Chapter 81 Imperial Apartment 8
Lin Xiang took a deep breath, "So, the game system's opening words about feeling the world's fireworks are actually an important hint?"
Xia Bai: "Yes, the incense smell on the residents of this apartment comes from the human world, that is, it is burned by people in the world of the living."
"That altar and the two incense sticks are indeed for the dead." Xia Bai said, "But it was not set up by any of these residents. It was set up by people in the living world. People in the living world may have set up an altar for everyone who died in this apartment."
"Or maybe someone burned paper money and offered fruits and cakes for someone here, and they were all transferred from that altar to here. That altar is the passage connecting the Yin and Yang worlds."
"Some of the fruits we saw on the first day were in the little girl's room in Room 305. They must have been sent by her mother." Xia Bai pursed her lips and said, "She didn't abandon her daughter. She's just in the human world."
Yang Mei also understood, "Xiao Qi went to see her boyfriend, and her boyfriend went crazy because she was dead, but her boyfriend was still alive. How could a living person not go crazy when seeing a dead person coming to see her?"
Lin Xiang: "The grandmother of the 211 student didn't take good care of her grandson, which led to his death. She might have been beaten to death by her daughter-in-law, so now she is watching her grandson very closely?"
Qian Xing also said: "Old Wang next door hasn't visited his son for a long time. He is actually still alive, but as others have said, Old Wang's son is not very filial. After he died, he didn't burn paper money for him, so he is the poorest person in this apartment."
"In that case, the relatives and boyfriends they mentioned outside are actually living people, and the ones trapped in this apartment are dead ghosts. The ghosts have been waiting for the living to come and see them."
Originally, Lin Xiang felt his scalp getting more and more numb the more he thought about it, but when he heard what Lao Qian said, he suddenly felt better.
The ghosts trapped in this apartment are waiting for someone to come and see them.
Sister Qian has always been able to empathize with others and other ghosts.
Xia Bai nodded, "They probably don't know they are dead, they still think they are still alive. Those who are gone just went outside."
"There's one thing I don't understand." Lin Xiang said, "They are dead ghosts, so why are we also dead ghosts?"
Ling Changye explained this problem for Xia Bai, "We may not all be real dead ghosts. We may be in the same soul state as ghosts. Otherwise, we will immediately find out that they are ghosts. There are many places to find out, such as body temperature and diet. This is an underworld energy apartment for ghosts to survive. We appeared here and became ghost-like according to local conditions."
Lin Xiang understood.
Soon, he thought of something that made him shudder. "If that's the case, are some players really dead? Because this is a ghost apartment, they still exist normally, and we don't know about it?"
Xia Bai nodded, "Yes."
This also explains why no one has been in trouble so far.
Therefore, there may be real dead players around them in the past two days.
Lin Xiang: "Then how can we be sure? Should we go to all the players' rooms to look for bodies? Wait, this is the underworld, everything is fake, are their bodies still there?"
Xia Bai said: "We may have come in as souls, so there should be no corpses. However, corpses are a sign of death, and there may be phantom corpses that provide clues for us."
That's very difficult. If there's no body, how can we be sure if someone is really dead? Lin Xiang said in confusion.
"That's easy." A few cards popped up on Yang Mei's phone. His gaming identity had long been known as a secret in the player exchange center, so he didn't hide it. "My skill card is finally going to work."
He looked at Ling Changye, "Captain, which one should I use?"
Ling Changye thought for a moment, "Both a lover and a son are fine, but since you've used your lover card so much that you've become a bit love-shy, let's use your son this time."
Lin Xiang: “?”
Yang Mei immediately chose the son card.
After he acquired the skill, he walked to Lin Xiang and blinked his big eyes, "When you see me, do you feel like you want to be my father?"
Lin Xiang: “???”
You can’t give birth!
If you don't give birth, why bother?
Yang Mei walked in front of Xia Bai again, but before she could speak, Xia Bai said, "I don't want to, I don't want to."
He looked at Ling Changye and Qian Xing again.
