74hy

After memorizing all the important details, Han Fei jumbled up the waste paper again. “The lesser the people who know about this the better.” The picture didn’t record the thing that happened to the woman in Room 13 but she was the one who painted the picture. All the patterns were sticky with black hair that exuded a horrible stench. “The woman knows about the well’s secret? She has seen that well?” Han Fei was curious why the tenant chose to commit suicide, what had forced her to do so?

Picking up the paper plane folded from a love letter, Han Fei read the message again. “The truth is a monster with a mouth and it has been trapped at the philanthropist’s home? The philanthropist here should refer to the mall boss, does this mean that the truth can be found at his home?”

A few days ago when Han Fei chatted with Huang Li, he found out the mall boss had many houses, but his favourite was the one at white city.

“The haunted houses that order white rice every night are also situated at white city. I should go take a look when I’m there.” After putting away the love letter, Han Fei grabbed a few key papers with him, that way, no one could piece the well back together. “The sudden death of 6th Finger might attract the other fingers to come look. Perhaps I should just burn all these things.”

Han Fei quickly put his plan into action. He was about to return to his home to get a lighter when the landlady and her husband returned. “What are you still doing here?” The landlady had met many people but this was the first time she encountered someone like Han Fei. “Aren’t you afraid?”

“I have to piece the paper together today to return justice to the dead!”

“There is no justice in this world. All you need to do is to work hard and cure your mother’s illness.” The landlady frowned looking at the paper that scattered the ground. “Later I’ll burn all these papers. If you ask me, you’re probably possessed!”

“But won’t the ghost get angry after you burn her stuff? We can’t avoid the problem forever.” Han Fei stopped the landlady, “Actually why did the tenant of Room 13 commit suicide?”

“Don’t know.”

“If you tell me, I will go sell my blood and return you my owed rental today.” Han Fei rolled up his sleeves and said seriously.

“Is this really necessary? You don’t even know her, why create so much trouble for yourself?” The landlady was getting annoyed. The husband rushed in. “Calm down.” He closed the door. “Pipe down, do you two want the entire building to hear you?” He stood between Han Fei and his wife. “I can tell you everything you want to know. There’s no need to rush the rental, curing your mother is more important.”

“What happened to the tenant of Room 13 before she died?” Han Fei didn’t waste time and cut to the chase.

“It’s a long story. The tenant of Room 13 was a worker at the mall. Even though she was young, she already owned this place. She had worked very hard. When she went to work, she would lock her child at home. There were no toys for the child to play with so when the child was bored, the kid would fold waste paper into planes and throw them out the window. The other tenants hated the child for littering. So the woman had no choice but to bring her child to work with her.” The landlord sighed. “Actually the woman was quite a nice person. How shall I put this? When your actions don\'t affect others, everyone will exist peacefully with you but the moment your existence brings others inconvenience, no one will care for you.” The landlord felt the temperature around him dropping. He took out a cigarette to try to warm himself but he put it back into his pocket once he felt a sharp gaze from his wife.

“The neighbours found her to be easily bullied and the colleagues were annoyed by her child. A few weeks went by. One night, the woman ran back to the apartment in a hurry. She found us and told us that her child had gone missing, she asked us if we had seen her child.”

“Even though we were not that close with her, this was a missing child so we helped her. We searched until late midnight but we couldn’t find her child. From that day onwards, the tenant started to get a little crazy. She went to work in the morning and came out to look for her child at night. Gradually she lost her mind.” The landlord sighed. He wanted to light the cigarette but was afraid of his wife.

“Lost her mind?”

“Yes, she started to mumble nonsense to herself. She said that there was a way to find her child, she only needed to pray to the god and the god would show her the way.” The landlord’s eyes shone with regret. “I’ve persuaded her and called her family to come get her. However, she refused to listen and her condition worsened.”

“And then what happened?”

“The woman lost it. One day, she burned her arms because she said she had traded her arms for her child’s location.” When the landlord said that, Han Fei shivered.

“Has she mentioned a well to you?”

