Chapter 2: The Strange Apartment

  I told this thing to my best friend Zhou Ping, he thought I was having hallucinations and suggested that I write less about those taboo things.

  I shook my head and didn't write about how I got out to drink, but I didn't say much more about this to Zhou Ping.

  I even went online to look up some information, and as I read on, I wondered if I had mild depression or slight schizophrenia, but deep down, I felt that I was fine, so I just took a look and let it go.

  Zhou Ping is a policeman. Actually, Zhou Ping and I grew up together since childhood. My grades were much better than his, but he was better at fighting, so in the end, I followed my family's wishes and entered medical school, while he joined the army. Now I run a small clinic on my own, and after Zhou Ping finished serving in the army, he followed his old captain back to our hometown and became a small-town policeman.

  Zhou Ping probably just got off work and changed clothes before rushing over to this small place of mine.

  "You say that nowadays people still like to talk about ghosts and gods, one by one just like they haven't read any books......" Zhou Ping's angry appearance made me not dare to speak up, but in my mind, I couldn't help but think of the shadow of that woman from before, and my heart was racing with anxiety.

  "What's wrong?" I asked.

  Zhou Ping saw that I had finished what I was doing and pulled over a stool to sit down in front of me.

  "Something happened at the Hong'an University dormitory a while back, and people have been saying it's haunted. Since it involves some university students, our department took it seriously at first. However, after going there two or three times, front and back, nothing was found. We even staked out at midnight, but still nothing. It's really frustrating. Today, the department arranged for me to stake out again tonight. Do you think these people are playing tricks on us?" Zhou Ping sounded like a long-suffering wife who had been guarding the house for ages, and her husband was back in just three minutes.

  "Why would others want to play with you? You'd better say something, but the past two or three days when you stayed up all night, your wife called me about this matter?"

  "It's not like that, this time again I'm being sent away, I've already told my wife that I'm going to my father-in-law's house for his birthday, and at this timing you're sending me away, isn't it a torment?"

  I have a feeling something is off here, and I vaguely sense that this visitor doesn't come with good intentions.

  "Well, can't be helped." I pretended to let Zhou Ping resign himself and sighed.

  "What's the big deal, there's a way...". Then Zhou Ping's face suddenly showed a sly expression, and he said with a smile, "Lock brother, why don't you help me keep watch for the first half of the night? You go at 10 o'clock, and I'll definitely be back before 2 o'clock. What do you say..."

  "No need to talk about it..." Of course I refused.

  Zhou Ping saw that I had refused so resolutely, and didn't persist. He just drank his beer in one gulp, probably thinking about who he could trick into helping him with the night shift next.

  "What's the story with that ghost?" Ever since I encountered that thing that night, I've also been a bit apprehensive about ghosts. To be honest, Chinese people are inherently believers in gods and Buddhas, so if you believe in gods and Buddhas, it's natural to believe in ghosts too - at least seven parts out of ten. It's just that there aren't many opportunities to encounter such things in everyday life, even though I write about them a lot, basically it's all other people's stories, not much to do with me personally.

  Zhou Ping glanced at me and seemed to want to make a last struggle, but ultimately gave up and simply said.

  "That apartment building has 404 rooms, starting from last week, someone said they heard a woman's voice talking inside the apartment around midnight to half past, and also children crying, but that apartment was clearly uninhabited. Later we went to investigate, it turned out that four girls lived in that apartment, all of them were students at XX University." Zhou Ping said.

  "XX University? The university where someone jumped from a building last month?"

  This incident was a big deal earlier, on the one hand because it was a prestigious university, and on the other hand because the girl who jumped off the building was pregnant. It's said that she was impregnated by a professor, who was over 50 years old. After the incident was exposed, the professor quickly ran away with his tail between his legs, leaving the girl behind. The girl couldn't bear the gossip from her classmates and family, so she jumped off the building to kill herself.

  Zhou Ping nodded and continued: "Coincidentally, the girl who jumped off the building was named Lan Xi. She used to live in this apartment, 404. After Lan Xi's death, the other three girls moved out and didn't dare to continue living there, so 404 also became an uninhabited apartment."

  "So those college students who said they heard the sound of a woman coaxing children, think it's related to this matter too?" I was really puzzled in my heart, and it seemed that things were indeed strange.

  "Yes, the problem is that it's not just one person living around here who says so. Almost all the tenants on the fourth floor say so, but those on other floors say they haven't heard any sound." Zhou Ping said.

  I have fallen into deep thought, women, children...

