Geisterreich

Kapitel 7

"What did you see?" she asked.

I told her everything I saw—except for the computer, it was practically the same as not seeing anything at all. Xu Xiaobing was stunned when I mentioned the computer.

“There wasn’t a computer in this room before,” she said slowly after a long pause.

"How did you know?" I asked, and immediately felt that I had asked the wrong question. Xu Xiaobing had lived in this room for a month, and so many things had happened during that time. She must have spied on this third room just like I had. I remembered what she had said to me in the coffee shop last night. She mentioned that the neighbor's man had peeked through the crack in the door, just like I had just done.

“I’ve looked through the crack in the door countless times,” Xu Xiaobing said. “I check it two or three times almost every day, but I’ve never seen a computer.” She took a breath, walked to the door, leaned down slightly, looked through the crack for a while, straightened up, and nodded: “That’s right, there is indeed a computer.”

After a short pause, she added, "And the computer packaging box is under the bed, did you see it?"

I shook my head: "I didn't notice."

“I saw this room yesterday, and there wasn’t a computer in it yet,” she said, looking at me with an indescribable expression. “But there is one today.”

I stared at her with wide eyes.

Yesterday I just received my computer; yesterday, online I encountered west Chu Yang Guan; today, just now, we met someone online claiming to be our roommate, and then, right here in this third room, we found a newly appeared computer—the computer's packaging box is still there...

All of this is clearly connected in some way. Maybe we really do have a roommate, but we just can't see him/her... This thought has crossed my mind countless times. I've heard and thought about it too much these past two days, and I'm almost tired of it. But no matter how tired we are, this unseen person, or something else, is always around us. No matter how tired we are, we have to face it.

“There’s no way out, things are getting stranger and stranger,” I said. “Is there something wrong with the house itself?”

“I don’t know,” Xu Xiaobing said. “I asked the landlord, but she didn’t believe me. She was so angry because I asked that question that she almost kicked me out.” She gave a wry smile. “So I didn’t dare to ask again.”

“We still have to ask him,” I said. “Let’s go ask him together tomorrow. If we both say the same thing, he’ll probably believe us more, right?”

"I hope so," Xu Xiaobing said.

After all that commotion, we were both exhausted and decided to get a good night's sleep. Before going to bed, Xu Xiaobing and I agreed to go see the landlord the next day to find out what was going on with the house. We figured we'd deal with everything tomorrow—we were really tired, especially me. One night, I went from not believing Xu Xiaobing to experiencing it firsthand, and then I heard about her background. Everything was different from what I imagined. My mind was a complete mess, and this confusion overwhelmed me more than fear, making me drowsy. So far, we were in a very passive position. We seemed to have no choice but to accept everything that unseen thing did; we couldn't retaliate at all. Perhaps the landlord could provide some clues—we were pinning our hopes on the landlord to solve the problem.

Do unseen things really exist in this world? Could someone be playing tricks? In the instant before falling asleep, this question appeared in my mind, but I no longer had the strength to think about it. Darkness enveloped me, and in the darkest part of the night, I didn't have a single dream.

8

The next morning, as usual, we found many strange traces, but the writing on the bathroom mirror with red lipstick had been wiped away sometime during the night. Xu Xiaobing and I quickly washed up and called the landlord to arrange to meet at his house. The landlord, unaware of what had happened, kept asking questions on the phone, but Xu Xiaobing insisted on meeting in person and didn't reveal a word over the phone.

Before leaving, I plucked a strand of hair, threaded it through the handle of the third room, and then wrapped it several times around a protruding nail by the door, tying a tight knot. Xu Xiaobing kept urging me to leave; she didn't understand why I was doing this. When I finished this whole process, the hair formed a complete loop around the door handle, and anyone who opened the door would inevitably break this fragile hair loop. She looked at me with sudden realization, as if about to say something, but then quickly looked around, covered her mouth, and gave me a thumbs up.

We barely spoke all morning until we stepped out of that room and out of the dark stairwell of No. 6 Yunsheng Street. Bright raindrops from the street greeted us, and we both breathed a sigh of relief.

“I always had this feeling of being watched in that house,” she sighed, glancing back at the stairwell we had just come from. I nodded, indicating I felt the same way—indeed, the feeling of being watched was omnipresent when you suspect someone else is living in the same house, making you act very awkwardly, as if every move you make is being watched by countless eyes. Just thinking about this feeling made me feel uneasy again, and at the same time, a little doubt lingered in my mind, something that seemed to have arisen since last night, but I didn't know what I was doubting.

