Chapter 25 Two Ghosts in Room 104 (Bonus Chapter) At the furniture store...
The long-tongued ghost and the wedding dress ghost, who often fight in the corridor, not only don't get along after death, but they also had a very bad relationship in life.
The Long-Tongued Ghost and the Wedding Dress Ghost were once sisters, fraternal twins. The Long-Tongued Ghost was the elder sister, and the Wedding Dress Ghost was the younger sister.
The older sister is very beautiful, while the younger sister is quite ordinary-looking.
From childhood to adulthood, the older sister heard mostly praise from others, while the younger sister heard mostly the exclamation, "What a pity..." after praising her older sister.
Because of her good looks, the older sister was pampered by her parents from a young age and grew up surrounded by praise. She became more and more cheerful and lively, while the younger sister became more and more silent day by day.
Whether it's her parents, classmates, or teachers, they all seem to favor the older sister who is pretty and has a cheerful and outgoing personality.
The older sister didn't want to play with her younger sister when they were little because her younger sister was not good-looking. During her adolescence, she subjected her younger sister to emotional abuse and pretended not to know her. In high school, she took pleasure in belittling and mocking her younger sister and even condoned the bullying of her younger sister by her classmates.
Even if the younger sister tells their parents about what her older sister has done, the biased parents will only offer a few words of comfort to the younger sister and never really intervene to control the older sister's behavior.
The two sisters grew up together until they graduated from university.
The year the two sisters graduated from university, their family company encountered some cash flow problems and needed to arrange a marriage to get a wealthy man to inject capital into the company.
That wealthy man is powerful and influential, with connections in both the legitimate and underworld circles. He currently resides in Linjiang City to help his only son recuperate.
His only son was frail and sickly from a young age, relying on various medications to sustain his life since birth and spending his time in bed.
The wealthy man chose to marry the daughter of an unknown small company owner because he heard from a master that his daughter's birth chart was most compatible with his sickly son's, and that his son's illness might improve after the marriage.
Ultimately, the sisters' parents chose to arrange a marriage between the younger sister, who had an ordinary appearance, and the only son of a wealthy man.
My sister was very angry when she found out.
Although the marriage partner was frail and sickly, the wealthy man was one of the richest men in the world. Once she married him, she could achieve a leap in social class and enter the true upper class.
The two sisters' birthdays are only a few minutes apart, and the older sister would never allow her younger sister, this 'ugly duckling,' to receive such an advantage.
While the older sister was arguing with her parents about the choice of a marriage partner, the younger sister stood outside the room.
The younger sister leaned against the wall, head down, listening to her older sister inside the room shamelessly whining to their parents, trying to steal the marriage that was rightfully hers. Her hands clenched tighter and tighter, her nails digging deep into her flesh.
From childhood to adulthood, my parents have always favored my older sister.
The older sister always chooses first, and she picks the things her sister doesn't want.
Even if her sister didn't like anything, she would still try to steal everything she liked.
Now that her parents have finally shown her some favoritism, and she has finally been able to leave this suffocating home through marriage, why is her sister still trying to take her away?
This marriage is her only way to gain freedom...
Recalling the bullying she had endured from her older sister since childhood, the younger sister's hatred deepened. Unwilling to listen to her sister's sweet talk with their parents inside the house any longer, she ran out of the house.
The younger sister, who left home, did not hear the last words her parents said to her older sister.
“Silly girl, if the marriage alliance were truly a good thing, would we let your sister go? That wealthy man said that husband and wife would share the same bed in life and the same grave in death, living together in life and being buried together in death... Do you understand what that means? It means that if that sickly man dies, his wife will lie in the coffin and be buried with him!”
When the older sister heard what her parents said, she immediately gave up competing with her younger sister for the marriage.
She hadn't lived enough and didn't want to be buried with him.
However, my sister didn't have many days left to live.
When my younger sister ran away from home, she encountered a fortune teller wearing a melon-shaped hat.
The master not only recounted the younger sister's experiences from childhood to adulthood, but also immediately saw through her predicament.
Under the master's guidance, the younger sister, whose reason had been destroyed by boundless hatred, directly staked twenty years of her lifespan and fortune, placing an extremely vicious curse of mutual destruction on herself and her older sister.
The older sister's skin will gradually fester and peel off over seven days, while the younger sister's appearance will become more and more beautiful over the same period, with smooth and flawless skin.
The older sister's limbs and body will become increasingly deformed and twisted, while the younger sister's posture will become more upright and her figure more voluptuous.
