That evening, I mentally prepared myself and finally stood at the bathroom door.
I could say I had never taken such a ceremonial bath in my life.
After Han Sha’s frank confession, the second-floor bathroom of No. 29 fell from its pedestal as a haunted location. Although the other three people in the house immediately began using it as a normal bathroom, and I even heard Xiao He humming while bathing there a couple days ago, for me, Han Sha’s debunking didn’t mean the second-floor bathroom wasn’t dangerous.
In fact, it only proved that everywhere in No. 29 was dangerous.
Regarding the house being haunted, I had also chatted with Bai Liu before, originally hoping she could introduce me to a reliable master who didn’t have a grudge against my family. But Bai Liu turned around and told me she had already found police for me about this matter.
Bai Liu said that after all, four people had already died, and the Guan Yinli police station didn’t want me to have an accident either. Therefore, the situation at No. 29 had been reported, and someone would come to understand the situation with me later.
Bai Liu seemed very unconcerned and quite willing to disregard her younger brother’s life, but after all, the person living in No. 29 was me.
For tomorrow’s business income and my dog life, I had to grasp both mysticism and calling police, not allowing a moment’s carelessness.
During the day I had already carefully analyzed that it was an undisputed fact that two of the previous four tenants died in the bathroom. Moreover, one only mentioned wanting to renovate the bathroom before dying of gas poisoning in the bathtub… I’d believe it if someone said the second-floor bathroom had become a spirit.
Based on previous incident timelines, from one year to just over half a month, No. 29 allowing me to live this long was already great mercy. But constantly walking on thin ice wasn’t a solution either. I needed a one-time fix method, such as—
Fishing!
Hard fishing!
I mentally prepared myself and was about to push the door open when Han Sha came out of his room carrying a thermos. Seeing my battle-ready appearance, his expression immediately turned mocking: “If you’re scared, why don’t you ask if Xiao He is willing to watch you bathe?”
I looked at him expressionlessly: “Big brother, that would be sexual harassment for both me and Xiao He.”
Han Sha laughed heartily: “Seriously, if you’re really too scared, you could ask around. Maybe someone in this house would be willing.”
After saying this, Han Sha went downstairs with his thermos.
Damn, if this guy didn’t make money like No. 29, I would’ve stuck this capitalist’s head in a stand mixer long ago.
I gritted my teeth and viciously pressed down the bathroom handle.
The question was: how many steps does it take to anger No. 29?
First step: enter the second-floor bathroom.
Second step: pretend to bathe.
Third step: start chatting with it about everything from digging walls and floors to electrical circuits and plumbing, looking at windows, doors, wallpaper, flooring together. In short, tell it this is my house, so what if I renovate right in your face.
My plan was simple. Since my biggest advantage over previous residents was having more people, I might as well repeatedly provoke it in No. 29’s taboo zone, fish it out, and then optimistically, we could give it a righteous group beating. Pessimistically, if we couldn’t win, at least someone could call an ambulance for me. In any case—
As long as I could fish it out, it would fucking be worth it.
To prevent any accidents during bathing that would be undignified, I first took a quick shower, got dressed, then leaned against the sink, drying my hair while pretending to send voice messages to Bai Liu.
“Sis, didn’t you mention renovating last time? I’ve thought about it—the second floor is indeed too cramped. Do you have any reliable design and renovation teams you could recommend?”
I sent five or six messages in a row. Bai Liu was probably still at a drinking table and didn’t reply, but that wasn’t important.
What mattered was making No. 29 feel my urgent renovation plans, making it think that if it didn’t teach me a lesson tonight, I’d bring an electric drill tomorrow morning to demolish the bathroom.
Acting out the full performance, I was nervously sweating but still maintained some self-cultivation by sending all the renovation blueprints to my sister. After waiting a while longer, having dried my hair to the point of friction, with Bai Liu not replying and no movement in the bathroom, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
Was my performance not varied enough?
Had No. 29 seen through my little trick?
I gritted my teeth—since I’d already been brave, might as well force me to go hard!
I took a deep breath and finally said viciously to the void: “I’m warning you, my renovation methods can be quite wild. I absolutely won’t be polite just because you’re an old house. Anyway, you’re my house now, so whatever I want to do to you is completely up to me.”
In the small space, my voice even had a little echo.
Who would have thought these words were learned from a cheesy romance novel on Weibo.
In the quiet bathroom, I patiently waited two minutes. However, the only response was the sound of water drops falling in the bathtub.
No. 29 didn’t take the bait.
Not only did it not take the bait, it didn’t even acknowledge me, completely ignoring me.
By the end, I even felt a bit wronged. I had fucking cleaned myself up and delivered myself to the door, yet you had no reaction at all, which was unreasonable. At least give me some explanation—we can’t keep going like this forever.
When I’m nervous, nothing appears. When I relax, it scares me. Isn’t this just gaslighting me?
Eventually, even the bathroom’s steam had dissipated. I could only console myself that maybe their reaction wasn’t so quick. After all, the previous residents didn’t have incidents the second after mentioning renovation. I had to give No. 29 some time to figure out how to kill me.
If that didn’t work… tomorrow I’d scare it with an electric drill?
I pondered this while pushing open the bathroom door, still holding my breath, when I immediately crashed into a mass of hair and nearly jumped straight up in fright.
“Boss! I’m… I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you!”
