Chapter 206: She's My Sister
"Quick, close the door." The woman seemed aware that her appearance was somewhat frightening as she hurried into the inner room.
"Okay." Chen Ge didn't lock the door, leaving it a finger-width ajar. He was already thinking about an escape route before even entering the house.
Standing in the living room with his backpack on, Chen Ge looked toward the inner room. The woman sat on the bed, covered with a thin blanket: "The place is a mess, don't mind it. Make yourself at home."
The woman's home wasn't too messy, just cluttered with many medicine bottles. Chen Ge picked one up at random to look at—it was all in English, and he could only recognize a small portion.
"Don't touch my things," the woman said quietly. She looked at Chen Ge, a hint of uncertainty in her gaze: "What's in your backpack? You don't seem like you're here to buy a house."
"The bag may be shabby, but all my belongings are in it." Chen Ge said casually: "Your apartment has a great location, but the price still needs some negotiation."
"That apartment of mine has huge potential for appreciation. If I weren't in urgent need of money now, I wouldn't sell it no matter what." The woman's skin had an unhealthy pallor, giving off a strange feeling.
"May I ask, what illness do you have? Needing to sell a house to raise funds." Chen Ge wasn't here to buy a house at all, starting to fish for information right away.
"Cancer." The woman pointed to her face: "Long-term chemotherapy, lost all my hair and eyebrows."
"I'm sorry." Chen Ge hadn't expected such an answer.
"Right now I just want to live a few more days. It's only at times like this that people realize how good it would be to have just a few more days." The woman was selling her house to prolong her life. At first glance, it seemed reasonable, but thinking about it carefully, something felt off.
"Let's talk about the price."
The woman made significant concessions, offering a price thirty percent lower than similar properties on the market.
"If you agree, I can bring my documents tomorrow to handle the procedures."
"It's not that I'm taking advantage of your situation, but your price is a bit high." Chen Ge had to play the part fully, putting on a conflicted expression.
"This price is still high?"
"I sympathize with your situation, but business is business. Before coming, I asked around—your building was haunted a few years ago, that's why it never sold." Chen Ge patted his backpack: "I'm pretty bold, and I'm really short on cash, so I thought about buying your haunted house."
Knowing she was in the wrong, the woman asked again: "Then how much are you willing to offer?"
"One-tenth of the market price. That's all the money I have."
"One-tenth?!" The woman was so angry she laughed: "And you say you're not taking advantage?"
"After all, that place is haunted. Buying a house is a lifelong decision. If I weren't completely broke, I wouldn't buy a haunted house either." Chen Ge was fully immersed in his role, a flicker of hesitation in his eyes as if he felt sorry for the woman's condition: "How about we both compromise? I know you're selling the house to save your life. I could borrow from friends and relatives, but your price is too high—I really can't afford it."
Perhaps because the house hadn't sold for so long, the woman was also desperate. She was silent for a long time: "One-tenth is too little. My bottom line is half the market price. If you want it, I'll go through a guarantee company tomorrow to handle the procedures. If not, forget it."
"Half..." Chen Ge lowered his head, seeming troubled.
"Don't listen to rumors. Nothing has ever happened in that complex—not even a resident getting hurt. How could it be haunted?" The woman half-reclined on the bed, sensing Chen Ge's hesitation and starting to persuade him.
"Don't fool me. The security guard at your complex told me himself that a few years ago he saw a white figure slip into your apartment, and the police came later. You weren't home that night, so you might not know about it." Chen Ge followed her lead, slowly probing for the information he wanted.
"How could I not know about my own house?" The woman sighed, a hint of struggle in her eyes: "Actually, I've never wanted to bring this up. That white figure wasn't a ghost."
"Not a ghost?" Chen Ge's heart tightened. The whole thing might take an unexpected turn.
"That's right. The white figure was my sister—a mental patient who had just been discharged from the hospital." The woman's expression was pained as she coughed violently a few times: "My sister did something wrong when she was very young. Her illness was discovered back then. From that point on, she was locked up in a mental hospital until she was released four or five years ago."
"Something wrong? Was it serious?" The information about the woman's sister basically matched the patient in Room No. 2. Chen Ge listened more intently.
"Very serious. That incident ruined her life." The woman lamented for her sister: "My sister's case is special. She's a patient who needs isolated treatment—there's a certain level of danger. If the police found out, she might be forcibly taken back and locked up in the hospital again."
"So you hid her in your own home?"
"After more than ten years of treatment, my sister has recovered very well." The woman's tone shifted, as if this were an indisputable point: "How many decades does a person have in one life? She suffered too much in the first half of her life. She deserves to enjoy life a little, to experience the happiness of being human."
Chen Ge felt something was off about the woman's words: "You hid your sister at home, but you didn't expect her to run out and scare the neighbors. So that's the truth behind the haunting back then?"
"Yes. The so-called haunting was all made up in their imaginations."
"Then where did your sister go later? You're seriously ill now—why isn't she here to take care of you?"
"I don't know where she went either. I haven't seen her since that night." The woman seemed helpless: "She's my only family. Sometimes I go to Fanghua Yuan to look around, hoping to wait for her."
"Two lost souls in a harsh world—I understand your pain. If no one buys it, you can keep the house for me. I'll go raise the money tomorrow." Chen Ge spoke with sincerity, but inside he was thinking about temporarily stabilizing the woman. He urgently needed to confirm something else.
"Alright, see you tomorrow." The woman ended the conversation voluntarily, seeming tired as she leaned weakly against the headboard.
"See you tomorrow." Chen Ge picked up his backpack and left.
The moment the apartment door closed, the expressions of both people—inside and outside the room—changed.
Standing in place, Chen Ge typed the few English words he had memorized from the medicine bottle into his phone.
"Just as I suspected. This woman has major issues. Those medicines in her room have nothing to do with cancer treatment—most of them are for promoting wound healing and preventing allergies."
Hailing a cab back to Fanghua Yuan, Chen Ge called Captain Li on the way and told him about Xin Kang Apartments.