"Strangle yourself to death? How?" I asked in confusion.

"They say it was his son's ghost who possessed him and did it. Who knows?"

I thought about it and said, "One thing doesn't make sense. If this man is a capitalist, why would he live in this alley? Could this have once been a wealthy area?"

"Hey, this alley has definitely never been a place where rich people live since it was built. Don't you know the name of this alley?"

"I really didn't notice. What's your name?"

"Sanfen Lane, this name wasn't chosen randomly. In the old days, it was said that people who lived here had no more than three fen in their pockets. Only the extremely would live here."

"Then will the capitalists still move in?"

"When the People's Republic of China was founded, that family was worried their assets would be confiscated, so they declared themselves bankrupt, sold all their assets for gold bars, and moved into this alley. Even thieves don't come to this alley. We don't lock the door when we go out. My parents were both laid off, so we're relatively well off. My neighbor to the left is an elderly woman receiving the "Five Guarantees" (five guarantees), living alone on the minimum living allowance and eating porridge every day. The family to the right is sick, and they can't even afford medicine with the money they earn. Every family is worried about money."

After saying this, cousin Li Zhao sighed.

I patted his shoulder and said, "Your luck has turned. Once this place is demolished, you'll be living in a building."

"To be honest, we are used to living in old houses, and it is a bit difficult to get used to living in an apartment building. We are used to being poor." After saying this, he smiled bitterly.

After chatting for a while, he left. When I went out, I saw Wang Ding standing alone at the door of No. 37, facing the yard and talking happily.

I am a little envious of his luck. Not only did he not get hurt after encountering such bad luck, but he also made an unexpected profit. He is so lucky that even the poor can't stop him.

After finishing my work, I left as well. Just as I was leaving the alley, I received a call from Luo Tianbao. He asked, " Where in the house was the clay urn containing the bones dug out?"

"It's in the northwest corner. House 37 is truly spooky . I heard the owner of this house once chopped off one of his son's hands, and this clay jar contains the bones of a hand."

"I advise you not to go to this alley anymore, and don't take any projects."

"Ah, the project is almost finished. In two days at most I will..."

"Even if it ends today, don't take it. You're not in the construction business, so you should outsource this job to someone else, right?"

"This... is, yes." Luo Tianbao is a very shrewd man. I knew I couldn't deceive him, so I had to admit it.

"Brother, there are plenty of opportunities to make money. Don't get yourself into big trouble for a small sum. If you believe me, hand over the business today. You didn't pay any costs anyway, it's just a waste of time. It's still not too late to withdraw now, otherwise you won't be able to withdraw even if you want to."

I can earn 15% of the total fee by outsourcing this business to others. Although the money is not much, it is still close to 30,000 yuan. It would definitely hurt to hand it over like this. However, I dare not disobey Luo Tianbao's words, so I asked, "Second brother, what is going on?"

"The situation here is quite complicated and cannot be explained in a few words. In short, if you trust me, hand over the project. Otherwise, don't come to me if anything goes wrong."

Having said that, I had no choice but to call the contractor.

This man was called Lao Niu, a diligent middle-aged man who worked on a small project with a dozen or so villagers. I wondered if handing the project over to him would be a rip-off for Lao Niu. Luo Tianbao hadn't explained this to me clearly, so I hesitated. But selfishness always leads people to choose self-preservation at a critical moment, so I called Lao Niu anyway.

When he heard that I was going to hand over all my rights and interests to him, he was surprised and asked me the reason. I lied and said that the other party was a relative of my good friend, so it was not easy to ask for money, so I just didn't want to bother him anymore.

Lao Niu didn't doubt it and kept thanking me, saying, "Don't worry, brother. I won't let you suffer any loss."

So we decided to hand over some financial matters that night, including the bills for purchasing materials. These things were all vouchers for accounting, but Lao Niu was out on business, and he said he would come to "Sanfen Lane" to find me after he finished his work.

