However, the few of them ate this meal quite quickly. After all, with a life-and-death matter at hand, once their stomachs were filled it was time to get to work.

Xiang Ge couldn't just focus on being a good host and neglect the important business. With his company's interests and employee safety at stake, he had to balance both - not neglecting his guests while having them help resolve the employee's sudden death as soon as possible.

Gu Yan and Su Kun rode in Xiang Ge's car, heading straight to Unic Company from the restaurant. Geng Zimo and the other employees' dormitory was located in a courtyard just across the street from the Unic building.

There were a total of six buildings in the front and back, with color schemes and design styles matching Unic's building. There was a security booth and reception room at the entrance. The facilities in the entire small courtyard were no worse than a normal residential community, just on a much smaller scale.

This was in H City's most developed commercial center, K District, where land was worth its weight in gold. Being able to set up a courtyard for employees to live in here without charging housing fees was definitely at the tycoon level.

However, Su Kun heard from Geng Zimo that not all employees in the company were allocated dormitories. Certain conditions had to be met - some based on seniority and rank, some based on education and knowledge/skill background, etc.

As for Geng Zimo, it was thanks to his face...cough, his education and solid professional knowledge and skills.

Actually, his initial interview was far from being as bad as he felt. Although this guy seemed quite unreliable in daily life, when faced with work-related matters, it was as if he became a different person, very serious.

The reason the weird boss and executives notified candidates on the same day to conduct the final interview that very day was to see the adaptability of the job seekers who had already passed two rounds of formal interviews. Having them interviewed with almost no preparation made it easier to see a person's personality traits and ability to handle matters.

It could be said that if the standards for measuring normal interviews were used to measure the performance of the interviewees that day, almost no one would be qualified. But if abnormal interview standards were used, then the vast majority of Geng Zimo's performance was quite satisfactory to the executives.

Moreover, he attended the top one or two universities in H City for both his undergraduate and graduate studies. That school was not only a prestigious one in H City, but also ranked among the top few nationally. With such a solid educational background plus his previous two years of work experience, it was only natural for him to stand out among the interviewees.

Normal people could almost predict the result of him being hired, except for the abnormal-minded Geng Zimo himself.

As for the sexual orientation issue that had been affecting Geng Zimo, let alone it couldn't possibly be marked in his file, the weird boss didn't know about it yet. Even if he really knew, the weird boss wouldn't discriminate against it, he would welcome it. ﹁_﹁

Although it happened to be Saturday, there weren't many people in the employee dormitory.

Firstly, Unic was recently launching a new batch of peripheral products and arranging for a celebrity newly promoted by Huatian to hold autograph sessions at various branches next month, so employees in relevant departments were working overtime on weekends.

Secondly, many of the employees living here were from nearby provinces and cities, and there were even quite a few locals from H City. On weekdays, they stayed in the dormitory for convenience, and on weekends they would go home to rest.

It was precisely because the crowd in this dormitory courtyard wasn't very heavy at this time that Gu Yan, after walking not far, smelled a faint and strange odor.

"Do you smell anything?" Gu Yan paused and frowned.

In the past, when he was in ghost form, he was a pure soul and wasn't sensitive to smells in the normal world. So once he sensed any unusual odor, he could almost immediately determine it was left by something unclean. But now he was in a normal, tangible human-like state, also extremely sensitive to smells in the human world, making it difficult to judge whether the source of some odors was normal or not.

"Smell?" Su Kun raised his face, sniffing around in a circle, taking a few deep breaths, then nodded and said, "The smell of braised pork."

Gu Yan, Xiang Ge: "..."

Geng Zimo wanted to kick him in the butt and tell him not to be brain-dead, but he glanced at the tall Gu Yan and silently endured the urge.

"You guys didn't smell it?!" Su Kun sniffed again.

Geng Zimo twitched the corner of his mouth: "If we stew you, we'll be able to smell it."

Su Kun: "..."

At the same time, not far behind them, in the reception room with the window open, the old man who had just finished lunch and was drinking tea, quietly put away the lunch box on the table, secretly thinking: I clearly covered the lid tightly, didn't smell anything here, does this kid have a dog's nose, so sensitive?!

With Su Kun's interruption, Gu Yan realized: only he alone could smell that unpleasant odor.

This meant that the smell was not interference from other things nearby, nor within the sensory range of normal people. Even the slightly abnormal Su Kun didn't smell it, so it could only be the smell emanating from souls or other supernatural things.

Su Kun and Geng Zimo's minds were abnormal, but that didn't mean Xiang Ge was abnormal along with them. He obviously quickly reacted to the implication of Gu Yan's question and immediately said, "You smelled something strange? From which direction?"

