Cursed Land

The landlord welcomed the group inside.

Gu Mian sat on the sofa and began asking about the textile factory. "I'm here to ask about Shenghong Textile Factory. You know this place, right?"

The landlord was taken aback at first, then nodded. "I know, I know. I used to be an old employee there myself... This apartment building used to be the factory's family housing. You can see the names are similar."

Hearing this, Yuwen Hao finally realized.

Shenghong Textile Factory and Hong Sheng Apartment – they had simply swapped the names and changed one character.

"Do you know about the fire at Shenghong Textile Factory? I heard a woman died in that fire."

The landlord froze upon hearing this, and looked at Gu Mian and the others with a strange expression. "Why are you asking about this?"

"Someone we know has encountered some strange occurrences, which might be related to this deceased woman."

Upon hearing this, the landlord's wrinkled face showed an "I knew it" expression. She looked at Gu Mian, then at the others, appearing as though she had something to say but hesitated.

After a long moment of deliberation, the landlord spoke again, this time lowering her voice as if afraid of being overheard. "To be honest, things did get peculiar after that woman died."

Yuwen Hao's eyes widened slightly, and he looked at the landlord eagerly.

The landlord continued in a low voice, "I know that anyone involved with that fire didn't have a good end..."

She spoke while sighing and shaking her head.

Gu Mian asked, "Can you tell us more specifically?"

"This is not something to be spoken of lightly. After that person burned to death, everyone related to her encountered strange things, like a curse. It was as if she was haunting them all."

"After she died, the factory didn't do well and went bankrupt not long after. It's hard to say if it was because of her haunting."

"Those who were on slightly better terms with her also suffered repeated misfortunes in their families. As far as I know, they all died."

"At first, everyone said it was because she died with resentment, and that's why she was haunting the living. But they offered sacrifices, held memorial services, and some even hired a shaman to perform rituals, yet they couldn't get rid of her."

"Later, everyone who knew her met with misfortune. Everyone was terrified, and no one dared to mention that person again, for fear of being haunted just by speaking her name..."

Gu Mian frowned slightly. Such great resentment... could it have been murder?

Yuwen Hao also asked the question, "Who started that fire?"

The landlord paused, then hesitated before replying, "She set it herself."

Yuwen Hao and the others found this strange. If it was suicide, the resentment shouldn't be this great. Could there be another hidden reason?

Gu Mian continued to ask, "Do you know why she set the fire?"

Was it because she suffered immense injustice that she wanted to commit suicide? Like being swindled out of money or betrayed in a relationship? If so, it would be understandable for her to become a Fierce Ghost after death.

At this moment, the landlord suddenly looked around, lowering her voice even further. "I hesitated to speak about this before, fearing I might be haunted too. But thinking about it, I'm old now, my bones are brittle, and I don't have much time left. So, I'll tell you in secret..."

"That woman committed suicide. No one forced her, no one wronged her. She truly committed suicide, and it had nothing to do with anyone else."

That's strange. If no one wronged her, why would she commit suicide?

The landlord continued, "If anyone is to blame, it's only herself. Everyone knew this in their hearts, but no one dared to say it back then."

"I remember she died around '87. That was around the time electricity was just becoming widespread in our area. There were frequent power outages, and electricity was very expensive. We couldn't afford to keep lights on at night, so we only used kerosene lamps, the kind with a glass cover. Do you know them?"

Gu Mian nodded.

"That night, she was on duty in the warehouse, with a kerosene lamp lit. But she dozed off while on duty and placed the lamp aside before sleeping. When she woke up in the morning, she saw that the lamp had ignited the goods in the warehouse, burning a few boxes."

"She herself was unharmed, and the fire didn't seem to be that big. It only burned about a dozen boxes before going out. But those boxes contained goods!"

"The total value of the scattered goods came to over sixty yuan. Don't think sixty yuan is a small amount. This was in '87. I remember our daily wage was only a few jiao back then. Sixty yuan was an astronomical sum at the time!"

"The factory couldn't bear the loss itself, but they felt she couldn't afford to pay it all either. So, they discussed it with her, asking her to pay half first, and the remaining half would be deducted from her wages."

"She was just an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl then, inexperienced with the world. Where would she get the money? Moreover, she had several sisters at home. Her parents had gone through great lengths to get her a position at the factory, and she absolutely didn't dare to go home and tell them about this."

"This matter dragged on and on. After more than half a year, the factory couldn't wait any longer and said they would go find her parents."

"She panicked and started borrowing money everywhere, but who would lend her money? In the end, she couldn't even borrow a few yuan."

"Unable to borrow money, she cursed people for being insincere and cursed the factory for being heartless, saying they were forcing her to death."

"After cursing that day, she disappeared. The factory assumed she had run away and planned to go to her parents' house the next day. But who would have thought that the warehouse would catch fire again that night? This time, it was a raging inferno."

"A girl who shared a dorm with her saw her suicide note. It said she was forced to death by the factory and wanted to take that warehouse full of goods with her in destruction."

"But after the fire broke out, she seemed to have regretted it. I was on duty at the time, and I heard her shouting for help from inside, begging someone to go in and save her."

"The fire was too intense, and it was nighttime. There weren't many people around. Seeing no one going in to save her, she started yelling curses... cursing those heartless bastards to a terrible death..."

"She didn't curse for long before she fell silent inside... That night, a girl happened to be on duty in the burning warehouse. Because she was far from the fire source, although she was burned a bit, she was thankfully rescued... except half her face was burned, ruining her life."

"The parents of this girl whose face was ruined couldn't afford to raise her. She had been given to relatives at birth. She was already not favored, and with her face ruined, her family completely abandoned her."

"I took pity on her and took her in, letting her live with me... just across the way. If you want to know the specific details of what happened back then, you can go ask her."