Chapter 611: Echoes in the Old Apartment

Little Meng even took the initiative to bring up the mission, volunteering to cover the two hundred thousand.

However, he mentioned that it would take a bit of time.

According to Little Meng, he needed to first trace his old man’s routine. When his father was away, he would sneak in to steal his most prized cigarette pipe, dispose of it, and then extract the two hundred thousand from within—keeping any extra for himself.

The whole process was smooth and legal, as though it were destined to be.

The price was minimal—a good beating would settle it all.

After all, he was his biological son. Would his father really have the heart to beat him to death?

He felt it was a fair trade, having witnessed a peculiar pollution incident firsthand.

Both his pride and the thrill were more than satisfied…

Of course, strictly speaking, neither he nor Vice President Xiao saw anything beyond the ordinary. The most astounding moment was catching Lu Xin crawling down the wall…

At first, it was sheer terror; in hindsight, though, it was electrifying…

Still, they left thoroughly satisfied.

They couldn’t elaborate too much, lest Lu Xin become overly intrigued by working with the Circus.

……

Lu Xin himself felt content. Once the two hundred thousand were secured, he returned to the Security Hall to give a detailed report on the mission—explaining how he was tracked down, how he covertly investigated the school beauty’s strange single life, observed her shopping, reported her for rooming with someone, and even learned about the existence of the “Affection Sticky Note” during the interrogation…

……As for how the other party ended up dead, who knows.

It wasn’t ruled out that they might have resorted to a desperate, despairing suicide.

In the end, his report—exactly 201 characters long—was handed over to Chen Jing, fulfilling his duty.

“Mr. Single Soldier, it’s mealtime. What would you like to eat?”

After finishing the report, the female officer arrived just in time to ask with genuine concern.

“Not today. I’ve got matters to attend to back there.”

Lu Xin laughed as he declined, though a hint of regret lingered in his heart.

Vice President Xiao and the others, like a gang of hoodlums, crowded by the Security Hall door—smoking and waiting for Lu Xin. They clearly hoped he’d join them for a late-night snack and share more stories about his exploits as the “official ghost hunter” and his encounters with Mental Pollution.

But Lu Xin told them it was too late and promised to talk later.

Then he got into his car, concealing his inner excitement, and quietly drove back to his old apartment building.

……

……

When Lu Xin pushed open the car door and saw the old apartment building again, a peculiar mix of curiosity and unease welled up inside him.

That young man with the hourglass—the memory he had constructed—had all been diluted and erased by his overwhelming mental power.

Yet, the final recollection remained vivid: the young man having his hourglass snatched away by some bizarre force within the building, and even his body being torn to pieces; this scene lingered clearly in Lu Xin’s mind…

“Wasn’t the old building supposed to be empty?”

Lu Xin mused quietly, “At least, in my memories, it wasn’t empty…”

Clinging to that thought, he scrutinized the building intently.

A crimson moon hung in the sky, its dark red rim framing the building perfectly.

Every window was dark, silent, and lonely.

This was in stark contrast to the moment in his memory when the windows of the old building were flung wide open.

……

Why did the old building manifest when that young man clutching an hourglass was busy weaving his memories?

Was it because the building occupied such a vast space in his blank memories that its appearance was inevitable?

Did touching those blank memories trigger the building’s emergence?

……

After wrestling with these questions, Lu Xin took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The hallway was pitch black, oppressive and silent, with a chilling draft that softly enveloped him.

He absorbed every detail as he walked slowly forward.

Behind him, his father’s tall silhouette and his sister’s slender form had already appeared, standing together at the other end of the corridor.

They too seemed to sense something, watching curiously as Lu Xin entered the first-floor hallway.

They were tinged with nervousness yet filled with curiosity.

Neither of them tried to stop him—they simply stood by the doorway, silently observing his progress.

Lu Xin moved slowly along the hallway, soaking in the silence behind every closed door.

Finally, he halted in front of one particular door.

It was a room on the first floor, numbered ‘103’.

He remembered that in his recollection, it was from the window of this very room that a hand had suddenly reached out to snatch the hourglass.

From that room, the rest of the place soon erupted into chaos.

……

His footsteps paused at the door; he turned his head to look and slowly reached out his hand.

Click.

The door turned open effortlessly, just like all the others, which hadn’t been locked at all.

Lu Xin lingered at the threshold until the cold air from inside brushed past him, then stepped in deliberately.

His hand slid along the wall, feeling a granular, almost living texture that tensed and trembled under his touch.

Then he found the light switch and pressed it gently.

“Click…”

Instantly, light flooded the room, almost blinding in its brilliance.

For a fleeting moment, the room felt utterly cramped as the light spread like a tide, only to quickly recede.

