Old Man
He pushed He Zhouyan and freed his own face.
Even though He Zhouyan hadn’t used much force, a faint red mark was still left on his cheek.
On the other side, Chen Fei stared at them for a few seconds before scoffing, “So they’re gay.”
He thought he had spoken quietly enough, but to the two demons, his words were crystal clear.
Lu Congxing froze. He didn’t feel offended—he just couldn’t understand why this human would think that.
Did he and He Zhouyan really look that misleading together?
Zhou Zijie playfully pulled Chen Fei into the house, secretly giving them a quick wink as a greeting.
Once again, only he and He Zhouyan were left in the hallway.
The only tenant he hadn’t seen last night was Chen Fei. But now that they had met, Chen Fei didn’t seem possessed at all.
The trail of clues had completely run cold at this point. Instinctively, Lu Congxing took out his phone and opened a match-three game to relax his tense nerves.
He had just gotten into the game when he was interrupted.
Chen Jiatai, the tenant from upstairs, was carrying several large bags of garbage down the stairs. When he saw Lu Congxing engrossed in his game, he enthusiastically waved from the corner of the stairwell.
Lu Congxing paused the game and walked over, his gaze instinctively falling on the large bags of trash.
Scratching his faded yellow hair a little sheepishly, Chen Jiatai said, “Didn’t the landlord scold me yesterday? He threatened that if I didn’t start disposing of my trash properly, he wouldn’t let me rent here anymore.”
Shifting the topic, he curiously asked what game Lu Congxing was playing.
Chen Jiatai still hadn’t given up on convincing this delicate-looking young man to become a game streamer with him.
He was naturally friendly, and they chatted as they walked.
To persuade Lu Congxing to try streaming, he even pulled out his phone to show off his game stats.
Although Lu Congxing had never played the game before, he could tell that Chen Jiatai’s rank wasn’t very high.
Sensing his doubt, Chen Jiatai showed no shame whatsoever. “Yeah, I’m still a bit off from going pro, but look at me—if I can do it, you’d definitely make a ton of money in this business.”
Lu Congxing politely shook his head. “No, thanks.”
Just then, a watermelon vendor nearby was calling out to customers, and it reminded Lu Congxing that yesterday, Li Guodong had failed to buy a watermelon and ended up getting scolded by Huang Xin.
However, his brief distraction led to a misunderstanding.
He barely had time to react before He Zhouyan walked over and bought a watermelon.
Today, He Zhouyan wasn’t wearing his usual suit. Even in casual clothes, his aura remained just as striking. With his good looks, he could stand by the roadside holding a large watermelon in one hand and still look like a model on the red carpet.
He looked down at the dazed young man and said, “I’ll cut it for you when we get back.”
Lu Congxing had wanted to explain that it was a misunderstanding—he hadn’t actually wanted the watermelon. But when his eyes met the man’s affectionate and serious gaze, the words changed at the last second into a well-behaved “Okay.”
When Chen Jiatai returned after throwing out his trash, he glanced enviously at He Zhouyan, then at Lu Congxing.
Lu Congxing suddenly felt a bit nervous, afraid that he would say something as outrageous as Chen Fei had before.
Luckily, Chen Jiatai only sighed and said, “Your brother is really good to you.”
Even though their relationship had been misunderstood, Lu Congxing felt oddly relieved.
Seeing the way Chen Jiatai was eyeing the watermelon stand with longing, he asked, “Why don’t you buy one?”
Now that the weather was getting hotter, eating watermelon was undoubtedly a great way to cool down.
Chen Jiatai withdrew his gaze, checked his phone, and saw his pitifully low balance. “Forget it. I’ll just drink some water when I get back.”
Before Lu Congxing could respond, he had already moved on to another topic—this time, the argument between Huang Xin and Chen Fei over the air conditioner this morning.
Like Chen Fei, he was clearly dissatisfied with the air conditioning situation.
But unlike the more aggressive Chen Fei, he merely grumbled, “The landlord promised last month that he’d install an air conditioner, but we haven’t heard anything since. And our rent went up by 200 yuan!”
He glanced at Lu Congxing, who didn’t seem to be sweating at all, and asked, “You slept in the building last night too. Didn’t you feel hot?”
Most demons could withstand extreme temperatures, and ever since Lu Congxing awakened his divine beast bloodline at sixteen, he had never felt summer heat again. So he couldn’t really relate to Chen Fei’s complaints.
Struggling to come up with an answer—since his acting skills were subpar—he was fortunately saved by the commotion downstairs.
“What’s going on?” Chen Jiatai asked, confused.
Lu Congxing was also puzzled at first, but when he saw two workers carrying a bed inside, he suddenly realized.
“Brother, did you call for these people?”
Without hesitation, he went along with Chen Jiatai’s misunderstanding and played the role of the little brother.
What he didn’t know was just how much power that single, crisp “brother” had over He Zhouyan.
He almost froze completely, his black eyes barely holding back the icy-blue tint that threatened to reveal his vertical pupils.
The desire inside him screamed for him to coax the cub into calling him by that title again, but his surface-level rationality only allowed him to give a reserved nod.
Chen Jiatai saw the workers had moved the air conditioner upstairs and his eyes went wide: “Are you installing the air conditioner yourselves?”
