Volume 1: Breaking Ground Chapter 3 There's a Ghost
It was a rare occasion that Mu Yiran was wearing casual clothes today, and Ke Xun smiled at him - they were both wearing casual clothes, and one was diving blue and the other was glacier gray, which matched well.
Mu Yiran still had a serious look on his face. He looked at the sign of Chunsun Apartment, then looked at the advertising paper in his hand, as if trying to find some clues in the shops near the apartment.
Ke Xun said in sync: "Don't look for it. It should be 1997 now. This is an old advertisement from a year ago."
"This area is very sunken." Mu Yiran looked at the obvious downhill slope of Chunsun Street and felt that there was something wrong with the feng shui here .
"Maybe the people who built the apartment wanted to gather wealth?" Ke Xun looked up at the sky that was as dark as a backdrop and felt an invisible oppression - in fact, the feng shui of this apartment was not good. It was located at the end of Chunsun Street, and the other two sides faced three street intersections, making the building more like some kind of special transportation hub.
It is said that such a house is called "a heart pierced by thousands of arrows" by experts.
—— "This is definitely deconstructionism!" Finally, someone came over from the distance, three men and one woman, one of whom was Qin Ci.
Qin Ci nodded to Ke Xun and the others, folded the advertising paper in his hand, and walked over to stand with them.
"This is a deconstruction of painting! No, it's the deconstruction of modern architecture!" said a middle-aged man wearing glasses very excitedly, his whole body as slender as a bamboo.
Another middle-aged man with long hair and a slightly bald head said with a thoughtful look: "No, no, I think it should belong to the category of philosophy."
"Deconstructionism itself originates from philosophy!" The man with glasses' eyes almost penetrated the lenses.
Ke Xun looked at Qin Ci, a little confused as to whether these people were from inside or outside.
This is the first time I've seen someone walk into a painting so calmly.
"I met them in the exhibition hall. They were said to be three poets who were collecting folk songs." Qin Ci said briefly.
The poetess was the most normal one. Her eyes were a little flustered and a little exploratory. She was wearing a light-colored cheongsam with a gauze shawl on the outside. She was walking towards them in embroidered shoes. "Doctor Qin, I still don't understand what's going on. If we're in a painting, it's too absurd. Could this be... the back door to the art gallery?"
"We hope so too." Ke Xun glanced at the three poets dressed in ancient clothes and said nothing more.
A large group of people came behind: Sha Liu with a reluctant expression; Zhu Haowen, a Japanese-looking youth with a mustache; Li Taiyong, a 70-year-old man; and three long-legged girls with devilish figures: Tina, Xinmiao, and Luo Han.
Weidong looked at the three beauties: What a special fate~
After everyone arrived, Qin Ci briefly introduced the basic knowledge of "entering the painting" to everyone, and then prepared to knock on the door and walk into the apartment.
Except for old man Li Taiyong, the newcomers could not hide their panic, especially the three long-legged girls. Two of them were almost scared silly, and another one was crying and saying that she couldn't believe she had traveled through time.
Old man Li Taiyong was wearing an outdated short-sleeved shirt, washed-out work pants, and a pair of old shoes. This outfit looked very harmonious in today's world.
One of the old man's hands kept shaking, and it was not known whether it was due to nervousness or some old age disease. He was slightly out of breath when he walked. Qin Ci, who was closest to him, came up and gave him a hand.
Ke Xun has an innate compassion for the elderly and children: "Old man, old man, why are you wandering around the art museum when you have nothing to do? It must be because the weather is too hot and you don't want to turn on the air conditioner at home..."
The big iron door of the apartment opened with a bang, and it was pitch black inside like a bottomless pit. The wind that blew in was very cool, and there was an indescribable smell in the air, a bit like the peculiar stuffy and damp air coming from an underground garage.
When everyone calmed down, they found that there were actually lights inside. Because it was a round building, a circular courtyard was formed inside, or it could be called a patio.
Standing in the patio and looking around, you can see a densely packed circle of residents.
This type of building is commonly known as a tube-shaped building and was the most common type of residential building in the 1970s.
Sha Liu looked up at the night sky above the patio and said, "I've been to old-style tube buildings before, but they all had roofs. Why doesn't this one have a roof?"
"There's a roof? Then there's no sunlight?" A voice came faintly, and Shaliu was startled.
The person who spoke was the man who had just opened the door for everyone. He was in his fifties, wearing a faded red cross-strap vest, and holding a round bunch of dozens of keys in his hand. He seemed to be the doorman of this apartment.
"Are you all here to rent a room? Come in with me," the doorman pushed open the door to the mail room, "There are only six empty rooms left. Please divide into six groups."
The doorman looked calm and composed, and even took some fish food from the bag to feed the fish in the tank.
Ke Xun recalled the extremely lifelike fragments of scenes he had seen before entering the painting, and then connected them with the very realistic NPC in front of him. He felt that this painting was somewhat different from the previous ones.
The three long-legged girls quickly hugged each other: "Let's form a group of three!"
As if they had received a command from heaven, Weidong and Kexun also hurriedly approached Mu and said happily, "Let's form a group of three!"
Mu Yiran's expression faded, but he did not explicitly object.
The doorman looked at the six people who had automatically formed groups and said, "Three people at most in a group. No more than that. Otherwise, there won't be enough to share."
This NPC is quite easy to talk to.
"Qiu Lu! The three of us!" The middle-aged man with long hair actually looked so excited that people felt that he was about to start seeking death.
The poetess named Qiulu rolled her eyes at him and said, "You two can go as a team. We have a lady here."
Sha Liu had been holding back and not saying anything, but after hearing Qiu Lu say this, she smiled and nodded.
Qin Ci was still supporting the old man Li Taiyong at this time, so he simply formed a group with the old man.
