Chapter 66

Zhou Fangdong arrived at the apartment foyer and saw the new tenant waiting outside the door.

Judging by her silhouette, the tenant appeared to be female. She was thin and frail, standing about 1.6 meters tall, carrying a suitcase and wearing a backpack.

It was currently summer, with midday temperatures reaching thirty to forty degrees Celsius, yet this tenant was wearing a black long-sleeved hoodie with the hood pulled over her head. The lower half of her face was obscured by a mask, leaving only her eyes behind black-rimmed glasses visible.

While the temperature at Liwan Apartments was somewhat lower due to the heavy Yin Energy, this outfit was still an exaggeration.

The moment her eyes met Zhou Fangdong’s, the tenant immediately lowered her head, hiding her only exposed feature behind the shadow of her hood and bangs.

…Understood. She had social anxiety.

Tang Huili was feeling conflicted. She didn’t know if she should enter the building in front of her.

On one hand, the building felt extremely dangerous; on the other hand, it felt incredibly safe.

This contradictory sensation also emanated from the young man standing in the foyer.

The moment the pale young man appeared, Tang Huili felt that something was off about him.

He felt like an incarnation of the building itself—a blend of danger and safety. The eerie sense of inhumanity about him was so pronounced that Tang Huili couldn’t help but consider backing out again.

Just as she was hesitating, she suddenly heard the young man inside speak up. “I am the landlord of Liwan Apartments. Are you here to see a room?”

Hearing him claim to be the landlord, Tang Huili couldn’t resist looking up again.

…How did someone so young acquire the property rights to these two buildings of Liwan Apartments? Why did he dare to rent out rooms here? Was it no longer haunted?

After agonizing at the entrance for a moment, Tang Huili finally made up her mind and stepped into the pitch-black apartment.

…I’m already here, might as well go with the flow. Though things seemed chaotic, at least she didn’t sense any fatal danger.

“Hello, Mr. Landlord. I am Tang Huili, a professional manga artist. I wish to rent a unit at Liwan Apartments. I have a series currently in serialization and a stable source of income, so I can pay the rent on time,” Tang Huili said all at once with her head down, as if reciting from a textbook.

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a child’s head come rolling over, stopping right at her feet.

Tang Huili stared expressionlessly at the child’s head by her feet, silently meeting its hollow, dark eyes.

Is this a ghost? It’s actually not dangerous… her intuition gave her no warning at all.

Zhou Fangdong also noticed the rolling head.

He glanced at Tang Huili’s reaction before waving his hand to shoo it away. “Go back to the hallway and play. Don’t come over to join the fun when guests are here; you’ll scare people.”

The child’s head obediently rolled away.

Watching the interaction between Zhou Fangdong and the little ghost, a realization dawned on Tang Huili.

It wasn’t that there were no ghosts in Liwan Apartments, nor that the ghosts weren’t harmful. It was that in front of this landlord, the ghosts would not attack humans.

So that was the source of her contradictory intuition of danger and safety.

The sense of safety came from the fact that with the landlord present in the apartment, one wouldn’t be harmed by ghosts… the danger came from the inherent nature of the ghosts themselves.

No wonder the Supervisory Bureau dared to let this landlord rent out the rooms of Liwan Apartments again; it was because he could restrain the ghosts within.

What a terrifying individual.

Despite her complex internal monologue, Tang Huili showed none of it.

As if she were an old tenant who had lived in Liwan Apartments for a long time, she calmly followed Zhou Fangdong toward the stairwell.

Although there were no windows in the hallway, wall lamps had been installed. The soft light clearly illuminated every ghostly face.

Fortunately, Tang Huili drew horror manga and was used to all sorts of bloody images during her research.

Now, the two-dimensional gore had simply become three-dimensional.

As long as there was no danger, none of it mattered; she would just treat it like visiting a holographic haunted house.

She calmly walked past a headless ghost boy whose neck was spraying blood as he played tag, past a little girl running around dragging her intestines, past a little boy who was a mangled jigsaw puzzle of flesh, and through a shower of falling heads… Passing by all the ghosts in the hallway, she followed Zhou Fangdong to the stairs.

