Chapter 62: Chang Gui (2) part 1
Purplish-grey clouds were blown by the wind, obscuring the sun. In an instant, the daylight turned gloomy.
Jiang Si looked at the person on the screen. Hai Di had originally set his phone down and was holding a document, ready to sign it, but he suddenly stopped his pen mid-motion.
An inexplicable chill rose from behind him. Jiang Si gripped his phone and turned to look. There was indeed a humanoid figure standing by the stairwell he had just passed.
A white top, long hair covering the faceātheir features were indiscernible.
Only the white clothes seemed to emit a faint light; the rest was merged with the dim shadows.
“Do you have anything on you?” Hai Di asked him.
Jiang Si shook his head. “I just came out for a walk today. Other than my phone, I don’t even have a wallet.”
“Send me your location. Find a way to leave through another exit and try to protect yourselfā”
“I’m fine.” Jiang Si was staring intently at the figure. Hai Diās tone grew increasingly urgent, as if they were facing some dire peril.
He really couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re making me nervous… Even if it’s a ghost, I can fight with my bare hands. It doesn’t matter if I have tools or not. Besides, from what I can see, she looks like a person.”
“In such a remote place, there are other people besides you?”
Hai Di clearly didn’t believe it.
It wasn’t his fault; in some places, the probability of meeting a ghost was much higher than meeting a person.
“What if someone is as idle as I am?” Jiang Si said as he walked toward that direction.
The circular corridor looked large, but in reality, it didn’t take much time to walk across it.
In a few breaths, he reached the spot. As the distance shortened, Jiang Si became increasingly certain the other person was human.
It was a tall, thin young girl.
He heard her talking on the phone in a Southwest dialect, which he could mostly understand.
She was saying that she had arrived at the location but couldn’t find the person she was supposed to meet.
“Iām right here! The eighth floor, itās the eighth floor! Why don’t I see you?”
Standing a few steps away, Jiang Si also held up his phone and asked tentatively, “Hello?”
The young girl was startled. She turned her head in a panic, and seeing it was a person, she immediately sighed in relief. She clutched her chest and grumbled, “Who are you? Don’t you know that people scaring people can scare someone to death!”
Even in the dim light, one could see she was very pretty, with clear and sharp features, thin and tall with a very elegant aura.
She wore a white hoodie on top and wide-legged pants on the bottom, with a pair of canvas shoes on her feetāa classic college student outfit.
Jiang Si answered with a question of his own: “What are you doing here? Do you know what kind of place this is?”
She was just a young girl after all, and she was easily intimidated by his words. Her tone became uncertain. “Is this place… off-limits to outsiders?”
“What do you think?” Jiang Si said.
The girl was bewildered and explained hurriedly, “No, someone made an appointment with me here. He said there was a studio here and that I was coming for a part-time job.”
“…”
Jiang Si instinctively looked around at the cluttered corners piled with junk, the spiderwebs everywhere, the cockroaches scuttling past from time to time, and the exposed bricks beneath the peeling wall.
“What did you say? A part-time job here?”
Jiang Si asked sincerely, “Are you working as a ghost house NPC?”
“No…” The girl was dazed. “It’s a photography studio. I came here for a print model shoot.”
“Do you even hear what you’re saying?” Jiang Si was speechless. “Who would be brain-dead enough to open a studio here?”
A soft chuckle came from his phone. The girl stood there stunned, looking quite at a loss. “But… but he said it was here! Eighth floor. Look, he was just on the phone with me.”
Jiang Si glanced at her phone. “Whereās the call?”
“The call… why did he hang up!” The girl was bewildered.
“Iāve walked around the entire eighth floor; there isn’t a single person, let alone a studio. This place is remote and quiet. If you ran into any danger, no one would hear you even if you screamed.” Jiang Si sighed. “The person who asked you here is either playing a prank or has ill intentions. Go home quickly.”
The girl belatedly broke into a cold sweat. Trembling with fear, she hurriedly thanked him and left. Her steps were hurried, and she almost ran down the stairs.
After watching her leave his line of sight, Jiang Si raised his phone again to continue the call.
“See? It was just a young girl. Don’t worry.” He laughed. “Coming out and doing a good deed… I should treat myself well today.”
Hai Di chuckled. “What do you want to eat?”
“A barbecue shop opened nearby; Iāll go try it out.” Jiang Si paced forward as he spoke and happened to step into a patch of sunlight. His porcelain-white face was illuminated with a warm orange glow, instantly looking more lively.
“Mhm. If itās good, wait for me to go to Rongcheng in a few days and take me there.”
“You’re coming here?” Jiang Si was surprised. “Don’t you have to work in Ning City?”
Hai Di said, “I’m going for a business trip.”
“Alright, alright.” Jiang Si was just asking casually. “When you come, Iāll certainly ‘sweep the couch and wait’ to take you on a tour.”
“I’m very much looking forward to the first half of that sentence.”
“?”
Jiang Si suddenly caught the meaning. He tilted his phone toward the blue sky and white clouds, saying righteously, “Itās broad daylight, Comrade Hai, aren’t you being too forward!”
Hai Di took the hint and said understandingly, “Then I’ll say it tonight.”
Jiang Si: “…”
He looked away, his cheeks a bit flushed from the sun. He stepped back into the shadows, but just as he moved, he heard a shrill scream.
Jiang Siās expression immediately turned serious. He said hurriedly to Hai Di, “I’ll talk to you later.”
Before Hai Di could even say “Be careful,” the call was cut off. Jiang Si put away his phone and headed toward the source of the sound.
This place was usually terrifyingly quiet. The sudden scream startled the birds and beasts nesting nearby, and they flapped their wings and flew away.
Because of this, the source of the sound was particularly easy to find.
It sounded like it was on a higher floor. Jiang Si ran up two flights of stairs in one breath and arrived at the spot.
Someone was sitting on the floor. She was wearing a red qipao. Because she had fallen awkwardly, the slits on both sides of the qipao were rolled up, revealing the black base leggings she wore underneath.
One foot was tucked under her skirt, and on the other foot, she wore a pointed red high heel.
She was holding onto the railing, seemingly struggling to get up, but she had sprained her ankle and couldn’t stand.
Jiang Si didn’t go over immediately. He looked down the corridor in both directions and saw nothing.
“Are you okay?”
“Ahā” The girl in the qipao was also startled and shivered. After seeing it was a person, she relaxed slightly. She asked hesitantly, “Is it you?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you send me the address and ask me to come? For print modeling, to promote an online shop.”
Jiang Si understood now. It seemed this was the same situation as the girl in white earlier. “Are you also here for a part-time job?”
the girl’s eyes lit up. “Is it really you?”
“No.” Jiang Si helped her up from the floor first before continuing. “You’ve been tricked. I just ran into a girl in the same situation as you, also saying she was here for some part-time job. But there isn’t a soul here, so where would an online shop come from?”
The girl realized the truth as well. Leaning against the railing, she took off her high heels and decisively snapped off the broken heel before putting it back on. She asked somewhat embarrassedly, “Could you help me pick up my other shoe that fell in the hallway?”
Jiang Si turned and left. After a moment, he brought back a shoe and handed it to her. He watched as she snapped off the other heel in the same way and put it on.
She moved her foot and felt it was okay. Standing firmly on the ground, she said, “Actually, I also thought it was unreliable. As soon as I came in, I saw how dilapidated it was. But since I was already here, I forced myself to come up and take a look. What if there really was someone?”
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