My name is Liu Zhiqiang, an ordinary takeaway rider. In this city where the lights never go out, I ride an electric bicycle through the streets and alleys every day, delivering a hot meal to customers. It's not a decent job, but it's free, and the income is not bad. At least that's what I thought until that fateful night.

  "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)

  It was the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is also known as the Mid-Yuan Festival. In the tradition of my hometown, this day is the day when "the door of ghosts opens wide", and ghosts from the netherworld can come back to visit their relatives in the sunny world. When I was a child, my grandmother would always prepare sumptuous offerings on this day, place them on the road in front of the door, light incense and candles, and pay homage to those lonely ghosts who had no descendants to worship.

  "Don't underestimate the wandering spirits of the dispossessed, my child," my grandmother always admonished me, "they are more dangerous than the ancestors who have a home to go to, for they are hungry, angry, and may come to the door at any time."

  Of course, these seem extra superstitious and outdated in a modern big city. I left my hometown seven years ago and have long since stopped believing in them. In the city, the only thing that happens during the Mid-Yuan Festival is that there are more advertisements in the shopping malls for "Ghost Festival Sales".

  At eight o'clock that night, I was waiting to take an order near a shopping mall. The July night was sweltering, and even though the sun had set, there was still a burning scent in the air. My cell phone rang and a new order notification popped up on the screen:

  【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

  The delivery fee is ridiculously high, but the distance is not close. The Rongfeng neighborhood is on the other side of town, and it's at least a forty-minute bike ride. But with a small list tonight, it was worth the run for the price.

  I immediately took the order, picked up the meal from the restaurant and began this long nighttime delivery.

  The city should be bustling at night, but for some reason, there were fewer pedestrians on the road than usual. The electric car drove through the streets, and the neon lights around me became blurred spots of light in my eyes. Without realizing it, I had already left the city center and drove into the old town.

  Rongfeng neighborhood is an old residential area, built in the 1990s, and now it already looks dilapidated. The security booth at the gate of the neighborhood is empty, and the iron gate is half open, as if silently inviting me to enter.

  I navigated against my cell phone and found building 17. It was an old gray high-rise building with water stains all over the walls. Walking into the building, I found the elevator out of service, with a note saying "under repair", dated three months ago.

  I had no choice but to climb the stairs on foot. Along the way, the sensor light in the hallway went on and off, making a hissing sound of electricity. By the time I got to the 5th floor, I was out of breath and the back of my overalls were soaked with sweat.

  Finally, after ten minutes of climbing, I reached the 23rd floor. The corridor on this floor was unusually quiet, and you could almost hear your own heartbeat. The lighting was much dimmer than downstairs, and the light at the end of the corridor flickered as if it would go out at any moment.

  Room 2304 was at the far end of the corridor. As I approached the door, an inexplicable feeling of unease hit me. The door looked old, the paint had flaked off, and there were a few deep scratches on the frame, as if it had been carved by some sharp object. The number "4" on the door number was skewed and looked like it had been twisted artificially.

  I took a deep breath and knocked gently on the door three times, as requested on the docket.

  "Knock, knock, knock."

  The knock on the door echoed loud and clear in the empty hallway.

  No response.

  I waited about thirty seconds and knocked three times again.

  "Knock, knock, knock."

  Still no movement.

  "It's probably out," I muttered to myself, "the note says just leave it at the door."

  I was about to put the takeout on the mat in front of the door when suddenly there was a soft footstep, like the sound of someone walking barefoot on a wooden floor, "pop, pop, pop," slow and regular.

  The voice came closer and closer, finally stopping in front of the door.

  I held my breath, waiting for the moment when the door would be opened. But the door never moved.

  "Hello, your takeout has arrived," I said, raising my volume, "I left it at the door."

  Just as I was bending over to put down my takeout bag, a raspy voice came through the door:

  "Knock three times."

  I froze, unsure if I'd heard right.

  "I have knocked," I replied, "three times, just as you asked."

  There was silence behind the door for a few seconds, and then the voice sounded again, this time more clearly:

  "Not the door. Knock on me three times."

  A chill crawls up my spine.

  "Wh... What?" I stammered.

  Silence fell again behind the door. I stood still, not knowing what to do. Just as I decided to put down my takeout and leave, a voice came from the door again:

  "Do you know what day it is?"

  Midwinter. The answer immediately popped into my head, but I didn't say it out loud.

  "I don't understand what you mean," I tried to remain calm, "I left your takeout at the door, enjoy your meal."

