As soon as Li Mazi shrieked, we heard someone else scream. 

An old woman in her fifties was freaked out. With a pale face, she shakily craned her neck out of the door. “W-Who are you looking for?” 

“We’re friends of Mr. Song’s. We’ve come from another city. We just visited Mrs. Song in the hospital and thought that maybe someone was living here that needed our help. That’s why we are here.” I stepped forward.

Perhaps it was because we had said that we had just visited Mrs. Song in the hospital, but the plain-looking middle-aged woman relaxed her guard. She asked worriedly, “How’s Mrs. Song? Did she get better? I’m going to buy some food and then go see her.” 

I politely gave her a nod. “She’s okay. It’s just that she keeps silent and watches the window all day. She doesn’t talk much.” 

The countryside woman sighed. “Mrs. Song was like that even before Mr. Song’s incident…” 

Li Mazi secretly pulled the back of my shirt and signaled that perhaps this woman knew something and that I should ask her for more information. 

I asked her, “And you are?” 

The countryside woman answered sincerely, “My family’s name is Chen. I am from the countryside and came to the city to look for work. I have worked as a housekeeper for Mr. Song for five years.” 

“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Chen.” I gently greeted her. 

Mrs. Chen continued, “After Mr. Song declared bankruptcy, he couldn’t pay me, so I got fired. At that time, I was lucky that there was a family in the neighborhood that needed a nanny to take care of their kid. They invited me to work for them. On the day of Mr. Song’s incident, I was so scared that I couldn’t sleep. Although Mr. Song had a bad temperament, he usually treated Mrs. Song and me well. Nobody ever thought that he would do something like that…” The rim of her eyes turned red. 

I didn’t have the skill to comfort people, especially crying women. I felt a little anxious. “He’s gone, and there is nothing we can do. You should cheer up a little.” 

Mrs. Chen nodded and suddenly thought of something. “You’ve come all the way here, and I haven’t invited you to the house yet.” Then, she held the door for us. “Since Mr. Song went bankrupt, all the valuable items in the house had been confiscated. Now, it’s just an empty house. I heard that the court’s going to auction this house, so I came to clean it for him. I worked for this family for years. This is the last thing I can do for them.” 

Li Mazi and I thanked her then walked in. The room was a little messy, and the walls were plain. 

Mrs. Chen sounded somewhat embarrassed. “There’s nowhere to sit. We don’t have water, either. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Old Gang was still in the car, and I was worried about him. I decided to jump straight to the topic. “Mrs. Chen, before all of this, Mr. Song’s business was going well, right? Why did his situation turn for the worse all of a sudden?”

Mrs. Chen wore a reluctant face. “I know nothing about Mr. Song’s business. Sometimes, he discussed his business with Mrs. Song over dinners. Although I heard their conversations, I didn’t understand much. But…” Mrs. Chen hesitated as though she was considering if she should disclose this piece of information or not. 

“Mrs. Chen, we came here to see if we could help with anything. If you know something, just tell us. Don’t be shy.” I said sincerely.

Li Mazi also nodded.  

Mrs. Chen sighed. “It’s not good to talk ill of the deceased. However, early last year, Mr. Song had an affair. He didn’t come home much, and starting from that time, Mrs. Song got sick and changed. Previously, she was a cheerful woman, but after discovering about the affair, she had a big fight with Mr. Song. Afterward, she turned even odder. I knew she was depressed and had to seek treatment. However, she was too stubborn, and I couldn’t persuade her. I called Mr. Song, but he said he was too busy to talk to me.” 

Li Mazi and I exchanged looks. 

Mrs. Chen continued her story. “Mr. Song had a tea farm in the countryside. He went there seven or eight times a year to check it. Last year, he collected a treasure from a farmer. He was so happy. He brought it home and put it in his safe. I have never seen that treasure. However, ever since it came to this house, many strange things started to happen…”

Finally, she reached the most important part. 

Li Mazi and I pricked up our ears. 

Mrs. Chen said, “From that day on, our rooms were filled with ticking sounds. It was low and then loud; noisy enough that we couldn’t sleep. I didn’t know if it was my imagination, but whenever I woke up at night, I couldn’t find the switch on the wall. Moreover, the wall was strangely damp, and the rooms smelled of mold. I couldn’t scrub the floor clean no matter how hard I tried; it was always covered with dust and dirt. Sometimes, we would see a big puddle of some black liquid in the room. We had no idea where it came from. Oh right, you should see this.” Mrs. Chen brought me and Li Mazi to a room. It looked like a bedroom.

There was a black stain on the white wall that was dripping down. It looked rather odd. 

“It has increased in size since then. When I left the Song family, the stain wasn’t so big.” Mrs. Chen pointed at the black thing. “This started happening after that item arrived at this house. At first, I thought that the water was leaking from the apartment above. When we went to that apartment to check, there was nothing. We had asked the building management unit to check twice, and they still found nothing.” 

While talking, Mrs. Chen seemed to have remembered something. She pulled my hand and said, “This room used to be Mr. and Mrs. Song’s master bedroom. The safe was here, too.” 

In other words, the clock was kept in this room. 

I walked to the wall and reached out my hand to touch the black stain. Although it had been there for a long time, I could still smell the foul odor. It seemed to be some stinky, muddy water. 

“Mr. Song’s business started to stagnate from that time. And… I was fired. By the time I had to leave this family, Mrs. Song’s condition was already bad. She didn’t talk much and would just hum something strange. It was very scary. Sometimes, when she saw Mr. Song, she would open her bloodshot eyes wide and gaze at him. She kept saying that no man was worthy of trust. Mr. Song was scared and brought Mrs. Song to the hospital, but the hospital couldn’t help her, either. I think that if Mr. Song had taken care of Mrs. Song earlier, she wouldn’t have become like this…” 

After talking, she stood idle for a long moment before grabbing a broom and starting to clean.

“Thank you, Mrs. Chen,” I nodded and thanked her. “We won’t bother you while you are working. Goodbye and please take care. When we have a chance, we will visit Mrs. Song again.” 

Mrs. Chen sent us to the door. “You’re good people. Since Mr. Song’s incident, you’re the first ones who have come to visit.” 

Li Mazi and I smiled sheepishly. We strode toward the elevator. 

When we reached the ground floor, Li Mazi lowered his voice and asked, “Little Brother Zhang, did you figure out anything?” 

“That clock is really strange. But Mr. Song got it from someone else. It seems…” While I was talking, we heard a loud noise behind us. Something had fallen and hit the ground.

Feeling frightened, Li Mazi and I turned around to see. 

Not far behind us, we saw Mrs. Chen on the ground in a strange position. Her head was blasted, and her brain was scattered. White bones jutted out of her skin like broken wooden sticks.

Her eyes were still open, which gave her a frightening look!

Since she wasn’t far from us, her blood had splashed and stained the legs of our trousers. Although I’d seen things that were even more horrible than this, I was scared. My face paled, and my heart raced. I lifted my head to look at the 27

th

 floor. 

A thick mass of dark clouds hovered above the building!