The Ghost Nest of Jinxin Garden

The elevator fell silent once more, save for the faint hum of its advertisements.

“What exactly is going on?”

Zhao Yunzhong repeated his question.

No one answered. Instead, they all gazed nervously at the wooden wall.

After a brief wait, the elevator doors remained stubbornly open.

Then.

“Beep! Please do not stand between the elevator doors! Beep! Please do not stand between the elevator doors! Beep!…”

The elevator suddenly blared an alarm.

This was the distinct alarm that sounded when someone blocked the doors, preventing them from closing.

The incessant alarms completely drowned out the advertisements, each piercing sound echoing through the elevator, grating on everyone’s eardrums.

“Damn it!”

Wang Jun cursed under his breath.

“Brother Sun, why did we stop on this floor? Why won’t the doors close?”

The woman pressed closer to the man beside her, her voice trembling, almost on the verge of tears.

“That legend… it can’t be true, can it?”

The woman’s warm, soft body, coupled with the faint hint of her perfume, was quite pleasing to Brother Sun. Any lingering panic or fear he felt was instantly washed away by a rising wave of warmth.

“Don’t be scared, Xiao Qi! It’s probably just a minor malfunction.”

As he spoke, his arm casually draped over Xiao Qi’s shoulder, subtly tightening his grip again and again.

Seeing that no one was answering his question, Zhao Yunzhong frantically pressed the elevator’s ‘close door’ button. Though the alarm continued to blare, the doors thankfully began to shut.

This action earned him a measure of goodwill from the other three occupants.

The elevator resumed its descent.

Wang Jun patted Zhao Yunzhong’s shoulder in thanks. They had been too flustered to think of holding down the ‘close door’ button.

Xiao Qi, flustered, quickly pulled away from Brother Sun’s embrace, creating distance between them.

Brother Sun looked disappointed. He shot a glance at Zhao Yunzhong, his newfound goodwill instantly vanishing.

Subsequently, three or four more people entered the elevator, yet no one exchanged a single word. Upon reaching the first floor, they all exited in silence.

Zhao Yunzhong followed Wang Jun out of the building, posing his question once more.

“Old Wang, what exactly happened on the eighth floor?”

Patches of sunlight dappled the gravel path through the estate’s tree canopy. Wang Jun paused in a sunlit spot, as if drawing courage from it. His eyes shifted slightly as he spoke, his tone grave.

“Ten years ago, a bizarre fire broke out on the eighth floor. How bizarre, you ask? You wouldn’t believe it. That blaze raged for an entire day and night, yet it consumed only the eighth floor!

“Throughout that day and night, the fire department battled the blaze, but the flames showed no sign of diminishing. In fact, they grew fiercer. Eventually, the firefighters retreated, resorting to high-pressure water cannons from below.

“Still, the fire continued to burn, until, at a certain moment, it just… suddenly extinguished itself!”

“It was so sudden, just gone. Because they were constantly hosing it down, no one knew exactly when the fire went out. It wasn’t until someone noticed no more smoke coming from the eighth floor that everyone realized the fire had already been extinguished for who knew how long.

“Do you know what’s even more bizarre?”

Wang Jun stared at Zhao Yunzhong, swallowed hard, and continued.

“Everything on the eighth floor—the furniture, even the people who couldn’t escape—was completely incinerated. Yet, there wasn’t a single trace of smoke or soot at the scene!

“I secretly went to see it back then. It was genuinely spotless, just like a newly finished shell of an apartment!

“After that, the property management sealed off the eighth floor.”

Finishing his story, Wang Jun produced a pack of cigarettes, offered one to Zhao Yunzhong, then silently lit his own. He seemed to be calming his lingering fear.

“Why didn’t such a bizarre incident make the news? And why didn’t any of you move out?”

Zhao Yunzhong didn’t light the cigarette, instead tucking it behind his ear as he asked, bewildered.

