The landlord welcomed the few of them inside.
Gu Mian sat on the sofa and asked about the textile factory: "I came here this time to ask about Shenghong Textile Factory. You know that factory, right?"
The landlord was slightly stunned at first, then nodded: "I know, I know. I used to be an old employee of that factory too... This apartment building used to be the family quarters for the textile factory. Look, the names are almost the same."
Only when she said that did Yuwen Hao react.
Shenghong Textile Factory and Hong Sheng Apartment—the two simply reversed the names and changed one character.
"Then do you know about that fire at Shenghong Textile Factory? I heard that fire seemed to burn a woman to death."
Hearing this, the landlord froze for a moment. She cast a strange look at Gu Mian and the others: "Why are you asking about this?"
"Some of our people ran into some strange things, which might be related to this dead person."
Hearing these words, a "just as I thought" expression appeared on the landlord's wrinkled face. She looked at Gu Mian, then at the others, wearing a look of hesitation.
After struggling for a good while, the landlord spoke up again, but this time she lowered her voice until it was very soft, as if afraid of being heard by something: "To tell you the truth, what happened after that woman died is indeed suspicious."
Yuwen Hao opened his eyes slightly and looked eagerly at the landlord.
The landlord continued in a low voice: "I know that anyone related to that fire has a pretty bad end..."
As she spoke, she sighed and shook her head.
Gu Mian asked: "Can you talk about it in detail?"
"This matter cannot be spoken of casually. After that person was burned to death back then, everyone related to her encountered strange things. It was like a curse, as if everyone was entangled by her."
"After she died, this factory didn't do very well. It went out of business not long after, and who knows if it was because of being haunted."
"The families of people who used to be a bit closer to her also met with disasters one after another. As far as I know, basically all of them died out."
"At first everyone said she died with a deep grievance, which was why she kept entangling the living. But they made offerings and performed transition rites, and someone even invited a shaman to cast spells, yet they still couldn't send her away."
"Later, everyone who knew her got into trouble. People felt insecure back then and nobody dared to mention that person anymore, for fear that talking about her secretly would get them entangled..."
Gu Mian frowned slightly. With resentment this intense, could it be a homicide?
Yuwen Hao also asked this question: "Who set that fire?"
The landlord paused, then spoke hesitatingly: "She set it herself."
Yuwen Hao and the others all found this strange. If it was suicide, the resentment shouldn't be this heavy; could there be other hidden stories behind this?
Gu Mian went on to ask: "Do you know why she set the fire back then?"
Was it because she suffered a grave grievance that she wanted to commit suicide? For instance, being cheated out of money or feelings. If that were the case, turning into a vengeful spirit after suicide would be understandable.
At this point the landlord suddenly looked around, lowering her voice to the lowest pitch: "Ordinarily I wouldn't find it easy to talk about this, for fear of getting entangled too. But thinking about it carefully, I'm old anyway, an old bag of bones, and I won't live much longer. I'll just tell you secretly..."
"That person committed suicide. No one forced her, and no one made her suffer any grievances. She committed suicide fair and square, and it had nothing to do with anyone else."
That was strange. Since no one made her suffer any grievances at all, why did she commit suicide?
The landlord continued: "If anyone is to be blamed for this matter, it can only be blamed on herself. Everyone understands this in their hearts, but back then no one dared to say it."
"I remember around 1987 when she died. Electric lights seemed to have just become common in our place that year, with power outages every day, and the electricity bills were especially expensive. We couldn't bear to turn them on at night at all, and only lit a kerosene lamp—the kind covered with a glass shade, you know?"
Gu Mian nodded.
"That night she was on duty in the warehouse, with a kerosene lamp lit. But she dozed off while on night duty and left the lamp aside to sleep. When she woke up in the morning and looked, the goods in the warehouse had been ignited by that lamp, and a few boxes were burned."
"She was fine though. It seemed the fire wasn't big either, and it went out after burning only a dozen boxes of goods, but there were goods in those few boxes."
"Adding it all up piece by piece came to over sixty yuan. Don't think sixty-odd yuan is small. That was 1987. I remember our daily wage back then was only a few dimes. Sixty yuan back then was an astronomical sum."
"The factory certainly couldn't absorb these losses on its own, but felt she couldn't afford to pay either, so they discussed it with her, letting her pay half first and deducting the remaining half from her salary."
"She was a young girl of eighteen or nineteen back then and had never seen the world; where would she get money? Besides, she had several sisters at home, and her parents had pulled strings and used connections to squeeze her into the factory. She simply didn't dare to go home and talk about this matter."
"This matter dragged on and on, dragging on for more than half a year. The factory couldn't wait any longer and said they were going to find her parents."
"She panicked and borrowed money everywhere, but who would be willing to lend her money? In the end she couldn't borrow even a few yuan."
"Failing to borrow money, she cursed people for being hypocritical and cursed the factory for lacking human warmth, driving people to a living death."
"That very day after she finished cursing, she couldn't be found. The factory even thought she had run away and wanted to go to her home to find her parents the next day. But who would have thought that very night the warehouse would catch fire again? This time it was a monstrous blaze."
"The girl who shared a dorm with her saw the suicide note she left behind. She said she was driven to her death by the factory and wanted to perish together with that warehouse of goods."
"Yet after the fire blazed up, she seemed to regret it. I happened to be on duty at the time, and I heard her inside screaming for help, shouting for someone to go in and save her."
"The fire was too big, and it was night, so there were hardly any people. When she saw no one going in to save her, she cursed bitterly... saying she cursed those unconscionable wretches to die horrible deaths..."
"She didn't curse for long before her voice stopped inside... That very night, a girl happened to be on duty in the burning warehouse. Because she was farther from the source of the fire, although she got burned somewhat, fortunately she was rescued... Only half her face was burned, ruining her whole life."
"The parents of this girl with the ruined face couldn't afford to raise her. She was given away to relatives the moment she was born, and originally wasn't favored, and now with her ruined face, her family simply abandoned her."
"Seeing how pitiful she was, I took her in and let her live here with me... Just across the way. If you want to know the specific details back then, you can go ask her."
Before you continue