A debt-ridden tycoon inherits a luxury mansion, but the tenants are not human.

Chapter 29 The Old House in Danger

There were more than a dozen old camphor wood chests standing against the wall, with labels on them.

Cheongsams of the 1930s, Zhongshan suits of the 1950s, Dacron of the 1970s...

The box in the far corner had no label, but it was the oldest, with peeling paint and a rusty brass lock.

Su Wenjuan took a small key from around her neck and unlocked the brass lock.

The box contained no clothes, but rather some odds and ends: yellowed photos, faded theater tickets, a few thread-bound books, and a half-embroidered purse.

On top was a palm-sized mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer box, with a black background and a peony pattern inlaid with seashells, which was very exquisite.

"This is the box of rouge that my grandmother left behind."

Su Wenjuan took out the lacquer box, but did not immediately hand it to Chen Mo.

"Before she passed away, Grandma instructed that this box of rouge should be given to a specific person, either someone who truly loves and understands opera, or someone who is trapped by that opera."

She looked at Chen Mo and asked, "Which one are you?"

"The second one," Chen Mo said truthfully, "I need it to fulfill an obsession."

"Is it... Liu Fengchun's obsession?"

Chen Mo nodded.

Su Wenjuan remained silent for a long time, her fingers gently stroking the edge of the lacquer box. "Grandma waited seventy years, and finally someone came to collect this box of rouge."

She opened the box, which was divided into two compartments. The larger compartment contained rouge, a deep red color like congealed blood, with fine cracks on the surface, but still a very faint rose scent. The smaller compartment contained a pearl button, which was white and slightly yellowed.

"Grandma made the rouge herself, using a recipe from her hometown in Suzhou, with pearl powder and rose syrup added," Su Wenjuan said softly. "This button... fell off Liu Fengchun's costume. That night, when Grandma rushed onto the stage, she pulled it off his clothes and kept it ever since."

Chen Mo reached out to take it, but Su Wenjuan closed the lid.

"Let me finish," she said, her expression turning serious. "When Grandma left this box of rouge, she said it would recognize its owner. If someone came to take it without sincerity or with ulterior motives, the rouge would turn on them."

"What do you mean?"

"This box of rouge is very special," Su Wenjuan stared into Chen Mo's eyes, "It seals away all of Grandma's longing and guilt towards Liu Fengchun, and also seals away a portion of Liu Fengchun's essence from his last night. If you touch it, it's like touching the obsessions of two people at the same time. If your motives are impure, or if you have something you shouldn't have..."

She didn't finish her sentence, but the meaning was clear.

Chen Mo thought for a moment, then stretched out his right hand, revealing the traces of theatrical makeup on the back of his hand. "Before Liu Fengchun disappeared, he held my hand and left this. He asked me to help him and Su Jingwan reunite their obsessions. I have done that. Now I need this box of rouge to completely complete the record in the Obsession Record."

Su Wenjuan looked at the mark and her breath hitched slightly. She reopened the lacquer box, picked up a little rouge with a thin silver hairpin, and gently dabbed it on the mark on the back of Chen Mo's hand.

The moment the rouge touched the skin, it didn't melt; instead, it spread along the outline of the mark, covering the entire makeup area in just a few seconds.

Then the color started to change—from deep red to light pink, and finally to an almost transparent pale gold, completely blending into the skin.

The mark on the back of my hand disappeared, or rather, it came back to life.

Chen Mo could feel something slowly flowing under that skin, a warm and gentle sensation.

"It recognizes you."

Su Wenjuan breathed a sigh of relief and handed the entire lacquer box to Chen Mo. "Now it's yours, but remember, this rouge can only be used once—use it where it's meant to be used."

"Where should it be used?"

Su Wenjuan described it very specifically: "On the fifteenth of July, at the old site of Qingyun Theater, at three-quarters past midnight, we smeared rouge on the ground in the center of the old stage, making a circle, and then stood inside the circle and waited."

"What are you waiting for?"

Su Wenjuan shook her head. "Grandma didn't finish speaking. She only said this much before she passed away. But she said... there will be an audience to watch."

Chen Mo put away the lacquer box. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Su Wenjuan said, locking the camphor wood box again. "I just hope that Grandma and Boss Liu's obsession can finally rest in peace. They've waited for far too long."

She saw the two downstairs, and as they reached the door, she suddenly called out to Chen Mo, "Oh, right, there's one more thing."

"Um?"

Su Wenjuan took out a thin, thread-bound booklet from her apron pocket. It was only the size of a palm, and the paper was so brittle and yellow that it would crumble at the slightest touch.

"Grandma's diary, written in her later years, records her investigation into that incident, and mentions some things that you might be interested in."

Chen Mo took the diary. On the cover were two characters written in calligraphy: "Quiet Contemplation".

"My grandmother never believed that Boss Liu died suddenly," Su Wenjuan said in a low voice. "After she got married, she investigated for many years in secret. Although she didn't find out the whole truth, she discovered something strange. Every year on the fifteenth of July, there would be strange phenomena in seven places in the city at the same time. Qingyun Theater was one of them. She recorded the other six places in her diary."

Chen Mo opened the first page of the diary, where delicate, tiny characters read:

"On the seventh day of the seventh month of the forty-seventh year of the Republic of China, at night, at the site of the old waterworks in the north of the city, the sound of a woman crying was heard, but she could not be found. There were water stains on the ground that formed a lotus pattern, with a red dot in the center, like blood."

