Chapter 178 Extra 1: An Ordinary Citizen's Rental Experience: Renting in the Suburbs, A Day Trip to Liwan Hospital, Checking into an Apartment
After the paranormal events occurred, Xiao Lin, an ordinary citizen of Linjiang City, witnessed firsthand the changes in the reputation of Liwan Apartment.
This infamous haunted building, rumored to be teeming with ghosts and rife with murders, has unknowingly become a trusted entity for the Bureau of Supervision and the public, specializing in handling paranormal events.
All of these changes occurred within a month.
As an ordinary person, Xiaolin had a vague feeling that ghosts and monsters existed in this world for ten years.
The paranormal events truly began to spiral out of control after the Liwan Apartments were completely sealed off.
From that time on, ghosts and monsters officially became integrated into the daily lives of ordinary people, as common as the common cold virus.
Words like ghosts and paranormal events began to appear frequently in official press releases. Citizens watched the Bureau of Supervision's paranormal reports every day, just like watching the weather forecast. They stopped going out after dark, and the protective gear provided by the Bureau of Supervision became a must-have for every household.
However, even though the Bureau of Investigation has set up paranormal detection equipment in all public areas and sent a large number of investigators to patrol the city, people are still being killed by ghosts every day.
To prevent the spread of paranormal phenomena, if a ghostly or supernatural incident occurs indoors, an entire building may be sealed off.
As a result, housing prices in the city are getting more and more expensive, and more and more people are renting, causing rents in the city to rise all the way up.
To protect their properties, most landlords will also scrutinize tenant profiles and will not rent to people who have been involved in paranormal events.
Xiaolin is an unlucky guy who gets caught up in a paranormal event.
You could say he was unlucky; although he witnessed the ghost killing someone, he survived until the investigators arrived, becoming the sole survivor of that supernatural event.
You could say he was lucky, but he was involved in paranormal events three times in a row... He would leave the Bureau of Supervision and then appear at the scene of a paranormal incident almost immediately afterward.
As a result, Xiaolin lost her job and her eligibility to rent an apartment in the city center, and had to move to the suburbs.
Because the Bureau of Supervision is short-staffed, investigators patrol densely populated areas like the city center, causing suburban residents to migrate to the city, resulting in a large number of abandoned vacant houses in the suburbs.
The houses here are mostly unprotected, and even those that are protected have only been coated with old, worn-out protective paint. This type of paint is inherently ineffective, and its effectiveness is further weakened by prolonged lack of maintenance and exposure to wind and rain.
Although the shelter equipment provided by the Inspection Bureau is free, they will not come to maintain it unless the homeowner applies for it. After all, resources are limited, and the Inspection Bureau will only prioritize providing it to those who need it.
Xiaolin rented a house in the suburbs through a rental app, which was more reliable than other houses in the suburbs.
Most people who post listings for suburban properties on rental apps are 'sub-landlords'.
They are not the owners of the houses; in a sense, these "sub-landlords" are illegally occupying other people's properties and renting them out.
If you rent this kind of house and the original owner finds out and kicks you out, you can only blame yourself for the bad luck.
These sub-landlords collect information from various channels to determine how much longer the shelter's protective effect lasts, and then price the property based on that remaining protection time. The rent is usually a fixed price – for example, if the shelter's protective effect lasts for two months, the monthly rent is 150, so the total payment is only 300.
This money is less like rent and more like a consultation fee. Tenants can find out the remaining shelter period of the property through these sub-landlords, making themselves safer.
The rent for the house that Xiaolin rented was 200 yuan a month, and the protective effect could last for about six months.
This is an old apartment building with poor lighting, surrounded by high-rise buildings. Ironically, the poor lighting has been a blessing in disguise, as the protective coating on the building's exterior walls is remarkably well-preserved.
Aside from the lack of sunlight and slightly poor sound insulation, Xiaolin felt that there was no difference between the houses in the city center and those in the city center.
The apartment building has five floors, and he is probably not the only one living there. He lives on the third floor and can hear the sound of flushing water upstairs every night when he washes up. The water pipes in the bathroom are exposed, so even in the bedroom, he can hear the loud rushing water from the upstairs tenants when they wash up and use the toilet.