“How did you know that?” The landlord was startled before he continued, “She had severe burns on her arms. When she was sent to the hospital, her mind was already gone. She kept mumbling things that no one could understand. Things like hatred can light up the fire that burns in the water, she was willing to use her arms to trade for her child’s location. She said that she had reached her hands into the well, and her arms were burned by water. In the end, she said that her wish was fulfilled. The god gave her the location of her child and her child was inside the well.”

“The woman lost her mind and she didn’t even find her child.” The landlady said. She had a sharp tongue but she really did care about the girl.

“After the woman was discharged from the hospital, she returned here and that night, she hanged herself.” The couple didn’t blame the woman for doing that. They even preserved her room. They probably thought there was something strange about her death.

“Did she ever bring up the child’s father? Did she fall in love when she was working at the mall?”

“We have never heard of her husband before, she came from the countryside. Perhaps her husband was working in another city.” The landlord urged Han Fei to leave. “Come on, let’s not stay here anymore.”

“Wait a minute.” Han Fei opened the musty dresser in the bedroom. There were many old clothes and some of the children’s clothes had the logo of a charity organization. The logo was very familiar. Han Fei had seen the same logo on the donation box behind the mall. Han Fei looked through the pile of clothes and a red sweater caught his attention. ‘Wait, this is similar to the red sweater knitted by the old lady.’

The tenant in Room 13 and her child had accepted donations from this charity organization before but this organization was built by the mall boss. The boss had no kindness in his heart, everything was a business transaction. All his donations came with a price.

‘Once the woman arrived here, she found a rental near the mall and started working at the work. Did she know someone at the mall? Or even had a special relationship with them?’ Han Fei studied the clothes with the charity logo inside the dresser. ‘The philanthropist locks Conscience and Truth at his home…’ Many speculations appeared in his mind. Han Fei didn’t stay in Room 13 but rushed back to his own home.

‘My mood points have dropped a lot. I need to find time to rest and head to River Head around noon.’ Han Fei stuffed the waste paper into the old lady’s rucksack and went to sleep. Han Fei was woken up by the alarm at noon. His stamina hadn’t fully recovered and his mood point only rose back to 49. ‘It’ll be even more dangerous after dark, I don’t have much time left.’

Han Fei carried the rucksack and left his room. When he was downstairs, he called Wang Pingan. Half an hour later, Wang Pingan arrived wearing his delivery uniform and riding his bike. He smiled innocently. Since he was young, not many people would call him out. Han Fei was his only friend.

“Your uniform is bright yellow. It’ll be impossible for people not to notice.” Han Fei looked at Wang Pingan. He was about to take on the whole world but his only teammate was a man with intelligent deficiency. “The mall boss is extremely cunning and wicked. If he spots you, he will come after you. How about you lend me your uniform and equipment? You should go back home.”

Wang Pingan didn’t understand the complicated sentence. He patted the backseat of his motorcycle and he smiled brightly. “My, my father said, you have helped me… So I help you.”

“Then we should get this done quickly.”

“Brother, brother, I have your favorite rice.” Pingan said proudly, “I’ve accepted a few more orders yesterday night.”

With bad feelings in his heart, Han Fei opened the delivery box. Half of the box was filled with rice.

“They ordered the rice but they didn’t want it. They, they gave them to me. Aren’t they good people?” Wang Pingan wasn’t nervous at all. This was a happy outing for him. He rode very slowly. In fact, Han Fei probably could run faster than the motorcycle.

“If only everyone is so kind.” Han Fei signaled for Wang Pingan to stop. “Go sit at the back, I’ll drive.” Han Fei was in a hurry. After the swap, Han Fei rode the motorcycle like he was racing. Han Fei managed to reach white city before 1 pm.

When he arrived, he could feel the difference immediately. The road was wide and clean. However, the place was quite deserted.

“How did you enter the neighbourhood before?” Han Fei noticed there were a lot of guards at the gate and there were cameras everywhere.

“I walked in.” Wang Pingan pointed at the delivery box. “Delivery.”

“Pretend to be a deliveryman? Not a bad idea,” Han Fei nodded. “Exchange your jacket with mine. You should wait here for me and don’t wander off.”