Soon after, Chen Hao got through to the village chief of Yang Family Village, Yang Weiguo, who became exceptionally excited once he heard that Chen Hao was an Onmyoji introduced by Liu Xiajun.

After learning that Chen Hao was currently inside a restaurant in Wanxin Town, Yang Weiguo said he would go to the town to meet him right away and hurriedly hung up the phone.

It so happened that Chen Hao and his companions had just finished lunch when Yang Weiguo arrived.

Entering the restaurant and seeing only Chen Hao's table occupied by customers, Yang Weiguo hesitated for a long time before slowly approaching, asking with a tone of disbelief, "Young man, hello, may I ask if you are Chen Hao?"

"I am!" Chen Hao quickly raised his hand, "You must be the village chief of Yang Family Village, right?"

"Ah!" Yang Weiguo's face darkened with an expression of disbelief, thinking to himself how the Onmyoji with profound mana mentioned by Liu Xiajun could just be a young man around twenty, not looking at all like someone capable of exorcising ghosts.

"Please, have a seat," Chen Hao politely invited Yang Weiguo to sit down, "Have you eaten yet, Village Chief?"

"Yes, yes!" Yang Weiguo nodded continuously, looking very honest with his dark skin and sincere eyes.

While speaking, Chen Hao gestured to the waiter, "Waiter, another teacup, please!"

The waiter glared at Chen Hao resentfully, then came over with a cup, reluctantly putting it down in front of Yang Weiguo.

"Yang Shirong, so you're working here!" Yang Weiguo said excitedly to the waiter.

The server, called Yang Shirong, snorted and then turned to leave, mumbling: "The murderer responsible for the extinction of our entire village!"

Hearing Yang Shirong's words, Yang Weiguo's face turned dark in a flash, and he lowered his head in some shame.

After pouring a cup of tea for Yang Shirong, Xie Xiaofeng couldn't help asking, "Village Chief Yang, why would he accuse you like that?"

"Sigh," Yang Weiguo let out a long sigh, picking up the steaming cup of tea. After taking a few sips, a shadow fell across his eyes, and then he started to talk about the curse of the villagers of Yang Family Village:

Yang Family Village is located on the northern side of Wanxin Town, situated on a hillside. Due to the terrain, it is very inconvenient to enter and exit the village, as well as to move around within it.

Twenty years ago, the then village chief obtained a sum of money from the town government to improve the traffic conditions in the village and started to hire a construction team to plan the road.

At the village entrance, which leads to the outside and is located to the direct south of the village, there is an ancient mansion. This mansion, built hundreds of years ago, is the tallest and largest one in the village.

When Yang Weiguo was young, an old man still lived in that mansion. This elder never ventured outside and never mixed with the villagers. Even during the festive seasons when every household was brightly decorated and bustling, the mansion remained quiet and desolate.

At the time, Yang Weiguo heard from the elders in the village that the people who lived in this estate were once the wealthiest landlords nearby. Because they looked down on the villagers for being poor, this family never interacted with the villagers nor had anyone ever lived in this estate.

The only time Yang Weiguo ever entered this estate was when an old person inside died and a funeral was held. Because he was playful back then, Yang Weiguo sneaked into the mansion with a few buddies from the village during the funeral rituals.

Upon entering the mansion, Yang Weiguo's first impression was of luxury. Everything, from corridors, doors, windows to floor tiles, was made of the finest and most expensive wood and decorations, all exquisitely done; his second feeling was one of eeriness, as if cold winds were blowing everywhere, making one shiver with cold.

After entering the mansion, there was one thing that Yang Weiguo remembered clearly to this day: originally, when he hid outside the window and looked into the living room, he saw that the corpse lying in the coffin was still moving, a hand stretching out from the coffin constantly grabbing fruits and biscuits from the spirit table into the coffin. And the Onmyoji performing the funeral rites, as if they saw nothing, kept chanting their spells.

Seeing this scene at the time, Yang Weiguo was so frightened that he hurriedly left the mansion with his friends and never dared to come close to it again.

Recalling this, Yang Weiguo's pale face was covered in beads of cold sweat. After swallowing his saliva, he trembled as he reached for the teacup and took several sips. Clearly, he was still greatly disturbed by the incident.

"Village Head, you said you saw a hand stretching out from the coffin, could the person lying inside have been in a state of suspended animation?" Chen Hao asked.

"I'm not sure about that!" Yang Weiguo said tremblingly, his eyes flickering.

"After hearing so much, I just want to know, what does this have to do with the road construction you were talking about at the beginning?" Xie Xiaofeng inquired.

"It's related, very much so!" Yang Weiguo said somewhat excitedly, putting the teacup back on the table, and then he continued recalling:

After the old person in the mansion had died, no one had lived there anymore. It was said that the old man had no children and, before dying, left his inheritance to his adopted son. However, across the decades, Yang Weiguo never saw anyone enter or exit the mansion.

What struck Yang Weiguo as strange was that, although no one lived there, the front of the mansion was always spotless, without a trace of dust or spider webs. Moreover, some unruly children had tried to climb the wall to play inside the mansion, and without exception, all fell off the wall and broke their legs.

At that time, there were rumors in the village that there were ghosts in the mansion that did not allow anyone to trespass, which is why those children were pushed off. Thereafter, by word of mouth, the mansion became known as a notorious haunted house in the vicinity, and the villagers no longer dared to come close, until the matter of road construction in the village twenty years ago.

After multiple surveys by the construction team, the unanimous decision was to demolish the old mansion. As the mansion connected to several villages to the north and to the main road outside, and with several winding village paths going through it from the inside, and because it also happened to be close to the river on the outside, there was no way to build roads on either side of the mansion, and there was no way to bypass it from the other side of the village, so the mansion had to be demolished.

Later, after discussions and a resolution with the villagers, the village head decided to demolish the old mansion to make way for the road. Actually, all the villagers had made a small calculation, thinking that since no one lived in the house anymore, demolishing it would not require compensation, and afterwards, they could divide up the items inside the mansion amongst themselves.

Not long after, the road construction project started.

However, on the first day, just as the excavator had barely managed to reach the front of the mansion, the driver in charge suddenly died of sudden death.

In the evening, after settling the sudden death of the driver, the village head's house encountered trouble...

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