Chapter 59

He hadn’t expected that repairing the stairs’ injuries would actually grant a hidden space as a bonus.

Zhou Fangdong decided to finish the half-completed Trash Disposal Station side quest first; he would check out this newly unlocked Apartment Basement in a little while.

The vibrations soon faded. Hong Zhong looked at Zhou Fangdong with uncertainty and alarm. “Mr. Landlord, that shaking just now was…”

Could it be that some new mutation had occurred in the apartment after he signed the code of conduct for the Trash Disposal Station manager?

“It’s nothing. Just a change that occurred after the apartment stairs finished recovering from their injuries. It will be safer for the tenants to go up and down the stairs from now on.” Zhou Fangdong brushed the matter aside nonchalantly.

Hong Zhong nodded half-believingly. “The code of conduct says I only need to press the start button before dark to switch the station to night mode… So it should be fine if I leave the apartment to go to the Bureau now, right?”

“That’s fine. Go ahead and get to your work. I have other matters to attend to as well.”

After Hong Zhong left, Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his room. He took out a pen and paper and began drafting the Cleaners’ duty roster.

Side Quest 4 was only a duty roster away from completion.

Currently, he had only unlocked two floors. The first floor was relatively dangerous for the time being, so Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian had to be stationed there to monitor in real-time whether any corpses were coming over from the back building… As for Qian Duolai and the others, it didn’t matter; the three of them could clean the two floors as they pleased.

As for the schedule, they would rotate. He assigned Quan Wuming and Ming Wuqian to morning and afternoon shifts. The remaining three would rotate daily, following a sequence of Floors 1 and 2, then 2 and 3, then 3 and 1.

Zhou Fangdong finished writing in a flamboyant hand and submitted it directly to the system. The system would eventually convert it into a printed version anyway, so he didn’t have to worry about the Cleaners being unable to read his messy handwriting.

[Duty roster approved. Please choose the method of wage payment.]

[Cleaner wages can be paid in Ghost Coins. Headless Cleaners require two thousand Ghost Coins per person per month. Cleaners with heads require three thousand Ghost Coins per person per month.]

[Payment can also be made with Offering Incense. Headless Cleaners require three sticks of Offering Incense per week. Cleaners with heads require five sticks per week.]

Zhou Fangdong decisively chose to pay with Offering Incense.

The five Cleaners required a total of 76 sticks of Offering Incense per month. Given his current health bar, he could produce 88 sticks for 200 Ghost Coins. It was much more cost-effective to pay with Offering Incense.

[The host is required to prepay one month’s wages to be stored within the system. The system will distribute them automatically.]

Zhou Fangdong only had 73 sticks of Offering Incense left. Seeing this, he simply used his [Provider] skill to craft another 88 sticks and submitted 76 of them to the system.

[Side Quest 4: Repair the Apartment Trash Disposal Station—Completed.]

[Quest Rewards: 500 Ghost Coins, Cleaner Recruitment Interface unlocked.]

[Ding—Detection indicates the Trash Disposal Station has been repaired. All functions of the corridor renovation Purification Devices have been unlocked. Added ‘Anomaly Detection’ function.]

Zhou Fangdong first opened the [Cleaner Recruitment] interface.

The interface was divided into two parts: the left half was [Employed], and the right half was [Recruiting].

In the [Employed] section, five pixelated figures stood in a row, with the names of Qian Duolai, Quan Wuming, and the other three labeled above their heads.

The [Recruiting] section only had a small billboard. The sign read: You may actively invite humans or ghosts to become Cleaners, or use the system’s recruitment function to automatically hire Cleaners.

Active invitations carried the risk of rejection, while system recruitment was 100% successful. However, each system recruitment cost 200 Ghost Coins.

He had only unlocked two floors, so five Cleaners were enough for now. He would worry about recruitment later when he was short-staffed.

Next, Zhou Fangdong opened the [Public Area Beautification] function.

