If it had just been someone jumping off a building, that would be one thing. The real problem was that the deceased had lost a hand — and it still hadn't been found.
No matter who moved into a haunted house, there'd be a thorn in their heart. What if they were tidying up one day and accidentally dug out a severed hand? Now *that* would be a sight.
"Take me inside for a look."
"Sure." The back of the man's shirt had a large dark patch, as though it had been soaked through with cold sweat. "Actually, this place is quite nice. Across the street, the same-sized unit at the Power Supply Bureau family compound goes for four times the price."
He unlocked the security door, and a strange smell wafted out — something must have been growing mold.
The man tried the living room light. Maybe because of a bad contact, he had to press the switch several times before it finally came on.
Bright white light banished the darkness, spilling through the doorway and onto the pitch-black corridor beyond.
Chen Ge followed him inside. He didn't want to waste time on unnecessary things and went straight to looking for a drawer.
"There's a brief note about a drawer on the Black Phone. I think it mentioned a desk in the bedroom — one of the drawers on it."
The man was still standing in the doorway and hadn't had time to stop him before Chen Ge was already inside the bedroom. He searched both bedrooms but found no desk — just a large wardrobe.
"This doesn't quite match the description on the phone." Chen Ge stepped back out of the bedroom and gave the man a skeptical look. "Brother, are you sure this is Room 304?"
"The key has the unit number on it. There's no way I got it wrong." The man showed Chen Ge his key.
There was no desk in the bedroom, and Chen Ge stared at the various drawers throughout the apartment with a bit of a headache. "Going through them one by one would take too long. Do I really need to spend a night here?"
"What do you think of the place? We can still negotiate on the price." The man was visibly frightened, having stayed planted in the doorway the entire time without stepping inside.
"I'm quite interested in it. How about letting me try staying here for one night?" Chen Ge reached into his backpack, groping around for something.
"A trial stay? We've never offered that service. If you're not satisfied, we can check out the unit next door."
"That won't be necessary. This is the one." Before the man could finish, Chen Ge cut him off and pulled out his ID along with five hundred yuan from his backpack. "Five hundred for a one-night trial. Here's my ID — I absolutely will not damage anything inside. If nothing strange happens tonight, I'll take the apartment."
The real estate agent had never dealt with a customer like this before. "I can't do that. The company has rules — we can't just do whatever."
"Are there tons of people lining up to buy a haunted house where someone died? If you pass on me, who knows how long this place will sit empty."
After quite a bit of talking, Chen Ge finally managed to convince the man and got the key to the unit.
"There are security cameras around the complex. If anything scary happens, you can run outside and call for help. I'll come by at eight tomorrow morning to pick up the room."
"You'd better come early. I've got things to do during the day."
Chen Ge saw the agent off and then looked at the key in his hand, feeling a slight sense of something off about it.
The key itself was old and worn, but the sticker on it was freshly applied.
"Weird." He was mulling this over when a sharp clatter suddenly came from the kitchen.
Chen Ge pulled the skull-crushing hammer from his backpack, walked to the kitchen doorway, and found that a cleaver had fallen off the cutting board into the sink.
"Where was this cleaver originally sitting?" He picked it up and examined it, then turned on the gas stove and held the wooden handle, placing the blade over the flame to heat it. "Ghosts should be afraid of open fire, right?"