Chapter 76 (Catching Bugs)

[It’s incredible, but as of today, I have been staying in this heavenly building for seven days.

[Seven, this number has always been a very meaningful number in our culture, especially for a dead person like me. After all, today can almost be regarded as my first seven days.

[The neighbors don’t quite understand why I am so excited. And I have long realized that the fact that this place is called heaven is actually boring, and I am too lazy to explain and argue with them. Anyway, to a bunch of wood, no matter you say [hmmmm] or [ahhh], they don’t care. On the contrary, if you really tell them some profound truths, they will only say [hmmmm] [ahhh] to you. What’s the point?

[The only person I am happy to talk to is the novelist who lives downstairs. She was a very young girl, and quite talented. It is always a pity that she passed away at such a young age. But she herself was quite optimistic about this, always saying that dying at this age might not be a bad thing. She was obsessed with stories, but her family wanted her to study medicine, which made her very unhappy. She was full of resentment while studying medicine, but she couldn't make any progress. Because of her limited energy, she was unable to make any progress in writing. In the end, she was left with nothing on both sides, and her time was wasted. How regretful.

[I didn't expect that God was kind to her after all. Her consciousness was still there after death, and she lived here, so she was able to preserve her sanity. She still had plenty of time to waste. She could do whatever she wanted and study whatever she wanted. How free and easy she was!

[I don't really agree with the novelist's idea. But I have to admit that in my heart, I actually felt as grateful as she did. I thought my life had come to an end, and who would have thought that I could make up for it. Isn't this a gift?

[Okay, I've gone off topic. Let's get back to today's story. Today the novelist came to see me again and told me about her new novel idea - she always called it a "stalk", but I don't really understand what it means. The leaves are spread out, and their roots are in the stems. I don’t know if this is what it means.

[I told her that today was the seventh day after my death, and the little girl became interested and insisted that it was worth celebrating. She also regretted that she didn’t have a decent gift to give me. I said that it was a bit strange to give a gift on the seventh day after my death, but she said that this was something that should be prepared. I thought she was just talking casually, but she actually ran to find the building manager, asked for a chance to go out, and asked the building manager for money, and really bought me a gift.

[It was this notebook. She said that she saw that I liked writing, so she gave me one. I couldn’t refuse the kindness, so I finally accepted it, but as for how to use it, I was a little confused. After thinking for a while, I finally decided to use it as an essay.

[So, this is my first essay after moving into the Heavenly House. If you encounter any interesting things in the future, you might as well write them down. When you are free in the future, you can find a few good neighbors upstairs, warm up a pot of tea, find a balcony, and read carefully. I think it will be an interesting thing.

...

[I was free and suddenly remembered this notebook, so I just wrote down two more things. Speaking of which, this is the tenth day I have lived in this heavenly building. I have been allowed to walk outside and have a deeper understanding of the neighbors. However, the only one I can chat with is the novelist downstairs. The rest can only be said to be very strange.

[I have not been to the fifth floor yet. I only know that the chief of the building lives on that floor. It’s a pity that I have never had the opportunity to meet him; the third floor downstairs has always been empty. Room 302 and Room 301 are both vacant.

[Room 402, across from me, is occupied by a young man who is very handsome but not very cheerful. He is always timid when he speaks, which makes people want to pat him on the shoulder to straighten his back and speak for him!

[The novelist I often interact with lives on the second floor. I don’t know which room she lives in. The girl pretends to be mysterious and won’t tell me. Anyway, it seems that only she lives on the second floor.

[The first floor is the only one with two households currently occupied. Room 102 is occupied by an old man with white hair, who is probably older than me. He likes to move a recliner and sit in his hallway with the door open and facing outside. Sometimes he will just sit in the corridor.

[He is cold and doesn't like to talk to people, but if you pass by him, he will stare at you. His eyes are as if they are real and keep on staring at you, which makes people feel very uncomfortable.

[Room 101 is occupied by a mother and daughter. The girl is called Panpan. She is about middle school age and very smart and cute. The mother is a little slow and speaks and acts slowly, but she is very enthusiastic and gentle to others. She even treated me to the rice dumplings she made herself.

[It's interesting to say that a dead person treated another dead person to rice dumplings. Ha, I really don't know what Mr. Qu Yuan would feel if he knew about this in the afterlife - but on second thought, maybe Mr. Qu Yuan is not in the underworld at this time.