Even after we boarded the bus, I was still wondering what I was doubting. The scenery along the road was blurred by the rain and mist, like an old photograph seen through frosted glass. The rainwater winding down from the bus window distorted the horizontally flowing scenery vertically as well, making everything somewhat deformed, just like my life over the past two days.

"What are you thinking about?" Xu Xiaobing nudged me.

I shook my head.

"Will the landlord believe us?" Xu Xiaobing asked anxiously.

"Maybe," I answered absentmindedly, but a sudden thought struck me—yes, the computer, that seemed to be the source of my doubt. Yet, I still couldn't quite grasp what that doubt was. I ran a finger across the fogged glass, creating many worm-like lines beneath my finger. The world outside flickered between these lines, forming a fragmented impression. Xu Xiaobing, oblivious to my expression, continued, "Are there really ghosts in the world?" She suddenly shrank back, as if chilled. "I actually lived alone in that room for a month..." She hissed through her teeth, her face filled with disbelief.

"Hmm, impressive," I said sincerely, but my attention wasn't really on that. Xu Xiaobing's words finally clarified a question that had been bothering me—do ghosts really exist? Was what happened in our house really the work of some unknown force? I shook my head. If such an unknown power truly existed, why would it need to use a computer? Could someone have been hiding in the third room, deliberately creating small incidents to scare us? But if that were the case, what was its purpose? And last night, the glass in my hand was indeed filled with ice water without my knowledge. If it were truly a normal person, just like us, even if it could do everything else without our notice, last night's incident would have been impossible for me to miss. Furthermore, if there really was a third person, and their behavior seemed to be deliberately trying to hide themselves, then why would they so openly display their identity online? This seems like a contradiction. No matter how unwilling I am to believe that such strange things exist in this world, I haven't been able to find a reasonable explanation for it so far, so I have no choice but to believe it for now. The car was shaking, and so was my heart. One moment I was overwhelmed by an unknown fear, and the next I felt that the truth of all this must be very simple—my mind just couldn't keep up. Let's see what the landlord has to say.

After several turns and two stops, we arrived at our destination. Our landlord lived on a bustling street, surrounded by people everywhere we looked and heard. We walked down a small alley, weaving through the crowds of elderly people playing chess and chatting under the eaves of houses, until we reached a nearly new building. Several elderly women were knitting and drinking tea in an abandoned bicycle shed. Xu Xiaobing called out to one of them, "Grandma Li, we're here."

"Oh, they're here." An elderly man in a dark green sweater stood up, walked up to us with a smile, and looked me up and down. "This must be Jiang Ling, right? Not bad, not bad. Are you satisfied with the house?"

"Hmm, very good." I smiled, blushing. She was a kind-looking old woman who seemed easy to talk to. Jia Yun hadn't told me beforehand that the landlady was an old lady. I had originally thought I would see a shrewd middle-aged man, but the landlady in front of me made me feel very relaxed.

"That house is really nice. I wouldn't have moved if I hadn't already moved to a new place," Grandma Li said, rambling on and on about her house. We were too embarrassed to interrupt her, so we just stood there and listened. Xu Xiaobing seemed a little anxious, and then, while the old lady was greeting passersby, she quickly said, "Grandma Li, we need to talk to you about something."

"Oh, what is it?" Grandma Li's smile faded considerably. Watching from the side, I vaguely sensed that this old lady actually knew why we had come to see her. Sure enough, before Xu Xiaobing could speak, she said again, "Is it still about that matter from last time?" Although a smile still lingered in her eyes, the old lady's words had become somewhat stern, reminding me of my homeroom teacher who used to scold me when I made mistakes as a child.

“Yes, that’s right…” Xu Xiaobing spoke much faster than usual, but was still interrupted by Grandma Li.

“Let’s not talk about what happened last time,” Grandma Li waved her hand, her smile gone and her lips drooping impatiently. “How can someone so young believe such things?” Xu Xiaobing was about to say something when Grandma Li gestured to stop her, then looked at me, her tone slightly kinder: “You believe what she said too?” I was about to nod almost immediately, but then I saw a complicated look in Xu Xiaobing’s eyes, which made me suddenly realize—it seemed this old lady had a good impression of me, and arguing with her now would not help us at all.

But what should I do?

I stood there dumbfounded, my face flushed with anxiety, not knowing what to do. Afterwards, Xu Xiaobing scolded me for a long time, saying I was terrible at handling things, but what could I do?

Fortunately, I have a naturally youthful face, which is always quite appealing to older people. My blushing didn't seem offensive to Grandma Li; on the contrary, seeing me blush, she immediately laughed and said softly, "So shy? Hehe, don't be afraid, you're still a student, right?"

