Chapter 1418: Chapter 886: Fire Disaster
Recalling the bizarre fire he encountered before the mission began, Yang Xiao knew this was about right and continued to ask, "Do you know what happened with that fire?"
"Who would know? That was many years ago." The shopkeeper shook his head impatiently.
"Do you remember the exact location where the fire happened? Which floor was it in the building?"
"Well..." The shopkeeper thought for a moment, "I can’t quite remember. I wasn’t there at the time. I was visiting my son’s house in the countryside, but after returning, I heard people mention it a few times. It seemed... it seemed to be on the 18th floor, but I’m not sure."
18th floor... Yang Xiao’s office was on the 17th floor, which meant it was just above them.
"Are you guys still buying anything? If not, I’m closing the shop." The shopkeeper urged them, ready to walk out.
"Wait a minute, you mentioned there are often strange occurrences in the building? What kind of strange occurrences? Please tell us more." Yang Xiao stopped the shopkeeper from leaving.
"It’s the middle of the night, why ask about such things?" The shopkeeper was a bit impatient, or perhaps a little scared.
The older generation has taboos; in the daytime, they don’t discuss people, and at night, they don’t talk about ghosts.
But Yang Xiao had just managed to get some information, how could he give up now? Yang Xiao fished out a pack of good cigarettes from under the glass counter, opened it directly, and offered one to the shopkeeper, asking Jiang Qingluan to pay for the cigarettes.
Seeing this young man seemed knowledgeable and, most importantly, not able to resist Yang Xiao, the shopkeeper sighed, found a small stool, sat down, and lit the cigarette: "That’s something from many years ago. I heard it from a customer who came to buy cigarettes. That customer worked in the Rongjin Building; it was a foreign company there. He said someone encountered strange things during the night shift."
"It was late at night when the woman was alone in the office working on modifying the plan. She urgently needed the restroom and encountered a woman behaving strangely."
"The woman was facing away from her, standing at the door of the innermost stall, silent, holding a semi-transparent bottle."
"Feeling odd, but before she could speak, she saw the woman facing away turned slightly, opened the innermost stall door, and went inside."
"Seeing the odd woman entering the stall, she was slightly relieved, striving to finish quickly and return to work. Yet, during her moment of personal relief, she suddenly smelled a strong burnt scent accompanied by pounding for help and horrified screams, seemingly coming from the innermost stall in the bathroom."
"As she rushed out and opened the stall door, all she saw was thick smoke and firelight emerging continuously, the stall door being pounded intensely. It felt as though the odd woman ignited herself in the stall."
"Terrified, the woman dashed out, headed to the corridor shouting for people to extinguish the fire. Since there were night workers in the building, many people came quickly upon hearing."
"After listening to what the woman said, everyone quickly went to the women’s restroom at the incident site. But upon breaking the door open, they found the restroom was incredibly quiet. There was no sign of fire, not even a bit of smoke. The environment was clean, and the air had no burnt smell."
"Seeing this scene puzzled the woman. She relied on her memory to go to the door of the innermost stall and lightly pushed it open."
"The door wasn’t locked. Inside was a modified storage room filled with some temporarily unused items and boxes."
"No strange woman, no fire, no self-immolation, nothing."
"Although the woman tried hard to prove to the people present she truly saw it, not one believed her. They assumed she worked too much overtime, resulting in hallucinations, and advised her to stop working and go home to rest."
"The woman did indeed do that, paused work, and went home to rest. Yet, no one expected that a few days later, two police officers would show up."
"The woman was dead, found in her home bathroom, in a terribly burnt condition, self-immolated, burned beyond recognition."
"Matching the mysterious woman she had seen in the restroom that night." Jiang Qingluan spoke with an odd tone.
The shopkeeper took a deep puff of smoke and slowly exhaled as if to gather courage, then whispered, "At that time, privately, everyone was saying those people who died in the fire were not resigned and wanted to catch a substitute. The woman’s weak body and low life chart were unfortunate enough to encounter and be entangled."
Seeing Yang Xiao and Jiang Qingluan silent for a moment, the shopkeeper thought they were frightened by the story, so he got more excited, lowered his voice mysteriously, "That’s not even the scariest part. The strange occurrences that followed were even more wicked!"
