Chapter 1089 - Cemetery Building 2 in 1 (1/2)

“This feels so weird.”

An empty apartment building had bowls of white rice placed before every door. That would be an uncomfortable sight for anyone.

“This building does not appear to be prepared for living tenants.” Chen Ge pulled back his gaze. He had been through a lot and came to this conclusion based on his previous experience.

“If it is not meant for living tenants, do you mean it is meant for dead tenants?” Xiao Sun held his back with his hands. His sidled between Wen Qing and Chen Ge. His eyes occasionally wandered to other places as if something scary might jump out at him at any moment.

“If there are places for people to say, there must be places for ghosts to stay. What is so strange about that? Ghosts need homes like we do.” Chen Ge turned to Wen Qing. “We are now in Jiu Hong Apartments. In your mind, what is the biggest difference between Jiu Hong Apartments and Jin Hwa Apartments?”

“Hmm. There is not much difference between them. If you really insist on one, Jin Hwa Apartments was built several years later than Jiu Hong Apartments. That is all.” Wen Qing tried to think of anything else.

“Try to jog your memory and dig deeper. Maybe there is something that you have forgotten. There is no detail that is too small.” Jiu Hong Apartments obviously had a bigger problem than Jin Hwa Apartments. As dangerous as Jin Hwa Apartments was, at least it was occupied by living humans. This building from Jiu Hong Apartments was basically empty and quiet. However, Chen Ge was sure that was only its appearance.

“Jiu Hong Apartments was one of the earliest residential area to be built at the old city. The buildings here are very old, and the buildings need constant repair. The rooms have many problems. Normally, there aren’t any people who are interested in renting a room here, so I rarely bring people here for a tour.”

“The rooms have many problems? What do you mean by that?”

“Things like water leaks, bad lighting, sound pollution, and so on.”

“Wait a minute. If there aren’t many tenants like you said, why is there a sound pollution? Who is making all that noise?” Chen Ge’s one question stumped Wen Qing speechless.

“Er… Our company did not really give us a clear explanation on that. At the time, our boss did come over to investigate, but he failed to find the source of the commotion, and then the issue was kinda forgotten.”

“Your company sure is a courageous one. Now I suspect whether you guys do business with the dead as well.” Chen Ge had been to Jiu Hong Apartments in real life. Even in the morning, the place was uncomfortably eerie and secluded.

“Don’t make that kind of joke. We are serious housing agency.” Wen Qing’s face paled. She seemed to be reminded of something. “The first batch of tenants that lived at Jiu Hong Apartments all moved away. The company did not really know why. Most of them left without saying a word. the company was unable to contact them to get an explanation at all. That is why most of the rooms in Jiu Hong Apartments were left empty, and that was related to the low number of tenants that we currently have.”

“The old tenants that moved away have not returned?”

“Most of them left in the middle of the night and in a hurry. They did not even take their furniture with them.”

“Does that feel like a normal moving away to you?” Chen Ge was quite speechless.

“Once this strange incident was exposed to the public, who would dare come and rent their apartments anymore? At least I would never do so!” Xiao Sun covered his back. He was one of the victims.

“Now, you have piqued my interest regarding your agency’s boss. Just what kind of person would be brave enough to take over Jin Hwa Apartments and Jiu Hong Apartments? If my memory serves me right, your company’s name is Jiu Hong Housing Agency as well. Is your boss somehow related to Jiu Hong Apartments?” Chen Ge wanted to get some questions clarified before he started the investigation.

“Our boss is an impressive businessman. His surname is Jiang, and he has a lot of real estate under his name. They are not only in Jiujiang, but there are some in Xin Hai as well. Jiu Hong Housing Agency is one of his earliest projects, but for now, he has basically allowed it to survive on its own. He will only transfer some money to help the agency when the agency is in serious financial trouble. Most of the time, he just let us be.” In Wen Qing’s mind, their boss was an amazing person.

“Jiu Hong Housing Apartments is an investment that is leaking money, so why would a sensible businessman keep maintaining a place like this? Is there a reason behind it? Is there something he wants to hide?” Chen Ge asked. “What is your boss’ name?”

“Jiang Jiu. He is also one of the biggest shareholders in Eastern Jiujiang’s futuristic theme park. He is a partner with many big companies.”