After Zhou Fangdong explained the rules for going upstairs, he led her to Room 204.

When the door to Room 204 swung fully open and she saw the scene inside, Tang Huili was stunned.

From the outside, all the windows of Liwan Apartments were boarded up with wooden planks. She had assumed the interior would be the same and was prepared to see a pitch-black room.

To her surprise, the room actually had natural light, and the windows were quite large.

Moreover, it was completely different from her impression of a haunted house. Not only was there no dust or stains, but even the furniture was brand new. It looked like a newly renovated apartment… the rent for this room must be very expensive, right?

Zhou Fangdong stopped Tang Huili as she tried to enter, keeping her outside the door.

“Don’t enter the room yet. You can look over the Tenant Contract first. If you can accept the terms, you can sign your name at the bottom.”

As he spoke, a piece of paper appeared out of thin air in Zhou Fangdong’s hand.

Along the way, he had been very satisfied with this manga artist tenant’s performance.

Before meeting the new tenant at the door, Zhou Fangdong had specifically gone to the activity room and bribed all the ghost children with three sticks of Offering Incense. He told them to run out and scare her when the new tenant arrived—the bloodier and scarier, the better.

The little ghosts had all happily agreed.

If Tang Huili had acted jumpy or startled, Zhou Fangdong wouldn’t have taken her to the second floor; he would have simply declined her rental request.

But to Zhou Fangdong’s surprise, Tang Huili’s performance had completely exceeded his expectations.

She didn’t act at all like an ordinary person who had never encountered ghosts. Her level of calm was almost as if she couldn’t see anything at all.

He felt this tenant would be a perfect fit for Room 204.

Tang Huili took the paper and carefully read it from beginning to end.

[Room 204 Tenant Rules]

① While residing in Room 204, you must maintain emotional stability. All movements within the room must be performed slowly. If an object falls to the floor, do not panic or bend down abruptly to pick it up; you must squat down slowly to retrieve it. Opening and closing doors or windows must be done gently to avoid creating violent air currents.

② All forms of strenuous exercise are prohibited within the room, such as running, jumping, rapid squats, or calisthenics.

③ It is absolutely safe within this room as long as you remain still while sitting or lying down.

④ If you suddenly feel fatigued, experience heart palpitations, hear the sound of joints grinding behind you, or sense an unnatural cold wind, please immediately stop whatever you are doing. Slowly sit or lie down and remain still for 15 minutes.

⑤ Cooking is prohibited within the room.

⑥ Tenants must carry the Room 204 key at all times. Losing the key will be considered an automatic termination of the rental contract.

⑦ Rent of 30 Ghost Coins in cash must be paid monthly. Failure to pay will be considered an automatic termination of the rental contract.

⑧ If you discover an outside person or ghost intruding upon your private space, do not panic. Provided you are following the above rules, the landlord will arrive immediately to resolve the issue for you.

After reading the Tenant Contract, Tang Huili had only one impression: this didn’t seem like a rental agreement so much as a survival guide for staying safe in the room.

She faintly sensed that something dangerous existed within the room, but it wasn’t lethal yet—likely because the killing conditions for that entity hadn’t been triggered.

Following this survival guide wouldn’t be difficult for her, as she was naturally someone who rarely showed emotion.

She wasn’t fond of exercise either. Due to her work, she needed to sit at her desk drawing for long periods, often starting with five or six-hour sessions. When rushing to meet a deadline, she could draw for an entire day without stopping, not even pausing to eat. Staying motionless was her normal state.

The ban on cooking didn’t matter; she didn’t know how to cook anyway.

After finishing the Tenant Rules, what caught Tang Huili’s attention most was the rent.

It was only thirty per month…

How was that any different from being free?

Even without her intuition guiding her, Tang Huili would have felt that renting at Liwan Apartments was a fantastic deal. As long as one followed the rules, they would have a residence safe from ghost attacks, and with such cheap rent, it was an absolute steal.

Tang Huili decisively signed her name on the Tenant Rules, then took thirty in cash from her wallet and handed it to the landlord along with the paper.