  I quickly put the bag down and turned to leave. Just then, the door behind me made a slight "click", as if someone had unlocked it from the inside.

  Without looking back, I took a step toward the stairway. But for some reason the corridor seemed longer than when I had come, and I took several steps only to feel that the door to room 2304 was still close at hand.

  Finally, I mustered up the courage to look back.

  The door - half open.

  The doorway was so dark that no light could be seen. But I was sure there were eyes watching me from that darkness.

  I turned around and pulled out my legs.

  On my way down the stairs, I heard strange laughter coming from behind me, like it was drifting from far away and like it was right in my ears. Not daring to stop, I rolled and rushed down the stairs, nearly falling several times.

  On the last few floors, the lights had gone completely out. I turned on the flash on my cell phone and fumbled my way down the dimly lit stairwell. When I finally burst out of the neighborhood gate and rejoined the street, I was drenched in sweat.

  I went back to the electric car, my hands shaking so much that I could barely hold the keys. Just then, my cell phone rang with a message alert from the takeout platform:

  【Order completed】 【Customer has confirmed receipt】 【Received a 5-star review

  That's impossible. I didn't even see anyone pick up that takeout.

  I stared at the screen of my phone, not knowing how to react. Then another message popped up:

  [Customer Message: Thank you, next time.]

  Running my finger across the screen, I see the customer's name on the order details page: John Doe.

  stupid (Beijing dialect)

  After that night, I tried to convince myself it was just a prank, or that I was so tired I was hallucinating. But I knew that the voice, the half-open door, the feeling of being watched, couldn't have been a figment of my imagination.

  For the next few days, I tried to stay as busy as possible, taking orders for deliveries and mechanically repeating my daily routine. During the day, I was able to pretend that everything was normal; but as soon as night came, fear crept in. I began to fear entering unfamiliar neighborhoods, climbing stairs, and knocking on doors.

  On the fourth night, I was delivering an order of midnight snacks when a new message popped up on my phone. I clicked on it and broke out in a sweat.

  [Personal message from "Anonymous": Missed your knock.]

  How is this possible? The takeout platform's system doesn't allow customers to contact the rider directly, except through official customer service. But this message just inexplicably appeared in my inbox.

  I immediately contacted the platform's customer service and asked if there was a registered user named "John Doe". The customer service queried and told me that there was no such user name in the system, nor had any user sent me a private message.

  "Are you sure it wasn't another app in your phone that received the message?" Customer Service asked patiently.

  I checked and indeed only the takeaway platform's app showed this unread message. But when I opened my inbox again, that message had disappeared without a trace, as if it had never existed.

  I immediately deleted that app and re-downloaded and installed it. But when I logged in, that message reappeared in my inbox and turned up:

  [Private message from "Anonymous": Why don't you answer me?]

  My hands began to shake. This couldn't be a coincidence or a technical glitch, something must be on me.

  That night I finished work early and went back to the little one-room apartment I was renting. It was a cheap rental in the basement, damp and dark, but the rent was cheap. I unlocked the door and shoved a chair behind it, which was a little reassuring.

  Before going to bed, I mustered up the courage to open the takeout app again. The inbox was empty and the creepy message had disappeared. I took a long breath, turned off my phone, and tried to fall asleep.

  In the middle of the night, I was awakened by a sharp knock on the door.

  "Knock, knock, knock."

  Three strikes, exactly three strikes.

  I opened my eyes and went cold. The room was dark, with only a faint glimmer of light coming through the doorway.

  The knock came again, still three times.

  "Knock, knock, knock."

  I held my breath and lay motionless on the bed, hoping that the uninvited guest at the door would think no one was in the house and leave.

  "I know you're in there," a familiar raspy voice came through the door, "Open up, I've got a 'takeaway' for you."

  It sounded exactly like the one I heard behind the door that night in the Rongfeng neighborhood!

  My heart raced and a cold sweat broke out on my forehead. It was impossible. I hadn't told anyone where I lived. How could that "John Doe" have found me here?

  "Or," the voice at the door continued, "would you prefer that I come in?"

  There was a harsh scraping sound, like something sharp was scraping my door. I curled up on my bed and covered my ears with the covers, but the sound was still clearly audible.

  I don't know how long it took, but it was finally quiet outside. I slowly got out of bed and tiptoed to the door, peering out the cat's eye.

  The hallway was empty, with only a dim light shining on the dirty floor.

  I sighed in relief and was about to go back to bed when I suddenly noticed something wrong with the door. I turned on my cell phone flash and took a closer look, and gasped.