  "I'll help you keep watch tonight, just finish up with your father-in-law's place quickly and come over." I said suddenly.

  Zhou Ping looked at me with a surprised expression and asked: "Really?"

  I'd better say that I've been writing something lately and lack some material, so I'm preparing to see if I can gain something from it. I myself am the one who writes these taboo things, so I won't be too afraid of them.

  Zhou Ping didn't even listen to my explanation carefully, and when he grasped my hand with gratitude, he shouted a few times "good brother", then wrote down the address with his pen, telling me to go there at 10 o'clock, and also told another comrade-in-arms, Cannon Brother, to find him there.

  Afraid I would regret it later, he hastily ran away.

  "It's okay, don't run so fast..." It even made me laugh just sitting there.

  But in my heart, I still feel a bit tense. Suddenly agreeing to Zhou Ping was because the roles of women and children reminded me of that night when Hongyan called me to help her with an abortion. She said something back then, "It has to be you", what did she mean by that...

  ……

  10 o'clock at night.

  "22 Hong'an East Road, University Student Apartment." I muttered a sentence left by Zhou Ping, and ten minutes later, I arrived at the entrance of the University Student Apartment.

  At this time, a person who looked about 1.7 meters tall was standing at the door. When he saw me get out of the car, he walked over. Seeing his appearance, I knew that this was the "Cannon Brother" mentioned by Zhou Ping. It wasn't because Cannon Brother was particularly rough, but rather because Zhou Ping said he was a "sissy cannon", and Cannon Brother's "cannon" was also a "sissy cannon".

  "Are you Xiao Jingle?" As soon as Cannon Brother's charming voice came out, I began to suspect that Zhou Ping didn't want to be on duty with him and had made up an excuse to slip away.

  "I'm Lin Suo, helping Zhou Ping with the shift. You're Pao Ge, right?" I had to pretend to be calm, personally I don't mind cross-dressers, it's just unbearable.

  "Being called Little Bubble..."

  "We'd better go in first, or it'll be too late if something happens later..." I gritted my teeth and endured the churning of my stomach, grateful that I hadn't eaten much for dinner.

  An old man in his sixties was sitting in the security room under the university student dormitory. When he saw us coming, he hastily closed the book in his hand and looked up at us with a not-so-good expression, somewhat unpleasantly asking what we wanted.

  I couldn't help but smile inwardly as he quickly closed it again. I could still catch a glimpse of a flesh-colored shadow, but considering his age, it's not polite to say too much.

  "Hello, we are police officers. We came here tonight to investigate the 404 case, so can you please take us upstairs..." I said as politely and friendly as possible.

  At this time, Cannon also raised his police ID in one hand.

  However, the old man narrowed his eyes and searched around, then found a key from a large pile of keys and threw it to us, letting us go up by ourselves. It seems that our crime of disturbing someone's research in biology is quite serious, so we can only sulkily walk upstairs on our own.

  This apartment has a total of seven floors, which is not small at all. The first to third floors are quite ordinary, with occasional voices of people talking, but it seems that the soundproofing effect is not good. However, when I walked to the fourth floor, I felt something strange. It was pitch black, and there were only two dim yellow emergency lights on in the corridor.

  The cannon brother seemed to see my doubts and said: "These four floors are said to be haunted, no one lives now, many people temporarily go to find other accommodations, there is not a single person, the management office can't waste electricity to light so many lights, it's a bit dark, feels a bit scary."

  Since the entire fourth floor was uninhabited, it was eerily quiet. I reckon the other floors also heard about this being a haunted place, so they spoke in hushed tones too. But as soon as I stepped onto this fourth floor, I felt that something was off.

  One of them is that the suite on the far left corridor of these four floors, which is five suites away from the haunted 404, has raised suspicions again.

  "If it's that woman's voice and the child's crying, the whole fourth floor can hear it... how loud is that?" I asked.

  "It's impossible, right? The floors below and above can't even hear it, maybe the whole fourth floor is in on a prank together." Cannon Brother saw the environment and didn't want to stay overnight either, but was arranged to do so, so he could only complain a couple of times.

  But there's no need for the whole fourth floor to be in cahoots with each other, such a big thing, and it's still connected to that previous jumping building incident, the impact is absolutely not small, this joke is not something anyone can make casually, let alone here where everyone lives are intellectuals.

  "Never mind, let's go take a look at that 404 room first." I sighed and pointed, hoping that this guy would give me some leads, but it seemed unlikely.