Chapter 96 The Ghost of Room 301: Its Past Life, Its Surviving Daughter, The Light...

After the ghost realm scene in Room 301 was reset, Zhou Fangdong tried several more times.

Whether he stopped the fishing man from approaching the car door or bandaged the mother and daughter's wounds in the man's place, the end result was that the woman's ghost turned into a charred corpse engulfed in flames and killed the man.

After several failed attempts, Zhou Fangdong's last bit of patience was exhausted.

He didn't want to be too rough, after all, they would be living together in the same apartment building for a long time... but he really hated puzzle games.

Not only is it a waste of time, but too many failures can also lead to a strong sense of frustration.

This repeated process of resetting the mission reminded him of the terror of being controlled by the mission he had played in the past.

Zhou Fangdong, who had reappeared at the edge of the road, looked at the two cars that had collided in front of him, silently took out a kerosene lamp, and lit it.

A lit kerosene lamp can dispel all ghosts regardless of their level. Once the vengeful spirit is dispelled, the ghost realm created by its obsession will naturally disappear as well.

The moment the warm yellow light appeared, the surrounding desolate wilderness scene seemed to dissipate rapidly under the sunlight, vanishing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Room 301 revealed its original appearance... exactly the same as the apartment scene Zhou Fangdong saw in the Ghost Realm, only more dilapidated, with broken furniture, black dust everywhere, and a faint smell of burning in the air.

After Zhou Fangdong turned off the kerosene lamp, the scene in the suburbs slowly reappeared.

The kerosene lamp's dispelling effect is only temporary. To completely control the ghost realm, the ghost in the room must be awakened from its cycle of obsession.

The moment the scene reappeared, Zhou Fangdong's [Heavenly Eye] skill, which he had been maintaining, keenly captured the pitch-black ghostly figure that resembled a charred corpse in the gap between the ghost realm and reality.

The moment he saw the ghostly figure, he almost reflexively used [Soul Drain].

After successfully obtaining 800 ghost coins, Zhou Fangdong quickly went through the past life of the ghost in room 301 in his mind.

When he snapped out of his reverie and looked at the familiar car accident scene before him, his feelings were incredibly complex.

He finally understood why the ghost in room 301 hated the man who had 'saved' her so much.

The man dressed as a fisherman was the culprit behind the car accident.

The road is very narrow, barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other.

The man drove over very early in the morning to prepare bait and wait for the fish to bite.

Normally, no cars pass by on this road, so the man simply parked his black SUV on the side of the road in the opposite direction, taking up most of the lane.

Then he took his fishing gear and went fishing by the river.

Around five o'clock in the morning, before dawn, a white sedan suddenly appeared at the end of the road and sped towards us.

The family of three, who were driving a white sedan, were celebrating their daughter's fifth birthday at a nearby resort, but unexpectedly, the little girl developed hives in the middle of the night.

Although it wasn't fatal, the child was in great discomfort and kept crying. The resort was located in the suburbs far from the city, with no hospitals nearby, so the parents cut short their vacation and drove back to the city center overnight with their child.

The child was sobbing softly in the car, and the father, heartbroken for his daughter, sped up.

When he spotted a black SUV in the lane ahead, it was too late to brake, so he could only swerve sharply.

But the car accident still happened... The father in the driver's seat died on the spot, and the mother and daughter both fainted due to the impact.

The road was not far from the river, and the fishermen on the riverbank heard the loud noise the instant the cars collided.

He knew he had caused trouble, so he quickly rushed back to the vicinity of the highway.

When the fisherman arrived at the scene of the accident, based on his years of driving experience, he immediately judged that the driver inside the white sedan was definitely not alive after seeing how badly the driver's side had been damaged.

After the initial panic subsided, he realized that no one usually passed by this road and there were no surveillance cameras. In a fit of rage, he decided to get rid of the white sedan.

But when he saw the survivors in the car, a wicked thought suddenly arose in his mind.

The woman in the white sedan was very beautiful and still alive. The fisherman, nearly forty and still unmarried, had the idea of ​​taking the woman in.

Anyway, no one knew about the car accident, and he had no contact with the family of three before. Even if their relatives reported him missing, law enforcement would not be able to trace it back to him... As long as the woman was prevented from contacting the outside world and imprisoned, no one would know that she was in his hands.

The thought, once it surfaced, was like a wildfire spreading rapidly across the wilderness, completely out of control, burning the man's eyes until they turned red.

He looked around again to make sure no one was there, then dragged the surviving mother and daughter out of the car, put them in his own car, and then drove the car into the river.

The man led the mother and daughter to room 301 of the Liwan Apartment.

