"This is a well-renovated apartment with standard two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites. It's close to two subway lines and surrounded by business districts. You can't rent it out for less than 10,000 yuan a month," the owner boasted proudly, "so most of the people who live in this single apartment are senior white-collar workers and management-level talents."
Chen Yang turned around and said, "I remember that the salary of senior white-collar workers is between 10,000 and 20,000 yuan. The monthly rent alone is 10,000 yuan. Isn't it all spent here?"
The owner was a little embarrassed: "Some people share the rent. Aren't there two or three rooms? The monthly rent is only four or five thousand. In the capital, this rent is acceptable."
Chen Yang smiled and pressed the elevator button: "Is the person attacked by the elevator ghost also a senior white-collar worker?"
"certainly."
"She lives alone?"
"Occasionally." Chen Yang looked at the owner in confusion. Just then, the elevator arrived in front of him and the elevator door opened. Chen Yang pressed the elevator button and let the owner go in first. The owner looked at Chen Yang hesitantly, and then said, "You go in first."
The owner suspected that Chen Yang was a half-baked person and was worried that if he went in by himself, the elevator door would close and he would be trapped. So the owner asked Chen Yang to go in by himself. Chen Yang had no choice but to go in and said, "Isn't there another elevator with the evil spirit? Are you afraid of this?" The elevator with the evil spirit has been sealed and is temporarily not allowed to be used by residents.
The owner said, "Just in case, what if it comes over and harms me?"
"If you don't do bad things, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door."
The owner snorted with disdain: "You can fool others with this sentence, but it can't fool me. Do bad people have to choose their targets when they want to harm others? Ghosts are all transformed from humans, so they won't be picky about their targets when they want to harm people."
Chen Yang: "You can see it clearly." He really didn't expect that the seemingly mediocre owner could see it so clearly. He continued: "But those who harm others without any reason are all mentally twisted and perverted, but the truly perverted are a minority. Most injuries have cause and effect, and the same is true for demons and ghosts. There is always a cause and effect relationship. Of course, we cannot rule out a small number of injuries without any reason."
After hearing what Chen Yang said, the owner had a much better impression of him. He had looked down on Chen Yang before because he looked too young. Now it seems that he is young and promising. He has also heard that in the world of heavenly masters, seniority and age are not important, but talent is valued. The owner softened his attitude and no longer perfunctorily replied as before. Instead, he told him everything he knew: "The monthly rent of this apartment is indeed very high, and it is actually difficult for senior white-collar workers to afford it. So they usually share the rent, or couples share the rent. There is another situation, which is a couple but cannot be called a couple. For example, the white-collar resident who was attacked."
Chen Yang: "What do you mean?" The elevator door opened, and he let the owner go first, and then he stepped out of the elevator. Outside the elevator was the corridor of the eleventh floor, and there were five apartments on each floor.
Owner: "Some people find lovers because they have no money to buy a house and can't afford to rent one. The expenses are high. The white-collar tenant who was attacked found a lover, and the lover paid for her to rent a house. She occasionally comes here to stay for a few days."
Lover means mistress.
Chen Yang: “Is that so?”
As they were talking, a young mother passed by them, took out the room card from her bag and swiped the door. As soon as the door opened, a little girl rushed in from the room and shouted, "Mom."
The young mother smiled and picked her up. When she was about to close the door, she saw the owner, so she put the little girl down and greeted him and chatted with him. The owner bent down and chatted with the little girl. The little girl timidly hid behind the young mother, holding her skirt.
The little girl blinked, with a little confusion on her face. The young mother held the door handle and smiled and said goodbye to them. Just as she was about to close the door, she suddenly heard the little girl ask in confusion: "Mom, who came in behind you?"
The door slammed shut, separating the inside and outside of the room. Chen Yang and the owner, who were about to leave, suddenly turned back, and the owner looked horrified: "Did you hear what the little girl said?"
Chen Yang stepped past the owner and knocked on the door. There was no movement from the inside, so he asked the owner, "Do you have a backup card or key?"
