Chapter 24 He has everything
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In this kind of atmosphere, Qi Ming genuinely felt a bit redundant. Alongside him, feeling the same way, was Lin Zhaohe with a wet patch on his head.
There was a light tapping sound as a drop of water landed on Lin Zhaohe’s head, as if reminding him not to forget about his presence. However, Lin Zhaohe, being quite slow, didn’t react at all.
Eventually, Qi Ming couldn’t bear it any longer and said, “Lin Zhaohe, why don’t you find another place? Are you planning to wash your hair?”
It was only then that Lin Zhaohe snapped out of it and said, “Oh, I forgot about the leak. Sorry.”
Qi Ming remained silent.
The object on the ceiling remained silent as well.
Zhuang Lao grabbed a towel and wiped Lin Zhaohe’s head, performing the action like washing a puppy’s head.
As he continued to wipe, Lin Zhaohe started showing signs of weariness and eventually dozed off in Zhuang Lao’s arms.
His sleep was restless, and he had fragmented dreams. Sometimes he dreamt about his childhood, and other times he dreamt about scenes of the world’s destruction. In his dreams, it felt like he was constantly being chased by something, only able to run in a state of panic.
It was unclear how much time had passed when Lin Zhaohe struggled to wake up from a terrible dream. As he opened his eyes, for a few seconds, he even doubted his own vision. Everything around him was frighteningly pitch black. He lay in bed, his body weak and unable to move.
After a few minutes, his vision gradually adjusted to the darkness around him. He was still lying in his bed at home, but Qi Ming and Zhuang Lao were nowhere to be found.
“Is anyone there?” Lin Zhaohe asked softly. “Boss, Qi Ming? Are you still here?”
The room was empty and silent. Lin Zhaohe felt a chill run through his body. He groped for the light switch on the wall, hoping to illuminate the room. However, when he pressed it, there was no response from the lights. The power was out.
At the same time, there was a thumping sound above Lin Zhaohe’s head, as if someone was running and chasing on the floor above. In the darkness, the sound was truly unsettling. He felt a little scared and reached for the flashlight placed on the bedside table.
Finally, some light appeared in his field of vision. Lin Zhaohe breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the ceiling. The thumping sound grew fainter, as if the source of the sound had run away.
However, soon enough, the sound grew louder again. As Lin Zhaohe listened to it, goosebumps instantly appeared on his arm. He realized that the sound was very close to him. If the previous sound seemed to come from a floor above, this current sound was coming from inside the room. There was something… running on his ceiling.
Lin Zhaohe’s scalp exploded with fear, and he immediately tried to run, but as fate would have it, he stepped on a puddle of water and fell heavily to the ground. The impact was brutal, causing him great pain that made him grit his teeth as tears streamed down his face.
“Aww, aww, it hurts so much!” When Lin Zhaohe’s shinbone collided with a sharp edge, he thought he had seen God. He saw stars in his vision, tears streaming down his face, and even the horrifying sound didn’t seem as terrifying anymore.
The heavy fall, coupled with Lin Zhaohe’s already weak body, took him a while to get up from the ground.
“Enough already.” Lin Zhaohe admitted that he had been quite scared just now, but now he suspected that he had broken his leg or that the damn thing had broken it. He was seething with anger. “Filling the place with water, scaring people half to death, and now I’ve ended up disabled from the fall.”
After a three-second pause, the footsteps resumed in a more urgent and hurried pace, as if Lin Zhaohe had provoked whoever was chasing him.
After wiping the blood off his leg with a piece of paper, Lin Zhaohe noticed black water stains all over the floor. He didn’t need to think twice about who caused them. He took a moment to steady himself, then stood up on one foot and hopped towards the doorway, intending to leave the room.
With a creak, Lin Zhaohe opened the door and looked up, only to see a person standing at the entrance of the corridor. The sight startled him, nearly causing him to fall again. He managed to grab onto the doorknob and stabilize himself.
“Who’s there in the middle of the night?” With the light from the flashlight, Lin Zhaohe could barely make out that the person standing in the corridor was a man, although he had his back turned, preventing a clear view of his face.
It would be much easier if it wasn’t a female ghost. Lin Zhaohe felt relieved and asked, “Who are you? What are you doing at my doorstep?”
The person did not respond.
“Say something!” Lin Zhaohe took a few steps closer, hopping towards the person.
“It’s me.” The person’s voice startled Lin Zhaohe. What he heard was his own voice. Slowly, the person turned around, and to Lin Zhaohe’s surprise, their face bore a striking resemblance to his own. If it weren’t for someone who had known them for a long time, it would be impossible to tell the difference between the two.
“It’s me,” the person continued speaking. “I’m Lin Zhaohe. And you?”
Lin Zhaohe: “… I’m called Lin Jiatao.” Lin Jiatao was his father’s name.
The person: “…”
It was evident that Lin Zhaohe’s attempt at humor had caught the person off guard, leaving them speechless for a while.
Muttering a curse under his breath, Lin Zhaohe slammed the door shut, blaming his weakened body for these hallucinations.