"I've already graduated," I said, my mind racing, trying to figure out how to bring it up with her, but I couldn't think of a good idea. I was sweating profusely and my face was getting redder and redder.

"You've already graduated? Your family must be worried about you coming out to find a job on your own?" she asked again.

I really liked that kind tone; it reminded me of my own grandmother. Thinking about it, I blurted out, "Yes, this is exactly what happened to me the first time I rented a place!"

"What is it?" Grandma Li asked, her tone turning stern as she looked at Xu Xiaobing. "You told her too? Why do you like to talk nonsense?" Xu Xiaobing's face flushed with anger, and she glared at me fiercely, about to say something inflammatory. Afraid of ruining things, I didn't have time to think and shouted, "She didn't say it!"

Grandma Li and Xu Xiaobing both stared at me, their eyes sharp. I felt a little uneasy, not because I was afraid of Xu Xiaobing, but because I was afraid that after hearing what I said, Grandma Li would turn around and leave, or even refuse to rent the house to us again. At this point, we wouldn't be able to find a cheaper place to rent elsewhere. I swallowed hard, my mind still reeling, but my mouth started to speak: "Grandma Li, doesn't our house have three rooms? Who rented the third room?" As soon as I said this, my thoughts became clear, and I knew how to speak. My heart finally calmed down. I secretly gave Xu Xiaobing a look. She stared at me blankly, seemingly still not understanding what I meant. But that didn't matter, as long as she didn't interrupt—she and the old lady seemed to have a bit of a clash; I could tell that no matter what she said, the old lady didn't like to hear it.

"It's not rented to anyone, it's empty," Grandma Li said.

"That's strange..." I said, "Grandma Li, have any of your family members been to our house these past few days?"

"No, why do you say that? We rented the house to you, so of course we wouldn't just go in. We would have to ask permission before we went in—why do you say that?" Grandma Li was getting a little anxious.

"But we discovered that the door to the third room was opened..." I said, deliberately sounding uncertain. Xu Xiaobing looked at me in surprise. I winked at her quickly, and I don't know if she understood, but the look of surprise quickly disappeared from her face, and she nodded repeatedly in agreement. This girl reacts pretty quickly! I was secretly pleased.

As expected, Grandma Li was surprised to hear me say that: "It was opened? By whom?"

I shook my head: "I don't know, the lock wasn't broken at all. The door was open as soon as we got up this morning... We were quite scared..."

"Yeah, it's terrifying. There are only two of us girls living there, it's so unsafe," Xu Xiaobing chimed in.

Grandma Li looked at us suspiciously, her gaze sweeping over us. But we didn't need to act at all, because the fear was real, and the strange things happening in the room were real too. The only difference was that I slightly changed those strange things, so that I could bypass Grandma Li's natural aversion to supernatural things, and get the same result. After all, all we needed was the result. Whether Grandma Li believed that strange things had happened in our room was not important.

Grandma Li couldn't detect anything amiss on our faces, and gradually began to believe us. She muttered to herself, "Is that so? It really is too unsafe..." As if suddenly remembering something, she asked again, "Could someone have come in from outside?"

I almost blurted out "no," but thankfully my mind caught on in time, and I quickly changed my words to, "I don't know. The door is locked from the inside, and it hasn't been pried open. Unless someone has the key, they can't get in..." I paused here, exchanged a glance with Xu Xiaobing, and we waited nervously for Grandma Li's answer—finally, the key was mentioned, and now we were about to get to the point.

"The key?" Grandma Li looked puzzled. "That's not right, no one else should have the key to the door..." Her tone was uncertain. While she was still thinking, Xu Xiaobing quickly asked, "Besides us and you, who else has the key to the door?"

"There shouldn't be any more..." Grandma Li tilted her head and thought for a while, then suddenly turned around and went upstairs. We followed her, and after entering her house, she didn't bother to entertain us. She rummaged through the room for a while and found two keys. As if to prove something, she said, "Look, there are only four keys in total. You have two, I have two, and there are no more."

"What about the previous tenants?" I asked.

“You were the first tenants when the house wasn’t rented out before,” Grandma Li said. Then, as if suddenly remembering something, her eyes lit up. “Let’s call the police.”

This suggestion caught us off guard. Before I could react, Xu Xiaobing quickly said, "But we didn't lose anything, just that a door was open. The police probably won't take it, right?" That made a lot of sense. I looked at her admiringly, but she secretly pinched me and gave me a stern look, as if to say I was too naive. I quickly wiped the admiration from my face. Fortunately, Grandma Li was engrossed in thought and didn't notice my strange expression. She pondered, "That's true, just opening a door... it's not a big deal, is it? Maybe I didn't close it properly?" After saying that, she seemed to realize it was unlikely and smiled sheepishly.

