Chapter 486: Origins (Combined)

Thanks to the Cleanup Bureau for their help? Does that mean someone in the Bureau had actually made contact with Happiness Apartment before?

But according to the Cleanup Bureau's records, the first person to discover this apartment was himself. So, did that person discover it and not report it? Or is it that…

After pondering the landlady's words for a moment, Li Ang tentatively spoke up:

"May I ask, when you speak of 'help,' do you mean some ordinary assistance, or the kind of fundamental 'help' that turned the two of you into what you are now?"

"Of course, it's the fundamental kind."

The fundamental kind… which means this Happiness Apartment was actually "manufactured" by someone in the Cleanup Bureau?

But… how could that be possible?

Recalling the "common knowledge" the Red-haired Director and Senior Ai Ma had told him, Li Ang couldn't help but subconsciously frown.

For Anomalous Objects, "manufacturing" and "forging" are two completely different concepts.

Anomalous Objects "produced" by the Cleanup Bureau are mostly like Director Jin Niu, where the remains recovered after completing a cleanup mission are forged, retaining the core abilities. In reality, it is "modifying" uncontrollable existing anomalies into basically controllable Anomalous Objects.

But if the landlady's description and his own understanding were both correct, then this Happiness Apartment… this 【Apartment of Parasitic Spirits】 no longer followed this common knowledge; it was created from nothing by someone!

Such an important matter must be clarified! But…

"Anna…"

"You two go ahead and talk."

After receiving Li Ang's troubled gaze, the sickly young lady, despite being very curious, smiled understandingly, stood up, and walked toward the inner room.

"It's quite cold lately. I'll go check if Melanie and the others kicked off their blankets; I don't want them catching a cold."

"Thank you for your hard work…"

Not wanting his family to have too much contact with the "world beneath the water," Li Ang breathed a sigh of relief only after Anna entered the inner room and closed the door. He asked with a serious expression:

"If possible, could you tell me how that person 'helped' you back then?"

"What's wrong?"

Seeing Li Ang's suddenly serious expression, the landlady seemed to realize something was wrong. She said with some hesitation:

"Young man, tell me the truth. Does your Bureau have some regulation that forbids helping us become what we are now?"

"Rather than saying it's forbidden, it's more that it's fundamentally impossible to do…"

Trying his best to use language the other party could understand, Li Ang briefly described the difficulty of doing such a thing. Seeing the landlady's slightly worried expression, he comforted her:

"Rest assured, you don't need to worry about that person being punished. This ability to create anomalies is the first time I've heard of it; the Bureau has no relevant regulations.

Besides, you've been anomalies for nearly a hundred years. Although our Cleanup Bureau personnel have much stronger physical fitness than ordinary people, most people's lifespans are about the same as ordinary people's. That person is likely long gone by now.

Additionally, because it involves creating anomalies, this matter is truly very, very important. If possible, I hope you can describe it in as much detail as you can."

"I see…"

Hearing that it wouldn't bring trouble to their "benefactor," the landlady breathed a sigh of relief. After recalling for a moment, she spoke with some hesitation:

"There's nothing that can't be told, it's just that we don't know much either… Hmm… the predecessor of this apartment was a poorhouse that my old man and I converted using our own property. You should have already found that out, right?"

"Yes."

Seeing Li Ang nod, the landlady touched her white curly hair and continued to recall calmly:

"My hair wasn't white originally; it turned white bit by bit after I fell seriously ill at the time.

That illness brought constant pain. I had to rely on excessive amounts of sleeping pills and painkillers to get through it. I could only stay awake for three or four hours a day, but even during those three hours of clarity, I had to vomit and have diarrhea incessantly due to the drug reactions…

Sigh… although I couldn't bear to leave my old man, after being tortured for several years, I really didn't want to live anymore. I prepared to apply to convert the poorhouse into a registered municipal facility, and then just stop taking the medicine and die."

After speaking about the origin of her hair in a flat tone, the landlady's eyes gradually turned fierce, and she continued in a cold voice:

"I filed that application more than thirty times, and my old man dragged his lame leg to the municipal office two or three hundred times in total, but the answer was always to go back and wait.

