Chapter 1070 - The Disappeared Estate Agent [2 in 1] (1/2)
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Chen Ge looked at the two statuettes with his parents’ names and remained quiet. No one knew what he was thinking. The sun was rising, and Chen Ge summoned all the Red Specters back into the comic. He held the two statuettes and stood beside the dam. “I once heard from the shadow that should the ghost fetus be born, the whole city might end up being its mother.”
The water was too deep to see right down to the bottom. Under the clear and calm surface, no one knew what kind of horrors were hidden right underneath it.
“The ghost fetus probably wishes for his own parents as well.” Putting away the two statuettes, Chen Ge turned to leave. “The change in the shadow happened after he entered the world behind the door. It was the door at the haunted house that completely changed him. After this ghost fetus trial mission is over, I will need to push open the door to go in and look.”
2Taking a cab back to the New Century Park, Chen Ge gave his employees a makeover, and then he squirreled into the staff breakroom. Once his head hit the pillow, he was sound asleep. He needed to have a good rest because the last night was coming. The next time the sun rose, the person that opened his eyes to the sunlight might not be him anymore. The haunted house’s business was booming, and he no longer needed to worry about it as much as he did previously. The employees at the haunted house had gotten used to the life there; their ‘lives’ had been extended via a different kind of method.
At one in the afternoon, Chen Ge was woken up by the alarm. He grabbed his bag and hurried to leave the staff breakroom. He followed the address on the business card and once again found himself in the part of the old town.
“After so many twists and turns, I am surprised that I have returned to this place.”
The old town was a sparkling city in itself. The places that Chen Ge had once visited were only a small part of it. He held the business card and asked the pedestrians along the way before he found the location where the woman worked beside a very old looking residential area.
“Jiu Hong Housing Agency?” Half of the characters on the billboard were missing, and the glass doors were left open like there was something wrong with them that stopped them from closing completely. The utility pole that faced the door was covered in an array of advertisements. There were those looking for partners, those offering treatment for skin diseases, and of course, the quintessential missing person ads. A few bicycles were placed unevenly next to the utility pole, and one of them even had a punctured tire. From the looks of it, it was purposely done by human hands.
The tiles that covered the entrance were quite neat, but it was only the small part near the entrance. The tiles around it were all cracked, and if you stepped on one, dirty water would seep out from underneath them. As Jiujiang continued to reap the benefits of industrialization and modernization, most places in the old town had been given a new breath of life, but this place was clearly an exception.
Chen Ge held the business card and glanced into the building. On a wooden sofa sat an old man who was sighing. He held a cup of murky tea in his hands. There was the sound of arguing coming from inside the house. The argument was so loud that even Chen Ge, who stood outside the building, could hear it clearly.
“Big sister, the place that you recommended me is really not to my taste. No matter what, you will need to help us move away from that place today!”
“Yes, it is not that we are being unreasonable, but who dares to live in a home like that?”
“Yes! Get us away from that place now! Do you think this is easy for us‽ If you insist on not doing that, then we will come here every day and create a ruckus!”
A group of people were surrounding the service counter, and emotions were high. It sounded like they had been swindled by the estate agent, and they were demanding retribution.
“Uncle, what they are arguing about?” Chen Ge sneaked into the room. He did not announce his arrival to the workers there bu took a seat next to the old man like they had been good friends for years.
“Are you here to find a place to rent as well?”
“Of course, why else would I come here?” Chen Ge took a curious glance at the service counter. The boy’s mother had a bitter expression on her face as she kept trying to explain the situation to the people around her.
“Do not use the service of this place no matter what. Hurry and leave while you still can.” The old man warned him in a small whisper.
“Why?” Chen Ge had to know.
“Do not be fooled by your greed. I know that the rental price here is the cheapest around Jiujiang, but…” The old man scratched his head. “It is hard to say.”
“Sir, don’t just start the sentence but not finish it. You are only making me even more interested to know what is happening.”
“It is not that I am trying to play with you, but it is mainly because I do not know how to explain it to you myself. In any case, the places here are very strange. Something is bound to happen. There was a rumor going around that the boss here was in the business of renting out and selling haunted houses where people died.” The wrinkles on the old man’s face were folded together. “You know about those places, right? Their boss knew that people had died into those houses before, but he still rented them out at a very low price without revealing that piece of information to the renters.
“Coincidentally enough, the renter was an avid ghost story lover. He spent his hours online scouring actual ghost stories, and one night, he saw an article online, and the picture that was used in that article was the house that he was currently living in.”
“I can barely imagine how creepy that must have been.” Chen Ge realized that the old man was quite interesting. He even knew about actual ghost stories in the world.
“Well, you are not wrong that. It almost scared the daylight out of the renter. The bed that he had been sleeping in was once the final resting place for a dead body, and the bathtub that he used was the place where a person drowned. Who would be able to take a ‘surprise’ like that?” The old man sighed, and the wrinkles on his face seemed to deepen.
“Then, did the estate agent allow him to move away?”
“If they did, this would not have been exposed to the neighbors. The estate agent refused to entertain the man’s request of claiming his deposit back. The most he would do was find him a new home. The person came from another city, and he still had not landed a firm occupation at the city, so he had no choice but to take the offer. And then you will never expect what happened next.” The old man put down the cup of tea. “He started to move that afternoon, and the moving continued into the night. When he settled into his new home, the first thing he did was to get online to check if there was any connection between his new home and murder cases, and it turned out…”
“So, what was it this time?” Chen Ge’s interest was piqued. He felt that the renter would not be that ‘lucky’.
“The last place that he moved away from was the site of a murder, and the place that he had just moved into was the site of a suicide. He tried to peel back part of the walls, and he even found some hairs stuck behind it.” Even the old man did not know how to continue.
“That is just too much. Was the estate agent purposely trying to scam the poor renter?” Chen Ge put down his backpack and leaned against the back of the sofa as he adjusted himself into a more comfortable position. “Did the estate agent finally agree to help the renter move to a better place?”
“The man had already been scammed twice. Do you think he would use the service of this place? Naturally, he demanded the deposit and wished to leave this place as soon as possible.”
“So, this time, the estate agent finally agreed to return to him his deposit?”
“Do you see the tallest fella inside the room? If the estate agent had agreed to return his money, he would not be here today,” the old man said with a bitter smile.
“So, that is the main character from the stories!” Chen Ge used Yin Yang Vision to scan the man. The man had very serious eye bags. Even though his frame was tall, he was weak and lacking in Yang energy.
“He was not the only victim of this place. Since the housing agency’s boss refused to return their deposits, all the victims decided to gang up together to demand an explanation. In the end, the boss refused to meet them, and the boss went straight into hiding, leaving this poor receptionist to deal with the mess every day.” The old man sighed. “We have been here many times already, but this boss is a slimy one. He refused to present us with a valid solution, and we still need to go home with our hearts hanging in our throat.”