“I don't think so, but I'm not sure." The administrator scratched his head in bewilderment.

"This place is pretty desolate, so we rarely get any tenants. I don't come by here very often, either. I'LL drop by to arrange the cleaning once a month, and I won't come here unless there's business. To be honest, you're the first person who's shown interest in renting this month."

The administrator sounded quite pleased by this, but Ariana's attention was still drawn to the house where the lights had mysteriously turned on.

Without taking her eyes off the Lit house, she asked the administrator, “Do you know anything about the owner of that house?"

“There used to be an elderly couple and their young daughter living there. The couple passed away in an accident, and I think their relatives inherited the property. The little girl was taken away not long after," the administrator explained, continuing to show Ariana around the area.

Seeing that Ariana did not ask further about the house, he moved on.

The remaining Stone Houses the administrator showed her were all quite similar, and since she was only staying for a short while, Ariana didn't think too much about it and picked one not far from the house with the small garden.

After she chose a house, she went inside. Entering the house, she noticed that the living room on the ground floor was well-kept and clean, without a speck of dust in sight.

Ariana was convinced. She didn't think twice and paid the deposit for the rent swiftly.

After the administrator left, satisfied with her purchase, she sat on the sofa in the Living room for a while. Then she decided to rest.

But as soon as she went upstairs, she immediately regretted her decision.

She hadn*t checked any of the upstairs rooms earlier, which consisted of the bedrooms. Now, when she treaded up the creaky stairs and pushed open the door to one of the bedrooms, a musty smell greeted her

Ariana turned on the light switch, and the scene before her was worse than she could have imagined.

An enormous spiderweb clung to a corner of the room, and the moldy smell primarily came from the bed, covered in stained and yellowed bedding and tousled in disarray, as if someone had rummaged through it.

It was apparent the administrator's claim of monthly cleaning was a complete Lie. No wonder he said the neighborhood was desolate and that nobody rented his buildings. He wasn't sincere about the rented properties in the first place.

Ariana tried to convince herself that it was just a fixer-upper. She braced herself to get on the bed and sleep, but the sight of the gross yellowing bedding made her want to run out the door and drive home immediately.

She pulled out her phone and tried calling the administrator to demand an explanation, but he wasn't answering his phone.

Frustrated, Ariana jerked the yellow bedding off the mattress and angrily flung it on the floor. There was no way she could sleep on that. She thought of wrapping herself in her clothes to keep warm through the night, but the damp, musty smell emanating from the room made it difficult to stay in there, let alone sleep. So, she cracked open the window to ventilate the room and stood by it, gazing out and enjoying the view.

The view from the second floor was open and vast, stretching across plains under the clear sky, and the small town's scenery held a unique charm. A small creek trickled peacefully nearby, and the cool breeze had a fresh scent that soothed her irritated mood.

Ariana gazed at the picturesque scenery, and inadvertently, her eyes were once again drawn to the mysterious Stone House by the creek. She wondered which family member had returned to stay there just as she arrived, too. It was quite a coincidence.