Huang You-lai had one foot larger and one foot smaller.
The larger one was already disproportionately big compared to their stout figures, but the smaller one was even more exaggerated, being only about a dozen centimeters long.
It was so thin and small, like a young girl's foot.
But it was unusually rough, and the sole of the foot had not shrunk naturally; rather, it had been squeezed by some force, forcibly compressed, making it red and swollen.
It looked quite horrifying.
A normal person couldn't bear wearing slightly tight shoes, let alone his feet being squeezed into this miserable state.
"Honey, your feet... what are we going to do..." Hu Xiuying was so frightened that she lost her composure, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Our child is already like that, if something happens to you, how am I supposed to go on..."
Huang Youlai's face was filled with pain, and he couldn't say a word.
"Enough, Aunt Huang! Now is not the time to cry; Uncle Huang isn't beyond saving!" Lu Fei rubbed his temples in frustration.
Seeing that it was getting dark, and worried about the red shoes causing more trouble, he picked up Huang Youlai and gestured for Hu Xiuying to hurry home.
"Oh, okay!"
Hu Xiuying quickly wiped her eyes and hurriedly followed Lu Fei out of the abandoned school, rushing all the way home.
She limped, with some pain in her right foot, but it wasn't a big problem.
Lu Fei moved quickly.
By the time they got back to Huang Youlai's house, it was already pitch dark.
Lu Fei put Huang Youlai on the bed to rest.
Hu Xiuying, in the dark, lit a candle and placed it on the cabinet.
The room was dimly lit, giving off an eerie and gloomy atmosphere.
"Seriously, Sister Huang, how come you don't even have an electric light in your house?" Lu Fei was somewhat speechless.
"We've been working in the city for over a decade and rarely come back. The wiring is all old and worn out. Since we don't come back often, we didn't feel like spending the money to fix it."
Hu Xiuying chuckled awkwardly, as if suddenly remembering something. She found a stool, wiped it with her sleeve, and handed it to Lu Fei.
"Manager Lu, please sit, please sit."
"My husband used to wear size 45 shoes, but now, he looks like he can't even fit into a size 35. Will he ever get better?"
As she spoke, her eyes welled up again.
"As long as the evil entity is dealt with, your husband will get better. The key is for you to stay calm and solve the problems as they come." Lu Fei quickly interrupted her, fearing she would start crying again.
"Yes, yes!" Hu Xiuying tried to control her emotions.
Her family had always been led by her husband, but now that he was completely incapacitated, she had to step up and handle things.
"Manager Lu, what do you think, can you take these shoes now?"
She glanced fearfully at the red cloth shoes in the plastic bag.
"Exorcising an evil entity also requires specific methods. First, we need to understand the characteristics of the entity to know how to deal with it." Lu Fei explained patiently.
"It seems that these red cloth shoes have latched onto you, and it's no use for me to just take them away."
"Latched onto us, why is that?" Hu Xiuying's face changed dramatically, "We paid money to buy them, did we offend them for doing so?"
"Tell me first, where did you buy the shoes from?" asked Lu Fei.
"They were sold to us by Huang Laosi in our village. If we go by seniority, we should call him Fourth Brother," sighed Hu Xiuying.
"He didn't tell us where the shoes came from, but he asked for several thousand yuan, saying they were old items, valuable!"
Then, she asked cautiously, "From what you said earlier, those shoes were worn by a dead person?"
"That's right! It's very likely worn by someone who died violently, otherwise, it wouldn't be this vicious, causing trouble even during the day." Lu Fei nodded, "Is that Huang Laosi in the village now?"
"He lives in the village, but he often gambles outside, staying out until the middle of the night, so I don't know if he's at home now," Hu Xiuying said with a bitter face.
"Call him."
Lu Fei took out the old mobile phone he had picked up in the yard from his pocket and handed it to Hu Xiuying.
"Isn't this my phone? When did I drop it, and how come I didn't notice? Thank goodness you found it, Manager Lu." Hu Xiuying patted herself down and immediately realized, feeling both surprised and relieved.
Lu Fei thought to himself, It's a good thing this is an old-style phone with a long battery life; otherwise, there would be no place to charge it.
In the dim candlelight, Hu Xiuying squinted and flipped through her contacts, finally finding Huang Laosi's number and calling it.
She had to try several times before it connected.
The sound from the old phone was loud, and a man's impatient voice came through, accompanied by the clatter of mahjong tiles.
"Hu Xiuying, what do you want? You keep calling me. I'm busy!"
"Brother Si, I have something to ask you, um..."
Hu Xiuying spoke meekly.
Lu Fei shook his head and snatched the old phone, saying, "I'm the boss from the city who collects old items. I heard Sister Huang say you have some good stuff here?"
"A boss from the city?"
The other party was stunned for a moment, then the sound of mahjong grew quieter.
"You're really the boss, what old items do you want to collect?"
"Like that pair of mandarin ducks red cloth shoes, they can fetch tens of thousands in the city! I'm wondering if you have any more valuable old items like that?"
Lu Fei said exaggeratingly.
"Really that valuable?!" Huang Laosi was shocked.
"If you're willing to talk, come to my wife's house right away. I'll wait for you for an hour. If it's too late, I'll go to collect items from someone else's place."
After saying this, Lu Fei hung up the phone immediately.
"Manager Lu, are those dead person's shoes really that valuable?" Hu Xiuying asked in surprise.
"What, now that you heard these evil objects are valuable, you don't want to sell them to me anymore?" Lu Fei looked at her.
"No, no!" Hu Xiuying waved her hands vigorously, "I was just thinking, how could there still be people who like such harmful things?"
Lu Fei couldn't help but laugh, thinking that this elder sister was really easy to deceive.
Even the nonsense he told Huang Laosi, she actually believed it.
No wonder she had easily believed the nonsense from that internet celebrity and Feng Jie back then, thinking Sinisterium Pawnshop was a shady business.
"I just made up an excuse to lure him over here."
"Oh? Huang Laosi is quite a domineering person. You're in an unfamiliar place, and if you offend him, I'm afraid you'll suffer!" Hu Xiuying became even more anxious.
"It's just asking a few questions, nothing serious." Lu Fei smiled calmly.
Hu Xiuying was on tenterhooks.
After waiting for more than half an hour, they heard the sound of a motorcycle outside the yard, followed by Huang Laosi's voice.
"Hu Xiuying, is that big boss from the city still at your house?"
Hu Xiuying hurriedly stood up, her expression tense.
"Come in, old brother, let's talk inside."
Lu Fei walked to the door and waved at Huang Laosi outside the courtyard.
"You're the boss?"
Huang Laosi locked his motorcycle and walked into the house full of alcohol, looking at Lu Fei with surprise all over his face.
"I've never seen such a young boss, are you really rich?"
"As long as you tell the truth, money is not an issue!" Lu Fei closed the door.
The little black dog immediately sat down by the door.
"What does this mean?"
Huang Laosi was stunned, looked at Hu Xiuying, then at the closed door, and became suspicious.
"Nothing, just want to have a good chat with you, old brother."
In the candlelight.
Lu Fei smiled particularly kindly.