  On the outside of the door, three deep scratches had been carved into it.

  surname San

  The next day, I went to the landlord and asked if any strangers had entered the basement last night. The landlord shook his head and said that the surveillance in the basement had been broken for some time and no one had fixed it.

  "But," he added with a frown, "that room of yours, the people who lived in it before also said it was haunted."

  My heart sank, "What do you mean?"

  The landlord scratched his head, "Last July, I think, the young man who lived in that room before, who was also a delivery man, had a car accident and died instantly. I heard that he ran a red light in a hurry and was hit by a truck."

  I forced down my inner panic, "How long has that room been vacant?"

  "Almost six months, no one wants to rent it. You're the first one who looked at it and decided to rent it." The landlord looked at me meaningfully, "Speaking of which, you and that young man look a bit alike."

  It was as if the blood in my body froze at that moment. The landlord had never mentioned any of this while I was renting the apartment.

  Leaving the landlord's house, I decided not to go back to that basement for the time being, but to go to my friend Lao Wang to borrow a room for a few days. Lao Wang is a war veteran who now owns a small supermarket and is a generous and righteous man.

  I told him about the strange things that had been happening lately, of course withholding some of the details, only that I had encountered strange customers and suspicious messages of harassment.

  After hearing this, Old Wang patted my shoulder, "Brother, it's probably because you've been too tired lately. Stay with me first today and take a good rest."

  That night, I slept on the living room couch in Old Wang's house, feeling much safer than in the basement. Before I went to sleep, Old Wang handed me a bracelet woven with red rope.

  "My grandmother gave it to me, saying it's for warding off evil spirits. You've had bad luck lately, wear it."

  I took it with thanks and put it on my wrist even though I didn't really believe in these things.

  That night, I slept unusually soundly and didn't have any dreams.

  When I woke up the next day, I felt a whole lot more relaxed. Old Wang had already left the house to go to the supermarket, leaving me breakfast and a note saying that he would be back in the evening, telling me to treat the house as my own.

  I had breakfast and decided to get back to work, I couldn't keep avoiding it like this. Delivering during the day shouldn't be a problem, I just needed to avoid night deliveries and remote areas.

  The day went by quite well. The sun was shining, the streets were crowded with pedestrians, and there was none of the eerie atmosphere of the previous days. I took a couple of close orders and completed the deliveries without incident.

  It was after 4pm and getting dark, so I planned to deliver one last order and call it a day. It was an ordinary milk tea order, and the delivery address was in a nearby office building.

  After picking up my milk tea, I rode my bike to my destination. I've been to this office building many times, a modern high-rise in the center of the city, its glass facade glinting gold in the setting sun.

  I parked in front of the office building and walked into the lobby with my milk tea. The security guard routinely checked my order information and then directed me to the elevator. According to the order, I needed to go to a design company on the 15th floor.

  The elevator was empty as I pressed the 15th floor button and the elevator slowly rose. Suddenly, as the elevator reached the 8th floor, it jerked to a stop.

  I thought it was someone trying to get on the elevator, but when the doors opened, it was empty and there was no one outside.

  Strangely, the elevator door did not close automatically, but stayed open. I pressed the close button several times and the elevator still didn't move.

  "Anyone?" I asked tentatively.

  There was no response, only a breeze that blew into the elevator from the hallway, carrying with it a smell of decay if nothing else.

  Just as I was debating whether or not to step out of the elevator, the numbers on the elevator's control panel started jumping wildly, from 8 to 9, then 10, then 11, 12... It finally stopped at 23.

  23rd floor? This office building is clearly only 22 floors!

  The elevator doors slowly closed and then began to rise. I pressed the door open button and other floor buttons in horror, but none of them responded. The elevator ran straight upwards as if it had an autonomous consciousness.

  When the elevator numbers read 23, it stopped and the doors opened again.

  Instead of the office building hallway I expected, the door was a dimly lit residential hallway, exactly like the one I had seen that night in the Rongfeng neighborhood!

  I pressed the close button in horror, but the elevator doors wouldn't budge. At the end of the hallway, the door to room 2304 was half-open, and something seemed to be writhing in the darkness.

  At that moment, my cell phone rang. I shakily pulled out my phone and the screen showed a new order notification:

  【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

  It's the exact same order as the other night!

  One thought flashed through my mind: escape!

  I turned and rushed to the elevator doors, but they were already closed and the elevator began to descend. The numbers went from 23 to 22 to 21...