[Maybe he, like us, also lived in his own [Heavenly Tower] after death, but for people of their generation, it might be more appropriate to call it [Taoyuan Township]! 】

...

【Today, I went downstairs to eat rice dumplings and came back. I was surprised to find that someone had moved into Room 301.

【The person who moved in was a little girl. She looked younger than Panpan, carrying a small schoolbag, and looked very pitiful.

【I originally thought that she, like Panpan, was accompanied by family. Because when I went upstairs, the door of Room 301 was open. I clearly saw that in addition to her, there was also a thin, smartly dressed middle-aged woman. But when I went downstairs to give Panpan a book, I saw the woman opening the door and walking out, leaving only a hurried back.

【In the next few days, I paid close attention and finally confirmed it. The girl now lives alone in Room 301, and the woman has never come back.

【This is really worrying. Those who live in this building should be dead, but if they are dead, why would they leave? Could it be that the woman has some unfinished grudges in the world, so she can't stay in this rest place like us, or is she, as the novelist said, "not qualified to live here"?

[During a casual chat, I told this strange thing and my wild guess as a joke to the novelist and the gardener - by the way, the gardener is the guy who lives opposite me. The rope sawed the wood, and with my insistence, he finally became a member of our Paradise House Cultural Salon. Congratulations, congratulations.

[The novelist is worthy of being a storyteller. Regarding this matter, she made a more interesting guess. She said that maybe the woman was a relative of the girl in Room 301 and was still alive. She just came to see her off, or so-called "send her off".

[This statement sounds a bit romantic, but also a bit sad. It reminds me of my past relatives. Alas, separation between the living and the dead is always a pity. I just hope that my relatives are all well and can live in heaven like me after death! ]

...

[... I hesitated for a long time about today's notes and still didn't know how to start writing.

[It has been more than half a month since the girl in Room 301 moved in. I don't know if I am too suspicious, but I always feel that the situation in the building seems to be different from before.

[I can’t tell exactly what has changed. I just feel that the air, which used to be fresh and comfortable, seems to be mixed with chemicals these days and makes me uncomfortable. The little gardener in Room 402 rarely goes out again. At most, she stands at the door and chats with me, but she refuses to step out of the house. The novelist also seems to be a little strange. Every time I see her, she is always eating. Panpan downstairs also told me that the novelist went to her house two days ago and took away a lot of rice dumplings and buns from her mother.

[God knows, she brought back a whole bag of rice dumplings last week! I saw it with my own eyes!

[Do the deceased like us... really need to eat so many things?

[The new neighbor across the street also makes me worried. He is also a young man, who looks more handsome than the gardener, and speaks and acts more confidently. But I always dislike him, and feel that there is a slick and calculating taste in his words and deeds.

[Let me put it this way, if it were my daughter, I would never let her associate with such a person! ]

...

[The novelist still associates with that person!

[She hasn't come to talk to me recently, but has been very close to the slick 202. Alas, if she were my daughter, I would scold her even at the risk of being hated, but here, we are just neighbors after all. What more can I say?

[The gardener still doesn't go out much, but the child living in 301 often comes to see me. But if she comes to see me, Panpan will not come again. I secretly asked Panpan why, but she said that the child made her feel scared.

[What a childish thing to say. We are all dead. If she can scare you, then you can naturally scare her. What is there to be afraid of? It’s a pity that I originally thought I could find another playmate for Panpan, but this matter has to be abandoned! ]

...

[That uncomfortable feeling is getting worse and worse.

[The gardener has completely closed the door and will not go out. Panpan rarely comes up either. She said that she dare not walk around now. Every time she goes out, she will see the old man sitting in the door frame opposite and staring at her coldly. The look in his eyes makes her scalp numb.

[She also said that she had seen with her own eyes that the old man stared and his eyeballs rolled down. This scene is really scary! I hope this is just her imagination!

[Her mother is not in good condition either. Seems more sluggish than before. It really should be something to worry about, but maybe I'm despicable. When I saw her slightly empty eyes, I just felt scared.

[The novelist is still having a heated exchange with the young man opposite her. The kid from 301 became the only person I could communicate with. She didn't even know the words, so I often took her to study. This child doesn’t know what kind of education she received before. She actually doesn’t even know the word “home”.

