**Chapter 19: Banshan Apartment**
Not a word was spoken along the way.
The driver uncle had no interest in chatting, and Luxianbei also discreetly closed his mouth, lowering his head to check on Banshan Apartment on his phone. He looked outside at the scenery, quietly organizing the information in his mind.
The information available online about Banshan Apartment was similar to what he had heard in rumors.
The community was located in the suburbs of Huacheng, where an elementary school once stood. It was converted into an apartment building forty years ago, right next to the Huacheng Cement Plant’s mining area, serving as housing for employees of the cement factory.
Luxianbei remembered Banshan Apartment mainly because eighteen years ago, a severe accident occurred there, turning the apartments into dangerous buildings and even resulting in deaths.
As a result, the entire apartment complex was abandoned, and over time, terrifying urban legends began to surface. When he was a child, the old men in the courtyard often frightened Luxianbei with these strange stories.
There were rumors of someone passing by the foot of the mountain in the deep night, hearing arguing voices coming from the mountain above.
There were drivers who, at two in the morning, picked up passengers at Banshan Apartment and claimed to have seen faint, ghostly lights emanating from the building.
Some even reported seeing a group of disguised figures sneaking around, carrying ritual items. As dusk fell, with the sunset behind them, they would go up the mountain as if following a funeral procession.
Thinking it through, those strange occurrences were very likely the work of the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society.
They might have gathered there to hold various bizarre rituals.
In addition to this, Luxianbei had other pieces of information regarding Banshan Apartment from his dream memories.
From his dream recollections, he vaguely knew he had visited the place where Banshan Apartment was located, though the elementary school hadn’t been demolished, and there was naturally no apartment building—only an abandoned elementary school.
In the dream memories of Huacheng, there was also a place called Banshan Community, but it was about five kilometers away in the western district of Huacheng, near the foot of the cement plant’s mining area.
—————
About forty minutes later.
Uncle Zhang Shan pulled Luxianbei to a stop a few hundred meters away from Banshan Apartment and parked the car by the side of the road.
Having not seen anyone around for years, the road was severely damaged and deteriorated, with many cracks in the pavement. Coupled with the chilling legends, Uncle Zhang Shan clearly didn’t want to continue any further.
Unless he got paid more.
But Luxianbei, who wanted to ride for free, could not possibly pay more.
Reluctantly, he paid the fare, got out, and didn’t have time to bid farewell before he saw Uncle Zhang Shan skillfully drift the car around and speed away.
“Ah—! The Zhang Shan uncle from my dream memories was much friendlier!” Luxianbei sighed, “Though he always left quickly, at least he didn’t charge.”
After complaining a bit, he followed the shabby little road and a few minutes later, found the long-abandoned apartment complex.
There was more than one building; all were about to be demolished or partially torn down, with crumbling walls often displaying a bright red “Demolish” sign.
As far as the eye could see, it was a scene of devastation, overgrown with weeds, and had a dilapidated appearance.
This kind of ruined old apartment always instilled an obscure sense of dread.
Perhaps it was because the architectural layout of old apartments was always the same—each floor’s corridor dimly lit, long and wide, some uniquely shaped corridors even twisted and turned.
The doors in the corridors were almost identical, and the corridor walls were also the same, making it difficult to tell any difference unless objects were placed in the corridor.
It felt as if it had been intentionally constructed to confine people or something else inside.
Luxianbei continued forward.
A cloud drifted in the sky, quickly darkening the surroundings and casting a dreary gray hue over the dilapidated Banshan Apartment. It seemed lifeless without the wildly growing weeds.
At the rusted iron gate at the entrance of the apartment complex, Luxianbei paused momentarily. He took out a toilet plunger from his backpack and hung an amulet on his chest.
After taking a few steps, he turned back again and picked up a rusted steel pipe that had fallen from the iron gate. He swung it a couple of times and held it tightly in one hand.
