The moment that aged voice rang out, the red filter before her eyes vanished in an instant. Zhao Mingyue knew that the moment she stepped onto the thirteenth step, she had entered another world. The ghostly monster and Spirit Fire she had seen were the result of the female ghost’s spiritual and resentful influence.
Under the ghost’s sway, reality and the world of resentment intertwined, visible only to them. The arrival of this person from outside disrupted the female ghost’s influence, returning them to reality.
It was also possible the female ghost feared this outsider and deliberately withdrew her power.
However, these weren’t the key points. The key lay in who exactly this outsider was, someone capable of provoking such a reaction from the ghost.
Zhao Mingyue believed that an ordinary person coming directly to the fifth floor would certainly not produce such an effect. They’d be risking their own life, let alone affecting the ghost in return.
“It’s the landlord…” Zhao Mingyue turned her head.
She recognized that voice—it was definitely the landlord from downstairs!
In truth, she wasn’t surprised by this revelation. Only the landlord possessed the key to the fifth floor. Only he could ascend the stairs unnoticed. The white coating in the corridors of the fourth and fifth floors had also been applied by him.
But she didn’t understand why the landlord would do these things.
The female ghost had been dead for so many years. Instead of being buried, her body was confined here. If her remains had been interred, even if her vengeful spirit still lingered, some of her resentment would have eased.
A person dead, yet denied peace, her corpse suspended by chains and sealed with muck, apparently separated from her two children as well—anyone would harbor immense resentment over this.
Many people had died in this building. Every face on the outside walls represented a life. These souls who died unjustly here were also unable to find release.
Their deaths were absolutely and deeply connected to the landlord!
The landlord must have known the woman’s vengeful spirit hadn’t departed. He must have also known the female ghost was extremely dangerous. Yet, he still rented out the rooms on the fourth and fifth floors. Calling him an accomplice would not be an overstatement in the slightest.
One hand clutching Miss Rabbit, the other gripping her Magic Staff, Zhao Mingyue yanked the bathroom door open.
She didn’t even know what kind of feeling was stirring in her heart right now. Perhaps fear, for the landlord whose face she knew but whose heart she didn’t. Perhaps anger, for the unknown number of souls who had died unjustly in this building. And also, confusion—she truly couldn’t understand what benefit the landlord gained from doing these things.
What she wanted to do most right now was to confront him face-to-face and get to the bottom of this matter once and for all.
Zhao Mingyue emerged from the darkness. The beam of a flashlight in the living room fell upon her. The other party seemed very surprised. “Xiao Zhao? What are you doing here?”
The landlord was very old, over seventy, his hair already white. He was lame in one leg and very thin and frail, but his spirit appeared quite robust. His back was straight, his eyes sharp. However, his face lacked the kindliness typical of the elderly, replaced by a fierce, intimidating look.
He wore a gray buttoned shirt and leaned on a cane with one hand, gripping the flashlight with the other. In the play of light, the old landlord’s face was hard to see clearly, yet this only added a sense of horror—a completely different kind of dread from the female ghost.
This feeling was akin to being at a murder scene, just figuring out who the killer was, and then turning around to see the murderer standing in the darkness, staring dead at you.
“It’s me. You sound surprised.”
“How did you get in here? Who is this person?” The old landlord frowned, the wrinkles on his face seeming to twist together, making him look even more frightening.
“I’m already in this room. Are you still trying to deceive me?” Seeing that he was still pretending even at this point, Zhao Mingyue felt an inexplicable anger rise within her.
Upon hearing this, the atmosphere began to subtly freeze. Leaning on his cane, the old landlord didn’t speak for a long moment, just stared at Zhao Mingyue.
“So you know everything?”
In TV dramas, when a villain says this line, it usually means they’re about to silence someone permanently. Zhao Mingyue clutched her Magic Staff tightly with both hands and unconsciously retreated half a step.
“That’s right, I know everything. You imprisoned that ghost to harm people!”
While speaking, inwardly, she called out Bai Yu’s name.
Though the other party was over seventy, Zhao Mingyue’s heart was still full of uncertainty. Calling for Bai Yu was indeed the safer bet.
Bai Yu didn’t speak. Instead, the old landlord walked closer. He casually turned on the room’s light. Power had been restored at some point, and the room suddenly brightened. But the light in this room wasn’t an energy-saving bulb; it was an old-fashioned incandescent one.
The dim yellow light illuminated the room, carrying little sense of warmth.
The smell of burning had vanished from the air, replaced by a much stronger scent of disinfectant. This disinfectant smell seemed to have seeped into the very walls, pervasive everywhere. And the smell in the room largely emanated from the old landlord himself.
“I said I never intended to harm you. Do you believe me? It was indeed me who buried Xiao Lian’s body here, but I never wanted her to kill anyone.”