The owner shook his head in panic: "They are all downstairs, I don't have them with me." Then he knocked on the door hard and shouted to the young mother and daughter, but got no response.
Chen Yang dragged the owner behind him and took out the wire from his backpack to open the door. Ever since Qiu Shengmin taught him how to open the door, he always carried the wire with him in case of emergency. Before the owner could come to his senses, he found himself turning around. He looked back at Chen Yang in surprise. How could he be so strong
With a click, the door was unlocked. When Chen Yang grabbed the door handle and was about to open it, the young mother opened the door from the inside and asked them curiously, "What's wrong?"
Chen Yang looked at the young mother calmly. She looked calm, but there was just the right amount of doubt and displeasure in her eyes. The owner stared at the young mother and asked her, "Are you okay?"
The young mother said, "What can I do?"
"Just now I heard your daughter say..." The owner hesitated for a moment, glanced at Chen Yang and changed the subject: "Is your husband back? I want to discuss the safety facilities of the apartment with him and need his advice."
"He's not back yet. He's on a business trip." The young mother said with a mellow expression, "If you need any advice, you can ask me. But I'm a little tired now, and I have to help my daughter with her homework later. So can we talk about it tomorrow?"
The little girl looked at them timidly from behind her young mother, twisting her hands together and hunching her shoulders. When she met Chen Yang's gentle and calm eyes and mustered up the courage to say something, the young mother suddenly turned around and said gently: "Wenwen, go back and do your homework."
The little girl lowered her head and went back to the house. Chen Yang glanced at the dim room and said, "Why isn't the light on in the house?"
"I didn't have time." The young mother said politely, "Do you have anything else to do?"
Chen Yang shook his head: "It's okay." Then he took a step back. The young mother smiled at them and closed the door.
The owner tightened his face and said to the closed door: "Everyone in the apartment knows that she got pregnant before marriage and has no husband." He frowned and said: "This mother and daughter are pitiful. The young mother was cheated on by a mistress. The mother and daughter depend on each other for survival. The little girl was in a car accident some time ago and was so scared that she became autistic."
"Oh, that only means that you haven't done enough homework." Chen Yang shook his head: "You are too anxious. You should have enough time to disguise yourself. Maybe it's because you just lost your wife and don't know the rules."
The owner was puzzled: "Huh?"
Chen Yang took out a Five Thunder Talisman from his backpack, knocked on the door three times, and waited quietly. After a while, the young mother came to open the door. Under the light, she looked pale and had a bit of anxiety in her eyes. She asked, "Is there anything else?"
Chen Yang raised his hand and put it on the young mother's shoulder, and took her aside and walked in. As he walked, he said, "It's none of your business." The lights in the room were turned on, and the room was brightly lit.
The young mother rushed forward anxiously and wanted to chase him out, but the owner stopped her, looked at the young mother carefully and said hesitantly: "Are you...are you okay?"
Young mother: "I'm fine."
The owner said, "The person who opened the door just now was not you." The young mother showed a shocked expression. The owner continued, "I just asked the thing pretending to be you about your husband, and it said that your husband was on a business trip."
The young mother pursed her lips and was speechless. When she saw Chen Yang walking towards her daughter who was sitting at the table, she showed a panicked expression: "Don't mess around! Don't hurt my daughter!"
Chen Yang sat opposite the little girl, hid the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman in his palm, and said to the little girl calmly: "Even if you are looking for a substitute, you shouldn't find a child."
The little girl hummed and drew, ignoring Chen Yang. Chen Yang was not angry, but took a look at her drawing. The lines were messy and the colors were dark, which made people feel uncomfortable.
Chen Yang: "You two have no grudges against each other. If you want to find an innocent person as your substitute, it would be your good fortune if you succeed before the ghost messenger and the heavenly master find you. But since you let me find you, and you still want to find a child as your substitute, I can't just ignore it. You are an old ghost, and you still want to steal the body of a child. Aren't you afraid that it will be eaten up by the evil spirits?"