  By the time the elevator stopped again, I was in a cold sweat. The doors opened and I found myself back in the lobby of the office building.

  I stumbled out of the elevator and sprinted out of the office building as if something was chasing me behind me.

  That night, I returned to Old Wang's house, my whole body in a trance. Seeing my pale face, Old Wang hurriedly asked me what had happened. I told him about the elevator experience, of course, once again hiding some details.

  After hearing this, Old Wang frowned, "Brother, I don't think this is a mere coincidence or hallucination on your part. Tomorrow I will accompany you to find someone."

  "What man?"

  "I have a cousin who used to be a Taoist priest and knows more about these things."

  Although I've never been much of a believer in all this, after experiencing so many bizarre things, I've come to believe that there really are phenomena in the world that can't be explained by science.

  Early the next morning, Lao Wang took me to a small temple on the outskirts of the city. His cousin, Taoist Master Lin, was the abbot here.

  Taoist Master Lin looked to be in his sixties, with a gray beard and a plain Taoist robe. He listened to my description and nodded his head from time to time, as if he was not surprised by such things.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  "What you have encountered should be a wandering spirit with a deep obsession," said Taoist Master Lin finally, "and, it has chosen you."

  "Why me?" I asked in disbelief.

  Daoist Lin looked at the red rope bracelet on my wrist, "This bracelet worked, temporarily blocking its entanglement. But to solve it completely, we still need to find out why it's haunting you."

  He thought for a moment and then asked, "That address you mentioned, Room 2304, Block 17, Rongfeng Subdivision, have you tried to look up information on that address?"

  I shook my head, "I'm too scared to go near that place again."

  Daoist Lin nodded, "Understood. However, if we want to solve this mystery, we may need more information."

  On the way back, Lao Wang suggested: "Why don't we go check that address together? Go in the daytime, it's safer with more people."

  I hesitated and finally agreed.

  4

  The next morning, the sun was shining brightly, and Wang and I drove to Rongfeng neighborhood. The neighborhood during the day and the night is completely different: the old man in the shade playing chess, children running and playing in the small square, a vibrant scene.

  We found the 17th building and met an old lady at the door who was about to go out. Old Wang went up to her and asked her if she knew the occupant of room 2304.

  The old lady sniffed and her face became a bit odd, "2304? There is no such room number in this building."

  Old King and I looked at each other.

  "There are only three households on the first floor of this building, and there should only be 2301, 2302 and 2303 on the 23rd floor," the old woman explained, "You're looking in the wrong place, aren't you?"

  My heart sank. If there was no room 2304 on the 23rd floor at all, then what the hell was I knocking on that night?

  We thanked the old lady and decided to go up and see for ourselves. After climbing more than twenty flights of stairs, we arrived panting on the 23rd floor. The layout of the hallway was exactly as I remembered it: narrow, dim, with a flickering light at the end.

  But the old lady was right, there were only three rooms at the end of the corridor: 2301, 2302 and 2303.

  Next door to room 2303 is a plain wall with no sign of a door.

  "Strange," I said to myself, "I saw a door here clearly that night, and knocked on it."

  Old King scrutinized the walls and suddenly called out, "Look here!"

  He pointed to a thin, barely visible crack where the wall met the floor, "There might have actually been a door here before, and then it was sealed off."

  I crouched down and with the light from my cell phone, I could see a shallow mark on the floor, like wear and tear from years of doors opening and closing.

  At that moment, the door of room 2303 suddenly opened and an old man with white hair came out. Seeing us squatting by the wall in front of his house, the old man looked a little wary: "What are you doing?"

  Lao Wang hastened to explain that we were looking for a friend who lived in room 2304, but seemed to be looking in the wrong place.

  After hearing this, the old man's expression became complicated, "Room 2304 has long ceased to exist, it's been more than twenty years."

  Old Wang and I looked at each other and asked the old man to explain in detail.

  The old man sighed and invited us in for tea. In his simple living room, the old man told a chilling story.

  "Room 2304 did exist over twenty years ago," the old man said slowly, "and living there was a young man, living alone, and rumored to be a delivery man."

  My heart races when I hear this.

  "One day, on the day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, he finished delivering his last order of takeout and had an accident on his way home, dying on the spot." The old man continued, "But the weird thing is, for the next week, every night he was seen wearing his work clothes, carrying a takeout bag, returning to room 2304, knocking on the door three times, and then... Disappear."

  "And then what?" I couldn't help but ask.

