Chapter 19 Jiang Lai: The upstairs sounds familiar

"What are you doing?"

The sudden sound from behind made Jiang Lai pause for a moment. He turned around and saw Mr. Ghost who had appeared from the card wall at some point.

Fushiguro Shiori narrowed his eyes, his gaze wandering over the broken porcelain on the ground, and said in an unclear tone: "...Your technique can make objects suspend in mid-air, so if that's the case - why did you let me cooperate with you to stop?"

Of course Jiang Lai couldn't tell the other party the truth, because this was actually an ability he had just mastered.

Therefore, he just smiled slowly and said: "Using your ability to stop is just because you... are operating in a spirit body, and will not produce fluctuations in cursed power."

There was no need to explain further why he wanted to hide his cursed power. Jiang Lai knew that just stopping at the right point would leave people with plenty of room for imagination.

The living room is quiet for a second.

Fushiguro nodded slightly, as if he understood. He floated over and said in a long tone, "Are you dissatisfied with the porcelain vase? - Or is there something wrong with it?"

"Anyway, it's been cleaned up." Jiang Lai nodded calmly. He maintained his best riddle teller posture, his eyes fell on the fragments on the ground, "Clean it up later, and I'll buy a normal one tomorrow and put it back to replenish the owner."

The moment the words fell, the cell phone in Jiang Lai's pocket rang.

He opened it and saw a new email.

Landlord? Jiang Lai's eyes fell on the name of the sender of the email, and his heart skipped a beat. No way, could it be that he knew the porcelain vase was damaged so quickly and came to find me?

He was thinking wildly.

Jiang Lai lowered his head and browsed the new email. The content was not long. It was the landlord asking if he had time this weekend. He wanted to ask him out for a meeting and to discuss some other matters in person.

Jiang Lai: ...I almost thought that the damaged furniture and equipment were discovered.

This private meeting should not be about renting a house, after all, the relevant procedures have been completed.

The contract was filled out three days after moving in. When the contract was signed, it was the agent who handled it, and Jiang Lai did not meet the landlord in person.

It was said that the landlord was too old and had difficulty moving, and was still in the hospital at the time, so he did not rush over.

Jiang Lai pondered.

...So what did the landlord want to discuss with me this time? Was it to see who was brave enough to rent a haunted house?

Thinking casually in his heart, Jiang Lai tapped the phone keyboard and actually replied: [Okay. I have nothing to do this Saturday. Where should we meet? ]

The landlord replied quickly, with the specific time and address marked at the end of the email. Jiang Lai wrote it down and prepared to go to the appointment this Saturday.

Jiang Lai put down his phone, and Mr. Ghost continued to talk leisurely beside him: "If there is a problem with the porcelain bottle, it means that the landlord may also have a problem. You can bring a small blade with you. If you don't want to kill someone without using curse power, I can simply control the blade to do it."

Jiang Lai: “?”

Fushiguro Shiji: "Since you are a regular customer, I will give you a discount on this order."

Jiang Lai smiled: "...No, thank you, I don't have any intention of killing the landlord."

Don't start selling your business everywhere! It's scary!

——

Time passed quickly, and it was Saturday in a blink of an eye.

Jiang Lai went to the agreed place on time. When he arrived, the landlord was already waiting there.

The landlord of this room was a kind-looking old lady, with years leaving deep and shallow marks on her face. Her eyes were filled with kindness and gentleness. When Jiang Lai came, she smoothed the wrinkles on her face and smiled kindly, "Hello."

"Hello, nice to meet you." Jiang Lai replied politely.

Out of habit of prudence, he instinctively glanced at the landlord's forehead.

There are no traces of seams, no brain waste, very good, we can continue chatting normally.

Then Jiang Lai pulled out a chair and sat down. Fushiguro's soul body was floating on one side.

"Today I am taking the liberty of inviting you out. Frankly speaking, I have something to bother you with." The old lady sighed and got to the point after a brief greeting. "In return, I can reduce your rent and refund you part of the money."

Spending money to find a tenant to help? It seems uncommon. Jiang Lai didn't rush to agree. He smiled and replied: "If it is within my ability..."

"I'm asking you to help because you're the closest," the landlord said. "If you have time, could you clean the upstairs room every two weeks?"