[I explained it to her for a long time, and she finally understood that [family] is a close whole. She asked me what the pig under my house meant, and I told her it was a pig. The child was so cute, she actually thought that the [pig] was meant as a pet!

[[That's the right way to understand it. In a family, besides mom, dad, brothers, sisters, there should also be pets!] That's what she said to me at the time.

[I didn't refute her and just nodded. Unexpectedly, the next second, she suddenly looked at me.

[[Uncle Hu. I should have a mom and a sister. But I don't seem to have a dad, a brother, or a sister...

[[Will you be my dad?]

[...I, I don't know how to express my feelings at the time.

[The moment I met her innocent eyes, I didn't know why, but I felt scared from the bottom of my heart.]

...

[The gardener is gone.

[I discovered this this morning. When I went out, I found that the door opposite was open, but it was empty inside, with no one.

[According to the gardener's personality, he couldn't have gone out by himself. I firmly believe that this is a missing person. But I don't know who to discuss it with - the child in 301? I have been avoiding her since that day. The novelist? We haven't spoken for a long time. Panpan? She is still a child, and her mother is already overwhelmed by taking care of her.

[It seems that there is another option. That is the building manager. But I only know that he lives on the fifth floor. I tried to go up and knock on 501 and 502, but no one paid any attention to me.

[What's wrong with this building? Is there anyone who can help me! ]

...

[There are new residents in the building. Two again.

[Two people moved in. One is a man in his thirties, who lived on the fifth floor. The other is a woman of about the same age, who lived in 302.

[They seem to be different from ghosts like us. They must have known the host before. And the man got a position as assistant to the building manager after he came in, and he often patrolled the corridors; the woman came in with a lot of luggage and sealed the door of Room 301 without saying anything.

[I didn't understand why they did this at first, until the novelist told me that she had watched the argument between the lady and Room 301. During the argument, the lady directly searched out a head from under the bed of Room 301.

[It was the gardener's head.

[The little girl kept trying to snatch the head back, saying that it was her [brother].

[... In this way, the lady might have been hired specifically to deal with the little girl.

[Dangerous neighbors are being watched, and there are also people patrolling the corridors. I have to say, this really makes people feel relieved.

[It’s just that I overheard them arguing. They seem to disagree with some of the actions of the building manager. Saying things like [artificial storage of the dead is nonsense], [What will you do when they grow up and can change the rules]... What do these mean?

[Oh yes, the novelist and I are back together again. She seems to have finally realized the truth that you can’t have a smooth-talking man no matter what, this is really the only thing to be thankful for recently!

[But there is one thing I find strange. It seems that the smooth-talking man has not been seen for a long time. Is he also like Panpan and her daughter, staying at home and not going out? ]

...

[After a period of observation, I am finally convinced that the situation in the building is getting better!

[Thanks to the newly moved 302 and the assistant to the building manager, the air is regaining its former freshness. The girl in 301 has been sealed, which has greatly relaxed my body and mind. The return of the novelist has brought back some of the fun in my life.

[It is a pity that because of the little girl’s previous extreme behavior, stricter management measures have been adopted in the building. No one is allowed to leave the unit anymore. Even visiting other rooms requires the approval of the assistant to the building manager. The mechanism of the induction light seems to have been modified as well. It will not light up easily. However, once it lights up, the assistant to the building manager will arrive as quickly as possible...

[The old man on the first floor also locked himself in and refused to come out. A huge cat's eye appeared on the door from nowhere.

[There was another shocking change. In this ghost building that was supposed to belong only to the dead, sometimes living people would appear.

[They often came in to look for someone, and no one knew how they opened the door. The building manager introduced new rules, strictly requiring us not to talk to or contact such living people, but to hide in our own rooms. She said she would be responsible for sending these people out.

[Later, I heard from the novelist that those people were probably tricked in by the little girl in 301. She said that the little girl was actually different from us. She did not hold the [root], but she herself was the [root].

[…So what is the [root]? Is it similar to the [stalk]?

[In addition, there is one more thing. I don’t know who to tell, so I can only write it down here first.

[That is... I once saw through the cat’s eyes that a stranger went upstairs to see the building manager. That person had a very beautiful gold bracelet on his hand, so I was deeply impressed.

[But the next day, the gold bracelet appeared on the novelist’s wrist.

[Not only that, I always feel that the novelist now gives me a different feeling than before... Sometimes she seems to be very hungry, so hungry that she will drink water non-stop, and sometimes she is inexplicably full and will not eat anything given to her.

