### Chapter 36: Tombstone, Bones, Jaw Harp
I am not the only resident troubled by the overly enthusiastic invitations from the property management.
The woman living in 102, the same building as me, is also in the same awkward situation.
It was through her that I discovered the abnormalities in the neighborhood.
She is a young, beautiful, and aloof woman, resembling a cold businesswoman often seen in movies, keeping others at arm’s length.
Such a woman would normally have no intersection with me.
I only learned that she has a child in elementary school and a mother with dementia from the property office’s registration form.
For some unknown reason, she really dislikes interacting with outsiders; whenever I spot her in the neighborhood, she quickly dodges away.
Someone like her would naturally not attend the welcome party for new owners.
The difference is that I did not participate passively, while she chose not to.
We are the only two oddities in the entire Happy Neighborhood.
One day, I came home late and encountered her arguing with the security guard downstairs. The argument stemmed from her mother, that elderly woman who had lost her way in the neighborhood.
However, the security guards not only failed to help her find her mother, but they also couldn’t provide any useful surveillance footage.
The woman was arguing intensely with the guards, but I did not pay much attention.
What’s so strange about an elderly person going missing?
At that time, I thought the fault mostly lay with the woman for not taking care of her elderly mother properly.
The woman searched for her mother for about two to three weeks, during which her mental state visibly declined… but in the end, she didn’t find her.
On one day, two to three weeks later, I saw her again downstairs. She sat disheveled on a bench in front of the building. When she noticed me pass by, she unexpectedly initiated a conversation.
She said, “As someone who shares the same plight, I envy you for living on a higher floor.”
I felt ashamed because, due to my work, I rarely interacted with women, let alone such beautiful ones.
So, when she spoke to me, I felt a bit awkward and shyly laughed, saying, “Well, the first floor is nice too, it even comes with a small garden.”
“No, it’s not nice at all,” she said. “Do you know what living on the first floor means? It means being closer to the ground, where tombstones, bones, jaw harps, and bizarre dreams are buried.”
“Oh, is that so? That’s interesting.” I didn’t understand her meaning, so I gave a perfunctory reply and turned to leave. As I passed by her window, I instinctively glanced inside.
It was pitch dark inside; I couldn’t see anything clearly.
I leaned in a bit closer and suddenly saw a face, spiritless with dull eyes, slowly appearing on the glass.
The woman had somehow come up behind me.
She did not blame me for my intrusive behavior; rather, she murmured to me, “Be careful, those people are watching you!”
Who are those people? Neighbors? Security? Property management staff?
I thought she might be mentally disturbed due to her mother’s disappearance.
That night, I searched for performances of the jaw harp and heard that strange sound.
The music of the jaw harp is peculiar, floating between melody and onomatopoeia, resembling a vibrating airflow and the low growl of a creature, with syllables drilling into the brain as if brought to life, bouncing nonstop.
To this day, I still don’t know why that woman mentioned the jaw harp being buried underground.
She probably heard some sort of sound coming from beneath.
Seeing this, Jiang Li put down the tablet in her hand, picked up the file she brought back from the Siye Society, and flipped to the section about the investigation of the underground space in Happy Neighborhood.
Jiang Li has always hated places like sewers, basements, and underground parking lots; those dark, damp areas without windows easily evoke thoughts of tombs.
In fact, these places were also key targets for investigation by the Siye Society in their efforts to look into potential urban legend incidents.
“The sewers in Happy Neighborhood are cleaner than a rich girl’s hand…”
Upon seeing such a description, the corner of Jiang Li’s mouth twitched slightly. It was clear that the investigation must have been conducted by Bai Kai, who could write such a bizarre report.
The report from Bai Kai indicated that the underground space in Happy Neighborhood was very clean and tidy, with no residual spiritual energy fluctuations, even the sewers were cleaned regularly; however, he still concluded that there were anomalies.
After reading the investigation report, Jiang Li thoughtfully nodded.
Although Bai Kai did not provide a clear reason, Jiang Li still understood and recognized his viewpoint.
With the underground space cleaned so thoroughly, with not even a trace of spiritual energy fluctuations remaining, it instead gave off a feeling of something wanting to be hidden.
Time passed day by day, and the environment in the neighborhood changed not at all, while the neighbors remained friendly.
However, influenced by that woman, I began to unconsciously observe the neighborhood.
I noticed that every morning, the birds flying past my window seemed identical, and their calls sounded nonchalant.
The neighbors in the neighborhood are all quite young, much like the rumors suggest, none appear to be over forty.
After dark, the man living in the opposite building often peers through a pair of binoculars, perhaps monitoring me.
I even felt that my home wasn’t safe anymore; I once saw strange markings at my door.
Then, I started dreaming; I kept having the same nightmare every night.
