Chapter 60 Kerosene Lamp Oil Production Base, Room 203, successfully exited...
Even after leaving room 202, Zhou Fangdong still hallucinated that He Yansheng's ramblings were floating around in his ears.
That's terrible. It's really horrible that this tenant has fallen into such a negative mood.
Zhou Fangdong stood on the second-floor corridor, looking at the three doors in front of him.
The two ghosts and one person in these three rooms on the second floor could become sworn brothers; the three negative brothers.
Room 201 is in a sickly, melancholic state; Room 202 is filled with He Yansheng, a pessimistic and depressed individual; Room 203 is in a state of despair and social withdrawal…
Oh, right, since we're already on the second floor, let's check out room 203.
Anyway, he doesn't have any urgent tasks related to the basement right now, and going into the basement isn't a necessity, so there's no need to rush. Let's ask He Yansheng when he's feeling a bit better.
Upon entering room 203, Zhou Fangdong noticed that compared to the initial state of the room filled with moisture, room 203 was much better now, no longer having that foggy, humid feeling.
In the bathroom, Puff Ghost was still huddled in the gap of the bathtub, her body, which had swelled up several times over, could still fit into the gap, looking like a ball of cotton, quite conspicuous.
If it had looked like this back then, Zhou Fangdong would definitely have been able to find its location immediately.
It seems to be able to keep the moisture within a certain range for a long time... Zhou Fangdong pondered for a moment and decided not to use cleaning tools to clean the room for the time being.
First, call Hou San over and let him tour room 203 to see if the furniture vendor can accept it.
After all, he's not some unscrupulous real estate agent; he can't hide the fact that a room with serious defects is being rented out to someone else.
For furniture and home renovation, you can order from Guijia Furniture Store at any time.
With the repair of the garbage station branch line completed and all functions of the renovation purification device in the corridor unlocked, the yin energy on the second floor became more stable.
Zhou Fangdong could sense it himself without even asking the furniture store manager.
Not only did the restless ghosts quiet down considerably, but the temperature in the corridor also decreased, making it feel more and more like the corridor on the first floor.
Once he rents out all the rooms on the second floor, the gloomy atmosphere in the corridor will probably stabilize completely.
Because contacting the furniture vendor required burning yellow paper, and it wasn't appropriate to light a fire inside the building, Zhou Fangdong went to the garden between the two buildings, found an open space, and took out a stack of yellow paper.
This yellow paper was found in the two large bags of incense, candles, and paper money that Duan Wenyu had bought for him. It seems that he bought a lot of things, and the funeral shop owner gave it to him for free.
Following the contact information on the business card, Zhou Fangdong wrote Hou San's name and stall information at the ghost market on a piece of yellow paper, and then used a lighter given to him by the funeral shop owner to light the stack of yellow paper.
The yellow paper burned quickly, and as the flames rose, the shadow of a paper sedan chair grew larger and larger, as if it had been formed from the ashes of the paper that floated up with the heat waves, turning from illusory to real, getting closer and closer.
Zhou Fangdong stepped aside, and then saw the paper sedan chair carried by two small paper figures rush out of the flames and heat wave like a speeding car, and suddenly stop in the garden open space.
Because the sudden stop was so abrupt, a figure was thrown out of the paper sedan chair by inertia, rolled several times on the ground, and finally lay face down on the ground.
"Ouch... my back..." The man stood up shakily, pointed at the two little paper figures carrying the sedan chair and scolded, "Bad review! Are you trying to get rid of customers as soon as possible by carrying the sedan chair like this? You need to work on your sales skills, otherwise you'll never sell anything and you'll be stuck guarding the door of the paper shop for the rest of your lives!"
"Tch." The little paper figure curled its lip in disdain.
The little paper doll spat out, "Pah! You freeload off us and still dare to be picky."
Then the two little paper figures rolled their eyes at the man and disappeared carrying the sedan chair.
The man patted the mud off his clothes, turned around, and smiled as he cupped his hands in a respectful gesture to Zhou Fangdong: "Haha, please forgive my rudeness, Mr. Landlord. As soon as I saw you contact me, I rushed over as fast as I could."
