"Who are you?" The hand put on my shoulder, and then a man's voice sounded behind me.
I turned around and saw a middle-aged man standing behind me, about forty or fifty years old. He was wearing a light blue tunic suit and glasses, and he looked elegant.
Looking at him, I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows because there was a big gap between this man's face and his hands.
No matter how you look at this man's appearance, he is a gentle man. He definitely doesn't look like he does manual labor, but his hands are completely different. They are like orange peels and covered with calluses. It's like he works hard every day.
It's like doing physical work.
The man looked at me and Duanmu Qing, frowned slightly, and asked, "What do you want?"
"Are you the boss here? How much is the house price? We want to book a room." Duanmuqing asked before I could speak.
The man was stunned for a moment when he heard what he said. He glanced at me and then at Duanmu Qing, with a strange expression on his face.
I know what he is thinking. That Duanmuqing guy looks too much like a girl, and it would be difficult for us to open a house in such a remote place without being misunderstood.
"The room is 100 per cent per day. If you stay there permanently, you can rent it for a month or a year." The man said. It seemed that he was really the owner of this auspicious apartment.
He said and walked inside first. Duanmuqing and I quickly followed him and came to the reception room on the first floor. The man took a look at our ID cards, took out a key, and pointed at us.
Floor, said: "There are still vacancies in 206, you can live there."
"Thank you." Duanmuqing smiled and took the key.
"Do you have many customers, boss?" Duanmuqing asked seemingly casually.
The boss lowered his head to clear the table, without even raising his head, and replied: "There are a few guests who are all regular residents. By the way, the guy in room 207 next to you has some brain problems. Don't mess with him."
Hearing his words, I couldn't help but frown and silently remembered his words.
Duanmuqing and I nodded and turned around to leave. Just then, two strange sounds suddenly came from the closed door inside.
hehe!
The sound sounded like the growl of some wild beast.
Hearing this sound, I immediately stopped and looked towards the closed door.
The boss quickly walked over and opened the door. He saw a wheelchair inside and an old man sitting on top of the wheelchair.
The old man looked to be eighty or ninety years old, with a head full of white hair. He was sitting in a wheelchair with his neck crooked, drool drooling from his mouth, and he kept making sounds in his throat.
That beast-like sound was made by him.
After taking a quick look, I knew that the old man must be old and has completely lost his ability to move, that's why he looked like this.
The boss walked over, took out a tissue, and carefully cleaned the drool from the corner of the old man's mouth. His movements were very skillful. It seemed that he had been taking care of this old man for a long time.
I glanced at the old man and found that he was also looking at me, staring at me with his cloudy and slightly yellow eyes.
I sighed, knowing that the old man's days were numbered. He was like a dead tree, and it was only a matter of time before he fell.
Birth, old age, illness and death are things that people must experience. No one can live forever. Everyone knows this truth, but when we actually face life and death, we will still have great fear in our hearts.
It's not that I'm really afraid of death, but I'm afraid of the unknown.
Living in the world, we always have people and things we like, and our attachment to life is a kind of reluctance to let this world make you feel beautiful.
The old man's eyes seemed cloudy and there was not much life left, but I could still see the attachment to living in his eyes.
"Who is this?" I asked the boss.
"He is my uncle. He became immobile ten years ago. I have been taking care of him all these years." The boss wiped the corners of the old man's mouth and said to me.
He became paralyzed ten years ago.
I couldn't help but frown when I heard this. The reason why this Jixiang Apartment is called a haunted house is because of a case that happened ten years ago. The owner's family of five committed suicide by burning coal and they all died inside.
"Then who is he?" I asked the boss a little strangely.
"You have heard about that case, right? The family that died was my cousin and his son. Since the accident happened to my cousin's family, my uncle suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and became paralyzed." The boss adjusted his glasses and said calmly.
I nodded and didn't ask any more questions, because this kind of thing is a pain that no one wants to mention.
This boss can take care of his uncle for ten years, so he seems to be a good person.
hehe!
Just when I was about to turn around and leave, the old man made two strange sounds in his throat, and then I saw his hand raised.
I hadn't noticed it just now, but now that I saw his hands, I couldn't help but frown.
Because this old man looked to be eighty or ninety years old, with all his hair falling out and wrinkles all over his face, but his hands were completely different. His skin looked smooth and even delicate, with no age spots at all.
Except for the long, slightly curly nails, those hands did not look like the hands that an old man who was about to die should have.
I suddenly thought of the boss's rough hands and felt that it would be suitable to replace them.
The old man was still staring at me, his cloudy eyes motionless, which gave me a very strange feeling, as if the old man had a lot to say to me, but couldn't.
He raised his hand, his palm trembling slightly, as if he wanted to gesture something.
"Uncle, these two are today's guests." The boss walked over and put down his arm.
"You go to the second floor by yourself, I will bring boiling water up in a while." The boss turned around and said to us.
I nodded, no longer hesitating, and walked up the stairs with Duanmu Qing, but I could feel that the old man was staring at my back.
Although he was an old man who was about to die, I don't know why, but that look in his eyes gave me an indescribable feeling, and made my scalp feel a little numb.
"How are you doing? Do you see any problem?" Duanmuqing asked me as we walked.
I shook my head and said no, there was nothing wrong with either the boss or the old man, except that the old man's eyes made me feel uncomfortable.
There is dust everywhere in the corridor, and it has obviously been taken care of by no one for a long time. This is normal, after all, this place is too remote, and there are not usually many guests.
The few guests the boss mentioned who live here all the time are probably poor, homeless guys who are coveting the cheap rent here.
At the end of the stairs, there is a number '2' painted on the wall, indicating that we have reached the second floor.
I took a look at the number. It was painted with red paint. Although the place was dilapidated, the words looked like they had just been painted on.