  "Rumors of a haunting began to circulate in the neighborhood. Some said that the delivery man had delivered a special order in his lifetime, to an address that shouldn't exist, and had seen things he shouldn't have seen, so he couldn't rest in peace after his death."

  "Then the property decided to seal off room 2304 and convert it into an equipment room. But even then, every year around Midwinter, someone would still hear a knock at the door from the end of the hallway, always three times."

  When the old man said this, he suddenly shot a glance at me, "You look a bit familiar, like... No, it should be that I'm remembering it wrong."

  Leaving the old man's house, Old Wang and I stood in the corridor and both felt an inexplicable chill.

  "The delivery man," I asked, "did the old man say what his name was?"

  Old Wang shook his head, "No, but we can check the records of car accidents that happened here more than twenty years ago."

  Back at Lao Wang's house, we immediately searched the Internet for relevant news. Soon, we found a local news from twenty-four years ago:

  "Delivery rider killed in late-night crash.

  The news reported that a takeout rider named Li Ming, after delivering his last order of takeout on the night of the Mid-Yuan Festival, ran a red light while riding back and was hit by a truck, killing him instantly. The family of the deceased claimed that Li Ming had called home that night to say he had received a remote order and would return after the delivery, but did not return until late at night.

  The report also mentioned that the police found on Li Ming's cell phone that the last order he took was abnormal: the system showed that the order had been completed, but in fact, his cell phone's location showed that he had never arrived at his destination.

  After reading the news, my heart sank to the bottom. It was too similar to my experience: late night orders, mid-day, Rongfeng neighborhood, knocking three times on the door...

  "We've got to find Taoist Lin," Old Wang said gravely, "This is much more complicated than we thought."

  That night, we once again went to the small temple on the outskirts of the city. Taoist Master Lin listened to our findings and looked grave: "I see. This is not an ordinary wandering spirit, but a 'hungry ghost' that has been obsessed for a long time."

  "'Hungry ghosts'?" I asked in disbelief.

  Taoist Master Lin explained, "In folk beliefs, if a person dies with strong dissatisfaction, resentment, or obsession, they may turn into 'hungry ghosts', forever hungry and wandering the human world forever. This Li Ming, probably encountered something unclean on his delivery trip, got haunted, and became a 'hungry ghost' himself after death."

  "Then why did it come to me?"

  Taoist Master Lin pondered for a moment, "It could be because you are in the same profession, or you once inadvertently walked through its territory and were marked by it. Now it wants to continue to fulfill its unfinished business through you."

  "So what do I do?" I asked eagerly.

  Daoist Lin took out a yellow talisman paper from the cabinet, "This is an exorcism talisman, you carry it with you. Also, these three days are the end of the Mid-Yuan Festival, and the Yin Qi is the heaviest, so it's best for you not to be alone or work at night."

  I nodded and accepted the runes.

  On the way back, Lao Wang suggested that I continue to stay at his house for the next few days, and I gladly agreed. Even with Taoist Lin's talisman, I still didn't dare to face the "hungry ghost" that might have set its sights on me alone.

  Old Wang gave me the sofa bed in the living room, and thoughtfully placed incense ashes in all corners of the house, saying that his grandmother had taught him that it could keep out some unclean things.

  That night, I tossed and turned, my mind replaying the news reports of Li Ming and the spooky Room 2304. The deliveryman, the Midwinter Festival, the car accident, the three knocks on the door... The pieces were like a puzzle, but I was always one puzzle piece short of seeing the whole picture.

  At three o'clock in the middle of the night, I was awakened by thirst. When I got up to go to the kitchen to pour water, I inadvertently glimpsed a blurred figure on the street outside the window, standing under the streetlight, looking up at the window of Old Wang's house.

  The man was wearing takeaway overalls similar to mine and appeared to be carrying a delivery bag in his hand.

  My heart skipped a beat and the glass of water in my hand almost fell. Who was that? Could it be... Li Ming?

  I rubbed my eyes and looked out the window again; the streetlight was empty. Was it my hallucination?

  I returned to the living room, only to find a takeout bag on the couch at some point, the exact same kind that was uniformly issued by my company.

  I opened the bag with a shudder, and inside was a lunch box. Lifting the lid, the box was empty, except for a small blood-stained order ticket:

  【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

  At the bottom, a line was scribbled:

  "It's your turn to deliver."

  I sucked in a breath of cold air as the small ticket floated down from my hand. Just then, the exorcism talisman given by Daoist Lin suddenly spontaneously combusted and turned into ashes.

