Chapter 6: The Third Floor is Haunted, Did You Know?

  Shen Lan had tidied up the room next to mine and gone to bed early. I was idle and bored, so under the lamp, I took out that notebook of Ruo Wu's again to flip through it.

  I was shocked by those cold memories in the words and fell into that desperate emotion of Wu Nian and Xie.

  Her infatuation with the evil one, and that mysterious person who confined her, all confuse me. Unfortunately, this notebook records very little, and I only found a single photo of the evil one.

  If her writing about the event was a bit clearer, I might have been able to make sense of it. But after flipping through the entire diary, not a single complete name appeared, and everything written in it was about that deep and profound thought.

  As a professional studying criminal psychology, I have strong logical thinking abilities, but I can only piece together the general outline. This girl named Ruo Wu deeply loves a man named Xie, but doesn't know why her feelings for him are filled with guilt. The two of them struggle in their emotional entanglement... Later, someone imprisoned Ruo Wu in this garden, and even until her death, she never mentioned the name of the person who imprisoned her in her diary. From Ruo Wu's perspective, her emotions towards the person who imprisoned her are strange, with fear and melancholy, but no hatred. In any case, the identities of these three people are a mystery. I sighed, helplessly closing the diary in my hand, and looked out the window.

  Outside the window, it had started raining fine rain at some unknown time, and the fine raindrops gently tapped on the windowsill, dyeing a black night to an eerie extreme.

  That damned Shen Lan is probably asleep by now, but I'm wide awake. I laboriously got out of bed and suddenly remembered that it's been three days since I returned, and I still haven't gone to the third floor of this building. Since I couldn't sleep anyway, why not go up to the third floor and take a look? Maybe I'll discover some secrets about Ruo Wu and Xie.

  I dragged a wounded leg, lit a flashlight, and climbed up to the third floor step by step, finally climbing onto the third floor.

  The scene on the third floor surprised me, under the dim light of the flashlight, it was desolate. Obviously, even in its most glorious moments, this third floor should have been a no-man's land. I shook my head and looked around at the rows of rooms one by one.

  The rooms in front were all empty, nothing was there, only the thick curtains blocked my line of sight.

  The room in the middle was cluttered with all sorts of miscellaneous items. I pushed open the door and walked in, catching a whiff of musty smell that had been lingering for years. I let out a loud cough. What the heck, how can it smell so bad?!

  I walked to the window and pulled open the curtains, opening the tightly closed window, only to find that this room was facing the small wooden house by the lake on the opposite side, what a coincidence!

  There were many things in the room, piled up in a messy way, and I didn't know where to start. I struggled to move those heavy pieces of furniture, lifted the white cloth that covered the surface, shook off the dust that filled the air, and was choked into a loud cough again.

  I crouched down and carefully parted the cobwebs that had gathered on top. The things here were indeed very old. They were all furniture from half a century ago, books from half a century ago, and even clothes from half a century ago. I sorted through them one by one, constantly sighing in amazement, as if I had returned to the Shen family's old mansion from half a century ago, lamenting the decline of this once-great house.

  After a while, I didn't find anything, only found a book with the name "Kunqu" on it. Kunqu? I couldn't imagine what a sad and melancholic girl singing Kunqu would look like? I was completely at a loss. Thinking back to last night's tune in that small wooden building, it really had some similarities with Kunqu, and as soon as I thought of this, goosebumps rose all over my body again, and I hastily threw down the book and stood up.

  I muttered to myself in my heart: "If you have a spirit, please guide me and tell me what injustice has been done to you, I will avenge you..." I repeated the words and walked around the room.

  Seeing this gloomy and terrifying room, I don't want to stay any longer, just about to take that strange score out of the room.

  Suddenly, a singing voice came from the corner of the room, mournful and lingering: "Alas, the fragrance of spring has already faded away, two-thirds of it has flowed into the water, one-third has turned to dust... The quiet falling flowers hurt the spring scenery, the withered grass fears the dusk..."