Zhou Fangdong tucked away the Tenant Contract and handed her the key to Room 204. “Keep the key on you at all times, and the ghosts in the building won’t attack you. There’s a copy of the rules on the desk in the room; if you forget any of them, you can check there.”

Tang Huili took the key.

The moment it touched her hand, an overwhelming sense of security surged through her heart. The feeling was like being wrapped in a warm protective shield, causing Tang Huili to daze for a moment. As if clutching a literal lifeline, she reflexively tightened her grip on the key.

This apartment key—this status as a tenant of Liwan Apartments—might be even more useful than she had imagined.

It was definitely more than just being immune to the apartment’s ghosts.

…Perhaps, this was the dawn of hope for humanity to survive in this dark world overrun by ghosts.

As Tang Huili took the key, a system window popped up:

[Congratulations to the Host for completing Side Quest 10. Reward: 500 Ghost Coins, 2000 Experience Points, Random Skill Point x1]

[Tenant Illustrated Guide: “Intermediate Tenant – Highly Inspired Shut-in Manga Artist” has been unlocked. Please claim your guide rewards promptly.]

When Zhou Fangdong saw that the unlocked entry was “Highly Inspired Shut-in Manga Artist,” he felt even more relieved.

This tenant really was a perfect match for Room 204; she should be able to live here quite safely.

“You should unpack your things. I’ll be—” Zhou Fangdong was about to say “I’ll be going now,” but he was stopped by Tang Huili before he could finish.

Even though the tenant was wearing a hood and a mask, Zhou Fangdong could tell from her body language that she was nervous and conflicted.

She seemed to want to say something but was hesitating.

Finally, the tenant seemed to make up her mind. She took a deep breath and spoke rapidly, as if reciting a memorized text: “Mr. Landlord, you restrain the ghosts in Liwan Apartments and rent out rooms that aren’t plagued by supernatural forces to ordinary people… Are you using this apartment as a pilot project to test a method that can protect humanity and keep them safe from ghosts?”

“I also want to do my part for your great cause of protecting the world.”

After gathering the courage to say this, Tang Huili quickly lowered her head, missing the momentary look of bewilderment on Zhou Fangdong’s face.

Zhou Fangdong was completely lost.

Protect the world… Who? Him?

The atmosphere had already been built up to such a point that he didn’t know how to refute her for a moment. In such a serious setting, suddenly saying “I’m just a guy renting out rooms” felt a bit inappropriate.

With her head down, Tang Huili continued, “It’s like this: my intuition has been incredibly sharp since I was a child. I can sense a massive disaster looming over Jinxi District and the Penghu Gardens residential area. That’s why I actively sought out Liwan Apartments and moved here in such a hurry.”

At this point, Tang Huili’s voice grew heavy. “Penghu Gardens is in the city center. If a serious supernatural incident breaks out there, the casualties will be enormous.”

In the past, Tang Huili hadn’t dared to tell anyone about her ability to foresee danger.

Because her parents had died because of that very intuition.

Without the power to protect others, even if she foresaw danger, she couldn’t help them escape it. She could only barely save herself based on her gut feelings, watching helplessly as others died because of her “prophecies.”

Consequently, she had become known as a “jinx” and a “harbinger of doom.” She was treated like a hot potato that no relative wanted to take in, growing up stumbling through life on government subsidies.

As she grew older, she had tried to use her intuitive premonitions to help others. In the end, those friends were grateful on the surface but ostracized and isolated her behind her back. They called her a “liar,” “pretentious,” and a “clown” who faked supernatural powers just to seek attention.

Consequently, Tang Huili became increasingly silent, sealing herself off completely.

But now, she had met a powerhouse—someone terrifyingly strong, capable of easily restraining the ghosts of the entire Liwan Apartments, and someone who possessed a great love for the world and a desire to protect it. This powerhouse would certainly not be like her, possessing only the ability to foresee without the means to protect others.

If she told this landlord about the situation at Penghu Gardens, he would surely be able to resolve the crisis with ease.

Penghu Gardens… Hearing Tang Huili mention the name of this residential complex, Zhou Fangdong felt it sounded somewhat familiar.

Right, yesterday Miao Zheng had told him over the phone that the girl the Sigu Society was targeting lived in Penghu Gardens.

