Chapter 779: "The Dragon," is currently being filmed.
In front of a dilapidated old residential building, a middle-aged man in a suit followed behind an elderly man with graying hair at his temples, his expression a mix of anxiety and sycophancy.
"Master, please take a look quickly. Is this place really—"
He looked around in a panic, seeing nothing but decay and ruin everywhere his eyes landed.
The sheet metal door at the unit entrance was completely detached from its frame, leaning crookedly against the wall. The exterior plaster on both sides of the entrance had long since begun to peel away, appearing moldy and greenish. From the cracks in the ceiling corners, a liquid somewhere between yellow and orange in color flowed continuously, looking utterly disgusting.
The piles of trash on either side were even more varied, with household waste spilling out of torn bags. This had successfully attracted all sorts of tiny creatures; flies and other winged insects darted through the air from time to time, making one instinctively feel uncomfortable.
"Is it really..." The middle-aged man's voice gradually lowered until it was barely a whisper, as if he were deathly afraid of being overheard. He choked out two words that sounded like a taboo, "...haunted?"
The next moment, as if responding to his words, a black stray cat suddenly lunged out from the trash pile with a sharp hiss.
"Aaah!!!"
The middle-aged man took a massive leap backward, then raised his hands tremulously and began to mutter incessantly, finally not forgetting to cry out, "Master, save me!"
The Master, who had been pushed to the front, stroked his beard and appeared quite calm. He merely turned slightly and said to his employer behind him, "Mr. Lin, it is just a stray cat!"
"Ah?"
The middle-aged man poked his head out. Seeing it was indeed a cat, he finally let out a long sigh of relief. He walked back to the Master's side somewhat sheepishly, clutching his chest. "Ahem, well, like I said—this place is truly eerie!"
The Master maintained his air of a profound expert, looking up at the old building shrouded in shadows and nodding slightly. "Dark clouds loom overhead, and a black cat blocks the path. I fear there is—great calamity within!"
The Master's words were exceptionally certain. Perhaps because he had intentionally lowered his pitch, his voice sounded quite sinister in the silence. The middle-aged man's teeth began to chatter. "So... so it really is... Master, you must save us!"
"Do not worry. We shall go in and look first. I will certainly ensure your safety."
The Master pulled out a compass and gave a grand sweep of his sleeve, shielding the man behind him.
"Alright, alright. Thank you, Master!"
The middle-aged man's eyes were teary, but he finally managed to muster a bit of courage.
And so, the two of them continued upward.
The interior of this small, dilapidated building was pitch black, without even a single functioning light, making it look terrifying.
The only light that was still functioning flickered incessantly. Its dim, yellowed glow illuminated the stairs and the narrow corridor, reflecting off the dense clusters of small advertisements plastered on the walls.
Whether it was an illusion or not, those brightly colored advertisements piled together actually looked like some strange talismanic patterns, making one feel inexplicably irritable. Upon closer inspection, they were just low-class street ads. However, beneath these ads were red paint splatters left by debt collectors; behind some torn papers, the insults and demands for payment from years ago remained, looking like curses.
The surroundings were unnaturally quiet. There wasn't even a hint of a breeze, only the sound of the two men's breathing.
The Master took a few more steps, and there was a crunching sound beneath his feet as he crushed the hollow shell of a long-dead cockroach.
Perhaps because the atmosphere was so silent, the sound of the shell breaking was remarkably clear.
The middle-aged man was already breaking out in a cold sweat, but the Master remained relatively calm, turning his compass left and right with the air of an expert who had everything under control.
However, the hand holding the compass subtly shifted its orientation.
Unfortunately, the middle-aged man noticed nothing.
So the two continued forward.
Finally, they stopped in front of a room.
When he saw the room number his employer had mentioned, a sharp glint finally flashed in the Master's eyes. He slipped something held between his fingers under the compass, and the previously steady magnetic needle suddenly lost control, beginning to spin wildly and frantically—
Because it was spinning so fast, the bronze plate emitted a faint, low-pitched hum that felt inexplicably eerie. It terrified the middle-aged man so much that his back tensed and his legs went weak. He gripped the Master's sleeve tightly, afraid of being snatched away by some invisible evil. "Master, save me!"
The Master immediately played along with the situation, shouting, "Not good! The Yin energy is surging!"
He then reached for his tools to begin "performing a ritual," and the needle on the compass stopped, pointing in one direction—
He hadn't expected that before his big performance could even begin, the middle-aged man behind him would let out a blood-curdling scream and point in the same direction. "Master, there seems to be something over there!"
"What?!"
This unexpected turn of events made the Master's heart skip a beat. He looked up and indeed saw a dark shadow dart through the darkness ahead.
The next second, the only functioning light bulb suddenly went out.
"Master, quick, save me—"
The middle-aged man was lost in terror, and the Master was also startled by the sudden loss of light, nearly turning tail to run.
However, just as the two were about to be scared out of their wits, a beam of light shone out in front of them.
A figure slowly stepped out of the shadows.
Only then did the two see that it was a young man wearing blue overalls.
The young man held a familiar-looking black cat in one hand and a flashlight in the other, standing quietly at the end of the shadows.
"Aaah—there really is a ghost!"
The middle-aged man shrieked, pointing tremulously at the "ghost." He grabbed the Master beside him and commanded loudly, "Why haven't you subdued it yet?!"
The Master, however, saw the young man's shadow and breathed a subtle sigh of relief. Just as he was about to expose this person for playing tricks, the young man spoke first.
"Mr. Lin, I am the Housing Accommodation Inspection Expert invited by your daughter."
As he drew closer, the two realized the young man's expression was calm, with a polite smile on his lips that inexplicably broke the extremely tense and sinister atmosphere of the corridor.
Because the previous scare had been so great, the young man's words almost failed to register. Both men stared blankly at him, unable to find their voices for a long time.
However, the young man continued to approach, talking non-stop. "Mr. Lin, I've already inspected the premises for you. Overall, the living environment is indeed very poor. The trash downstairs should be cleared away. As for the source of the scratching sounds your mother mentioned hearing at night, we found it in the pipes outside the bedroom. It's because cockroaches have built a nest inside; the pipes are so packed with insects that they can't crawl out, so they can only scuttle around within. When they get hungry, they start gnawing on the walls of the pipes..."
"It's quiet during the day because of the sunlight; the insects gather at the other end, so there aren't as many near your mother's window..."
"Also, the sound of a baby crying at night is just this male cat in heat. It's not the work of demons or spirits—"
"I suggest you deal with the red paint on the walls as soon as possible. The odor levels are severely over the limit; smelling it too much can easily cause nausea and vomiting. Furthermore, the words themselves carry strong negative psychological suggestions..."
Before their dumbfounded eyes, the young man used perfectly scientific methods to explain all the anomalies Mr. Lin had mentioned before coming here.
"Oh right, and about this Master's compass anomaly—"
The young man curled his lips into a smile. Before the "Master" could react, he snatched the magnet from under the compass and showed it to Mr. Lin.
"He's just a fraud, Mr. Lin. We must believe in science. You've been swindled!"
The young man's Cantonese accent was particularly melodic, but both men in front of him were in shock.
"Ah? He's a fraud?!"
"Puk gai! You brat! You're stealing my business?!"