"Are we really the first guests?" After getting past the "call the police" hurdle, this question immediately became important. If we really were the first guests, then the thing that had been causing trouble in our room was almost certainly not human.

"Of course, I originally intended to leave the house for my son to live in. It was empty for two years. Later, he bought a house in another city, and that's when I rented it out."

"The house has been empty for two years?" Xu Xiaobing asked anxiously.

“Yes, if you don’t believe me, look at my rental records. I keep a record of all the houses I rent out…” Grandma Li started rummaging through the room again. Xu Xiaobing whispered in my ear, “If a house has been empty for two years, who knows what happened inside?” Her words made me think of names like “ghostly shadows in an old house” and “ancient house that makes one feel uneasy,” and I felt a little panicked. Grandma Li’s room was quite dark, and for a moment, it seemed as if there were some shadowy things flowing and swaying on the floor.

While we were lost in thought, Grandma Li had already pulled out her rental record. She hurriedly opened it in front of us: "Look..." She stopped abruptly, staring at the open page in disbelief, as if pondering something. Xu Xiaobing and I leaned closer to her and looked at the record. The first page was densely covered with writing, and at the top were three lines of large red characters:

February 12, 2005, Xu Xiaobing, Room 01. ...

February 12, 2005, Meng Ling, Room 02...

March 14, 2005, Jiang Ling, Room 03...

Even without Grandma Li's explanation, I could understand that these three lines of large characters recorded the tenant information: rooms 01, 02, and 03 corresponded one-to-one with Xu Xiaobing's room, the empty room in the middle, and my room. I didn't look closely at Xu Xiaobing's and my room's information; my attention was immediately drawn to the name in the middle.

Meng Ling.

Following this person's name is a brief description: Female, from Beijing, 27 years old, Assistant General Manager of Nancheng Huinan Technology Company.

Huinan Technology Company?

The name made my heart skip a beat, and my gaze moved upwards, landing on Xu Xiaobing's profile: Female, from Guangzhou, 25 years old, Marketing Manager of Nancheng Huinan Technology Company.

Meng Ling and Xu Xiaobing worked at the same company and rented the apartment at No. 6 Yunsheng Street on the same day. Seeing this, a nameless rage surged within me; a powerful anger of being deceived welled up inside me. Just as I was about to confront Xu Xiaobing, I heard her weak voice: "Who is Meng Ling? How come she works at the same company as me?" Hearing her question, my anger flared even more—she was still putting on an act at this point? I hadn't expected her to play such a trick on me; everything became clear. It was obvious that she and Meng Ling were conspiring to sabotage me. I was furious. All the details of those strange events vanished from my mind; only a burning rage remained, and I didn't know how to vent it. I just gasped for breath, gasping for air—looking back, I really did resemble a fire-breathing dinosaur.

"Who is Meng Ling?" Xu Xiaobing asked again, looking at me. I gave her a cold glance and snorted.

“I don’t know her, there’s no such person in our company,” she explained to me and Grandma Li. I couldn’t help but sneer.

“This person…” Grandma Li squinted, looking at the notebook from left to right, constantly adjusting its position, as if changing its position would change the records on it. She looked at it for a long time without saying anything. My heart was burning like fire. I gently took the small notebook from her hand and slammed it heavily on the table: “This person moved in on the same day as you. You two are probably renting the room together, right?” This question was directed at Xu Xiaobing. She shook her head repeatedly, but before she could speak, Grandma Li said, “That’s not right. Am I really getting senile?”

“I don’t know this person,” Xu Xiaobing said. “We don’t have this person in our company.” Her expression was full of doubt, and even deep fear, but I no longer believed any of it.

In that small, softcover notebook, besides the three lines of basic information, there was a long list of records, including the allocation of various fees such as deposit, water and electricity bills, and property management fees, as well as the detailed contents of the agreement. All these records showed that Meng Ling had paid all fees in full, roughly once a week. Xu Xiaobing would occasionally be slightly late in paying, but Meng Ling always paid on time. There was even one time when Meng Ling temporarily paid the first month's rent of 300 yuan on Xu Xiaobing's behalf. I pointed out these records to Xu Xiaobing one by one and sneered, "You still want to say you don't know her?"

“I don’t know her…” Xu Xiaobing said. She seemed stunned when she saw the records. After reading them several times, she looked up at Grandma Li and asked, “Grandma Li, who is she?”

Grandma Li was also puzzled, tapping her forehead and saying, "I have no recollection of her at all. Who is she?" She turned to ask us, and I sighed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"I've got it!" she exclaimed suddenly, as if remembering something. After searching for a long time, she finally said dejectedly, "Where are your ID card copies? I can't find them!"

