Volume 2: Entering the Ghost Feast Verse 74: The House of Lan
"It's rare that I thought the moth was a ghast in the furniture city, and I wanted to take it all together, but I didn't expect it to be not, so I wasted some time, and in the end I had to run again, forget it, just eat a few more bites for lunch." Zhang Su was talking to himself as he walked towards the location prompted by the moth ghast.
The hint of the moth ghast must not be believed or fully believed, there is no lack of possibility that the moth ghast sacrifices itself to set up a trap, Zhang Su does not want to make trouble about the ghost banquet trap by mistake, so he must be vigilant at any time, spread the soul power to his body, and perceive the surrounding soul power within the limit, in addition, Zhang Su also uses the stele soul extension from time to time to explore the clues, and finally determines that the moth ghast said by the sloping foot tiger should be located in the east area of the third floor of the furniture city, and it should be the Lan family that the moth ghast said.
Sanliang Furniture Market, a sloping tiger looks like a ghast, a high-level ghast level, and the person who posted the reward was the manager of the headquarters of the Lanjia chain company, and the information provided was two ghost incidents that had occurred in the store, once a young female customer saw a pointed figure with chapped skin and no beads in the mirror when trying on the dresser mirror; Another time was a middle-aged female customer when opening a mid-range wardrobe, the wardrobe seemed to rush out of a wave of air, directly pushed the middle-aged female customer from the front of the wardrobe to the ground, fortunately the staff next to him even if he held the wardrobe that was almost brought down together, so there were no casualties, after that, rumors about the furniture of the Lan House to attract ghosts spread in the crowd, resulting in the Lan House in the entire Qi City business conditions are very bad, the general manager of the Lan House personally rushed to Qi City, After calling up the incident monitoring twice, I felt that things were not so simple, so I found the Soul Hunter Company with some connections and asked the Soul Hunting Company for assistance.
Sanliang furniture market has been in Qicheng for some years, a lot of local media advertisements and car advertisements have about the promotion of Sanliang furniture market, which is a relatively well-known furniture market and decoration building materials market gathering place in Qicheng.
Sanliang Furniture City is located in a corner of Sanliang Furniture Market, outside the furniture city are some small faΓ§ade houses, most of them are small shops engaged in home decoration, there are wood processing shops, door and window processing shops, hardware and building materials stores, etc., there are also water heaters, toilets, bathtubs, mahogany furniture commonly used items at home, all kinds of family needs are available, crowded, crowded, there are customers who come to buy things, there are workers who load and unload, there are shrewd and good bosses, it can be regarded as a more lively place in Qicheng.
Sanliang Furniture City is more worthy of its name, most of the shops selling furniture, each shop probably occupies a thirty or forty square compartment, the larger ones also have forty or fifty square meters, which are placed with their own furniture, the first floor sells more children's learning tables and chairs, most of the second floor are selling sofa bedding, and the third floor is a storage cabinet and the like, which can allow customers to find their own needs very well in terms of classification.
Lan House on the third floor, Zhang Su stepped on a very dilapidated electric escalator, in the process of the elevator slowly moving, Zhang Su's body continued to rise with the elevator, after a transfer to the elevator in the middle, Zhang Su soon came to the third floor, got off the elevator, Zhang Su walked directly towards the East District sales circle.
Walking and walking, Zhang Su saw that there are many famous furniture brands on the third floor, ranging from low-end to high-end, but in comparison, the furniture store in the middle block is still the most, and the customers in the furniture store are also endless, Zhang Su wants to come, the mid-range furniture is one in the price can make many people affordable, followed by the quality is more secure than the low price, and there is the problem of booth rent, the profit of the low price is low, and the high price is not gone, so the whole floor is basically these common mid-range brands, The competition is also fierce.
New products every season, discount sales, set discounts, bundled low prices, such words are not uncommon in the whole furniture city, businesses want to stand out in the competition, in addition to having a fixed product is not finished, in almost the same positioning of the product competition, how to obtain the maximum marketing benefits is the sales ability of the business, so the managers or agents in charge of each region have used their own marketing methods, in order to attract an endless stream of onlookers.