The older sister's tongue will grow longer and longer, and will not stop growing even after death, leaving her unable to speak even in the afterlife. The younger sister, on the other hand, will become increasingly cheerful, articulate, and eloquent.
Afterwards, the younger sister went home and tricked her older sister into going out, allowing the master to capture her and carry out the vicious curse.
The older sister suddenly disappeared, and the parents were very anxious, so they had no heart to prepare for the younger sister's wedding.
However, the wealthy family valued the younger sister very much. They not only prepared a generous dowry and bought all the wedding dresses that the younger sister liked, but they also bought a yacht as a gift for her and held a lively engagement banquet on the yacht.
The younger sister, who had never been so valued before, thought this was the beginning of her happy life.
Although the engagement banquet was very lively, the wealthy man only invited his immediate family members to the wedding.
On the day of the wedding, the sisters' parents did not attend; they were still searching for the older sister.
The younger sister didn't care whether her parents attended the wedding or not, because after the engagement banquet she went straight to live in the villa that the wealthy man had given her.
The wealthy family is very traditional and prefers Chinese-style weddings. On the wedding day, they prepared a traditional red wedding dress for the younger sister.
The younger sister happily changed into her red wedding dress, covered her head with a red veil, and sat on the bed in the villa, waiting for her fiancé to come and fetch her.
But on the very day of the wedding, the wealthy man's only son passed away.
But the wedding did not stop.
The younger sister was forced to complete the wedding ceremony with her fiancé's corpse. Afterwards, she was put into a coffin while still wearing her wedding dress and suffocated to death inside the nailed-together coffin.
After her sister's death, she and her husband moved into the building behind the Liwan Apartments that was used to store corpses.
After the younger sister died, the parents also found the older sister's gruesome body.
Overwhelmed with grief, the parents heard that the Liwan Apartments had good feng shui, so they begged the wealthy man to allow their older sister to live in the building behind the Liwan Apartments, in order to ensure a smoother next life, considering that the younger sister had been married to his son in a ghost marriage.
As a result, neither of the sisters had an afterlife; they both became vengeful ghosts filled with resentment, still fighting after death over the same room in the apartment building.
After reading about the sisters' lives, Zhou Fangdong felt as if he had watched an outrageous and melodramatic family drama.
It's hard to say who's right and who's wrong. The older sister was indeed wrong. If she hadn't been so mean and bullied her younger sister all these years, she wouldn't have died such a tragic death.
The younger sister was also at fault. She could have retaliated against her older sister, but it didn't have to be like this... Never mind, it's best not to advise others to be kind if you haven't experienced their suffering. It can only be said that the biased and hypocritical parents created a broken family.
Judging from the clothing of the three mummified corpses hanging from the ceiling of room 104, the younger man in the red Chinese-style suit is very likely the sister's husband.
Judging from the clothes on the two middle-aged mummified corpses, the man and woman, were likely the sisters' parents.
I don't know what happened to that tycoon, but anyone connected to the Liwan Apartments will probably meet a bad end... I guess he's dead too.
Zhou Fangdong sighed heavily and rubbed his throbbing temples.
What struck him as odd was that, in his sister's memory, the face of the master wearing a melon-shaped hat who guided her to curse her older sister was blurry.
This master was a pivotal turning point in the lives of both the younger and older sisters, and the younger sister could never forget him... unless, of course, the master was deliberately hiding his face so that the younger sister wouldn't remember him.
Those who hide their true intentions are highly suspicious.
While Zhou Fangdong was examining the [ghost clues], the Long-Tongued Ghost and the Wedding Dress Ghost appeared in Room 104 at some point.
One of them was perched on the ceiling, and the other was standing in the corner, both staring intently at Zhou Fangdong.
Blood began to drip from the long-tongued demon's mangled and deformed body, leaving a noticeable pool of blood on the ceiling. Its purplish-red tongue hung down like a rope, stretching from the ceiling to the floor.
The ghost in the wedding dress seemed to have grown even taller, its head, covered by a red veil, completely touching the ceiling. It lowered its head slightly, the red veil drooping down to completely cover the lower half of its face. But the faces sewn onto its wedding dress were not as calm as its ghost; they all looked extremely pained, their features distorted and their skin crumpled into a ball.
Choosing one of these two ghosts to be the ghost of room 104... It's such a difficult decision.
To be honest, Zhou Fangdong didn't want either of them because the two sisters harbored too much resentment and had a deep-seated malice towards humanity.
He planned to use room 104 as a convenience store, a convenient facility for all the apartment's tenants. If he left it in this room, Zhou Fangdong was afraid that all his tenants would die one day.
