After the sudden death of the excavator driver was dealt with, the village chief at the time hanged himself that very night. It was only when his family tried to wake him up the next morning that they discovered he had committed suicide.

The next morning, upon hearing about the village chief's suicide by hanging, the construction crew leader immediately took his team and all construction equipment and left Yang Family Village.

Because there were rumors in the village that ghosts from the old house had killed both the excavator driver and the village chief, the acting village chief, fearing that the ghost would claim his life too, made canceling the contract with the construction crew and abandoning the plans to demolish the old house and build the road his top priority after taking office.

However, even though the road construction plans were abandoned, in the following three months, one by one, villagers who had been involved in the road construction discussions began to die from various causes. Although there was no evidence, the villagers all believed it was the work of the vengeful ghost from the ancient house.

In the following years, although the town government urged the Yang Family Village chief every year to hurry up with the road construction, the chief and the villagers always put it off with various reasons. Each and every villager was terrified of mentioning that incident and dared not even bring it up.

Until twelve years ago when the village chief had been replaced by Yang Weiguo.

When Yang Weiguo became the village chief, Yang Family Village and the few surrounding villages difficult to travel to were famously impoverished. In order to help these villages prosper, the town sent several agricultural experts to survey the soil quality. Following on-site inspections, the experts found the black soil in the surrounding area of these poor villages to be very suitable for cultivating high-yielding crops in greenhouses.

Therefore, the town mayor personally led a team of experts to Yang Family Village to motivate the villagers, encouraging them to grow greenhouse crops to become wealthy. As Yang Family Village was the essential route to the nearby villages, the mayor ordered Yang Weiguo to expedite the road construction to facilitate the transport for the surrounding impoverished villages.

Initially, Yang Weiguo was against the idea of building the road, but after much hesitation, thinking of the possibility of bringing the villagers out of poverty, he agreed to it.

After discussing with several village officials and highly respected elders, Yang Weiguo invited the most famous Yin-Yang masters and Feng Shui masters from Wanxin Town to Yang Family Village, hoping they could inspect the ominous old house and help pass on the wandering spirits residing there.

To everyone's surprise, as soon as the Yin-Yang masters and Feng Shui masters approached the entrance of the old house at the selected auspicious time, they suddenly all dropped dead on the spot, causing Yang Weiguo and several officials who were there to welcome them to faint from shock.

When Yang Weiguo came to, it was two days later. To his disbelief, during those two days while he was unconscious, something even more terrifying had occurred: The very next day after his fainting, the mayor of Wanxin Town personally came to Yang Family Village with a renowned construction crew to inspect the situation.

After hearing about the paranormal event from the day before, the mayor, who did not believe in the existence of ghosts, flew into a rage and personally chopped open the wooden door of the old house with an ax, even declaring that he would lead the construction crew the next day to demolish the old house himself. However, soon after on his way back to town, the mayor and several experts from the construction crew were killed in a major traffic accident, with everyone in the vehicle dead.

Upon learning of this, Yang Weiguo felt as if struck by thunder, fearing that a great disaster was upon him. To make up for his negligence, he had the village's carpenters and locksmiths repair the doors of the old house that the mayor had chopped a few days prior, and then burned a large amount of paper money in front of the doors, swearing that future generations of Yang Family Village would never again entertain the thought of demolishing houses and building roads.

Since the incident caused a sensation throughout Wanxin Town, the new mayor also dared not bring up road construction again, and the greenhouse vegetable cultivation project was aborted. As a result, Yang Family Village and the surrounding poor mountain villages became even poorer.

Although Yang Weiguo narrowly escaped disaster, from that time on, every so often, several young men in the village would fall seriously ill. Besides, no more children were born in the village, leading it to become known as "the village without descendants," and rumors of "the curse of Yang Family Village" gradually spread throughout Wanxin Town. No girl was willing to marry into Yang Family Village, and nobody dared to marry a girl from there.

Having finished recalling these events, Yang Weiguo sighed deeply, frowning and lamenting, "It's all my fault, my fault for not being firm enough in my stance back then!"

"Hmph, what's the use of saying that now?" Yang Shirong suddenly walked up to Yang Weiguo, "All because of you, I've never been able to find a partner. Look at this young man, almost my age, yet he's found such a stunningly beautiful girlfriend!"

The "young man" Yang Shirong was talking about was Chen Hao, who he had just seen Ye Yuqiao intimately holding onto Chen Hao's arm, stirring feelings of both envy and jealousy in him.

"Haha!" Xie Xiaofeng let out a disdainful laugh, looking at Yang Shirong and said, "Believe me, even if there was no so-called curse, you definitely wouldn't be able to find such a beautiful partner."

"Don't look down on me!" Yang Shirong said with hatred on his face.

"To be looked down upon by 'dog eyes,' one at least has to be a person!" Xie Xiaofeng retorted with sarcasm.

Yang Shirong immediately became furiously embarrassed, his breathing growing heavy. Suddenly, he stepped behind Ye Yuqiao and said, "Beautiful lady, don't go to our village with them or you'll be sending yourself to death."

