chapter 2

Recently, my friend has been looking to rent an apartment. She has her eye on a particular layout: a duplex on the seventh floor, which is also the top floor.

She seems to be somewhat troubled about whether or not to rent this place.

Knowing that I’m quite knowledgeable, she wanted to consult me for my opinion.

She sent me the floor plan and we had the following conversation.

Friend: “Do you know Zhiyuan High School?”

Diandeng: “Yes, it’s that very wealthy private high school.”

Friend: “Zhiyuan High School, in order to boost its rate of admissions to prestigious universities, seeks out top-performing students from the high school entrance exams and spends a lot of money to recruit them to attend. Are you aware of this?”

Diandeng: “Yes, I am.”

Friend: “My colleague is from out of town. Her son was the top scorer in their city’s entrance exams. Three years ago, Zhiyuan High School in our city spent a lot to recruit her son as a boarding student. But after only two months, his grades dropped significantly. When she found out, she was furious, so she and her husband both quit their jobs, moved to our city, rented an apartment, and started living as study companions for their child.”

I was a bit confused.

Diandeng: “What does this have to do with renting the apartment?”

Friend: “Of course it’s related. The colleague I mentioned is the current tenant of that apartment.”

I still didn’t see the connection, so my friend continued to explain.

Friend: “The rent for this apartment is paid annually. He rented it in November 2018. Now it’s June 2021, so there are five months left before the lease expires. If he moves out early, not only will he lose the deposit, but the rent won’t be refunded either. To minimize his losses, my colleague wants me to take over the lease.”

Now I understood what my friend meant.

Diandeng: “Oh, I see. If you move in now, your colleague becomes your sub-landlord. When your colleague’s lease ends, you could easily get into a dispute with the original Landlord. Is that what you’re worried about?”

Friend: “No, taking over a lease is quite common. For the Landlord, seamless transition between tenants means seamless rent payments, and many Landlords are happy for tenants to find someone to take over.”

I was a bit surprised.

Diandeng: “So are you concerned about the apartment’s size and rent? After all, it’s a five-bedroom place. If you’re living alone, both the rent and the empty rooms could be a problem.”

Friend: “That’s not it either. I have a few friends who also want to move out and live together. The number of rooms is just right, and we can split the rent among us.”

Diandeng: “Then… is it the floor level? This apartment is on the top floor, so you’d have to climb seven flights of stairs every day, and there’s no elevator. That could be tough.”

Friend: “It’s only seven floors. I’ll just treat it as exercise.”

Diandeng: “So it’s not that either? Then what are you worried about?”

Friend: “Actually, there are rumors that this apartment is haunted.”

Diandeng: “Haunted? Why do you say that? Is there any basis for it?”

Friend: “Yes. My colleague loves gossip and often talks about strange things that happen in her apartment. I’ve heard her describe them a few times, and it really creeped me out.”

Diandeng: “So your colleague said things about the apartment that made you feel uneasy?”

Friend: “Yes.”

Diandeng: “What did she say?”

Friend: “Let me give you a few examples. There’s a Cainiao Post Station right downstairs from her place. On the first day she moved in, the owner of the Cainiao Post Station told her the building was haunted. My colleague asked why, and the owner said that a few months ago, someone heard Ghostly Screams while using the bathroom. The sound was very muffled, but you could tell it was a person screaming. The scariest part was that the screams didn’t come from outside the window, but from inside the apartment. Many people in the building heard it, and it caused quite a stir in the community, but the sound only lasted for a few hours and disappeared the next day.”

Diandeng: “Hmm? The Ghostly Screams only lasted a few hours in the building?”

Friend: “Yeah.”

After hearing my friend’s confirmation, I quickly took out my notebook and started jotting things down.

Diandeng: “Interesting. Do you know the exact date when people heard the Ghostly Screams?”

Friend: “I’m not sure, probably July or August. But later, no one really cared, and just thought it was kids in the community playing a prank.”

Diandeng: “July or August. Was it only that building that heard it, or the whole community?”

Friend: “Just that building, I think.”

Diandeng: “Okay, I’ve noted it down. Anything else?”

Friend: “Yes. Her family is very clean, and when they first moved in, there were no mosquitoes, bugs, or rats. But by the next spring and summer, the bathroom was full of flies, and sometimes you could even spot rats. My colleague didn’t want it to affect her child’s studies, so she hired a pest control company to deal with it. For the first few days after treatment, things were fine, but after a few days, the flies in the bathroom increased again. The strangest thing was that this kept happening from June all the way to October. By November, the flies disappeared, and it never happened again.”
Diandeng: “Hm? Flies that can’t be killed off? Is this situation very serious?”