“I’ve investigated this place. The suicides at Sunshine Apartment in recent years—do you dare say they have nothing to do with you?”
Over ten people had committed suicide in this building. Zhao Mingyue refused to believe it was just a coincidence that they all came here to do it. It was ninety-nine percent related to that female ghost. Just that very morning, the ghost had trapped her in a Ghost Wall Maze.
“They… they are connected to Xiao Lian.” The old landlord sighed. “I won’t deny that. I’ve done my best to help them. But from the moment they set foot in this building, their fate was not something I could decide.”
“Xiao Zhao, what you’ve seen might not be what you think. Listen to me finish, and you’ll understand.”
“Since you’ve investigated, let me explain in detail. Xiao Lian, the ghost you mentioned, was actually my daughter. Due to an incident in her childhood, her mind suffered some damage. She was perpetually dazed and confused, lacking any sense of security towards her surroundings, and would often hurt people.”
“She was like this when she was in school. No school would accept her because she frequently injured classmates. She’s been at home since junior high. Her mother passed away early, so I was the only one taking care of her.”
“The days passed quickly. Xiao Lian grew up day by day, but her condition only slightly improved. I was thinking back then, I would grow old one day too. When I no longer had the strength, who would take care of her?”
“So, when she was twenty-five, I found her a live-in son-in-law. His name was Lin Gui. He used to be a tenant here. I saw that he was kind-hearted, simple, and honest, so I created opportunities for him to interact with Xiao Lian. The two young people got along fairly well.”
“After a few months, I brought up the matter with Lin Gui. His parents had also died early, so he agreed. In the third year, their children were born—a pair of dragon-phoenix twins. It was also that year, after Xiao Lian gave birth, that her condition gradually began to worsen.”
“I didn’t understand at the time. Her condition had been managed, so why was this happening? I took her to many hospitals, but nothing proved effective.”
“Eventually, when Xiao Lian’s condition flared up, she would smash furniture. In severe episodes, she’d lock herself in the wardrobe, saying ‘they’ were coming for her and she had to hide.”
“Once, Xiao Lian actually locked both children in the wardrobe and even bolted the door from the outside. Lin Gui and I finally broke the door open to rescue the children. By then, they had gone an entire day without food or water.”
“Similar incidents happened frequently. During that period, we didn’t even dare keep large pieces of furniture at home, and all the mirrors were removed.”
“That year, the children were already five. Xiao Lian hadn’t had any episodes that year, but suddenly one day, she tied up the two children and started a fire, wanting to burn them to death. She said those things had already hidden inside the children’s bodies, and this was the only way to drive them out.”
Hearing this, Zhao Mingyue couldn’t help but ask, “Then why not separate the children from their mother?”
“We naturally tried separating them. But whenever Xiao Lian was apart from the children, her condition worsened considerably.”
“To continue, because of that incident, Lin Gui truly couldn’t bear it anymore. He discussed it with me, and we sent Xiao Lian to a psychiatric hospital. I was also afraid then that she would harm the two children, so I agreed.”
“After sending Xiao Lian away, I moved out of here as well, to outside the city. Living here broke my heart. Xiao Lian was, after all, my own flesh and blood.”
“Then a few years later, Lin Gui suddenly informed me that he had brought Xiao Lian back. He didn’t tell me the reason, only that Xiao Lian wouldn’t hurt the children anymore.”
“After Xiao Lian came back, he confined her to the fifth floor, along with the two children.”
“Back then, I thought Xiao Lian’s condition had finally improved. I told Lin Gui the kids were growing up and we should find an opportunity to send them to school. Children can’t just not go to school.”
“It was only after the children started school that the problems truly began.”
“Xiao Lian initially agreed to it. But when she heard the children were attending Dongcheng Thirteenth High School, she began to go mad, demanding to bring the children home, no matter what.”
“One night, she somehow slipped out and went to Thirteenth High, perhaps to pick the children up from school. Yet, it was precisely on that day that a fire broke out at Thirteenth High School. An entire class of students failed to escape; all of them were burned to death inside.”
Zhao Mingyue’s eyes widened. “Then the children…”
“Yes, the children were in that class.” The old landlord heaved a deep sigh.
“After returning that day, Xiao Lian started a fire on the fifth floor and burned herself to death.”
“After her death, her wraith lingered on the fifth floor, killing several people. I had no other choice, so I sought out a Master. The Master instructed me to bring Xiao Lian’s body back, suspend her head and limbs with chains, then cover the corpse with Locust Tree Root Soil. Then, at intervals, I was to take the corpse soil and smear it on the walls. This would suppress her, keeping her trapped between the fourth and fifth floors, unable to leave forever.”
~