The upstairs neighbor was very considerate. He was probably aware of the apartment's soundproofing issues, so he kept a similar schedule to Xiaolin, washing up at roughly the same time each night to avoid making too much noise while sleeping.
Xiaolin had encountered this tenant who lived upstairs from him at the apartment entrance. He was a middle-aged man who looked very tired, but he always seemed to be in a hurry. The two of them never had a proper conversation.
This apartment building has the problems common to older buildings. Not only are the bathroom pipes not soundproof, but the water heater is also broken, and the water sometimes suddenly gets cold when you wash your hair or take a shower.
However, since we've already rented a place in the suburbs, we don't expect too much.
Moreover, Xiaolin only wanted to stay here temporarily. After the supervisory bureau approved his application to leave Linjiang City, he planned to move to another city.
In addition, the furniture in this room is also seriously old.
Whenever Xiaolin lies down on the bed or turns over, the bed frame creaks. The hinges of the bedroom wardrobe also seem to be loose, and the doors never close properly.
Xiaolin didn't want to waste money buying furniture, and besides, the apartment only had stairs, so buying a new bed and a new wardrobe would not only cost money, but also be a lot of trouble to move and install.
After living in the house for more than two months, one day, Xiaolin suddenly came across a promotional video of the Supervision Bureau online.
—The official video account of the Supervision Bureau was actually advertising an online store called 'Liwan Apartment'.
It's true that you see everything when you live long enough. This world is crazy; even the supervisory bureau is releasing videos to help Liwan Apartments promote and sell their products.
Out of curiosity, Xiaolin clicked on the video and found that it was promoting a [lamp oil pendant], which claimed to ward off ghosts and protect the wearer.
Since it was free, Xiaolin placed an order to give it a try.
To his surprise, the pendant was unexpectedly popular. As soon as Xiaolin placed his order, the product page's inventory was sold out, which made him somewhat hopeful about the protective effect of this item.
...Although he didn't encounter any ghosts during the two months he lived in the suburbs, it's always good to have an extra layer of security.
What happened next was even more shocking: the pendant he had just bought that afternoon was delivered as soon as it got dark.
At that moment, Xiaolin was in the bathroom preparing to wash up when a middle-aged man wearing an old-fashioned military green postman uniform suddenly appeared in front of him.
This middle-aged man is obviously a ghost. After all, it's impossible for a normal human being to be alive with a hole in their chest and half their body crushed.
Kobayashi was completely terrified.
But the postman seemed used to the fear customers felt when they saw him. He casually pulled a lamp oil pendant from the hole in his chest and handed it to Kobayashi.
Upon seeing the familiar pendant, Xiaolin belatedly realized that this person must be a deliveryman from the Naliwan Apartment online store.
No wonder it's a famous haunted building; even the deliverymen are ghosts.
The moment the pendant appeared, Xiaolin felt as if the apartment building trembled slightly, whether it was his imagination or not.
Then, the rumbling sound of water flowing from the bathroom pipes abruptly stopped, as if someone was washing up and the water valve had been suddenly turned off.
Xiaolin subconsciously looked at the water pipe, and then he saw a pale, vengeful ghost with eight arms crawl out of the pipe, writhing its deformed limbs like a cockroach exposed to light, and quickly rushing out of the bathroom window.
Kobayashi's expression froze upon seeing the ghost.
...It turned out that the noise he heard in the pipes every night was not the sound of flowing water, but the sound of ghosts crawling up and down in the pipes.
And there's more than one ghost in the bathroom.
Xiaolin noticed that a piece of the ceiling above the water heater was missing, and a wet, long-haired water ghost crawled down from that missing spot.
Seeing the way the ghost crawled out, Xiaolin felt even more desperate.
The water heater in this house should be fine... Xiao Lin always washes his hair and takes a shower with his back to the water heater. Whenever he uses water, this water ghost should be peering down at him from the ceiling... The cold water on the water ghost's body mixed with the hot water from the shower head and poured onto him through its drooping hair.
With these successive shocks, the ghost postman's bizarre appearance is nothing special.
Xiaolin took the [lamp oil pendant] from the ghost postman with a blank expression, watched the ghost postman disappear, and returned to the bedroom with weak limbs.