  My hair stood on end, the flashlight in my hand clattered to the ground, and I didn't care about the wound on my leg. I turned around and ran out of the door. Just as I reached the corridor, I bumped into someone's body. It was cold and icy, and I couldn't see his face in the darkness. My soul flew away, and I let out a scream: "Ah..."

  Unexpectedly, the person who came supported my swaying body and softly shouted: "Yu Ge, it's me!"

  Damn it! It turned out that Shen Lan had accidentally walked up to the third floor in the dark. I forced myself to calm down my wildly beating heart and shouted loudly: "Son of a bitch, don't you know that scaring people can kill them?..."

  Shen Lan's tone was surprisingly calm: "Yu Ge, sorry, I only came up to take a look because I heard some noise upstairs..."

  I'm still furious: "Come up and see if a flashlight will kill you!"

  Shen Lan didn't argue, and silently supported me as we walked downstairs. I felt a bit strange, Shen Lan's body was so cool, just like a piece of ice.

  I didn't think much of it, but my blood was rushing to my head, my whole body felt hot and dry, and being close to his body gave me a very comfortable feeling.

  Shen Lan helped me back to my room and lay down on the bed. Although I was scared in my heart, I didn't want to show weakness in front of Shen Lan, so I pretended to be very tired, yawned, and put on a sleepy look.

  Shen Lan, who had been silent for half a day, spoke up: "Yu Ge, why did you go to the third floor? And at such an ungodly hour too."

  "My temper flared up again: 'This is my home, I love to go wherever I want, do you have the right to interfere?' In my heart, I thought, Shen Lan was being too presumptuous, after all, your grandfather was just a servant in our Shen family."

  "Yuge, don't you know? The third floor is haunted..."

  "A ghost?" I sighed inwardly. I had already encountered a ghost, but you just didn't know about it. However, I still hadn't really seen one before.

  I suddenly thought of a question, how did Shen Lan know that the third floor was haunted?

  "I asked back: 'The third floor is haunted! Have you ever seen it?'"

  Shen Lan sighed: "Yu Ge, I heard it from my dad. When my grandfather was a florist at your Shen family's house, he lived here with my father. My father told me that the third floor of your house is eerie and even during the day, no one dares to go up alone. At midnight, you can often hear footsteps and sighs coming from upstairs, it's so scary..."

  I felt a chill run down my spine, and my heart skipped a beat as I sensed an eerie aura circulating around the room.

  "Has your father told you anything else besides this?" I suppressed the fear in my heart and asked Shen Lan again.

  Shen Lan wanted to say something but stopped himself and said: "I only know this much. Yu Ge, in the future, if there's nothing important, don't go to the third floor..."

  His words sounded very caring and pleasant to hear. I sighed and waved my hand: "I'm tired, you go to sleep too..."

  Shen Lan agreed and left my room.

  The next morning, I got up very early because I had to go to work. Although I didn't like this job very much, I also wanted to make a good impression on my colleagues, especially in front of Zhou's team for the first time.

  My feet don't hurt that much anymore, I rummaged through the closet and found that brand new police uniform, put it on, and took a look in the mirror. Wow, I almost didn't recognize myself. The me in the mirror had sharp eyebrows, a heroic aura all over my face, and this one police uniform made me look like a completely different person, both handsome and elegant.

  I smiled slightly in front of the mirror with great satisfaction.

  Shen Lan pushed open the door and came in, saw me wearing a police uniform and let out a loud "wow", retreating in terror. I saw Shen Lan's face turn pale through the mirror.

  I shrugged and smiled smugly to myself: "Damn, I've never seen you look so handsome in a police uniform. Even if you are handsome, there's no need to be that scared, you're really just a country bumpkin..."

  I shrugged again, snapped my fingers, and ignored him, whistling as I walked out the door, got in the car, and drove off towards the county town.