After helping Song Qingluo take care of the wound, Lin Banxia planned to go to Liu Xi to give him a warning. He called Liu Xi in advance, but Liu Xi didn’t answer. Fortunately, Liu Xi’s house was far away from him, so Lin Banxia went there directly.
Lin Banxia had been to Liu Xi’s house before, and it was Liu Xi’s birthday. At that time, when Liu Xi first arrived, he didn’t know many people, so he specially invited him to his home, and he ordered a birthday cake for Liu Xi. The two drank some wine, ate appetizers, and chatted in the house, and spent a very pleasant night. Since then, Lin Banxia regarded Liu Xi as his friend.
Liu Xi and Lin Banxia were actually somewhat similar. They both came here from other places to develop their careers, and they both graduated from college. They found such an unusual job by accident.
Lin Banxia thought about this and before he knew it, he had arrived downstairs at Liu Xi’s apartment. He walked into the elevator, pressed the button, and after a moment, he saw Liu Xi’s door.
The door of Liu Xi’s house faced the elevator. Lin Banxia just came out of the elevator door. Before he could knock on the door, he heard fierce quarreling and crying from inside. The next moment, a girl with tear stains on her face was wailing. She opened the door and saw Lin Banxia outside. Without looking, she pushed Lin Banxia away roughly and rushed into the elevator behind him.
Lin Banxia was stunned by her push. He looked up and saw Liu Xi sitting on the sofa in the house, with a very beautiful girl nestled next to him. This girl had a great figure, exquisite makeup on her face, and was fashionably dressed, which was in sharp contrast to the crying girl. When Liu Xi saw the girl rushing out of the room, he wanted to stand up and chase her, but the beautiful girl grabbed Liu Xi’s hand and shouted: “Liu Xi, don’t you want me anymore?” It had to be said, the beautiful woman’s coquettish behavior was irresistible. Liu Xi’s expression softened instantly, and he didn’t try to stand up again. He just said calmly, “She is my girlfriend after all…”
“No, she is not.” The woman snorted, “I am your girlfriend.”
Liu Xi smiled sarcastically.
After the two of them finished talking, they noticed that there was another person at the door. The girl looked at Lin Banxia with interest and said, “Liu Xi, is this your friend?”
“No.” Liu Xi said stiffly, “Just a colleague.” He stood up and walked to the door. He had no intention of inviting Lin Banxia in to sit down. Instead, he held the door frame with his hands and showed resistance. “Lin Banxia, are you okay?”
Lin Banxia said: “I have something to ask you.”
Liu Xi: “Whatever it is, let’s talk about it here.”
“That was your girlfriend just now?” Lin Banxia asked.
“To be precise, it’s my ex-girlfriend.” Liu Xi said nonchalantly.
Lin Banxia was silent for a moment, and suddenly realized that his reminder to Liu Xi seemed to be meaningless. Even he might not be able to resist the temptation when encountering such a thing, let alone Liu Xi who was two years younger than him.
“What exactly do you want to say?” Liu Xi was a little impatient.
“I went to meet Cheng Yuliu,” Lin Banxia said.
When Liu Xi heard the name Cheng Yuliu, his eyes became panicked, but he still said stubbornly: “What Cheng Yuliu, I have never heard of this name.”
Lin Banxia sighed and said: “I…I’m not here to snatch anything from you. I just want to remind you that the missing body of Cheng Yuliu’s family has been found.”
“Where?” Liu Xi asked reflexively.
Lin Banxia said: “I heard it was in her refrigerator.”
Liu Xi was stunned.
Lin Banxia said: “She was also in a very bad condition, so I just wanted to tell you to be careful.”
Liu Xi stared at Lin Banxia with a complicated expression, as if he was trying to determine whether Lin Banxia had deliberately lied to him. Lin Banxia was also a little tired. It’s okay to say you don’t believe me, but Cheng Yuliu’s matter would definitely be on the news.
Liu Xi asked, “Why did you come to tell me this?”