[The way she looked at me also made me a little... As a friend, it is really rude to say this, but her eyes made me shudder. I even thought of the little girl in 301 back then.

[I hope I am just overthinking! ]

"..."

Shrinking in the simulated scene, Xu Ming was carefully reading the diary in his hand. When she saw this line, her frowning brows wrinkled even tighter.

She read very quickly. It took less than ten minutes to finish reading so many pages. Judging from the content of the diary, it seems that what was recorded here happened a long time ago - so

long ago that this place can be called "paradise", and so long ago that the person living in Room 102 is an old man, not a monster.

I just don't know what happened afterwards, and how the saying of "man and pig" came about... Xu Ming thought silently, and turned the page of the notebook to the back. After reading the content clearly, his expression changed slightly.

At this moment, she heard the sound of the door lock turning in Room 101 not far away, followed by the sound of the door opening. The edge of the screen door is made of metal, and there is a harsh sound when it rubs. In such a small space, it is even clearer to hear.

Xu Ming immediately closed the notebook reflexively and looked in that direction vigilantly. After seeing the figure coming out of the door, her face suddenly changed again.

People... She didn't even know whether she should call that a "person".

From her point of view, it might be more appropriate to call it "mud in clothes."

Brown, still flowing mud. If you really want to say it, it may be closer to some kind of wax object. This wax made up the entire body of the "figure", but the whole body was in a disgusting, limp state. All the skin in sight, whether it was the face or the arms, was dripping with semi-liquid solids.

Even the facial features were dripping down layer by layer.

Just looking at it made one's scalp tingle.

...So what is this? Is it Panpan who originally lived in 101? Or is it some monster that moved into the building later...Why did it come out at this time? Did it also notice itself?

Xu Ming's mind raced as she watched the other party getting closer and closer to her. Although she knew that the other party could not see her hiding in the simulated scene, she still instinctively shrank back.

So the monster just passed by her. The moment it passed by, Xu Ming heard it muttering something.

It seemed to be, "children", "children"...

"..." It actually wanted to eat children.

Xu Ming couldn't help but shrink her body a little more.

At this moment, she seemed to notice something and widened her eyes slightly. Before she could react, the monster had already bypassed her, looked around for a while, and finally sighed as if it had made up its mind, raised its shapeless feet, stepped lightly on the steps in front of it, and walked up the stairs all the way.

Soon, the figure disappeared from Xu Ming's sight.

Xu Ming was left standing stiffly in place, his heart still beating violently because of what he had just discovered.

At the same time, the dream simulation time finally ended. Xu Ming felt that there was nothing under her feet, and the whole person fell to the ground with a slight collision sound. Seeing this, the puppy who had been hiding in the corner rushed towards her with its short limbs, and hit Xu Ming's instep accurately. In the blink of an eye, Xu Ming grabbed the back of the neck and lifted it up.

"...Oh my god." Xu Ming's fingertips were a little cold. It was not until he touched the warm and soft body of the puppy that he felt a little relieved.

She closed her eyes, thinking of the scene she had just seen,

but she couldn't help but feel distressed again. - Although it was only a few seconds, she did see it.

The monster just now had a work badge on his chest. It was a work badge belonging to the Ghost Story Demolition Office.

There was also a name written on the badge.

It was "Po Haitang".

"...I'm sorry."

Xu Ming closed his eyes again. Even if he was unwilling, he had to face the obvious fact.

She was late after all.

It was really too late. So

late that Po Haitang, who was kind enough to make an extra trip for her, but was accidentally involved in the ghost story and was completely forgotten by them -

was completely gone.

Even her ID card had become a decoration of the monster's ugly body... and judging from the state of her ID card before, she might have been killed during the time when she arrived...

wait.

The state of her ID card?

As if realizing something, Xu Ming's expression suddenly froze, and then he lowered his head to open his bag, quickly took out the rule book, and quickly flipped to the page where Po Haitang's ID card was located -

the ID card record was still there. This meant that the ID card was still in effect.

Since it was still in effect, it meant that the person was not dead.

Since the person was not dead, and the ID card appeared on the monster's neck again, it meant that...

"...No way?"

Xu Ming subconsciously raised his eyes to look up at the stairs, muttering involuntarily.

I just felt like something in my mind was disintegrating and collapsing very quickly.