Chapter 48

  Cheng Zhou didn't get excited and say he wanted to rush to put out the fire this time, because just by looking at the boy's expression, he knew that this fire was probably like the previous two scenes he had seen, which would repeat multiple times as you approached it.

  "Aren't you afraid?" Cheng Zhou couldn't help but ask the calm boy.

  Ren Hua looked at him and said, "The doctor says I have emotional deficiency syndrome, with extremely low sensitivity to emotions such as fear and terror."

  "I see, no wonder." Cheng Zhou couldn't help but feel a little envious of the boy.

  "You actually believed it?" The boy suddenly burst out laughing, laughing so hard that he doubled over and tears streamed down his face.

  He hesitated for a moment before reaching out his hand and gently ruffling the boy's hair.

  The boy stopped smiling and wiped his eyes with his hand.

  Chengzhou raised an eyebrow, and it turned out that the boy's calmness was just fear of going too far, so he simply put on a strong front?

  He sighed, "The ground is full of cigarette butts, how long have you been smoking here?"

  "I don't remember clearly, it was probably around 2 o'clock last night."

  "Why are you sitting here?" He Sheng's voice was soft and gentle, as if an older brother from next door had sat down beside the boy.

  "...This is the safest place."

  "How did you know this place is the safest?" He Sheng and Situ exchanged a glance.

  "Yuan Yuan told me to stay here and not go anywhere, not even back home. At first I didn't believe him, but later..." The boy reached out to touch the cigarette again.

  Cheng Zhou took advantage of Ren Hua's unpreparedness and directly snatched the cigarette from his hand.

  "Don't let kids smoke so much. Cigarettes kill vitality and physical strength, causing excessive phlegm in teenagers, premature ejaculation in young adults, impotence in middle age, and bronchitis in old age. If you don't want to ruin your life at a young age, then quit smoking."

  "Nonsense!" Ren Hua didn't believe it at all.

  "Really, if you don't believe me, ask a doctor. And look at athletes, they don't smoke." Cheng Zhou said seriously.

  "It doesn't matter, anyway I don't plan on getting married in the future." The boy stretched out his hand to grab the cigarette back.

  Cheng Zhou didn't give in, "You're saying this now, but you'll definitely regret it in the future!"

  "I don't know what will happen in the future, who cares!"

  Situ Chengzhou again pulled the topic towards an unknowable direction, and had to once more stem the tide, "Ren Hua, do you know where Yuan Yuan is now?"

  Ren Hua shook his head, "I don't know, I went to his house to look for him, but his family never opened the door."

  "Tell us what happened in this building."

  "Hmm." The boy thought for a moment, then stood up. "Although I still haven't figured out what happened in this building and why it's become like this, from 9 o'clock yesterday morning until now, I've also discovered some rules. Follow me, seeing is believing, hearing is deceiving, you'll understand everything once you see it with your own eyes."

  As the boy got up, a dirty football rolled down from upstairs with a "thud".

  Cheng Zhou picked up the football that had rolled in front of him with one hand. Was this the football that Ren Hua gave to Yuan Yuan? Wasn't Yuan Yuan just upstairs?

  Cheng Zhou raised his eyes and looked up at the building.

  Ren Hua first took them to the door of Room 205.

  "Yesterday morning around 10:30, I found their house emitting thick smoke on the balcony. No matter how loudly I shouted, no one noticed. Later, I also found that the phone couldn't get through, so I could only come down and knock on their door."

  "He pointed to the steel-wooden door below, which was still emitting thick smoke. 'No matter how I knocked, it wouldn't open. I tried running out, but every time I stepped out of the main gate, I found myself walking back in. No matter how many times I tried, it was always like that. I also tried crawling out from the window, but to no avail. I even ran up to the rooftop and shouted loudly to attract attention, but people outside seemed to be unable to see me, no matter how loud I shouted."

  "You listen, there's still screaming inside."

  Situ looked at the door, but didn't approach it. The wailing inside was still clearly audible. It was strange that the wails were so clear, yet they hadn't heard anything when they stood at the staircase entrance earlier.

  "I had no choice but to go knock on other people's doors, however..." The boy's expression was a bit distorted.

  "Wait!" He Sheng turned around and looked at everyone, "Where's Cheng Chou? Have any of you seen him?"

  Situ quickly turned around and looked back, "I saw him bend down just now, then..."

  Later, they followed the boy to the door of Room 205. They all thought that Cheng Zhou would definitely follow closely behind them. But now... a big living person had vanished into thin air beside them!

  Situ grabbed Ren Hua's wrist with one hand, and the boy was startled.

  Situ's eyes gleamed with a hint of ferocity, "I can no longer sense Cheng Chou, who are you?"

  Ren Hua, no matter how brave he was, was still just a child. After being frightened for a whole day and night, his nerves were stretched to the breaking point. Now, being pressed by Sutu like this, he suddenly let out a loud cry and struggled with all his might, exerting such great force that ordinary people couldn't hold onto him.

  "Steward! Calm down! This child is a living person!" He Sheng pushed the steward away and pulled Ren Hua to his side.

  Ren Hua was both afraid and anxious, and shouted loudly: "I didn't do anything! What right do you have to be so fierce? How am I supposed to know what happened to your friend? You're here to catch ghosts, aren't you? What's the point of being tough on me? If you've got guts, go catch the thing that's haunting this place!"

  "Ren Hua!" He Sheng turned around and shouted at the boy to stop provoking Si Tu, "I'm telling you honestly, if you want to get out of this building alive, relying on me and Si Tu is useless. The only one who can save you is Cheng Zhou. So I hope you can think carefully, think about where Cheng Zhou might have gone? For example, in this building, what do you think is the most terrifying or eerie place?"

