Dragon Hermit

“Xia Yan, why do you want to rent such a cheap place?” Dong Quan couldn’t comprehend it. Xia Yan had earned seven million from the Liu family two days ago. So it wasn’t that difficult for him to buy a house nearby to Sihe University since the price of houses in Chengdu wasn’t that high. Hence, Dong Quan couldn’t make much sense of why Xia Yan insisted on renting a cheap place.

“Low-profile, I need to act with a low-profile!” Xia Yan told Liu Xue’er the truth because he felt she was a good person, but he didn’t feel like Dong Quan deserved to know it, so he just made up an excuse.

“Oh!” Dong Quan exclaimed, but he still didn’t approve of it. [Even if you wish to remain low-profile, you don’t need to act so low-profile, right?]

Xia Yan felt that shared rentals were also fine, and it was best if his co-tenants were students. Since he had decided on this, he didn’t plan to waste any more time with the black-suited man as people just looked for shared rentals online. No sane person would come to a real estate brokerage to look for shared rentals and end up paying an agent fee for it.

He took out his phone to open the local rental classified site and searched for shared rentals. The results appeared instantly, and after filtering them to only properties close to Sihe University, they went down to just a few hundred.

“Are you planning to co-tenant with a girl, Master?” Dong Quan asked while he helped Xia Yan with the search.

“It doesn’t matter…” Xia Yan answered, but added on after pondering a bit, “But it’s best if it’s a girl!”

“I got it!” Dong Quan revealed a wicked smile.

Any man would be willing to co-tenant with a pretty woman, so even Xia Yan fantasized about it a bit.

“There’s a three-bedroom house available here, but the tenants are two pairs of lovers…”

“Pass!”

“The next one requests that the tenant must be a graduate examinee…”

“Pass!”

“Shall we look at short-term rooming then?” Dong Quan suggested after researching for a while.

“What’s short-term rooming?” Xia Yan asked. After Dong Quan explained it to him, he learned that they were low priced, single-story houses aimed at students, so they didn’t have good amenities.

“Nope!”

The two of them continued searching, and after some time, Xia Yan’s eyes lit up when he read one of the ads.

“Twenty square meters bedroom available in a three-bedroom shared rental at an apartment close to Sihe University’s southern gate. A fully furnished room with electricity, water, gas, and internet fees inclusive in the rent. The tenant can move in with the luggage right away. Two university girls are renting the other two bedrooms, so the requirement for the tenant is that they must be a student of Sihe University. There’s no preference for the tenant’s gender. Other rules are as follows, 1. The tenant is not allowed to have a guest of the opposite gender stay overnight, 2. Smoking and drinking are prohibited, 3. Cleanliness is a must…”

[This looks good!] Xia Yan was pleased with what was being offered. He checked the rent and saw that it was only seven hundred. Although it was a bit higher than his budget of five hundred, for the amenities listed there, the rent was as cheap as it could be. Moreover, since each bedroom was twenty square meters, and there was also a shared living room, the apartment wasn’t that small in size.

“What do you think of this one?” Xia Yan consulted Dong Quan.

“It’s not bad, but why is it so cheap? I know these Hearthcreek Apartments. All their apartments have deluxe suites, so the rent for a shared rental should be at least over a thousand,” Dong Quan expressed his astonishment after reading the ad.

“Master Xia, it’s already been a month since the ad was issued. Maybe it’s already rented out?” Dong Quan followed up.

“Let me call them and inquire about it,” Xia Yan called the number listed on the ad, and it connected quite fast.

“Hello, who is it?” A pleasant young woman’s voice answered the call.

“Hello, is your place still available for rent?”

“Oh my! Someone wants to rent the room!” The woman cried out in alarm, and another woman’s voice interjected, “Is that true? You aren’t kidding with me, right?”

Xia Yan felt stunned by this development. [Isn’t it just renting a room? Is there a need for you to feel so excited?]

“We have a bedroom available for rent. Are you a student at Sihe University?” The girl asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you want to see the room right now?”

“Can we?” Xia Yan asked hesitantly as it was already close to 9 PM right now, so he really wondered where these two girls got the courage to invite a man to see the room at such a time.

“Of course, you can!” The girl replied without any hesitation, “When are you coming?”

