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

I was woken up by birds chirping outside my window at six in the morning. My headache was a little better than yesterday, but it was still there.

He sat up, rubbing his temples, and glanced at the corner of the room. The figure in the Republic of China-era long gown was still there, looking up at the ceiling, motionless.

He got out of bed and walked to the window.

A new figure appeared under the locust tree in the courtyard: a woman in theatrical costume, her flowing sleeves trailing on the ground, silently singing something. Her movements were slow; every time she raised a hand or turned around, she seemed somewhat stagnant.

Chen Mo watched for a while, then turned and went downstairs.

The earthen stove in the kitchen still had ashes from yesterday. He lit it again to boil water and cooked a packet of instant noodles—one of the last two packets he brought back from the rented room yesterday.

While eating his noodles, he opened the Book of Obsessions and read Su Wanqing's information again.

Su Wanqing.

He vaguely remembered the name. It was a female celebrity who frequently appeared on TV when he was in high school about ten years ago. She was quite popular for both singing and acting. Then, she seemed to suddenly disappear from the public eye. At the time, entertainment news said she went abroad to study, but now it seems that it wasn't that simple.

He passed away in 2016.

It's been ten years.

After finishing his noodles, he cleared away the dishes and returned to the main room.

Besides the "Obsession Record," there's something else on the Eight Immortals Table—a CD.

Chen Mo picked it up and looked at it. The CD cover featured Su Wanqing's face. She looked very young, probably in her early twenties, smiling at the camera with incredibly bright eyes. The album was called "Clear Sky" and was released in 2013.

There was a note under the CD, with neat handwriting:

"Mr. Chen Mo, this is a master copy of my last album. I hope it helps you understand me. ~ Su Wanqing"

Chen Mo stared at the note for a few seconds. So the tenants of the old house could not only give him tasks, but also deliver things directly to him?

He picked up the CD and went upstairs.

There was an old-fashioned CD player in the corner of the desk, still plugged in. He put a CD in and pressed play.

The music started, the prelude was a clean piano, and then Su Wanqing's voice came in, clear, with a slight huskiness:

They say there's a rainbow when the sky clears.

But I waited until the sky cleared, only to find nothing.

The stage lights were too bright.

It was so bright that I couldn't see my own shadow...

Chen Mo sat in the chair listening. The song was very nice, but he wasn't there to appreciate the music.

He focused his attention and tried to see the CD with his spiritual vision. A faint halo floated on the CD, and the colors were very complex, with gold, blue and gray mixed together. The gold was the stage lights, the blue was melancholy, and the gray was despair.

After listening to the first song, the second one began. This time it was an upbeat song with a strong rhythm, but Su Wanqing's voice had a deliberately feigned joy in it.

Chen Mo turned off the CD player; he needed more direct information.

He picked up the CD and gently touched Su Wanqing's face on the cover with his fingertips.

Touching the memory activates it, and a flash of white light appears before your eyes.

The first scene is in the dressing room. Su Wanqing is sitting in front of the mirror, and the makeup artist is touching up her makeup. She is wearing a gorgeous dress and a diamond necklace, but her eyes are empty. The face in the mirror is beautiful, but also very fragile.

There was a knock on the door, and a man's voice answered:

"Wanqing, Mr. Li is here. He wants to talk to you about the next film."

Su Wanqing stiffened for a moment, then forced a smile at herself in the mirror.

"Coming right away."

The makeup artist whispered:

"Sister Wanqing, why don't you just say you're not feeling well..."

"fine."

Su Wanqing stood up and straightened her skirt.

"I'm used to it."

The scene shifts to a hotel room. Su Wanqing is huddled in the corner of the sofa, her hair disheveled and her makeup ruined. She holds a phone in her hand, and the screen displays a series of comments:

"What a pretentious act, what are you pretending for?"

"He must have gone up there to sleep."

"What kind of rubbish is that? Get out of the entertainment industry!"

"Go to hell!"

Her fingers trembled as she swiped down the screen, faster and faster, tears falling onto the screen. She wanted to turn off the phone, but her fingers wouldn't obey her commands, continuing to swipe and watch.

Someone knocked on the door again; it was the same man's voice.

"Wanqing, open the door. Mr. Li said that as long as you apologize, everything will be fine."

Su Wanqing covered her ears and shook her head.

The scene then shifts to the rooftop.

It was night, and the wind was strong. Su Wanqing stood on the edge of the rooftop, wearing a white nightgown and barefoot. She looked down at the city lights below, her expression eerily calm.

Her phone vibrated in her hand. She glanced at it; it was a text message from her agent.

"Wanqing, I'm begging you, just issue a statement saying those are all rumors. As long as you apologize, the company can still protect you."

She laughed, tears streaming down her face, and then she spoke softly into her phone, but Chen Mo heard her clearly.

"I did nothing wrong, why should I apologize?"

After saying that, she threw her phone downstairs. The phone tumbled a few times in the air before disappearing into the night.

She took a step forward.

The scene abruptly ended.

Chen Mo abruptly pulled his hand back, a sharp pain shooting through his chest. Every breath was accompanied by pain, and a sense of despair and resentment that didn't belong to him seeped into his bones through his fingertips, making his chest feel suffocated.

He leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and gasped for breath.

When I opened my eyes again, the sunlight was already streaming in through the window, casting a patch of light on the desk. The time displayed on the CD player was 9:17 a.m.

Chen Mo stood up and paced back and forth in the room. He needed more information: who was this CEO Li, what exactly was the scandal from back then, and why Su Wanqing would rather die than apologize?

He went downstairs to the courtyard, but the spirit of the land was gone. The shadow of the woman in theatrical costume under the locust tree was still singing, her water sleeves dancing silently.