I dreamt of a shadow with an indistinct face sneaking into my home. It was slightly stronger and shorter than me, an ordinary-looking person who could easily be anyone brushing past me on the street.
It hid in inconspicuous corners of the bedroom, either at the foot of the bed or behind the door, quietly watching me with malicious intent.
At that time, I believed these thoughts were entirely influenced by the woman’s words and the sound of the jaw harp which had instilled a sense of paranoia in me.
It wasn’t until one day, a month later, that I realized there was indeed something strange and mysterious in this neighborhood.
That evening, when I returned home from work, I felt someone was following me.
I heard my footsteps mingling with another person’s, very light and slow, like a cat lying in wait for its prey.
When I turned around for the first time, I only saw the cobblestone path and the grass trimmed by the gardener on both sides.
I continued walking forward, soon hearing that faint footstep again, even lighter yet closer than before.
I suddenly turned around and indeed saw a man.
He was a staff member from the property management, wearing a black suit, slightly stronger and shorter than me. He had visited my home previously to invite me to the welcome party.
I don’t even know his name.
In fact, most of the property staff were recruited online; I suspect the property company only knew them by their IDs. No one truly understood their backgrounds.
He did not avoid my gaze, walking slowly in front of me with a smile.
I don’t know if it was my illusion, but I thought his smile that day seemed especially fake, like he was wearing a mask.
He said to me, “Sir, we have a small gathering this weekend, and we hope you can join us. Think of it as making up for the welcome party you missed; everyone wants to meet you!”
“Everyone?” I asked, puzzled.
“That includes all of us property staff and your neighbors!” he replied with a smile.
I suddenly thought of the woman living on the first floor, “Will that lady from the first floor also be attending?”
He looked into my eyes, smiling as he said, “Yes, she has already agreed.”
I fell silent for a moment before telling him, “Okay, if I’m free, I will attend.”
During that time, the company was preparing a new project, so I could be on overtime at any moment. I had no way of guaranteeing my attendance at their gathering on the weekend.
After saying that, I sensed my vague response might have caused resentment between us. Although he maintained his smile, I saw anger in his eyes.
As I turned to leave, I felt someone watching me. I knew it was probably the property staff, but I didn’t dare look back. I could only secretly take out my phone, open the camera, and look behind me. Then I saw a chilling sight.
The man who had been smiling at me just moments before was now standing not far away with an expressionless face, his gaze unnatural and menacing.
In a distance, neighbors were walking their dogs, standing still, their eyes fixed on me, not even the dogs moved, as if under some spell.
Terrified, I turned back; it was as if the spell had broken at the very moment I turned.
The neighbors returned to their leisurely strolls, the dogs resumed their playful runs, and the man in the black suit smiled at me.
“Sir, is there anything else you need?”
“N-nothing.”
His question snapped me out of my astonishment, and I hurried home without stopping.
As I moved forward, I felt their expressions, once again morose and resentful, directed at me.
Though I could not see, I felt their gazes like nails driven into my body.
Is there anything more terrifying than being treated like an enemy by your neighbors and property staff?
“Is it a curse?”
Jiang Li put down the tablet, glancing at the file from the Siye Society, which contained the results of a random sampling survey of the residents in Happy Neighborhood. The data showed no signs of curses or infectious venom among the residents.
“Could it be influenced by the power of urban legends? Or have they already become familiars?”
Jiang Li murmured, picking up the tablet again.
I hurried down to my building, and far away, I saw the woman’s son from the first floor, crouched next to a property staff member who was saying something to him, reaching into his pocket to pull something out.
Seeing that scene and recalling what had happened earlier, I felt that the child might be in danger, and just as I was about to step forward to stop it, I heard that woman scream from behind me.
“Don’t touch my son!” she shouted.
I turned to look at her and saw that she was terrified. It had only been a short time since I last saw her, but she appeared to have aged over a decade. If it weren’t for her voice, I surely wouldn’t have recognized her.
After that brief encounter, I did not see that woman for nearly a week, and then something terrifying happened when I saw her again.
After her mother went missing, her son vanished too.
That night, I had just bought something from a convenience store and saw the woman running towards me from afar. She wore a sleep dress, her hair unkempt, looking as though she had suffered a tremendous blow, utterly disheveled.
She approached me and asked, “Have you seen my son?”
I said, “I haven’t seen him,” and she ran off without looking back, quickly disappearing into the darkness.
Not long after I got home, I vaguely heard the sound of police sirens; she must have reported her son missing.
Listening to the intermittent sirens, I couldn’t help but remember the earlier scene of that property staff member alone with the woman’s son, and my unease escalated.
Tell me, if those people living near your home wanted to harm you, is there anything more terrifying than this?
Days passed; my work kept me busy, and it became common to not return home for several days. I ultimately did not know whether the woman from the first floor attended that weekend gathering.
