Chapter Eighty-Four: The Haunted House, Part Seventeen

But if that happened, he might easily find a chance to escape, so Su Man gave him the swift end.

She had not expected that Hu Nian, already dead, would come back to life in the form of a haunting apparition.

His soul stood beside his own body, dazed and bewildered, as if even he did not understand what had become of him.

He reached out to touch his body, only to grasp nothing. He tried to take hold of Su Man as well, and found only emptiness.

Su Man thought of one possible explanation, and that only made her more irritated.

The live chat was still there, and upon seeing this, someone could not help but share an insight.

Su Man caught sight of the message and realized that ever since one of the viewers bought her that prop pack, the newcomers drawn in were all walking encyclopedias.

It must be the power of a realm of lingering obsession. I’m guessing where the streamer is now is inside one of those realms.

Seeing that Su Man still looked confused, another viewer kindly explained, As time passes, a realm of lingering obsession gradually expands, and it also attracts nearby newly formed apparitions whose obsessions have not yet been resolved. The longer it goes on, the more of those beings there will be inside it.

But don’t worry, streamer. In general, there is only one such realm. If the realm disappears, all the beings relying on it for survival will disappear too.

The newly formed one in front of you is too weak to amount to much. There is nothing interesting about it. If another being saw it, it would probably be destroyed on the spot.

Even if it were not destroyed outright, it would only be able to spend the future hiding and running for its life. Tsk, tsk. That is no easy life.

Su Man took all of this in, then made up her mind. Compared with giving Hu Nian a clean end, a life of hiding and fleeing would probably make him feel far more pain. That could count as a small lesson. She was still very merciful, at least enough to let him remain "alive."

"Get lost. If we meet again, I may not be so kind as to let you go."

In a good mood, she granted him his freedom.

Hu Nian looked at her twice, then at his own corpse on the floor, and left with heavy thoughts.

"Indeed, I am still a little angry. Well, never mind. I am very generous. For him, death is only another beginning." Su Man muttered to the corpse, then turned and walked away.

Even though Chen Meng had not told her what the secret was, she still intended to look for it.

On the note, Chen Meng had asked her to meet in the kitchen. To Su Man, the kitchen had to be some rather special place, and there was no harm in searching it.

She rummaged through every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen, to the point that she might as well have dug three feet into the ground, yet still found nothing.

"Could there really be nothing?" Su Man refused to accept it and searched the place again from top to bottom. Then she noticed something odd.

The cabinet beneath the sink seemed to be faintly exhaling black smoke.

But when she looked closely, there was nothing there at all.

Still, Su Man trusted her own eyes. There had definitely been black smoke rising from that spot, yet no matter how thoroughly she checked, she found nothing.

She examined it so carefully that even her rear was bumped.

She darted out of the cabinet and saw Baby Princess.

Baby Princess stuck out its tongue at her, panting. The moment it realized she had spotted it, it pushed off with its hind legs, leapt onto the stove, and then jumped into the sink, scratching fiercely at the sprayer by the faucet.

It kept glancing at her as if to signal her.

"Here? Are you trying to tell me the thing I am looking for is here?"

Although Su Man thought it was absurd, she still reached out to feel around, since she had indeed not checked this place before.

Then she touched something wrapped in plastic.

"It really is here!" She looked at Baby Princess in surprise. "Did you come specially to tell me this?"

Baby Princess barked twice at her. Su Man could not understand what it meant, and lowered her head to pull away the plastic wrapping.

But before it was fully opened, she suddenly heard the sound of a grandfather clock striking in the living room.

There was a large floor-standing clock there, but she had checked it before. It was broken and had long stopped keeping time. How could it be ringing now?

Before she could make sense of it, Baby Princess suddenly jumped down excitedly, bit the leg of her pants, and dragged her outside.

Though puzzled, she still followed it.

The moment the two of them ran out of the kitchen, a great blaze erupted inside. Even through the door, Su Man could feel the heat.

"Woof woof!" Baby Princess barked even more urgently, dragging at her trousers and running farther away.

But then she saw that no matter where they ran, the fire followed at once. In no time at all, the entire ground floor had become a sea of flames, with even the second floor beginning to be engulfed.

Amid that inferno, only the clock’s tolling remained clear and forceful.

She did not know when the fur on Baby Princess had caught fire. It howled miserably in pain.

Yet it never abandoned Su Man, dragging at her trousers all the while.

In the blink of an eye, before the clock had even finished striking, the second floor too had become a sea of fire.

"What is going on? Cough, cough! Why is there a fire?"

Jing Hua leaned her head down from the third floor. The mechanical blankness on her face was gone. Frightened, she ran downstairs while muttering, "We have to put it out, we have to put it out, hurry and put it out, or someone will die, Eiji will die."

She did not even care that the flames on the stairs were scorching her clothes, and charged downward like a fire-wreathed figure.

But before she could reach the bottom, the flames suddenly all went out. Jing Hua stood stunned on the staircase, as if the pause button had been pressed. Baby Princess, its body burned without a patch of uninjured skin left, staggered two steps and collapsed to the ground with a whimper.

Su Man noticed that the clock had also stopped.

If she had not counted wrong in her haste, it should have struck twelve times.

Was it already midnight?

Qing Nian also heard the commotion and came running out from somewhere in the house. "What happened? What is going on? Where is the fire? Cough, cough! Why is it so smoky?"

Su Man did not answer him. She only asked, "When did Qian Ji come into contact with Hu Nian?"

"They came into contact?" Qing Nian shook his head. "Hu Nian and I were looking for clues separately. I do not know what you are talking about. If the two of them really met, then it must have been when I was not there."

Qing Nian did not understand why she was asking, but he was more concerned about the fire now. "Where exactly was the fire?"

Su Man shook her head. "There was no fire."

"No fire? Your dog has been burned to death!" Qing Nian could not help retorting as he glanced at Baby Princess.

A heavy slap landed on Qing Nian’s face.

He was completely stunned, but the one who struck him was not Su Man. It was Jing Hua, who had come over at some point after hearing their conversation.

Jing Hua stared straight at him. "There was no fire here. Do you understand? There was no fire. Do not talk nonsense!"