Friend: “Extremely serious. She even took photos at the time-there were dozens of flies flying around in that few square meters of bathroom.”

Diandeng: “I looked at the floor plan. There are bathrooms on both the first and second floors. Is this happening in both bathrooms?”

Friend: “Yes, both.”

Diandeng: “Could it be that she didn’t close the doors or windows properly? I noticed that the Public Bathroom on the first floor has a window facing the corridor, and the Secondary Bathroom on the second floor also has a window facing the Balcony.”

Friend: “It’s definitely not because of the doors or windows. Not to mention that the bathroom windows have screens, but under normal circumstances, whose Balcony or corridor would breed so many flies? Plus, she asked the downstairs neighbors, and only her apartment in the whole building had this problem.”

It really did sound strange. I quietly made a note of this: a fly infestation that lasted only one year.

Then I continued to ask questions.

Diandeng: “Was there anything else strange?”

Friend: “Hmm… Yes, their house steals electricity.”

Diandeng: “Steals electricity? What kind of stealing?”

Friend: “Let me explain slowly. There’s a Circuit Breaker on the first floor, on the wall to the right of the entrance.”

I marked it on the floor plan as my friend described, and sent it to her.

Diandeng: “Is it here?”

Friend: “Yes.”

Diandeng: “Okay, go on.”

Friend: “On the first day my colleague moved in, both the Circuit Breaker and the Water Valve were turned off. The Landlord even specifically told her that the electricity and water bills had been settled, that she wasn’t being cheated, and told her to turn on the Circuit Breaker and Water Valve herself after moving in.”

Diandeng: “That sounds pretty normal.”

Friend: “Nothing strange about that. The key is what happened next. This year, because of the pandemic, they couldn’t go back to their hometown, so they planned to spend the New Year in the rental. They decided to do a thorough cleaning around the Little New Year. In the Study Room on the second floor, there’s a row of bookshelves along the wall near the door, covering the whole wall. When my colleague was cleaning, she moved the shelves and found another closed Circuit Breaker behind them, right next to the Study Room door.”

After hearing this, I was a bit stunned. I opened the second floor plan and drew on it as my friend described.

After finishing, I sent the drawing to my friend.

Diandeng: “Is it like this?”

Friend: “Yes, exactly.”

Diandeng: “Why is there a second Circuit Breaker here?”

Friend: “She doesn’t know either. This Circuit Breaker is really strange, because you can’t tell what circuit it controls.”

Diandeng: “What do you mean?”

Friend: “When they first moved in, didn’t they turn on the Circuit Breaker on the first floor?”

Diandeng: “Yes.”

Friend: “After turning it on, she checked the lights, outlets, and Air Conditioner on both floors, and everything worked fine. So the first floor Circuit Breaker controls all the circuits on both floors. Then what does the second floor Circuit Breaker control?”

Diandeng: “Hm?”

Hearing this, I suddenly froze, a chill creeping up my back.

Diandeng: “Did your colleague try to verify this?”

Friend: “She did.”

Diandeng: “How did she verify it?”

Friend: “She turned on that Circuit Breaker and checked all the circuits in the house one by one.”

Diandeng: “And what was the result?”

Friend: “The result was that, aside from the electricity bill skyrocketing, nothing else changed.”

Diandeng: “The electricity bill skyrocketed?”

Friend: “Yeah. After turning on the second floor Circuit Breaker, my colleague checked all the circuits in the house-no abnormalities, no shorted outlets, no malfunctioning appliances, and neither Circuit Breaker tripped. So she just treated it as a decoration and left it alone. But when it came time to pay the electricity bill a month later, she found that the bill for that month was as high as 1,100 yuan.”

Diandeng: “1,100 yuan? That sounds expensive, but considering that Little New Year is late winter to early spring, the Air Conditioner was probably running, and the whole family was home most of the time, maybe it’s reasonable.”

Friend: “That’s what my colleague thought too, so she didn’t pay much attention. But after two months, the electricity bill stayed at 800–900 yuan, and by then the weather had warmed up and they didn’t need the Air Conditioner anymore. My colleague thought it was odd, so she downloaded the Guoshang Power Grid App to check the electricity usage for those months. She was shocked to see that in February, March, and April, the usage was 1,800, 1,400, and 1,300 kilowatt-hours respectively. Those numbers are terrifying-each month there was an extra 1,000 kilowatt-hours consumed. No matter how she thought about it, she couldn’t recall any appliance in the house that used that much electricity, so she started to suspect the Study Room Circuit Breaker that had been left on.”