Chen Mo took out his phone and searched for Su Wanqing's scandal in 2016.

The search results were plentiful, but most were nostalgic posts from fans or recycled content from marketing accounts. After flipping through more than ten pages, he finally found a news report from back then, from an entertainment website that has since been shut down:

Rising star Su Wanqing is embroiled in a scandal involving unspoken rules and is suspected of being blacklisted for refusing a request from higher-ups.

The article was published on March 12, 2016. The content was written in a very cryptic way, but the meaning was clear: Su Wanqing refused a special request from a senior executive of the company, and was subsequently exposed for various scandals, such as being arrogant, lip-syncing, and bullying staff.

The article did not mention a specific name, only referring to him as "General Manager Li".

Chen Mo scrolled down the comments, and the comments from back then were still there:

I've disliked her for a long time; she's just pretending to be innocent.

"There's no such thing as a clean entertainment industry; if you're trying to create a virtuous image, who can you blame?"

"What a pity, the song is quite good."

"Serves him right for dying."

The last comment made Chen Mo frown. He clicked on the poster's profile picture; it was a blank account that had only posted this one comment.

He continued searching for Li Zongsu Wanqing's company. This time, he found more information. Su Wanqing had signed with Xingyao Media, whose boss was Li Yaohua, who was over fifty years old and had been in the entertainment industry for thirty years. He had a wide network of connections.

Star Media still exists today, and it's even bigger than it was back then. Last year, Li Yaohua even graced the cover of a financial magazine with the headline "From Agent to Helmsman of an Entertainment Empire."

Chen Mo stared at the photo on the magazine cover. Li Yaohua had a round face and a smiling face. He looked like a kind middle-aged businessman, but his eyes... Chen Mo zoomed in on the photo and saw that there was no warmth in his eyes.

He put his phone back in his pocket, returned to the main room, and found the "Obsession Record" still lying open on the table. Below Su Wanqing's page, there was another line of text:

Additional clue: Among Su Wanqing's belongings was a diary, hidden at the bottom of the third wooden box on the east side of the attic of the old house. The diary may contain key evidence.

attic?

Chen Mo looked up at the ceiling. The old house was two stories high, but it seemed there was indeed an attic entrance. At the end of the corridor on the second floor, there was a door panel with a pull rope.

He turned and went upstairs, found the door at the end of the corridor, reached out and pulled the rope, the door opened, and a wooden ladder slid down.

He climbed up.

The attic was low, requiring one to stoop to walk through. It was filled with boxes, all covered in a thick layer of dust. Light filtered through a few roof tiles, illuminating the dust floating in the air.

He found the third wooden box on the east side. The box was unlocked. He opened the lid and found some old clothes, old books, and some miscellaneous small items inside.

He reached into the bottom of the box and rummaged around until his fingertips touched a hard-covered notebook. He took it out; it was a dark blue notebook with a sticker on the cover. The sticker had faded, but you could still make out that it was a star pattern.

Chen Mo dusted himself off, took his diary, and went downstairs.

Back in his room, he opened his diary.

The first page reads: "2012, sunny. I signed a contract today. My agent said he's going to make me a star. My mom is very happy, saying I've finally made it. But I'm a little scared, I don't know why."

The handwriting is very neat, like a student's.

He flipped through the pages; the diary entries were fragmented, recording Su Wanqing's life after her debut:

"April 2013: Today I filmed a music video. I was suspended by wires all day, and my back almost broke, but the director said it was very well done and worth it."

"August 2013: My first album was released and sold well. At a fan meeting, a little girl cried and said that my songs saved her. At that moment, I felt that everything was worth it."

"January 2014: Mr. Li treated me to dinner at a very expensive restaurant. He kept pouring me drinks, and I pretended to be drunk. When my agent took me home, he said that Mr. Li thought highly of me and told me to 'be more sensible.' I didn't understand what that meant."

"June 2014: I'm getting more and more tired. I'm running around doing promotions every day and I'm getting less than four hours of sleep. But I don't dare to stop, because if I stop, I'll be forgotten."

"March 2015: Today at the awards ceremony, I won the Best Newcomer Award. Standing on the stage, looking at the lights below, I suddenly felt like crying. I don't know what I'm working so hard for."

"September 2015: Mr. Li contacted me again. This time he said directly that as long as I worked for him for a year, I could choose any resources I wanted. I refused, and he looked very unhappy."

"December 2015: The scandals started, saying I was arrogant and lip-synced. My manager told me not to respond, but fans were leaving, and the comments were full of insults."

"January 2016: I went to the hospital today and was diagnosed with depression. The doctor prescribed medication and said I must rest, but the company won't allow it because they say there's still a tour coming up."

"February 2016: I couldn't take it anymore and wanted to quit, but there were still three years left on the contract, and I couldn't afford the penalty for breach of contract. My mother called and said that our relatives back home had seen me on TV and were very proud. I didn't dare tell her the truth."

"March 5, 2016: Last message. If one day I am gone, I hope someone will know the truth. I did not act like a big shot, I did not lip-sync, I did not bully anyone. I just... did not want to be bullied."

The diary ends here; there are a few more pages after that, but they are all blank.

Chen Mo closed his diary and remained silent for a long time.

He walked to the window and looked out at the alley. The sun was shining brightly, and several old ladies were sitting at the entrance of the alley, basking in the sun and chatting about everyday matters. In the distance, he could hear the shouts of people collecting recyclables.

Chen Mo returned to his desk, took out his phone, and started looking up Xingyao Media's address. The company was in the city center, in a 30-story office building, and the entire floor belonged to them.

He needs to see Li Yaohua, but how?

If you barge in and say you're representing a female ghost who died ten years ago and are demanding an apology, you'll be thrown out by security or sent to a mental hospital.

We need a detailed plan.