At that time, I knew that the municipal side probably didn't want to take it over. Once the two of us old folks died, the fate of those sheltered in the poorhouse definitely wouldn't be good."

The landlady said with a face full of resentment:

"At that time, the poorhouse property was under my name, and my old man didn't have the qualifications to inherit property due to some past events, so I really didn't dare to die. I could only hold on like this, dragging out time to try and help the people in the poorhouse find other ways out.

In the end, although I successfully sent some people away, most of the people in the poorhouse had no ability to work and still couldn't find other places to go, and my body at that time was already failing.

I heard from my old man that my heart stopped beating three times in that last month, and the number of times my breathing stopped was too many to count. But even though I held on until the end without dying, I had reached my limit bit by bit…"

Heart stopped beating… even managed to hold on through that…

When hearing about the landlady's past experiences, although it was a bit inappropriate, Li Ang still remembered the words he heard from the Red-haired Director.

Only the extreme will be remembered, only the paranoid dare to forge ahead, and only the mad can understand greatness.

Or rather, whether positive or negative, only those most pure and extreme things can leave a mark on this world.

…

"But I really didn't want to die, and I didn't dare to die."

Not knowing Li Ang's thoughts, the landlady, recalling those painful days, said with a somewhat ferocious expression:

"On that final day, apart from being able to open my eyes occasionally, my heartbeat and breathing had completely stopped. I was almost a pure dead person, and my soul even briefly left my body, seeing myself on the hospital bed…

But in the end, I forced myself back in! There was nothing else; I just wasn't reconciled! I just wanted to know why, why was it that even though signing a paper could save so many people, no one was willing to stand up and approve my application!"

After panting a few times somewhat rapidly, the landlady's expression softened a little. She held the hand of the strong old man who had walked back at some point and was standing behind her supporting her, and continued in a lower voice:

"However, although my soul forced its way back in, my body had indeed completely died. My old man, who had already prepared, called over the person responsible for preparing the remains.

Hmm… I don't remember very clearly, but that mortician was a young man. Apart from the corners of his mouth naturally drooping, making him look a bit like he was crying, he actually looked quite ordinary. However, his eyes were very bright, and he seemed to be able to see things others couldn't. Those eyes of his looked directly through my corpse and saw my soul, which was still lingering, and then he asked me with some surprise why I had insisted on staying until now and wasn't willing to leave."

A young man with a natural crying face and very bright eyes?

After carefully noting down these features and preparing to ask the Red-haired Director tomorrow, Li Ang asked softly:

"Is this person…"

"Yes, it's him."

After giving a definite answer, the landlady said with a complex expression:

"He asked me what other wishes I had, but at that time I was full of hatred, wishing I could immediately turn into a crazy evil spirit and kill everyone in the municipal office, so I roared at him for a while.

But after that young man finished listening to the reason, he ignored me and instead asked my old man if he wanted to see me one more time, but the price was to die immediately."

When speaking to this point, the landlady paused, then squeezed the strong old man's hand hard, and said with tenderness in her eyes:

"My old man didn't agree directly, but asked that young man with the natural crying face, if he didn't just want to see me once, but wanted to see me many more times, what would he need to pay?

After hearing his question, although that young man was a bit surprised, after thinking about it, he still told my old man that besides seeing me once, he could also let my old man's soul accompany me forever.

But because my soul had been tortured for these few years, it was much stronger and more resilient than his, so if our souls were bound together, my old man would lose most of his humanity and wisdom, becoming a mere appendage to my soul…"

So… he agreed, didn't he?

Looking at the strong old man who was clutching the landlady's palm with one hand and secretly reaching out with the other to grab a large pair of scissors, Li Ang, feeling both moved and speechless, couldn't help but blink. For a moment, he didn't know what to say.

"Don't move around!"

Having already discovered the strong old man's movements, she pinched the back of his hand hard, making the strong old man behave again. The landlady said with a hint of apology:

"Rest assured, with me watching, he can't cut you."