After saying that, Yang Shirong reached forward, attempting to grab Ye Yuqiao's hand.

Chen Hao reacted quickly, immediately capturing Yang Shirong's wrist, twisting it around, and glaring at Yang Shirong angrily, "What gives you the right to lay hands on my girlfriend?"

Yang Shirong tried to struggle free, but Chen Hao held him even tighter.

"Let me go," Yang Shirong said between gritted teeth, pain flashing across his face, "I just don't want her to follow you to her death, that's all."

"Whether she goes to her death is her business, what right do you have to make decisions for her? You really think highly of yourself!"

"Mr. Chen, let him go," Yang Weiguo pleaded, his face twisted in distress, "This kid is not bad-hearted, just a bit hot-tempered sometimes."

After a moment, Chen Hao released Yang Shirong's wrist and barked, "Get lost!"

After staring at Chen Hao for a long time, Yang Shirong finally left reluctantly.

"Mr. Chen, I have told you everything, what should we do next? Is there any way to break this curse that causes the end of one's lineage?"

"Village Chief Yang, I just heard from Yang Shirong that his family has already moved out of your village, is that true?"

"Yes," Yang Weiguo nodded, "His mother is from the neighboring village, and his father was one of the villagers who decided to demolish the ancient house to build the road twenty years ago. After his father died, his mother worried that it might affect him, so she took him to live with her family. Since the two villages are close, the boy often comes back to our village to play, so everyone knows him."

"So he didn't grow up in your village?"

Yang Weiguo nodded again.

"Then he shouldn't be affected by the curse, right?" Chen Hao pondered aloud.

"Mr. Chen, what do you mean by that?" Yang Weiguo asked in confusion, "Even though Yang Shirong didn't grow up in our village, after all, he has our ancestors' blood flowing in his veins."

Chen Hao shrugged and chuckled, saying, "It means nothing special, just take us to have a look around the village first, then I will know."

Upon hearing that Chen Hao wanted to visit the village, Yang Weiguo first showed joy, then his face clouded with worry, "Mr. Chen, are you really going to our village? Maybe you should reconsider. What Yang Shirong said was right, going there might very well mean going to one's death."

"Don't worry!" Chen Hao gave a slight smile, "Of course we are confident in going there!"

"That's true," Yang Weiguo said sheepishly, nodding his head, "You were invited by Master Liu Xia; you must have extraordinary abilities."

When it was time to settle the bill, Yang Weiguo originally wanted to treat them, but in the end, Xie Xiaofeng rushed to pay first. Previously, Chen Hao, Ye Yuqiao, Xie Xiaofeng, and Tang Jing had reached a consensus: to solve the troubles of ghosts for the common folk for free, without spending a penny of their money.

After getting into the car, Chen Hao was about to pull the side door closed when Yang Shirong suddenly rushed forward, blocking the door and saying, "Are you going back to the village? I want to go back with you. I'll take care of this beautiful lady."

"Get lost!" Chen Hao directly pushed Yang Shirong to the ground and then pulled the car door closed.

After the van started, Yang Shirong who had fallen to the ground immediately got up and stood in front of the vehicle with his arms spread wide, as if prepared to meet his end.

"Such immaturity at over twenty years old, no wonder you can't find a partner!" Xie Xiaofeng sneered, "Do you think I'd be scared of you if you threaten me with your own life?"

With that, Xie Xiaofeng suddenly slammed on the accelerator.

Hearing the van's roaring, Yang Shirong was taken aback, then quickly dived to the nearby sidewalk just before the van could hit him.

Suddenly, Xie Xiaofeng hit the brakes, then rolled down the window and gave Yang Shirong the middle finger, before driving away.

"This is simply too much," Yang Shirong said resentfully, "Just wait, I'll go call for backup!"

Forty-five minutes later, under the guidance of Yang Weiguo, the van finally made it to the entrance of Yang Family Village after a bumpy ride.

Upon getting out of the car, Xie Xiaofeng couldn't help but remark, "This road indeed needs repair, it's just too rundown!"

Hearing Xie Xiaofeng mention the road repair so close to the ancient house, Yang Weiguo was so frightened that his legs trembled, and he hurriedly said, "The house is over there, let me take you to see the village first."

"So this is the house!" Chen Hao said with great interest, looking at the gloomy ancient house, "This would have been a mansion among mansions, a top-notch mountain villa back a few hundred years ago!"

Although he wore a relaxed expression on his face, Chen Hao was using Nether Vision to carefully inspect every detail inside the house. To his surprise, despite the gloominess, there was no strong Yin Qi, which is unlike a place where fierce ghosts reside.

"There are no ghosts in this house at the moment!" Chen Hao announced.

"Ah!" Yang Weiguo was startled, then exclaimed, "You really are a master, able to tell if there are ghosts inside from the outside."

Chen Hao looked at Yang Weiguo with furrowed brows and said decisively, "Take me into the village to see the villagers, especially the young adults."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.