I remained silent, utterly at a loss for words and how to handle the situation. Number Six Yunsheng Street was clearly uninhabitable, no matter how cheap the rent or how poor I was; it was no longer a place for me to live. I could share a room with some unknown ghosts and monsters, but not with someone like Xu Xiaobing, who was constantly scheming against me—I didn't know why she did it, nor what she would do next. Moreover, there was Meng Ling, who hadn't yet shown her face, behind her. All of this terrified me. How could an ordinary person like me get involved in such a ridiculous affair?

I decided to start looking for a place immediately, without wasting a moment. Before that, I had to cancel my lease with Grandma Li. Jia Yun had handled the rental agreement for me, but I didn't know the details, how much compensation I would have to pay for canceling the lease, or how much of my pitiful deposit I could get back... I didn't care about any of that. I just wanted to leave No. 6 Yunsheng Street as soon as possible and get as far away from Xu Xiaobing as possible.

After I revealed my intentions, Xu Xiaobing and Grandma Li were both surprised. Xu Xiaobing stared intently at me, but I didn't look at her—she was too good at acting, and I was no longer willing to be deceived by her.

"You just moved in and you want to move out?" Grandma Li was surprised and angry. "Why?"

“I didn’t get along well with Xu Xiaobing,” I said bluntly.

“I told you I didn’t lie to you,” Xu Xiaobing said, her lips trembling. “I don’t know what happened!” She looked at me with a pale face, and I looked away. Later, many times, I would recall Xu Xiaobing’s eyes at that moment and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—never be too cruel to others, because no one knows when such cruelty will befall them.

My words completely destroyed Grandma Li's good impression of me. She looked at me coldly for a long time before coldly saying, "If you insist on checking out, fine, but according to the agreement, half of your deposit will be deducted."

“Okay, no problem.” I said through gritted teeth, “Grandma Li, I’m so sorry to trouble you.”

"It's no trouble at all," Grandma Li said in a tone that suggested "it's a lot of trouble." "You can stay until the end of this month, but this month's rent is non-refundable."

“No need, I’ll move out as soon as I find a place,” I said.

Having said all that, it seemed there was no need for me to stay any longer. I had come here to find out the truth about what had happened in the house, and now that the truth was pretty much clear, I said goodbye to Grandma Li and left without looking at Xu Xiaobing again.

9

After leaving Grandma Li's house, the rain and mist on the street enveloped me like a spider web, sending a chill through my body. The flush on my face, which had been burning with excitement inside the room, slowly faded, and the surging anger in my heart gradually cooled. With the anger subsiding, a very real problem clearly surfaced—where could I find a place to live? Grandma Li would deduct half of my deposit, and with the meager amount remaining, even in an economically underdeveloped city like Nancheng, I wouldn't be able to rent a decent place. I had rented the place through Jia Yun, who had gone through many friends to find out about this place. Now that I was injured, it wouldn't be right to bother him again. It seemed I had to find a solution myself.

What can I do? I mentally went through all the people I know in Nancheng—well, really, it's just a few people. Besides Jia Yun and Xu Xiaobing, there are only people from the company left. I'll ask them to help me find out where there are houses for rent when I go to work tomorrow. I can also search for relevant information on online rental websites. However, no matter what the situation, I shouldn't be optimistic about the outcome.

Let's leave it at that for now. If all else fails, I can always go home. Thinking of home, I involuntarily gazed into the distance, as if that would allow me to see the direction of my home—but a heavy barrier of buildings stood before me, blocking out even the horizon. On this unfamiliar street, I couldn't even tell north from south. People passed by in twos and threes. Unlike the desolation of Yun Sheng Street, this street was bustling with activity, filled with moving figures. In the rain, everyone's face seemed veiled in a thin gauze, appearing hazy and poetic.

Perhaps it is precisely this hazy distance that is most beautiful. In a city that treats me like an outsider, these fellow travelers around me seem like people from another planet. Their strange accents and customs are completely different from the small southern town I came from, and their leisurely expressions are something only locals possess—this is their land, and I am just an outsider. I walked and thought, my fingers tracing the exterior walls of the old buildings, my fingertips covered with rainwater and moss—are there many other outsiders in this city? Do they feel lonely like me? I had wanted to find a friend—Xu Xiaobing's short-haired, pretty face flashed before my eyes, quickly replaced by another face that was also hers, but pale and ashen. Images of her from the past few days overlapped in my mind, and I asked myself again the question I had asked countless times—why did she do this?

And once again, I received no answer.