Fear, Afraid

The glitter faded, giving way to life at its most authentic.

Outside the modest little rental apartments, children chased one another and played, innocent smiles on their faces.

Neighbors greeted each other warmly. They preferred strolling through the old Building Corridor to exchanging greetings through phone screens.

Bright red lanterns hung overhead, and stalls the residents had built themselves lined the passageways. Some sold handmade trinkets, others colorful fabrics. There was even a dentist, a butcher's shop, and food stalls.

Lost belongings went untouched, and doors stayed unlocked at night. A unique little society seemed to have formed within Sishui Apartments.

It was cut off from the outside world. The residents here wore smiles, seemingly free of worries.

"You two look unfamiliar. Are you here to view an apartment?" An incredibly soothing voice rang out as a young man in an old-fashioned, worn suit stopped Gao Ming and Zhu Miaomiao.

He covered his mouth with one hand, his expressive eyes seeming to speak.

As an excellent service worker, he seemed willing to welcome any customer—even Gao Ming, who was carrying a mangled corpse on his back.

"Yes, we're here to view an apartment." Gao Ming struggled to act normal. He saw the red lanterns casting a blood-red glow over the sinister corridor, where monsters smiled with ill intent. They looked at one another as though eyeing delicious food.

"My name is Gong Xi. I'm a volunteer with the Hanhai Charity Federation and a rental agent for Sishui Apartments. Would you like me to show you around?" Smiling with his eyes, the young man stepped aside. He gently brushed the dust off his shoulder and looked down the corridor. The walls bore the marks of time, festive red lanterns lit the neighbors' faces, Meat Fragrance filled the air, and old neighbors were putting together a feast, everyone like one big family.

There was no refined art here, but there was the warmth of everyday life. Those ordinary little moments were the treasures most worth remembering.

"You can't go wrong with Sishui Apartments. Every room here has its own story. Take the time to feel it. Don't look with your eyes—only by becoming part of this place can you appreciate what makes it special."

"Could you take us downstairs for a look?" Gao Ming couldn't bear to listen any longer. He and Gong Xi seemed to be seeing completely different worlds.

"Of course. Is there a particular floor you prefer?"

"Let's start with the Fourth Floor." Gao Ming had learned from Bai Xiao's Black Ring that the morgue and the rooms with white lanterns on the Fourth Floor were relatively safe. He wanted to establish a safe zone first.

"The Fourth Floor?" Gong Xi seemed surprised, but the customer's needs always came first. "You certainly have a good eye. There are plenty of vacant apartments on the Fourth Floor. I live there myself."

Gong Xi led the way, with Gao Ming and Zhu Miaomiao following behind. The two outsiders, one carrying a corpse and the other covered in blood, drew no suspicion from the residents.

"This place is so strange." Zhu Miaomiao nudged Gao Ming lightly. "Why do you think this agent keeps covering his mouth?"

"Don't ask questions. Don't get curious. Stay calm." Gao Ming still remembered what the young man in Building B's corridor had said: anyone who violated a taboo would be hunted down. He had to figure out the building's taboos as quickly as possible.

Gong Xi greeted the neighbors on either side as he led them along. When they passed the butcher's shop, the butcher even tossed him a piece of meat.

Gao Ming peered through the iron gate into the shop. Several Investigators were locked inside the rental apartment, which had been converted into a slaughterhouse. Their clothes had been stripped off, and every one of them looked terrified.

None of them had any missing body parts, yet when they opened their mouths, they couldn't speak. They could only make strange noises like pigs and sheep.

The butcher kicked an Investigator. Seeming to sense something, he cast a sidelong glance at Zhu Miaomiao and muttered, "So fresh."

Once they left the Ninth-Floor Ghost Market, Zhu Miaomiao and Gao Ming both felt much more at ease, as though a huge boulder had been lifted from their backs.

When Gong Xi passed the ninth-floor public restroom, he tossed the meat the butcher had given him straight into a trash can.

"Isn't throwing it away a bit wasteful?" Gao Ming noticed this detail. He felt Gong Xi was different from the other Ghosts.

"My family and I are vegetarian. We're not interested in meat." Gong Xi spread his hands. "Oh, if you'd said something sooner, I would have given it to you."

"No need." Gao Ming shook his head. "By human livestock, do you mean those people in the butcher's shop who can't speak?"

"Yes. They're livestock offered to the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal. They look like people, but they're actually different from us." Gong Xi had a pleasant disposition. He possessed both the energy and drive of youth and a maturity and sense of responsibility far beyond his years. An agent like him could certainly earn a customer's trust with ease.

"I see." Gao Ming looked thoughtful. Beside him, Zhu Miaomiao was on the verge of throwing up.

"Are you two sure you want to go to the Fourth Floor? The apartments on the eighth floor are quite nice too. There's no need to insist on the Fourth Floor." Gong Xi offered the suggestion quietly as he led the way.

"Why? Can't people live on the Fourth Floor?"

"The Fourth Floor isn't exactly clean..." Gong Xi stopped walking. "What I mean is, the Fourth Floor is haunted by ghosts."

After saying this, Gong Xi lowered the hand covering his mouth. His lips had been sewn shut, and his mouth was stuffed with coins. There was no telling how he was producing any sound.

Gao Ming immediately prepared to fight. He was almost ready to throw Brother Zhao when Gong Xi began gesturing with both hands. "Ghosts are terrifying. Calamity clings to them. If you come into contact with them, it's very easy to violate a taboo."

"Coming from your mouth, that's strangely convincing." Gao Ming sensed no malice from Gong Xi. The young man really seemed to be working hard, trying to sell an apartment.

"I'm not joking." Gong Xi warned them, "If you see a room with a white lantern on the Fourth Floor, run away immediately."

