The White-Skirt Female Eerie, Gossip All-Knowing

Creak.

The lock turned, and the door slowly pushed open.

Inside Room 801, the temperature was terrifyingly low, as if stepping into an ice cave.

Ji Yan shivered uncontrollably from the cold.

"Hello, is anyone there?"

He called out hesitantly, but there was no response.

Ji Yan walked into the living room. He found a rocking chair, empty, but swaying gently.

Beside the television, an old radio played melodious music.

"An invisible eerie?"

Ji Yan's expression shifted slightly. He tried calling out to the chair twice, but there was no reaction.

The next moment, he felt a tingling sensation on his back, followed by a pleasant yet chilling voice in his ear.

"Where did you get that key in your hand?"

The voice made Ji Yan's hair stand on end. His right hand's fingers involuntarily opened, and the key floated in mid-air.

Immediately after, Ji Yan's five fingers were forced open wider and wider.

The intense pain made him break out in a cold sweat.

"You only get one chance to answer."

Looking at his fingers about to snap, Ji Yan couldn't help but curse inwardly.

"Damn it, what's wrong with these eeries on the 8th floor?"

"They all attack without saying more than a few words!"

His lips trembling, Ji Yan spoke, "Huang Sheng from 102 gave it to me."

"Oh, I see."

"But unfortunately, time's up."

Snap—

A clean breaking sound. His five fingers snapped backward towards his hand, bones cracking.

Staring at his completely deformed palm, Ji Yan's breath hitched, his mind going blank for a moment.

Only one thought remained.

My hand is ruined!

However, after a few seconds of this terrifying feeling, Ji Yan's mind felt hazy.

When he looked again, his right hand was perfectly fine, still clutching the key tightly.

A woman's giggling laughter echoed in his ear, "Just playing with you."

"Look how scared you are, did you wet yourself?"

Ji Yan desperately wanted to curse her out, but the words caught in his throat.

The chilling presence beside him vanished, and the rocking chair continued to sway.

"Huang Sheng, wasn't he kicked out of the apartment?"

"How could he still give you a key?"

Ji Yan could only recount the entire story again.

After hearing it, the invisible female eerie seemed to find something inexplicably amusing, laughing so hard she couldn't stop. "Chiseling through walls? You're truly brave. That old landlord must have been furious. It's a miracle you're still alive and kicking!"

Ji Yan said in a low voice, "I'm not dead, I still have some value."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't be staying up late, risking my life by running around the dangerous 8th floor."

The rocking chair continued to sway, its creaking sound grating on his ears. "Go on, what mess is it?"

Ji Yan rubbed his nose. "A small problem."

"The family in 804, there's some bad blood."

As he said this, the invisible female eerie on the rocking chair materialized in Ji Yan's sight. She wore a soft, clean white dress, her dark hair cascading down like a waterfall, her face as flawless as white jade.

Ji Yan blinked in surprise.

The resident of Room 801 had a beauty that was no less than the Bewitching Eerie on the first floor, though her complexion was perhaps a little too pale.

"804?"

"That family is fierce, especially the aunt, she's like a shrew."

"Huang Sheng's favor is just from when I couldn't afford the rent and borrowed some from him."

"When I paid it back later, that guy even added interest. That's not even a favor!"

"This key was just something I pawned to him back then, and I forgot to take it back."

The white-skirt female eerie raised her eyes slightly and spoke simply and clearly.

When Ji Yan heard this, his hope dimmed considerably.

Damn it, This favor is really cheap!

To think Huang Sheng had the nerve to say he'd repay me!

"However, his daughter and I used to get along quite well in the apartment. I quite liked that girl."

"It's just a shame she met such a tragic father. He bricked her up in the wall, unable to go anywhere. Huang Sheng thought keeping his daughter in the apartment was protecting her."

"Little did he know, this kind of self-congratulatory greatness was just a way of tormenting his own daughter."

Ji Yan listened, offering no comment.

Back then, when he was by that wall, he could indeed feel the immense pain of the eerie trapped within...

Recalling the blood that seeped from the wall when he chiseled it, he dared to make a guess.

Could the entire Crimson Apartment be built from the flesh and blood of eeries?

This might be why the apartment stood firm in the Eerie World.

But Ji Yan didn't dwell on it. This likely involved the main quest, and he didn't want to get entangled.

"So, Huang Sheng's favor is useless."

"But for his daughter's sake, I can help you. However, you need to agree to one request."

Ji Yan didn't rush to agree. "What request?"

"I haven't thought of it yet. I'll let you know when I do."

"..."

Ji Yan pondered for a moment, then decisively shook his head. "Then I'll find my own way. Sorry to bother you."

He couldn't agree.

None of the eeries on the 8th floor were good.

Tonight's task was originally to fix the trouble caused by chipping the wall for the Landlord.

Now, agreeing to another eerie meant fixing one problem by creating another, an endless cycle!

"It's already too late."

"That dead-eye eerie has already discovered your little trick of luring the tiger away from its mountain and is coming upstairs."

"In five minutes, my door will be knocked on."

"So, only I can save you now."

The white-skirt eerie propped her chin in her hand, looking at Ji Yan with a half-smile.

Ji Yan frowned, keenly catching something. "You've been observing me in secret?"

"You've been wandering around the 8th floor for so long, and that auntie was screaming so loudly. Even if I were deaf, I would have heard."

"The eerie in the rooftop cistern is their daughter."

"They also know their daughter is trapped inside, having become a hideous Grudge Eerie, but they won't rescue her. Instead, they want to kill those who try to help."

"Do you know why?"

Ji Yan: "Why?"

"Their daughter, you see, is contaminated with something unclean. You can think of it as a severe illness. If she continues to stay in 804, they will not only be expelled but also infected by their daughter, turning into that monstrous, neither-human-nor-ghost state."

"Furthermore, that daughter isn't their biological child; she was just fostered."

"So, the couple devised this brilliant plan: if they couldn't get rid of her, they'd lure her into the cistern."

"This not only prevented infection but also allowed them to evade scrutiny from the Landlord and the apartment's rules. However, they underestimated their daughter's 'illness,' which could even contaminate the apartment's water quality."

"Therefore, as soon as they know you're here for their daughter, they will do everything to kill you!"

"Firstly, they're worried their naive daughter will learn the truth, crawl out of the cistern, and continue to pester them."

"Secondly, they're worried that if the Landlord, who can't go to the rooftop, finds out that the couple is the culprit behind the water contamination, he will definitely expel them from the apartment."

The white-skirt eerie gently stroked her dark hair and turned to Ji Yan. "Do you understand?"

Ji Yan's face was filled with astonishment.

Finally, he took a deep breath and retorted, "How... how do you know all this so clearly?"

"How could I not know such trivial gossip?"

"I'm the kind of person who loves to hear gossip the most."

"It's just that I usually remain silent and prefer not to stir up trouble."

"On the 8th floor, every resident has a dramatic piece of gossip!"

The white-skirt female eerie chuckled, and in the moonlight, her exquisite face was so captivating it made one's gaze go numb.

Thinking that this eerie, without even leaving her room, had grasped everything that had happened between the seventh and eighth floors, Ji Yan couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. What was this eerie's background?