Chapter 14 Entering Room 102: The Mannequin Turns into a Living Person
When Hong Zhong saw the familiar figure carrying a kerosene lamp appear at the entrance of Liwan Apartment, he suddenly felt something was wrong with the sensation in his left hand.
Looking to the side, I saw that the mannequin had somehow transformed into a man with thick eyebrows and big eyes.
The man, whom he was holding tightly in his arms, was looking at him with a puzzled expression.
Hong Zhong hurriedly let go of her hand, and the energy drink he hadn't swallowed almost sprayed out of his nose.
He stared in shock at the man in the blue and white shop assistant uniform beside him, and couldn't help but touch the man's arm again.
It's soft, it's real flesh and blood, but the body temperature is a bit low.
The furniture store manager paused in tidying clothes, moved his arm away, and politely said to Hong Zhong, "I'm sorry, my sexual orientation is female, and I'm not interested in men."
Hong Zhong's lips twitched slightly.
He's not interested in men either!
What interests him is how a mannequin could suddenly turn into a living person—even if it involves supernatural forces, that's just too incredible.
Hong Zhong glanced at the furniture store manager, then at the haunted building in front of him, his wariness of Liwan Apartment growing stronger.
This mannequin only turned into this form after arriving at the Liwan Apartments... In other words, the Liwan Apartments are no longer just a haunted building housing countless ghosts; it also has the ability to make ghosts disguise themselves as living people!
The furniture store manager remained unmoved by Hong Zhong's intense scrutinizing gaze.
After smoothing out the wrinkles in his clothes and straightening his hat, he strode to the door of Liwan Apartment and respectfully asked, "Dear landlord, hello, I am the manager of Guijia Furniture Store. May I come in?"
Zhou Fangdong nodded.
The store manager pushed open the glass door, entered the apartment, and handed a job posting to Zhou Fangdong: "I've come to visit today to ask for your help in recruiting a new employee. Our furniture store urgently needs a delivery person. There are no age or gender restrictions. It's a five-day work week with two days off, eight hours a day, and the monthly salary is 1000 ghost coins."
"Delivery drivers don't need to know how to drive; our store's vehicles can drive themselves. They also don't need to move things; our store's furniture can move itself."
"Our only request is that you help us hire a living human being... It would be even better if that living person were a tenant here."
Zhou Fangdong took the job posting and ostensibly looked at its contents, but inwardly he was frantically calling for the system.
"System, system, is this furniture store owner reliable? Can I send my tenant to work for him?"
[Home Furniture Store and Liwan Apartments are friendly partners. Human tenants with Liwan Apartments tenant status can work normally in the furniture store.]
After receiving a reply from the system, Zhou Fangdong felt relieved and handed the job posting to Zhao Dawei: "There happens to be a job here. Would you like to work at the furniture store?"
Zhao Dawei hesitated: "This salary... Mr. Landlord, may I ask what kind of ghost coins are used to pay the salary?"
This is a bit hard to explain... Zhou Fangdong thought for a moment and replied, "You can exchange ghost coins for money here. I can give you three thousand yuan for 1,000 ghost coins."
Zhao Dawei's eyes lit up.
He's all alone now, and 3,000 a month is more than enough for him to live on.
"I'm willing!" Zhao Dawei readily agreed. Then he looked at the furniture store manager and said somewhat apologetically, "However, I need to go to the Investigation Department to give a statement today, and I can only start working at the furniture store tomorrow. Is that alright with you?"
The furniture store manager nodded: "Of course, please keep this employee badge and come to work at the store at nine o'clock tomorrow morning." After saying that, he took out a light blue employee badge from his pocket.
Today was clearly their first meeting, but Zhao Dawei's name and his one-inch photo were already on their employee badges.
Zhao Dawei had already witnessed too many supernatural events in the past two days, so he wasn't frightened by the employee badge at all and calmly accepted it.
Just then, Hong Zhong walked in carrying the newly ordered furniture.
Seeing this, the furniture store manager said, "You don't need to bother moving them anymore. When no one is around, the furniture ghost will help move the furniture to the designated room."
Then he gratefully said to Zhou Fangdong, "Thank you, landlord, for taking these children in."
After realizing what the store manager was talking about, Zhou Fangdong suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
So, are all the furniture he ordered these past two days infested with ghosts?
It is known that each room in the Liwan Apartment can only accommodate one ghost. Since the furniture ghosts cannot stay in the rooms, they will definitely return to the corridor.
The thought of countless ghosts crowding the shadows, wandering the corridors with love number plates made Zhou Fangdong feel uneasy.
This is terrible! He already has enough ghosts here. I really don't want to take in any more of this furniture store owner's 'children'.
But right now, this is the only place we can buy furniture. Without furniture, we can't finish decorating the room, and without decorating the room, we can't complete the side quests and the main quests...
Oh well, he won't encounter any ghosts walking down the corridor with his kerosene lamp anyway, so out of sight, out of mind.
Zhou Fangdong's feelings were extremely complicated, but he maintained a calm expression when facing the furniture store manager, as if he had known about it all along.
Hearing the store manager say that the furniture would move itself, Hong Zhong's emotions didn't fluctuate much. He simply silently placed the clothesline and single bed at the apartment entrance.
After all, mannequins can transform into real people, so nothing will surprise him anymore.
