Chapter 1071 - Nightmare Residential Area [2 in 1] (1/2)

“The first time it appeared, I was almost scared to death. Do you think I still have the courage to stay there anymore? I am still renting that place, but I go over to a friend’s place to sleep at night,” the tall man said with a painful expression. “I came to Jiujiang to search for a better life. I still have not found a steady job, but I am almost losing my mind.”

“I can understand your problem. How about this? Tonight, I will go home together with you, and we will go and check out the haunted rooms together.” Chen Ge gave his own phone number to all the tenants. “Go back home tonight. I will go and inspect the rooms one by one. I hope everyone will be able to cooperate with me.”

“Why can’t you go and take a look at the place now? Honestly, I do not dare enter that place anymore at night. Whenever I step into it, I feel my heart shivering as if someone is staring closely at me.” The tall man appeared to have been traumatized by this horrifying experience.

“You can wait outside the door first. When I arrive, we will go into the room together.” Chen Ge asked for the details of everyone that wanted to request for a move away. After he jotted down all the strange phenomena, he finally got them to leave in peace after much persuasion and nudging.

Seeing the whole pages filled with notes, Chen Ge was rather confused and confounded by it. If none of the tenants were lying, the intensity of the supernatural activity at this residential area was as high as the two-star scenarios at his haunted house. Almost every room was a background for supernatural activity, and they were the kinds that got scarier and scarier, the kind that would make one’s hair stand on end the more one thought about it.

“Do you really intend to return the money to them?” The boy’s mother poured a cup of tea for Chen Ge. “I know you wish to help me, but I advise that you do not get yourself involved in this mess.”

“Things are not so easy on their end either. I am merely taking their concern into consideration. Since I believe I can help them, why not?” Chen Ge had his eyes on this residential area as he entered the housing agency, so even if the tenants did not face any problems, he would ‘create’ some problems so that he could step forward to provide his help. That was the highest height of being a good Samaritan.

“The group of tenants still do not trust you. They heard that you are willing to pay them back their rent and deposit, and that is why they came up with all those fake stories to scam you.” The boy’s mother handed the cup of tea to Chen Ge.

“You think they are telling fake stories? You do not believe them?”

“Of course, I have been a worker here for so many years. If this place was really haunted, I would have handed in my resignation letter a long time ago.” The woman sighed. “As you know, the economy these days is not so good. They just want to find an excuse to move away without breaking the signed contract.”

“You have worked here for so long, but you have not run into one single strange phenomenon?” Chen Ge was rather surprised. The residential area that the woman described was vastly different from the one described by the group of disgruntled tenants.

“Hiding the fact that a place was a murder scene was indeed the fault of our agency, but you have to understand that in that case, we are also a victim. It was the landlord who lied to us and kept that from us.”

“Then, it is your company’s lack of responsibility to not conduct a further investigation. Put yourself in their shoes. If you found out that you and your son have been staying at a murder scene, wouldn’t you feel more than a bit unsettled by it?”

“As a matter of fact, my son and I are currently living at a former murder scene. We bought it about ten years ago, and the price was at least a quarter lower than the market price. We have lived there for a decade, and nothing out of the ordinary has happened. Actually, most of the time, this talk of ghosts is just a matter of the mind. As long as you do not overthink it, it really does not matter whether you are staying at a haunted house or not.” The woman was surprisingly courageous but strangely close-minded. She had a determined heart and a gentle way of speaking, so that combined to make her a perfect receptionist at an estate agency.

“You are also living at a former murder scene?” Chen Ge slowly lifted his head to look at the woman. “And you have been living there for over a decade?”

“That might be difficult for you to grasp, but for a person in the estate agent business like myself, there is nothing that can phase me anymore. Not everyone minds living in places where other people have once passed away.”

“I mean, have you not run into anything strange occurrence in the past ten years? Has your child told you anything out of the ordinary?”

Once the child was brought up, it was as if a wall was built around the woman. She lost her interest in their conversation almost instantly. “Even at his current age, he is barely able to call me ‘mom’. What out of the ordinary thing could he have told me? I am in your debt for helping me chase them away, but you are trying to wake up a bunch of people who are faking their sleep. They are just trying to scam you. Tomorrow, they will return to demand the promised rent and deposit from you.”