"Ah… it's fine, it's fine."

Secretly touching the pendant on his chest to ensure he could react in time, Li Ang couldn't help but ask:

"Later on, were your souls bound together by him and placed into this apartment?"

"More or less."

Hearing this, the landlady's eyes dimmed slightly, and she said with some dejection:

"However, we didn't have our current power from the beginning. At that time, let alone eating and drinking like living people, we couldn't even say a word to the people inside.

It wasn't until the poorhouse was reclaimed by the municipal office and the remaining people inside were forcibly driven away by the Police Department that we could barely manifest a bit of our figures in the deepest part of the night."

Li Ang nodded upon hearing this, pondered for a moment, and asked:

"So you became stronger slowly over time?"

"No… that we became like this was actually just an accident."

After hearing Li Ang's question, the landlady silently turned her head away, buried her face in the strong old man's arms, and narrated in a somewhat muffled voice:

"There was an orphan who had been driven out of the poorhouse who wanted to come back and take a look in the middle of the night. When he was climbing over the wall, he almost fell. My old man and I were worried, so we briefly manifested our figures to catch him.

That child might have sensed something; he was startled at the time and ran away screaming, but later he couldn't help but come back a few more times. The news that we… we might 'still be here' spread among the people who had been driven away."

After clenching her fists with extreme regret, the landlady said while trembling all over:

"Then… many children heard the news and all came back with hope, wanting to see us one more time. We were also a bit… so we showed ourselves a few more times.

Once people really saw us, more and more people came back, and even those who had already found a way out and had been sent away early, many of them also rushed back from other counties.

But… but… later it was winter… that winter was unusually cold, and they were all… so in the end, fewer and fewer people could come, and their physical conditions were worse each time, and then… and then…"

"…"

And then… most of them froze to death in the first winter after being driven away?

Hearing this, Li Ang, whose eyes were a bit sore, looked up slightly and couldn't help but recall the relevant files he had seen before.

In the end, there were about a hundred people driven out of the poorhouse. Because they had no ability to work, the vast majority didn't survive that winter and froze to death near Happiness Apartment.

But when those cold, stiff, shriveled corpses were discovered, most of them had smiles on their faces. This matter even made the news at the time, and a few clippings were kept in the files.

He had originally thought that those people were smiling because of hallucinations before freezing to death, but now it seems their smiles were likely sincere.

"My condolences…"

Looking at the landlady who was burying her face in the strong old man's arms and clearly crying silently, Li Ang, who somewhat regretted asking these things, pursed his lips and didn't know what to say for a moment. The strong old man, who was gently patting the landlady's back, spoke up at this moment.

"One hundred and three."

After spitting out this number with an expressionless face, the strong old man rarely said a few extra words, and said warmly in a hoarse voice:

"I received those children's final thoughts."

"…"

So… the reason you two can be like living people now is because those one hundred and three people who were driven out of Happiness Apartment and froze to death outside that year, as well as more people who once lived in this apartment, sincerely believed that you were still here…

After roughly understanding what he meant, Li Ang, looking at the landlady who had already started sobbing lowly, clenched his fists somewhat helplessly, then hurriedly changed the subject:

"What about that young man with the crying face? Has he come again later?"

"He came… he came once."

After wiping her tears in the strong old man's arms, the landlady said in a low voice:

"After that winter, another three years or so passed, and he came to see us once.

After seeing our situation, he was somewhat pleasantly surprised, saying that our 'progress' speed exceeded his imagination. He asked me what I had done in these few years, why we had become stronger so quickly, and whether we had killed those we hated.

However, after listening to us finish the reason, he seemed somewhat disappointed, asked us why we didn't think about revenge, and then never came again… Oh, that's right!"

After trying hard to recall for a moment, the landlady said with some uncertainty:

"That time we also asked about his recent situation, asking if he was still working as a mortician. He said he wasn't doing mortuary work anymore, and had joined the Cleanup Bureau to become an officer? A deacon? Or something like that… Does your Cleanup Bureau have this position?"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 487 =====