Mentioning the apartment building’s water, the man clearly had been nursing a deep grievance for a while.
During the day, the water already carried a foul stench—boiling it barely dulled the odor. By night, the drawn water reeked twice as strong; no one dared drink it.
Professionals had been called in, yet every report claimed nothing serious—just aging tanks and pipes. “Install a purifier, boil it, and it’s fine,” they’d say.
But that was the odd part.
The water *was* foul. There *had* to be a problem.
Yet whenever outsiders drank it, they insisted it tasted normal.
As if the stench simply didn’t reach them.
Jiang Qianyu’s eyes flickered slightly. “So the water here really is foul. No wonder everyone buys so much bottled water.”
“Nothing we can do,” the man sighed. “It’s fine for flushing toilets or watering plants, but drinking? No one dares. We’ll wait till the root cause is fixed.”
“Um… Uncle, do you know when the water started smelling? How long’s it been? Could something have died in the tank—a stray cat or puppy—and the repair crew just missed it?”
At her words, the man’s face tightened.
“Why ask that?”
“Well… I need to tell Mom when she gets back. If I don’t explain clearly, she won’t believe me.”
“Then tell her the water’s been foul for a whole month. Don’t drink it.”
“Mm-hmm, thank you, Uncle.”
Just as the middle-aged man grunted and moved to close the door, Jiang Qianyu spoke again. “Uncle, the driver mentioned this place is haunted. Is it true? Why do other doors have so many yellow papers stuck on them? It’s kinda scary…”
“Haunted?” He waved a hand. “Nonsense. No ghosts exist. People just scare themselves.”
“What about the white-clad woman with a child they talk about?”
Hearing this, the man’s brows knotted.
“I don’t know any white-clad woman. Never seen her. Enough—I’m resting. You should go.”
He slammed the wooden door shut, clearly done with the topic.
Jiang Qianyu cast a lingering glance at the wooden door behind the security gate, turned as if to leave, then leaned quietly against the wall beside it.
From there, the man couldn’t see her through the peephole.
During their talk, he’d seemed ordinary—his sharp tone unremarkable.
But.
He’d already shut the door, shooed her off.
Why stand behind it now, secretly watching?
Her eyes held no x-ray vision—yet through both gates, she clearly saw chaotic black threads swirling around his body.
His soul. Far messier, deeper than most.
About three minutes passed. *Creak.*
The wooden door behind the security gate opened again.
The man leaned halfway out, peering through the bars.
“Damn it. What’s today’s deal? Someone actually came to rent here? Seriously fearless of death.”
“A woman with a kid… Did *they* send them on purpose?”
“Mad. Everyone’s gone mad.”
“Do they actually believe in ‘possessing a corpse to reincarnate’?”
He scanned the hall—no Jiang Qianyu, no one. Muttering, he closed the door.
“‘Possessing a corpse to reincarnate’?” Jiang Qianyu frowned.
He definitely knew something.
The white-clad woman’s identity. Why she died.
What twisted her into this.
Who “possessing a corpse” referred to.
She’d accidentally made him misunderstand.
A little girl and a nonexistent mother arriving late to rent—just like the white-clad woman with her eight- or nine-year-old daughter.
“Could someone be trying to resurrect them… hunting substitutes?”
Folk tales said water ghosts drown victims to seize a replacement and reincarnate.
Were “they,” as the man muttered, chasing that very idea?
Jiang Qianyu knocked on a few more doors down the hall. No answers. But she noticed: behind two doors, figures stood silently—unwilling to open.
Their souls, like the man’s, churned in chaotic black threads.
“Water…”
“If the white-clad woman and her daughter *are* in the tank… could she use the water to influence minds? Anyone who drinks it falls under her spell.”
“Water is the medium. Drink it, and at night you’ll hear her knocking.”
“Open the door… and her spiritual energy invades your mind?”
“Then why the knocking?”
Jiang Qianyu already had a plan.
Drink the water. Wait for the white-clad woman.
If she handled it alone? Wait. Consume her. Mission over.
“Could it really be that simple?”
·
·
“Tomorrow Apartments?” The man set the file on his desk and rubbed his temples. “Lu Yunzhi, you want to take this mission alone?”
“Yes, Captain Li.” Lu Yunzhi stood straight in the office. “It’s late, and the rest of Team Thirteen is on leave. I didn’t want to disturb them, so—”
Before she finished, Captain Li nodded without looking up. “Approved.”
His blunt agreement surprised her.
“Really okay, Captain Li?”
“I said approved.” He took a pen, blacked out the line reading [Minimum personnel: four], and tossed the file onto the desk.
Lu Yunzhi glanced down.
She didn’t catch what was hidden beneath the ink—and didn’t dwell on it.
“Thanks, Captain Li. I’ll head out.”
She took the file and left.
Captain Li watched her go, eyes lowered, fingers tapping the desk in a steady rhythm.
After a pause, he pulled out his phone and dialed.
“Lu Yunzhi has accepted the Tomorrow Apartments mission.”
·
·