As a result, I waited until after eight o'clock in the evening before Lao Niu called me to say that he had already rushed to the alley. I was eating cold noodles nearby. I ate a bowl of noodles leisurely and went to Sanfen Alley.

As soon as I reached the entrance of the alley, I saw a faint light coming from the yard of the old house No. 37 in the middle of the alley .

Because of the "large-scale construction" in this alley, the old electrical box was completely burned out due to being overloaded. The local residents received power from the nearby lanes with only a temporarily installed large electric meter. The cost was shared by all the residents who moved in. However, after the workers stopped work at 6 o'clock in the evening, the power supply of this line would be cut off, because no one lived in Sanfen Lane anymore, and the alley would be empty as soon as the workers left.

If that's the case, why was there a fire in House 37? During the day, Wang Ding said that the owner of the house had given up on "construction," so there couldn't be workers in the house. So who was inside at this time?

The dark alley was deathly silent, forming a sharp contrast with the busy streets at the entrance. Even at the entrance of the alley next to me , there were a few old ladies chatting and waving palm-leaf fans, but no one noticed the strange fire not far from them.

If there was no one around, I definitely wouldn't go over there, but there were indeed quite a few people gathered outside Sanfen Alley. These people gave me a lot of courage and the guts to satisfy my curiosity. I wanted to see what was going on there. Even if there really was a ghost, at least I had seen it with my own eyes.

So I lit a cigarette and tiptoed into the alley. The alley was so dark that I couldn't see my hand in front of me. The firelight coming from the old house at No. 37 flickered from time to time, as if it could be blown out by the slight night breeze at any time.

As I approached the courtyard, I faintly heard Wang Ding's voice say, "I've eaten." I was stunned. This man's project had clearly been completed, so why would he be eating with others inside at this time? Could this be his last "farewell dinner"?

Thinking of this, I suddenly became braver, and my steps became more natural. In two or three steps, I reached the gate of the yard.

But when I saw the situation in the old house No. 37, my hands and feet suddenly became cold, and even the heat in my heart dissipated in an instant.

Wang Ding was seen placing a low table on a piece of ruins, with a stool on each side of the table. Except for his seat, all other seats were empty. A deck of cards was neatly arranged in front of Wang Ding, but there was not even half a card on the tables of the other three parties. In this state, whether Wang Ding was "eating cards, touching cards, playing cards, and ganging" he followed the rhythm of the four people's card games completely. He even chatted and laughed with the "three-party card friends" from time to time.

He had his back to me, and every move he made seemed incredibly strange in the dim firelight.

Is it that I can't see anything in the other three seats, or is it that only Wang Ding can see something?

I even saw Wang Ding raise the lighter in his hand to "light a cigarette" for someone in the air. When he turned his head, I could clearly see a happy smile on the half of his face that was exposed.

Then Wang Ding "fired a shot", and the one who opened the cards should be his "advanced player". Wang Ding took out some money from his jacket pocket and put it on the table of his "advanced player".

With the dim light of the fire, I could clearly see that they were actually some paper money for the dead .

No matter how brave I was, I couldn't bear it anymore, so I turned around and ran towards the entrance of the alley. As soon as I turned the corner, I bumped into an old cow that was walking in in a hurry.

He cried out "Ouch" and fell to the ground with a thud.

Lao Niu frowned and was about to complain to me, but he probably saw from my face that something was wrong and asked in surprise, "Boss Yu, what's wrong with you?"

I was completely flustered and didn't know where to start. After holding it in for a long time, I pulled him up and said, "Boss Niu, you don't need to do this job anymore. Why don't you give it to someone else?"

"Boss Yu, this job is almost finished. It would be inappropriate for you to transfer it to someone else, right?" He mistakenly thought that I wanted to replace someone.

"Don't think too much. This alley is unlucky. Don't make any money. I'll compensate you for any losses."

"This is impossible. I have already asked the homeowner to advance half of the house price to subsidize another project. It's too late to withdraw now." He said in surprise.