It wasn’t until I followed He Jian’s car to Shancheng Branch that I understood what “the branch takes this case very seriously” meant.

Never mind the police officers greeting and saluting He Jian, the “Shancheng’s Nightmare,” all along the way – when Manager Hu was sent into the interrogation room, even the deputy chief came down directly to give instructions, specifically assigning He Jian to conduct the interrogation.

As an outsider, I was somewhat puzzled at first, but this confusion was resolved the moment He Jian entered the room.

Manager Hu looked at He Jian and gave a cold laugh: “You suddenly taking this case so seriously – I’m afraid those old folks at Guan Yinli are also pressuring you, right?”

I was startled, then suddenly remembered that the haunting incidents at my shop had caused quite a stir due to my plastic father’s instigation. Even my sister’s money power couldn’t suppress it, so one could imagine it had also created considerable pressure for Guan Yinli officials.

Once news of the haunting spread, people would inevitably ask about that year’s fire… no wonder property management would instruct other shops not to make a big deal of it.

Once this kind of thing got out of hand and further affected storefront sales, it would probably be the last thing officials wanted to see.

After returning to the bureau, He Jian had completely shed his childishness, becoming the efficient and sharp-eyed Deputy Captain He Jianqiu. Hearing this, he said lightly: “Building 29’s case itself had oversights – it would be reinvestigated sooner or later. The crimes you committed would inevitably be inescapable even without anyone exposing them.”

“Inescapable…”

Manager Hu laughed lowly: “You police can actually still say such words. Building 29 at Guan Yinli has been haunted for ten years – how come no one asks why this house became a haunted house? The people who committed crimes before – how come no one arrested them?”

Through the one-way glass, watching Manager Hu’s unfamiliar expression only made my heart feel cold.

Clearly, this person had concealed many things from me. Not long ago, when He Jian got his materials, his expression had shown momentary surprise, but in the end he just patted me and said to let me watch the interrogation results directly.

He Jian looked at Manager Hu and asked directly: “Hu Lin, this is your current name. To confirm your identity we compared your DNA with your parents’ and discovered that while you’re not their biological son, the genealogy matches up. In other words, your nominal father is just your uncle, and your biological father Hu Chong has passed away. He also once had a child named Hu Wei who died in a car accident over ten years ago.”

Bro… what tongue twister are you speaking?

I listened in confusion outside the door. Wang Wei beside me seemed to see my bewilderment and quietly explained: “In other words, the one who actually died back then was Hu Lin. For some purpose, Hu Chong had his biological son adopted by his brother, letting Hu Wei become Hu Lin and live on.”

I never expected the identity situation to be so complex from the start. However, He Jian’s purpose in saying this didn’t seem to be merely to verify Manager Hu’s identity – his fingers tapped on the table.

“Without this identity as cover, you couldn’t have acted until now. After all, when I first started investigating Building 29, I looked into that year’s fire. The house owner who was burned to death was named Lin Xiufen. I found she had a son with her ex-husband Hu Chong, but the trail went cold after that because both her ex-husband and son had died… It wasn’t until I got the DNA results that I discovered it was truly far away yet close at hand.”

Seeing Manager Hu’s expression darken, my heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

“So Manager Hu is actually the son of the pre-demolition house owner? His mother was the victim who was burned alive in Building 29 at Guan Yinli?”

Wang Wei sighed: “The boss always suspected Building 29’s strange incidents were related to that year’s fire, but previous investigations all hit walls. Later he said if he couldn’t find connections, he’d just catch someone red-handed… After all, once you catch whoever’s playing ghost in Building 29, figuring out their identity wouldn’t be difficult.”

Simply put, when reasoning was useless, he’d just face death calmly and fight if unconvinced.

Vaguely, I caught a whiff of nightmare-like flavor from Wang Wei’s words, thinking no wonder He Jian had basically led charges when encountering strange things at Building 29. It was originally a psychology of catching the thief first catches the king – whether you’re human or ghost, if you dare dance before me, I dare scatter your ashes to your face.

Facts also proved that when the other party finally couldn’t hold back and appeared directly before me, uncovering his true face was indeed close at hand.

If Manager Hu was the child of that year’s victim, then his purpose in lying dormant at a small Guan Yinli real estate agency all these years was very obvious.

At this moment, Manager Hu, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly laughed.

“Very ironic, isn’t it?”

Manager Hu said softly: “When people kill people, things pass by lightly. But when ghosts kill people, it attracts more attention. All these years of word-of-mouth transmission actually turned that house into an existence no one dared approach.”

He Jian crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair: “We’ve come this far, so there’s nothing left to hide, right? Looking at you holding back a belly full of words wanting to speak – now I’m giving you a chance. Pour it all out, we’re listening.”

“…Alright.”

Manager Hu thought for a moment, asked He Jian for a cigarette, his whole person appearing extremely exhausted.

He said: “The person who truly turned Building 29 into a haunted house wasn’t me.”

Puffing smoke, Manager Hu’s story began over thirty years ago.

In 1989, Hu Chong and Lin Xiufen’s son Hu Wei was born on the second floor of an old Western-style house in old Guan Yinli. His birth was sudden yet smooth – just as Hu Chong was hurriedly preparing to take his wife to the hospital, an infant’s cry had already torn through the room’s tranquility.

One could say that from his first day of birth, Hu Wei became a resident of Guan Yinli.

Unlike the new Guan Yinli commercial district that would be rebuilt years later, old Guan Yinli was mostly inhabited by authentic Yu Jiang natives, and Hu Wei’s mother Lin Xiufen was the same.

Going back, the Lin family had lived in Guan Yinli for nearly half a century. Lin Xiufen’s father died early of asthma, her eldest sister had gone abroad years ago, so only Lin Xiufen and her mother remained in the old Guan Yinli house.