The exquisite shape of the new product, the gimmick of discounts can always attract a lot of customers, almost every shop has used its own housekeeping skills, these skills have indeed received a good effect, the entire third floor has attracted a lot of tourists, most of the shops have also appeared in the prosperity of the city, when you hear the boss shouting people to load the car, you know which store has flowing water again, a prosperous scene.
In stark contrast to this is the Lan House Furniture Store, when the entire third floor is lively, only the Lan House Furniture Store is deserted, there is not a single customer, occasionally a few customers look at the outside of the Lan House store, and they will be pulled away by their peers, some people say that the Lan House has a quality problem, so there will be rumored ghosts, some people say that the wood used in the Lan House is planted in the cemetery, so it is contaminated with the bad luck of ghosts, and some people say that the owner of the Lan House must have done something lacking in morality, So there are ghosts to retaliate, no matter what kind of statement is constantly spreading, fermenting, and in the end, it undoubtedly has caused a great impact on the normal operation of the Lan family, and the cold reality is the best proof.
Because the Lan House does not have a constant stream of people like other shops, Zhang Su saw the signboard of the Lan House at a glance, walked into the Lan House store in a few steps, looked around, and shouted: "Is there anyone?" β
As soon as Zhang Su's words fell, a middle-aged woman in her thirties and forties raised her head from a low cabinet, looked at Zhang Su with sleepy eyes, and when she reacted that someone had entered their store, she quickly wiped her confused eyes, lifted her spirits and asked, "Welcome, welcome, what do you want to buy?" β
"I'm not here to buy something, your general manager has entrusted me to investigate the two special incidents here, and I'm here to work." Zhang Su explained.
"General Manager? Special events? Oh, please take a look, do you want me to report back to the general manager. The middle-aged woman thought for a moment, then replied.
"Yes, please point out to me the dresser and wardrobe where the accident occurred first, I can investigate, by the way, when you reported to the general manager, you said that the company sent it, he should know." Zhang said.
The middle-aged woman nodded, listlessly pointed out the dresser and wardrobe that had happened to Zhang Su, then took out her mobile phone and walked to a corner of the store, not knowing who she was calling.
Zhang Su first walked to the dresser closer to him, the dresser is not big, the whole is milky white, smooth and translucent, the bottom is two cabinets, the kitchen is neatly arranged with four drawers, the space layout of the four drawers and the double kitchen is very regular and atmospheric, the top of the drawer is the dressing table, and then up is a circle of back plates, the oval large mirror is inlaid in the middle of the back plate, the mirror is vertical, and the figure that comes out is very thin, Zhang Su guessed, if it weren't for the existence of the ghost in the mirror, This dresser should be favored by many girls and children.
Zhang Su gently probed with his hand on the dresser where the accident occurred, and the stele soul was used to collect clues about the bounty ghost, and sure enough, Zhang Su sensed a lot of soul power residue from the dresser, which obviously proved that the ghost incident that happened here was indeed a ghost at work.
After that, Zhang Su paced to the wardrobe that almost toppled over and smashed people, the wardrobe is dark white, solid wood particle sheets, horizontal striped shutter doors, two door pages can be pushed and pulled each other, the sliding door is inlaid with two cup-sized light brown round handles, the beautiful appearance is also very practical, in general, its material and shape are good in the mid-range market, and the price of a little more than a thousand is not very expensive, and the cost performance is also very cost-effective.
Zhang Su put his hand on the wardrobe, wrapped the entire wardrobe with soul power, and used the stele soul extension again, from the wardrobe, Zhang Su found out more information about the ghost, the soul power residue shows that it is indeed a high-level ghast, and its soul power is not bad, especially in a short period of soul power explosion, with the soul power of a high-level ghast, it can create a yin wind and manifest a shadow in a short time, this kind of soul power explosive power is not comparable to the general high-level ghast, this ghast may be able to break through to the realm of the primary ghost in an instant, It must not be taken lightly.
