Snail Maiden

Wen Ning was completely baffled by what Gong Kai had said.

"What do you mean, you feel like something's wrong?"

"Take your time. Tell me exactly what happened."

Gong Kai seemed to be gathering his thoughts, or perhaps trying to work up his courage.

He remained silent, and Wen Ning didn't rush him.

Only after a long while did he raise his head.

"Wen, listen. You might think I'm crazy after you hear this, but every word I'm about to say is true."

You have no idea what I've been through these past few days, Wen Ning thought. At this point, I wouldn't dare call anyone crazy, no matter what they told me.

"Go ahead."

Gong Kai took a deep breath and began.

It had all started two months ago, when the lease on Gong Kai's previous apartment expired.

The landlord demanded an outrageous rent increase. Gong Kai only earned four or five thousand a month working in e-commerce operations. After the increase, he wouldn't have had enough left to live on.

He searched online for several days before finally spotting a listing in a rental group: an older residential complex in an urban village, two bedrooms, eleven hundred a month, one month's deposit and three months' rent up front.

In this city, eleven hundred wouldn't even get you a place with its own bathroom.

Gong Kai figured it was either a scam or a place where someone had died, but he was simply too broke.

So broke that he couldn't afford to be suspicious. He decided to give it a shot and went to view the apartment.

It was much better than he had imagined.

The walls were spotless, the tiled floor was old but intact, and it had a proper kitchen and bathroom. The natural light was decent, too. Nothing seemed wrong with it.

The landlady was in her seventies. She said she was moving away to live with her son, and since the apartment would otherwise sit empty, she was renting it out cheaply so someone could look after it.

Gong Kai signed the contract on the spot and paid a year's rent. A whole year cost only twelve thousand, and with the deposit, the total came to fifteen thousand.

It wiped out every bit of savings he had.

But he was happy. Finding a two-bedroom apartment that cheap was practically a blessing from his ancestors.

For the first month after he moved in, everything was normal.

But sometime during the past month, Gong Kai came home from work.

He found that the apartment, which had been a mess when he left that morning, had been cleaned until it was spotless. Nothing was missing.

Someone had simply entered his room and cleaned it for him.

"What did you think at the time?"

Wen Ning found it strange, too.

"I thought maybe the landlady had been over."

"She still had a spare key when I rented the place. I figured she'd dropped by to check on the apartment and tidied up while she was there."

That was what Gong Kai had thought. He even called the landlady to thank her.

But the old woman said she was out of town. She had left more than a week ago and taken the spare key with her. How could she have come over when she wasn't even in the city?

"I tried to reassure myself."

Gong Kai's fingers began trembling again. After all, this was getting a little supernatural.

"Maybe she was getting forgetful in her old age and had forgotten she'd come back. Or maybe she'd asked a relative to check on the place and hadn't told me. Anyway, anyway, that was what I told myself."

But it didn't end there.

The next day, Gong Kai returned from work, and the same thing happened again. The apartment was spotless.

The third day, the fourth, the fifth. Every single day.

No matter how messy Gong Kai left the room in the morning, the apartment would be spotless when he returned from work that afternoon.

"Why didn't you take a day off and stay home to see what happened?" Wen Ning interrupted.

Gong Kai fell silent for a moment before giving his reason.

"I didn't dare."

He didn't meet Wen Ning's eyes as he said it. His voice was subdued. That was understandable. Anyone who encountered something like this would be afraid.

"Wen, honestly, I'm really scared."

Wen Ning said nothing. He wanted to say he understood, but held back.

Later, Gong Kai bought a camera online for a little over two hundred yuan. It was the cheapest kind of smart camera that could connect to a phone.

He hid it on the highest shelf of the living room bookcase, with the lens facing the entrance. From that angle, it could capture the entire living room and half the bedroom.

But the invisible Snail Maiden knew he had installed a camera and deliberately stopped coming.

On the third day, however, he came home from work, opened the door, and found the apartment clean again.