In the mid-80s, shortly after Lin Xiufen’s university graduation, her mother unfortunately contracted cancer. Watching her mother grow weaker yet remain worried, Lin Xiufen finally decided to settle her life’s major events early. Soon, through introduction, she met Hu Chong, a young man working near Guan Yinli.

The two married the following year. Afterwards, Lin Xiufen’s mother ultimately couldn’t hold on for two years – just a few months before Hu Wei’s birth, the old house had just held a funeral. Lin Xiufen, pregnant, saw off her mother, then soon welcomed her and Hu Chong’s first child.

Regarding his own birth, after becoming sensible, Hu Wei remembered his parents had quarreled many times, for a simple reason.

Regarding the old Guan Yinli house that Lin Xiufen greatly valued, Hu Chong always felt it was ominous and wanted to sell the house.

Hu Chong said that Lin Xiufen’s parents had both died in this house, and precisely, both had passed away on the second floor. That was already enough, but within months of Lin Xiufen’s mother’s death, Lin Xiufen had inexplicably experienced premature labor on the second floor. With so much misfortune concentrated in the same place, this house would bring them great disaster sooner or later.

Of course, the educated Lin Xiufen could never agree with such feudal superstitious thoughts.

Having lost her parents early, the old Guan Yinli house was already the only place that counted as home for her. Regarding Hu Chong’s suggestions to sell the house every few days, Lin Xiufen initially didn’t take it seriously, but gradually she saw through the scheme.

Their marriage was already hasty. Though Hu Chong looked decent outwardly, saying he matched the Lin family’s status was absolutely impossible. Not only did he pay little bride price, but after marriage he lived in the Lin family house yet talked daily about selling it – the thoughts behind this were crystal clear.

However, things being as they were, their son was already born. Calculating at this point was obviously useless. Life could only be lived with mutual understanding, and so Hu Wei grew to eight years old amid the quarreling.

In the 90s, Hu Wei was familiar with every small path in Guan Yinli – he could walk them with eyes closed. Like his mother, he also didn’t find the old house at home “gloomy.” Whether the steep stairs or creaking floors, all were beloved by Hu Wei, so much so that from childhood to adulthood, he had never imagined that one day he would move out of this house.

Such a thing finally happened when Hu Wei was ten.

That day, his parents had another big fight, and this time Lin Xiufen and Hu Chong finally each brought out their most unpleasant words. Hu Wei crouched on the stairs, only catching fragments of the sharpest words.

“Ulterior motives,” “looking down on people.”

The quarrel continued until midnight. Not long after, Hu Chong took Hu Wei and left this home, while Lin Xiufen was left alone in the old Guan Yinli house.

It wasn’t until many years later that Hu Wei understood – this was the condition his father and mother had negotiated.

If she wasn’t willing to give up the house, then she had to give up her son. Very fair.

And mother ultimately chose the house.

After his parents’ divorce, Hu Wei still frequently returned to old Guan Yinli.

After he entered middle school, old Guan Yinli also gradually had some changes. The market, cake shop, and shoe repair shop near his home had all disappeared at some unknown time. The houses were emptied but no one moved in for a long time.

Some said old Guan Yinli was going to be demolished. After all, being so close to the river, right when you came down from the cable car was Guan Yinli. These past two years Yu Jiang’s tourism industry had flourished, and the municipal government also agreed to expand Guan Yinli, taking in all the old houses behind, offering conditions to persuade residents inside to move away, making this into a bigger, better-looking commercial district.

News of demolition quickly spread throughout the neighborhood. Even negotiation notices were stuffed through door cracks, but for Lin Xiufen, this was obviously just waste paper.

Hu Wei had personally seen his mother crumple up the negotiation letter and immediately throw it in the trash.

However, whether Hu Wei was willing to admit it or not, old Guan Yinli was indeed becoming empty bit by bit.

Getting everyone to leave was a massive project. Until Hu Wei entered high school, old Guan Yinli’s demolition continued.

Gradually, the Western-style buildings near the Lin family old house were all emptied.

In 2006, eighty percent of old Guan Yinli’s households had already moved away. The remaining ones were given a unified name by the media – nail households.

Hu Wei still went to his mother’s home every week, but now along this route there was nowhere left to buy him sodas and snacks. Those small streets and alleys he’d known since childhood had all become empty. Debris and fragments left by demolition were everywhere.

After dark, old Guan Yinli became a ghost town, while that bit of light from Lin Xiufen’s old house was the last motivation supporting Hu Wei to go eat a hot meal.

Hu Wei knew that mother wouldn’t move – she would give up even herself for this place, so how could she leave this home where she’d lived for decades for that little bit of money?

As old Guan Yinli had fewer and fewer people, finally even Hu Chong asked him at a drinking table one day.

“Your mom still doesn’t plan to leave there?”

Hu Wei heard a trace of disdain from his father’s words – obviously, this wasn’t a question of concern, but more like mockery.

Hu Wei didn’t know how to answer and could only nod. His father then snorted.

He said: “Your maternal grandfather and grandmother both died in that house, even you nearly died there. I think it’s a house belonging to the dead. Now someone’s willing to pay money to buy it and she still won’t agree – truly stupid beyond belief.”

Over the years, Hu Wei had developed deep understanding of his father’s vicious personality after drinking. Hearing this, he just silently returned to his room.

Where they lived then was only three or four kilometers from old Guan Yinli. Before starting homework, Hu Wei habitually looked out the window, originally wanting to see his mother, but what he didn’t expect was that on that very night, Hu Wei suddenly saw a large mass of gray smoke cloud slowly rising from the direction of his old home.

Guan Yinli was on fire.