Moreover, the store manager's words answered Hong Zhong's questions. No wonder all the furniture appeared at the furniture store entrance in a pre-packed state; since the furniture could move itself, it could naturally pack itself as well.
After putting down the furniture, Hong Zhong prepared to leave; he had no intention of meeting Miao Zheng.
On his way here, he had already received the message that Miao Zheng had successfully checked in.
Hong Zhong was initially angry that Miao Zheng had abandoned him and acted alone, but after thinking about it, he realized that it would be better for the two of them not to show that they knew each other.
After all, Miao Zheng came here because the Department of Disorder Monitoring was monitoring the rental forum. If the landlord knew that he was monitoring the rental forum 24 hours a day, it would probably cause some unnecessary misunderstandings.
Before leaving, Hong Zhong looked at the furniture store manager and asked, "Do you need me to take you home?"
The store manager shook his head: "No need, I can take the bus from Liwan Apartment back by myself."
“That’s good…” Hong Zhong paused, then gave up on choosing his words and went straight to the point: “I have already completed the delivery. Please take back the reward. I can’t accept your store’s furniture.”
The furniture store manager had a strange expression on his face, and said with a sneer as if blaming him for not recognizing the value of the goods, "Fine, our furniture isn't some kind of slow-moving stock. If you don't want it, then I won't give it to you. Just don't regret it later."
Hong Zhong didn't argue with him. After confirming that the furniture reward on the delivery screen had disappeared, he turned and left without hesitation.
Zhao Dawei quickly called out to him, "Captain Hong, are you going back? Can you give me a ride? I also need to go to the Investigation Department."
Hong Zhong paused in his tracks, looking somewhat puzzled, and asked, "Wasn't the statement already completed yesterday? What are you going to do next?"
Zhao Dawei's smile was bitter: "The statement I took yesterday was about my family's case, and the statement I need to take today is about my former company... All the senior executives and employees of the company I used to work for have gotten into trouble, but I'm fine. I received a call from the Investigation Department yesterday, and they want me to give a statement."
Hong Zhong's expression turned serious: "Alright, then come with me, I'll take you there." He really didn't know that the company Zhao Dawei used to work for had also run into trouble. These past two days, he had been following up on the Liwan Apartment matter, and had handed over other cases to his colleagues.
After the two left, the furniture store manager also left, leaving Zhou Fangdong alone in the apartment entrance.
Zhou Fangdong looked at the two sets of furniture on the ground, still in their packaging. In the dim light of the kerosene lamp, the two sets of furniture looked like ordinary furniture, completely still.
I reckon the ghost inside the furniture won't move until he leaves.
Zhou Fangdong didn't linger any longer and turned to walk towards room 102.
Pushing open the door to room 102, a strong smell of burning hit you.
Unlike the other two rented one-bedroom apartments, room 102, although also about 50 square meters, has been converted into a two-bedroom, one-living room layout.
The living room is right inside the door. The room is pitch black, with burn marks all over it.
All the furniture inside was burned and severely deformed. The chandelier on the ceiling crashed onto the coffee table below. After being scorched by the high temperature, the crystal pendant on the chandelier had completely fused with the broken glass of the coffee table, looking like an abstract installation art piece.
There wasn't much trash in Room 102, but the floor was covered with a thick layer of black ash. Walking around Room 102 felt like walking through a severe smog.
Zhou Fangdong covered his mouth and nose and walked to the center of the living room. Just then, a system task pop-up appeared:
Side Quest 2: Renovate and rent out Room 102
① Clean up the area and remove the black ash.
②Painting walls/applying new wallpaper
③ Discard the damaged furniture and buy new furniture.
④ Find the ghost hidden in the room and figure out the ghost's killing pattern.
⑤ Draft a rental agreement and find tenants to move in.
[Side Quest 2 Rewards: 300 Ghost Coins, 1000 Experience Points, Random Character Skill x1]
After quickly scanning the task pop-up window, Zhou Fangdong discovered that the reward for this new side quest was the same as that for the level 109 side quest.
The tasks and rewards in the remaining rooms on the first floor are probably all pretty much the same.
Zhou Fangdong closed the task pop-up and continued walking into room 102.
In the corner of the living room, he found a familiar little room.
His role-playing began here last night.
This tiny storage room, only five square meters in size, was completely different from the living room; there were no signs of burning inside. The furniture in the room was well-preserved, exactly the same as what he had seen when he was playing the role, and even the bed was free of dust.
After lingering in the small room for a moment, Zhou Fangdong prepared himself mentally, mustered his courage, and put away the kerosene lamp.
The room was plunged into darkness in an instant.
In the Liwan Apartments, the ghosts in the corridors may attack humans randomly without any reason, but the ghosts in the rooms will not attack humans easily; they all follow a certain pattern of killing.
As long as you don't trigger the ghost's killing patterns, you're safe in the room.
Zhou Fangdong had the courage to approach the ghost in Room 102 precisely because of this.
Shortly after the kerosene lamp went out, strange things began to happen in the small storage room—a dark shadow crawled out from under the bed.
After the dark figure crawled out, it slowly stood up.
It had no human form, no facial features, and its appearance wasn't bloody or terrifying. It looked like four charred lumps of flesh stuck together with one giant lump of flesh, forming an irregularly shaped humanoid clay sculpture about half a person's height... like a black clay lump that a child had casually sculpted together.
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com