Lin Banxia smiled bitterly: “After all, we are colleagues, and I don’t want to see anything happen to you.”
Liu Xi pursed his lips silently and whispered: “Lin Banxia, you are short of money.”
Lin Banxia frowned.
Liu Xi said: “I don’t know what you know, but…” He turned around and went into the house. When he came out again, he held a package in his hand. A corner of the package was torn open, revealing a special bright red color. He knew it was the unique color of money, “But we are friends after all. You came to remind me. I appreciate it. You can take this money but don’t come looking for me in the future.”
Judging from the thickness of the package, it seemed to be at least one hundred thousand yuan. If Lin Banxia took the money, he could move out of the house with ashes everywhere. Besides, it was Liu Xi who made the wish. Even if there was any retribution, it would not be Lin Banxia’s.
Seeing the money, Lin Banxia couldn’t help but laugh. There was no irony in his smile, just sincerity.
When Liu Xi saw Lin Banxia’s smile, he thought he agreed, so he wanted to hand the thing in his hand to Lin Banxia. Unexpectedly, Lin Banxia neither reached out nor spoke, and just turned around and left.
Liu Xi was stunned, looked at Lin Banxia’s back, and shouted: “Lin Banxia? You don’t want it?”
Lin Banxia turned his back to Liu Xi and waved his hand lazily.
“You don’t want any fucking money. Why are you laughing?” Liu Xi said angrily.
Lin Banxia had already entered the elevator, and his voice was not loud, but Liu Xi heard it clearly. Lin Banxia said: “I don’t want to laugh either, but who can stop laughing after seeing so much money?! I won’t take your money, yet you can’t even smile!”
Liu Xi: “…”
Lin Banxia finally walked home, saving two yuan in bus fare. He went to the supermarket next to the community and bought some dinner. He originally wanted to call Song Qingluo and ask if he wanted some, but he remembered that he didn’t have Song Qingluo’s phone number. After thinking about it, he still spent an extra amount of money and bought a lunch box for Song Qingluo.
After he got home, he opened the door and smelled a strong smell of meat. Song Qingluo walked past him carrying a bowl of braised pork. Lin Banxia swallowed and said, “You hurt your hand and yet you still cooked, ah?”
Song Qingluo said: “It’s okay, haven’t you already wrapped it for me? You came back just in time, let’s eat.” He handed Lin Banxia a pair of chopsticks.
Lin Banxia was a little embarrassed and said that he should give Song Qingluo half of how much he spent on groceries. Song Qingluo shook his head and said no.
It had to be said that Song Qingluo’s cooking skills were very good. The braised pork in rich red sauce was soft, juicy, fragrant, and delicious.
“How did it go over there with Liu Xi?” Song Qingluo asked.
“It’s not good.” Lin Banxia said, “He… doesn’t quite believe what I said.”
“It’s useless even if he believed you.” Song Qingluo said lightly, “There are very few people who can resist the temptation.”
“Yes.” Lin Banxia smiled bitterly, “What should we do? We can’t just watch him die.”
Song Qingluo said: “Wait a minute, I’ll talk to the other side and ask them to send someone over to handle it.”
Lin Banxia said carefully: “Just deal with it…it won’t kill Liu Xi, right?”
Song Qingluo smiled: “We are a legal organization.”
Lin Banxia: “Oh…”
Song Qingluo: “It’s just that little accidents happen occasionally.”
Lin Banxia: “…” You’d better not add this sentence.
The next day, Lin Banxia learned that Liu Xi had resigned from the work unit. He was not too surprised. However, his colleagues started talking about it, saying that Liu Xi turned bad immediately after he got rich. His girlfriend of several years said that he could not just dump her. The girl came to make trouble all day yesterday, but they were not civil servants, and Liu Xi was still missing. There was nothing the girl could do no matter how much trouble she made.
