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Chapter 147. Blackboard Registration
"Da da……"

The sound of boots clattering over the tiles echoed intermittently in the subway station.

Many more people emerged from the subway station, and Jiang Jianxin nestled himself in the surging crowd—three meters ahead, the teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll-shaped toy) carried by the young man with the braid floated up and down among the throng of people.

Jiang Jianxin wiped the water off her face. Because she had been in the subway with the water tank for a while, the dirt stuck to her face was gone. Fortunately, everyone was busy getting on their way and no one noticed her.

She thought for a moment and realized that she usually wore her hair down or in a ponytail. Although she couldn't cover her face, changing her hairstyle could give people a different impression.

So she took out two straps from her sword intent space, tied them into two small buns, and took out a mirror to examine her current appearance as she walked.

The girl's serene face in the mirror was bathed in the bright morning light. When her eyelashes were lowered, she looked like a butterfly with its wings folded. When she raised her eyes, her gaze was like ripples on a deep pool.

Her jawline was simple and smooth, her pupils seemed to be filled with a long-lasting darkness, her rosy lips were slightly upturned, and her two round buns on her head gave her a touch of playfulness to her cold and aloof face.

Jiang Jianxin felt that his appearance was very different from his usual self, and unless you looked very closely, you wouldn't be able to tell.

She put the small mirror back into her storage space and was pushed along by the surging crowd towards the subway exit.

The layout of Xingfuli Community Station and Cemetery Station is exactly the same, with the exit facing the community gate.

A weathered wooden plaque hangs conspicuously on the rusty, black copper gate.

The five dark red characters of "Xingfuli Community" look as if they were written with congealed blood plasma, with traces of paint still remaining on the edges of the strokes.

What's even more unsettling is that four hearts are crookedly drawn in the four corners of the signboard. The bright red color is glaring and gleams eerily in the morning light, looking just like several hearts nailed to the lintel.

The gate to the residential compound was locked. From there, you could see rows of apartment buildings standing inside. There was no one around, and the apartment buildings seemed unusually quiet.

"Splash—smack—"

The person at the front impatiently patted the brass lock on the iron gate, producing a dull metallic clanging sound.

Following that loud noise, a hunched old man slowly strolled out of the dark security room next door.

His face was covered with deep wrinkles, as rough as tree bark. Most chillingly, his eyes were an unnatural scarlet color, faintly glowing in the dim light, like two drops of congealed blood.

The old man scanned the crowd with his eerie red eyes, a dry smile slowly spreading across his lips, his wrinkles crinkling into a knot, making him look like a withered chrysanthemum.

He slowly took out his key, clicked open the iron gate, and the rusty hinges made a grating creaking sound.

"Welcome to all the new residents..."

His voice was hoarse and sticky, as if something was stuck in his throat.

"We have arrived at Xingfuli Community."

Jiang Jianxin stood at the back of the crowd, listening to someone at the front mutter a question:

"Hey, old man, how can I move into the Xingfuli residential community?"

The old man smiled calmly, pulled out a blackboard about two or three meters long from the security room, placed a box of chalk next to it, and said:

"The houses in this community are for rent only and cannot be transferred. However, there are many vacant houses at the moment. Guests who want to move in as tenants can choose their preferred house on the blackboard and fill in their name."

Jiang Jianxin caught a glimpse of the blackboard through a gap in the crowd.

The walls were covered with drawings of buildings, each divided into layers of small cubicles. Each cubicle had a name printed on it, making it look densely packed with no empty spaces—there were no empty spaces as the old man had claimed.

Before Jiang Jianxin could even voice his doubts, someone else stepped in and loudly asked the question:
"Grandpa, this house is covered with names, where do we write them?"

The old man said in a dry, unpleasant voice:

"These are the landlord's names printed on them. You just need to write your own name next to the landlord's name."

"If the landlord's name is written in chalk, then someone is living there."

The crowd stirred; they understood what the old man meant and began to whisper among themselves.

Jiang Jianxin stood at the end of the line, silently observing everything.

After receiving a reply, the person who had spoken earlier strode forward with unusual boldness, walked to the blackboard, picked up a piece of chalk, and lingered over the densely packed house diagrams for a moment before finally stopping in front of a certain house.

The chalk screeched as it rubbed against the blackboard, and the person carefully wrote their name, stroke by stroke.

Just as he finished the last stroke, the chalk suddenly slipped from his fingers and hit the ground with a "thud," breaking into two pieces.

At the same time, the person's name on the blackboard suddenly glowed red, and the entire blackboard seemed to come alive, twisting and writhing, suddenly extending an invisible force that violently pulled the person inside—

"Om——"

The whole process happened in the blink of an eye, leaving only a crooked name on the blackboard, faintly glowing in the dim light.

The old security guard's deeply lined face suddenly relaxed, his mouth stretching exaggeratedly to his ears, revealing a few yellowed teeth.

He slowly raised his withered arm, and clapped his shriveled palms together, making a hollow "slap slap" sound.

"Congratulations—"

He drew out the words, his hoarse voice carrying an indescribable strangeness.

"The first resident of this batch... has successfully moved in." He enunciated the last four words with exceptional clarity, each syllable sounding as jarring as a dull knife scraping against glass.

Those scarlet eyes darted around eerily as they spoke, their gaze sweeping across the faces of everyone present, as if selecting their next prey.

Under such scrutiny, the crowd fell silent for a moment, and then many more people came out one after another, picking up chalk and choosing positions on the blackboard.

Besides those who walked to the blackboard, Jiang Jianxin also observed that some people at the back of the crowd hesitated and pondered for a while before finally turning around and walking back to the subway station.

The scene before us should be the necessary ritual to enter the Happiness Lane community instance, but the person who turned back felt that Happiness Lane was too difficult, so they decided to go back and wait for the next subway to go to another instance.

Jiang Jianxin looked at the two groups of people who made completely different choices, stroked his chin and pondered for a while, then silently took a few steps forward.

Not many people were determined to go to Xingfuli. There were still five or six people ahead of Jiang Jianxin in the selection process. Just as she was about to go to the side to get some chalk to prepare for filling out the form, a hand suddenly reached out from behind her.

She reacted quickly to dodge, frowned and turned around, only to see the face of the young man with the teru teru bozu doll.

"Hello, Foresight Home."

The young man, who was about to pat her shoulder, slowly withdrew his hand and said with a smile.