Chapter 60: Who can remain unmoved?
Chapter 60: Who can remain unmoved?
Translator-Rhapsodite
Editor- PerpetualMreow, Proofreader-Ghostie
Bei Quan: “Oh?”
He asked the caller,
“So, what happened to you at that house?”
[No, Nothing.]
The man replied,
[In fact… Everything was normal in that manor. At least, this is true for the image shown to the public eye.]
[But…]
His voice stopped for two seconds.
[However, it was different for the people living in that manor— they always seemed to be under the God of death’s watch. Something odd would happen to people three or five times, and even if they were able to escape death the first few times, they’d be dead in the end without exception.]
The tremor in the man’s voice became more apparent.
[Can you imagine?]
He said,
[I lived in that manor for four years and attended three funerals…]
Bei Quan, “Whose funerals?”
The man thought for a while,
[In order to not cause ambiguity, I’d better start from the beginning.]
Bei Quan smiled, “Ok, please go ahead.”
[Thank you, host.]
The man thanked politely and began his story,
[The first funeral I attended, the dead man’s name was Zach. Strictly speaking, he was a brother I had never met…]
Next, Bei Quan and Wei Fuyuan heard a rather strange story.
The man informed them that before entering the house, he had heard rumors of a “Texas Daddy Long Legs”, who was said to be “wealthy”, “generous”, and “kind”.
However, in the orphanage where he lived, the nuns whispered about how the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was actually a freak.
The odd thing about the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was not his look, demeanor, attire, hobbies, or any other habits, but the fact that he always repaired and expanded his large mansion every year.
Of course, the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” claimed that this was due to his family’s growing number of children. He explained that he continued to make essential extensions and decorations to provide better living circumstances for the children.
However, if one looked down from a higher vantage point, they would see that the residence of the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was becoming increasingly odd with each passing year.
Because the two wings were continually covered with new passageways and rooms, the original good European style luxury home eventually lost its original beauty and began to become a complex and chaotic maze.
People who were unfamiliar with the house’s structure would be easily confused by its new and old alternating and meandering passageways, and consequently they would be unable to find their way back to the entrance. They’d have no idea where they’d gone the wrong way.
But that didn’t really mean anything.
Maybe it was just a little hobby of rich people, albeit an odd one.
Moreover, the labyrinth house of the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was not that mysterious to the residents of the town.
Because the host was really friendly and generous.
He often opened his manor and residence to hold various charity activities, allowing invited guests to visit his home at will and learn about the excellent life he provided for the children.
In this way, after a long time, people no longer cared about the fact that he renovated and expanded his house every year. The townspeople who were often invited to the mansion even regarded the mansion as a novelty and looked forward to discovering new changes every year.
The caller, who was an eight year old boy at the time, felt an unspeakable sense of strangeness when the government decided to foster him at the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” home. The first day he arrived, he felt an indescribable sense of weirdness looking at the strange mansion.
After living in it for two months, the boy attended a funeral.
The deceased’s name was Zach, and he was one of the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” adoptive sons. His death was caused by a car accident; he was hit and flung out by a drunk-driven car on his way to work, and lost his life after landing heavily on the paved curb. He was beyond saving by the time the ambulance arrived on the scene.
However, Zach was 27 years old when he died and had long been separated from his adoptive father’s custody. Moreover, he went to college in another state when he was an adult. After graduation, he found a good job in the city where the school was located and only came back occasionally to visit his adoptive father.
However, the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” felt very sad about the death of his adopted son.
He arranged a face-to-face funeral for Zach, and personally took his children to present white roses to the coffin.
But that was just the beginning.
About a year later, the caller attended another funeral.
The one who had died this time was a boy named Cartel who lived in the room next to him.
Cartel was six years older than the boy. He was a mixed race African descent. He was tall and lively, a good athlete and was especially good at basketball.
However, the promising young basketball player, unfortunately, fell down while struggling for rebounds in an inter school game, knocked the back of his head on a metal basketball frame, ruptured a traumatic cerebral hemangioma, and died two weeks later from his severe injury.
Like Zach, the death of Cartel looked like a regrettable tragedy. There was nothing suspicious about it, and the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was not to be blamed at all, but the boy who was only nine at the time felt that something was wrong.
[I couldn’t tell what was wrong]
The man said on the phone,
[But I just had a strong feeling that I shouldn’t stay at that house anymore.]
[Fortunately, I was only temporarily fostered in that family, so I still had a chance to escape]
[I began to try my best to find a family willing to adopt me…]
He sighed,
[It’s just that I was not that young, and it was not so easy to find a suitable family… It took three years to find a family that would adopt me.]
The man told Bei Quan that he attended the funeral for the third time in the last year before he left the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” house.
