Chapter 118: The Taboo of the Thirteenth Floor

Mo Qingyan wrote a note and handed it to Xiao Qing and me.
It listed the materials needed for the ritual, including small items like candles, small saucers, razor blades, cinnabar, and brushes; we needed to go out and buy them.

Before leaving, Bai Yue asked me if she could feed the leftover food to her Gu bugs.
I readily agreed and took all the leftovers from the fridge for her to deal with.
I didn’t know how many Gu bugs she was raising, but it felt like their consumption must be quite high.
Still, it was hard to imagine a cute little girl like Bai Yue going to the wet market to buy a huge amount of groceries.

Xiao Qing and I headed out.
However, knowing that several murders had occurred in this residential area, I started to feel a bit scared.
Even while taking the elevator, I found myself wondering if there was a corpse hidden on top of it or something.

Especially when we reached the first floor, Xiao Qing noticed the way the building was numbered.
“Brother Xiao, the first floor here is actually labeled as Level 0?”
“And there’s a basement below?”

“Yeah, isn’t that how many high-rise buildings are divided?”
“Even if it’s not written as Level 0, they usually count the residential second floor as the first floor.”
“As for the basement, it seems to be a parking lot, but I haven’t been down there yet,” I said.

“But if that’s the case, the twelfth floor where Brother Xiao lives is actually the thirteenth floor.”
“Building 4, Floor 13, Room 4—those are not very auspicious numbers.”

My face turned pale as I heard this, and I forced a dry laugh.
“Four just sounds similar to the word for death.”
“As for thirteen being unlucky, that’s more of a Western belief.”
“The two come from different cultures; it shouldn’t really have any bad influence, right?”

“It’s all the same; inauspicious numbers don’t change no matter where you are.”
“In the West, they generally don’t have a thirteenth floor or a thirteenth seat.”
“It’s all based on experience,” Ou Zhiqin said.

By this time, we had already walked out of Building 4.
In Liubaiyuan, the fragrance of flowers was refreshing, carrying a sweet and cloying scent.
The Golden Cicada Gu on my person began to stir again, likely having caught the scent of roses.
It wasn’t too late yet, and there were many people taking post-dinner strolls in the neighborhood.

However, my mindset was completely different from a few days ago.
As I looked at the people passing by, they seemed to have a murderous glint in their eyes, and their faces appeared hideously terrifying, as if everyone looked like a serial killer.
Similarly, they all seemed to be looking at their surroundings with vigilance, hiding in the shadows of the night where the light couldn’t reach, maintaining a distant coldness from one another.

Yet, I still couldn’t see a single ghost in Liubaiyuan.
If there had been a brutal murder here, it should be filled with lonely spirits and wild ghosts, just like the ghost stories of Jianlong Middle School.
Furthermore, Mo Qingyan had said this place might be a Yin-gathering spot.
But this neighborhood was too clean—not even a wandering soul could be found.
It was clean to an abnormal degree.

Only now did I feel that the tranquility of Liubaiyuan was a bit too unnatural.
I could often see strange things even just out on the streets.
What was even stranger was that when Xiao Qing and I exited Liubaiyuan, I didn’t feel a sense of relief.
Instead, it was like the feeling of the water suddenly cutting out while taking a hot shower, leaving me with a wave of irritability.
I hadn’t noticed this feeling when leaving the neighborhood before.
This time, it was likely because I was deliberately paying attention to my surroundings and the changes in my own mindset.

“Brother Xiao, what’s wrong?”
Xiao Qing once again keenly noticed the change in my expression and asked with concern.

“Xiao Qing, have you noticed any… changes?”
“When coming out of the neighborhood, or while inside, did you feel anything different from usual, perhaps in your state of mind?” I asked.

“Have I? It seems there was a little something… like feeling a bit impatient?”
“Normally, I wouldn’t keep pestering Senior Sister Mo for a solution.”
“Maybe I was just too worried about Brother Xiao?” Ou Zhiqin said after reflecting for a moment.

I couldn’t be sure if it was an illusion or a coincidence, so I could only keep it in mind and focus on buying things with Xiao Qing first.

There were quite a lot of ritual props required by Mo Qingyan.
Xiao Qing and I ran around to nearby general stores, pharmacies, and stationery shops before we gathered everything.
The cinnabar and brushes had to be bought specifically from a calligraphy shop.
It was already past nine o’clock by the time we returned to Liubaiyuan.

As I entered the neighborhood, I paid attention to the changes in my mood once more.
There truly was a refreshing sensation, like a fish back in water.
There were very few pedestrians strolling now, and the surroundings were silent.

However, when we arrived at the base of Building 4, a burst of rapid knocking broke the surrounding silence.
“Open the door! Open the door! Stop playing dead inside! I know you’re home!”
A voice yelling for the door echoed down from upstairs.
Rather than knocking, it was more like someone was smashing the door.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The sound of forceful pounding traveled down.

I followed the sound with my eyes and frowned.
‘That’s not right… it seems to be on my floor, the thirteenth floor?’
Counting up from the ground floor, one could see that my home was on the thirteenth floor.

Xiao Qing pulled out her phone and sent a message to Mo Qingyan.
 [Is someone knocking on the door outside?] 

Soon, Mo Qingyan’s reply came back.
 [They are knocking on the door of Room 1. They arrived shortly after you left. It seems to be a debt collector. It’s really annoying; we can’t even focus.] 

“Then how are we supposed to get home?”
“I don’t want to run into a debt collector at the door, and judging by that knocking force, that guy seems to have quite a temper,” I said distressedly.

I didn’t know if it was because no one dared to meddle in this business, but the man had been smashing the door for so long and not a single neighbor had come out to respond or reprimand him.
At this rate, god knows how long he would keep pounding.

After waiting for a while, Xiao Qing had no choice but to suggest: “Brother Xiao, why don’t we go up to the eleventh floor first and eavesdrop on the situation?”
“We can go home after he leaves.”

“That’s the only way,” I sighed.

Xiao Qing and I entered the stairwell and began to climb the stairs.
Because I was afraid taking the elevator would attract the man’s attention, this was my first time climbing the entire stairwell.
The lights in the stairwell were very dim, and on every floor along the way, there were strange talismans and children’s graffiti.
However, they all seemed to be drawn in a very eerie manner: distorted facial features, red watercolor pens scrawled sloppily over human bodies, and people lying under knives.
It looked incredibly unsettling no matter how you viewed it.

When we reached the twelfth floor, we could secretly see the man’s back from the stairwell.
He was a tall, thin man wearing a worn-out black leather jacket, angrily smashing the door to Room 1.

Just as I was wondering what to do, another message from Mo Qingyan arrived.
 [I’m letting Yue’er go out to drive him away.] 

Creeeak!
My front door opened, and the man instantly stopped his pounding and cursing.