The only one left was the Japanese youth Zhu Haowen.
Being alone is usually not a good thing, especially in weird paintings.
"Once you come here, you are a member of the Chunsun dormitory. We are in charge of you." The doorman began to distribute keys: "There is only one key to each room, don't lose it."
Ke Xun took the key and saw that it was a brass key with simple teeth, which was unique to the 1990s. What made it seem even more makeshift was that the house number was stuck on the key with white adhesive tape, and then a string of numbers was written on it with a ballpoint pen: 411.
Sha Liu stretched her head and looked at the key in Ke Xun's hand: "We live in 410, we are neighbors, please take care of me if anything happens."
"Okay." Ke Xun just hummed and hawed when dealing with people like Sha Liu.
After a while, everyone received their keys.
When the concierge handed out the last key, he suddenly said, "You can't live alone on the sixth floor. It's too high and it's too crowded." His eyes suddenly became sharp and he looked at Wei Dong, "Come here and live with him in room 616."
"Ah? Me?" Wei Dong felt that he was always the most unlucky one.
The doorman's eyes suddenly became fierce: "Do you want to violate the decision of Chunsun Dormitory?"
Wei Dong was almost frightened to death and quickly walked obediently to Zhu Haowen.
The doorman stopped looking at everyone and said as he gathered the remaining keys in his hand, "Go back to your room after you get familiar with the environment. After the lights are turned off, don't walk up and down the stairs or visit other people's houses."
The six groups of people held their keys in their hands. Some were confused, some had only half the answer. They had just walked out of the mailroom filled with the smell of smoke and mold, when suddenly the doorman’s head popped out of the mailroom window and said, “Meet at Wumei Restaurant at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning!”
People were shocked again.
Wei Dong pulled Ke Xun with a sad face: "Ke'er..."
Ke Xun had no choice but to say, "Remember what the doorman said. Don't go up or down the stairs after the lights are turned off. It's best not to go out."
Sha Liu interrupted: "I find it strange. Regarding this restriction of not going up and down the stairs, does it mean that we can go out at night? Can we walk in the corridor on the same floor?"
Before he could finish his words, he heard a loud shout: "Public toilet!"
The one who spoke was Tina from Long Legs Girl. She was pointing at the toilet not far ahead: "There is no toilet in this apartment! We can only go to the public toilet!"
The other two long-legged girls also started to make a fuss.
Everyone then understood why they were not prohibited from going out. If they needed to go to the toilet at night, they had to go out and go to the public toilet.
Everyone had mixed emotions. Those who had experienced painting were very serious about familiarizing themselves with the environment in front of them, trying to imprint the locations of these rooms in their minds - familiarizing themselves with the environment, this should also be a reminder from the doorman.
Everyone was basically familiar with each other. The two middle-aged male poets introduced themselves. The thin one with glasses was called Shouzhu, and the one with long and slightly bald hair was called Zhitiao. I guess they were pen names.
Zhitiao also gave everyone business cards, with the two words "Zhitiao" printed on them.
Everyone knows that taro is sweet potato, and young taro is just a small sweet potato...
Under the current circumstances, no one was in the mood to analyze the sweet potatoes. Everyone took a quick walk around the patio on the first floor. Apart from the strong breath of life, there was no longer the dull feeling as when they first arrived.
There were no residents on the first floor, only shops. We quickly found the "Wumei Restaurant," where there were quite a few people dining.
In addition to small restaurants, there are also many small shops in the basement.
The three long-legged girls were the least used to it when they first arrived. Now they went to the store, took out their wallets and went to buy things. Sure enough, each of them bought a bottle of orange soda and drank it with a straw while standing in front of the store.
It seems that the money in the wallet can be used here, and everyone feels relieved.
"Don't you find it strange? These shops on the ground floor should face outwards, but why are all of them facing inwards?" Ke Xun couldn't help but ask Mu Yiran beside him. He inadvertently smelled the scent of men's perfume on the other person: cedar, oak moss, quite nice.
"Before entering the door, there was a demolition notice posted on the outer wall of the apartment, and the date was May 1996." Mu Yiran believed that these shops were probably no longer allowed to be open to the public.
"Oh, have you seen the demolition notice? I only saw those big red words sprayed with paint: There is a ghost." Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran with a smile.
Everyone was made uncomfortable by Ke Xun's words "there are ghosts", but in fact everyone saw the large blood-red spray-painted words sprayed on the outer wall of the apartment, with the words "there are ghosts" written everywhere in a hideous font.
Suddenly, there was a burst of unbridled laughter from the shop in front, and then a girl in red walked out of the door.
She was wearing a fiery red cylindrical miniskirt and had a hairstyle that was probably very fashionable in that era - the Ω hairstyle, commonly known as the outward-curled hair.
The girl in red used hairspray to curl her hair into a graceful curve, and her thin and tall eyebrows were also drawn into a graceful curve. She wore glossy red lipstick and pouted her lips, which made people feel endearing.
In comparison, the three long-legged girls with new eyebrows and big red lips looked a little rough.
The shop the girl walked out of was a barber shop, and judging from her appearance, she should be the owner.
"New here?" The girl greeted them as if nothing had happened, with a strong Zhejiang accent.
Another vivid NPC appeared.
Seeing the beauty, Shouzhu seemed to be in high spirits all of a sudden: "No one watched the drizzle all day, but the mandarin ducks were bathing in red clothes facing each other."
Everyone: “…”
Zhitiao also smiled: "Sister, actually we came from the art museum..."
"Art gallery? Were you sent by the Hong Kong developer?" The girl in red suddenly interrupted him coldly.
Qiu Lu hurriedly said, "We are just tourists!"
The lady in red turned her eyes around and stared at everyone: "Then you better close the door, this place is haunted at night."