“Fifteen minutes,” Dong Quan informed Xia Yan.

“In fifteen minutes,” Xia Yan passed the information.

“All right. We will be waiting for you! Hearthcreek Apartments, Block 13, Floor 13, Room 1313. You can come up and just knock on the door.” The girl then hung up the call.

“Damn, what a number this suite has!” Dong Quan voiced out his amazement.

“The Chinese don’t believe in this, right?” Xia Yan also felt surprised about the series of four thirteens.

“It’s real if you believe in it, and not if you don’t,” Dong Quan commented as he turned on the engine.

“Let me look it up,” Xia Yan had a vague impression of this room, so logged into Sihe University’s forum searched for Hearthcreek Apartments Block 13, Floor 13, Room 1313. A list of threads popped up, and after looking through them, he immediately understood why no one had rented it even though it had a low rent.

“Haunted? They must be kidding, right?” Dong Quan wasn’t ready to believe it after hearing Xia Yan read the threads, “Which university student would believe such things these days? Moreover, the co-tenants are girls, so even if there’s a real ghost, they would brave it all to face the ghost!”

“There really is a ghost!” Xia Yan donned a peculiar expression as he said, “And it’s in that empty bedroom too. Everyone who rents it encounters some strange event and has nightmares each night. That’s why no one rents this room anymore.”

“How come those two girls have rented it then?” Dong Quan questioned.

“Even those two don’t didn’t dare to live in the haunted room and left it vacant!” Xia Yan sighed, “But even so, to continue living in that apartment means these two girls are really daring!”

“But if it’s indeed this way, it’s a windfall for you, Master Xia!” Dong Qua chuckled. Xia Yan was a connoisseur in exorcising ghosts, so this trouble was something he could solve easily.

“Haha!” Xia Yan also chuckled.

“Actually, Hearthcreek Apartments was developed by our Liu Group too,” Dong Quan added on.

“Oh? How about the Grandwest Panorama?” Xia Yan inquired.

“It’s the Xie Group’s project, they still haven’t finished building it.” Dong Quan answered him.

“It’s all good as long as it isn’t the Liu Group,” Xia Yan nodded, and a cold gleam flashed through his eyes.

Dong Quan could make out the difference in his tone, so he was smart enough to not ask about it, but made a mental note of it. He planned to find out what grudges existed between Master Xia and Grandwest Panorama.

Soon after, the vehicle entered Hearthcreek Apartments, and the two of them got down. They looked for Block 13 and pressed the intercom button for Room 1313. The door then opened with a click, followed by a woman’s voice from the intercom, “Come up!”

“This isn’t a badger game, right?” Dong Quan felt a little nervous, but he immediately regained his courage after realizing how foolish it was to get scared of an extortion scheme like the badger game.

After they arrived in front of Room 1313, Xia Yan didn’t press the doorbell immediately. He could really feel traces of the undead element through the tightly shut door, so it seemed like the place was truly haunted.

“Is anything the matter, Master Xia?” Dong Quan felt a bit queasy.

“It’s nothing,” Xia Yan pressed the doorbell.

“You’re here,” the door opened, and a girl with huge eyes dressed in a short-sleeved top and Capri pants appeared before them. Both Xia Yan’s and Dong Quan’s eyes lit up after seeing her as she was quite pretty. Even though she wore no makeup, she could be graded at least eight points.

“Come in,” The girl then placed indoor footwear for them at the doorway. Xia Yan and Dong Quan entered inside after changing into those and discovered a slender girl with damp hair resting over her shoulders sitting on the living room’s sofa.

[Another eight-pointer!] Xia Yan graded her and felt what a pity it was that this girl wasn’t curvy enough, or else he would have graded her an eight-point five.

“Have a look at the place first,” The girl with huge eyes worked efficiently and directly jumped into the topic, unwilling to waste even a single moment.

“I’m Xia…” Xia Yan was planning to introduce himself first, but the girl interrupted him, “Hold on! It’s not too late to introduce yourself after signing the contract!”

“All right,” Xia Yan nodded and checked the room out. The suite’s décor was done really well, and it had used bright decorations all over the place. The furniture was also pretty stylish, and all the necessary electrical appliances were available. There was also a small bar counter, and the suite looked almost the same as a shared apartment suite from a certain T.V. drama.