Ling Changye smiled kindly, "There is no option of having a son in my life plan."
Qian Xing was a little excited, "I want a son, but can it not be someone like you?"
"..." Yang Mei said: "It seems that you are not real ghosts, then I will try the old man next door."
As soon as Yang Mei walked out of the door, Lin Xiang pulled back Xia Bai who was about to follow her out, "When I first met Yang Mei, I always had a feeling that he liked me a little bit and wanted to have a relationship with me. Captain Ling just said that he used his lover card too much and he has a bit of a love soul...?"
Xia Bai nodded, "You know, using soul skills too much can easily affect the soul. Yang Mei enters the game a lot, and uses the love card the most. Her soul is almost marinated, so her demeanor and words usually have a bit of a romantic vibe, which can easily be misunderstood."
Lin Xiang: “…”
Lin Xiang's silence was deafening.
After all, he was just being sentimental.
For this copy, the son card is indeed suitable.
204 Lao Wang brags about his son all day long.
211 The old lady raised her son alone, and now she is afraid of him.
308 The old lady’s child died when she was young.
The old man next door, who had originally called them "shameless", swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth when he saw Yang Mei coming in without knocking. He glanced at Yang Mei again, still looking fierce, and asked, "What's the matter?"
The tone is completely different from before.
Yang Mei blinked, "I'm thirsty."
"Don't you even have water? What kind of life are you living?" He poured a bowl of water for Yang Mei.
After drinking, Yang Mei said thank you and left.
Old man: “…”
They all heard the conversation between Yang Mei and the old man and already had an idea in their minds. Yang Mei's return confirmed their guess.
"The skill is effective, he is indeed a ghost." Yang Mei said.
Although he already believed that they were ghosts, Lin Xiang was still very emotional when he heard this. "They are really dead. What did they go through?"
Ling Changye said: "But they don't think they are dead, that is, they don't know how they died. Investigating the cause of their death may be our main task."
Lin Xiang breathed a sigh of relief, "Finally I have a direction, I'm no longer confused."
Yang Mei was also much more relaxed than before. "I'll go down and test other residents and try to find some clues."
"However, the My Son card may not be very effective for some young people and people who don't like children."
Xia Bai said: "I can assist you."
Several people looked at him. He said with a blank expression on his face: "I have a prop skill that can make me a big star in the ghost world, but it can only be used once in a game. We have to find the right time."
“…”
As soon as Ling Changye heard it, he knew where this prop came from. He smiled and said, "Okay, everything is for the big star."
Xia Bai: “…”
Don't laugh like that.
Ling Changye reminded: "Since they don't think they are dead, don't tell them yet. No one knows what will happen when they realize they are dead."
They both nodded.
Since Xia Bai's skill can only be used once, they decided to let Yang Mei try it first. If he can't detect the young residents and players, then let Xia Bai use the skill, and Xia Bai will temporarily follow behind him to provide assistance.
Yang Meixian went to Xiaoqi's place as he was familiar with the place. Xiaoqi's attitude towards him didn't change that much, but she also said that he was so cute and that she wanted a daughter like him.
The old lady at Room 211 reacted more obviously. Lin Xiang had been knocking on the door for two days but it didn't open. The door opened as soon as he knocked. The old lady stood behind the door looking at him awkwardly.
She is also a ghost, and she is dead too.
Yang Mei: "Won't you let me come in and sit down?"
The old lady hesitated for a moment, then let him in, along with Xia Bai who came with him.
The small room was tidy and there was no dust on the floor and windowsill, but it was a little dark. The windows of the odd-numbered rooms on each floor were facing north, blocked by the building in front. The room was also dark in the morning and the old man did not turn on the light.
Maybe I can't bear to do so.
Thinking about what the old man in Room 204 said, he might be afraid of wasting money and being scolded by his son and daughter-in-law.
Yang Mei looked at the boy sitting on the stool and said, "A boy of this age is very active and wants to play. Why do you always lock him up in the room?"
The boy nodded vigorously.