"On July 15, 1963, the well behind the Land God Temple in the south of the city overflowed with water and floated up a theater ticket dated March 17, 1949, for the premiere of Liu Lang's 'The Peony Pavilion'."

"The 58th year of the Republic of China..."

As you turn the pages, you find seven records, each corresponding to a different location, spanning twenty years. The strange phenomena that occur at each location are related to water, blood, or things associated with Liu Fengchun.

Chen Mo pointed out several locations: the waterworks in the north of the city was the Yuheng position, where Zhao Xiaolian died; the land temple in the south of the city was the Kaiyang position, the anchor point guarded by Zhao Shouyi; there was also the old cotton mill in the east of the city (Tianshu position), and the old site of the crematorium in the west of the city (Tianxuan position)...

The seven anchor points all move simultaneously on the fifteenth of July each year.

"Why did your grandma write all this down?" Chen Mo asked.

"She said she suspected that Boss Liu's death was related to a certain formation."

Su Wenjuan pointed to the last page of the diary, "Look here."

Chen Mo flipped to the last page, which had no text, only a simple diagram drawn with cinnabar – seven dots forming the shape of the Big Dipper, with the location marked next to each dot.

In the center of the seven stars, the outline of a house is drawn, with a single character written next to it: Chen.

Chen Mo's breath hitched.

The center of the Seven Stars, Tianquan position, No. 17 Qingshi Lane, the old residence of the Chen family.

Su Wenjuan's grandmother had already discovered this step decades ago.

"Grandma said that this formation requires seven guardians, each guarding a point," Su Wenjuan continued. "But she couldn't find out who the guardians were. She only knew that one of them was surnamed Chen and lived in an old house in the center of Qixing. She had wanted to visit him, but that old house was always locked and no one lived there."

"Didn't she see my third great-uncle?"

"No," Su Wenjuan shook her head. "Grandma said that the last time she went there was in the early 1970s. She waited at the door all day, but no one came out. However, she heard opera singing inside the house. It was 'The Peony Pavilion.' She thought it was a hallucination, but when she went there again the next day, there was a pearl button on the ground at the door—the one from the rouge box."

Chen Mo gripped the diary tightly.

Third Uncle Chen Banshan knew back then that Su Jingwan was investigating. He left that button—was it an implication? A warning? Or some kind of entrustment?

"Lend me your diary for a few days," Chen Mo said. "I'll return it to you after I've read it."

"No need to return it," Su Wenjuan said softly. "Grandma told me that if someone comes to collect the rouge, give him the diary too. She said... that person will need it."

Chen Mo gave her a deep look, then put the diary away.

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when I left Yunxiangyishang.

The cultural and creative park was filled with more tourists. Young men and women dressed in Hanfu were taking photos, and the laughter and chatter around them made the box of rouge in Chen Mo's hand seem even heavier.

Liu Xiaoyu followed silently until they left the park, at which point she whispered, "Landlord, I felt it on the second floor just now..."

"What do you feel?"

"Besides the rouge, there was something else in that camphor wood box," Liu Xiaoyu said, her face pale. "It was cold and sad. It didn't feel like a ghost; it felt more like the cries of many people were trapped inside."

Chen Mo stopped in his tracks. "Can you tell what it is?"

Liu Xiaoyu shook her head. "It's too blurry, but it's definitely not a ghost. It's more like... fragments of memory, the memories of many people, mixed together and sealed in that box."

Chen Mo recalled Zhou Wenyuan's warning that the rouge would suck blood.

Perhaps that box of rouge, over the past seventy years, has absorbed not only Su Jingwan's longing, but also something from other people who have come close to it.

He suspected that this was not just fulfilling an obsession, but the next step in some kind of ritual.

Just as he was thinking, his phone vibrated.

It's Grandma Wang's number.

Chen Mo answered the phone, but before he could speak, Grandma Wang's hurried voice came through:

"Chen Mo! Where are you? Go back to the old house immediately! The Earth Spirit said the bronze door is shaking, and the seven-star pattern on the door—the Yao Guang position—is completely dark, while the other six positions are glowing red! There's something wrong with the formation!"

Chen Mo gripped his phone tightly. "I'll be right back."

"And there's more!" Grandma Wang's voice grew even more anxious. "Zhao Shouyi just came to see me and said that his granddaughter's soul... is starting to awaken, right here in the Yuheng position. He said it's because the seal on the Yaoguang position has been broken, causing the formation to become unbalanced, and the things in the other anchor points are starting to become unstable!"

"What does he want to do?"

"He wants to seize the throne and use the yin energy of the old house to suppress his granddaughter," Grandma Wang said, catching her breath. "I've managed to keep him calm for now, but he won't last long. You'd better be prepared. Before the fifteenth of July, the tomb keepers... might start fighting amongst themselves."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Mo stood there, the sunlight shining on him, but he felt no warmth in his heart.

The rouge was in hand, but new troubles arose.

The Seven Star Dragon Locking Formation, seven anchor points, seven tomb guardians, and something awakening. And the "Longevity Society" is watching with predatory eyes.

This undead landlord, who came to the profession later in life, was drawn into the center of everything.

The rouge mark on the back of my hand, which had already blended into my skin, suddenly felt slightly hot.

time is limited.