Uh, this doesn’t mean I don’t believe in the ancestral “sword” Ling Tai Purification!
This is dual wielding!
Dual wielding plus critical strike, you get it? Luxianbei thought to himself.
Entering the community, Luxianbei stood beneath one of the apartment buildings, surveying his surroundings.
Traces of life marked the remains of the buildings, with scattered pots, pans, and broken furniture everywhere. Many windows were shattered, and a few balconies still held clothes that hadn’t been taken away in time.
All were styles rich in age, covered in dust and stains.
After surveying the haphazardly placed six buildings for a while, Luxianbei suddenly felt a sense of despair. He had no idea where Gu Qiqi’s home was.
The information Su Mi had provided only said that Gu Qiqi lived on the top floor of Building No. 6.
But as nearly twenty years had passed, this apartment building was already dangerous, and two of the buildings were half-demolished. With no one living there for a long time and poor management, the remaining buildings were in very bad shape.
He could hardly tell which building was No. 6.
Did he have to search room by room?
Would he really be able to find it?
Perhaps Gu Qiqi’s home was in one of those half-demolished buildings, already torn down.
Luxianbei looked at the windows crawling with shadows, seeming like there was someone staring at him from each one, sending chills down his spine.
For a moment, two voices popped into his head.
One hesitant voice said, “This cursed place feels wrong. It might have once been a cult gathering spot. Let’s get out of here quickly! Life is precious!”
The other voice was that of a soft and urgent girl, “If you leave now, you probably will never come back. Don’t you want to know who Jiang Li is?”
After hesitating for a moment, Luxianbei decided to listen to the girl!
Driven by the excellence of the “we’re already here” mentality and strong curiosity, he gritted his teeth and steeled himself to walk into the apartment building nearest to him.
It was unclear if it was psychological, but the moment he stepped into the building, he suddenly felt a very peculiar sensation.
He felt that the truth was waiting for him ahead.
—————
Once inside the building, the light dimmed, and a faint moldy odor enveloped him, together with the dust.
As soon as he stepped into the apartment building, he experienced a strange sensation, as if the entire building were a vast living organism, with the chilling wind being its breath.
Luxianbei furrowed his brow slightly, not lingering on the first floor, and headed directly to the stairs, ascending upwards.
“Cough cough cough—!”
Just as he stepped onto the second floor, an intense bout of coughing erupted behind him, sounding extremely severe, as if someone was about to cough out their lungs.
The sound was exceedingly clear, right behind him, and for a moment, he suspected he had encountered some urban legend. His muscles tensed, and he gripped the toilet plunger and steel pipe tightly, warily looking around.
Then…
Through the gaps in the hallway, he saw a strange old man near the stairwell on the third floor.
The old man had dark skin, dressed in a tattered cultural shirt, shouldering a bulging woven bag, leaning perilously over the shaky handrail, peering down at Luxianbei with a fixed gaze, holding an L-shaped iron rod, presumably used to poke at garbage.
In the dim corridor, coming eye to eye with him made Luxianbei’s heart skip a beat; he frowned.
Someone actually lived here? He looked like a homeless man…
Would he suddenly attack me? Many homeless people seem a bit mentally unstable.
Don’t movies always portray such scenarios? In an abandoned or remote old building lives a psychologically twisted homeless man who enjoys hunting “little sheep” passing by. Then a group of foolish college students or high school kids come for a visit as if they were asking for trouble.
Luxianbei thought, struggling to manage an ugly smile toward the old man, but once he opened his mouth, he couldn’t stop. Words jumped out as if they had grown legs.
“Hey there, old sir! Have you eaten? What did you eat? Was it good? This place where you live is pretty nice! The architectural style has a war-torn vibe, with retro decor, backed by a mountain—great for your health! Actually, I came here just to wander a bit; you don’t have to mind me. Uh, if there’s nothing else, I’ll just…”
His gaze suddenly fell on the shadow behind the old man, and Luxianbei’s pupils contracted, his words abruptly cut off.
