"I know."
Lu Mingran refused to back down: "But I really have a ghost story I can exchange. System, just tell me the location."
The system was helpless. After searching for a while, it reported a place name.
It's nearby, not too far.
Lu Mingran first went to KFC to eat something to fill his stomach. After he finished eating, he slowly walked towards the alley.
This area is the heart of the city, bustling and vibrant. But hidden here is a dilapidated alleyway known only to locals. It had rained a couple of days ago, and the alleyway was covered in mud, with water droplets dripping from the eaves.
Lu Mingran walked over carefully and saw that the right side of the alley was full of low old houses. Bright wreaths were hung on the outer walls, but from the outside, the houses were dark. Several women sat on small stools outside, bending over and making things, occasionally looking up at him.
Children were running past on the road, and he stared intently at Lu Mingran's back with his dark eyes.
Lu Mingran knew what the child had seen. All he could do was pretend to be calm.
After looking around, Lu Mingran finally chose the innermost one. He shouted at the top of his lungs, just as the system had instructed:
"Old man, are there any more gold ingots?"
This is a code.
Soon, an old man in a white vest came out carrying a bowl. He looked Lu Mingran up and down, then turned around, took out a small notebook and a pen, and tossed them to him: "Write down your name first, let me see."
He said he was supposed to write names, but actually he was asking him to write stories. The old man threw his things away and went inside, leaving Lu Mingran alone outside. He grabbed a stool and started writing while leaning on it.
The story doesn't need to be long, just over a hundred words will do. Lu Mingran quickly finished writing and handed the notebook in.
The system fully expected the old man to mumble something like, "There are no more gold ingots," but after a while, the sound of a drawer being pulled open came from inside.
The old man appeared before Lu Mingran once again. This time, he was clutching a paper gold ingot in his hand.
"Hey, what story did you write?" The system was stunned.
"It's nothing, just the story of how I became Zhang Tianshi's father, it's absolutely true."
After saying that, Lu Mingran took the gold ingot. He borrowed a lighter and a brazier from the old man and started burning them at the very end of the alley.
The gold ingot was quickly licked clean by the flames. Lu Mingran used fire tongs to sift through the ashes and pulled out a yellow strip of paper.
"call--"
Lu Mingran blew on the note, removing the black ash and revealing the words underneath.
————————
Dexing Building.
The note only contained these four words. Lu Mingran looked it up and found that it was a notorious unfinished building in the city.
Its fame is naturally due to its connection with ghost stories.
Lu Mingran arrived at Dexing Building before dark. The protruding steel bars on the building stretched out in the afterglow of the setting sun, and the windows with their glass removed looked like empty eye sockets without eyeballs, sending chills down one's spine.
It was obvious that the female ghost liked this place, and Lu Mingran's neck grew even colder. He futilely patted his neck and went up the stairs on the east side.
The building was indeed empty, but some rooms still had dirty bedding, probably left behind by homeless people. Lu Mingran went up to the sixth floor, found a quiet spot with nothing around, sat against the wall to eat something, and rested with her eyes closed.
He slept until midnight. In his drowsy state, Lu Mingran heard loud, boisterous young voices coming from downstairs, and the voices were getting closer and closer to him.
"Hey everyone, thank you for watching! Today, I'll be taking you on a tour of the Dexing Building."
"It's okay. If I were a coward, why would I have come here..."
Huh? Someone's here?
Lu Mingran sat up straight and even stood up, walking towards the stairwell. As soon as he got there, he saw a young man holding a phone on a stand coming up the stairs towards him.
The man was so engrossed in his work, his eyes glued to the screen, that he didn't even notice Lu Mingran. When he finally looked up and saw Lu Mingran's blurry image, he froze.
Lu Mingran: "..."
young people:"……"
Ten seconds later, the young man turned and ran, shouting out the following four characters in the first, second, third, and fourth tones of Chinese pinyin:
"Ah, eh, eh, ah!"
At this moment, Lu Mingran truly appreciated just how good the acoustics were in this unfinished building. The screams of the young people echoed throughout the building; the highs were sweet, the mids were accurate, and the lows were deep—in short, crystal clear.
Meanwhile, the screen of his phone, which had fallen to the ground, was still lit. Lu Mingran walked over and picked it up.
Chapter 32 Want to take care of your brother? No way (3)
Judging from the interface on the phone screen, the young man seemed to be running a live stream, with the number of viewers displayed as 8 in the upper left corner.
So the audience he mentioned actually consisted of only eight people.
As Lu Mingran brought the phone closer, his face appeared in the frame. Although it was dark inside the building and he couldn't see very clearly, the viewers realized that he wasn't the young man.
At first, only a few scattered comments floated by:
"Hey, where's Xiao Jiu?"
"...Could the person who screamed so pitifully just now, yet still managed to make a proper transition, be Xiao Jiu?"
Then, someone went outside and said something, and suddenly the number of viewers increased. While Lu Mingran was still looking bewildered, the content of the comments section abruptly changed:
"Who are you, sir?"
"I was recommended this place by a friend. I heard that your streamers are performing screams."
"Ahhh... Dude, are you a ghost?"
Looking at the comments and the title of the live stream, "Night Exploration of Dexing Building," Lu Mingran finally understood. It turned out the young man was doing paranormal adventure live streams. Honestly, his mental fortitude was even worse than Lu Mingran's; no wonder only a few people were watching.