Cheng Yuliu also got results. Although the body was found, the police still hadn’t figured out how she stole it. Cheng Yuliu refused to say anything. She was adamant that the body came back on its own after death. Originally, stealing a body was quite serious, but in the end, considering that she was a family member of the body and the last remaining survivor of the family, the police only detained her for a few days and released her. As for the body, it was cremated.
Lin Banxia heard these things from the grapevine. It seemed that since he moved into that house, there had been many strange things in his life, or to be precise, he had noticed many things that he had never seen before. Things to pay attention to.
After Ji Leshui moved to Song Qingluo’s house, he hadn’t seen those horrific scenes for a long time. He and Lin Banxia had planned to take the opportunity to move out and live with his girlfriend, but who knew what he had said the day before would turn on its head the next day? He ran to Lin Banxia crying and said that his girlfriend actually broke up with him.
“Why did you break up?” Lin Banxia asked strangely, “I haven’t met her yet, why did you break up?”
“I don’t know.” Ji Leshui said sadly.
Lin Banxia said: “Then… I hope you find a new one soon?”
Ji Leshui cried and left, saying that he was going to the nearby supermarket to buy some braised vegetables and would then have a drink with Lin Banxia. Lin Banxia watched him enter the elevator with compassion.
Five minutes later, Ji Leshui rushed back from the elevator screaming, banging on the door, shouting: “Lin Banxia, something bad is going on, something happened to the boss!!!”
When Lin Banxia heard this, he immediately opened the door and said, “What’s wrong?”
Ji Leshui panted: “I just saw the boss downstairs! He seemed to be held hostage by two strange people. It was too dark, so I couldn’t see clearly, but one of them looked scary. There must be something happening. One was more than two meters tall, the boss was like a toy in front of him!!! The two men held the boss one after another and took him into the unoccupied building next door. Hurry up. F*ck you guys, we have to go rescue people!!”
When Lin Banxia heard this, it was okay. He rushed to the kitchen and picked up a rolling pin and a clothes drying stick. After thinking about it, he took out a fruit knife, stuffed it into his pocket, and hurried downstairs with Ji Leshui.
Song Qingluo could be regarded as their savior, how could they just watch their savior being bullied!
With this idea in mind, Ji Leshui and Lin Banxia quickly ran to the building next door.
The occupancy rate of this community was very low. Currently, only Lin Banxia, an unlucky person, had been tricked into this building. The building next door was no exception. There was almost no light at night.
Therefore, only one elevator was running, and there was only one light in the corridor, let alone monitoring.
They arrived on the first floor and saw the number eight in the elevator. It seemed that those people were taking Song Qingluo to the eighth floor.
Ji Leshui and Lin Banxia hurriedly followed. Just as they watched the elevator door slowly closing, Ji Leshui suddenly felt a shiver on his back. He thought for a while and suddenly whispered: “Banxia, is this building the one with the bright windows?”
Lin Banxia: “…it seems so.”
Ji Leshui: “I’m…a little scared.”
Lin Banxia comforted: “There is nothing to be afraid of.”
Ji Leshui just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Lin Banxia say hesitantly: “But if I think about it carefully, the scene I saw at the window that day was really scary. 0.0.”
Ji Leshui was in despair for a moment: “Lin Banxia, you are not allowed to show this expression!!!!”
The author has something to say:
Lin Banxia: Then what expression should I show?
Ji Leshui: Be fiercer!!
Lin Banxia: ??(€€°Д°)€€ Like this??
Ji Leshui: Be more fierce!!
Lin Banxia: (*｀皿?*)? Like this?!
Ji Leshui: That’s it!!
Lin Banxia: 0.0 It’s still a bit scary after being fierce.
Ji Leshui:…………
Translator’s comments:
Hey guys, I’m the translator for this novel. If you have any questions or thoughts feel free to comment and I’ll do my best to answer everything. If you notice any inconsistencies or errors, drop a comment and I will fix it. I am new to this, but I want to learn and give the best translation that I can to the readers. Thanks so much for reading Phantom Skeleton Painting, I hope that everyone enjoys the novel.
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