When he returned to his bedroom with the lamp oil pendant, he happened to make eye contact with a ghost in the bedroom again.
The ghost crawled out of his mattress carrying a corpse. After noticing the lamp oil pendant on his hand, it sped up its carrying and scrambled out the window to escape.
Kobayashi stared blankly at the twisted, mummified corpse on the ghost's back, and vaguely realized that the sounds he heard every time he turned over in bed were probably the cracking of bones from him pressing on the mummified corpse.
Xiaolin suddenly felt very tired and didn't dare to lie on the bed anymore. She sat blankly on the chair next to her.
As soon as I sat down, I saw the wardrobe opposite me.
—There's a ghost hiding in his wardrobe too.
Moreover, the ghost hiding in the closet also ran out carrying a corpse... and that corpse looked exactly like the tenant living upstairs.
Xiaolin felt like she was about to break down.
Could he have been blinded by ghosts all along? Thinking there are no ghosts in his house when in reality they're everywhere?
The protective effect of this suburban house is too poor. Just thinking about how he has been living in the same room with so many ghosts these past few days makes Xiaolin feel listless.
Although the ghosts were driven away by the lamp oil pendant, Kobayashi's health deteriorated day by day.
Illness strikes like a landslide, and Xiao Lin grew increasingly haggard, his face so thin it resembled a skeleton, making him look like someone who had smoked opium in the old society.
While recuperating, Xiaolin was listening to the radio in bed when she heard about Liwan Hospital, where they said that it could treat injuries caused by paranormal events.
Xiaolin suspects that her current state is due to ghosts draining her yang energy or being cursed, so she really wants to go to the hospital to get it checked out.
But his body was too weak to support him to walk down the stairs and out of the apartment building. He could only lie at home waiting for his last bit of life to run out.
However, after lying at home for a few days, a miracle happened—one day, Xiaolin opened her bedroom door and, as if she had passed through a magic door, she arrived directly at Liwan Hospital.
He was spotted by a patrolling nurse as soon as he appeared at the hospital entrance. The nurse immediately floated over and led him to register.
Kobayashi felt he was about to die, and everything he was seeing was a terminal hallucination.
—Not only was the nurse who helped him register a ghost, but the doctor who examined him was also a ghost.
That ghost doctor said he had too much ghostly energy and weak yang energy, and needed to take medicine to regulate it.
Then Kobayashi went to the pharmacy and discovered that the pharmacist who dispensed his medicine was a ghost.
Moreover, the hospital's loudspeakers would occasionally broadcast encouraging messages like: "[The landlord is coming to the hospital for a check-up soon. Patients, please try to appear healthy. Thank you for your cooperation.]"
Or: [Please hold on, patient, don't die in the hallway, the doctor will be here soon.]
Oh... is this something that patients can control themselves?
After leaving the pharmacy, Xiaolin was helped by a caregiver to lie down on a stretcher.
The caregiver who put him on a stretcher and carried him to the ward finally realized he wasn't a ghost.
Kobayashi lay flat on the stretcher, a relieved and peaceful smile on his face.
The caregiver is a corpse.
The body had just come out of the freezer; the frost on its face hadn't even melted off yet.
Xiaolin was placed in a three-person ward, and a cadaver shoved a bottle of medicine into her hand... well, the medicine was concocted by the ghost in the pharmacy.
Besides him, there were two other fellow sufferers in the ward.
Kobayashi looked to the left.
The middle-aged man with Mediterranean features on the left-hand hospital bed showed no visible external injuries.
The middle-aged man excitedly took the medicine from the mortuary caregiver and drank it down... Then, he grew a head of thick, black hair that reached his waist.
Kobayashi stared blankly for a moment, then looked to the right.
On the right-hand bed, the man with burn scars all over his face emitted a pink glow after taking the medicine. When the glow faded, his skin was smooth and white, like a freshly peeled egg, without a single scar or even a trace of pigmentation.
...What a magical world. He's probably already dead.
Xiaolin glanced at the medicine in her hand, then numbly gulped it down.
The next moment, he felt a surge of energy, all his fatigue and weakness vanished, and a warm current spread from his stomach to his limbs and bones. His blood was boiling, and he had an urge to go downstairs and run ten laps.