“Who the hell knows why it wasn’t reported? Maybe the property management has some powerful connections…”

Wang Jun took a drag from his cigarette and continued.

“As for moving out, some did. Those with money or other properties left. But where were the rest of us, without money, supposed to go? We needed a place to live, didn’t we?”

“My apologies!”

Zhao Yunzhong said.

Wang Jun waved it off.

“It’s fine, there’s nothing to be ashamed of. Rich or poor, life goes on. As time passed, we also realized the incident didn’t really affect our lives. No, wait, it did have a small effect: at least us old residents, those who’ve been here for over ten years, don’t have to pay property fees anymore.”

At this, Wang Jun lowered his voice, leaning closer to Zhao Yunzhong.

“Don’t go spreading this around, alright? The newer residents who moved in later don’t know about it. If they found out, they’d definitely cause a fuss.”

“Hm? Old Wang, did you say something?”

Zhao Yunzhong feigned ignorance.

Wang Jun clapped Zhao Yunzhong on the shoulder, and both men shared a laugh.

“Alright, I’m off to work. Which way are you headed?”

Wang Jun asked.

Zhao Yunzhong replied.

“I’m going to find an internet cafe nearby and wait for Chen Jinquan to get off work. Standing me up like that is absolutely despicable! I’m definitely going to get him back today!”

“Haha, my condolences to Old Chen.”

Wang Jun chuckled, then turned and left the estate.

Zhao Yunzhong turned his gaze back towards the eighth floor.

From the first to the seventh floor, each level boasted windows, air conditioners, and other signs of everyday life. However, the eighth floor was jarringly different, abruptly sealed off with cold iron sheets.

This was a glaring difference, yet strangely, when he had observed the building earlier, he hadn’t paid it any mind. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed; rather, he had simply dismissed it, as if such a discrepancy was meant to be.

This estate…

Zhao Yunzhong’s brow furrowed as he sank into deep thought.

Moments later.

Wait!

Zhao Yunzhong realized something crucial. He immediately pulled out his Ghost Detector, setting its detection range to encompass the entire estate.

On the Ghost Detector’s screen, at least twenty-odd dense red dots flickered.

“f*ck!”

Zhao Yunzhong couldn’t help but curse aloud.

“It really is a damn ghost nest!”

He had initially thought it was just one case, but now his workload had instantly skyrocketed.

With so many ghosts lurking in a single estate, incidents of disappearances, deaths, and madness must surely be common. Why then, had Chuanbei Police only received a report from Chen Jinquan and no one else?

And the residents of the estate—strange occurrences constantly plagued them, yet no one moved out. Was it truly, as Wang Jun claimed, due to a lack of money? If one’s life was under constant threat, who would care about a few coins?

The small benefit offered by property management seemed even more negligible in comparison.

If it were him, he certainly wouldn’t be able to live peacefully in this estate. Even sleeping under a bridge or in a park would be preferable to staying in such a ghost-ridden den.

An Anomalous Object!

Zhao Yunzhong’s eyes narrowed sharply.

Something capable of subtly influencing the cognition of living beings—it had to be an Anomalous Object.

Before he set out, the words “Anomalous object” scrawled on the paper had merely been Zhao Yunzhong’s initial, experience-based conjecture.

Now, drawing upon that same experience, Zhao Yunzhong arrived at an even more terrifying hypothesis.

There isn’t just one Anomalous Object in this estate!

The moment this thought took root, an undeniable sense of suffocation gripped Zhao Yunzhong, and his stress surged.

He retrieved the special phone issued by the Department of Anomalies. First, he logged into an app bearing the department’s seal as its icon, then typed keywords into the search bar.

“Chuanbei Jinxin Garden Fire”.

A small circle slowly spun in the center of the screen, eventually revealing a document.[ID: YSK—017

Access: Level A and above]

Access levels ranged from S, A, B, C, D, to E, in descending order.

“f*ck!”

Zhao Yunzhong cursed aloud once more.

He was only a B-level.