He immediately pulled out his phone and checked the recordings. Between four and five that afternoon, the picture had been nothing but gray-white static. He couldn't see a thing.

"It starts at four and ends at five every day."

Fear still lingered in Gong Kai's voice.

In the past, Wen Ning might have asked whether Gong Kai was under too much stress at work and suggested seeing a doctor. Now, he couldn't bring himself to say it, because he knew this world really did have another side.

"Why don't you move somewhere else?" Wen Ning asked.

Gong Kai gave a bitter smile that looked worse than crying.

"Are you going to lend me the money? I paid the whole year's rent. I've only got six hundred left, and this month's paycheck hasn't come in yet. Besides, nothing's actually happened to me."

Wen Ning understood Gong Kai's feelings all too well.

Just a few days earlier, he had been worrying about rent himself. If not for Sister Zhou's job, he would have struggled to afford food.

"So you came to me because you want me to investigate?"

Gong Kai raised his head and looked at him, his eyes carrying the desperate hope of a drowning man clutching at a straw.

"Wen, you run an agency, don't you? You do marriage investigations and catch cheaters for people. Do you know anyone who understands this kind of thing? You know, how do I put it—things you can't investigate through normal means. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Wen Ning leaned back in his chair, his fingers tapping unconsciously against the tabletop. Of course he understood.

And he knew more people than Gong Kai could possibly imagine.

A true god of the Thunder Department was his godfather. The Lord of Mount Tai was an old friend of his godfather's. A Deer Monster and the Mountain God's Niece were lurking in his WeChat group.

The problem was how to explain that to Gong Kai.

"Wen?"

When Wen Ning remained silent, Gong Kai's voice edged toward tears.

"I really don't know what else to do. I haven't been able to sleep these past two days. Every time I get home from work and see that spotless room, it gives me the creeps. Help me figure something out. I'll pay whatever it costs. I'll owe you for now and pay you back when my salary comes in."

Wen Ning stood, went to the water dispenser, and refilled Gong Kai's cup before pouring himself one.

He sighed inwardly.

For four years in college, Gong Kai had slept in the bunk above his. They had skipped classes together, failed courses together, and drunk beer on their dorm balcony while boasting that they would start companies and become bosses after graduation.

Now, the owner of an agency on the brink of going under sat across from an e-commerce employee who was nearly scared into a nervous breakdown on a folding chair. They stared at each other, neither doing much better than the other.

"Gong."

Wen Ning finally spoke.

"I'll take your case."

He tried to keep his voice calm.

"But let's get this straight first. I've never dealt with anything like this either, so I can't promise I'll find anything. Take me to your apartment first. We'll talk about the details once we're there."

Gong Kai's eyes lit up. As though he had been given a shot of adrenaline, he sprang to his feet, nearly knocking over the chair.

"Really? Wen, you really know people who understand this stuff?"

Wen Ning thought of the chatty little deer and the cold-faced Mountain God's Niece in his WeChat group, then of the divine statue on his altar that could look down its nose at people. He nodded.

"More or less. I know a few, but they might not be free. I'll go take a look first."

"Sure, sure, sure! I'm free, I'm free! Any time works!"

Gong Kai was so excited his voice cracked. He grabbed Wen Ning's arm.

"Then shall we go now? My place isn't far from here. Fifteen minutes by taxi."

Wen Ning glanced at the electric fan on the wall, still laboriously swinging its head from side to side.

Then he glanced at the half-burned incense stick on the altar, picked up his phone, and headed for the door.

As he passed the altar, he paused and murmured to the divine statue.

"Godfather, I'm heading out for a bit. If anything happens, you've got to have my back."

The statue gave no response, but Wen Ning knew his godfather could hear him.

"Who are you talking to?"

Gong Kai stood in the doorway, looking utterly bewildered.

Wen Ning straightened and brushed his hands together, his expression unchanged.

"Nothing. Let's go."