  A piercing chill swept through my body, and I felt something standing right behind me. Slowly turning around, a pale, inhuman face was facing me, less than ten centimeters away.

  It was a young man's face, but with deep-set eyes, protruding eyeballs, and the corners of his mouth ripped to the base of his ears, revealing rows of sharp teeth. He was wearing tattered takeout uniforms, and the word "Li Ming" was faintly visible on the license plate on his chest.

  "Knock... Three times..." It said hoarsely, reaching out a withered hand toward my cheek.

  I wanted to scream, but my throat felt like it was being choked by invisible hands and I couldn't make any sound.

  Just at the moment its hand was about to touch me, the red rope bracelet on my wrist suddenly emitted a dazzling red light. Li Ming's ghost let out a shrill whine and retreated as if burned by a blazing fire before disappearing into the darkness.

  I collapsed to the ground, at which point Old King rushed out of the bedroom, startled by the scene before him.

  "What happened?" He asked eagerly.

  I shuddered and pointed to the takeout bag and bloodstained chit on the floor, but to my shock, there was nothing there.

  Early the next morning, we once again went to see Taoist Lin, and I told him about last night's experience.

  After hearing this, Daoist Lin's expression became even more grave, "Things are more serious than I thought. That 'Hungry Ghost' is already very strong, able to materialize and even break through my talisman in a short period of time. Luckily, you have that red rope bracelet that protects you for now."

  "So what am I supposed to do?" I asked in near despair.

  Taoist Master Lin pondered for a moment, "To completely solve this problem, we must find out why Li Ming became a 'hungry ghost' and why he haunts you. There must be some sort of connection between you and him, some sort of connection that we haven't discovered yet."

  He suggested that we find out more information about Lee Ming, especially his living address and family.

  Leaving the temple, Lao Wang proposed to go to the city archives to make inquiries. Through layers of formalities, we finally found some records from twenty-four years ago.

  Li Ming, male, 26 years old, migrant worker, had no relatives in the city. After his death, his body was retrieved by his parents, who were far away in the countryside. Previous address: Room 3, basement, No. 15 Riverside Street, Chengnan District.

  My heart almost stopped when I saw the address - it was the very basement I was currently renting!

  "Old Wang," I said with a shaky voice, "the place where I live... Is where Li Ming lived before he was born."

  Old Wang was also stunned, "No wonder the landlord said that the delivery man who lived there before had a car accident. But he said last year, not twenty-four years ago."

  We looked at each other in disbelief and suddenly realized a terrible truth: history was repeating itself. Every once in a while, a deliveryman would live in that basement and then meet an untimely end around the Midwinter Festival. And I, in all likelihood, was next.

  We decided to pursue the case. Through the city library's old newspaper archives, we found out more details about Li Ming's death.

  Several follow-up reports mentioned that the last delivery order Li Ming made before his death was to an apartment building that had been abandoned for years. What's even weirder is that the account number where the order was placed was untraceable afterward, as if it had vanished into thin air.

  The last report came from a small folklore magazine with the headline, "Takeout Ghost Messenger: Urban Legend or Real Event? . The article quotes one of Li Ming's coworkers:

  "In his lifetime, Li Ming has said that he encountered a strange order to be delivered to the top floor of an abandoned building. When he knocked on the door three times, a voice inside the door asked him to go in, but he was afraid and didn't go in, just left the delivery at the door and ran away. After that he always said someone was following him and said he heard knocking, three times, every night."

  After reading this information, I got chills all over my body. This is almost exactly what I experienced!

  Just then, my cell phone suddenly rang and a new order notification popped up on the screen:

  【Order No.: GH8571】 【Delivery Address: Room 2304, Building 17, Rongfeng District, No. 73, Ronghua Street】 【Delivery Fee: 35 RMB】 【Remarks: Knock three times and put it at the door.

  Old Wang saw the cell phone screen and his face changed drastically, "Don't answer it! This is obviously not right!"

  But the frightening thing is that I did not click on the order, but the order status is automatically changed to "taken order". Immediately after, the phone showed a system message:

  [Please complete the delivery within 60 minutes or your credit score will be affected.

  This is beyond the normal way the platform system works. I contacted customer service, who stated that they have no record of this order in their system.

  "What's the order ID?" Customer Service asked.

  "GH8571," I replied.

  The caller was silent for a moment, then Hakuna said in a strange tone, "The format of this order ID doesn't conform to our system rules. Our order IDs all start with numbers, no letters."

