Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 375 Dinner Invitation

The next morning, sunlight barely penetrated the old windows of the Beizuka First Apartment.

After finishing a simple breakfast, Lingzi told Jiang Jin her plan: "Commander, I'm going out by myself today to gather some intelligence from the neighbors. It's Sunday, so I don't have to work, which makes it convenient to carry out this operation."

Jiang Jin was checking the damage to the talismans he had set up the night before when he heard this and looked up: "You have a plan?"

“Okay.” Reiko nodded. “I’m going to visit Toshiaki in room 203. Judging from the original movie plot, this woman is outgoing and loud, and seems unable to keep secrets, making her a suitable candidate for obtaining information. Moreover, it’s easier for two women to talk about private topics, so it’s more convenient for me to go alone and avoid arousing unnecessary suspicion.”

After a moment's thought, Jiang Jin agreed to Lingzi's plan. Although Lingzi wasn't particularly strong in combat, as a former journalist, her observation, communication, and on-the-spot adaptability were outstanding, often proving highly effective in intelligence gathering.

“I’ll have Deathstroke follow you. If anything seems amiss, immediately put on your hair clip and then turn back.”

"clear."

Reiko carried a delicate pastry gift box and walked out of room 304.

Sunday morning, the apartment building was eerily quiet, as if the commotion of the previous night was just a dream.

She arrived at the door of room 203 and was about to knock when she heard a loud argument coming from inside.

"Xiaosheng, could you please find a job?"

"Looking for a job? What kind of job? What decent job could I possibly find in this godforsaken place!" A young male voice, belonging to Xiao Sheng, retorted impatiently.

"So you're just going to watch me go to those kinds of places every day, smiling and drinking, Xiao Sheng!"

"Tired? You think I wanted this? If you, this old hag, hadn't insisted on renting this run-down place, would we be stuck here?!"

"Bang!" It sounded like something had been smashed.

Immediately afterwards, the door to room 203 was suddenly pulled open from the inside, and Xiao Sheng, with a gloomy face, stormed out. Without even glancing at Lingzi at the door, he slammed the door shut and quickly disappeared into the stairwell.

Reiko stood at the door, slightly embarrassed, but still raised her hand and knocked on the open door.

Inside, Shoumingmei heard the knocking and hurriedly opened the door.

Today, Shoumingmei still wore heavy makeup, trying to cover up the signs of staying up late and fatigue, but the fine lines around her eyes and puffy eyelids revealed her true condition.

She saw that the person standing at the door was the gentle and elegant Asakawa Reiko, who had just moved in yesterday. A hint of surprise flashed across her face, but she quickly forced a warm smile.

"Oh my, it's Mrs. Asakawa! Please come in, please come in!" Akemi hurriedly invited Reiko into the house, as if trying to dispel the gloom in her heart with her outward enthusiasm.

The layout of room 203 is similar to that of room 304, but it appears more cluttered and cramped.

The air was thick with the scents of cheap perfume, cosmetics, and a faint hint of smoke and alcohol. A few sexy pieces of clothing were casually tossed on the sofa, while empty beer cans and an ashtray sat on the coffee table.

Reiko handed over the gift box of pastries: "Ms. Akemi, I moved in so quickly yesterday that I didn't have time to properly visit my neighbors. Please accept this small token of my appreciation."

"Oh, you're too kind!" Akemi accepted the gift box and pulled Reiko to sit down in a corner of the fairly clean sofa. She looked Reiko up and down and immediately started talking: "Mrs. Asakawa, I wanted to say this yesterday, you and Nanako Matsushima look so alike! They're practically identical! Do all the people around you say that?"

Upon hearing this, Lingzi could only offer a helpless, bitter smile: "Yes, quite a few people say that..."

Reiko is only 25 years old. After becoming a reincarnator and arriving in the real world, she learns that she is actually the female lead in a horror movie played by the famous Japanese actress Nanako Matsushima.

When she saw the latest Japanese dramas and information in Muxu City, she discovered that Nanako Matsushima was now over fifty years old. She was from Kanagawa Prefecture, married to actor Takashi Sorimachi, and was still trapped in the Edo Special District after the fall of Edo.

