This actor is full of tricks.

"That's right, Minister Zhou."

Hu Rui organized his thoughts and spoke slowly and deliberately: "My nephew just graduated from university and came to Sanjiang to work. He rents a room outside. The room is located in the city center, in a very good location, but the rent is very cheap, only 600 yuan a month."

Although Sanjiang is only a prefecture-level city, the rooms are not cheap. It is indeed too cheap to rent a room in the city center for 600 yuan. According to the tropes in horror novels, this kind of house must have a big problem. It may be a haunted house.

"Because it was cheap, my nephew rented it without thinking too much, but strange things happened on the very first night after he moved in."

"That night, while he was sleeping in bed, he vaguely heard a knocking sound at the front door. According to him, the knocking was very even, and it would sound once every five seconds."

"At the time, he didn't think too much about it. He walked to the door and looked out through the peephole. After he got up, the knocking stopped, but there was no one outside."

He thought someone might have knocked on the wrong door, so he didn't think much of it and went back to sleep.

"But the next day, the knocking sounded again in the middle of the night, still even and gentle. This time, my nephew didn't take it seriously like before, because he had heard that there were specialized burglary gangs that would knock on doors at night to check if anyone was in the room, and if so, they would steal from it."

"So that day he just grabbed a kitchen knife and went to open the door. Strangely, the person knocking seemed to know he had come out, and the knocking stopped at that moment. And when he looked through the peephole, there was no one outside either."

"On the third day, the knocking sounded again, and the situation was the same as before. Every time I looked through the peephole, I couldn't see anyone. I wondered if it was some kind of prank."

"After the fourth knock on the door, my nephew finally couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed a knife, opened the door, rushed out, ran down the corridor to the elevator, but didn't see anyone. There wasn't even a mouse in sight."

"This scared my nephew a bit. He walked to the door and the knocking stopped. Even if the person knocking wanted to run away after hearing the noise, they couldn't have run that fast. In just over ten seconds, they were gone without a trace. And at that speed, they should have been able to run without making a sound, right?"

“My nephew was terrified. He ran to a friend’s house that night and stayed there. The next day, he went back to the community and asked the property management for the surveillance footage of his floor.”

At this point, Hu Rui swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down with difficulty: "And guess what? When the knocking started, there was no one outside his door at all! It was like that for the next few days!"

"What exactly was knocking on the door?"

Hu Rui's face turned pale. Although it wasn't his own experience, even just hearing it made him tremble with fear. There was no one outside the door but there was a knocking sound, which could only mean that something strange was going on.

“My nephew doesn’t dare to go back now, but he signed a six-month lease with the landlord and wants to terminate the lease but can’t contact the landlord. 3600 yuan is a lot of money for a recent graduate who has just started working, so he told me about this and wanted to see if I had any way to find the landlord to negotiate the termination of the lease.”

"He only told me today. I just found out and then I ran into Minister Zhou. I was thinking that maybe we don't need to cancel the lease. If we can get rid of that strange knocking, my nephew can go back and continue living there. After all, it's really hard to find a place like this in the city center." After listening, Lin Jue had a rough idea in his mind. The thing knocking on the door shouldn't be too strong. If it were strong, it would have broken down the door long ago, and it would have attacked when Hu Rui's nephew opened the door, instead of disappearing without a trace.

That knocking might just be a means of contamination; how powerful could such a bizarre contamination method be, which requires a medium to operate?
If you were to pick any one of those strange creatures hidden in his raincoat, a single glance would be enough to corrupt an ordinary person if he truly wanted to.

“Okay, then we’ll contact each other tonight.” Although it would be a waste of Lin Jue’s current strength to deal with that kind of strange creature, Hu Rui had helped him with a small favor before, so he didn’t mind returning the favor with a small favor in return.

"Thank you, thank you, Minister Zhou. I'll treat you to dinner after I'm done with this busy period." Hu Rui held Lin Jue's hand tightly to express his gratitude: "I've never had children, so my nephew is like my son. You've helped me a lot."

"It's alright, you go ahead with your work, I still have some things to do." Lin Jue smiled and pulled his hand back: "See you tonight."

After saying goodbye to Hu Rui, Lin Jue went to the supermarket, bought a shopping cart full of things, and carried the bags to the welfare home.

Teacher Zhang was trimming Liao Fan's hair on the dam when she saw him from afar. She smiled and said something to Liao Fan, and the little boy suddenly turned around, stopped cutting his hair, jumped off the chair, and ran to Lin Jue, hugging his leg tightly.

"What's wrong with this kid?" Lin Jue was bewildered by Liao Fan's sudden enthusiasm. Although Liao Fan had always been quite clingy to him, this was the first time he had acted like this.

“Xiao Fan has been feeling anxious and uncertain these past few days, often spacing out by himself. I asked him about it, and he said that you were going to leave him.” Teacher Zhang walked over and smiled, “Xiao Fan, you see, I was right. Uncle Zhou won’t leave you. He doesn’t come to the orphanage because he has his own things to do. Once he’s done, he’ll come to see you.”

After listening, Lin Jue handed the things in his hand to Teacher Zhang, squatted down and gently held Liao Fan's shoulders. Only then did he realize that the child was crying, his face covered with tears.

"What's wrong with you, little one? Why are you crying so sadly? Uncle was really too busy the past few days and didn't have time to come see you. Uncle apologizes." Lin Jue reached out and wiped away the tears on Liao Fan's little face. The rough touch from his palm made him feel a little heartache.

"No...it's not because of that," Liao Fan sobbed, his words broken and fragmented. "I've been having that dream for the past few days, and it's becoming more and more real."

That dream? What dream?

Lin Jue was taken aback, then remembered that when he last came to visit Liao Fan, the little guy had mentioned having a dream in which Lin Jue entered a fog one day and never returned.

Lin Jue initially thought the child might be recalling something about escaping into the mist, which was why they had such strange dreams. However, having the same dream for several days in a row definitely indicated a problem. (End of Chapter)