The details of the newly unlocked detection function stated: If the devices detect Evil God pollution or an invasion by abnormal ghosts not belonging to the front building, they will be marked on the floor plan, and a pop-up notification will appear.

Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.

With this function, he would know exactly when that ghost secretly transporting corpses to the front building appeared. When the time came, he would have to catch it and squeeze every last Ghost Coin out of it to soothe his resentment.

Before closing the system interface, Zhou Fangdong opened the Tenant Illustrated Guide and collected the reward for unlocking the [Mid-level Tenant: B-class Investigator] entry.

Since the four tenants in Room 201 were all B-class Investigators and belonged to the same category, the reward was only 300 Ghost Coins.

His current Ghost Coin balance stood at 10,890… Not bad. As long as it didn’t drop below ten thousand, he felt a strong sense of security.

With the side quest finished, it was time to find the newly unlocked Apartment Basement.

Since it was unlocked after the stairs were repaired, the basement should be located near the stairwell, just like the Mahjong Room.

However, after Zhou Fangdong took a walk around the stairwell, he found that aside from the Mahjong Room door and the newly installed wall lamps, there was nothing new.

The six newly renovated wall lamps emitted a warm yellow glow. The headless ghost children in the corridor were very interested in this light that wouldn’t harm them; they circled the lamps like they were dancing around a campfire.

Zhou Fangdong stopped one of the headless children and asked, “Do you know where the entrance to the Liwan Apartments basement is?”

The ghost child shook its neck, and the head held beneath its feet spoke: “We don’t pay much attention to those things. Mr. Landlord, you can go ask the Crevice Ghost in the Mahjong Room. It knows everything.”

Hearing this, Zhou Fangdong walked straight into the Mahjong Room and used a stick of Offering Incense to lure out the Crevice Ghost.

Just as the headless child had said, the Crevice Ghost truly knew everything.

Under its guidance, Zhou Fangdong returned to that very Mahjong Room—it turned out the entrance to the Apartment Basement wasn’t in the corridor, but inside this room.

He discovered a downward passage beneath the blood-stained iron bed.

He followed the passage down, but after only a few steps, his path was blocked by a door…

Looking at the obstructing door that stood before him like a solid wall—no handle, no keyhole, only painted with blood-red runes—Zhou Fangdong rubbed his forehead in frustration.

Had he accidentally wandered into some low-quality indie horror game that relied on tedious puzzles to pad out the playtime and prevent players from requesting a refund within two hours?

Why did he need to look for clues again… Since this was a hidden space rewarded for repairing the stairs, couldn’t they just open the door and let him in? What was the point of putting a door here?

Just as Zhou Fangdong was preparing to leave, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a familiar, crumpled scrap of paper on the floor.

The paper was wedged under the door gap, half outside and half inside.

Zhou Fangdong crouched down and pulled the small note out.

Written on it was: [Resurrection… success… or failure?]

The handwriting was still extremely scrawled, and most of it was contaminated by blood; only a few words were legible.

Resurrection… That’s right, the Mahjong Room upstairs was where the Sigu Society used the Medicine Pot to bestow blessings. Could this Apartment Basement have once been the site where the Sigu Society held resurrection rituals?

Zhou Fangdong held the note and pondered for a moment before opening the rental preview interface.

In Room 202, the thin pixel figure labeled [He Yansheng] had fallen back into a negative state for some reason. He sat in the corner with his head hanging low, a dark cloud hovering over him.

His Bandage Ghost wife was nowhere to be seen; she wasn’t by his side.

Zhou Fangdong teleported directly to Room 202.

Just like before, He Yansheng showed no reaction to Zhou Fangdong’s appearance, his face full of despondency.

After the joy of reuniting with his wife’s ghost in the apartment faded, countless negative emotions had shrouded him once again.

What did any of this matter now? After doing those things… did he really deserve to have all this?

His wife had suffered so much because of him, both in life and in death, yet in the end, he could still shamelessly enjoy this false happiness.

He Yansheng clutched his head in agony.