Although Nanako Matsushima remains beautiful and elegant, Reiko, with the mindset of a 25-year-old, foresaw what she would look like at 50 in the future. Her feelings were complex and hard to describe, carrying a sense of absurdity and temporal displacement.

"Have you seen 'The Witch's Condition'? It was a super popular drama a couple of years ago, starring Nanako Matsushima!" Akemi, clearly a fan of Japanese dramas, continued enthusiastically, "Seriously, you look so much like her! Why don't you consider becoming an actress? You could totally play twin sisters with Nanako!"

"No, I haven't seen it." Reiko shook her head slightly, answering against her will.

Actually, Reiko had watched the show out of curiosity. But she really disliked this Japanese drama about a forbidden love between a female teacher and a male high school student. Seeing that face on screen, almost identical to her own, playing a character who betrays her fiancé and falls into a passionate affair with an underage student, seemed morally reprehensible to her, and the viewing experience was extremely awkward. It's no wonder that characters in movies are so love-obsessed, given that Akemi's age is still enjoying such romantic dramas.

She intended to steer the conversation back on track: "Miss Shou..."

“Just call me Akemi!” Akemi readily corrected.

“Yes, Ms. Akemi.” Reiko readily complied, lowering her voice slightly. “About this apartment… after I moved in yesterday, I felt… something was off. And the rules the building manager gave us…”

Akemi's smile froze for a moment, her eyes flickered, and her voice unconsciously lowered: "I knew you'd find out soon enough. That's right, this is a cursed ghost apartment."

Lingzi nodded, her expression serious: "Could you tell me more specifically? My husband and I are both very uneasy."

Akemi sighed, as if she had found someone to confide in, and began to pour out her troubles: "Sigh, it's a long story. We rented this place because it was cheap, since Kacchan is one of Tanashichi's people. Who knew... we would end up like this!"

She pointed around, looking gloomy: "I'm a hostess, and now I have to go home before midnight. My business is affected! Sometimes customers ask me to go out with them, but I don't dare to accept. I've lost so much money!" Mingmei was clearly in the sex industry, but she spoke openly and without any hesitation.

"Aren't you scared?" Reiko steered the conversation. "Is there... a ghost in the apartment?"

“Afraid? Of course I’m afraid!” Mingmei picked up a cigarette from the coffee table, thought for a moment, and then put it down. “But what can I do? As long as I strictly follow the rules on the paper the administrator gave me, I can barely get by.”

Her tone carried a numb resignation, but deep in her eyes gleamed a growing fear and weariness: "However... lately, I've started to feel like I can't hold on much longer. I always feel like... something is watching me all the time."

"Then... what is the origin of the curse? Where is the homeowner? Can we contact him and think of a solution?" Reiko asked the crucial question.

Akemi shook her head, a look of helplessness and fear on her face: "We can't get in touch with him. None of us can reach the landlord, we don't even have his phone number. All we know is that he lives in a rural area like Kagoshima. And... who dares to go looking for him? Rule number one: we have to be back at the apartment by midnight. Who among us dares to go there? If something happens and we can't get back on time, we're doomed!"

Suddenly remembering something, she quickly grabbed Reiko's hand and pleaded, "Mrs. Asakawa, I heard you're a reporter? Please, please don't report these things! If it gets out, no one will dare move in again! Then we...we'll really be trapped here forever!"

Reiko understood immediately; this was the vicious cycle of the apartment curse, a secret tacitly kept by all the long-time residents—they needed new residents as "replacements." In the original movie, the protagonist's father, Yamato Mitsuru, insisted on reporting on the apartment's news, resulting in him being hunted down by all the mentally broken residents.

"You... have you never broken any rules?" Reiko asked tentatively.

“No! Not even once!” Akemi said firmly, but then, as if remembering something, a hint of fear flashed across her face. She leaned closer to Reiko and lowered her voice, “But… once, I really saw it! At the bottom of the stairs on the third floor, I saw… the stairs leading to the fourth floor!”

At that moment, through the death knell behind Lingzi, Jiang Jin also heard these words and immediately picked up a pen to write them down in the notebook in front of him.

Reiko's eyes widened, and she glanced instinctively at the entryway before turning her head and asking, "And then?"