"No, you can't go out!" The old lady waved her hands repeatedly, "It's dangerous outside, something will happen to him!"
Yang Mei asked: "Where is the danger outside?"
The old lady lowered her head, rubbed her hands, and said nothing.
Xia Bai frowned at Yang Mei fiercely. Yang Mei said that he had learned something. He frowned and said unhappily, "Is it not dangerous? Other children can go out to play. If you don't let him go out to play, you are abusing him!"
"No, no!" The old lady stood up quickly, her wrinkled face showing anxiety and fear, "I didn't abuse him, his legs hurt, he can't run out to play, he has to stay at home!"
Yang Mei and Xia Bai looked at the boy.
The boy immediately got down from the stool and jumped several times, "It doesn't hurt, I'm fine!"
The boy who had been locked up at home was probably full of grievances and anger. Seeing that someone finally spoke up for him, he quickly complained, "Grandma won't let me go out. The danger is just an excuse. Why is it not dangerous for other people to go out? I want to go play with Jingjing, but she won't even let me go to find Jingjing."
Jingjing is the girl in Room 305.
They had heard about this from Lin Xiang in the morning.
Yang Mei asked: "Why not let him go find Jingjing? How could a little girl like Jingjing be in any danger?"
"Dangerous, dangerous..." The old lady kept saying dangerous, but when asked what was dangerous about Jingjing, she couldn't tell. She only said, "What kind of good daughter can that woman in 305 raise? She flirts with people everywhere."
Yang Mei: "You know that too? Did you see it?"
"Pah! My eyes are going blind! She has seduced two men in this apartment building into bed."
Yang Mei glanced at Xia Bai, and Xia Bai said, "Don't change the subject. We haven't even mentioned where the danger is. You can leave if you don't see Jingjing, right?"
After repeated questioning, the old lady finally said something, nervously and in a very low voice, "The people in room 308 found a man from outside. The man was dressed in black and had paintings on his face. He looked very dangerous. The two old people were old and had difficulty walking down the stairs. It looked like they were about to be buried. Maybe they didn't want to die, so they found someone to prolong their lives."
"If you're looking for someone to extend your life, you'll definitely look for a child, right?" she said nervously.
"You can't go out, or you'll be captured and killed."
Yang Mei immediately looked at Xia Bai, and Xia Bai nodded.
Yang Mei said, "You're right. Don't let him go out. I'll just buy him some toys and send them over."
The boy looked at them aggrievedly, but when he heard that there would be more toys, at least he didn't make a fuss.
As they left, the boy slipped him a note.
There is a paragraph of childish words and pinyin on it: "Jingjing, I haven't come to play with you recently, it's not that I don't want to play with you, you are my best friend, grandma locked me in the room, don't be angry, wait for me."
Yang Mei: "It seems that they have a good relationship."
Xia Bai nodded.
The two told Ling Changye and the others the information they had obtained from 211, asked them to analyze it first, and then went up to the third floor.
The proprietress of room 303 on the third floor should have told Xia Bai and Ling Changye all the information she knew, and the son card should have no effect on the little girl, so after they gave the boy's note to the girl in room 305, they went straight to the old lady in room 308. It happened that they had just heard a little about her from the old lady in room 211.
The old lady in Room 308 is the oldest person in the apartment, and her hair is all gray.
When she saw Yang Mei, her reaction was even greater than that of the old lady in 211, and tears immediately overflowed from her eyes.
Seeing the two men looking at her, she quickly took out her handkerchief to wipe away her tears and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I suddenly thought of my son who died many years ago. I seemed to see him coming back to see me."
As she said this, she looked at Yang Mei with red eyes. Xia Bai knew that they would definitely gain something this time, and as long as Yang Mei asked, she would tell Yang Mei what she knew.
After entering the room, the old lady immediately brought them all the delicious food she could find in the room and looked at Yang Mei eagerly.
Yang Mei ate an orange under her gaze.
At Xia Bai's suggestion, they didn't get straight to the point, but instead chatted with the old lady about family matters and the past.