This girl and her best friend were currently under the protection of people sent by Hong Zhong.

Zhou Fangdong did not doubt Tang Huili’s premonition, as the system had already certified that this tenant possessed a very strong spiritual sense.

Therefore, there was a high probability that the Sigu Society was planning to cause trouble in Penghu Gardens.

Setting aside how many casualties they might cause in the city… in any case, he absolutely could not let those fanatical cultists capture those two girls. The apartments could not afford to appear in the Sigu Society’s sights just yet.

A warehouse near Penghu Gardens.

A middle-aged bald man fiddled with a paper effigy in his hand while staring at his phone screen. “Boss, the views on this Liwan Apartments female ghost livestream are really high. Has the anomaly at Liwan Apartments disappeared? Should we head over to the apartments to check it out?”

The tall, fat, bald man beside him couldn’t help but roll his eyes upon hearing this. “Are you talking about the livestream from that paranormal streamer named [Zheng, Are You For Real?]? Can’t you see the massive Bureau of Paranormal Oversight certification on her account? Are you blind?”

The bald man looking at the phone scratched his head and said sheepishly, “Boss, I… I don’t quite get what you mean. Don’t most paranormal streamers on video platforms have Bureau certification?”

“What do you have a brain for if you can’t think for yourself?” The tall, fat man slapped him on the head in frustration. “My point is that this livestream was intentionally set up by the Bureau! They’re fishing for us. Can’t you see the hook is straight and the bait is salty?”

The tall, fat man grew more indignant as he spoke, slapping his thigh hard. “We’ve already learned our lesson once; we absolutely cannot fall for it again!”

“Back then, two Deacons who possessed Human Skin Hats came across a rental listing for Liwan Apartments. The listing was for Room 103, where the Hall Master of the Punishment Hall once lived.”

“So they went to Liwan Apartments to investigate. As a result, once they went, there was never another word from them.”

“That rental post for Room 103 must have been posted by the Bureau. They were intentionally trying to lure us to Liwan Apartments to deplete our strength.”

“And this so-called Liwan Apartments livestream you’re seeing is just like that rental post—the Bureau set up a stage to play us! They used to handle cases at the apartments all the time, so they’re more than familiar with the environment. As for the ghosts in the livestreams and videos… Hmph, do you think there are no ghosts inside the Bureau? You underestimate them. They aren’t clean either. After all, in today’s world, only a ghost can deal with a ghost.”

“Furthermore, if Liwan Apartments were truly safe, how could the Bureau not go in and clear it out? Why would they allow that Human Skin Actor to break the seal and escape, and even let that actor sell off the cursed items from Room 103 in the Ghost Market?”

“If the apartments were safe, would the Bureau just let so many dangerous things wander around outside?”

“They are just using this paranormal streamer to put on a play, telling us that Liwan Apartments is fine so that we’ll go there of our own accord. They want to use the power of the apartments to consume our manpower, just like their goal with the Room 103 rental post.”

The bald man listened in a daze, wearing an expression of “so that’s how it is.”

“Do they really think we’re stupid?” The tall, fat man sneered disdainfully. “Only someone like you needs me to break it down bit by bit. The big shots in the Society knew about this long ago and had already guessed the Bureau’s intentions.”

“Alright, forget about that attention-seeking fake apartment livestream. We need to focus all our energy on that ‘Main God’ now—the Great God specifically handed down an oracle for us to watch out for the ‘Main God.’ The High Priest suspects that the Main God is secretly spying on our strongholds and sending all the locations to the Bureau. It wants to sit back and watch the tigers fight; we can’t let it have its way.”

The bald man nodded in realization. “So that’s why we didn’t hesitate to sacrifice two strongholds to plan this in Penghu Gardens… We want the Bureau to think the Main God did it, making them realize how dangerous the Main God is. Once those two factions start fighting, we can take the opportunity to reap the benefits.”

The tall, fat man nodded. “Exactly. So put your phone away and stay sharp. We suffered heavy losses in the Ghost Market last night, and the High Priest was furious. This operation at Penghu Gardens cannot fail, no matter what.”