Thinking of the convenience store, Zhou Fangdong suddenly remembered something and took out two employee ID cards from the inventory.
This is his reward for completing hidden quest ①.
A regular apartment room might only need one ghost, but room 104, which is about to be converted into a convenience store, can accommodate two.
...Or should we just leave them all?
Looking at the three corpses in the room, Zhou Fangdong decided that he should clean the room first before considering anything else.
Zhou Fangdong, who currently possesses 1060 Ghost Coins, chose the quickest and most convenient cleaning method.
He directly purchased two low-level fully automatic cleaning tools for 30 ghost coins each from the system store and began cleaning room 104.
Hidden quest ② involves cleaning the room and creating a convenience store space. Based on the patterns observed from previous room rental side quests, Zhou Fangdong guesses that hidden quest ③ is likely related to establishing rules for the convenience store.
In order to complete the mission as quickly as possible, Zhou Fangdong teleported back to his own room while the props were cleaning room 104. He began to devise the rules for the convenience store, thinking about what kind of rules could restrain the two ghosts in room 104 from their aggressive desires.
*
While Zhou Fangdong was studying the rules of convenience stores, Zhao Dawei, who worked at a furniture store, encountered a strange customer who voluntarily entered the furniture store.
At the time, Zhao Dawei was working in the warehouse, stuffing ghosts into the furniture while listening to the store manager tell stories about the furniture store's past.
It turns out that some of the "ghosts" in the furniture were planted by the store manager, while others were inherent to the furniture itself.
Before the haunted furniture store, Guijia Furniture Store not only sold its own assembled furniture, but also offered a second-hand furniture recycling service for environmental protection and reuse.
The store disassembles and refurbishes second-hand furniture. Because the price is very cheap, the appearance is no different from ordinary furniture, and the quality is also good, many families with limited funds choose to buy this kind of refurbished furniture.
These recycled and refurbished secondhand furniture pieces are basically all infested with ghosts and monsters.
As for the ghosts that the store manager stuffed into the furniture, the store manager didn't say where all these ghosts came from, nor did he say why he stuffed the ghosts into the furniture.
But Zhao Dawei learned from the store manager why the ghosts in these pieces of furniture fell out.
—Because the furniture store was sealed off, these ghost furniture pieces haven't been bought for a long time and can't come into contact with humans. Being trapped inside the furniture is too uncomfortable for them, so they are depressed and want to get out of the furniture and go out for some fresh air.
However, without the store manager's permission, these ghosts cannot even leave the warehouse, so they can only lie there in depression.
Separating them from the furniture makes the furniture look less appealing, which in turn leads to even fewer people buying them... It's a vicious cycle.
So the store manager thought about hiring a human employee.
Ordinary humans who come into direct contact with the ghosts inside the furniture without purchasing a contract will die instantly. However, the tenants of Liwan Apartments are unharmed, which is why the furniture store owner asked the landlord to help him hire employees.
Upon hearing the store manager say that ordinary people would die instantly if they came into contact with the ghosts inside the furniture, Zhao Dawei, who was sewing a chair, nearly stabbed himself in the palm with the needle.
And it was at this moment that the strange customer walked into the furniture store.
The customer was a handsome young man with long hair, sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and a free and easy temperament. He was wearing a black Tai Chi uniform with gold trim that old men in parks usually wear, but on him, it looked like a niche Chinese style trendy brand.
He didn't come in through the front door of the furniture store; he came in through the back door.
Therefore, Zhao Dawei, who worked in the warehouse next to the back door, heard his voice very clearly:
"Manager! Is the manager here? I'm here to buy furniture, don't scare me. I brought two sticks of incense for offerings, could I pick out a bigger chair?"
Upon hearing the man's voice, the store manager gestured for Zhao Dawei to stop what he was doing and to walk out of the warehouse with him.
Upon seeing the shop manager, who appeared to be human, the handsome young man raised an eyebrow in surprise. When he saw Zhao Dawei following behind the shop manager, he couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my god! There's a living person here!"
This strange customer stopped mentioning buying furniture, quickly walked up to Zhao Dawei, carefully examined him, and then began to utter a string of charlatans' mantras: "Uncle, I see that your forehead is dark, your eyes are red, your nose bridge has horizontal lines, and it looks like a snake is entering your mouth. You may soon face a bloody disaster!"
Zhao Dawei stared speechlessly at the strange customer. He thought to himself, "I'm already sleeping in a haunted house and working at a haunted furniture store, what could possibly get worse?"