Zhou Fangdong didn't know what to say for a moment.
This furniture vendor's entrance was truly...unique.
Zhou Fangdong noticed that the two paper figures carrying the sedan chair looked like the same two people at the entrance of the paper offering shop in the ghost market, so he asked curiously, "Do you have a relationship with the owner of the paper offering shop in the ghost market? Do you own the paper offering shop?"
"Oh dear! We don't have the ability to open a shop in the ghost market," Hou San said with a laugh. "I'm just a supplier—landlord, have you ever been to a paper craft shop?"
Zhou Fangdong nodded.
"Then you must have seen the paper figures in the paper craft shops... Those paper figures don't have three souls and seven spirits; they're neither ghosts nor people, but they can move. Isn't that amazing?"
Hou San rolled up his sleeves, a hint of pride on his thin face: "I have a pair of skillful hands. Not only can I steal... secretly get anything I want, but I can also collect some intangible things, such as the resentment and obsession of ghosts and monsters, or various negative and extreme emotions in humans... These things are good fuel to drive those paper figures. What I provide to the paper craft shop owner is these things. The paper figures in the shop are so spiritual, and I deserve half the credit for it."
Seeing that Zhou Fangdong's expression was a bit off, Hou San quickly explained, "I'm a law-abiding citizen, I wouldn't steal the emotions of the living. Most of what I collect is resentment that has escaped from vengeful ghosts... There are more ghosts than people in this world now, and these resentments are just floating around anyway, so why not give them to me?"
Zhou Fangdong's strange expression wasn't because he minded this, but because he was thinking about the situation in room 203.
The puff-loving girl, deeply mired in regret, was practically overflowing with negativity from the room. Hou San, who needed a dose of negative emotions, was a perfect match for that room.
"By the way, Mr. Landlord, is there something you wanted to talk to us about?" Hou San rubbed his hands together, his face full of anticipation. "Is there a new room available for rent?"
Zhou Fangdong nodded: "Let me show you the house that's available for rent. You can think about whether you want to rent it."
Hou San said decisively, "There's absolutely no need to consider it. I'm willing to stay in any room at the Liwan Apartments!"
"Let's go to the room and see what's going on."
Zhou Fangdong led Hou San to the second floor of the apartment.
Since entering the apartment, Hou San had been looking around, his face flushed with excitement, as if he had finally bought his dream home after working hard and saving money for half his life.
Upon arriving at room 203, the man became even more excited, his eyes brimming with tears as he exclaimed, "Landlord, are you really going to rent such a wonderful apartment to me?"
If he moves in here, it's like having a constant supply of raw materials to provide to the paper shop owner, allowing him to earn ghost coins every day and completely eliminating the need to set up a stall to supplement his livelihood.
He felt that if he lived in the Liwan Apartment for a few months, he could quickly save enough money to buy a shop, and then he could become a big boss in the Ghost Market.
Sure enough, the best thing he ever did in his life was to strike up a conversation with that actress at the ghost market that night.
Zhou Fangdong confirmed, "Are you sure you want to rent this room?"
Hou San nodded vigorously, "Confirmed!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a system pop-up appeared in front of Zhou Fangdong's eyes:
[Partially-owned tenants are not required to follow rental rules; a tenant agreement has been automatically signed.]
Zhou Fangdong took out the key to room 203 and handed it to Hou San: "Keep this key safe. If the key is lost, it will be considered an automatic termination of the rental contract."
"Alright~ Don't worry." Hou Sanxi happily took the keys and unzipped the loose front of his suit jacket.
He wasn't wearing a shirt under his suit, and his chest was sunken inwards, revealing a half-blue, purplish face.
Hou San put the key into the face's mouth, then straightened his clothes.
Zhou Fangdong had been trained by the ghosts of Liwan Apartments; no matter how bizarre the tenants were, his expression remained unchanged.
Room 203 has been successfully rented out. Congratulations, host, for completing side quest 9.