The soul and body of a child have not yet been completely integrated, so it is easy for them to be possessed by evil spirits. However, those who seize the body of a child are probably rogue old ghosts who want to take away the child's decades of life, but how can a rogue old ghost squeeze into a child's body? The difference between an adult and a child can be distinguished even if their appearance is very different.
I'm afraid that before these rogue old ghosts can get used to the child's body, they will be torn into pieces and eaten by the evil spirits that have heard the news.
Hearing this, the little girl suddenly threw the crayon in her hand. The crayon made a crisp sound on the table, spun and stopped. The young mother and the owner were frightened by the strange atmosphere and dared not breathe. Chen Yang was very calm from beginning to end.
The little girl said, "No grudges? How can there be no grudges? If it weren't for them, how could I have died? It was because of this girl who was playing with a ball and threw it, hitting me on the head. When I turned around, I slipped and fell on the road. How could I have been run over by a truck and died? She!!"
The little girl suddenly pointed at the young mother, shocking the mother. "As a mother, she didn't watch her child properly but chatted with others. If she had watched her child, she wouldn't have let the girl be bullied by other boys. The group of boys wanted to take her ball, and she threw it away in anger. They all took it away, and I was the only one who was unlucky, right? I deserved to be hit by the ball and run over by a truck, and die miserably! I won't let you go! I will never let you go, you are all wrong, you are the culprits who killed me!"
Chen Yang knocked on the table: "Don't get excited. Let me ask you first, what were you doing when the ball hit you?"
The little girl's face was gloomy and dark. "You want to help them too, right? You stinky Taoist priest, you call yourself a heavenly master in vain, don't you know that the seventh day after death is the day for revenge?"
"I know. But you have to tell me, what were you doing when the ball hit you? You were probably playing with your phone."
The little girl looked unhappy, but she didn't refute. Obviously, Chen Yang was right. Chen Yang said, "It is undeniable that your death was related to the child, but it was not her fault. She, her mother, the group of boys who bullied her, the driver who ran you over, and you who were so focused on playing with your phone and not paying attention to the road conditions, were all the causes of your death. Or, you can call it an accident. You want to put the blame of your accidental death on them, but they don't need to pay for your death with their lives."
"You speak for them?" The little girl stubbornly believed that Chen Yang sided with the mother and daughter: "If it weren't for them, would I have had this accident?"
The evil spirit blamed the mother and daughter, the group of boys and the driver for his tragic death. If the young mother had not passed by the place where he died today, she could have caught up with him. The evil spirit might have first sought revenge on the group of boys and the driver, but he hated the little girl the most. He believed that the ball hitting him and causing him to fall was the fundamental reason.
Chen Yang: "Are you determined to take revenge?"
"If it were you, wouldn't you want revenge for such an unjust death?" The little girl threw away the crayon and picked up a pencil, poking her eyes with the tip of the pencil. The young mother screamed and cried, the pencil stopped, and the little girl laughed. The young mother apologized to him and begged him to let her daughter go, and if he wanted revenge, he could find her.
"Of course I will find you. You are also wrong, you also deserve to die-"
Chen Yang frowned: "Stubborn!" After saying that, he pointed the palm of his hand with the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman towards the little girl, slapped her head, and after slapping the evil spirit out, he hugged the little girl and handed her to the young mother. Then he injected the Five Thunder Spirit Talisman into the evil spirit's body, took off the red rope on his wrist, tied up the evil spirit and stuffed it into the dice.
After throwing the dice twice and holding it in his palm, Chen Yang said, "I wanted to give you a chance, but you are so confused about right and wrong. But considering that you really died unjustly, the gates of hell will open in half a month and I will send you to the Taoist temple to convert and receive precepts, so that you can be reincarnated as soon as possible. Once a year, on the day when the local official pardons sins, the Taoist temple will hold a large-scale ceremony and establish a heavenly medical department to treat ghosts like you who died unexpectedly."