They continued down the stairs, encountering many more bizarre neighbors along the way. Every resident had been influenced by the Flesh-and-Blood Immortal. Their appearances were strange and terrifying, their flesh giving form to the desires in their hearts.

When they reached the Fourth Floor, it was noticeably quieter than the others.

Gong Xi took out a large bunch of keys. Before he could introduce the apartments to Gao Ming, he suddenly spotted a man in a rat mask and dark green clothes pressed against a door. His body was buckling the door panel.

"Building manager? What are you doing here?" Gong Xi grew anxious and hurried over. He wanted to stop the Building Manager from opening the door, but as soon as he approached, several children crawled out from beneath the manager's green clothes. All of them wore rat masks too. Their eyes were bloodshot, and without a word, they gouged Gong Xi with their sharp nails.

The lock had been broken, and the door was about to be forced open. Gao Ming grabbed a child by the throat with one hand and flung them aside. Zhu Miaomiao then approached with the Fire Axe.

As Gao Ming drew closer, the Building Manager seemed to sense something. He stared fixedly at Gao Ming's chest, the red eyes beneath his mask blinking repeatedly.

After a brief standoff, the Building Manager turned and left. The children wearing rat masks crawled back beneath his clothes and disappeared.

"Thank you. Thank you both so much for today." Gong Xi had been badly frightened. He stared at the horrific gouges on the door. "Looks like I'll have to move again."

"Who was that?" Gao Ming thought the masked man had looked at him strangely. He seemed to want to devour Gao Ming, yet also seemed a little afraid.

"Anyone wearing a rat mask is a Building Manager. They maintain order in the building and never speak."

"Then why did that Building Manager come after you? What are you hiding in your apartment?" Gao Ming spotted a hole in Gong Xi's explanation. "If you're in trouble, tell me. I might be able to help."

Gong Xi stood blocking the doorway. Though he had been agreeable all along, this time he refused to budge. After a long while, the door opened from inside, and a deeply wrinkled face appeared.

"Little Xi, you're back?"

An aged, weary voice rang out. Gao Ming and Zhu Miaomiao both saw the elderly woman inside.

She looked to be in her nineties, and no part of her body was missing.

"Grandma, don't come out!" Gong Xi's expression darkened. He seemed deeply worried that Gao Ming might do something to her.

The white-haired old woman shakily opened the door, looking at everyone in confusion. "Who are you? What are you doing at my home? Are you looking for Little Xi?"

The old woman seemed to have dementia and didn't recognize Gong Xi. Gao Ming seized the opportunity to say, "We're Gong Xi's friends. We wanted to come visit you."

"Oh, all right. Come in, quickly. My grandson is such a hardworking young man. He's diligent and kindhearted, but he's had such a hard life." The Old Lady leaned on a cane, and Gao Ming took the opportunity to enter.

Seeing this, Gong Xi could only give in. "Come on in, then."

The rental apartment was small but warmly furnished. There weren't many of the old woman's belongings inside, but photos of her and Gong Xi stood everywhere.

Supporting the old woman, Gao Ming checked again and again before confirming an astonishing fact—the Old Lady was alive!

A living person residing in the Shadow World!

"I'm sure you've noticed by now." Gong Xi closed the door and looked at the photos filling the room. "My grandma is a Ghost. She kept following me after she died. Maybe it's because I've always made her worry so much."

"She's a Ghost?" Gao Ming stared wide-eyed at Gong Xi. "As far as you're concerned, you're human?"

"Isn't that how it is?" Gong Xi told them the story of himself and his grandmother. When he was very young, his parents had gone to Hanhai for work, only for both of them to disappear. His grandmother had brought him to Hanhai to find his mom and dad. She searched for them while making a living, raising Gong Xi little by little.

They lived in an apartment provided by the Charity Association. To ease his grandmother's burden, Gong Xi had been exceptionally considerate and hardworking, working several jobs every day. He and his grandmother had depended on each other until she passed away.

Strangely, one day afterward, he suddenly found his grandmother wandering lost in the building again. But she no longer seemed to recognize him.

That was the story Gong Xi told from his perspective. Yet Gao Ming heard a completely different story from the Old Lady.

Holding a framed photo of Gong Xi, she said she had failed him. She hadn't been able to help him at all, and by bringing him to Hanhai to wander with her, she had ruined his entire life.

She had made Gong Xi join the Charity Association. Later, he seemed to have heard something he shouldn't have and disappeared inside the building. She had kept searching the building for her grandson but never found him again.

"My grandma became confused after turning into a Ghost." Gong Xi sat beside the old woman and held her calloused hand. "She's forgotten so much. She doesn't even recognize me anymore."

Thinking back to the Old Lady's story, Gao Ming looked at Gong Xi's face again. Someone had sewn his mouth shut and stuffed it full of money. Judging by that, the Old Lady's account was probably the truth.

A human and a Ghost sat together on the bed. Gao Ming had never expected to encounter such a scene in the building. He had once regarded these strange tales from the Shadow World as nothing more than games, but the truth seemed to be otherwise.

His gaze shifted to Gong Xi. After hesitating, Gao Ming finally asked, "Gong Xi, your family member became a Ghost. Aren't you afraid?"

"Of course I am." Gong Xi didn't let go of her hand. "I'm afraid she'll worry that I'm not eating or sleeping well. I'm afraid she'll keep worrying about me. I'm afraid she'll think I'm being bullied. I'm afraid she'll suddenly disappear one day."

Something seemed to tug at Gao Ming's heartstrings. He wanted to tell the old woman the truth. Slowly, he crouched in front of her and gently took her other hand. "Grandma, if Gong Xi came back, but he'd become a Ghost, would you be afraid?"

"Yes..." The old woman nodded. "I'm afraid I wouldn't recognize him anymore."

(End of chapter)