Kobayashi was shocked.
What kind of miracle drug is this?! How can it be so effective?!
The next morning, after drinking another bottle of medicine, a ghost doctor came through the wall to check on the patient.
After confirming that all the ghostly energy on Xiaolin had disappeared and that his physical condition had recovered well, the ghost doctor discharged him from the hospital.
They didn't even charge for medical expenses... Xiao Lin was even more surprised. How has this hospital managed to operate without charging any fees until now?
Just as he was thinking this, Xiaolin, who had just arrived at the hospital entrance, discovered that a large number of injured patients were being transported to the hospital.
No wonder the doctor was in such a hurry to get him out; there must be a shortage of hospital beds... I wonder what happened.
After returning home, Xiaolin searched for news and happened to see a live broadcast of the supervisory bureau's press conference.
A spokesperson for the Inspectorate said that six terrorists manipulated ghosts to harm ordinary citizens this morning, but the landlord of the Liwan Apartments intervened and dealt with the situation.
He said that the sky suddenly got dark this morning.
It must be similar to how the sky suddenly turned blood red a couple of days ago. I heard that the landlord of Liwan Apartment took action to deal with a cult called the Bone-Succession Society.
These six people today are probably remnants of that cult.
It seems that every time the landlord of Liwan Apartments makes a move, although the effect is terrifying, he is always doing good.
The hospital that saved his life is also called Liwan Hospital, and the lamp oil pendant he has that can ward off ghosts is also a cultural and creative product sold by Liwan Apartments. Liwan Apartments seems to no longer be the terrifying haunted building it used to be.
Xiaolin had an idea and began searching online extensively for recent posts related to Liwan Apartments.
He discovered that not only officials, but also many ordinary people online were supporting Liwan Apartments, posting on social media to clear the name of the apartments.
Many people, like him, were saved by lamp oil pendants or by Liwan Hospital.
Others simply trust the supervisory bureau, believing that anything promoted by the bureau can't be bad.
Xiaolin stared blankly at the news interface on her phone all night.
Since the Supervisory Bureau has stated that Liwan Hospital has changed its owner and is now specifically dedicated to exorcising ghosts and protecting citizens.
Does this mean that as long as you live in Liwan Apartments, or live closer to the apartments, you will be safer?
Now that the supernatural has resurfaced, even if you move to another city, although other cities are not as dangerous as Linjiang City, you may still encounter ghosts and monsters.
Xiaolin thought about it all night, and as dawn approached, he saw a meteor shower outside his window.
He finally made up his mind and decided to go and take a look around the Liwan Apartments area.
His residence was actually on the edge of the lockdown of Liwan Apartments. After cycling for a while, Xiaolin discovered that the area around Liwan Apartments had been unsealed, and he could no longer see any patrol cars or investigators from the Inspection Bureau.
This gave Xiaolin more confidence, and he increased his cycling speed.
However, as he approached the apartment, his heart sank.
He could hardly believe what he was seeing.
Compared to this thing, the ghosts he had seen were utterly insignificant.
Next to Liwan Apartments, half a street was covered in silt.
The silt seemed to be alive, its edges constantly wriggling.
Moreover, on the surface of the silt that had swallowed half the street, there were many distorted human faces and pale eyeballs rolling around.
Those grotesque faces didn't look like anything a human could grow; each one was more abstract and deformed than the last. What was even more terrifying was that they were all smiling... As Xiaolin looked at them, they were also looking at him.
Xiaolin held onto his bicycle, his expression seemingly calm, but he had actually been gone for quite some time.
He didn't even have the courage to get on the vehicle and run away, fearing that if he made any move, the mud would rush over and turn his face into part of those faces.
After a moment of silent confrontation, Xiaolin was horrified to discover that on the surface of the mud, closest to him, a green-haired human face moved its mouth.
Immediately afterwards, a young male voice came from the green-haired face: "Sorry, I was too busy last night and forgot to take this body back."
Kobayashi almost screamed.
A human face! It was alive! And it spoke!!
Don't people online always say that seeing something extremely terrifying will make them faint? Why isn't he fainting yet? How come he hasn't fainted?
