one of the murderers.
A few days after the Chinese New Year, a theft occurred not far from Huang De's house. Sheriff Wang was ordered to lead a few police officers to investigate and collect evidence. While he was busy, he heard the sound of gongs and drums. It turned out that a group of stilt walkers had arrived. , Sheriff Wang wondered: Why did the stilt team come to this alley if they didn't go to the street to cause trouble.
At this time, someone shouted: "Come and see, the stilt team has come to our alley. This is the first time!"
Sheriff Wang put down his work and went out. He saw a dozen people staggering over on wooden poles more than two feet high. They were all wearing ancient costumes, some holding knives, and some holding guns. . One of them was tall and thin. He seemed to have just debuted and was not doing very well.
When Sheriff Wang saw this scene, he suddenly remembered the shape of the ghost described by Huang De's relatives. Comparing the two, they were very similar.
He thought at the time: Could these dozen people on stilts be bandits who committed murder and robbed property? Sheriff Wang had never seen Dong Biao and did not dare to capture him rashly. In his haste, he summoned a few police officers and men with sharp guns , and whispered instructions into his ears, asking them to guard several intersections. Then, he walked around to the front of the stilt-walking team, hid in the crowd and shouted: "Hey, Dong Biao!" Sheriff Wang was sure that if there was no Dong Biao in this group, they would not mind. Dong Biao, then they will definitely perform. Sure enough, Sheriff Wang noticed that a dozen people were frightened when they heard his shouts, looking left and right, looking very nervous.
It's these guys! Sheriff Wang immediately pulled out a wooden-handled pistol and shouted: "The murderous robbers just stand there and don't move. Anyone who moves will be killed!"
The bandits had men on stilts and guns and ghosts tied to their feet, so they couldn't run away. One or two who wanted to run staggered and fell to the ground after running a few steps. People in the alley heard that the stilt walker was the murderer of Huang De's family. They all brought ropes and assisted Chief Wang and the police officers in tying up the gangsters.
After verification, the bandit leader Dong Biao was also among them. The robbers were taken directly to the police station, and upon interrogation, they all confessed. Dong Biao took advantage of the opportunity to build a house for Huang De and secretly set up a secret door. Then he disguised himself as a ghost and killed Huang De's family and stole a huge sum of money. They came this time to sniff out the news and see if the secrets of Huang Zhai were discovered. Unexpectedly, they aroused the suspicion of Chief Wang who was handling the case and were captured instead.