The so-called Heavenly Medicine Department is the Shangqing Heavenly Doctor, which specializes in treating ghosts who died suddenly. Ghosts who died suddenly are extremely frightened before they die, and their three souls and seven spirits are difficult to return to, so it is not easy for them to reincarnate. Over time, they are prone to have delusions and turn into evil spirits and fierce ghosts who are involved in killing. Therefore, some large Taoist ceremonies will establish a Heavenly Medicine Department and invite Shangqing Heavenly Doctor. "Nine out of ten Taoists are doctors." They use medicine to treat diseases, save the world and save people, and also save ghosts.
Chen Yang turned around and looked at the little girl who had just woken up. She was hugging her young mother's neck with her eyes wide open and curious. She was not afraid. When she saw Chen Yang looking at her, she smiled widely and called out crisply, "Brother."
"Be good." Chen Yang took out an exorcism talisman and a calming talisman and handed them to the young mother: "Get a small bottle and let her wear it for a month or two. This evil spirit is relatively good and did not deliberately harm the child. Although it was an accident, you are also involved in his death, so when the gates of hell are open, you can offer alms and fast for the evil spirit so that he can be reincarnated as soon as possible."
The young mother took the two talismans and responded repeatedly with gratitude.
The whole thing happened when a little girl was playing with a ball in the sand. Her mother was chatting with others and didn't notice that a group of little boys were trying to snatch the girl's ball. The girl threw the ball and it hit a passerby on the sidewalk across the green belt. The little girl was not very strong and normally she would not be hurt if she hit someone. Unfortunately, the person was playing games and was overreacting when he was hit. He twisted his leg and fell to the road with his upper body, and a truck was speeding by.
The little girl ran out and saw this horrifying scene, which caused her already introverted personality to become even more autistic.
The evil spirit did die unjustly, but there were many reasons for his death. We can't just blame one person, it can only be said to be an accident.
When the mother and daughter sent Chen Yang and the owner to the door, the young mother thanked them repeatedly. The little girl left her mother's arms, hugged Chen Yang shyly, and said softly, "Thank you, brother."
Chen Yang smiled and hugged the little girl back: "You're welcome." Then he let go of the little girl. The young mother then took the little girl back to the house, thanked her again and closed the door.
The owner was quite surprised: "Is this all right?" He circled around Chen Yang twice: "No need to open the altar to perform rituals, no peach wood sword, no copper coin sword, and no spells to chant? This way, the evil spirits that possessed him are driven out, and they are caught? What is this dice?"
Chen Yang walked forward and said, "Each celestial master has a different way of exorcising evil spirits and catching ghosts. The dice are magic tools." He stopped and said, "Is this the room of the guest who was attacked?"
The owner: "Yes." He quickly took out the room card and swiped it to open the door, and took the lead to open the door for Chen Yang to come in, and his attitude became much more respectful. Chen Yang's show of skill just now made him realize that he underestimated him.
Chen Yang entered the room of the white-collar woman. They had asked for her consent before coming here. Chen Yang walked around the room and came out: "Okay, let's go."
"Ah? Oh, oh." The owner was confused and had to close the door obediently. Chen Yang asked, "Has this apartment been renovated?"
The owner replied: "No. The apartment was built two years ago. It's all brand new and doesn't need renovation. What's wrong?"
Chen Yang smiled and said, "No. But I heard that a white-collar woman also fell off the elevator on the eleventh floor and died. Is that true?"
"Really." The owner was not afraid of Chen Yang knowing, after all, Chen Yang was a celestial master, and he must have checked some things. Especially since he was not a resident here, he said, "It was a very strange thing. It was late at night, and many people could not react to what happened. Suddenly someone died. Later, we checked the surveillance video and found that the deceased came back around 1 a.m., and the elevator stopped on the 11th floor. She lowered her head and walked out, and stood outside the elevator door... at this distance, and did not move."
