We asked you to make tokusatsu films, and you actually became Ultraman?

"Are you Xiao Su's boyfriend?"

Grandma Shanzhong sat in a wicker chair, raised her wrinkled face, looked at Yun Yu in front of her, and showed a surprised expression.

Her eyes were somewhat cloudy, but there was a cunning look in her eyes that was typical of the elderly as she looked Yun Yu up and down.

Yun Yu was already immune to this kind of thing that had been ridiculed more than once.

His expression remained unchanged, and he explained in a calm tone:

"She's a friend of Sister Su Mo."

"Oh, okay, I understand." Grandma Yamaka nodded with a smile.

"Sorry, sorry. I heard Xiao Su say that she liked a boy younger than her, so I assumed it was you."

This is a lie. In fact, Su Mo never said such a thing. Grandma in the mountains simply made up a sentence to test the young man because she thought he looked decent.

But Yunyu clearly lacked the ability to discern whether the old woman in the mountains was lying.

His ears turned slightly red at those words, and his gaze drifted away involuntarily as he raised his hand to scratch his cheek.

Although a little shy, Yun Yu didn't forget the important matter. He cleared his throat and brought the topic back:

"Grandma, are you saying the ghost stories around here are all because of that unfinished building?"

After experiencing that strange incident at the convenience store yesterday, Yunyu has been keeping busy.

He searched for related urban legends online and even asked Su Mo about the source of that rumor.

As a reporter covering social news, Su Mo was well-informed and immediately gave him an address.

This old woman had lived in the old town her whole life. She knew everything about the neighborhood, big and small, and the supernatural and strange stories that were passed down by word of mouth could often be traced back to her.

Su Mo originally said she would come with Yun Yu, but she was a poor office worker who had to finish her manuscript the next day and couldn't get away. In the end, Yun Yu came alone.

"Yes, you said you smelled something burning last night, so it's probably because of that unfinished building."

Seeing that Yunyu was talking about serious matters, Grandma Shanzhong also gave up her intention to matchmake him.

She shook her head, stopped fanning herself, and the smile on her face gradually faded, replaced by a solemn expression.

She picked up her enamel mug, took a sip of strong tea, and began to slowly recount the story of that unfinished building.

"Actually, that place was originally a columbarium."

Grandma Shanzhong's voice lowered, the trees in the yard rustled, and Yunyu felt that the temperature around her seemed to have dropped a few degrees.

"This columbarium is looked after by an old man surnamed Wu, whom everyone calls Uncle Wu. He is a man of few words and very kind. He usually lives in a small side room next to the columbarium."

This columbarium was just like any other columbarium, storing the ashes of deceased relatives from the neighborhood, nothing special.

However, when that old man's daughter was five years old, she died of illness.

Grandma in the mountains sighed:

"It seems to be some kind of acute illness. They were taken to the hospital but couldn't be saved. They just passed away."

Uncle Wu was only in his thirties at the time. His wife had passed away early, and his only daughter was his only relative.

After his daughter passed away, he changed completely. He became even quieter and spent all his time cooped up in the columbarium.

To prevent his daughter from being lonely and to be with her at all times, he placed her ashes in that columbarium, in a place he could see every day.

From then on, every year on the Ghost Festival, he would make a red river lantern, write his daughter's nickname on it, and release it into the river.

Grandma Yama's gaze drifted out of the yard, as if recalling scenes from many years ago.

"I was young then. On the night of the Ghost Festival, I would often see him squatting by the river, holding a red paper lantern in his hand. He would carefully put it into the water and watch it drift away with the current. He would just squat there and watch for a long time."

Sometimes it would talk to the river, but I don't know what it was saying.

He would also light lamps and wipe away the ashes for the unclaimed ashes and nameless memorial tablets in the hall.

Some of those ashes belonged to people without family, some to people whose families had moved away and could not be contacted, and some to unidentified corpses that were picked up from the roadside. They were just left in the hall without anyone paying respects.

Uncle Wu couldn't bear to see it, so every day he would wipe the dust off each of the memorial tablets, and during festivals he would set out food and light oil lamps for them.

He often said that when a person dies, someone has to remember them, otherwise they are truly gone.

This continued day after day for over thirty years.

Grandma Shanzhong's voice carried a hint of emotion as she spoke.

"For more than 30 years, I've been guarding so many ashes and an empty columbarium all by myself, and that's how I've spent most of my life."

Everyone around him said he was foolish, but he never cared, and this continued until a developer arrived.

The old man's tone turned serious.

"The developer wants to use this land to build a shopping mall, saying it's for urban redevelopment."

The land where the columbarium is located has been bought, so the columbarium is going to be demolished.

The ashes inside will be collected by family members if they are present, otherwise they will be moved to a cemetery in the suburbs.

But on the eve of the demolition, the old man died in the hall.

Some say he suffered a sudden heart attack, while others say he was reluctant to leave and simply wore himself out.

Anyway, when the construction team went in the next day, they found him lying next to his daughter's urn, with an unfinished red river lantern beside him.

The lamp stands are all set up, and half of the red paper has been pasted on, but I haven't had time to write names on them yet.

The courtyard was quiet for a while, with only the leaves rustling in the wind.

"After the construction team went in, they found the memorial tablet and the deceased's belongings to be in the way, so they burned them all at once."

Grandma in the mountains lowered her voice, tinged with fear.

"The unclaimed urns, Uncle Wu's belongings, and the unfinished river lanterns were all piled up in the yard and burned by the construction team because they thought it was too much trouble to move them around and also bad luck."

It burned for the entire afternoon, the smoke billowing high, visible from miles away.

On the day of the fire, nearby residents said they heard crying coming from underground.

It wasn't just one person crying; it was the crying of hundreds of people—men, women, old, and young—all mingling together, sobbing and wailing, rising from underground, crying all night long.

From that day onward, paranormal events began to occur frequently at the construction site.

Grandma in the mountains looked at Yun Yu, thought for a moment, and then continued:

"First, the construction workers said that they heard someone crying in their ears when they were on duty at night, but when they turned around, there was nothing there."

Then someone saw lights on at the construction site in the middle of the night. When they went over to take a look, the lights were off, but the ground was full of water, with red paper lanterns floating in the water.

Later, a worker got lost on the construction site. Even though the area was only so big, he walked for three hours and still couldn't find his way out.

"Later, the developer hired a lot of masters to perform rituals, including monks and Taoist priests, but it was no use."

In the end, the workers were too afraid to go, the project came to a standstill, and was delayed again and again until it became an unfinished building.

It's been almost ten years now, and that place is still deserted. Half of the wall has collapsed, and no one dares to go near it.

Especially around the Ghost Festival each year, people in the neighborhood would avoid the area.

After Grandma Shanzhong finished speaking, the courtyard fell silent once again.

Yun Yu stood there, nodding thoughtfully.

Is it a monster formed from the aggregation of resentment?

It seems he'll have to go check out that unfinished building tonight.

Haha, I guess we'll see Ultraman catching ghosts tomorrow. It took a lot of effort to write the story.

Finally, thank you everyone for your support and patience. Love you all, meow Ciallo～(∠・ω＜)⌒☆】