“Jiang Jiu‽” When Chen Ge heard this name, many things started to click. The so-called Jiu Hong Housing Agency was a plot between Jiang Jiu and the ghost fetus. Over this past decade, they had probably been selecting their tenants and assigned them to fixed rooms. Now that he thought about it, perhaps the boss of Jin Hwa Corps was related to the ghost fetus as well. After all, the landlord probably slowly spiraled into insanity due to the influence by the ghost fetus.

“Boss Jiang is a very nice person. He was the one who offered me a job and provided me with free accommodation. Do you know how difficult it is to find a home in a city like Jiujiang?” Wen Qing’s praise toward Jiang Jiu kept pouring out. The woman was oblivious to the fact that there was a price to all the ‘kindness’ that she had received in her life. All the clues had started to link together. Jiu Hong Apartments was specially prepared for Xiang Nuan. This place was probably the warm bed for the boy who was the most suitable candidate for the ghost fetus to take over.

“Was it the ghost fetus’ intention for that old fox to build the futuristic theme park at Jiujiang, or has he found some hidden secret through the ghost fetus and thus wanted to build a theme park in Jiujiang?” Chen Ge had already memorized the name Jiang Jiu in his mind. He did not wish to do anything to Jiang Jiu. He just wanted to go and meet this Jiang Jiu after he left this door. “Since the man has the capability to cooperate with the ghost fetus, maybe I can persuade him to cooperate with me. No matter what, I will have to go meet the man to hear his side of the story.”

After uncovering these details, Chen Ge had a new understanding of the building he was in. Xiang Nuan was different from other children, at least the ghost fetus thought so. “We have stayed here long enough. We should prepare to go upstairs.”

The staircase was not locked. However, strangely enough the black fog outside was unable to roll in. It was as if each building was protected by some kind of unique power.

“One of the rag doll’s broken body parts must be hidden here as well.” Chen Ge led Wen Qing and Xiao Sun to the second floor. This floor looked even more dilapidated than the first floor. Paper money littered the ground, and an inverted ‘Joy’, written calligraphically on white paper, was pasted at the turn of the staircase.

“It does not look like any of the rooms are conducting a funereal ceremony, but how come there are bowls of white rice placed before every door? Who is the rice for?” The pair of chopsticks was placed right in the middle of the white rice. It was unclear whether they were meant for the ‘people’ inside the room or the ‘people’ outside the room. Other than the calligraphy, there was not much different between the first and second floor. Even the scratch marks on the doors looked the same.

For the sake of security, Chen Ge still gave each door a slight push. Most of the doors were wooden door. Some of the locks had already loosened, so the gap between the frame and the door could get very wide. From left to right, the numbering for the rooms on the second floor was 201 to 204. When Chen Ge pushed on the door for Room 201, he did not feel anything, but when he reached the door of Room 203, he started to sense that something was out of place.

He tried to push the door as hard as he could, but the door refused to budge. But when he stopped pushing, the door would slightly vibrate. It was as if when he applied pressure on the door, there was someone on the other side pushing back. But when he stopped, the person inside the room also stopped pushing. Chen Ge took out Doctor Skull Cracker’s Hammer from his backpack as he slowly found his way to the door of Room 204. This door was old and looked like it might break with the slightest touch. The surface of the door was filled with the muddy handprints of children and unclear scratch marks. There was a gap about two centimeters between the bottom of the door and the floor. The door itself was already loose. It looked like it could not close fully.

“Do not come over here. Keep an eye out on the staircase. We do not want to get surrounded and have our exit cut off.”

After Chen Ge said that, he slowly moved to the side of the door. He reached out to slowly push the bowl on the ground aside. When he was halfway through this, he suddenly knelt to the ground and looked through the gap on the ground!

A pair of pupil-less eyes flashed by, and then a curtain of black hair disappeared from underneath the gap.

“There is someone inside!” Chen Ge was not sure whether that was a tenant or not, but his instinct told him that it was not a living human. It might not even be something that was created from Xiang Nuan’s memories.

“Big brother, can you not scare people like that?” Xiao Sun jumped from the scare earlier. It tore open the wounds on his back, causing them to sear with pain.

“Shush, be quiet.” Chen Ge stood up again. He took out the comic from his backpack to take a look, and then his grip on the hammer slowly tightened. His employees still had not awakened, but the ghosts had already started to show their presence in the building. This was the situation that he was most worried about.

Ta ta ta…