This time, a nanny in the manor had died.
The lady’s name was Natasha. She was an immigrant from Eastern Europe. At that time, she was more than 60 years old. Unfortunately, she suffered from ovarian cancer. It took less than half a year for her to go from abdominal pain to death.
Birth, old age, illness, and death are part of the natural cycle. Except for the boy in the house, no one seemed to feel anything strange about it.
[This was by no means my suspicion.]
There was a trace of nostalgia in the man’s words.
[I had a good relationship with Natasha. She always took good care of me, so I secretly visited her in the hospital before she died.]
[She was already very weak and unconscious… But Natasha recognized me.]
He paused, and his tone changed from nostalgia to panic.
[I clearly remember Natasha holding my arm tightly with her thin hand…]
[she said to me— there are Others in the family!]
“Others?”
Bei Quan touched his chin and thought this statement was very interesting, “Do you know who she meant?”
[I don’t know.]
[Natasha only repeated this sentence at that time, but no matter how much I asked for her to clarify, I didn’t get a clear answer.]
[Two days later, Natasha died…]
The man’s voice brought out more emotions,
[Although you may think I am irrational, Natasha’s last words really convinced me that there was something wrong with the house!]
[Therefore, when I found a family willing to adopt me, I couldn’t wait to leave with that family!]
Bei Quan, “So, after you left, you never went back to the manor?”
[Yes]
The man replied,
[Later, the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” invited me back in the name of various activities, but I found reasons to avoid it]
[After another four years, my adoptive parents took me back to China, and I completely broke off my relationship with that country…]
Bei Quan recalled the information previously provided by the man and quickly made an addition and subtraction in his heart,
“So, you haven’t been back to the manor for more than ten years, and you haven’t contacted the ‘Texas Daddy Long Legs?’”
[It has been exactly twenty years]
The man replied,
[If not for what happened recently…]
His voice broke abruptly.
Bei Quan’s heart “clicked” in fear that he would disturb the ghost as soon as he mentioned the key information.
Fortunately, the phone was not hung up.
After about two seconds of silence, the man continued,
[Host, you can’t guess what happened.]
There was a smile in his voice, but it was obvious that he was mocking himself,
[I received another overseas email from the “Texas Daddy Long Legs”]
Bei Quan, “What did it say in the email?”
[The mail came from his lawyer]
The man replied,
[He told me that “Texas Daddy Long Legs” was seriously ill. The doctor diagnosed that he might die soon, so… he wanted to share all his property with the children he had taken care of, but only if we went back to see him for the last time.]
At this point, the man finally laughed.
[Host, can you believe it?]
[This kind of plot that only appears in drama series is actually happening to me!]
[The lawyer’s letter said that all the inheritance of the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” will be shared equally between me and the other three adopted sons. It is preliminarily estimated that after deducting taxes, each person can get more than $1 billion!]
The man took a deep breath,
[A whole billion dollars!]
Bei Quan, as an “otherworldly expert” who grew up in a secret place, didn’t have much concept of money.
But Wei Fuyuan, who was sitting outside, had his eyes wide open in shock.
Who can remain unmoved when faced with that much money? No one would dare to turn down such a windfall of money.
Especially when the amount of this “windfall” surpassed ordinary people’s expectations.
Young Master Wei changed his position and thought for a while. Although he was a child from a rich family who grew up with money, it would be difficult to resist the temptation of “one billion dollars” even for him.
Bei Quan was thinking about another thing at this time.
He clearly remembered that the man had said before that the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” had eleven children before he left the house.
But now, the lawyer told him that the man would share the inheritance of the “Texas Daddy Long Legs” with the other three adopted sons.
——In other words, there are only four of those eleven who are alive in the present.
Thinking of this, Bei Quan smiled and asked the person at the other end of the phone,
“So, are you going back?”
He didn’t hear the answer.
Because the next second, a busy tone of “beep, beep, beep” came from his headset.
——————-
The author has something to say: the inspiration of this chapter is Winchester Mystery House
——————–
[Ghostie’s Gossip Night Talk]
Ghostie: Once again welcome to [Ghostie’s Gossip Night Talk]! Today is the last day of the interview… QAQ ghostie forgot the script >->
So what Ghostie wanted to say was Thank you everyone!! For reading the interview and giving us your opinion on the questions! So let’s see our final question.
“Give a ship name”
Mreow(PerpetualMreow): Same as question #4 (′ε`;)
Ignis(Simpforlife): Hmm… I like YuanQuan a lot!!!!
Boss(Rhapsodite): I like YuanQuan too! It’s a shipping name with meaning; Deep Spring
Ghostie: ^_^ ghostie votes for YuanQuan too!
Do tell us what ship names everyone has!!
Host Ghostie will take my leave now bows
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