Chapter 1: A Stranger in a New Land

“I heard something happened again at the villa in the northern suburbs?”

“Which villa? You mean that haunted house where accidents keep happening? They say the death toll inside isn’t less than double digits!”

“Come on, are you serious? If so many people died at the same place, the newspapers would’ve made a huge fuss about it—how come I’ve never heard of it? Besides, my family lives nearby, and we’ve never received any news about deaths.”

Inside a villa with a quaint exterior in the northern outskirts of Mang City, Chu Ning hunched over his desk, eyes fixed on his computer, awaiting replies from other netizens. He was desperate to know what had really happened in the place he now called home.

When the discussion on the forum suddenly ceased—as if the moderator had locked the thread—Chu Ning sighed in resignation. He was all too familiar with the rumors swirling online about this so-called haunted house, for he was its current owner. Living here himself, he knew better than anyone what the place was truly like.

It was nothing like the stories online. Not only were there no bodies, it was rare to see anyone at all nearby—hardly surprising, given the villa’s proximity to a funeral home.

Chu Ning lay listlessly on his desk, waiting for a reply he knew would not come. This scene was nothing new; every time he mentioned the villa in the northern suburbs, discussion would abruptly halt as if a gag order had been issued.

“As a transmigrator, this is a pretty rough start,” Chu Ning thought.

Yes, he was a transmigrator.

A transmigrator with lost memories—whether from before or after his arrival, all recollections seemed shrouded in mist, flickering in and out of reach.

He almost wished his memory had vanished entirely; then he could have taken over his predecessor’s life without guilt, forgetting all that came before—perhaps not such a bad fate.

But unfortunately, he remembered one thing with clarity: the indisputable fact that he was a transmigrator, along with countless classic scenes from horror stories. Aside from that, only the occasional memory would resurface, triggered by a familiar sight or sound—and even then, he couldn’t tell to whom those hazy recollections truly belonged.

This was a parallel world, similar and yet not the same. Chu Ning knew little about it, having only recently arrived.

His sole window to the outside world was the internet, through which he pieced together what he could. To his surprise, the web was awash with tales of strange and inexplicable events.

It seemed that whenever something could not be explained, people, in their ignorance, attributed it all to ghosts and spirits. The image of the ghost, a fictional construct, was ever-present.

As a man of science, Chu Ning believed that all unknowns could be explained with scientific theory. Fear, he thought, was merely the fruit of ignorance.

The fear of the unknown was rooted in our very genes; to feel it was only natural. But once the truth was revealed, humanity would surely overcome it.

The so-called haunted house incident in the northern suburbs only made Chu Ning more dismissive of ghost stories. Living in the infamous villa himself, he had yet to see anything remotely frightening—there were hardly even people around, let alone deaths on a grand scale.

Rumors—all baseless rumors!

From what he could glean online, the city’s planning bureau had once intended to build a railway here, but for some reason, the plan was dropped. After that, rumors of a haunted house in the northern outskirts spread like wildfire. Chu Ning suspected that developers had deliberately fabricated these stories online to drive down property prices. The villa’s proximity to the funeral home only made it easier to spread fear.

These terrifying rumors had made it all but impossible for Chu Ning to rent out part of his villa. No matter how eloquently he spoke of its virtues, the moment he mentioned the location near the so-called haunted house, all his efforts were wasted.

How was it so hard to live the easy life of a pampered heir?

Chu Ning grumbled inwardly. Even with a two-story vintage villa to his name, the lack of cash flow made life in this unfamiliar city difficult.

If he were to recklessly expose himself to the public eye, even the slightest slip could mean disaster. The unfamiliar culture, the different customs—these were all things he needed to learn.

Besides, his start here had already been remarkably smooth—no need to draw attention. His current goal was to blend seamlessly into this world; only after that would he consider venturing into mainstream society.

After crossing into this world, Chu Ning had carefully drawn up a plan: avoid large crowds, and slowly acquire knowledge from the internet. Renting out part of the villa seemed the ideal way to begin.