  Hanging up, my cell phone screen suddenly went black and then came back on, displaying the same order, but the countdown had already begun: 59:59, 59:58, 59:57...

  Old Wang and I immediately rushed back to the small temple to find Taoist Master Lin. Daoist Master Lin's expression grew more and more serious as he listened to our findings, "I see. It's not just Li Ming's ghost that's haunting us, but an even more ancient and evil being is behind the manipulation. Li Ming is just one of the links, and you, most likely, are the next one."

  "What do you mean?" I asked in disbelief.

  Taoist Master Lin explained, "In folklore, there is an existence known as 'Hungry Ghost Dispatcher'. They were originally the little ghosts of hell, responsible for guiding the dead souls, but for some reason they were relegated to the status of 'Hungry Ghosts', forever hungry. In order to fill their hunger, they would entice the living to complete tasks for them, thus acquiring new dead souls."

  "You mean, that room 2304..."

  "It's most likely a portal to the netherworld," Daoist Lin continued, "and that so-called 'takeout order' is actually a trap to get you to knock on the door of your own accord, giving that 'hungry ghost messenger' a chance to grab your soul."

  I recalled the strange order note: "Knock three times on the door." And the voice behind the door, "Not the door. Knock on me three times."

  Everything began to become clear - Li Ming had become a "hungry ghost", not because of his own resentment, but because he had been taken over by a more powerful being, and had become its tool. And now, it's after me.

  "What am I supposed to do?" I asked in desperation.

  Daoist Master Lin took a deep breath, "There are two options. One is to hide and wait for the Mid-Year Festival to pass, its power will diminish, but it won't disappear, and it will come back next year for the Mid-Year Festival. The second is to tackle it head on, but it's extremely risky."

  "How do I fix it?" Old King and I asked in unison.

  Taoist Master Lin stood up and walked over to an ancient cabinet, taking out a wooden box, "This is the 'Soul Suppressing Bell' that my master passed down to me, which can briefly bind the movements of ghosts. If we can find the weakness of that 'Hungry Ghost Differential', we might be able to get rid of it."

  He placed a small brass bell in my hand, "When you face it, ring this bell and then quickly recite this incantation." He handed me a slip of paper filled with odd writing.

  "But," added Taoist Lin gravely, "you must find its true identity, its name, or the cause of its death. Otherwise, the spell will not work."

  I looked at my cell phone screen and twenty minutes had passed in the countdown: 39:45, 39:44, 39:43...

  "Time is running out," I took a deep breath, "I have to make a trip to that address."

  Old Wang immediately said that he wanted to accompany me, but Daoist Lin stopped him, "For this kind of thing, outsiders interfering will only make it more dangerous. He must face it alone."

  Lao Wang nodded reluctantly, but insisted on driving me to the entrance of the Rongfeng neighborhood.

  "Be careful," he handed me a walkie-talkie, "contact me immediately if there's anything out of the ordinary, I'll be right outside."

  I nodded my head and walked into the Rongfeng neighborhood with the Soul Suppressor Bell and the spell note in my pocket.

  5

  Night had already fallen, the neighborhood was unusually quiet, hardly any people could be seen. The streetlights flickered, casting my shadow on the ground, twisting and distorting it like a ghostly figure.

  Arriving downstairs in building 17, I took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the building. The elevator was still malfunctioning and I had to take the stairs.

  Every time I went up a level, I felt the air around me grow more chilly, as if there were countless pairs of eyes watching me in the darkness. The countdown on my cell phone's screen kept decreasing: 19:58, 19:57, 19:56...

  When I finally climbed to the 23rd floor, I was out of breath. At the end of the corridor, where the wall should have been, now stood a door with the number clearly visible: 2304.

  I gulped and walked slowly toward the door. As I approached, the temperature around me plummeted, and my exhaled breath turned to white mist.

  Standing in front of the door, I could feel something squirming inside, waiting for me. I touched the Soul Suppressor Bell in my pocket to make sure the spell note was still on me, then took a deep breath and raised my hand to knock on the door.

  "Knock, knock, knock."

  I counted clearly and made sure I knocked three times, no more, no less.

  Immediately that familiar raspy voice came from inside the door, "Finally."

  The door opened slowly and it was so dark inside that nothing could be seen.

  "Come in," said the voice, "your 'take-out'."

  I stood in the doorway, not moving.

  "I'm not going in," I try to keep my voice steady, "I'm just here to deliver."

  A low chuckle came from the darkness inside the door, "You know this isn't really takeout, right? You also know that you're not the first delivery person to come here."