“Mm.” He Zhouyan nonchalantly nodded.
The reason he had specifically asked someone to bring it up was so that when the landlord noticed the extra furniture, he’d have an excuse.
Chen Jiatai sighed deeply: “Really, some people just know how to make others feel inferior.”
He was curious about why they chose to live in such a place, but since He Zhouyan seemed so distant, he kept his questions to himself.
Lu Congxing didn’t care about what others thought, because no matter how they guessed, they would never figure out they were exorcists.
There was no need for instructions—He Zhouyan’s assistant had already arranged everything perfectly.
By the time they reached the upper floor, the air conditioner was already being installed.
Chen Jiatai finally realized that Lu Congxing didn’t seem to be as financially struggling as he was. Quietly, he stopped trying to persuade him to join his game live stream.
As they turned the corner on the stairs, a pair of thin, bony hands suddenly reached out. Initially, the hands were reaching for Lu Congxing, but with just a casual glance from He Zhouyan, the hands, resembling withered bones, suddenly twisted and grabbed Chen Jiatai instead.
Chen Jiatai was startled and screamed loudly: “Ah! What are you doing?!”
Lu Congxing took a look and realized it wasn’t withered bones but simply the hands of an elderly person who was too thin.
The old man walked out from the corner, still gripping Chen Jiatai’s hand tightly, mumbling, “Unfilial… unfilial…”
But his gaze wasn’t on Chen Jiatai, it was fixed on a point in the air.
It seemed… strangely unexplainable.
Once Chen Jiatai recognized the person, he stopped shouting, but he felt embarrassed about how he reacted earlier. His tone was far from polite: “Oh, it’s you, old man. How did you come down from upstairs?”
The old man seemed to not hear him and continued muttering, his gaze becoming more and more wild.
Chen Jiatai winced in pain from the old man’s grip, forcefully shaking off his hand, his expression darkening.
“This person is…?” Lu Congxing asked, a little puzzled.
Chen Jiatai replied, “An old man who lives on the same floor as me. I think he has… what’s it called… Alz something..”
Lu Congxing helped him out, “Alzheimer’s disease.”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s the one. He’s always muttering things in a strange way,” Chen Jiatai said, pointing at his head and making a frustrated face.
The old man suddenly turned to stare at him, raising his voice sharply, “Unfilial!”
Chen Jiatai coldly retorted, “If your children don’t care about you, what does that have to do with me? If you’re so upset, go shout at them for being unfilial.”
At this point, his demeanor was a complete contrast to the warm, chatty young man from earlier.
Chen Jiatai flashed an apologetic smile at Lu Congxing. “I’ll head back now, but don’t forget to come over to my place for a game sometime!”
With that, he pushed past the old man and started heading upstairs.
Lu Congxing instinctively reached out to steady the elderly man, only to be met with a sharp, intense stare.
Though the old man’s eyes had become cloudy with age, they somehow seemed piercing.
After a moment, the old man suddenly grunted, “What are you doing here?”
Lu Congxing was taken aback. The elderly man’s behavior didn’t seem like that of someone with Alzheimer’s at all.
So, he answered seriously, “I’m a new tenant here, just staying for a few days.”
“Go back, go back!” The old man suddenly screamed, sounding as though he had lost his mind.
At that moment, someone opened the door to room 402, and Zhou Zijie stuck her head out. She was still wearing a tank top and had her hair down. Seeing they were being caught up with the old man, she covered her mouth and smiled. “You don’t have to worry about him. He doesn’t dare leave this building. He’ll wander around for a while and then go back.”
“He doesn’t dare leave this building?”
Zhou Zijie shrugged. “Yeah, there’s a caretaker who comes once a week, bringing him enough food for the week and cleaning up after him. When I moved in, he was already here. I’ve never seen him leave the building.”
Lu Congxing asked, “Doesn’t he have any children?”
Zhou Zijie thought for a moment. “Probably doesn’t want to visit. The caretaker is someone his son hired. His granddaughter has visited him before, though.”
As soon as the old man heard the word “granddaughter,” he immediately looked up, his emaciated body somehow finding the strength to rush toward Zhou Zijie, shouting, “Granddaughter? Where’s my granddaughter? Have you hidden her?”
His face twisted with anger, scaring Zhou Zijie enough to slam the door shut.
The old man continued to twist his face in fury, banging on the door with a raspy, unpleasant voice.
“Give me back my granddaughter!”
Author’s note:
Now, all the suspects have appeared. Guess who got possessed by a ghost?
The old man seemed to ignore her sharp tone, continuing to shout about his granddaughter.
Lu Congxing observed the old man’s face and could tell that this person didn’t have many years left. His lifespan, already short and irreversible for a human, was almost spent.
He patted the old man on the shoulder. “Go back. Your granddaughter isn’t here.”
Perhaps because of his gentle tone, the old man seemed to regain some sanity. His cloudy, narrowed eyes fixed on Lu Congxing for several seconds.
His cracked lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he just gave a long, silent stare before turning and heading upstairs.
His frail, hunched back was a pitiful sight.
The workers installing the air conditioner had finally finished. They walked over and nodded to He Zhouyan.