Chapter 739: The "Rain" Woman

"He answered a phone call at the stairwell entrance tonight?" My eyes widened in disbelief. "Granny, think carefully. About what time did he get that call?"

I wanted to compare the time to see if the call he answered was the one I made on the Live Show Phone.

"I'm not sure." The old woman pointed to her eyes. "I can't see. I only heard that much."

"Did he say anything strange?"

"I don't think so..." She couldn't be certain and had no other clues to offer.

I thought for a moment before looking at her. "Granny, since you can't see, how do you normally tell the tenants in the building apart?"

I wasn't doubting her; I was just curious and trying to figure things out.

"When you go blind, your ears get sharper. Everyone's footsteps in this building sound different. If you listen closely, you can hear it, too," the old Granny said, smoothing out the silk on the bed. "Take Bai Ya'er, for example. Her footsteps are very crisp. All her shoes are high heels, so she makes a lot of noise going up and down the stairs. The Doctor is rather sloppy; there's always debris stuck to the soles of his shoes, making it sound like he's dragging something when he walks. Zhu Li's footsteps have a distinct trait—he's quite slow. He's never in a rush."

That was only her perspective. Judging solely by hearing would inevitably lead to mistakes, and footsteps could always be faked to confuse people.

"Granny, tell me about the footsteps of the person who answered the phone. What stood out?"

"He walks fast, always in a hurry—the exact opposite of Zhu Li. Oh, and he must wear sneakers. His footsteps are very light. If the building's soundproofing wasn't so poor, I might not have even heard him."

"The opposite of Zhu Li?" I frowned. This wasn't what I had expected. "What's this person's name? When did he move into the Red Building? Do you know what he does for a living?"

"He moved into the Red Building about three months ago. He lives in a room at the very end of the top-floor corridor in Unit Four. He never interacts with anyone. Now that you mention it, I don't think he's spoken a single word to any of the other tenants since he got here!" she said with absolute certainty. "Those monsters treat me as one of their own, so I'm the only one in the apartment building who dares to go out late at night. Sometimes, when a family runs into trouble, they'll greet me, but this person is the only exception. And not just to me. As far as I can recall, he hasn't spoken to anyone."

If he had never even spoken a word, there was no point in asking about his profession or daily habits. Old Granny definitely wouldn't know.

"From the sound of it, he really is an eccentric," I replied absently, my mind on other things.

"It's nothing out of the ordinary. It's incredibly chaotic Outside Jinghai Customs. Homeless drifters, wanted criminals on the run, and even runaway students. The tenants in the Red Building come in all shapes and sizes; you'll find all sorts here." The old woman packed up the items in her bamboo basket and didn't elaborate further.

I sat silently to the side, pondering her words. Although the person she described sounded a lot like a live show streamer, there was a glaring hole in her account: the Live Show's Large-Screen Phone didn't have a ringtone. This might just be a coincidence.

'Wearing sneakers, living alone on the top floor, never talking to anyone, and heading out punctually every three days—there's definitely something wrong with his identity. But rather than a live show streamer, I think it's more likely he's a murderer on the run.' None of the live show streamers were simple characters. In my eyes, Zhu Li was the only person in the entire Red Building I couldn't see through.

'The Butcher? Or the live show streamer from the Cancer Research Hospital? Just who exactly did my call reach?' Winter was fast approaching, and a chill washed over me. I stretched my limbs. "Granny, once I finish handling matters inside the Red Building and find the person I'm looking for, I'll go to the Ancient Building and help you figure out how Junsheng ended up here."

"Wait a moment. There's something else I need to tell you." The old woman hesitated, as if she wasn't entirely certain of what she was about to say.

"What is it?"

"Aside from those monsters and the tenants, there is something else in the Red Building that could barely be called human. She used to appear, but she's vanished recently."

Her words caught my attention. "What other secrets are hidden in this Red Building?"

"It's not exactly a secret. The tenants here are actually well aware of it." She pointed to the large red wooden door. "The doors in the Red Building weren't originally red. Something happened that prompted the tenants to voluntarily paint them that way."

"What happened? Does it have to do with an obsession?"

The old woman shook her head. "It has to do with a woman."

"A woman?" I slowed my pace.

"Yes. That woman moved into the Pig Cage Apartments with Zhu Li. They seemed to be a married couple," the old woman slowly recalled. "The woman was completely submissive to Zhu Li, to the point you could say she abandoned her own dignity. To me, it looked like she lived solely for him."

"I really don't understand how someone like Zhu Li could have anyone like him," I muttered absentmindedly. "What happened next?"

