Frost in the Yin House

In the midsummer of 2017, I had just quit a useless job and was bored. Suddenly, Lao Li sent me a message: "Xiao Zhang, are you in Weifang? There is a job that pays well. Help me." He mentioned "20 big red bills" and his voice penetrated my ears like a cold wind through the phone. My money was tight, so why not do it? But there was a weirdness in his tone that made me feel nervous.

I packed my things and rushed to Shouguang, Weifang. The sun was so hot that it seemed to melt people on the way, and the air was so sticky that I couldn't breathe. But when I arrived at the bungalow, my heart seemed to fall into an ice cave. The house looked magnificent, with red bricks and white walls, and the yard was clean, but the door was closed and there was a dead air in the crack. I pushed the door in and there was a gust of cold wind in the yard, as if a pair of cold hands grabbed me from behind. The branches and leaves of the locust tree in the corner of the yard were drooping, and the shadows twisted on the ground, like black snakes crawling. I rubbed my arms and looked up at the sky. The sun was clearly hanging overhead, but this place was as cold as a cemetery.

The owner of the house was surnamed Wang. He was in his fifties. He wore a long-sleeved shirt with his buttons buttoned tightly. His face was full of wrinkles as if carved out of fear. When he saw me and Old Li, he seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw, and his voice was as low as a whisper: "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Li, if you hadn't come, I wouldn't dare to enter this house." His eyes were erratic, as if he was afraid that something would pounce on him from behind.

Old Li squinted his eyes and said slowly: "Don't worry, tell me what happened." The tone was strangely calm, like coaxing a frightened child. Boss Wang swallowed his saliva and his voice trembled: "This house has been built for five or six years. There was nothing wrong at first, but since last year, strange things have happened one after another."

He took us into the main house. The light in the house was dim, the windows were closed, and the air was filled with a musty smell, like a rotten coffin. As soon as I stepped in, the floor creaked under my feet, as if something was scratching underneath. The shadow in the corner of the wall swayed for a moment, and I rubbed my eyes, thinking that I was seeing things, but the shadow moved again, like a human figure squatting there and peeking. Boss Wang continued, "In the summer, the house is so cold that frost forms. The floor and furniture are all covered with white frost, as if we were in an ice cellar. We have to sleep wrapped in cotton-padded jackets, but we are still shivering with cold."

I looked down and saw that there was indeed a thin layer of frost on the floor, which creaked when I stepped on it, as if my bones were broken. It was clearly a sunny day in June outside the window, but the house was as gloomy as a cemetery in the deep winter. Boss Wang's voice was even lower, and it was almost inaudible: "My son has been married for five years, and his daughter-in-law has miscarried twice. Later, she went crazy and said that she saw a female ghost in red floating outside the window all day, staring at her and laughing. The old couple moved in and also encountered ghosts - they saw human figures floating around in the middle of the day, and were pressed down on the bed in the middle of the night and could not move."

He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the purple and blue handprints on his neck, the finger marks were deeply sunken, as if they had just been pinched. I got closer and saw that the skin around the handprint was gray and there was a faint fishy smell. My heart beat faster. Everyone in this business knows that the red-clothed ghost is the most difficult to deal with, and its resentment can drag people into hell alive. Suddenly, a low laugh came from my ear, like a woman's voice, coming from the corner of the wall, and it seemed to come from underground. I turned around suddenly and saw nothing, but the laughter didn't stop, like a needle piercing my ear.

Boss Wang continued, "I have looked for monks and Taoist priests, and even invited the horse spirit, but it was useless. A Taoist priest was so scared that he didn't even want to pay for the money when he was halfway through the ritual." He paused, and his voice became more gloomy: "That night, I dreamed that the red-clothed female ghost pinched my neck, and I woke up like this."

Old Li glanced at me with a mocking look in his eyes, as if saying, "For such a small matter, do you still need me?" I rolled my eyes in my heart, but the coldness made me breathless. The locust tree outside the house suddenly shook, as if being pulled by something, and the friction between the branches and leaves made a harsh hissing sound. I whispered, "Old Li, is there something wrong with this place?" He patted the cloth bag and said in a low voice like a sigh, "Try it tonight, don't be afraid."

When I left, it was dark, and there was a whimpering in the yard, like the sound of wind, and like crying. I looked back and saw a vague red shadow standing under the locust tree, flashing by. My legs went weak and I almost fell, but Old Li held me and whispered, "Don't look back, evil cannot prevail over good, we have plenty of ways." I gritted my teeth and said to myself, "Yes, we are not afraid." But the chill was like a shadow, following me closely.