I Only Sell Haunted Houses

Chapter 57

We couldn’t be certain whether Old Zhao Seven and Du Ruhai were actually working together.

However, it was indeed Old Zhao Seven who had instructed me to take those two Ashes Urns from Du Ruhai’s house.

That action alone was detrimental to Du Ruhai’s interests.

Furthermore, it was because of those two Ashes Urns that I managed to trade Meng Yifan back.

Now that Du Ruhai’s home had been robbed again, I couldn’t think of anyone other than Old Zhao Seven who would dare to steal from him.

But I couldn’t figure out what he could have stolen to make Du Ruhai so agitated.

“Look, I don’t care if that old geezer was the thief or not,” Meng Yifan cursed. “But Du Ruhai thinks it was me. That old bastard is rotten to the core-he even sold us out!”

He already knew about Old Zhao Seven betraying us.

Regardless of Old Zhao Seven’s ultimate goal, the mere fact that he had sold us out left a foul taste in my mouth.

“By the way, who exactly saved you?” Song Xiaotian looked at me with curiosity. “You were being so mysterious about it, saying you’d tell us once we got to the hospital. You can talk now.”

I told them a ghost had saved me.

Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan stared at me, dumbfounded.

“That ghost was Du Yuwei…”

The two of them were so startled they jumped to their feet, nearly bolting out of the hospital room.

“How could it be her?!”

“Why would she ever save you?”

“I don’t know either.”

I was more bewildered than they were. “I was barely conscious at the time, so I don’t know if it was a hallucination, but the silhouette I saw… it was Du Yuwei.”

Song Xiaotian speculated with a serious expression, “Could it be… a ghost-human romance? Is she in love with you?”

Meng Yifan countered, “Brother Tian, that Du Yuwei is already Du Ruhai’s wife. They’re a legitimate couple.”

Song Xiaotian snapped back, “Legitimate? How can those two be legitimate? If they’re considered a proper couple, then where does that leave our country’s sense of propriety and honor? Besides, one is human and the other is a ghost. There’s nothing legitimate about it.”

I knew Song Xiaotian was joking. Du Yuwei and I had nothing to do with each other; there was no way she could be in love with me. Our only connection was that she wanted my life, and I wanted to find someone to perform an Exorcism on her.

Frowning, I said, “We’ve been investigating Du Ruhai and Li Xiumei, but we’ve never focused on Du Yuwei herself. We’ve just been assuming that Du Ruhai has a twisted sort of love for her. But what about Du Yuwei? Does she necessarily love Du Ruhai?”

“We seem to have forgotten how Du Yuwei died.”

We had previously asked Brother Liu to investigate her.

Before her death, Du Yuwei had fallen for the same man as another woman. She was the mistress, and the other woman was the legal wife.

What was even more shocking was that she had hired people to bully the wife. On the very day of the bullying, she died in an accident.

“If she really loved Du Ruhai, how could she have fallen for someone else?”

“She even went as far as bullying another man’s wife for his sake.”

“I certainly don’t see any affection for Du Ruhai there.”

Not to mention, Du Yuwei’s background was extremely sensitive.

She was the sole survivor of the Massacre Case from fifteen years ago. Du Ruhai-or rather, Lv Zhengxian-was the murderer who killed her father and mother.

Would she really fall in love with her mortal enemy?

She probably wanted to hack Du Ruhai into pieces.

Song Xiaotian remarked, “Now that you mention it, it reminds me of Stockholm Syndrome. It’s also called hostage syndrome. It basically means the victim develops an emotional bond or dependency on the perpetrator, sometimes even assisting them in their crimes.”
“The reason this syndrome occurs is that the victim’s life and death are entirely in the hands of the perpetrator. If the perpetrator allows the victim to survive, the victim becomes immensely grateful, even to the point of trying to please their captor.”

“Over time, a morbid sort of affection develops between the two.”

Meng Yifan and I could understand the Stockholm syndrome Song Xiaotian was describing.

This condition has been featured in many movies and TV shows, so most people are likely familiar with it.

“Are you saying it’s possible that Du Yuwei developed Stockholm syndrome toward Du Ruhai?” I asked.

Song Xiaotian shook his head. “It’s not just possible; it’s a certainty. Du Yuwei was only five years old when the incident happened. That’s an age where one is even more helpless than an adult. Her parents were killed, and then she fell into the hands of two cold-blooded killers. What could she do?”

“Whether due to internal or external factors, she would have inevitably developed Stockholm syndrome. There’s no doubt about it. Regardless of the truth, this point cannot be overturned.”

Song Xiaotian used to be a police officer, so I certainly couldn’t question his professional expertise.

But the fact remained that Du Yuwei had fallen in love with another man. How could that be explained?

Meng Yifan said, “Her parents and brother were all killed by Lv Zhengxian. Could she really develop feelings for him?”

Song Xiaotian said solemnly, “You can only be certain she saw Lv Zhengxian kill Li Xiumei. You can’t be certain whether she actually saw her family being killed by him. So, that part is still in question.”

“And even if she did see it with her own eyes, imagine it-her parents and brother were brutally murdered. She was only five. Could she have processed that scene?”

“The shock of that moment must have been immense. She would have either been driven insane by the terror, or she would have selectively suppressed those memories because her mind couldn’t accept them. If she didn’t forget, she would have lost her mind.”

“So, I think she probably didn’t know Du Ruhai was her enemy. She only saw how Du Ruhai killed Li Xiumei. Besides, since Du Ruhai had such twisted feelings for her, why would he let her witness such a brutal scene?”

“Because Du Ruhai wanted her to develop Stockholm syndrome toward him. To put it bluntly, as long as she had this condition, Du Ruhai could do whatever he wanted with her, and she wouldn’t resist.”

My hair stood on end as I listened, and goosebumps broke out across my skin.

Sometimes, the human heart is harder to look at than the sun.

“Then how do you explain her falling in love with another man…” Meng Yifan asked, voicing my own confusion.

Song Xiaotian thought about it for a long time before shaking his head. “You’d have to ask her that…”

I suggested, “Could it be that after she died… she recovered the memories of her parents’ deaths? Did she realize Du Ruhai was her enemy then?”

Song Xiaotian gave a dry cough. “That’s outside my area of expertise. I was a cop, not a Taoist priest.”

However, I caught onto something very important. I said, “When Du Yuwei first started haunting us, she came to knock on the door every night looking for Li Xiumei. She even pointed directly to where Li Xiumei’s body was hidden, inside that master bedroom.”

“If she knew all along that Li Xiumei had been killed by Lv Zhengxian, why was she looking for her?”

“Unless she wasn’t looking for Li Xiumei at all. She was coming to tell us that Li Xiumei’s body was in there.”