Just when Zhang Su was judging and analyzing, the middle-aged woman also finished the call, walked over to Zhang Su again, and said in her mouth: "My surname is Ning, I see that you are not very old, you can just call me Sister Ning, I have already conveyed what you just said to the boss, the boss said that there is such a thing, and said that I should cooperate with your investigation." β
"I don't need to cooperate much, I'm probably almost investigating, I just want to know the specific situation when the situation happened, and secondly, can you tell me the information about these shops around me that sell furniture like you, including whether there are similar special incidents in their houses, and the sales situation of their respective families, etc., I can make a comprehensive judgment." Zhang said.
"Little brother, do you suspect that someone from their family is secretly doing evil? I think it's unlikely, when the two incidents happened, there were no staff in our store, and the relationship between our several stores that sell the same furniture is very good, and when there is a shortage of manpower, they also help each other to transport furniture, although it is a peer, but the competition generally depends on the quality and style of the furniture, and it should not make each other stumble to do those things. Sister Ning said.
"I didn't say that someone made it bad, I just want to know something, Sister Ning, you just say what you know, how many count." Zhang Su responded with a wry smile.
Sister Ning thought about it and decided to start with the first dresser ghost incident, saying that there were more customers in the store when the incident occurred, and the sales and service staff at that time had only one young female shopping guide besides her, and the staff was a little busy, so many customers chose by themselves first, and then came to inquire after being optimistic, and at that time, a couple of young couples entered the store to choose furniture, and the woman took a fancy to the white dresser that was still new at the time, and the man also thought it was good, so he asked his girlfriend to try it first, and bought it if it was suitable.
The woman followed the man's advice, carefully checked all the up and down the dresser, and went to Sister Ning to place an order after confirming that it was correct, just when the man went to find Sister Ning to place an order, suddenly the woman's scream came from the dresser, the woman was sitting on a small chair that was temporarily mixed and matched for the dresser, but when the man looked back at the woman again, the woman had already fallen to the ground from the small chair, covering her little face and crying, sobbing and shouting on the ground.
The man and Sister Ning ran over together, Sister Ning gently helped the girl up, and asked the girl what happened, the girl stared at her frightened eyes and muttered, "There is a ghost in the mirror." β
Sister Ning didn't believe it at first, but the girl was studying art, and her memory of the image was particularly strong, so she took a pencil and drew the image of the ghost she saw on a furniture leaflet, the ghost was a pointed head and round brain, only the outline of the eyes had no eyes, the ears were like lynxes, the ears were straight up, the skin on the face seemed to be wrinkled and cracked, like a cracked wall skin, which made people feel like they were about to fall, although the ghost disappeared in a flash and no one else saw it, but because the girl drew too much, Sister Ning had to believe it.
Although the vanity ghost incident caused a commotion, it was not enough to make a shop unable to open, more people thought that the girl was hallucinating, and no one could prove the authenticity of the girl seeing the ghost, so the matter was over.
The first thing happened just a week, and the second special event happened again, when a middle-aged woman with wavy hair came to buy a wardrobe with a friend, after a friend picked a porcelain yellow wardrobe, the wavy woman took a fancy to the dark white wardrobe in front of Zhang Su, and reached out to open the sliding door of the wardrobe to check the layout of the space inside, but the accident happened unintentionally, as soon as the wavy woman opened the left door of the wardrobe, suddenly a shock wind pressure rushed out of the wardrobe, Directly knocked the wavy woman who opened the door to the ground, and the wardrobe, which was originally standing upright, almost fell forward, but fortunately, Sister Ning and the wavy woman's friend quickly helped the wardrobe steady, which led to the tragedy not expanding.
The wavy woman who got up from the ground was frightened, shouting and seeing a ghost rushing out of the closet, although others said they didn't see it, but the woman insisted that there was a ghost, because there were more customers present at the time, coupled with the proud voice of the middle-aged woman, since then, the haunted incident of the Lan family furniture store has been spreading, no one knows the authenticity, but many people have linked this incident with the previous dresser ghost incident, Since then, the Lan family has been burdened with all kinds of suspicions, one to ten, ten to hundred, and the people who came to see the furniture have not passed by the Lan house and walked around the road, for fear of being contaminated.
"Sister Ning, what you said is what happened in the Lan family, so have similar things happened in other shops near you?" Zhang Su asked.