He stood at the door for a few minutes, gathering courage to look through the peephole again. To his surprise, the person who looked exactly like him was still standing there at the doorstep, staring at him expressionlessly. It didn’t feel like a hallucination at all but rather the presence of a real person.
This time, Lin Zhaohe carefully observed the person. Upon closer inspection, he was startled. Although the person bore a resemblance to him, they were wearing Uncle Chen’s clothes from downstairs. Did he do something to Uncle Chen and steal his clothes?!
As Lin Zhaohe thought about this, he gasped and quickly pulled out his phone, dialing Zhuang Lao’s number.
Unexpectedly, the call went through, and Zhuang Lao’s deep voice from the other end eased much of Lin Zhaohe’s anxiety.
“What’s wrong?” Zhuang Lao asked.
“That female ghost has taken on my appearance,” Lin Zhaohe’s voice sounded a bit helpless, like a mistreated puppy, as he complained to Zhuang Lao, “She even stole Uncle Chen’s clothes from downstairs. She’s really crossing the line, especially considering Uncle Chen’s age…”
Zhuang Lao: “We have found out her name. Her ashes are kept in another cemetery by her husband. We’re planning to go there.”
Lin Zhaohe: “Please be careful.”
Zhuang Lao: “We’ll be fine. You should take care of yourself. We suspect Y&&*”
Suddenly, there was a lot of static and background noise on the line, making it impossible to hear clearly. After a few “hello”s from Lin Zhaohe, the call disconnected with a series of beeps. When he tried calling back, there was no signal.
Lin Zhaohe slightly bent over and looked through the peephole. Through the peephole, he saw an eye—the eye of the person who looked exactly like him standing outside the door. The eye was pressed against the peephole.
They were in the same position, separated only by a thin door panel.
Upon closer reflection, this scene was truly chilling. Lin Zhaohe took a few steps back as the sound of footsteps inside the room grew louder and closer. The thing crawled down from the ceiling along the wall and stood right in front of him. On the shallow water stains in front of him, there were two footprints that hadn’t been there before.
It was a dilemma for Lin Zhaohe—to go outside or continue waiting inside the room. He swallowed hard, hesitated for a moment, and ultimately decided to take a chance and go out.
Taking a deep breath, Lin Zhaohe turned the doorknob, only to find the hallway empty. The person who had been lurking and watching him moments ago had vanished without a trace.
With the person gone, which was undoubtedly for the best, Lin Zhaohe took hesitant steps forward. Perhaps due to his recent fall, he felt an unusual heaviness in his body. The short distance in the hallway seemed like an endless journey.
“Gasp, gasp,” he gasped for breath, and the floor beneath his feet felt like a muddy swamp. By the time he reached the elevator doors, Lin Zhaohe was drenched in sweat. He clenched his teeth and shuffled into the elevator. When he caught sight of his reflection in the polished elevator car, he stood frozen in place.
Inside the elevator, the reflection showed an elderly person with gray hair. Wrinkles covered his face, and his hunched posture made him appear as if he were an octogenarian struggling to walk.
“I… I…” Lin Zhaohe reached out and touched his own face, wanting to confirm that what he was seeing wasn’t an illusion. The tactile sensation of his fingertips shattered his illusion. He had indeed suddenly transformed into an eighty-year-old man.
With a “ding,” the elevator doors opened, revealing the man who looked exactly like Lin Zhaohe standing outside. He smiled warmly at Lin Zhaohe and said, “Mr. Lin, going for a stroll?”
If it were an ordinary person, they would probably have rushed forward to confront the culprit who had taken over their body. But Lin Zhaohe, a frail old man who had just taken a fall, could only tremble as he stepped out of the elevator and weakly spoke, “You…”
The man seemed to anticipate Lin Zhaohe’s scolding and his smile grew even more triumphant.
Lin Zhaohe asked, his voice quivering, “Do you… have social security?”
The man remained silent.
“You do, right?” Lin Zhaohe believed that no matter how tragic the circumstances, people must look forward. After all, wasn’t the ultimate goal of life retirement? Could this be considered an early retirement for him?
The man’s expression froze as if he had seen a ghost, but it wasn’t Lin Zhaohe who was the apparition—it was him.
“Do a good job for me,” Lin Zhaohe coughed twice, “Even though it’s a regular nine-to-five with weekends off, the boss is quite good-looking.” Despite his recent streak of bad luck and being haunted by ghosts, he wished the man good luck, for he would need it.
Lin Zhaohe didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence because the man looked infuriated, almost interrupting him with a voice filled with rage, “I’m going to take over your life! Your family! Your friends! Everything!”
Lin Zhaohe burst into tears, “But I’m a friendless workaholic orphan—”
The man fell silent.
“Work hard, young man,” Lin Zhaohe walked over and patted his shoulder, offering encouragement.
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“I’m stealing your life!”
“Lol yikes good luck.”
this scene is really having me cackle, its too much
Hahahahaha oh my God.. I love LZH