He still remembered when he first learned of his wife’s death. He had stood in the hospital mortuary, looking at the familiar silhouette under the white sheet. He had been in a state of numb shock, unable to perceive any emotion or any touch from the outside world.

In a daze, he thought he was dreaming.

His wife, who worked at the same hospital, had been smiling and telling him she would bring him food from the cafeteria not long ago. When she returned, she was lying on an emergency gurney, being rushed into the operating room for resuscitation.

The accident came without warning—an emotionally unstable family member of a patient, and an innocent wife caught in the crossfire.

…That family member had been swinging a knife and screaming his name. It should have been him who died, but his wife had blocked the man.

He Yansheng was a surgeon. He had saved many people and seen much death, but he never believed in ghosts or gods… until his wife died.

He wanted to resurrect his wife, even if it cost him his own life.

The doctor who had always believed in materialism began to seek answers that science could not provide, chasing after ethereal legends of resurrection.

He quit his job and tried every possibility he had previously dismissed.

Just as he had sold his house and car, exhausted all his savings, and reached the point where he couldn’t even pay the electricity bill to keep his wife’s body frozen, a follower of the Sigu Society found him.

That bald man said that if he believed in their deity, the deity would grant him everything he desired.

He Yansheng followed the man to the Liwan Apartments and moved into Room 202.

The man not only helped him pay the rent but also provided him with healthy, nutritious food, taking care of him as meticulously as one would raise a child.

During this time, his wife’s frozen corpse was also well-tended to—the people of the Sigu Society had placed many ice coffins in the Apartment Basement to freeze bodies.

He Yansheng knew the bald man had ulterior motives, and he knew that the Sigu Society, which stored so many corpses in the basement, was definitely not a normal church… but it didn’t matter anymore. As long as he could resurrect his wife, he was willing to do anything.

After he had lived in the apartment for three months, the bald man finally told him the time had come. The deity would bestow the divine medicine of resurrection, and the ritual was about to begin.

Actually, on the night before the blessing, He Yansheng had dreamed of his wife. In the dream, she said nothing, only looking at him sadly.

He thought this was a signal that they were about to be reunited, but he never expected that the next day he would witness a nightmare he would never forget.

After pouring that bowl of pitch-black medicine into his wife’s corpse’s mouth, she really did come back to life.

She opened her eyes and sat up from the ice coffin, looking at him sadly just as she had in his dream.

Before He Yansheng could rush over to give her a hug, the bald man who had brought him there suddenly yanked him aside, shouting, “Not good! This one failed too, close the door quickly!” Then, he forcibly dragged him upstairs.

Before the door closed, He Yansheng saw his wife’s body rapidly rotting before his eyes as if sulfuric acid had been poured on her. Her body convulsed, her joints twisted, and the bones throughout her body made unnatural cracking sounds as she transformed into a bloody, mangled, terrifying monster.

Before the door shut, the monster rushed toward the entrance with incredible speed, nearly piercing the bald man’s skull with its sharp claws.

Afterward, He Yansheng was imprisoned in Room 202 once again.

He would still dream of his wife, and his mangled, bandage-wrapped wife would still gaze at him with those gentle eyes.

Later, he didn’t know if he had gone mad from being locked up and was hallucinating, or if it was for some other reason, but he could often see his wife’s figure in Room 202—that blood-stained figure covered in bandages.

She stayed with him quietly, her figure shifting from ethereal to solid, becoming increasingly clear.

Once his wife’s figure had fully solidified, she killed the bald man who had entered the room to deliver food and pushed He Yansheng out of the room.

Then, his wife stood before the door. From her mouth, which was tightly bound by bandages, came a sound like rushing air: “Live… go quickly…”

Although He Yansheng was caught by the Sigu Society again not long after leaving the apartment, his wife’s words seemed to have become a kind of blessing.

In that abandoned hospital, no matter how cruel the modifications He Yansheng underwent, he remained alive and conscious. It was as if he were watching someone else’s experiences from a third-person perspective, watching himself linger on like a worm in the hands of the Sigu Society.

