Chapter 84: 83 Origin (Two-in-One)

83 Origin (Two-in-One)

Thanks to the help of the Cleaning Bureau? Does that mean someone in the Bureau had contact with Wang Gong Apartment long ago?

But according to the Cleaning Bureau's records, the first discoverer of this apartment was himself, so did that person discover it and not report it? Or...

Pondering the manager auntie's words, Li Ang asked tentatively:

"Excuse me, does the help you mentioned refer to some ordinary help, or the kind of 'help' that fundamentally made the two of you what you are now?"

"Of course, the most fundamental kind."

The most fundamental kind... in other words, this Wang Gong Apartment was "created" by someone in the Cleaning Bureau?

But... how is this possible?

Recalling the "common sense" told to him by the red-haired Director and Auntie Ai Ma, Li Ang's brow couldn't help but wrinkle subconsciously.

For anomalous objects, "creation" and "forging" are two completely different concepts.

Anomalous objects "made" by the Cleaning Bureau are mostly like Director Jin Juan, who takes the remains recovered after completing cleaning tasks and forges them, retaining the core ability, which is actually "modifying" uncontrollable existing anomalies into basically controllable anomalous objects.

And if the manager auntie's expression and his understanding were both correct, then this apartment... this 【Apartment of Parasitic Spirits】 no longer follows this common sense; it was created from nothing by someone!

Such an important matter must be asked clearly! But...

"Anna..."

"You guys talk first."

Receiving Li Ang's difficult gaze, the frail girl, although very curious, smiled understandingly and stood up, walking toward the inner room.

"It's cold recently, I'll go see if Fei Liya and the others kicked their blankets, don't catch a cold."

"Thank you for your hard work..."

Not wanting his family to have too much contact with the "world below the water surface", after Anna entered the inner room and closed the door, Li Ang breathed a sigh of relief and asked earnestly:

"If possible, could you please tell me how that person 'helped' you become what you are now?"

"What's wrong?"

Looking at Li Ang's suddenly serious expression, the manager auntie also seemed to find something wrong and said hesitantly:

"Young man, tell me the truth, is there any rule in your Bureau that doesn't allow helping us become what we are now?"

"Rather than not allowed, it's more like it's impossible to do..."

Trying to use language the other party could understand to briefly describe the difficulty of doing so, and looking at the manager auntie, whose expression was slightly worried, Li Ang comforted her:

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

Besides, you have been anomalies for almost a hundred years, and although people in our Cleaning Bureau have much better physical fitness than ordinary people, most people's lifespans are about the same as ordinary people. That person back then is likely long gone.

In addition, because it involves creating anomalies, this matter is really very, very important. If possible, I hope you can tell me in as much detail as possible."

"I see..."

Hearing that it wouldn't cause trouble for their "benefactor", the manager auntie breathed a sigh of relief, recalled for a moment, and said hesitantly:

"There's nothing I can't talk about, it's just that we don't know much either... hmm... the predecessor of this apartment was a poorhouse that the old man and I converted using our own property. You should have already checked this, right?"

"Mmm."

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

"My hair wasn't white originally; it turned white bit by bit after I had a serious illness at that time.

That illness brought constant pain, and I had to rely on excessive sleeping pills and painkillers to get through it. The time I could stay awake every day was only three or four hours, but even in those three hours of clarity, I had to vomit and have diarrhea because of the drug reaction...

Sigh... although I couldn't bear to leave the 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 municipal facility in the system, and then stop taking medicine and die quickly."

After describing the origin of her hair in a flat tone, the manager auntie's eyes gradually became fierce, and she continued in a cold voice:

"I submitted that application more than thirty times, and the old man also dragged his lame leg and ran to the municipal office two or three hundred times, but the answer we got was always to go back and wait.

At that time, I knew that the municipal side probably didn't want to take over. Once the two of us old folks died, the people we took in at the poorhouse would definitely not have a good end."

The manager auntie said with full resentment:

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

Finally, although I successfully sent some people away, most of the people in the poorhouse had no working ability and couldn't find other places to go, and my body at that time was already not doing well.

I heard the old man say that my heart stopped three times in that last month, and the number of times my breathing stopped was countless, but even if I held on until the end, I reached my limit bit by bit..."

Heart stopped... even after that, did you hold on...

Hearing the manager auntie's past experiences, although it was a bit inappropriate, Li Ang remembered the words he had heard from the red-haired Director.

Only the extreme will be remembered, only the paranoid dare to move forward, only the crazy can understand greatness.