"I followed the rules and immediately closed my eyes, then spun around three times clockwise," Mingmei gestured, still shaken. "When I opened my eyes again... the stairs were gone! It was terrifying!"

Fourth floor!

Rule number two clearly states that "there is no fourth floor in this apartment building," but Mingmei's personal experience confirms that the "fourth floor" can appear abnormally. This could very well be a crucial breakthrough or an extremely dangerous area.

At that moment, Akemi seemed to suddenly remember something, and her gossipy nature rekindled. She leaned closer to Reiko and asked curiously, "By the way, did your husband, Mr. Asakawa, argue with you after he found out about the apartment situation? Most men would have lost their temper in this kind of situation, right?"

Lingzi's face showed a gentle yet firm expression at the right moment, and she shook her head: "No, we have a very good relationship. He... is very understanding and calm."

"I heard you're newlyweds?" Mingmei's eyes lit up. "How long have you been dating? How did you meet? Let me tell you, men are all very fickle, especially someone as handsome as your husband who works at a sports club. There must be a lot of women chasing after him. And... I'm not trying to stir things up, but my intuition is pretty accurate. I always feel like the way your husband looks at you... isn't that particularly attentive?"

Faced with Akemi's barrage of questions and her overly keen intuition, Reiko felt a slight chill, but maintained a polite smile and began to weave a half-true, half-false backstory: "We've been dating... for about two years."

"You got married after only two years? How long did you know each other before you got together? Tell me!" Mingmei pressed on relentlessly.

Reiko quickly integrated the background information provided by the system with her own impromptu creation in her mind: "We met through an interview. At that time... Princess Diana passed away, and I wanted to participate in a special report on the matter on television, but I was unsuccessful and felt very down. Later... I met him at an interview, and he was very considerate and comforted me a lot..."

Her tone was filled with just the right amount of reminiscence and sweetness as she recounted a story of finding true love after setbacks at work. The details were rich, and the emotions were genuine, making it hard to believe.

"Wow! That sounds so romantic!" Akemi exclaimed enviously, clearly captivated. "I can tell you love Mr. Asakawa very much; your eyes light up when you talk about him!"

Reiko subconsciously touched her face, then lowered her head somewhat embarrassedly: "Is...is it true?"

“Of course!” Akemi affirmed, but then lowered her voice and reminded him in a tone of someone who had been through it all: “But listen to my advice, in this situation, please don’t have a child! You two just got married and rented this apartment, which is already difficult enough, and then you have a child… Anyway, Mrs. Asakawa, you must be strong!”

Just then, the sound of heavy objects being moved came from outside the window.

Reiko and Akemi walked to the window and looked out. They saw the Izumo family loading the last few boxes onto a small truck downstairs.

Mr. Izumo and Takashi were busy, while Mrs. Izumo Noriko stood aside with a complicated expression. She looked up at the apartment building and met the gazes of Reiko and Akemi at the window. She hurriedly lowered her head and quickly climbed into the truck cab.

Akemi looked at the scene downstairs and sighed softly, her face full of undisguised envy: "It's so good... we can finally leave. I heard that the Izumo family was originally planning to take a gamble and see if moving to Osaka, which is so far away, could break the curse. After all, the economy is so bad right now. If they refused the transfer and ended up losing their jobs and their source of income... I don't even want to think about the consequences. So the Izumo family is especially... grateful to you for moving here."

Lingzi silently watched the truck slowly drive away downstairs. She and Jiang Jin had to hold out until the next "new tenant" was attracted by the low rent and survive in this strange and unpredictable dungeon!

Just then, a voice suddenly rang out.

“Um… Mrs. Asakawa.”

Reiko turned around and saw Yamato Manami—the original movie heroine—coming up behind her.

“My dad said that since we have new neighbors, he would like to invite you all... to our house for dinner.”

Upon hearing this, Reiko immediately remembered the fifth rule!
My neighbor invited me to dinner for three consecutive days; I had to decline on the third day!
She looked at Ai Shi and asked, "Well... I'll go back first and ask my husband, then I'll answer you."

Reiko subconsciously sensed danger. She activated her Eye of Blessing and saw... Aimi in front of her. Her SAN value had dropped to 58%!

She has now... fallen from the Mysterious Layer into the Lost Layer!
(End of this chapter)