“The vacant room is the master bedroom. You can go ahead and take a look,” The girl with huge eyes checked out Xia Yan and felt rather curious. The boy had worn cheap clothes while the man beside him was dressed in branded clothes. She felt that it was weird for such a strange combination to have come looking to rent the place.

The master bedroom was quite big, and over twenty square meters in size. It had a bed, which was 1.8 meters long, and also had a wardrobe, laptop table, cabinet, chair, A.C, and all that was required. There was also a 2-3 square meters balcony attached to the bedroom. Furthermore, the bedroom had an attached bathroom too, which made things very convenient.

Seven hundred was really too low a price for such a room.

Xia Yan glanced over the furnishings of the room and focused his attention on the mirror. It was a dressing mirror fixed onto the wall near the doorway and was as tall as a person. It looked normal, but Xia Yan could sense a dense concentration of undead elements inside this mirror.

[Looks like this is the haunted object.] Xia Yan nodded and returned to the living room. The girl with huge eyes asked him immediately, “How is it?”

“The room is not bad, I’ll rent it!” Xia Yan stated.

“Please take a seat!” The girl said politely while feeling overjoyed.

Only when Xia Yan had decided to rent the place did she show such politeness, but such was the reality of things. Xia Yan and Dong Quan sat down on the sofa, and in the meantime, the girl had already brought over the contract paper and placed it on top of the tea table.

“I’m Zhang Shufen, she is Le Wenqing. We are both students of Sihe University!” The girl introduced herself and the other girl.

Dong Quan and Xia Yan almost laughed out loud. Xia Yan asked her as he wanted to make sure, “You are really called Zhang Shufen?”

“Yes, it’s such an old-fashioned name, right?” The girl covered her forehead bitterly, “I’ve wished to change this name ever since I was three years old, but I haven’t been able to succeed. This is my heart’s eternal regret!”

“Who gave you this name?” Even Xia Yan felt that this name was no good. The girl obviously looked modern on the outside, but she had such an old-fashioned name that belonged to rural women from the sixties. The change in style was so quick that it left a sense of incongruity in others.

“Who else other than my grandfather!” Zhang Shufen gritted her teeth in rage, “That stubborn old man still wears traditional robes and refuses to ride a bus wherever he goes. He doesn’t even use light bulbs at home and just uses oil lamps. Oh, woe is me!”

“Your grandfather is really antiquated!” Xia Yan was forced to say this. Although Zhang Shufen’s grandfather resembled his master a bit, he was even more antiquated than his master. At least, Xia Yan’s master would take the bus if he planned to go somewhere and wouldn’t just use an oil lamp at night. Xia Yan found it hard to believe a person like Zhang Shufen’s grandfather existed in this era.

“Just talking about it makes my heart hurt!” Zhang Shufen appeared to have taken some damage because of Xia Yan’s words. She then said, “You can just call me Fenfen or Lil’ Fen in the future, or you can also call me Beauty Zhang, but please don’t call me by my full name. Or else, I’ll fall out with you, got it?”

“I definitely won’t rub salt on your wound!” Xia Yan stated solemnly.

“Thanks for understanding! All right. Let’s talk about the contract then. You are a student, right? Can you show me your student I.D.?” Zhang Shufen asked him.

“Here,” Xia Yan handed over his student I.D. and personal I.D. to her.

“Xia Yan, History Department, First Year… You really are something. Don’t you freshmen have military training, so how come you have come out to rent a room?” Zhang Shufen inquired.

“I do, that’s why I will come over to live here after the military training ends. Also, I won’t live here every day and will only come over occasionally,” Xia Yan answered.

“Even if you live here just occasionally, the electricity, water, gas, and internet fee will be split equally!” Zhang Shufen stated.

“That’s fine,” Xia Yan obviously didn’t mind that.

“Also, you aren’t allowed to have a guest of the opposite gender stay overnight…” She then looked at Xia Yan and Dong Quan for a moment before saying, “But you are allowed to have a guest of the same gender stay overnight. I always like reading such s!”

I can just imagine her putting up a cup to the door just to hear the sounds of love. :/ Okay. My imagination is a little too wild at the moment. Excuse me as I use some tidepods. (joke btw.)