Just as Xiaolin was about to smash his head against the bicycle handlebars to knock himself unconscious, he suddenly realized that the muddy carpet with the human face in front of him had disappeared instantly, as if everything that had just happened was a hallucination.
After the human-faced carpet disappeared, a young man appeared before him.
Although the two were very close, Kobayashi found that she couldn't see his face clearly. She even forgot what style of clothes he was wearing in the blink of an eye... It was as if this person was just a phantom that did not exist in the world, impossible to observe and unobservable.
Xiao Lin rubbed his eyes hard, and suddenly heard the person opposite him say, "Young man, I think you have a connection with Liwan Apartments. Why don't you come and rent a room in our apartment?"
The ghost in the apartment room still needs a roommate. Although the yin energy in the apartment has stabilized, the apartment is too yin, and the ghost needs to live with a human to maintain the balance of yin and yang.
This prospective tenant didn't even faint when he saw his slime body, which shows he has a good mental fortitude. He has no karmic burdens and is also attracted to spirits, making him a suitable tenant for the apartment.
Upon hearing this question, a thought flashed through Xiaolin's mind, and he immediately realized that the mysterious person whose face he couldn't see was very likely the landlord of the legendary Liwan Apartments.
"I...it would be my pleasure! I'd like to move into the apartment!" Kobayashi quickly agreed.
He came here hoping to find a place to stay at Liwan Apartments, but he never expected to run into the landlord of Liwan Apartments.
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiaolin vaguely saw the person smile at him and put his hand on his shoulder.
The next instant, he felt a blur before his eyes and found himself in front of the Liwan Apartments.
Kobayashi stared in shock at the apartment building in front of him.
He had lost count of how many times he had been shocked today.
Is this what Liwan Apartments used to look like? This is... Liwan Apartments?
Even though it was daytime, he was still momentarily dazzled by the apartment's striking appearance.
Having devoured the main god, the landlord now possesses a terrifying amount of ghost coins. So, while looking for tenants, he casually renovated the dilapidated exterior of the Liwan Apartment.
After all, the apartment is the face of the world. Although the world consciousness has fallen asleep again, we can't let our comrades dress too poorly and lose face in front of other world consciousnesses.
The first thing Xiaolin saw was a huge neon sign hanging on the exterior wall of the apartment building, with the four large characters "Liwan Apartment" written on it.
The entire exterior of the apartment building was painted a mirror-like metallic white. Whether it was a holographic projection or some kind of special lighting built into the walls, there was a continuous, flowing blue laser light on the white exterior wall, like an electrocardiogram.
Even in broad daylight, the rows of colored spotlights along the edge of the apartment building were still on, sweeping up, down, left, and right, making the entire building seem like a giant disco ball, ostentatiously radiating its irresistible charm.
It's... it's pretty high-tech, looks very cyberpunk, and doesn't resemble the dilapidated state of a ghost building that's been locked up for years at all.
Led by the landlord, Xiaolin walked into the brightly lit, high-tech apartment building in a daze.
Upon entering the apartment, he was once again dazzled by the luxurious crystal chandelier hanging above the foyer.
Looking at the magnificent foyer, and then at the landlord whose face was blurred beside me.
Kobayashi had a vague premonition.
—He should no longer be troubled by paranormal events.
As it turned out, he was no longer bothered by paranormal events; on the contrary, he actively sought them out.
On his second day as a tenant at Liwan Apartments, he was specially hired by the Inspection Bureau as a special investigator to work with the Paranormal Investigation Department to handle paranormal events.
The tenants of Liwan Apartments have essentially become unofficial members of the Inspection Bureau. The Bureau pays the tenants to handle tricky paranormal events, reducing the risk of injury or death to investigators.
...The ghosts in the apartment rooms use the room keys to kill any monsters that threaten the safety of the tenants, making the tenants of Liwan Apartments somewhat like mercenaries from the underworld.
Years later, when he was seconded to various city supervisory bureaus to handle paranormal events, Xiaolin would always think back to that morning when his landlord showed him the apartment.
I successfully moved into Liwan Apartment. Although I had to live with ghosts, with the landlord around, I not only faced no danger to my life, but also got a stable job.
He is incredibly lucky.
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