He stood up to stretch his weary limbs. Hours spent lurking on forums had left him in a daze. Quietly, he walked to the window on the second floor.

With pale fingers, he gently lifted the edge of the black curtain, his bloodshot eyes scanning the scene outside.

No matter how he looked at it, the view was unsettling. The sun, dim and lifeless, hid behind thick clouds, while a dense fog limited visibility in all directions. Worst of all, the street was eerily silent—no sign of so much as a single person, not even the distant roar of a car engine.

Chu Ning stared at the uncanny scene and couldn’t help but complain, “The smog is terrible. It blocks out the sky—how is anyone supposed to go out in weather like this?”

Cautiously, he let the curtain fall, careful not to let it so much as flutter, as if not wanting the observed to sense the observer’s gaze.

Though there were no buildings in his line of sight, he remained convinced that someone was watching him from the darkness outside—someone whose malice was palpable and undisguised.

That was one more reason he chose to stay inside. Who knew what the world outside was truly like?

Maintaining a constant state of vigilance had left Chu Ning looking tired. He sighed softly, his body relaxing at last as he let himself sink into the red-and-black sofa.

“What an utterly atrocious sense of style,” he muttered.

Chu Ning slumped on the blood-scented sofa, his blank eyes fixed on the dark red ceiling. He pondered the cause of his sudden anxiety and that unnerving feeling of being watched.

The plush hide beneath him helped him relax. With pale, bony fingers, he prodded his chest where his heart was. The icy touch of his fingertips made him abandon the idea of probing further into whether he might have heart disease.

Without cold instruments, it was impossible to say for sure. The prickling sensation on his skin made him imagine someone stabbing needles into his heart.

He suspected his predecessor’s body had more than just a weak heart—there were likely problems with his nerves as well. The Gothic décor pervaded the whole villa, with red and black as the dominant colors. The black floor and red ceiling combined to create a suffocating atmosphere.

“With a house like this, you’d have to be crazy to find a tenant,” he grumbled, feeling less and less confident about his rental plan.

He coughed suddenly, clutching his bloodless lips as his thin body curled in on itself. The fit of coughing brought a wave of nausea that was impossible to suppress.

He parted his lips slightly to breathe more easily, waiting in silence for the sick feeling to subside. The faint sound of his own breathing seemed especially loud in the room. Chu Ning couldn’t help but reflect on his luck—a fortunate yet ill-fated beginning.

He was lucky to have come from a well-off family. The unique furnishings in the room confirmed as much—after all, no sane merchant would produce solid black furniture. Most likely, these were custom pieces, made to fit the villa’s peculiar style.

But he was unlucky in that his body was as fragile as cracked porcelain, liable to shatter at any moment. Chu Ning quietly took stock of his current state: a wealthy background, a frail body, and a love life full of tantalizing mysteries.

He wasn’t naïve enough to think the red stains scattered on the sofa were actually blood, even if there was a faint metallic smell.

What convinced him was the mixture of different fragrances lingering on the sofa. He couldn’t imagine anyone crazy enough to spray various kinds of expensive perfume all over the furniture—that simply defied logic.

The scent was not overpowering; instead, it stirred his appetite. He had to admit, high-end perfumes had their virtues—unlike the harsh, pungent fumes of cheap cosmetics that made one want to flee.

Raising his head, Chu Ning looked straight at the mirrored wall before him. The image of his predecessor grew clearer in his mind: nothing remarkable in terms of looks, nothing at all worth praising. If he had a distinguishing feature, it was his skin—so pale it was almost bloodless, sickly white.

Combined with those bloodshot eyes, the result of too many sleepless nights, it was clear to anyone that this body was not long for this world. Chu Ning gazed levelly at his unfamiliar reflection. The eyes in the mirror stared back just as coldly.

Perhaps “staring at each other” was the better description. Chu Ning noticed that the reflection’s lips curled into a strange smile, and its head slowly tilted to the left.