"Besides seeing that little girl, did you encounter anything else strange?"
"No. That was it. It was a little... a little like a haunting. Iron Alley, Yellow Springs Road, all that—I didn't think it was very credible. They were just stories. We didn't run into anything strange during construction. That factory wasn't under our jurisdiction, either. It wasn't part of the demolition project. Later, I heard it was sold and taken over by a private owner. They didn't hire us for the renovation work there, so I don't know what happened afterward... I haven't been back there in all these years."
"I see. Thank you, Mr. Wang."
"Not at all, not at all. You're... you're writing ghost stories..."
"We're just gathering material. Once we finish the manuscript, our editor in chief will review it. If it gets approved, we'll contact you again and let you look it over."
"Sure, sure."
On September 1, 2001, an investigation found that the factory buildings and land belonging to the original Minqing Textile Factory had been approved for conversion to commercial use on March 9, 1997, and handed over to Minqing Yikang Real Estate Company on May 17 that year. The company had been founded on January 28, 1997. After obtaining the right to use the former Minqing Textile Factory buildings and land, it recruited a construction team at the end of 1997 to carry out demolition and construction work. The project was suspended on April 7, 1998. On May 11, 1998, Minqing Yikang Real Estate Company transferred the land-use rights to Sanhai Investment Co., Ltd. On July 28, 1998, Sanhai Investment Co., Ltd. held a public tender to build the Sanhai Department Store on the site. Construction was completed on November 14, 1999, and the store had been operating ever since.
On September