Diandeng: “…”

Friend: “Hey? Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Diandeng: “Nothing, it’s just… this all sounds very strange.”

Friend: “Hm? What’s strange about it?”

Diandeng: “After all, a Circuit Breaker is just a switch-it doesn’t consume electricity itself. But after turning on the Study Room Circuit Breaker, the electricity usage soared, and the source couldn’t be found. It feels like… there’s a hidden space in this house…”
Friend: “My colleague thought about that too, but it’s not realistic. She measured the area of her home, and it’s exactly the same as the area on the floor plan.”

Diandeng: “Can you be sure the area on the floor plan is really accurate?”

Friend: “I think so, because this floor plan was drawn based on the one in the property certificate, and on the certificate, the house looks exactly like this.”

Diandeng: “I see.”

Friend: “It’s not just a floor plan issue. The most important thing is, as you said, the Circuit Breaker is just a switch-it only controls power on and off. The real electricity consumption comes from the appliances. But generally speaking, what appliances automatically turn on when powered and consume a lot of electricity? Even for something like a refrigerator, which starts automatically when powered, it only uses thirty or forty kilowatt-hours a month. You’d need to have more than thirty refrigerators running at once to reach that level of consumption.”

Diandeng: “An appliance that starts automatically when powered and consumes a huge amount of electricity… What comes to mind is the Little Sun.”

Friend: “Little Sun? Is that the thing that looks like an electric fan but glows with heat when turned on?”

Diandeng: “Yes, as long as it’s set to the on position, it will start automatically when powered, and it does consume a lot of electricity.”

Friend: “Are you saying the Circuit Breaker in the Study Room controls a Little Sun?”

Diandeng: “No, I’m just making a hypothesis, but it’s obviously not reliable. A heating appliance like the Little Sun could short-circuit if left on for a whole day. In your colleague’s case, it stayed on for three months straight, which is almost impossible.”

Friend: “True, you also have to consider the wear and tear from appliances running continuously.”

Diandeng: “Could it be that someone else is living in the house?”

Friend: “That’s unlikely. There’s no space, and even if someone was living there, it’s already been two years. How could they survive without electricity for two years?”

Diandeng: “Makes sense. So how did your colleague handle the situation?”

Friend: “She told the Landlord, but he said he didn’t know either. He bought the house from a family of three, and they said their son had an accident and urgently needed money, so they sold the house to the Landlord at an eighty percent discount. The Landlord rented it to my colleague on the third day after the transfer, so he doesn’t know much about the inside of the house.”

Diandeng: “How did it end?”

Friend: “In the end, my colleague just turned off the Circuit Breaker in the Study Room, and the electricity consumption quickly returned to normal.”

Diandeng: “Anything else?”

Friend: “There’s one more thing. The Guoshang Power Grid App lets you check monthly electricity usage from previous years. My friend found that in August, September, and October of 2018, the electricity usage was zero. That means for three months before my friend moved in, no one lived in the house.”

After hearing this, I started to feel a chill.

Connecting all these strange events so far:

Ghostly Screams that lasted only a few hours in the building.

A fly infestation in the bathroom that lasted an entire summer.

A Circuit Breaker hidden behind the bookshelf in the Study Room, controlling something unknown.

A house that had been unoccupied for three months.

Looking at these things, I could imagine some possibilities, but they all seemed too far-fetched to be real.

So I continued to ask my friend.

Diandeng: “Besides these things, are there any other problems with the house?”

Friend: “Hmm… Not really. She sometimes mentions some good things about the house.”

Diandeng: “Good things? Like what?”

Friend: “For example, when she first moved in, there was a bit of a formaldehyde smell, like it had been renovated. At the time, my colleague thought the Landlord was a good person, but later found out the renovation was done by the Previous Owner. Also, top-floor apartments are usually very hot, but this one is well insulated-even in summer, the second floor doesn’t get much hotter. And the rent is very cheap.”

Listening to my friend, I couldn’t help but frown.

Usually, things that seem strange can be explained by very ordinary reasons.

Maybe the problems with this house aren’t complicated; maybe we’re just overcomplicating them.

I kept asking my friend.

Diandeng: “Has your colleague talked to the neighbors about the house?”

Friend: “Probably not. She has to take care of a student preparing for the college entrance exam, gets up at six every day, and is busy until bedtime. She hasn’t really talked to the neighbors in years.”

Diandeng: “I see… Don’t agree to rent the house just yet. Give me some time to look into it more.”

Friend: “Okay.”

…