Maybe it was because the building hadn’t been properly repaired after the fire, or maybe because the apartment was just too old, but power outages were common. The real problem was that tonight, of all nights, the power going out was a huge issue.
It meant she would have to interact with those ghostly monsters in the dark, and the difficulty had just shot up dramatically.
Darkness triggers an instinctive fear. Even a single dim light in the corridor would have been a comfort.
Using her mobile phone’s light, Zhao Mingyue found her flashlight. She didn’t rush to open the door and leave, however. Instead, she leaned sideways against the wooden door, listening to the sounds outside.
She got into the zone quickly and with total seriousness. Even Bai Yu, within her shadow, nodded silently, sighing inwardly that this girl had real potential. She lacked experience, but her attitude alone was enough.
“You’re doing the right thing. The tenants here aren’t simple either. Gathering more information will help you.”
In the darkness, Bai Yu’s voice resonated in Zhao Mingyue’s mind.
No sooner had she spoken than a noise came from downstairs. It was a young man’s voice. To Zhao Mingyue’s surprise, it wasn’t Lu Liangting.
“Someone else has come in!” she thought, her mind racing. She had lived here long enough to be very familiar with the place. In all that time, she had never seen anyone check in late at night.
“No good, I can’t hear clearly enough from inside the room.”
Since the power was out, anyone coming upstairs wouldn’t see her immediately. With that thought, Zhao Mingyue cracked the door open a sliver and peeked half her face out.
The person downstairs seemed to be dragging a very heavy suitcase. The sound of the wheels rolling on the floor was unmistakable. Judging by the man’s voice, he was probably under thirty.
Clack. The sound of the iron gate being opened was followed by the Old Landlord’s voice.
Their conversation was brief. The young man wanted to stay for one night because the rain outside was simply too heavy. He said he would leave first thing in the morning.
The Old Landlord hesitated for a moment, then agreed and handed the room key to the young man.
“Here’s your key. It’s on the second floor. Find it yourself. Let me tell you, at night, you are not to leave your room or wander around. You absolutely cannot go up to the fourth or fifth floors. If you do, you bear all consequences.”
“Also, the room has everything you need. There’s hot water, but remember, you cannot take a bath. As for the power, I’m not sure when it’ll be back on. Just wait.”
With a loud clang, the iron door to one of the first-floor rooms slammed shut.
The service was worse than rude. Zhao Mingyue heard the man grumbling under his breath, saying that if it weren’t for this damn rainstorm, he would never have come to such a ghost of a place.
“It’s raining?”
Zhao Mingyue frowned and looked out the living room window. Although the wind was howling outside, it definitely wasn’t raining. The weather forecast had also said the storm wouldn’t hit until after midnight.
Yet, eerily, the man started climbing the stairs after his grumbling. His footsteps were incredibly strange, as if he were wearing rain boots filled with water. Every step had a faint, wet squelching sound. And because the suitcase he was carrying was so heavy, both his steps and his breathing were very labored.
“Something’s wrong. It’s clearly not raining outside, so where is the sound of water on this man coming from?”
“Dragging such a heavy suitcase here in the middle of the night, even if he took a taxi… If he was returning from out of town, why would he stay here? With a taxi, finding a hotel would be simple, right? Or going straight home?”
“At night, taxi drivers don’t even like to come near this place. The chance of a driver bringing him here on his own accord is low. He most likely asked to come here himself.”
“A normal person would head into the city, but this person actually left the city…”
Zhao Mingyue waited a while longer. She made sure the man had entered his room and that there was no movement for a good while.
The game hadn’t even started, and Zhao Mingyue already felt a pang of pressure. She was beginning to understand Bai Yu’s words: sometimes, humans were much more terrifying than ghosts.
Time ticked by, second by second. Zhao Mingyue checked the time; it was already 11 PM.
Lu Liangting hadn’t arrived yet. Maybe he had changed his mind at the last minute.
Before the clock struck twelve, Zhao Mingyue could already feel a change. An eerie silence surrounded her. Gusts of cold wind came from nowhere, prickling her skin and raising goosebumps. In the corridor, it sounded like an unfixed pipe was producing a constant drip… drip… drip of water.
Something crawled across the pipes in the walls, making a faint rustling sound. Perhaps it was her imagination, but Zhao Mingyue felt the smell of disinfectant in the air was getting thicker and thicker.
Such a strong smell of disinfectant didn’t suggest sterilization; it seemed more like it was deliberately masking some other odor.
She quickly retreated to her room, slung her backpack over her shoulders. Inside were her magic staff, a kitchen knife, and the bloodstained rabbit plush.
“Bai Yu, Sister Bai, can I go out now?”
Her plan was simple. If ghosts officially appeared at midnight, and it was now 11 PM, could she go and scout out the other tenants on the fourth and fifth floors first? Even though she’d lived here so long, she had no real idea how many households were actually here. She could only confirm that other people did live here.
“You can. Go ahead. I’ll alert you when the time comes.”
“Okay!”
Not wanting to wait for Lu Liangting any longer, she decided to gather intelligence on her own. Zhao Mingyue tiptoed out of her room. She kept a careful thought, and to prevent anyone from sneaking into her room while she was gone, she plucked a single strand of hair and stuck it into the keyhole.
With her back to the door, Zhao Mingyue stared into the dark corridor, a sense of primal unease welling up in her heart.
The all-pervasive cold wind and the pungent smell of disinfectant in the air both hammered at her little heart.
Each floor of Tomorrow Apartment was shaped like the Chinese character ‘日’ (ri / sun). The staircase was in the middle and was the only one.
Her current location was Room 404, right at the corner of the “sun”. To her left were four more rooms, and inside the two inner corners were another two rooms, making eight rooms per floor.
Creeping to Room 403, the one next to hers, she tentatively reached out and knocked. She listened carefully for any sound behind the door, but there was only an eerie silence.
She took the flashlight from her pocket and shined it on the iron door. It was covered in a thick layer of dust; clearly, no one lived there.
“The landlord told that man not to go up to the fourth and fifth floors. There has to be a reason for that,” she muttered to herself.
Sticking close to the wall and moving cautiously, Zhao Mingyue headed towards the staircase.
The smell of disinfectant was strongest right at the stairwell.
“The landlord repaints the walls practically every two months. What is even on these walls?”
Reaching the stairwell and confirming the adjacent room also had a thick layer of dust, Zhao Mingyue aimed her flashlight’s beam onto the unnaturally white, ghastly walls.
She crouched down, took the magic staff from her backpack, and used its pointed beak-like head to forcefully scrape a line into the wall. The white plaster came off much more easily than she had expected, but what lay beneath the plaster sent a chill down her spine.
“Is this… blood?”