At that time, Liwan Apartments had been built for a long time, and after several rounds of tenant turnover, it had unknowingly become a synonym for 'chaos', a low-rent housing for desperate poor people or petty thugs.

It was the early stage of the supernatural resurgence, and most ordinary people were still unaware that ghosts and monsters truly existed. Cracks began to appear on the top floor of the Liwan Apartments, and the residents of the apartments, affected by the chaotic yin energy, became abnormally extreme in their emotions... some were extremely irritable, while others were extremely indifferent.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate their activities in the apartment, the cult members of the Bone Society not only destroyed the surveillance cameras around the apartment but also the cameras inside the elevator.

As a result, the Liwan Apartments became a breeding ground for chaos and crime.

In this situation, the man easily led the mother and daughter into his room.

During this time, he took meticulous care of the woman. After she recovered, the man took his daughter elsewhere. He used the daughter to threaten the woman, forcing her to submit to him.

But things that are too easily obtained are not cherished.

Although he had successfully imprisoned the woman and made her his wife, he frequently beat her and vented all his frustrations in life on her.

Fear and maternal love lead women to play the role of submissive wives, but their bodies gradually break down under the torment of men.

In just one month, the woman was already on the verge of death from the torment.

Before she died, the woman begged the man to let her see her daughter one last time.

But at this moment, the man dropped his pretense and told her that her daughter had long been sold to human traffickers.

The woman lying on the bed breathed her last in despair.

Without any qualms, the man stuffed the woman's body into a suitcase, took her to the riverbank where they had first met, and poured gasoline on it.

The man who used fire to dispose of a body for the first time only then realized that the temperature of gasoline could not burn the human body to ashes like the furnace in a crematorium. After burning, the body became a charred corpse... So he buried the charred corpse by the river.

After the woman died, she turned into a vengeful ghost. Drawn by the vortex of yin energy in the Liwan Apartment, she returned to the apartment and to room 301.

Having tasted success, the fisherman began to stake out that road every day, sometimes placing steel nails or large stones, hoping to overturn another car and meet his next 'wife'.

Just as he was dreaming of bringing another 'wife' home, the female ghost, whose power had greatly increased due to the yin energy in the apartment, dragged him into her ghost realm.

It wasn't until he read the female ghost's memories that Zhou Fangdong realized the true power of the Ghost Realm.

The Ghost Realm can be contained within ghosts or monsters, or it can appear in reality—using ghosts from tenant rooms to erode the main god's instance is essentially bringing the Ghost Realm into reality.

The Ghost Realm is like a miniature version of a main god's dungeon. No one, whether human or ghost, can enter or leave without the permission of ghosts and monsters... unless their strength is overwhelmingly superior.

Unlike the main god instance, there is no way out in the ghost realm; being dragged into the ghost realm means certain death.

The Ghost Realm is a small, inescapable hell, and that fisherman is still 'alive' in it, being killed again and again by the female ghost in various ways while fully conscious.

Because of her intense resentment, the female ghost in room 301 has never restrained her ghostly aura.

If it weren't for the room's limitations, the ghostly aura of Room 301 would spread uncontrollably throughout the entire third floor... Even with the room's limitations, it would often overflow, dragging the ghosts in the corridor into the room.

Only by freeing the female ghost from her cycle of obsession and restoring her sanity so she can reclaim the ghost realm from her body can Zhou Fangdong continue cleaning the room.

Thinking of this, Zhou Fangdong said something that could awaken the female ghost's sanity: "Your daughter is still alive, don't you want to see her?"

The moment he captured the female ghost's figure with his [Heavenly Eye], he saw the causal lines on her body and the existence of her daughter.

Fortunately, although the ghost's daughter was sold to human traffickers by that man, she is still alive.

The moment Zhou Fangdong finished speaking, the Ghost Realm suddenly fell into an eerie silence, like a television screen that had been suddenly paused.

Just as Zhou Fangdong was about to say something, the door of the white sedan was suddenly pushed open, and a woman who looked like a charred corpse got out of the car.

It was engulfed in tiny flames as it slowly walked toward Zhou Fangdong, leaving a charred footprint on the ground with each step.

“My…daughter…”

Because it hadn't spoken for a long time, its voice was extremely hoarse.

Zhou Fangdong continued, "I will bring your daughter back. In the meantime, please calm down the ghostly aura and let me tidy up room 301, okay?"

The charred corpse remained silent for a moment, then shook its head. Ashes and embers fell to the ground with its movement, igniting the waist-high weeds: "I don't believe a man's promises... not even an apartment landlord's..."

"I will only be freed from the ghost realm after I see my daughter..."