Only when Song Nanshi rushed up in a panic to steady my arm did I realize the visitor wasn’t sent by No. 29 to assassinate me. Catching my breath, I said: “What are you standing here for?”
“No, I was waiting for you, boss… waiting for you to finish bathing.”
Song Nanshi blinked and said quietly: “Boss… could you come to my room to talk? I don’t want to disturb Brother Han and the others.”
As she spoke, she took my pajama sleeve without explanation and pulled me into her room.
The last time I entered this place was to catch ghosts, in an undignified manner, without time to look carefully. This time, I unconsciously looked around and found Song Nanshi’s room was actually just like any ordinary girl’s.
Besides those pale white little things piled everywhere, there were also many stuffed animals from claw machines. There was even a simple vanity by the table, with makeup products arranged neatly on top—different from what my sister usually used, but still orderly and complete.
Click—Song Nanshi gently closed the door.
Suddenly, only her bedside lamp remained in the room, not very bright. Song Nanshi’s half-body was shrouded in shadow. For some reason, she said nothing, and seeing this situation, a very ominous premonition suddenly surged in my heart.
I had just been confronting No. 29 in the bathroom.
Immediately after coming out, I encountered Song Nanshi.
Without explanation, she wanted to pull me into her room, avoiding others.
It couldn’t be…
I gasped.
Could it be that this time, seeing that I was a beauty-lover, it really possessed a beautiful girl to confront me face-to-face?
Recalling the painful experience of subduing He Jian last time, my palms began sweating. I unconsciously leaned back against Song Nanshi’s vanity and swallowed before asking: “Xiao… Xiao Song, what’s the matter?”
Song Nanshi remained silent, slowly walking over.
This girl was already pale, and under the light she became completely white. At this moment, two large black eyes stared straight at me, quickly making both my heartbeat and breathing nearly stop.
“…Xiao Song?”
I tremblingly leaned backward, hesitating whether to call for help, when—
“Boss.”
Song Nanshi stopped half a meter away from me, suddenly bending down at lightning speed and giving me a standard funeral-home-level bow.
“Thank you! For not driving me away! For giving me this chance to try!”
Song Nanshi’s next words were all spoken while bowing, flowing smoothly as if conducting a body farewell ceremony.
“I actually quit my job secretly from everyone. My parents don’t know because I knew they wouldn’t agree, just like they initially disagreed with me entering the funeral industry.”
Song Nanshi forcefully sniffed: “I originally didn’t want to quit because I liked doing funeral work, thinking it was… quite romantic. It’s just that for my parents, funeral work was just an iron rice bowl. They wanted me to transfer to a government position, get married through blind dates, constantly pressuring me… I had no choice and quit directly. At that time I planned to be a haunted house beauty, but actually… I have no fans, can’t talk well, can’t make vlogs. Besides corpse beautification, I don’t know what else I can do. So if I hadn’t met you, boss, I might be sleeping on the streets now!”
By the end, even though Song Nanshi hadn’t stood up, I still watched helplessly as a large, clear teardrop fell from behind her hanging hair, landing straight on the floor.
My principle in life as Bai Yang: I can cry for girls, but girls can’t cry for me.
All these years, I had never made any girl cry three times in a row because of me—not even ex-girlfriends, and certainly not my sister.
My head heated up as I hurriedly helped Song Nanshi up, indeed seeing her face covered in tears, her whole face crumpled together, yet still stubbornly holding back any sound.
I laughed in exasperation: “You’re already crying, why hold back? I’ve cried in front of you twice and you still have an idol image to maintain? Come on, tell me all your grievances. I hadn’t asked before—exactly who was so blind to say such harsh things to such a beautiful girl like you.”
“Boss… boss…”
Song Nanshi held back for a while but couldn’t contain herself, finally sobbing as she buried her head in my shoulder.
“I actually… actually don’t only like painting corpses. I’ve always liked cute things, often playing claw machines and such. But… when I painted them for others before, they all thought it was unlucky. Only you, boss, said they were cute and told me to mass-produce them. Also, I wanted to learn cooking before, but my parents said whoever marries me in the future definitely won’t let me cook because I usually piece together corpses. Later, in anger, I only ate chili sauce with rice. Only you, boss, are willing to teach me to make cakes…”
How to put it… cute is cute, but only limited to daytime.
Looking at those pale white little things in the room, I answered somewhat guiltily, then said: “What else? I see you have a vanity too? Of course, whether girls wear makeup is their freedom, but if you like it, why not try?”
“Really?”
Song Nanshi wiped her face and suddenly looked up with bright eyes: “If I wear makeup, would you like it, boss?”
I helped wipe the tears from her face: “Whether I like it isn’t important. What matters is whether you like it. You know when I first started making cakes, my family didn’t agree either, thinking boys shouldn’t do this. But what could I do? I liked it, so it was worth it. It’s the same for you—things you like have value. At least here with me, I absolutely won’t look down on them.”
“Wuu… boss, you’re so good…”
Seeing Song Nanshi’s eyes redden again, to distract her attention, I simply pressed her down in front of the vanity: “You’ve cried enough. How about we do something else?”
Looking at Song Nanshi’s innocent, flushed face in the makeup mirror, I felt this kind of looks wouldn’t be ugly even applying cement. At that time, I had no idea whatsoever.
Very soon, I was about to make a decision I would regret all night.