"There is no 'next'." The old woman gave a bitter smile. "At some point, that woman just vanished. None of us even realized it until someone jumped off the building one night. That's when we realized something was wrong. According to the jumper's neighbor, he saw a long-haired woman holding a black umbrella in the stairwell in the middle of the night. She seemed to be looking for something. The jumper noticed she was different from the monsters and, out of the goodness of his heart, wanted to save her. He brought her into his apartment, but it wasn't long before he jumped to his death."

"What?" I was somewhat surprised by her story. The jumper had clearly acted out of goodwill, which meant he likely hadn't been controlled by an obsession yet.

"Long hair? Holding an umbrella in the stairwell?" Her description reminded me of the legend I had heard Outside Jinghai Customs. "Could the rumored 'Rain' Woman actually exist? And she's connected to the Red Building?"

"If you encounter the monsters from the Longchang Old Site, the worst that happens is you get controlled, lose your sense of self, and turn into a beast worse than a pig or a dog. But if you encounter that woman with the umbrella, the only outcome is death. There are no exceptions." The old woman sighed. "No one has ever seen her face, but some say from behind, she looks very much like the woman who moved in with Zhu Li. People even questioned Zhu Li about it, but nothing ever came of it. If you're looking for someone in the Red Building, you must be extremely careful. She frequently appears on rainy nights."

Hearing the worry in her tone, I replied, "Granny, don't worry."

I had found a wig under the pillow in Bai Ya'er's apartment. At the time, I thought she had been masquerading as the "Rain" Woman, but looking at it now, she was likely just being used by Zhu Li. That Faceless Woman holding an umbrella, who always appeared on rainy nights, truly existed.

'This woman is also tied to Zhu Li. Zhu Li is the center of everything.' During the task commission before the livestream started, I had received a call from a woman. Her tone had been bone-chillingly cold, and the line that stuck with me the most was: "Why do you still despise my heart for not being beautiful enough, even after you pierced it?" If that phrase were applied to Zhu Li, it couldn't be more fitting.

After all, the devil had no conscience.

Having formed a basic theory, I didn't linger any longer. After thanking the old woman, I turned and left.

When I reached the bedroom door, the short, shadowy figure saw me coming out and quickly made way, hiding far off to the side.

"He really is timid." I had no intention of mocking him. On the contrary, precisely because he was such a cowardly and weak person by nature, the fact that he had stepped forward at the final moment—choosing to be eaten in the old woman's place—made me feel even more regret.

Without saying anything else, I pulled out the Live Show Phone, put the Good and Evil Asura Mask back on, and opened the door to enter the stairwell.

It was pitch-black. I attempted to form hand seals. The Blood-Colored Tailed Fox on my chest emitted a faint bloody aura that wrapped around my arm.

While channeling the bloody aura, my memories churned. Killing intent surged within me, and my eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty red light, showing faint signs of losing control.

'The Blood Fox's killing intent is too heavy, and I'm wearing the Good and Evil Asura Mask. The interaction between the two is pushing me to go on a massacre.' I would never slaughter the innocent indiscriminately, but I wasn't against killing, either. After all, it was sometimes the simplest and most effective way to solve a problem.

Digging the key to Bai Ya'er's apartment out of my pocket, I arrived at the fourth floor and headed straight for the iron door in the middle.

'Unlocked?' I gave it a tug and found the iron door open. A bad premonition rose in my heart.

Pushing open the wooden door inside, I found Bai Ya'er's apartment completely empty. Scraps of torn clothing were scattered across the living room, and a few pieces of women's underwear were casually tossed about in the bedroom.

'Where is she?' Zhu Li had the key to Bai Ya'er's room, so it seemed he was the one who had taken her away.

'During the commotion earlier, Zhu Li and Bai Ya'er left the room. This indirectly proves that the obsession's attack on the blind old woman had something to do with them.' Standing in Bai Ya'er's bedroom, I looked at the adjacent wall. The peephole Zhu Li used to spy on her was still there.

"Completely twisted and perverted values. A person like that isn't fit to even discuss art," I muttered, stepping out of the room. I tried to pry open the doors to Zhu Li's and the Doctor's apartments, only to discover to my surprise that neither was locked. It seemed they had been in such a hurry to leave that they hadn't bothered to lock up.

'Where did they go?' The apartments were entirely empty, leaving behind only grotesque paintings and cruel, bloody photographs.

I rummaged through Zhu Li's apartment but found no useful clues. I stood in the pitch-black stairwell, feeling a chill wash over me from an unknown source.

'My coat is in Zhang Shuxue's apartment. It contains talismans and the Plum Blossom Brooch, so I have to get it back. There's also the little boy on the sixth floor, and the man living on the top floor of Unit Four—I need to check on both of them.'

Arriving at the sixth floor, I found the iron door tightly shut. Fresh blood dripped onto the floor in front of it. I wasn't in a hurry to enter and instead followed the blood trail upward.

'The blood trail seems to end at Zhang Shuxue's rented apartment.'