Soon, the entire ghost realm was engulfed in flames, the crackling sound of the flames mingling with a man's scream.

The refusal was already quite clear, so Zhou Fangdong didn't insist and left room 301.

After leaving the room, he called Hong Zhong: "Hong Zhong, help me find someone."

After seeing the daughter of the female ghost in room 301, Zhou Fangdong can use the karmic threads on her body to find the human trafficking gang that sold her and then deal with those human traffickers.

These guys are just like the cultists of the Bones; they're a waste of air just by being alive.

If those human traffickers are already dead, then they're lucky.

If they're not dead, they should all go into the ghost realm of the female ghost in room 301 and keep that fisherman company.

*

When Lu Mingbian received the call from the supervisory bureau, she was organizing the materials she would need for the upcoming court hearing.

When she saw the supervisory bureau suddenly calling her, she assumed there had been some change in the case and answered with a serious expression.

But to her surprise, the captain on the other end of the phone, surnamed Hong, told her that the Investigation Department had found information about her mother.

Lu Mingbian was stunned. He subconsciously glanced at the caller ID on his phone screen and confirmed that it was indeed the Supervisory Bureau calling, not a scam call.

Unexpectedly, after 25 years, she actually found her mother.

Lu Mingbian still remembers the car accident that happened on his fifth birthday.

She couldn't quite remember how the car accident happened, only that after the accident, she and her mother were rescued by a stranger and taken to an apartment.

After the mother recovered from her injuries, the man not only did not let them go, but instead sold her to human traffickers.

Lu Mingbian inherited her mother's beauty. Although she was still young at the time, it was clear from her eyes and brows that she was a beauty in the making, so it was easy for her to find a buyer.

She was sold to a remote mountain village near Linjiang City and became a maidservant for a family waiting for their husband.

The situation is similar to that of a child bride, except that her 'husband' has not yet been born by her 'mother-in-law', and she needs to wait for her 'husband' to be born.

Since she was bought into the family, her 'mother-in-law' has been pregnant twice, and both times she gave birth to girls.

Although it was the early stage of the supernatural revival and city dwellers were unaware of the existence of ghosts, the villagers knew that killing female infants would bring retribution because there had already been incidents of abandoned baby towers and ghost infant massacres in some remote mountain villages.

Therefore, even if she disliked girls, her in-laws dared not kill the baby girl, but they couldn't afford to raise her if she got pregnant again, so they had no choice but to give up trying for a son.

When the younger sister grew to about three years old and became somewhat self-sufficient, the couple left all three of them in the village and went to the city to work.

The three sisters experienced the same hardships that left-behind children, especially left-behind girls, went through... being falsely accused of stealing, being spied on while bathing and changing clothes by boys from the same village, and being groped and molested by so-called 'elders' under the guise of taking care of them.

To protect himself and his two younger sisters, nine-year-old Lu Mingbian wielded a kitchen knife and chased his 'highly respected' great-uncle from one end of the village to the other.

The lewd old man, whose legs were already weak, was slashed two or three more times by her, and the two ounces of flesh in the middle of his legs were almost chopped off.

The other elders from the village who came to mediate the fight saw Lu Mingbian swinging his knife like a madman, and none of them dared to approach him.

Not everyone has the ability to disarm someone with their bare hands. Even a chicken with a blade strapped to it can kill someone, let alone a child with all their limbs intact.

After this incident, Lu Mingbian became known as a "little shrew" in the surrounding villages.

Later, the couple who worked in the city returned. After hearing about this incident, they felt that Lu Mingbian's reputation would prevent her from getting married, so they wanted to sell her to a lame widower in the next village with a low dowry.

Lu Mingbian didn't say anything at the time, but when she was dressed in festive red and about to be sold, she calmly asked the couple, "Death isn't that scary for me... Aren't you afraid I'll commit suicide and become a vengeful ghost in red to take revenge on you?"

The two were immediately taken aback by her overly calm tone. They quickly returned the betrothal gifts, canceled the engagement, and fled back to the city overnight, as if they were afraid that Lu Mingbian would really kill them.

Later, thanks to the financial assistance of a lawyer, ten-year-old Lu Mingbian began attending primary school.

She was smart and hardworking, and managed to get into university through her own efforts in that remote mountain village.

After graduation, she became a lawyer and worked in the law firm of the lawyer who sponsored her.

She brought her two younger sisters out with her, and when they grew up, she began to sponsor girls in remote mountainous areas, just like the lawyer who had sponsored her.

As for his nominal 'parents,' they died long ago in some supernatural event, and Lu Mingbian doesn't even need to pay the minimum monthly alimony.