The owner gestured at a distance, which was about 20 to 30 centimeters. "She wasn't standing still, her whole body could move, but she couldn't move forward, backward or turn around, which was very strange. Then she raised her hands and banged on the iron door, as if there was a door in front of her and she was banging on it and shouting for help. Gradually, she couldn't bang anymore and became very weak. At 1:30 in the morning, the elevator door suddenly opened, and the deceased was still alive, but she couldn't control her body and fell backwards, directly into the elevator car parked on the fourth floor. She was broken into pieces, and one of her legs was folded behind her back."
Looking around, the owner lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I guess he was possessed. You see, it suddenly stopped there in the middle of the night for no reason, and it kept moving but wouldn't move. Then the elevator door suddenly opened. The elevator car was clearly still on the fourth floor, so how did the door open? Who opened it? It just so happened that the deceased fell down stiffly. The police checked the surveillance cameras and knew that the case was strange. They could have said that the elevator was malfunctioning, but how do you explain the deceased's previous behavior? It doesn't make sense. He must have provoked some unclean thing outside, and he's going to die if it gets entangled with something."
"I see." Chen Yang sent a message to Zhang Qiudao, asking him to go to the hospital at 1 a.m. and sent him the ward number. He put the phone back in his pocket and said to the owner, "Since the accident happened at around 1 a.m., let's go into the elevator at 1 a.m."
Owner: "Ah? You want to get in the elevator? Which elevator?"
"The one that had the accident." Chen Yang suddenly seemed to remember something: "Have you ever heard of a corpse in an elevator?"
"Yes." The owner was still struggling with whether he should go into the elevator that night. Hearing this, he answered absentmindedly: "It's an old-style apartment not far from this apartment. The facilities are not very good now, but it was very advanced and high-end in the past. That apartment uses a dedicated elevator that goes directly to the apartment rooms. Later, a woman pressed the wrong floor and walked out. Coincidentally, the owner of that house actually installed a security door in front of the door, which was stuck between the elevator doors, leaving a gap of about 30 centimeters. It was difficult to even turn around, and I couldn't reach the elevator door button. I starved to death."
"After such a horrible incident in the apartment, many people began to wonder if this type of dedicated elevator had too many disadvantages. In addition, a person had died in the same elevator, and the death was so horrible, so many people moved out. After all, people who could afford to live in that apartment were not short of money. Later, another accident happened. A woman was trapped and died in the elevator for no apparent reason. Her death was tragic. Two murders occurred in the same elevator, and everyone moved out. The news that the apartment was a haunted apartment spread, and no one came to rent it. Over time, it became abandoned, but I heard that it will be demolished and rebuilt."
The owner suddenly realized what was happening and was horrified. "Why was the woman's behavior so strange before she died? Her hands and feet could move, but she couldn't move forward or backward. She even had difficulty turning around. Isn't that the way an elevator corpse dies? The woman must have provoked the elevator corpse and got possessed."
Chen Yang: "Probably. When evil spirits kill people using the same method they died in their lifetime, it's called looking for a substitute. The person killed will also become an evil spirit and cannot be reincarnated unless a substitute is found or the person is saved. Are you sure you want to go into the elevator with me tonight to catch ghosts? Aren't you afraid of being mistaken for a substitute?"
The owner was very hesitant: "Master, will you protect me?"
"meeting."
"Will you keep me safe?"
Chen Yang smiled gently: "Sure. But you have to pay more."
Owner: "That's even more! Isn't it your job to exorcise demons and exorcise evil spirits, Master?"
Chen Yang nodded: "It is my job, yes. But if someone wants to watch the show, I have to ensure their safety, which takes a lot of my energy. So I need to increase the price. After all, we are a legitimate profession, a small business."
A two-star order can be worth millions, and it is still called a small business? The owner said he also wanted to do these small businesses. "Okay, I'll raise the price, after all, it's a rare opportunity."
Being able to observe evil spirits and ghosts up close would be a big topic for him to brag about for two years.
The author has something to say: If you don’t understand the elevator corpse in the previous chapter, you can search it and take a look.