"Probably not, just look at the business of their shops." Sister Ning thought for a while and replied.
"How was the sales of the Arashi House before the accident?" Zhang asked puzzled.
"It's quite popular, Lanjia is a good brand, the new products are updated quickly, the price is not high, the store has been in a state of insufficient manpower before the accident, and there have been several cases of selling out." Sister Ning recalled.
"How's the business in the Star Wood Forest at the other door?" Zhang Su pointed to a furniture store called "Xingchen Wood Forest" diagonally opposite Lan's house and asked.
"Oh, the third sister-in-law you said about their family, her family's business is also good, it turns out that our two families have the best business, because their family's name is not as loud as the Lan family, so the business is slightly worse than the Lan family, but now that the Lan family has encountered that kind of incident, her family's Star Wood Forest has become the first choice of customers." Sister Ning said.
"I see, are you very familiar with that third sister-in-law Wang?" Zhang Su asked.
"It's okay, when there is no business in the off-season, I often get together to eat a boxed lunch and chat, she is in her forties this year, her wife passed away due to illness half a year ago, leaving her and a son who has not bought a house and got married, and the family is not financially rich, relying on the support of a furniture brand, hey, they all eat hard food." Sister Ning glanced at the second sister-in-law Wang who was busy in the Xingchen Wood Forest store, and sighed.
"Well, I know, you're busy with you, I'm going to analyze all kinds of clues, and then I'll give you a reply to the general manager." Zhang said.
"It's funny, there's no one in the store, what's there to be busy with, you sit down and analyze, I'll go to the back and boil some water and pour you a cup of tea." Sister Ning said to Zhang with a smile.
Zhang Su nodded, and immediately stood still on the small white chair in front of the dresser like a thinker, and closed his eyes, as if thinking about something.
Sister Ning looked at Zhang Su in confusion, but she didn't ask too much, quietly turned around and left, walked to a small cubicle, filled half a pot of water with an electric kettle and boiled it, and then found two disposable paper cups stacked together, put some tea leaves in them, and waited for the water in the kettle to boil and make tea.
About ten minutes later, Sister Ning handed a cup of freshly brewed tea from the compartment to Zhang Su, placed it in front of the dresser, and vaguely saw Zhang Su's figure reflected in the mirror of the dresser, and around Zhang Su, there was a faint blue phantom of the same outline looming, it was difficult for ordinary people to distinguish what the phantom was, Sister Ning just regarded the phantom as the light reflection of a blue tube lamp in the store, and didn't think much about it.
"Little brother, let's have tea." Sister Ning called out to Zhang Su.
Zhang Su did not react in the slightest.
"Little brother?" Seeing that Zhang Su was motionless and did not react, Sister Ning called again.
Zhang Su still did not stand still like a sculpture.
"Little brother, are you alright?" Seeing that Zhang Su still didn't react, Sister Ning began to panic in her heart, with a hint of anxiety in her tone.
Zhang Su still lowered his head and closed his eyes to face the bright white lacquered countertop in front of the dresser, and did not respond at all.
Sister Ning was afraid that something would happen to the young man in front of her, and subconsciously wanted to shake Zhang Su's body with her hands in order to wake Zhang Su from his trance.
Just when Sister Ning's hands were about to touch Zhang Su's body, Zhang Su's body suddenly shook, slowly came back to her senses, looked at the cup of tea in front of her, and then looked at Sister Ning standing beside her, seemed to know what was happening, and replied simply: "Thinking about things and losing my soul, it's okay, I probably understand the reason for the matter, and it has been resolved, but whether there is business in the future depends on your own, and I can't control the quality of the business." β
"Solved? Little brother, are you a detective? Sister Ning asked in disbelief.
"Well, sort of, you can understand that what happened in the store was just a simple accident, because accidents are more frequent, which eventually led to rumors." Zhang Su replied.
Sister Ning looked at Zhang Su in disbelief, but she didn't know how to answer.
Zhang Su secretly took out the Dark Stone Cup, and with a slight wave of his hand, the sloping tiger-like ghast that Wang's second sister-in-law's husband turned into was put into the Dark Stone Cup by Zhang Su in the blink of an eye.