From childhood to adulthood, Lu Mingbian has never forgotten to search for his real parents.

But the human traffickers who abducted her disappeared without a trace, and the person who bought her had already died. She was too young when she was sold to remember where she was sold from.

It was still dark when the car accident happened. She didn't know where the accident occurred, nor did she remember the name of the resort.

Furthermore, since the official outbreak of paranormal events, the number of missing persons has increased exponentially every year, making it as difficult to sift through these missing persons as to find a needle in a haystack.

Lu Mingbian had no choice but to put her blood sample in the databases of the police station and the supervisory bureau, hoping that if she ever found her parents or their bodies, she would receive the news immediately.

More than ten years have passed, and Lu Mingbian, now thirty years old, had long given up hope. But today, he received a message from his mother.

On the phone, Captain Hong said she needed to come to the Supervision Bureau in person. Lu Mingbian composed herself and made an appointment with him for the afternoon.

Her trial is about to begin, and it's a little embarrassing to say, but the case Lu Mingbian is going to file is related to the Supervisory Bureau.

Her client's house was sealed off by the inspection bureau due to a paranormal event. Not only did she lose her eligibility to rent, she also nearly lost her life as a result.

Lu Mingbian's client was truly wronged; her undeserved misfortune was entirely due to the landlord's inaction.

In this world, the reason why ordinary people can avoid harm from ghosts by staying at night is that all habitable houses in the city have undergone special treatment.

When supernatural powers first appeared, the Bureau of Investigation developed a special coating to prevent citizens from being harmed by ghosts.

Applying this paint to the outside of a house will make ghosts and spirits ignore its existence, and thus ignore the people inside.

However, a side effect of this paint is that it requires a large amount, and consumption cannot keep up with production. If any areas are missed, the protection is very likely to fail. Moreover, with wind and rain, the paint's effectiveness will gradually weaken, eventually losing its protective effect completely.

When the paranormal events eventually spiraled out of control and completely erupted, the Bureau of Supervision developed new protective equipment.

This shelter is similar in shape to a wind chime and requires the homeowner to bring their household registration book and ID card to the supervisory bureau to apply for it.

The newly developed device can protect an area of ​​100 square meters, and it is installed indoors so it will not be damaged by external forces. It only requires the inspection bureau to come and recharge it regularly.

Neither paint nor wind chimes can make ghosts ignore the houses where residents live; they do not have the effect of driving away ghosts.

Materials with a repelling effect are extremely expensive and consume a great deal of energy, making them impossible to mass-produce, and even junior investigators are not qualified to use them.

This kind of housing protection equipment is provided to citizens free of charge by the Inspection Bureau. If the effect of eviction is added, the Inspection Bureau's finances will not be able to support it.

Because it has no effect of driving away evil spirits, if someone carries a ghost into the house, the entire house will suffer.

Lu Mingbian's client's problem stemmed from the fact that the wind chimes in the house were about to run out of protective energy, and the landlord, as the homeowner, failed to apply to the Bureau of Supervision for a timely replenishment of the energy, leading to the invasion of the room by ghosts.

Her lawsuit challenges the unreasonableness of the rule that "tenants cannot apply for additional protective equipment energy on their own based on their rental contract," aiming to have the supervisory bureau and the landlord jointly bear the client's medical expenses and demanding that the landlord provide monetary compensation to the client.

Because the Bureau of Supervision is involved, its personnel will also be present.

Lu Mingbian checked the materials he would need later one last time.

Even if the supervisory bureau helped her find her mother's whereabouts, her professional ethics wouldn't allow her to show any bias—she would definitely help her client win this case.

*

Zhou Fangdong received a reply from Hong Zhong, learning that the daughter of the female ghost in room 301 would only be available to come over in the afternoon.

It looks like we won't be able to finish cleaning room 301 today.

Given the current state of the third floor, it seems all the rooms are haunted, making it impossible to order furniture from the Guijia Furniture Store.

Fortunately, he had other channels for purchasing furniture... He planned to ask Hou San to help him get some furniture first.

Hou San is currently the acting manager of a paper craft shop in the Ghost Market. Just as Zhou Fangdong was about to go to the Ghost Market to find Hou San, the lamp oil production interface suddenly appeared on its own.

The lamp oil production is complete.

[Lamp oil production successfully detected. New features for the lamp oil production base have been unlocked. Please check the basement immediately.]

The corpse that was boiled yesterday has already turned into lamp oil... The speed was quite fast, somewhat beyond Zhou Fangdong's expectations, it only took 24 hours.

After thinking about it, he decided to postpone the furniture matter and go to the basement to check out the newly unlocked feature first.