It faded so swiftly that even the light seemed unable to keep pace.

In that brief glow, Lu Xin managed to take in the room’s layout.

……

It appeared to be an ordinary space with an old sofa, an outdated television, a dimly patterned carpet, and antique wooden chairs whose armrests had been polished to a shine by time and memory.

Although no one sat on the chair, an hourglass rested quietly on its seat.

The hourglass even trembled slightly, as if it had just been idly played with before the lights came on.

“It’s actually here…”

Lu Xin expressed a hint of surprise as he slowly approached and picked it up.

It looked like a simple glass hourglass, but the white sand inside was nearly depleted, almost at the very bottom.

A gentle shake produced a faint rustling sound.

“How peculiar…”

Lu Xin thought to himself quietly.

Clearly, the young man with the hourglass had only just been discovered, and in the ensuing battle, the hourglass was lost.

Moreover, that fight had taken place on three streets sealed off by Qinggang’s Support Team.

Yet in his memory, the hourglass snatched from that young man over a decade ago was undeniably in this room.

Sometimes memory blurs with hallucination, making it hard to discern what is real.

But the presence of this hourglass affirmed the truth of his recollections.

It was a seemingly ordinary item, yet its twisted logic and time displacement evoked an unnerving feeling.

……

Clutching the hourglass, Lu Xin pondered for a moment before turning to leave.

Just as he was about to exit, his finger brushed the light switch once more and hesitated.

Then he turned back to the empty room and smiled, saying, “I’m taking it.”

With that, he pressed the switch gently.

Suddenly, the room plunged into darkness, and his eyes struggled to adjust.

Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but on the chair swallowed by darkness, a figure seemed to emerge.

Seated in the dark, it silently watched him.

……

……

“So, is this hourglass actually the mastermind behind the pollution incident?”

Holding the hourglass, Lu Xin ascended the stairs, deep in thought.

He recalled that the young man in black had gripped the hourglass tightly during their fight.

Whether influencing his thoughts, summoning other mental entities throughout the city, or even weaving his memories, he always clutched that hourglass, using its dwindling white sand to fuel his abilities.

Clearly, this was a formidable parasitic item.

It seemed that the larger the organization, the more they favored utilizing parasitic items in their schemes.

Perhaps it was because parasitic items, in some ways, were more controllable and stable than the ability users themselves?

Now that he had recovered this hourglass, he naturally planned to hand it over to Qinggang.

That was the mark of a professional in special pollution cleanup.

……Though he might delay handing it over a little.

……

Back on the upper floor, Lu Xin retreated to his own room.

He emptied several items from his black bag and even removed his glasses, laying them out alongside the hourglass, the Spade J Playing Card, the 12-Layer Puzzle Cube, and the Six Senses Mask, meticulously examining these peculiar artifacts.

It seemed he was close to assembling all seven layers of special parasitic items…

The glasses had been crafted by Professor Bai to help him smoothly transition into the Second Stage, their power extracted from the ‘Gaze of the Red Moon’ painting—essentially a form of Chaos among the thirteen mental powers.

Their purpose was to stabilize his emotions, belonging to the realm of feelings.

The 12-Layer Puzzle Cube allowed him to temporarily transform into another trait, linked to perception.

The Spade J Playing Card enabled him to tap into some of the Abyss’s deep rules, likely pertaining to instinct.

After all, the Abyss is a reflection and convergence of the human heart, inherently connected to instinct.

As for the Memory Hourglass, it clearly belonged to the realm of recollection.

The Six Senses Mask was the most peculiar of all; its function was to let its wearer access diverse abilities.

The mask, worn on the face, altered how others perceived its wearer, and by bestowing power, it effectively distorted one’s self-image—its ability falling under the ‘Perception’ layer of the seven.

That meant among the seven layers, he now possessed five.

Two remained missing…

Desire and Self.

Desire was an easy fix—the Drunkard already owned a similar parasitic item that he could lend.

Thus, in essence, he was only short of one: a parasitic item for the Self realm.

But where could he possibly find it?

Sitting in his old apartment at home, Lu Xin pondered over this difficult conundrum.

……

……

“Ring ring…”

At that moment, the telephone rang. Han Bing’s voice, tinged with surprise, said, “Mr. Single Soldier, there’s trouble…”

Lu Xin, startled, asked, “What happened?”

“It’s the Doll…”

Han Bing continued, a note of worry in his tone, “The Doll is throwing a tantrum…”

“She… she’s demanding her mission payment from the Special Cleaning Department…”

ps: Military genius Rushui’s new transformation work, Old Bai’s post-apocalyptic novel ‘Rules of Firepower.’ Friends experiencing writer’s block should give it a try.