The old lady's name was Xu Mei. Just as they had guessed, this place was originally a staff dormitory for a textile factory. She and her husband were among the earliest employees of the textile factory.
"Later, the textile factory was not profitable and closed down. The boss sold the factory land and ran away without paying us." The old lady said, "We have been paid for many years, and I don't know who to ask for it."
"They razed the factory and are now trying to razed the dormitories. Another larger dormitory has already been razed. This one cost two lives to save. At least it provides a place for these homeless and penniless people to live."
"It also gives us two a place to go, we have no son, no job, and no money." The old man's eyes were red again. "Alas, those who live here are all poor people."
Maybe it had been a while since anyone had spoken, so she kept on talking and had a lot to say.
The two listened to her for a long time, until she became thirsty and drank a glass of water, Xia Bai asked her: "Do you have any other wishes?"
"We are so old, what other wishes can we have? I just hope that we two can live well together and die together," said the old lady.
Xia Bai: "Don't you want to see your son again?"
"Of course I do." The old lady looked at Yang Mei again, and then she said, "We almost didn't make it back then, but so many years have passed, and we have come to terms with it. We can't stay trapped in it forever, we still have to live our own lives, and we supported each other and dragged each other through it."
Xia Bai glanced at Yang Mei, who immediately asked, "I heard someone say that you brought a strange man in black into the apartment."
"What man in black?" The old lady was confused. "We haven't forgotten to bring anyone back to the apartment in the past six months. Not only six months, we don't have many relatives and friends, and we don't bring anyone back all year round."
She didn't seem to be lying, and she probably wouldn't lie to Yang Mei.
Yang Mei felt even more deeply about this. He didn't know how to ask and looked at Xia Bai.
Xia Bai asked: "Have you heard of any strange or amazing people in this period of time?"
"A strange and powerful person?" The old lady thought for a moment, "Oh, one time when we went to buy vegetables, we heard that a stall owner's dying son was saved by a powerful person."
"What does this mean?" After listening to what they said, Lin Xiang said, "The old lady in 211 said that the people in 308 brought back a strange man in black from outside, but the old lady in 308 said no."
They had not yet visited the young couple in Room 406, and the son card did not work that well for them, so the two did not go upstairs, but came back immediately to tell them the news they had heard.
After hearing this, Lin Xiang realized that the man in black was the key figure, but he didn't understand why the old lady in 308 said she didn't know. "Is she lying?"
"Probably not." Ling Changye said, "Maybe it's because the old lady in Room 308 died first."
Xia Bai thought so too. When she heard the old lady in 308 say that they did not bring anyone into the apartment, she thought about whether this was possible. The old lady in 308 died first. After her death, her husband brought a man in black to the building, but she didn't know what happened in the back apartment after she died, so she said nothing happened.
That's why he asked that, actually he was asking if they had heard of or encountered the man in black when she was alive.
It seems so.
Lin Xiang said: "Then can we continue to use this method to figure out the order in which they died?"
Ling Changye: Let’s first determine whether the old lady was the first one to die among them.
They set off immediately and went to inquire at several residents. Except for the couple on the fourth floor who they had no contact with so far, they were sure that the old man in 204, the girl in 209, the proprietress and her husband in 303, and the girl in 305 all knew the man in black.
Lin Xiang said: "So it is like this, the old lady in 308 died first, and after her death, the one who was still alive in 308 found a weird man in black to come to the apartment building. This weird man in black may be related to the deaths of other people."
Xia Bai nodded, "I have a guess. When I talked to the old lady, I felt that although she missed her son very much, she was very open-minded and had no obsession. She was very peaceful, unlike the old lady in 211. In addition, she was very old, so she might have died of natural causes or illness, which was different from the others."
"Okay, okay." Lin Xiang didn't think about whether what Xia Bai said was right or not. He trusted blindly and was just happy. "Oh my god, our task bar has finally moved forward a little. We found the first cause of death."
Xia Bai looked at Qian Xing, "Beautiful lady, what do you think? Don't you know old people very well?"