“Don’t you bet on that so fast.” Through the short conversation, Chen Ge noticed the problems with the woman. She not only refused to believe in the presence of the supernatural, she would also subconsciously negate and ignore everything that had anything to do with the supernatural. So many tenants had come to her with the complaints that the place was haunted, but the woman believed obstinately that they were just a bunch of dissatisfied tenants who wanted to break their rental contract. Furthermore, from her tone and expression, Chen Ge realized that the woman was not faking her belief. It was from the bottom of her heart that she believed that the tenants were trying to create a ruckus, and she refused to be swayed by their stories, not even a bit.

“Then I won’t disturb you anymore. I will go to the tenants’ place to take a look.” Chen Ge took the white paper that was filled with handwriting and started his preparation for the mission that night. The woman’s son might be the ninth child chosen by the ghost fetus. Getting to know the child and his surrounding living environment would effectively lower the difficulty of the impending mission.

“I will go with you since there are no customers now. Even if someone does come, they will be scared away by those old tenants.” The woman packed her stuff, grabbed a bag, and walked out from behind the service counter.

“Is that really appropriate?”

“It is our job as estate agent to help our customers take look at their prospective houses. If you really return their deposits to them and take on all their rooms, then you will be one of our biggest clients in the future. How is this not appropriate?”

The two walked down the old, deserted street to enter the rather aged residential area close by.

“Jin Hwa[1] Apartments and Jiu Hong[2] Apartments used to be separated, but due to some unknown reason, the wall between the two apartments was broken down. Now, the two apartments are in one residential area.”

The woman was a good estate agent. She had memorized all the details regarding this place in her heart.

“The one with the brand-new white coat of paint is Jin Hwa Apartments. They were built about twenty-six years ago. Most of our tenants are staying at this place. Jin Hwa Apartments consists of two separate buildings, A and B, and each apartment building has nine floors. Back when it was built, it was one of the tallest building around the old city. It came equipped with an old-fashioned elevator. By the way, this is where my family lives.

“The few squatter, gray-looking buildings on the side are Jiu Hong Apartments. There are four buildings in total. Initially, the developer wanted to build many high rises that rose up into the sky, having nine floors as the name suggested, but some kind of problem happened when they built onto the fourth floor. Regardless, the name Jiu Hong Apartments has stuck.”

After entering the residential area, the woman was conspicuously more relaxed and at ease.

“Actually, Jiu Hong Apartments is not a bad place. They are facing the river that runs through the city on the western and eastern side. On the southern side, there is a small fruit orchard, and it is connected to Jin Hwa Apartments by the northern side. Other than the lack of good lightning, it is a good place to live.”

“Are you sure estate agents can say things like that? Those are just blatant lies, right? This place is so isolated that there are barely any people around, and you are telling me this is a good place to live?” Chen Ge took a good look around. The place where Jiu Hong Apartments was situated was very backwoods. The place was basically cut off from the rest of the city on both the east and west side by the rivers, and eerie looking woods were situated on the northern side. If the woman did not mention it, he would not have believed it was a ‘fruit orchard’. Even after the woman had said so, Chen Ge was still not convinced that it was the truth.

“At least the air here is very fresh, and it is untainted by the city. You have to understand how difficult it is to find a place as clean as this sanctuary in the middle of a bustling city.”

Once the woman finished, she noticed that Chen Ge had stopped moving. She followed the direction of Chen Ge’s gaze and noticed that Chen Ge was staring at a sign pasted on the wall outside the Block A of Jin Hwa Apartments. The general content was that this place was haunted and warned people to stay away from it if they could.

“This is just one of the tricks came up by the tenants, venting their emotions. Ignore it.” The woman moved silently to remove the sign. After taking a quick tour, Chen Ge had familiarized himself with the layout of the residential area. Jin Hwa Apartments was connected to Jiu Hong Apartments, and there were two entrances. The bigger and more official entrance was on the side of Jin Hwa Apartments, and the other entrance was closer to Jiu Hong Apartments. It led toward that creepy orchard.

“Why does the entrance lead to the orchard? What is the purpose of placing it there? Do people go to the orchard often?”

“Initially, the developer of Jiu Hong Apartments planned to design that spot as a bio garden, but the plan did not take off. The concept was a bit new-fangled at the time, and many people did not even understand what it meant, so most of the people did not agree, and the plan was eventually left abandoned.”

A poor, old, tattered, and eerie location was turned into an untouched natural paradise in the middle of the city by the woman. That was probably her professional skills kicking in.

“There is no need for you to give the sales pitch. I am here to solve the tenants’ problem, not to find a place to rent.”