Eerie Father charged into the stairwell and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Ji Yan turned around and found only Eerie Mother's torn body left on the ground. The eerie daughter had disappeared as well...
"What kind of eerie is that daughter? She's so vicious?"
A chill ran down Ji Yan's back.
For one brief instant just now, he had felt like his head was about to be split open.
Zhong Yi held her unconscious younger sister, much of the color drained from her face. "Th-this was your plan?"
Her eyes were filled with disbelief.
This was insane.
It was practically suicidal!
Ji Yan caught the look in her eyes. He stood up and forcibly steadied himself as he wiped the slime from his shoulder. "Yes."
"Although there were some deviations, everything was still under control."
Zhong Yi glanced down. "Maybe pat your legs first. They're shaking pretty badly."
"They're just numb from sitting too long."
Ji Yan coughed twice.
He turned, leaped onto the water tank, switched on his flashlight, and peered through the stone slab into the interior.
A moment later, he put the stone slab back in place.
He jumped down and dusted off his palms. "That should settle the problem with the water tank."
"Once dawn comes, the residents whose water was contaminated should calm down."
"That family in Room 804..." Zhong Yi hesitated.
"Whatever problems a family of three has, they can solve them themselves. Why should outsiders like us interfere?"
"I was merely being helpful and letting a pair of parents find their long-lost daughter."
Zhong Yi truly could not bear to listen to Ji Yan's smooth talk any longer, so she simply shut up. If that mentally shattered, darkened Eerie Mother had been one second faster, she would have torn him to pieces, yet he could still talk tough like that. Zhong Yi was somewhat impressed.
"The task's settled. If there's nothing else, I'll go report to Old Landlord first."
Ji Yan let out a breath.
Tonight had been quite an ordeal.
The only thing that pained him was losing a Chopper.
Footsteps came from the doorway. Ji Yan halted mid-step, his heart skipping a beat.
Could Eerie Father have circled around to come settle the score with him?
Then he saw the White-skirt female eerie from Room 801 emerge. Her exquisite face still wore that incongruous smile. "Well? How was my method?"
"Effective, wasn't it?"
Ji Yan was somewhat stunned. The crazed eerie girl was currently curled up in her arms, not unconscious, but asleep.
"Where are her father and that brat?" Ji Yan asked.
White-skirt female eerie said, "Torn apart by this little girl, of course. What else could have happened?"
Ji Yan looked at the sleeping Xi Xi. Although whatever happened to this eerie girl had nothing to do with him, he still asked, "Then what will happen to her?"
"This girl and I get along quite well."
"She's pitiful too. I'll take care of her from now on."
"Though the rent will increase, I was born kind-hearted. I can't bear to see a child with such a miserable fate."
The White-skirt female eerie gently stroked Xi Xi's silky hair, her smile faint.
Yet Ji Yan always felt that both those words and that smile carried a hint of falseness.
Without asking further, Ji Yan nodded, briefly said goodbye to the Twin Sisters, and prepared to head downstairs.
"Don't forget, you still owe me a favor."
The White-skirt female eerie spoke softly, her smile radiant.
"My name is Xu Xin. I live in Room 801."
"When I've decided what I want, I'll come find you."
Ji Yan's head began to ache.
This really was never-ending...
He climbed out of one pit only to jump into another.
Thinking about it carefully, it seemed he had been played by this woman too.
Although he had proposed the solution and delayed that Eerie Couple for a while, he had been the one carrying it out and risking his life.
If he died, she would lose nothing.
If he escaped safely, he would owe her a favor.
The key was that he had no choice, no way to refuse the debt, and could not even reason with her.
As Ji Yan left the Rooftop looking as if he wanted to say something but held it back, Xu Xin turned around, her beautiful eyes falling on the Twin Sisters.
Her red lips curled. "You did well."
Zhong Yi met her gaze, then understood after a moment. "You've set your sights on him."
"You had us participate in contaminating the water tank only to use us to get close to him."
Xu Xin smiled. "You're quite clever. I'm starting to wonder if your younger sister gave all her intelligence to her older sister."
Zhong Yi said nothing. As long as the task was complete, that was enough. She only cared about her younger sister.
But she understood clearly.
Once this owner of Room 801 had set her sights on a "prey," it would be difficult for him to get away...
She just did not know what this woman had her eye on in Ji Yan.
"What an unlucky man."
Holding her younger sister, Zhong Yi murmured.
Elsewhere.
Ji Yan descended to the first floor of the Apartment.
In the lobby, Old Landlord lay in a rattan chair, gently rocking. A Birdcage hung beside him, and the white-and-yellow parrot inside stared at Ji Yan as it mimicked human speech. "Big sucker! Big sucker! The big sucker is here!"
Ji Yan's expression darkened.
He said to the Landlord, "Old sir, the water tank task has been resolved."
With his eyes closed, Old Landlord gently waved the old palm-leaf fan in his hand. "I knew I hadn't misjudged you. You work diligently and efficiently."
"Whether it was the Drain Ditch outside the Apartment or the water tank on the Rooftop, you cleared them faster than I expected."
Ji Yan smiled without warmth.
What, was he going to give me an award for model sanitation worker?
"Still, your way of handling things is as awful as ever."
Old Landlord shook his head. He praised Ji Yan once, then immediately criticized him once.
Ji Yan's face darkened further.
Those jobs are already brushes with death. It's good enough to come back alive, damn it. Who cares whether you're satisfied?
"You shouldn't have gotten involved with the woman in 801."
"That woman is trouble from head to toe. Once you get tangled up with her, it'll be hard to shake her off." Old Landlord slowly said as he shook one leg.
Ji Yan knew he was referring to that favor. He opened his mouth, but in the end could only say, "I'll take it one step at a time."
"You think she was really being so kind by helping you clean up afterward?"
"The one who truly killed that family of three in Room 804 wasn't their daughter, but that woman. That family should be in her Room 801 right now, nearly eaten clean."
Ji Yan froze.
"Eaten?"
"Room 801 is the fiercest room in the Apartment. Did you think she was the only resident in that room? Heh heh, you naive little brat."
"That woman often borrows someone else's knife to kill the residents of the Apartment, then reaps the benefits herself and feeds the original residents in her room."
"That is how this 'rent' comes about."
Hearing this, Ji Yan asked what he had wanted to know all along. "What exactly is the Apartment's rent?"
All the Eerie Residents of Crimson Apartment racked their brains to pay rent so they would not be driven out.
But for Ji Yan, a player, rent had always been an enormous question mark.
Old Landlord fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking. "When you chiseled through the walls, didn't you see the blood seeping from them?"
"I did."
"That was the rent."
Ji Yan was even more confused.
Old Landlord opened his eyes, his cloudy gaze slanting toward Ji Yan. "They pay rent so this Apartment can stand firm in this world."
"And their flesh and blood are the best materials for constructing its walls."
"If the residents want to live inside, they must pay rent. The more residents there are, the sturdier the Apartment becomes. It goes on in a cycle."
Before you continue