Eh? Upstairs? Jiang Lai was a little surprised. He asked, "Is the upstairs also your house? Is it available for rent?"

"No, the upstairs is not mine." The landlady shook her head and said, "It's just that I once promised to help take care of the house..." She showed a look of reminiscence on her face and said softly, "The house I live in now is quite far from here. As I get older, I rarely come back to clean it. I can only ask you to do it."

"That's right." Jiang Lai nodded. This was not a difficult task. Cleaning once every two weeks was a piece of cake.

But he still asked one more question: "However, if you happen to see the landlord coming back, wouldn't it be a bit awkward and there might be misunderstandings? Maybe you need to explain it to the other party in advance."

"Actually..." The landlady sighed again, "I haven't seen him for a long time, about ten years?"

Jiang Lai: “Ten, more than ten years?” He suspected for a moment that he had heard wrongly.

"Yeah, I didn't expect that so much time has passed." The landlady's voice was full of emotion. She said in a nostalgic tone, "I watched him grow up back then, and I don't know where he is now."

"Well...what about his parents?" Jiang Lai asked, "If you have his parents' contact information, maybe you can contact the landlord."

"His parents are missing." The landlady shook her head gently, her cloudy eyes falling on the window, "There is still no news until now, I guess..."

"..." Jiang Lai didn't know how to respond.

As if triggered by memories, the landlady couldn't help but continue to speak slowly: "I still remember that incident. His parents disappeared on their way home from get off work and never came back."

"After I reported the case to the police, they came to search, but because they had no clues, the case had to be shelved. After all, missing persons cases are so common."

Jiang Lai couldn't help but frown when he heard this. Missing cases can actually be called common?

"He was still young at the time, and it seemed that he had just started junior high school when he suddenly lost his parents. Alas, during those few days I saw him holding his schoolbag, sitting at the door of his house stubbornly, and I didn't know if he went back to sleep at night. It was so pitiful."

"…I'm sorry to hear about this." Jiang Lai said, "Did he go to live with his relatives afterwards?"

"He didn't seem to have any relatives, or he didn't know any of them. Fortunately, the Regulatory Commission took over and funded his living and studies." The landlady exclaimed, "Fortunately, there is the Regulatory Commission."

Regulatory Commission? Jiang Lai's heart was moved when he heard the key words. Why did it appear here again?

The soul body Fushiguro Shijiro on the side snorted coldly when he heard the landlord's comment, but didn't say much.

"Because we had a good relationship before and the kid was humble and polite, our neighbors would help take care of him on weekdays." The landlady said, "Later, he went to high school and seemed to go to a more remote place, which was said to be a religious school, and lived there."

"Although he lived on campus, he still insisted on coming back every two weeks to clean and tidy up the house." The landlady looked kind and gentle. "He probably made good friends in high school. He smiled a lot more when he came back during the holidays... although I can hardly remember."

Humble and polite, attended a more religious school, made good friends in high school... To be honest, these words reminded Jiang Lai Lian of someone (Kaoru Xia Yu).

But the previous part doesn't match up, he thought. The parents are missing in junior high school, and the supervisory committee will take over this part. Probably not?

"That's great." Jiang Lai continued to follow the landlord's instructions, not revealing any special emotions on the surface, "Has there been no news about him since he graduated? Maybe he went to work in another city."

"I can't remember the exact time, I just have a general impression," the landlady thought hard for a while, and finally shook her head and replied, "I only remember that more than ten years ago, he came back one day, gave me the key, and asked me to help take care of the house in the future... I haven't seen him since."

"Is that so?" Jiang Lai nodded and returned to the original topic. "I can help look after the house and clean it every two weeks, right?"

"Ah, yes, thank you very much - I'll cut the rent in half for you."

Jiang Lai declined, "Actually, there's no need to reduce it that much...it's not a big deal."

"Just cut it in half. It's a bother to you after all, and isn't there always a bad rumor about my house? It's hard for you to live here." The landlady smiled kindly and took out a key from her cloth bag. "Here, this is the key upstairs."

The landlady pushed the key in front of him. Jiang Lai lowered his head and saw the label paper stuck on the brass key head.

Due to its age, the label has faded and become damaged, and the writing is blurred. However, one can still vaguely see the markings on it——

『Summer Oil』

Jiang Lai: “???!”