The smell was really vague. Gu Yan frowned and judged for a moment, then took a step towards the southwest.

Seeing this, Xiang Ge's face changed and he said, "Indeed there's something fishy?" He pointed to the building Gu Yan's current step was facing: "That employee, Zhao Tianqi, lives in this building."

"Is it far? That strange smell is very faint, so the distance shouldn't be close." Gu Yan was still a little uncertain, but couldn't say exactly what was strange about it for a while.

Xiang Ge: "Top floor."

Su Kun looked up at the top floor of the building standing more than ten meters away, nodded and said, "It is indeed quite far. So that means Zhao Tianqi's death is indeed related to those supernatural things?"

"Let's go up and take a look. The police already collected evidence yesterday. His room is locked now. I'll call the property management and have them bring the key." Xiang Ge took out his phone to make a call while leading the way to that building. Gu Yan, Su Kun and Geng Zimo followed closely behind.

Gu Yan's brows remained tightly furrowed even as they entered the building.

While waiting for the elevator, Su Kun gently nudged Gu Yan with his elbow and asked, "Why are you frowning? Isn't this the place?"

Gu Yan slowly shook his head. "The closer we get, the stronger the smell. It's much more pungent inside the building than outside. This is definitely the right place."

"Then why do you have that expression?"

"I just feel like something's off..." Gu Yan lowered his voice, making it even deeper. "Forget it, let's go up and take a look first."

The elevator in this building was quite fast, and the four of them soon reached the top floor.

Geng Zimo said to Su Kun, "I told you before, right? There are five rooms on each floor. I live in the easternmost one. The room next to mine is vacant since my colleague left and no one new has moved in yet. The middle room is Zhao Tianqi's, and next to that is his friend who brings him meals. The westernmost room belongs to another colleague."

Just as he was speaking, another elevator dinged and opened. Soon, a plump auntie emerged from the elevator, handed the keys to Xiang Ge, and said, "I'll wait downstairs for a bit. Mr. Xiang, just bring the keys down when you're done."

Xiang Ge nodded while opening the door to Zhao Tianqi's place.

The moment the security door was pulled open, Gu Yan was hit with a cold, decaying odor, tinged with the slight mustiness of clothes that had been stored for too long.

Instinctively, he reached out his long arm and pulled the others behind him. "Don't go in yet," he said in a deep voice.

The smell from inside the room was incredibly strong. So strong that even after scouring many corners of Li City, Gu Yan had rarely encountered a place like this room, where the scent of a vengeful spirit was almost overflowing.

It was so pungent that even Su Kun wrinkled his nose and said, "I can smell it too. Damn! Why is this smell so suffocating?"

After all, he was human, and his sensitivity to the smell of vengeful spirits was far inferior to Gu Yan's. In all this time, the only instance where he could clearly detect a scent was when Gu Yan had leaped out of his coffin, intent on strangling him.

That was because the torment Gu Yan had suffered before his death was too severe, causing the stench of blood and dust on his body to be overpowering. Moreover, Gu Yan himself was much more yin than other ghosts, naturally giving Su Kun a stronger impression—this was the explanation given by the master after he learned about it.

"You can smell it? Is it strong?" Gu Yan asked without turning his head.

"Strong! So strong I'm about to puke!" Su Kun said in a muffled voice, disgusted.

After carefully examining every corner of the room and confirming that there was indeed no complete vengeful spirit present, and that all the odors were remnants left by that spirit, Gu Yan's brows furrowed even more deeply.

If the smell was strong enough for even Su Kun to detect, then according to the master, it meant that the vengeful spirit itself was either more malevolent than Gu Yan, or had spent too many years in some extremely filthy and polluted place, absorbing too many similarly tainted things without being able to filter and adjust like Gu Yan.

Regardless of which of these two guesses was correct, it was worrisome. Because such a vengeful spirit would certainly be tricky to deal with, and based on the current situation, its malice was quite substantial, making it very likely to go around harming innocent lives.

With this realization, Gu Yan suddenly regretted bringing Su Kun along.

This person already had some issues, seemingly with an unstable soul, timid and lacking yang energy. If not for the jade pendant protecting him, he would be the perfect target for possession by all kinds of lonely ghosts and wild spirits.

If it were just ordinary wild ghosts it would be one thing, but this time they had encountered a tough nut to crack...

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Author's note:

My classmate is heading back tomorrow~~ I will resume regular updates starting tomorrow~~~ I apologize for the inconsistent updates these past few days. It's been tough for those of you waiting for updates~┭┮﹏┭┮~

I will pick up the pace after this~╭(╯3╰)╮