Chapter 0015 – Landlord

　　Tired, numb, and thin was Chen Ge’s first impression of Wang Qi.

　　The two of them crossed paths, Chen Ge returned the missing person notice that he had just picked up from the ground, and the man whispered a thank you.

　　This was the first time he opened his mouth, his voice was hoarse and not too clear to hear.

　　”You’re welcome, it’s just a small thing.”

　　Chen Ge returned the smile and followed the lame man to the second floor.

　　Compared to the first floor, the second floor appeared more damp and gloomy, with cobwebs coiled in the corners, and the walls were speckled and seemed to have been scratched with carving knives.

　　The crippled man led Chen Ge all the way to the end of the long corridor before stopping, he opened the door to the room at the deepest part of the corridor, and took out a long string of keys from inside: “Stay for fifty dollars a night, and take your pick of the rooms on the second floor.”

　　”Fifty is too expensive, right?”

　　”I’m the only apartment around here for a few thousand meters, charging you fifty is considered less.” As the lame man spoke, his eyes would always intentionally glance back as if he was looking at something.

　　”Alright, but why can you only pick a room on the second floor, don’t people live on the first and third floors?”

　　”Why do you have so many questions? Can’t live is can’t live!” The crippled man took fifty dollars from Singer Chen and casually slipped him a key, “There’s a door number affixed to the key, find it yourself.”

　　After he finished speaking, he drilled into the house, and the moment the door closed, Chen Ge heard an old man’s whimpering voice coming from inside the house, as if he had gotten his meal stuck in his throat.

　　Chen Ge vaguely felt that something was wrong and reached out to press the door lock, “Wait a minute.”

　　”What’s wrong again?” The lame man’s tone was not good, and you could hear that he was a bit annoyed.

　　Chen Ge looked inward along the doorway, the rental house was not large, in addition to the crippled man standing in the doorway, there was also an old man sitting in a wheelchair with his back to the door of the room, and the voice just now came from his mouth.

　　”I’m a little thirsty, do you sell water and drinks here?”

　　”No!”

　　”Harmony makes money, what are you getting so angry for ……”

　　The door to the room banged and slammed heavily, and Chen Ge stood alone in the doorway feeling more and more strange.

　　”In a normal apartment building, the reception must be at the main entrance, but the reception of this apartment is hidden in the deepest part of the second floor corridor.” He looked at the key in his hand, and many doubts surfaced in his mind, “Why can’t people live on the first and third floors? And who is that old man who lives with the landlord?”

　　A number 208 was affixed to the key, and coincidentally, the room corresponding to this key was next door to the man at the foot of the slope.

　　”Forget it, let’s just live in it first.” After running around for more than two hours, Chen Ge was also a bit tired.

　　He opened the door of the room, a faint musty smell floated out, the house should not have been inhabited for a long time, the furniture was covered with dust, the bed sheets were damp and uncomfortable to touch.

　　”Can this bed sleep someone?” Before Chen Ge could put his bag down, he heard a crunching sound from the next room, as if a rice bowl had been broken.

　　He closed the door to the room, listening to the wall, there soon came the crippled man’s curses, probably because too angry, the crippled man in the process of insults mixed with one or two dialects, listen to his accent is not like the locals.

　　The old man whimpered and could not speak, the lame man cursed for a few minutes before stopping, the next more unusual is that the volume of the next door TV set suddenly became louder.

　　”What’s going on? What’s he doing? Why did he turn up the volume of the television set?” Chen Ge continued eavesdropping for a few more minutes, but because the TV volume was too high, there wasn’t much to be gained, so he had to call it quits, “Forget it, I’d better worry more about my own business, tonight is destined to be a sleepless night.”

　　Chen Ge threw his backpack on the dresser and took out the fruit knife from it and hid it in his pocket, “The complaint message on the second-hand house website said that there were blood stains left behind the wallpaper of the room, and that you could always smell a foul odor every late night, so I suspected that this place was a murder house. But I googled all the information related to the Peaceful Apartment and didn’t find which murder happened in this apartment building.”

　　To be selected by the black phone as the venue for the trial mission, Ping An Apartment must be hiding an ulterior secret, which Chen Ge knew very well.

　　He hid the fruit knife and took out the multi-tool hammer, knocking and checking every corner of the room, but there was still nothing to be found.

　　It was a very ordinary guest room, and aside from being ridiculously shabby, there wasn’t much unusual about it.

　　”The landlord only let me pick a room on the second floor in the beginning, which means that there shouldn’t be any problems with the rooms on the second floor, or else it wouldn’t be possible to rent them out to the public. In that case, in order to make a discovery, I must go to the first or third floor to take a look.” The start time of the trial mission was eleven o’clock at night, and now there were still more than three hours before the mission started, Chen Ge didn’t want to waste any time, he put away his tool hammer and gently walked to the door.

　　Holding the door lock in his hand, Chen Ge had just pulled the door halfway open when he suddenly stopped.

　　His palms were sweating, and cool air surged upwards.

　　That lame man was standing right outside the door! It had already stayed for an unknown amount of time!

　　The other party also didn’t expect Chen Ge to suddenly open the door, and the two of them were startled across a half-open door.

　　”Landlord, what are you doing running to my door?” Chen Ge’s face was not good, he increasingly felt that there was something wrong with this landlord.

　　”Didn’t you say you were thirsty? I came to bring you this.” The crippled man placed the thermos in his hand in front of Chen Ge’s door, his expression more or less unnatural.

　　”Thanks a lot.” Chen Ge didn’t point it out and smoothly carried the thermos into the house, “Do you still have something to do?”

　　”Nothing, take an early rest.” The crippled man glanced towards the house, and as if talking to himself added, “The corridor is not equipped with lights, it’s very dark at night, you’d better not run around.”

　　He turned to leave, and only when he returned to his room and closed the door did Chen Ge breathe a sigh of relief.

　　”This landlord is ugly, short-tempered, and unkind, and although he has a slight disability himself, he has a strong physique and can easily push over the middle-aged man from earlier.” Chen Ge didn’t know how to reason, he just started to brainstorm based on the murder movies he had watched before, “Being born lame and being bullied since childhood caused him to probably have extremely low self-esteem in his heart, and when this emotion reaches a certain level, it will twist and explode to produce thoughts of destroying others and self-destruction. Crap, when you think about it like this, he seems to have all the personality traits of a homicidal maniac!”

　　Chen Ge put down the thermos, he was trying to think of a question, “If the landlord is really a homicidal maniac, then wouldn’t I have to be in a murderous mansion and be neighbors with a murderer for a night?”

　　Just thinking about this, Chen Ge felt his scalp tingle, that old pervert might even stand in front of his room all night! What was even more frightening was that he was the landlord, he should have spare keys to all the rooms!