Side Quest Rewards: 500 Ghost Coins, 2000 Experience Points, 1 Random Skill Point
The new tenant profile [Special Tenant - Ghost Thief] has been unlocked. Please claim your reward promptly.
"By the way, I haven't had time to clean room 203 yet, why don't you leave for a bit..." Zhou Fangdong originally wanted Hou San to leave so he could give the room a thorough cleaning with an automatic cleaning tool.
But to his surprise, Hou San heard him say that and quickly waved his hand to refuse: "How can I let you do such dirty and tiring work? We can clean it ourselves. I have furniture and other things in stock. You don't need to worry about it, Mr. Landlord."
That saved Zhou Fangdong some trouble: "Then I'll go first, you can take your time packing."
As Zhou Fangdong left room 203 and passed by room 202, he suddenly noticed blood seeping out from under the door of room 202.
He was so frightened that he thought something had happened to He Yansheng. Just as he was about to push open the door, he saw a white bandage floating out from under the door crack along with blood. Two words were crookedly written on the bandage.
Zhou Fangdong first opened the rental preview interface, and after confirming that He Yansheng in the room was alright, he carefully observed what was written on the bandage.
Those two words look like... 'last will and testament'?
Is that bandage sticking out from under the door the bandage ghost from room 202? It's asking him for his will...
Zhou Fangdong remembered something and opened the lottery interface.
Among the unclaimed rewards was a cursed item—[Blood and Tears Testament].
Besides being able to indiscriminately attack both yourself and enemies, this item also has a note at the bottom of its description.
(Note: This is also an exclusive favorability item. Giving it to a specific person will increase the favorability of that ghost or person.)
...This "certain ghost" and "certain person" should refer to the bandaged ghost in room 202 and He Yansheng.
Zhou Fangdong received the cursed item.
The cursed item was a folded piece of paper stained with blood.
He had just placed the paper on the bandage when the bandage quickly wrapped around the suicide note and shrank back into the room.
Then another bandage emerged from the crack in the door. This bandage looked relatively new, unstained by blood, and clearly showed a familiar rune printed on it—the same blood-red rune painted on the basement door of X.
There were several places on the rune that looked like they had been heavily touched with someone's finger dipped in blood. Zhou Fangdong understood its meaning and took the bandage back to the basement.
He pressed down on the brick of the door in front of him, following the marked positions on the bandage.
After pressing all the buttons, the door slowly turned, and a pale white light poured out from inside.
Zhou Fangdong squinted slightly, and after his eyes adjusted to the glaring light, he went into the basement.
He had imagined that opening the basement door might reveal a monster that had failed to be resurrected by the Heirs, or a rotting corpse, or a pile of bones, but he never expected to see this scene before him...
The basement was very clean, like a hospital morgue, with no strange smells or bloodstains.
A row of electrified ice coffins stood against the wall, the cold light shining on the iron coffins and reflecting an unsettling, glaring gleam.
Opposite the ice coffin was a strange device that looked like a medieval alchemical instrument.
To the left of the instrument were many flasks that looked like those used for extraction or refining. The flasks were placed on an iron table, beneath which lay a maze of glass tubes and switches. To the right was a half-person-high, round iron bathtub… or perhaps a large iron pot used for boiling things would be a more apt description.
However, these are not the main points. The main points are the corpses lying in the ice coffins.
Zhou Fangdong stared in shock at the ice coffins.
...The corpses lying in the ice coffins all had his face.
He walked back and forth in front of the ice coffin several times in disbelief, confirming that the gruesome corpses were all his.
There were thirteen corpses in total...
Zhou Fangdong was stunned, his mind a complete mess.
After a long silence, he frantically called upon the system in his mind:
"System??? What's going on?! This...this is all..."
The only response he received was a cold, emotionless electronic voice:
[Beep—Congratulations, host, you have discovered a kerosene lamp oil production base]
[The lamp oil production interface has been unlocked. Please have workers create lamp oil brewing equipment to start production.]
[We currently have 13 units of lamp oil remaining. Please allocate your resources wisely.]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com