Chapter 10

Li Chang'an slurped a mouthful of instant noodles, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on the computer screen.

Despite choosing modern society, unfortunately, modern society was not entirely rosy.

To put it simply, Li Chang'an was out of food. He had a job with a monthly salary of just over 2,000 yuan, but unfortunately, he had a conflict with his boss when he took leave to attend his grandfather's funeral. After returning from the other world, Li Chang'an found that although time was not synchronized between the two worlds, a month there had passed as seven or eight days here. Back and forth, he had been overdue at the company.

As soon as he returned to the company, Li Chang'an was told he had been fired.

Misfortunes never come singly.

Just as Li Chang'an was estimating how long his meager savings would last, he received a call from his landlord.

"Xiao Li, are you still awake?"

Li Chang'an glanced at the time: 8:00 PM.

"Sure, what's up?"

"For the past few days, I couldn't reach you, and you were nowhere to be found..." The landlord rambled on for a while before getting to the point, "In a few days, my son is getting married."

"Ah? Oh, congratulations..."

"Thanks, what I mean is, my daughter-in-law doesn't want to live with the elderly..."

"..."

"That wedding house..."

Alright, Li Chang'an understood. He had to move out, and from the landlord's tone, he had to do so as soon as possible. Despite feeling a sudden surge of anger, the lease agreement was about to expire, and Li Chang'an didn't plan to argue. He agreed readily.

However, this meant Li Chang'an had to find a new place to live and a new job as soon as possible.

He opened a rental website and started browsing through the listings.

The ones that met his conditions were too expensive.

The ones that were affordable had poor conditions.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up as a new rental listing appeared.

...

The next day, in the afternoon.

Li Chang'an looked up at the gilded characters at the entrance of the residential complex.

"Spring Glory Apartments."

"Is this the place?"

He opened his phone and saw the address: Building 2, Unit 14-4.

This was the address of the rental listing he had seen last night. The house described in the listing was very satisfactory: three bedrooms, two living rooms, fully equipped with appliances, one month's deposit, one month's rent, good environment, convenient transportation, and most importantly, cheap—just over a thousand yuan, almost a steal.

Although Li Chang'an found it hard to believe such a good deal, he still called out of curiosity.

The person on the other end of the phone agreed readily, saying he could show the house at any time, but with one condition: the viewing had to be during the day, preferably around noon.

So, Li Chang'an ate a bowl of instant noodles for lunch and took the bus to Spring Glory Apartments.

Spring Glory Apartments was an old residential complex with no elevators in the buildings, and there were no signs on the buildings.

Li Chang'an was considering whether to call the landlord to come down and meet him.

Just as he pulled out his phone, a voice interrupted him.

"Kid, are you here to rent a place?"

Li Chang'an turned to see a group of elderly people playing cards in a pavilion. One of the elderly women, who was watching the game, spoke to him.

"You're right, I'm here to look at a place." Li Chang'an nodded, curious, "How did you know?"

"Ha, nothing much, this complex has a lot of rentals." The woman waved her hand, her face full of pride, "I saw you looking around, so I figured you were probably looking for a place."

"Kid, which building are you looking at? I can show you the way."

"Thank you, Auntie."

Li Chang'an quickly checked his phone and read out the address.

"Building 2, Unit 14-4."

After he read the address, there was a long silence. He looked up in confusion and was surprised to see all the elderly people in the pavilion staring at him. The woman who had offered to show him the way had a particularly conflicted and strange expression. She stammered for a while before saying:

"Kid, this place is a bit..."

"You must be Mr. Li, Mr. Li Chang'an, right?" The woman's words were interrupted by a man who suddenly appeared.

This man was as thin as a bamboo stick, with glasses perched on his nose. He introduced himself: "I'm Mr. Liu, the one you spoke to on the phone last night. I've been waiting for you for a while. Come this way..."

The man hurriedly urged Li Chang'an to follow.

Li Chang'an followed with a smile, but he was puzzled. Was there something fishy about the place?

...

Unit 4-4 was at the end of the fourth-floor corridor.

Its door was very old, with many areas of peeling paint, revealing rust spots underneath. The floor in front of the door was covered in dust, as if the hallway cleaning had deliberately avoided this area.

"It hasn't been lived in for a long time."

Mr. Liu chuckled, then muttered a few complaints about property management.

Li Chang'an didn't mind. He looked up at the door, where a mirror and a broom were hanging. This was a local custom, used to ward off evil spirits when moving into a new home, a tradition many elderly people still followed.

But...

Li Chang'an's gaze returned to the door.

Normal households might stick a "Fu" character, but the door of Unit 4-4 had a picture of Zhong Kui, the demon queller.

Mr. Liu, seeing Li Chang'an's increasingly strange expression, quickly explained: "This place used to be lived in by my father-in-law. He's quite superstitious..."