The outside light was dim, and the light in the corridor was dim, so there shouldn’t be too prominent a shadow.
However, the old man’s figure cast a heavy shadow on the wall that seemed as though it could swallow a person whole.
What was even more bizarre was that the old man’s shadow didn’t take on a normal human shape.
Two heads, four arms, hazily twisted in the darkness, looking like something invisible to the n*ked eye was parasitizing the old man.
The shadows quivered like liquid, constantly writhing and adopting various bizarre postures that ordinary people couldn’t achieve, with faint sounds of bones twisting echoing in the air.
The distorted shadow, combined with the old man’s own limbs, made him look like a giant spider with a human face.
“Gurgle—!” Luxianbei’s throat slowly twitched as he swallowed, beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
This™ is no simple matter of a mentally ill homeless person.
He was probably some kind of urban legend!
Luxianbei thought, instinctively taking two steps back.
“Shh—shh—!”
The sound of his shoes scraping against the concrete rubble echoed lightly.
Noticing Luxianbei’s movement, the old man suddenly tilted his head, his expression resembling someone who had just discovered something intriguingly amusing, and he grinned at Luxianbei, revealing a mouthful of jagged yellow teeth.
“Hey hey—!” The airy, eerie laughter grew thin, the wrinkles on his face contorting into creases. The pale eyes in their sockets twitched rapidly, as if about to burst forth uncontrollably any moment.
Accompanied by the strange laughter, the old man suddenly lunged down.
His movements were swift, unlike that of a frail elderly man.
“Thud thud—!”
Urgent footsteps echoed in the corridor.
Luxianbei felt his heart tighten, instinctively whispering, “Coat, alchemical dirty bomb!”
However…
His clothes did not ripple or transform, nor could they possibly produce the non-existent alchemical dirty bomb to hand to him.
“d*mn!”
Such sudden explosive situations existed solely in stories!
“Thud thud—!”
The footsteps were relentlessly approaching.
Luxianbei abruptly came to his senses, not having time to think any further. His body moved directly, turning and running down the stairs.
Not knowing if it was a person or an urban legend, the old man had disappeared from view and was now moving towards the direction Luxianbei had taken, making him panic.
Although in his dream memories he had extraordinary strength and held a toilet plunger that seemed to be a sword, he still couldn’t confirm whether that was real or a dream.
Life is precious; encountering danger, why gamble when he could run?
Although he now had a “mental patient” fight boost, who didn’t have a bit of madness?
That old man appeared to have something strange and bizarre about him.
As for the old man’s sudden charge, whether he intended to attack or do something else, Luxianbei didn’t want to know, nor was he interested.
In such a cursed place, encountering a bizarre homeless man charging at him with a bloodied iron rod—that’s a situation where anyone who didn’t panic and tried to understand his true intentions would surely be honored as a “warrior” by Luxianbei.
“Thud thud—!”
The footsteps behind him grew ever closer, a strong stench invading Luxianbei’s nostrils, making it apparent without needing to look back that the old man was not far behind him.
It was a mix of the sour smell of sweat and the stench of rotting garbage, faintly laced with a hint of bl**d.
The suffocating stench invaded his senses, striking straight at his soul and stimulating his nerves.
“Faster, faster!”
Luxianbei felt a surge of panic, repeatedly urging himself to move forward.
In moments of crisis, people often unleash potential within themselves.
Under his self-urging, he leaped down the more-than-four-meter-long staircase in three large strides, then hurried along the ground floor corridor for a stretch before bursting out of the apartment building.
Fresh air imbued with the scent of mountain grass rushed towards him with the cool breeze.
Having left the apartment building, Luxianbei dared not pause for even a moment.
The miasma emanating from the old madman lingered in the air, indicating he was still in hot pursuit.