Faced with increasing inquiries and jokes, Lu Mingran thought for a moment and decided to help the young man smooth things over. After all, he was the one who scared him away.
After clearing his throat, Lu Mingran smiled at his phone, though he was actually quite scared, and his voice trembled slightly.
"Hello everyone, I'm not a ghost, I'm Xiao Jiu's assistant. Today, I'm doing a live stream with him."
Longtime viewers commented that Xiao Jiu was too poor to possibly have an assistant, but other comments quickly drowned out those thoughts: "Then where is Xiao Jiu? Where did he go?"
"Was he screaming so pitifully just now, were you all acting together?"
"Oh, we were just trying to liven things up a bit."
After saying this, Lu Mingran wanted to end the live stream, but the viewers suddenly became interested:
"Then, assistant, can you show us around first?"
Lu Mingran: ...I refuse.
However, the audience was incredibly enthusiastic, showering the streamer with gifts, and the streamer gained a lot of new followers. Left with no other choice, Lu Mingran forced herself to continue:
"How about we walk around for a bit first?"
Later, Lu Mingran ostensibly helped the young man with his live stream, but in reality, she started using the excuse of strolling around to find him. There were also some homeless people in this building, some of whom were mentally unstable, and those were far more terrifying than ghosts.
So, Lu Mingran, holding her phone, climbed up and down the hills and wandered around, visiting all the places rumored to have been the scene of the accident, following the advice of her fans.
Lu Mingran is now carrying a female ghost on his back. As he spins around, he inexplicably becomes bolder, or rather, he is finding joy in his suffering.
Forget it, if we really encounter something, let the ghost fight with the one inside me first, and he can just watch the show.
——————
The live stream continued, and what frightened the viewers the most was probably the elevator on the first floor. This elevator was an unfinished remnant, and it was said that it would go up and down by itself in the middle of the night when there was no power. Lu Mingran approached the elevator with her phone in hand, and every now and then someone would send a comment saying that the elevator was moving.
"Assistant, let's go take another look over there!"
Then everyone remembered another place and excitedly urged Lu Mingran on.
Lu Mingran was somewhat amused and exasperated. He knew that a female ghost was clinging to his back, and from his current angle, her face was probably facing the camera. If they could see her, they'd probably be so frightened they'd forget how to spell the words "Dexing Building."
Well, the current situation is that a streamer carrying a ghost is leading his viewers around an unfinished building to search for the ghost. Lu Mingran is really curious about how the female ghost on his back is feeling right now.
Then Lu Mingran glanced at the number of viewers and found that it had already exceeded 10,000.
Just then, he finally saw the young man. He was squatting in a room on the first floor, arguing with a disheveled homeless man.
The incident started because Xiao Jiu ran in a hurry and accidentally wandered into the territory of a homeless man. The old man kept muttering and cursing, but Xiao Jiu seemed to have no idea what the old man was saying.
Okay, the person has been found.
"Dear viewers, that concludes our live stream for tonight. Please get some rest and have a good night."
Lu Mingran mimicked Xiao Jiu's tone and casually made up an excuse to end the live stream. The viewers weren't satisfied yet, and many stayed in the live stream room, refusing to leave. Some even shouted, "Little assistant, are you married yet? I'm interested!"
But Lu Mingran ignored them and strode towards the pitiful Xiao Jiu. Fortunately, this time Xiao Jiu didn't run away when she saw him, but instead clung to his leg like she was seeing a lifeline.
"I'm sorry, sir, I'll take him with me now."
Lu Mingran and the old man behind him kept saying sweet words, and finally managed to drag Xiao Jiu out of Dexing Building.
The air outside was much better; the moon was bright and the breeze was gentle, and the atmosphere wasn't so oppressive. Still shaken, Xiao Jiu sat on a brick, scrolling through her phone. Then, her eyes widened again:
"10,000+ people? Holy crap, there were still over 10,000 people in my live stream after it ended?"
And so many people are commenting on how handsome the assistant is. In this pitch black, can you even see faces? Wait, who's the assistant?
Xiao Jiu looked at Lu Mingran.
“Yes, it’s all thanks to me,” Lu Mingran said with a smile. “I just told them that I’m your assistant.”
Xiao Jiu was quick-witted and realized that Lu Mingran was trying to smooth things over for him, so he chuckled twice.
"If you really were my assistant, that would be wonderful."
This guy dared to stay in the Dexing Building alone until midnight. When he saw Xiao Jiu, he not only didn't run away but also helped with the live stream. Xiao Jiu really wanted to take him in.
However, Lu Mingran is essentially a coward:
"No, I'm too timid to do this kind of work."
As she spoke, Lu Mingran was observing Xiao Jiu. The boy was wearing a simple jacket and jeans, his hair was messy, and judging from his obviously expensive shoes, he was an eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy who was spoiled by his family.
What caught Lu Mingran's attention most was undoubtedly the red string around Xiao Jiu's neck, beneath which a piece of red jade could be vaguely seen. This thing looked the same as the ancient jade Lu Mingran was wearing, and it must have a significant origin.
No wonder the clue came from here; it turns out there was someone waiting for him tonight.
After a moment's thought, Lu Mingran remained expressionless. He looked at Xiao Jiu and said: