Almost every house in the entire Shanglin Residential Complex was lit up.

Lin Zhao also said, "Didn't Little Orange say that not many people live here?"

I responded, "There's only one entrance to the complex, and we've been guarding it the whole time. How many people have you seen come back?"

"Less than a hundred people in total. How many houses are in this complex? Where did the rest of those people come from?"

"The residents with the lights on are either people who have been in the complex the whole time, or they've just crawled out from underground."

Lin Zhao pushed me. "Don't scare me! Where could they crawl out from?"

Lin Zhao's voice suddenly became much softer—her gaze had already fallen on the flower bed in front of us. "Why does this flower bed look like a grave to me?"

Before Lin Zhao could finish speaking, Xia Mengying suddenly drew a writing brush from her sleeve and swept it towards Lin Zhao's eyes.

Before the tip of Xia Mengying's brush could reach Lin Zhao, I grabbed her wrist. "Don't use your Haoran Righteousness! We're not here to fight."

I was sure that this residential complex was a place where humans and ghosts mingled. The fact that they could coexist peacefully meant that something in the Shanglin Residential Complex was maintaining a balance between the two sides.

If that balance was broken, the consequences would be unimaginable. At the very least, the hundred or so living people who had returned from outside would become dead people.

Xia Mengying's Haoran Righteousness was the thing most likely to break the balance.

Humans and ghosts travel different paths. Under normal circumstances, they each have their own space and don't interfere with each other. Even if they pass each other, they'll just brush shoulders!

However, if one side disturbs the other, the consequences are hard to say.

Such disturbances are often not intentional, but accidental.

To give a simple example: why do some people wear a red cloth strip in an inconspicuous place when they go to a funeral parlor, but don't wear evil-warding magical items or amulets?

The red cloth strip doesn't actually have any evil-warding effect. If red cloth could ward off evil, what would be the point of spiritual charms? Couldn't a sorcerer just tear off a few feet of red cloth and slay demons?

The biggest function of the red cloth is to act like a lamp on a person, so that ghosts can see them from a distance, avoiding accidental collisions with the newly deceased ghosts in the funeral parlor.

Reminding is a form of politeness, and it also represents reverence.

However, some people, out of fear, specifically bring evil-warding items with them, or simply hide spiritual charms on their bodies, which is bad.

Those things can harm ghosts, but ordinary magical items can't make ghosts disappear completely.

You're already on their territory, and you've injured them. The ghosts don't care what your intentions are. I have no grudge against you, but you hurt me, so I'll definitely make trouble for you.

Once Xia Mengying's Haoran Righteousness is released, it's like starting a fire in the complex.

At that point, we'd be in endless trouble.

Xia Mengying also understood what I meant. "There's a Confucian secret art here, 'Suspicious Minds.' Don't think too much, or you'll easily fall into fear."

"I understand!" At that moment, I noticed the signs in the complex. They had indeed been moved.

The direction indicated by the arrow above had indeed added a property management office, and the person who opened the door for us was the same security guard from the daytime.

After he led me into the office, I was about to sit on the bed, but the security guard said, "Don't sit there. Someone died on that bed! The manager will be here in a moment."

I glanced at the cot in the duty room and said, "Someone died on the bed, wouldn't you even change the sheets?"

Many people die in their homes. According to the customs here in Northeast China, people have to breathe their last and be changed into their old clothes before they can be carried to the ground. So, that's the same as people dying on the bed, on the kang (a traditional Chinese brick bed).

You can't just change the bed or build another kang when someone dies.

So, you can only take the bedsheets and bedding used by the dead person and burn them, so that the dead person can take them with them.

This is the custom, and it's also a taboo. If the used items aren't burned and are still left on the bed for the living to use, the dead person who can't find their bedding might come back and lie in bed with you.

The security guard glanced at me and said, "If you understand, then don't break the taboo. Breaking the taboo won't do anyone any good."

I looked down at the security guard's feet, and his reflection on the ground was indeed with his neck twisted.

I was talking to a dead person!

I deliberately took a step to the side and gave Wang Tu Fu and the others a look. "This place is too small. You guys wait for me outside!"

Before I could finish speaking, a man who looked like a manager walked in. "My place isn't big, but it's enough. No need to make a fuss. What do you need?"

I said directly, "We're planning to rent a few houses here, preferably at a low price!"

The manager casually pulled out a few contracts. "Unit 4, 4th floor, number 44. No rent is needed. If you can get someone to live in it for seven days, you can have the house."

The manager paused. "I have to remind you, if you go into number 44, you can't come out early. Otherwise, the consequences will be severe. Who's going to live there?"