“Come on in!” Agent Wang was still waving at her.

  The female ghost floated just two fingers’ width from the back of his head.

  Li Li narrowed her eyes, kept her hands in her pockets, and slowly sauntered into the apartment.

  “Let me help you with the suitcase.” Seeing her hesitation, Agent Wang assumed she didn’t like the place and became even more eager to please. “I know you young people worry about air quality, but don’t worry—the landlord had it professionally tested. They wouldn’t list it if it failed.”

  As Agent Wang stepped back out, Li Li came face-to-face with the ghost.

  She was naked, with completely black eyes. Her stomach was unnaturally sunken. A rough, stitched scar ran from her chest down to her lower abdomen. Large bruises covered her wrists and ankles. This was not a natural death.

  Through the grotesque mask of agony, Li Li could still make out traces of the woman’s former beauty.

  “Why did the previous tenant move out?”

  Li Li’s gaze remained fixed ahead as she shifted her stance, subtly blocking Agent Wang, who was wheeling her luggage inside.

  That question hit a nerve.

  “The previous tenant…” Agent Wang stammered. “They… didn’t quite adapt to this apartment…”

  *Obviously. With a ghost like this, who could?* And judging by the look of her, this woman had suffered terribly before death. The resentment here was palpable.

  “I mean the tenant from a year ago,” Li Li pressed, merciless. “You said the walls were repainted a year ago. I assume that’s connected to the tenant back then, right?”

  “Well…”

  Agent Wang wanted to keep dodging, but something about Li Li’s guarded posture made the truth spill out.

  A year ago, a horrific murder had taken place in this apartment. The victim was a young, newly-signed model who’d rented it for convenience. Less than a month after moving in, she was found gutted, her organs missing, blood smeared across the walls. Police later found most of her organs scattered across the city—except for one lung, which was never recovered.

  The landlord had been on vacation abroad with a solid alibi.

  The case made local headlines, causing a panic. Eventually, a cleaner responsible for the building’s common areas was arrested. He was on duty that day, and security cameras showed him entering and leaving the building multiple times.

  The cleaner initially insisted on his innocence, but police found a kitchen knife with the victim’s DNA in his home. They also discovered he had a severe psychiatric history, managed by medication he hadn’t taken on the day of the murder.

  With the evidence stacked against him, he confessed. Since there’s no death penalty here, and it was unclear if he was in a psychotic state during the crime, he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

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  Afterward, the landlord renovated the apartment and rented it out again. But every single tenant reported strange noises at night, a woman’s figure flashing in mirrors, and taps running blood in the middle of the night.

  Eventually, it became a notorious **haunted apartment**. Even at a 90% discount, no one would take it.

  “That’s… all I know.” Agent Wang finished, a wave of guilt washing over him.

  The apartment’s advantages were real—but so was its fatal flaw.

  So much for becoming the area’s top rental agent with this listing.

  “If you want to look at other places, I have other units—”

  “No need.” Li Li’s eyes stayed ahead, her expression calm. “I’ll take this one.”

  By the time the contract was signed and Li Li was ushering a bewildered Agent Wang out the door, he was still confused.

  He’d listed all the apartment’s perks for months with no luck. The moment he revealed it was haunted, it was rented?

  *Are young people really this into thrill-seeking nowadays?*

  He shook his head. Whatever. The low rent was bound to attract some brave souls. His phone was always on. When Li Li inevitably called, scared out of her wits, he’d just find her a new place.

  With that thought, Agent Wang left with the signed contract.

  Inside, Li Li closed the door and immediately flung a handful of copper coins from her pocket straight at the ghost.

  The coins shot out with surprising speed. The ghost, caught off-guard and unsure what they were, was struck square in the face.

  A searing, soul-deep pain made her shriek. She tried to retreat, but Li Li flicked her wrist. The coins, threaded with red cinnabar-string through their holes—the strings leading back to Li Li’s fingers—snapped into formation like a net, wrapping tightly around her.

  “Ahhh!” the ghost wailed.

  Li Li’s gaze held pity. “The killer has been brought to justice. Please, miss, move on to your next life.”

  Night had fallen.

  Li Li bound the ghost in the center of the empty living room, arranged candles and ritual tools around her, and began burning spirit money in a small basin while chanting.

  “Immeasurable Heavenly Lord, deliver her from suffering. The Yellow Spring Road is long; please send a guide.”

  She chanted for over half an hour, until all the spirit money was ashes.

  Nothing happened.

  Li Li: “…”

  The ghost had gotten used to the coin net. She realized it only hurt if she struggled against it.

  Ghost and exorcist stared at each other in silence.

  Finally, the ghost couldn’t take the awkwardness. “What are you doing?” she rasped.

  “Performing your final rites.”

  “Then why did you stop?”

  “Ran out of spirit money.”

  “…”

  Back in China, the **Soul Reapers** would have shown up by now. But here, a whole stick of incense had burned down with no sign of anyone.

  *Did the underworld raise its service fees due to import tariffs?* No, that didn’t make sense—she’d burned gold ingots!

  Li Li’s brain short-circuited. She stared blankly at the ghost, her dark pupils unsettling in the flickering candlelight.

  The ghost felt a chill. *This Asian girl is starting to seem more like the vengeful spirit from a horror movie…*

  *Wait, which one of us is the ghost here?!*

  Li Li looked confident, but she was officially out of ideas.

  If the Reapers weren’t coming, should she just disperse the ghost’s spirit? That seemed harsh. Take her back to China for the rites? But she’d just arrived!

  Suddenly, the streetlights outside flickered and died. An unnatural, thick fog rolled in, swallowing the street. The temperature plummeted; tiny droplets condensed on the floorboards.

  The candle flames danced wildly. Li Li’s heart jumped.

  *They’re here!*

  She quickly stood up and bowed deeply toward the door.

  Two figures—one in black, one in white—passed through the fog and the door as if it weren’t there, chains in hand.

  “Honored Soul Reapers.” Li Li bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle. “This junior apologizes for the disturbance.”

  “Why’d you summon us all the way out here?” Black Reaper grumbled immediately. “Do you have any idea what time it is back home? **It’s broad daylight, kid!**”

  Just a reminder: The time difference between Beijing and New York is 13 hours. Even ghosts have to respect the clock.

  And yes, even the afterlife has to deal with international logistics.

  Black and White Reapers probably file overtime reports now.

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