In his frantic escape, he continuously altered his direction in hopes of losing the old man. In the chaos, he inadvertently darted into one of the apartment buildings, and the light dimmed instantly.
Once his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he felt a tightening in his chest at the sight before him.
Did he not follow?
Did he stop halfway, or was he never coming for him at all?
Luxianbei turned to glance back at the building he just came from, deep in thought.
He wondered if that old man was a member of Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society…
If all members of the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society were as mad as him, even if he found them, he probably wouldn’t get any useful information. It was better to head back sooner, Luxianbei thought.
—————
Luxianbei hid in the shadows, hesitating for a while, but ultimately decided to press on with his exploration.
Although that mad old man did not follow him into this apartment building, he was still wandering outside. From time to time, he could hear the sounds of footsteps crunching through rubble.
If he went out now, he might run into him again.
Should he call the police? Saying he went to Banshan Apartment to look for members of Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society and encountered a mad old man with an urban legend in the shadows?
Don’t be ridiculous! I have a suspected mental illness record at the hospital; when the police arrive, they’ll probably take me in before ever catching that mad old man.
It would be better to explore for a bit first. If I can find anything, that would be great; if not, I can just wait here for the mad old man to leave. Luxianbei thought.
Moreover, after encountering such strange occurrences, his curiosity about the people who appeared in his dream memories grew even stronger.
His intuition told him that if he didn’t clarify everything, he might regret it for a lifetime.
However, he came here to look for clues about the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society.
To ordinary people, the Seek Truth Mutual Aid Society was just a group of lunatics. If he sought help from anyone, he would likely be regarded as a lunatic himself.
Therefore, to know the answers, he had to search for them himself.
Before embarking, however, Luxianbei took out his phone and sent Su Mi a message for safety’s sake.
Luxianbei: “Xiaomi, I’m at Banshan Apartment; it seems a bit abnormal here.”
One always needs to leave a way out for oneself!
Su Mi: “??? Have you lost your mind, bro? Why the hell would you go to a place like that? It’s strange if anything is normal there.”
Luxianbei: “I’m just curious!”
Su Mi: “Curious my a**! You better get back here, got it?”
Luxianbei: “Now that I’m here…” [wronged]
Su Mi: “Then you keep at it; I’ll be at the kids’ table later.” [picking nose]
Luxianbei: “d*mn! Are you still my good buddy? We promised to be each other’s angels, remember?” [angry.jpg]
Su Mi: “But this is way too dangerous!”
Luxianbei: “Don’t worry, I know my limits. At worst, I’ll text you every ten minutes to let you know I’m okay! That’s actually what I wanted to tell you.”
Su Mi took a long time to reply, as if hesitating.
Three minutes later.
Su Mi: “You said it! Every ten minutes, you must send me a complete sentence. If you don’t reply, I’ll call the police!”
Luxianbei: “Love you, muah!”
Su Mi: “Luxianbei, I’ve noticed you’ve become more and more sissy lately…”
Luxianbei: “Get lost! By the way, did you pass your driving test?”
Su Mi: “What are you trying to say?”
Luxianbei: “If it’s convenient, can you drive near Banshan Apartment to wait for me? I remember your dad tossed you his old car to practice with, right?” [sneaky smile]
If worse comes to worst, he could escape Banshan Apartment quickly by using Su Mi’s car.
That mad old man, or whatever else might be hiding here, could never outrun a car, could they? Luxianbei thought.
Su Mi: “Having a childhood friend like you really is the worst luck in the world! Just wait, I’m going to get my dad’s keys. I’ll be there in no more than two hours.”
**Diagnosis Record**
@@
**Name:** Shuyu
**Age:** ???
**Gender:** ???
**Condition Overview:** Affected by unknown factors, suffering from Nightfall Syndrome, symptoms include dizziness, low fever, runny nose, lethargy.
**Doctor’s Signature:** Silver Horn
(Cold-induced cough, can’t take it, gonna bail)
@@