When I finally thought to ask her, I discovered she might have been missing for quite some time.
When I went to find her, there was a layer of dust on her windows and door.
I looked through the window into her home; it remained pitch black, and I couldn’t see anything.
I tried calling out a few times, but there was no response.
…
The other oddity in the neighborhood was gone, leaving me alone.
I continued to have repetitive nightmares every night; the difference was that those dreams grew increasingly vivid, and the strange figures came closer and closer.
The overwhelming unease instinctively made me want to avoid going home, eventually prompting me to buy a folding bed and move into the office, only returning home when I needed fresh clothes.
Time passed without incident for more than a week, but then the horrifying event finally occurred—the figure from my dreams tracked me down to my company.
That night, I was writing code in the office after all my coworkers had left, leaving the space empty.
In the early morning, the sky outside was dark, with low-hanging clouds pressing down on everything, obscuring the view.
Soon, heavy rain began to pour, and the world outside the window became misty; the city seemed to tremble under the flashing lightning.
Large droplets of rain hammered against my window, making a racket; I couldn’t concentrate on my work, so I decided to lie down on my folding bed early, playing on my phone until I unknowingly fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, I dreamt of the strange figure that was slightly stockier and shorter than me. It crept into the building under the cover of night, following the emergency stairs, arriving at my office door.
I realized it was getting closer and wanted to get up and escape but found my limbs completely unresponsive, as if I had lost all feeling.
I could only lie there in horror, my eyes wide open as I watched the peculiar figure inch closer, obscured by the office furniture, and then slowly climb onto my folding bed from the dark end near my feet, making no sound.
I had no idea who it was, just as I didn’t know the background of that property staff member.
Its face was hazy, shrouded in darkness.
It curled up and sat on my chest, wielding a small wooden hammer and something pale and sharp that resembled a tentacle, aimed at my crown and continuously struck down.
It intended to drive that strange object into my head.
Although I was in a dream, I felt a chilling pain, as if my skull were shattering, waves of agony shooting from my head.
In the assault of pain and fear, I opened my mouth to scream, desperately trying to wave my arms around, and finally, after wiggling my fingers slightly, I awoke from the dream.
The cold rain hit my body, shocking me awake as I looked at the familiar streets around me, causing me to fall to the ground in fright.
During my nightmare, I had somehow left the company and found myself in front of the gate of Happy Neighborhood, faintly seeing clusters of shadows resembling tombstones looming behind the gate.
From afar, I heard the bizarre sound of music drifting from the neighborhood; it was soft and slow, like the air vibrating, or animals growling, getting closer. Every syllable seemed alive, bouncing into my ears and drilling into my head.
I was certain that was the sound of the jaw harp!
That sound is one you can hardly forget after hearing it just once.
I realized that the entity producing the jaw harp sound, having caused the disappearance of the woman on the first floor and was now targeting me, turned and ran away desperately, still too afraid to approach that place.
From that day onward, I really began to fear; I was afraid I would vanish like the family of three from the first floor without explanation.
Or perhaps, just like the rumors say, continue to live in the neighborhood until one day shortly after turning forty, leaving this world.
So, please help me, save me; anyone will do. I don’t want to just disappear without reason.
I really [remaining content was deleted or blocked by the administrator due to suspected violations of community regulations]
…
Reward: Ten years of life, a house in Happy Neighborhood.
The jaw harp…
This might be a key element.
Finally finishing the lengthy description from the reward poster, Jiang Li put down her tablet and rubbed her slightly swollen forehead.
Initially, she thought the urban legends in Happy Neighborhood might be limited to a specific area, just like the urban legend students at Shihhekou Middle School.
If that were the case, close monitoring and proper sealing could minimize the risks involved.
However.
After reading this description, she realized the situation was not so simple.
The urban legends lurking within Happy Neighborhood could not only leave the neighborhood but also reach the poster’s company. They possessed the ability to harm and deceive human minds, and even hide their spiritual energy fluctuations by some means.
“The spiritual energy fluctuation level might be B+ or even higher… with some level of concealment skill…”
As Jiang Li pondered this, her phone suddenly vibrated beside her. She picked it up to see a message from “Wang Buliu.”
Wang Buliu: “Are you there? Are you sleeping?”
Genius Mahjong Girl: “Yes, sleeping.”
Wang Buliu: “Then, could you please send me a selfie in your sleepwalking state? You promised during the day, don’t tell me you’re still using a landline; it shows mobile login on my end.”
“……”
Jiang Li fell silent for a moment, opened her photo album, and sent the prepared image.
Genius Mahjong Girl: “[Image]”
Genius Mahjong Girl: “After seeing the selfie, quickly get ready, don’t hold me back. [Heart emoji]”
Wang Buliu: “????”