Qian Xing: “…It should be.”
Xia Bai continued to analyze, "211 grandson should have died before grandma, and he must have had an accident outside, otherwise grandma wouldn't be so nervous. She may not know that she is dead, and has forgotten everything related to their death, but some emotions and feelings are still left, becoming something like obsession."
Ling Changye: "In addition to not letting her grandson go out alone, she also mentioned two other points more than once. One is not letting her grandson play with the little girl in 305, and the other is that she always felt that her grandson's legs hurt, but now his legs don't hurt at all."
Xia Bai nodded, "My grandson's death is related to the girl and her legs."
Yang Mei said: "My grandson and the girl are very good friends. Is it possible that they got into trouble together, or that my grandson was implicated by the girl, so my grandmother doesn't allow him to play with girls?"
Lin Xiang immediately said: "It's possible!"
Xia Bai continued, "The boss lady of 303 kept saying that the woman of 305 was very concerned about whether her husband thought she was a fairy. Her death might be related to this."
"Speaking of this, the man in 406 is also related to the woman in 305. All three households are connected to 305. It seems that 305 is the key." Lin Xiang said.
Qian Xing: "We haven't been to the household in 406 yet. Maybe we can learn something from them."
The news about 406 was told to them by the players and beggars on the third floor. They indeed haven't had a good chat yet, but what should they use as a breakthrough point to talk to them about it?
Yang Mei: "They don't have children and seem to be people who only care about themselves. My son filter may not have much effect on them."
Ling Changye: "Isn't that lady in 406 in love with the Internet and wants to become famous? Don't forget, we have a big star here."
Xia Bai: “…”
Xia Bai: "Do you want to use it now? You can only use it once for three hours."
Ling Changye: "It will eventually be used on these people, and it can also be used to test whether any player is really dead."
Xia Bai: "Okay, then use it during dinner."
Three hours are precious. Xia Bai hadn't used them when he just came downstairs. He planned to use them when the woman in 406 came down to buy food. The couple in 406 were both homebodies. They had never seen the man come down to eat, and the woman only came down slowly when the boss was about to close the stall.
While eating, Xia Bai looked at the entrance of the corridor. When he saw a woman coming down in shorts and slippers, he immediately used his skills and deliberately passed in front of the woman.
The woman didn't react at first.
Xia Bai was stunned, and walked past the woman with his chin raised in an even more pretentious manner.
“…”
Ling Changye lowered his head and smiled, with blue light in his eyes.
Yang Mei asked: "Captain, are you making fun of Xia Bai?"
Ling Changye: "I just think he's cute."
Lin Xiang: “……?”
Oh, yes, yes, that’s right, it’s cute!
But why does it feel different when he says it?
The woman in Room 406 rubbed her eyes, dropped the pancake in her hand, and let out a scream that pierced the apartment building, "Xia Bai! Oh my God! It's Xia Bai! Xia Bai!"
Xia Bai: “…”
Xia Bai suddenly felt a little scared.
The woman ran over excitedly, covering her mouth and screaming, "Xia Bai! It's really Xia Bai, oh my god!"
"Xia Bai, can I take a photo with you?" The woman excitedly raised the phone hanging around her neck, "Please, I like you so much!"
Xia Bai nodded with a stiff face.
The woman took a photo of herself and Xia Bai, then turned around and said excitedly, "It's Xia Bai! The big star Xia Bai! Don't you want to take a photo with him? Do you want an autograph? I can take it for you!"
Xia Bai held his breath and turned to look over.
Ling Changye, Yang Mei, Lin Xiang and Qian Xing looked straight ahead, but they all pricked up their ears.
Swish.
The sound of a chair being hastily pushed aside.
Lan Xiang, who had been silent the whole time, said excitedly, "It's Xia Bai! Let's go take a photo with him!"
The male player who lived in the same room with her also stood up, complaining that she was just a celebrity, and walked quickly with her to Xia Bai.
Xia Bai stood between them, looking at his phone, a stiff smile on his dull face.
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