It was only after an unknown amount of time that he was brought back to the apartments and returned to Room 202 by a strange duo—a bodybuilder and a little girl.

His wife was still in the room, waiting for him, as if the two had never been apart.

He Yansheng thought this reunion was the fairy-tale ending to his suffering, that they were finally together again.

At first, he did feel a fleeting sense of happiness, but soon, a deeper despair enveloped him.

It was because his wife was too good… She remained so gentle, her eyes like a deep sea that could embrace everything. She understood, forgave, and comforted him, as if nothing had ever happened.

But He Yansheng could not forgive himself.

Why wasn’t she sad? Why didn’t she hate him? She should hate him.

…She should have killed him.

For the sake of his own obsession, he had desecrated his wife’s remains, denying her peace after death and turning her into a vengeful spirit, trapped in this apartment building forever with no hope of release.

The more his wife showed tolerance, the more despicable he felt. The gentler she was, the more he was unable to let go of his guilt.

He Yansheng still remembered a book his wife had been leafing through in the library when they first started dating.

He remembered her turning to a certain page and staring at it for a long time. And so, while he sat there staring blankly at her, he had memorized the short poem on that page—

‘In this world, those who love me try their best to hold me back. You are different; your love is far greater than theirs, for you let me be free¹.’ (Note 1)

But twice, he had chosen to hold on tight—the first time he grasped her corpse, and the second time he grasped her soul.

…So he didn’t love his wife at all. He was just a selfish ghost who loved himself, dragging his wife down because he refused to let go.

So, after doing so many terrible things, why was he still alive?

He Yansheng didn’t want to commit suicide; he wanted his wife to kill him.

…He had wanted her to kill him for many years.

Just now, He Yansheng had voiced this request to his wife, but she had simply vanished from the room as if she had never existed.

It was as if everything had been nothing more than his hallucination.

He Yansheng was still alive, but he was trapped in a hell of his own making, with no hope of escape.

Zhou Fangdong looked at He Yansheng, who was huddled dejectedly in the corner, his face unnaturally pale.

He had no idea what had happened during the time he was gone; how had this man gone from that face full of bliss to this state of utter despondency?

Zhou Fangdong, who had originally intended to ask He Yansheng for clues about the basement, hesitated for a moment before asking softly, “Are you alright? Do you feel unwell? Where is your wife?”

“Sigh… Mr. Landlord, you’ve come.” He Yansheng gave a bitter smile and pushed up his glasses. “I’m fine, I’ve just suddenly realized something… This thing called life, it is…”

“Stop.” Zhou Fangdong had witnessed He Yansheng’s rambling state when he fell into “negative mode” back in the abandoned hospital instance, so he quickly cut him off.

Zhou Fangdong paused, eventually giving up on offering comfort and choosing to get straight to the point. “You once entered the basement of the Liwan Apartments to resurrect your wife, didn’t you? Do you know how to open that door in the basement?”

Hearing Zhou Fangdong mention the basement, He Yansheng froze, his expression turning static for a moment.

Ultimately, a flood of complex emotions settled into a bitter smile at the corners of his mouth. He Yansheng let out a long sigh and said in a weary voice, “Sigh… So, Mr. Landlord, do you also have someone you cannot let go of?”

“No, I just want to get into the basement.”

“Sigh… We live in this world, but in truth, we possess nothing. Everything we have is but a fleeting experience. The people we love, the things we love—it is only when we truly lose them that we can prove, through the act of loss, that they were once truly ours. Clinging to possession is merely clinging to one’s own obsession. The more one tries to grasp those ethereal things, the more one becomes…”

“I don’t want to resurrect anyone. I just want to enter the basement.”

“Sigh… Life, so-called, is a process of continuous loss. All things in this world arise and fade; it is all about the pain of not getting what one wants and the sorrow of parting from what one loves. If…”

“Sorry to bother you. Goodbye.” Zhou Fangdong left Room 202 as fast as he possibly could.

His head throbbed. He had to think if there was any other way to get into that basement.

Translator’s Notes