Or rather, whether positive or negative, only those purest and most 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 manager auntie, recalling those painful days, said with a somewhat ferocious expression:

"By the last day, except for being able to open my eyes occasionally, my heartbeat and breathing had completely stopped, and I was almost a pure dead person. Even my soul briefly left my body and saw myself in the hospital bed...

But I finally drilled back in! There was no other reason, I just wasn't reconciled! I just wanted to know why, why was it that even though it only took a signature to save so many people, no one was willing to stand up and approve my application!"

After panting a few times, the manager auntie's expression softened a little. She held the hand of the strong old man who didn't know when he had walked back and was supporting her, lowered her voice, and continued:

"However, although my soul drilled back in, my physical body had indeed completely died. The old man, who had already made preparations, called over the person responsible for organizing the remains.

Mmm... I don't remember very clearly, but that mortician was a young man. Except for the corners of his mouth naturally drooping, looking 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 still wandering around, and then asked me in surprise why I had insisted until now and was unwilling to leave."

A young man with a crying face and bright eyes?

Earnestly recording these characteristics and preparing to ask the red-haired Director tomorrow, Li Ang asked softly:

"Is this... the one..."

"Mmm, it's him."

After giving a positive answer, the manager auntie 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 that young man listened to the reason and ignored me, but asked the old man if he wanted to see me one more time, but the price was to die immediately."

When she said this, the manager auntie paused, then squeezed the strong old man's hand hard, and said with tenderness in her eyes:

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

After hearing his question, the young man was a bit surprised, but after thinking about it, he told the old man that besides seeing me once, he could also let the 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 tied together, the old man would lose most of his humanity and wisdom and become a pure appendage of my soul..."

So... he agreed, right?

Looking at the strong old man who was holding the manager auntie's palm with one hand and secretly reaching for the big scissors with the other, Li Ang, who was both moved and speechless, couldn't help but blink, not knowing what to say for a while.

"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 honest again, and the manager auntie said with some apology:

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

"Ah... it's okay, it's okay."

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

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

"More or less."

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

"However, we didn't have the power we have now at 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 recovered by the municipal office and the people inside were forcibly driven away by the Police Department that we could only barely show a little figure in the deepest part of the night."

Li Ang nodded upon hearing this and pondered for a moment before asking:

"So you became stronger bit by bit over time?"

"No... the reason we became like we are now was actually just an accident."

Hearing Li Ang's question, the manager auntie silently turned her head away, buried her face in the strong old man's arms, and told the story in a somewhat muffled tone:

"An orphan who was driven out of the poorhouse wanted to come back and take a look in the middle of the night. When he was climbing the wall and almost fell, the old man and I were worried, so we briefly showed our figures to support 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 times, and we... we might have 'still been there', and the news spread among the people who were driven away."

After clenching her fists with immense regret, the manager auntie trembled all over and said:

"Then... many children heard the news and came back with hope, wanting to see us one more time, and we... we might have... so we showed up a few more times.

After 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 in advance, many of them came 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 than the last, and then... and then..."

"..."

Then... did most of them freeze 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 think of the relevant files he had seen before.

There were about a hundred people who were driven out of the poorhouse. Because they had no working ability, most of them didn't survive that winter and froze to death near Wang Gong Apartment.

But when those cold, hard, and 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 originally thought those people would smile because of hallucinations before freezing to death, but now it seems their smiles were likely sincere.

"My condolences..."

Looking at the manager auntie, who was clearly crying silently while burying her face in the strong old man's arms, Li Ang, who regretted asking these things, pursed his lips, not knowing what to say. The strong old man, who was patting the auntie's back, spoke at this time.

"One hundred and three."

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

"I received the final thoughts of those children."

"..."

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

After roughly understanding what he meant, looking at the manager auntie who had started to sob lowly, Li Ang clenched his fists at a loss and hurriedly changed the subject:

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

"He came... he came once."

After rubbing her tears in the strong old man's arms, the manager auntie 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 a bit surprised and said our 'progress' exceeded his expectations. He asked me what I had done in these few years and why I had become stronger so quickly, and whether I had killed the people I hated.

However, after listening to our reasons, he seemed a bit disappointed and asked us why we didn't think about revenge, and then he never came again... Oh, that's right!"

After trying hard to recall, the manager auntie said uncertainly:

"That time we also asked about his recent situation, asking if he was still working as a mortician. He said he didn't do mortician work anymore, and joined the Cleaning Bureau to become an officer? A deacon? Or what was it... does your Cleaning Bureau have this position?" ===== CHAPTER 85 =====