Chapter 1445: Sinister
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After hearing Li Du’s decision, Lu Guan almost burst into tears.
“Boss, reconsider properly! What would your ancestors say? Think thrice before you act! Is that how they say it? Think thrice before you act, boss, that’s a haunted house!”
Li Du rolled his eyes and said, “What ancestors? Be reasonable. Confucius said that. But you’re right to say that I should think thrice before I act.”
Seeing that Li Du started to reconsider as he frowned and thought about it, Lu Guan heaved a sigh of relief. He said softly to Brother Wolf and the rest, “That is really a haunted house. It’s too d*mn scary!”
After being in deep thought for a few seconds, Li Du raised his head and said, “Alright, I’m done thinking about it thrice. I’ve decided to move in with you guys and check out what exactly is going on.”
Lu Guan whimpered.
Things were worse than what Snyder had said. He had only given a brief introduction to the problem. The information that Lu Guan got was more in-depth. That was because he had a connection with Rose, who had a colleague who had transferred to Bellaire. From that colleague, Lu Guan had gotten more information.
Snyder had told Li Du that three unnatural deaths had taken place in the haunted house. However, in actual fact, there had been four. Two years before the old man had pa.s.sed away, his wife had been murdered.
The murder case was similar to a locked-room mystery. The police have not been able to solve the case so far. The crime spot had been in the old couple’s bedroom. The husband woke up and found that his wife’s head was smashed by something.
Initially, the police thought that the husband was the culprit. However, evidence was not conclusive. Besides, the husband had no reason to kill his wife. They had been together for forty years and had a good relations.h.i.+p.
The scariest of all was the case of the couple with four children. There were many details that Snyder did not know, as those details were not disclosed to the public.
For example, later, the wife had checked her mobile phone and found that a photo she took of her children in the bas.e.m.e.nt had a shadow lurking behind the children.
The shadow looked like an old lady. According to the a.n.a.lysis of the silhouette and body shape, it was identical to that of the wife in the first murder case.
Another thing was, once, when the children were celebrating a birthday, the husband had used a camcorder to record the scene. Later, when he reviewed the video, he realized that someone had moved the cake on the table. Also, there had been a candle placed on the chair in one frame. When the camera returned to that frame, the candle vanished…
They had thought that all those antics had been done by the children. However, at that time, the four children were all in the video frame. It was when the frame had moved that the thing had happened.
Not only that, the husband and wife had told the police that at midnight, they would enter into a state whereby they felt that they were half-awake and half-asleep. Every time it happened, they could hear someone saying in their ears, “You move away, you are on my bed, where should I sleep?”
Hearing Lu Guan’s words, Young Markelov shuddered and said, “F*ck, this is unbelievable. It can’t be. This is something that only happens in the movies!”
Lu Guan raised his hand and said, “I swear, all these were recorded in the police’s files. You might say that the couple’s words might be fake or a product of their hallucination. But the photos and videos, that can’t be faked, right?”
Young Markelov rubbed his chin and said, “Yes, something isn’t right about this.”
His brother kicked him and chided, “Yes, your head. There are no ghosts in the world. If there were ghosts, how come Vasily Moy and Roman Gulik never saw any? Those sons of a b*tch have harmed how many of our brothers?”
Young Markelov rubbed his chin again and said, “That’s true too.”
Li Du waved his hands and said, “That’s enough. No need to be afraid. Let’s all move in and get our ammunition ready. Bring along Ah Meow and the rest. Even if vampires or werewolves come along, we’d be able to fight them!”
The formalities of transferring the house were completed and Li Du immediately ordered his men to move into the haunted house.
He took the Markelov brothers, Firecracker, Madman, G.o.dzilla, Lu Guan and also Ah Meow and the rest of the animals. Regardless of what the mystery was, their sensitive nature would help.
He left the rest of the men under Brother Wolf’s care in the mansion, in case the Dripping Blood gang came looking for trouble.
Besides, he also engaged a team of professional security guards from a security company. Every month, it would cost him seventy to eighty thousand dollars, but that would protect his family better.
After all, he decided he should be more cautious during this period.
Bellaire was, strictly speaking, a community, started by Mr. Bell one century ago. From the Santa Monica Mountains to Sunset Boulevard, the entire community was extending westward.
The community was very upscale, and it formed the famous “Platinum Triangle” of Los Angeles with Beverly Hills and Holmby Hills. This ‘triangle’ enjoyed the reputation of being the most prestigious residential area in the United States. It also had some of the most expensive real estate on the West Coast.
However, as early as a few decades ago, the Bellaire community had developed into a large area, similar to a small town. There were many other communities around.
Perhaps the developers back then had wanted to use the reputation of the Bellaire community to sell their houses, or perhaps they wanted to avoid the ha.s.sle of coming up with a new name, or perhaps it was due to the vanity of the new residents who came, but they all claimed to be the residents of Bellaire. Hence, they had this new city.
The city was close to the famous UCLA campus, which made the value of the local property rise further. UCLA was a world-famous school. The campus was beautiful and the students were highly accomplished. One could even occasionally go to the campus to stay there. It was very family-friendly.
Li Du and his group had driven pa.s.s the Bel-Air entertainment club and the Bel-Air hotel. That was the center of the small district, which was up the hill. The surroundings were cla.s.sy and had a good ambiance.
From that point on, the road started to wind. Driver steered the car with ease. Li Du looked out and realized that not many houses were visible on the street because their doors were hidden by dense foliage or shrubs. There was quite a high degree of privacy.
Later, as the car continued to drive up, one could see the traces of these luxury homes.
The haunted house that he had bought could be considered a luxury mansion. The quality of the house was good, the style was beautiful, and the location was very nice. If it did not have the reputation of being a haunted house, the market price could be more than five million dollars.
Along the way, Li Du said, “You know, these houses are so scattered around the land, they are almost hidden in the forests or the mountains. Even if there were no murders in them, they are like haunted houses.”
“This is the least populated neighborhood in the Los Angeles area. Bellaire is like this. The luxury houses we see on the road belong to stars. They don’t live here. They may stay here for a dozen days a year,” Lu Guan said.
Young Markelov said, “D*mn, these rich people and stars are really good at enjoying life.”
After more than ten minutes of driving, a small castle built on the mountainside appeared. Li Du had already seen it before. When he saw it last time, he thought that the house was very beautiful, and the exterior wall was coated with various colors of paint.
However, this time, he had a different impression. The sun was not very bright, so he felt that the house did look a little sinister!