  Where is Cheng Chou now?

  He was still standing there, but when he bent down to pick up a football and stood straight again, his little friends were all gone!

  Chengzhou looked up and down the building and saw no one, his first reaction was to quickly glance at his own wrist.

  Fortunately, the spirit tablet is still here.

  As long as the Lingpai is still there, I believe that Situ and the others will be able to find him soon.

  Chengzhou decided to wait in place and go nowhere.

  "Tap tap tap."

  The sound of high heels walking up the stairs echoed out.

  Cheng Zhou naturally turned his head sideways.

  A woman who looked like she was in her twenty-four or twenty-five years old and dressed quite fashionably came up the stairs.

  Cheng Zhou subconsciously felt that the woman looked a bit familiar, and upon closer inspection, his hair stood on end.

  Isn't she the disheveled girl who just poured hot water from the window and scalded the old lady?

  Just a moment ago she was dressed up so beautifully and now she has an innocent look on her face, where is she going?

  The woman saw Cheng Zhou and walked past him with no expression.

  When two strangers meet, as long as they're not interested in each other, neither of them will take the initiative to talk to the other.

  The woman walked to the leftmost door on the second floor, raised her hand and knocked loudly without being polite, "Hey! Second floor, 205, are you done yet? You're always wearing leather shoes at home, walking back and forth, don't even know how to use your hands to move stools and chairs. Do you have boils on your butt? One minute you drag it over, the next minute you drag it back! You may not find it annoying, but we downstairs can't live like this!"

  Chengzhou was surprised to find that the house where the woman knocked on the door was the one that had just emitted thick smoke, but now the door of that house was spotless and not a wisp of smoke came out.

  The woman changed from knocking on the door to pounding heavily on it, and her curses became increasingly foul-mouthed.

  After a while, Room 205 finally opened, and a man in his fifties scolded as soon as he opened the door: "You come up every day to make trouble! Your family's affairs are the most numerous! What does it have to do with you if I don't like to change my slippers at home? Do you think it's noisy? Go out and buy a villa to live in! If you can't afford to buy a villa, find a rich man to marry, don't stay at home every day looking for trouble. I think this girl is just looking for a scolding!"

  "Damn it! You old stinker, won't you just die already?! What are you doing wandering around the house for no reason? Do you think I don't know you're doing this on purpose?! The whole building knows that you're the most despicable and sinister one! You're shameless to the extreme!"

  The middle-aged man was furious and immediately retorted.

  An old man who doesn't leave a good impression and a young woman scold each other, it's easy to guess the outcome.

  The woman's face turned red with anger, and after the old man slammed the door shut, she loudly cursed at his front gate: "You stinky, shameless, despicable old man! I curse your whole family to be burned to ashes! A big fire burning your whole family to death would be great!"

  Inside the gate, an old man's retort came: "You're a dead girl! A woman like you will never marry in her life! With a rotten mouth and tongue, your face will soon be covered with festering boils!"

  The two parties stood on either side of the door and continued to scold each other for a while, until the woman finally stormed off downstairs in anger.

  Before long, Cheng Zhou heard loud curses and slamming doors coming from downstairs again.

  "Where are you going? Are you going upstairs to find that Ming Ge again? That kid looks like he's not a good person, I'm telling you, he's just a freeloader, don't be fooled by him!"

  "Mom, that's enough! Ming Ge is not that kind of person! And tell grandma to go home quickly, stop gossiping with people at the door, she's the best at wagging her tongue in the whole building!"

  A young woman carried a package that looked like food and ran past the front of Cheng Zhou's house, "dada", to upstairs.

  Cheng Zhou shook his head and sat down on the stairs with a football in his arms.

  Cheng Zhou shifted his buttocks unnaturally after sitting still for a while.

  The corridor was extremely quiet, as if the commotion that had just occurred was just his illusion.

  Moreover, he always felt as if there was something behind him, but he didn't dare turn around.

  That feeling of having something behind him grew stronger and stronger, and Cheng Chou couldn't sit still.

  The man psyched himself up several times, finally... with one hand grasping the handrail and the other hugging the soccer ball, he slowly stood up, turned around, lifted his head and looked upstairs.

  A white Pekingese dog was squatting on the stairs between the second and third floors, silently staring at him.

  Cheng Zhou smiled wryly at himself.

  Jing Ba saw him get up and immediately stood up on all fours and turned around to walk upstairs.

  Chengzhou didn't move.

  Jing Ba ran upstairs to see if Cheng Chou had followed him, then ran back to where he was just now and continued to silently watch Cheng Chou.

  After repeating this several times, Cheng Zhou finally understood what the other party meant. The Kyoto crow seemed to want him to follow it?

  But... Cheng Zhou hesitated, he was afraid that if he left here, he would lose contact with Si Tu He Sheng. Moreover, the boy had also said that this place was the safest!

  Something happened suddenly, and Cheng Zhou had to leave the second floor.

  A small figure suddenly ran up from the first floor and quickly ran past Cheng Zhou's face.

  "What's going on?!"

  The child stopped in his tracks and looked back at him.

  "Long time no see! I was just looking for you, where's your mom?"

  Yuanyuan pointed upstairs, her small face pale.

  "Is your mom upstairs? On the third floor? At your grandparents' place?" Cheng Zhou took a step forward.

  "...... Uncle, he's coming, run! Mom said we can't let him catch us!" Yuanyuan finished saying and continued running upstairs. The speed was so fast that it didn't seem like a three or four-year-old child at all.

  "Who is he? Yuan Yuan wait for me!" Cheng Zhou subconsciously chased after him.

  Thank you jhen's hand grenade^^