As he spoke, he took out the key.

"Let's go in and take a look."

He inserted the key and pushed the door open after a few tries. As soon as the door opened, a musty smell hit their noses.

"It hasn't been lived in for a long time, so we just need to air it out."

Mr. Liu turned to explain and led the way inside.

Li Chang'an didn't follow immediately. He stood at the door, scanning the room.

No wonder it was so cheap; the place was full of "dirty things."

...

"This place is spacious and well-decorated... If I weren't in a hurry for money, I wouldn't rent it out so cheaply."

Mr. Liu kept praising the place as soon as they entered, but Li Chang'an wasn't paying attention.

His eyes roamed around the room, and he could see about a dozen ghosts hiding in the small space.

In the corner on the left, there was a ghost with a bruised neck and a long, hanging tongue, likely a hanged ghost.

Next to the TV on the right, there was a swollen, pale ghost, probably a drowned ghost.

The one following Mr. Liu around had a mangled waist and visible intestines, possibly a victim of a truck accident.

...

Li Chang'an had never seen so many ghosts in one room in the other world.

He found it fascinating, and the ghosts didn't realize that Li Chang'an had the ability to see them, thinking he was just looking around the place.

After a while, the drowned ghost by the TV greeted him.

The ghosts gathered around, forming a small circle, whispering to each other. Li Chang'an pulled a chair over, crossed his legs, and listened in.

"How are we going to scare these two living people?"

"Let's use the 'Ghost Blindfold.'"

"Will... will it work?"

"Of course! How many city people have seen real darkness? When we suddenly blind them, they'll be in complete darkness, and they'll be scared out of their wits."

"Who should we scare first?"

"That skinny stick," the hanged ghost decided, "Let's make him suffer a bit so he won't keep bringing people to our place."

Mr. Liu, unaware of his impending fate, finally stopped talking.

"Mr. Li, the quality of this place, if you miss it, you won't find another like it in all of China."

He patted his chest, but Li Chang'an remained noncommittal. Indeed, a place filled with so many ghosts was hard to find, not just in China, but in the whole world.

"What do you think?"

Li Chang'an smiled but didn't answer, pointing to the living room window.

Mr. Liu thought Li Chang'an had noticed some damage and hurriedly looked over. But as soon as he did, cold sweat broke out all over his body.

The large window in the living room, which they had opened for ventilation, was now closing on its own, and the curtains were pulling shut.

Finally, the thick curtains blocked out the sunlight.

"The... the wind outside... the curtains are broken," Mr. Liu trembled, "Let's... let's go outside..."

"Bang."

The door, which Mr. Liu had kept open, suddenly slammed shut.

His face turned pale.

"Mr. Li... Ah!"

He tried to say something, but the drowned ghost behind him covered his eyes, turning his words into a scream.

His pants quickly soaked through, and he collapsed, fainting from fear.

The ghosts in the room cheered. The drowned ghost raised a hand for silence and then signaled to Li Chang'an.

The hanged ghost, who had been waiting by Li Chang'an, received the signal. It seemed to be nervous, taking a deep breath and swinging its long tongue.

It moved to Li Chang'an's left side.

Li Chang'an turned to look at it, a faint smile on his face.

It hesitated, took another deep breath, and moved to the right side.

Li Chang'an's gaze followed.

It blinked, hesitated, and moved back to the left. This time, Li Chang'an's gaze didn't follow, and it relaxed.

It almost thought the man in front of it could see it!

It swung its tongue a few more times, mustered its courage, and reached out to cover Li Chang'an's eyes.

But suddenly...

It saw darkness first.

A large fist hit it square in the face.

...

"Slap! Slap!"

The burning pain on his face woke Mr. Liu.

He opened his eyes dazedly and saw Li Chang'an smiling at him.

"Mr. Li?" He looked confused, "Are you dead too?"

"Not yet," Li Chang'an's face darkened, and he raised his hand to strike again.

Mr. Liu quickly covered his face, shouting, "I'm awake! I'm awake!"

Only then did he notice he was in the hallway, with the door to Unit 4-4 not far behind him.

He shivered, feeling a chill down his back.

"Mr. Li, those ghosts..."

"What ghosts?" Li Chang'an smiled, interrupting him, "You suddenly fainted. I was going to take you to the hospital, but you woke up as soon as I dragged you out."

Dragged? He used the word "dragged"!

Before Mr. Liu could process this, Li Chang'an continued:

"There are no ghosts in broad daylight. But your condition is dangerous. Fainting suddenly could be a heart attack or a stroke. You're so young..."

Li Chang'an shook his head and sighed, then asked the shaken Mr. Liu:

"Did you bring the contract?"

"What?"

"The rental contract. I'll take this place!" Li Chang'an patted his shoulder.