Du Xiaolan's words made me pause for a moment, and I quickly looked up to see a man wearing a Zhongshan suit standing at the door.
The man, about thirty-something, was wearing gold-rimmed glasses, and his appearance fell into the type of men that young girls pursue nowadays, but his face was very pale, and at the moment, he was standing next to Du Xiaolan.
I had seen this man at Jiang Xiumei's house. He was the man in the black and white photo hanging on the wall, Jiang Nanfeng.
I took a deep breath, and Du Xiaolan suddenly shivered, saying in bewilderment, "It's really strange. Even if it's a cloudy day, there shouldn't be such a cold wind."
She couldn't see Jiang Nanfeng, so I smiled and said to her, "Go get your nails done, or else I might change my mind in a while."
"Okay, bye!" Du Xiaolan scoffed at me, waved, and went out.
Jiang Nanfeng's gaze shifted as Du Xiaolan left. Although he was a ghost, I strangely wasn't afraid, and instead looked at him with great interest.
His gaze returned to me, and Jiang Nanfeng walked over in confusion, standing in front of me and asking, "Can you see me?"
I nodded and said, "Yes, why are you here?"
Jiang Nanfeng rubbed his head with his hand, looking confused as he said, "I don't know why I came here. I've been drifting outside for many years, and suddenly felt like something here was calling me, so I followed that feeling."
"Your name is Jiang Nanfeng? You used to be a carpenter?" I walked over, sat on a chair, and motioned for him to sit down as well.
He was slightly surprised, but still asked in confusion, "How do you know that?"
I said, "A friend told me."
Jiang Nanfeng asked, "Who?"
"Jiang Xiumei," I said, staring at him without blinking.
Jiang Nanfeng frowned slightly, as if pondering something, and finally shook his head, saying, "Sorry, I've forgotten a lot of things, and I don't know the person you're talking about."
Jiang Nanfeng was already in his thirties in the 1950s, so if we speculate from that time, Jiang Xiumei should be Jiang Nanfeng's granddaughter. And at thirty-something, he had already passed away, so not knowing his granddaughter's name was quite normal.
I sniffed, I had always wanted to know the follow-up to the story Jiang Xiumei had told me last night, and now the person involved was right in front of me, so I had to ask this question.
Jiang Nanfeng thought for a moment and then continued telling Jiang Xiumei's story.
After the wealthy family who had Jiang Nanfeng make the wooden coffin took it and Jiang Nanfeng away, they arrived at a desolate wilderness. Jiang Nanfeng didn't know what they were up to, just watching as they dug into the ground with shovels, finally pulling out a large clay jar from underground.
The jar was about half a person's height, and was tightly sealed. As soon as the jar hit the ground, the atmosphere instantly became oppressive.
Jiang Nanfeng knew that this jar was definitely not an ordinary thing, and wanted to sneak away, but these people surrounded him and there was no way he could escape.
As soon as the jar was opened, a strong foul smell hit them. Several people didn't have time to cover their noses and were forced to groan against a tree.
Jiang Nanfeng was no exception, tears flowed as he was smoked, and he hurriedly covered his nose with his sleeve.
At this moment, while these people were all vomiting, he had a perfect chance to escape from here. But when he saw the pottery jar, he stopped the idea of escaping, because he was very curious about what was inside the jar.
Holding his breath against the stench, he took large strides forward, but when he saw what was inside the jar, it was as if he had been punched in the face, and he was completely stunned.
Inside the jar was a severely decomposed body, more accurately described as deformed rather than human.
This so-called person had both hands and feet cut off, with a coppery stench seeping from the ear holes, and empty, pitch-black eye sockets.
It had been stored in the jar for who knows how long, and was now completely putrid. The bottom of the jar was layered with a brownish-yellow liquid, mixed with a lot of decaying flesh.
"Cannibal!" This extremely cruel word appeared in his mind, making Jiang Nanfeng's legs go weak, almost kneeling on the ground.
He looked in horror at these people in front of him, feeling layers of unease surging through his heart like waves. Although he wasn't very clear about what a cannibal was, since it was able to be uncovered, it must not be simple.
When Jiang Nanfeng returned to his original position, the people around him were already giving him very menacing looks. His heart sank, knowing that he had seen something that should not have belonged to him, but now it was too late for regrets.
The leader ordered the others to grab him, and a few others put the cannibal's body from the jar into a sandalwood coffin before knocking him unconscious with a stick.
Later, Jiang Nanfeng didn't know, he only knew that when he woke up again, he found himself confined within that pottery jar, and the nauseating stench instinctively drove him out from underground.
As he crawled out, he became confused. Whether it was because of that blow or something else, he had forgotten a lot of things.
He wandered around like a lost soul, coming to the city. What terrified him was that no one could see his body or hear his words.
It wasn't until that moment that he realized he was already dead, truly becoming a lost soul. Drifting aimlessly in the mortal world for decades, during the day he hid in dark places, only able to wander around the city at night, searching for his own memories.
Fortunately, he recalled many things, but also forgot many things. This morning, he felt something calling him, which led him to come to this shop.
After listening to his story, I let out a long sigh. Jiang Nanfeng's experience was indeed quite unbelievable. Squinting, I hurriedly stood up from the chair, went to the computer, and searched for keywords related to this event in the 1950s. Many web pages popped up the instant I hit the enter key.
The content had been official sealed, but a few were still available.
In the 1950s, there was indeed a carpenter surnamed Jiang who mysteriously disappeared. Just three days after he disappeared, an entire family died overnight, all of whom had a common symptom: a very sharp claw mark on the neck, as if they had been clawed to death by a wild beast.
I looked at the pallid Jiang Nanfeng and he suddenly stood up and asked me, "Who is this Jiang Xiumei you mentioned? Why does she know so much about my situation?"
I closed the web page, walked over and said, "She should be your granddaughter."
To my surprise, Jiang Nanfeng furrowed his brows tightly and said in a low voice, "Although I have forgotten many of my memories, I have never been married, let alone had children, let alone a granddaughter."