On the outskirts of Nanjing, there is a three-story house with a dark past and a low price tag. He had seen better days: bindweed branches crawling over a rusty wrought iron gate, a courtyard covered in lichens, and a door completely worn out.
Seven years ago, a brutal murder took place here, followed by the dismemberment of the corpse.
According to Sixth Tone, according to Chinese superstition, the houses where the violent murders took place are inhabited by ghosts seeking revenge. Most Chinese investors avoid these homes, believing that they will bring unhappiness in their careers, health and business.
As a result, prices for these houses are usually extremely low. But since real estate prices in large Chinese cities have crawled up, even "haunted houses" now have to be fought, as there were a lot of people interested in them.
When the Nanjing home was put up for auction in June 2018, its starting price was set at 4.35 million yuan ($ 676,000) - about 10,000 yuan per square meter. For a 420 square meter villa with nine bedrooms, seven bathrooms, two living rooms, a pool and a garden, it was like a gift.
In comparison, other properties in the same area typically cost around 40,000 yuan per square meter - a significant price in Nanjing, where the average annual disposable income last year was 48,104 yuan. A similar villa nearby is valued at RMB 20 million, according to real estate agents in the area.
The low price of this home was largely due to its criminal record. In February 2011, 49-year-old Tian Mingcheng was killed and dismembered in the garage of his wife's villa. Two days later, tourists found a bag of his body parts thrown halfway up the mountain behind the villa.
Tyan's assassination immediately became very confusing. When the police found his body, they were surprised, as there was already a report of his death in a car accident in 2006. After further investigation, the police discovered that Tian's younger brother was actually killed in the plane crash, but after his death, Tian and his wife Xue Liping decided to hide the identity of the real victim from the police so that they could claim 10 million yuan of insurance.
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Tian lived underground for five years. Eventually he got tired of hiding and returned to the villa to collect his passport and leave the country. When he returned, his father-in-law Jinggong and Xue Liping killed him with an ax, fearing that his appearance would expose their insurance fraud.
In December 2013, the Nanjing People's Court found them both guilty of murder, sentencing 70-year-old Jinggong to death by hanging. Liping received a life sentence for complicity.
In 2014, a businessman named Zhang acquired a criminal villa, but then he got into trouble with his business and mortgaged it. When Zhang went bankrupt (after which there were numerous rumors that the curse of the villa worked), the ill-fated villa went to the bank and in June this year the house was put up for auction again.
More than 400,000 people signed up in June to view trades on Alibaba Taobao's e-commerce platform. After 138 rounds of bidding between 22 users, the cursed villa was sold for 7.86 million yuan to a buyer named Liu Jianhong. Considering the low starting price for such a house, this seems like a good price, but usually such villas cost at least 13 million yuan.
The new owner of the villa seems to be afraid to live in it. By September, the villa is still empty and no one lives in it. But other potential buyers don't seem to fear the curses of the house.
Another user stated that he is far more afraid of poverty than ghosts.
What do feng shui experts think of these houses? Surprisingly, they have a pretty positive opinion.
However, he immediately added that there are houses with such a set of "memories" that Taoist rituals will be needed to purify them.