Moreover, his family and colleagues all had accidents a couple of days ago, and he was the only one still alive. This so-called bloody disaster must have already come true.
The customer is king. Although he was inwardly complaining, Zhao Dawei did not directly question the young man who looked like a charlatan. Instead, he casually replied, "Well, I know I'm in danger of bloodshed soon, so I got a talisman. You don't need to try to sell me any more talismans or anything like that."
As he spoke, Zhao Dawei took out the amulet hanging around his neck and waved it in front of the guest.
The amulet was a gift from his landlord yesterday. Zhao Dawei's intention was to end the conversation as soon as possible to avoid the guest's subsequent sales pitch.
Unexpectedly, upon seeing the amulet, the man became even more excited, grabbing Zhao Dawei's hands that were holding it and asking, "Where did you get this amulet from?"
His bright eyes were filled with deep affection, as if he were seeing the image of his dream lover.
This ancient drawing technique, this perfect infusion of spiritual energy—isn't this the very talisman he has been searching for all along, the one that will restore his sect's glory?!
Zhao Dawei struggled but couldn't break free; the young man's hand gripped his firmly like an iron clamp.
The furniture store manager then came over, pulled the strange customer aside, and stood in front of Zhao Dawei.
The store manager's voice carried a warning tone: "Please do not harass my employee. This employee is a tenant of Liwan Apartment."
"Oh, you're a tenant at Liwan Apartments..." The handsome young man gasped, making a face as if he had a toothache. "Never mind then, sorry for bothering you, goodbye, pretend I didn't say anything."
He took out two sticks of incense and handed them to the shop manager: "Here's the incense, and give me another chair."
The shop manager took the incense, sniffed it, and said, "No, this incense isn't good enough. I can only charge you for one stick."
Upon hearing the shopkeeper's words, the young man's expression changed, and he said with a mournful face, "Shopkeeper, please make an exception! I have elderly parents and young children to support, and I really need your furniture urgently. Last night, a bunch of idiots who had been struck by lightning came to the area next to my Taoist temple and performed some kind of cult ritual, attracting several vengeful ghosts. Damn it, there are quite a few ordinary people in my temple, and those bastards ran away after summoning the ghosts, leaving me to clean up their mess."
After a moment of silence, the shop manager finally relented: "For the sake of your master, I'll give you a bed."
The young man looked surprised.
When did this store manager become so generous?!
The shop manager continued, "But your Taoist temple won't last much longer, right? And with so many ghosts around, my furniture can only help you temporarily. If you're really desperate, you can rent a place at Liwan Apartments..."
As he spoke, the shopkeeper's smile widened, and his human features seemed to slip off his face again: "Compared to ordinary people, the landlord would definitely be happier if you became a tenant... Don't blame me for not reminding you, the sooner you go, the sooner you'll get it, otherwise you'll have nothing. And if you go now, you might even see some acquaintances."
The young man had a strange expression, as if he was thinking about something he didn't want to recall.
He waved his hand: "Let's talk about it when we really can't hold on any longer. Laymen watch the show, experts see the details. Ordinary people dare to live inside, but I really don't dare to go near that hellhole."
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the warehouse. As he passed Zhao Dawei, he kindly reminded him, "I know you've been having a lot of bad luck lately. After all, people who aren't unlucky can't live in Liwan Apartments. Just a friendly reminder, it seems like the bloodshed you've been experiencing started today, and it's not caused by ghosts or monsters, but by human error."
"Be careful, lest you die at the hands of your own kind instead of being killed by ghosts."
Hearing him say that, Zhao Dawei subconsciously tightened his grip on the amulet hanging on his chest.
Man-made disaster? He hasn't offended anyone recently...
*
An hour later, when Zhou Fangdong returned to room 104 after writing the convenience store rules, he found a brand new room with no odor and no corpses.
Except for the two ghosts who were still lingering in the room, everything seemed perfect.
System items are definitely more convenient and faster.
[Hidden Mission ②: Clear out an apartment room to use as a convenience store storefront. Completed]
[Task Reward: 300 Ghost Coins]
Hidden Mission 3: Create convenience store rules and find two new employees for the convenience store.
Upon hearing about this new hidden mission, Zhou Fangdong walked up to the Long-Tongued Ghost and the Wedding Dress Ghost and gave each of them a convenience store employee ID card.
After the two ghosts took the employee ID cards, the convenience store rules that Zhou Fangdong had written in his hand also disappeared.
[Beep—Starting to test the fit between convenience store rules and staff...]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com