  I tightened my grip on the spirit calming bell in my pocket, "Who are you? Why are you staring at me?"

  "It doesn't matter who I am," the voice became lower, "what matters is who you are."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Don't you think it's strange? Why is it always the delivery guy? Why you? Why on the Midwinter Festival?" The voice inside the door gradually became clearer, sounding like an old man, "Because you, like me, are messengers who bring things from the dead to the living. Only, I deliver death, while you deliver food."

  My heart raced, "You're... Shinigami?"

  A creepy laugh came from inside the door, "No, I'm much lower than the Grim Reaper. I'm just a guide, a relegated netherwoman, an perpetually hungry hungry ghost errand boy."

  At that moment, a thin figure slowly emerged from the darkness inside the door. It wore a tattered black robe, its face was withered, its eye sockets were deep-set, and the corners of its mouth were torn to the base of its ears; it was the same horrible face I had seen that night. But this time, I could see its appearance more clearly.

  On its chest hung a bronze plaque with an odd symbol and a line of small characters engraved on it. By the faint light of the corridor, I vaguely recognized that it was a name: Judge Zhao.

  "A long time ago, I was a minor magistrate in the underworld, responsible for guiding the souls of the recently dead to hell," it continued, its voice sounding as if it had come from far away, "but because of a moment of greed, I stole the tribute and was punished by being made a Hungry Ghost, eternally starving, forever wandering on the border between the Yang and the Netherworlds."

  Its eyes emitted an eerie green light, "I have found a way to alleviate my hunger - every year, during the Mid-Yuan Festival, I entice a living person to work for me, deliver a special 'takeout' order, and then take his yang energy and soul."

  "Li Ming..." I mumbled.

  "Yes, he was one of the many poor men I tricked. But he wasn't strong enough, and he was soon under my control. And you..." It gazed at me, "You have that red rope and the protection of the Taoist priest, I can't control you directly. So, I had to lure you to come forward to deliver this 'takeout' order."

  I gripped the soul bell in my pocket tighter, "So, who is this 'take-out' order for?"

  Judge Zhao revealed a ghastly smile, "Of course it's for yourself. To be precise, it is for your soul. Once you step into this room, your soul will be taken away by me, and your physical body, will become my new puppet, continuing to find my next prey for me."

  My heart shook as I finally realized all the mysteries-that basement, that repeated order, that eerie knock on the door, were all set up by this evil spirit with one purpose: to harvest my soul.

  "Why did you pick me?" I continued to stall for time, secretly preparing to use the Soul Suppressor Bell.

  "Because you live in that basement, just like Li Ming," Judge Zhao replied, "It's a 'soul guide' that I set up, and any outrider who lives there will be tagged by me. And the Mid-Yuan Festival, when my power is at its strongest, is the perfect time to carry out my plan."

  It slowly approached me, "It's almost time, are you going to come in by yourself, or do I have to invite you in?"

  At this point, the countdown displayed on my cell phone screen was down to the last minute: 00:59, 00:58, 00:57...

  I knew it was time to act.

  I quickly pulled out the Soul Suppressor Bell from my pocket and shook it vigorously. The crisp ringing echoed in the narrow corridor, and Judge Zhao jerked back, letting out a howl of pain.

  "Judge Zhao, the eternally stranded and fallen yin man," I read aloud as I unfolded the incantation note given to me by Daoist Lin, "By heaven and earth, by sun and moon, I summon the gods of hell this day to reclaim this lost soul!"

  Judge Zhao's body began to twist and a look of fear appeared on his face, ''How do you know my name? Impossible! You can't possibly know!"

  "You told me yourself," I continued to shake the soul-suppressing bell, "the brass plate on your chest that says your name and identity."

  As the incantation was recited, a dazzling white light shot out from the Soul Suppressor Bell and enveloped Judge Zhao's figure. It let out a mournful scream as its body began to dissolve, as if it was being scorched by a blazing fire.

  "No! I can't go back! I'm not full yet!"

  Its figure became more and more blurred, and finally turned into a wisp of green smoke that dissipated into the air. At the same time, the door of room 2304 began to twist and distort, and finally disappeared completely, revealing the original wall.

  The countdown on the phone's screen came to a screeching halt, and the spooky order disappeared completely.

  I sat paralyzed, drenched in cold sweat, but inside I felt a wave of relief I'd never felt before.

  Shortly afterward, Lao Wang contacted me via walkie-talkie and asked if I was safe. I simply told him it was all over and then used my last strength to go downstairs and leave this nightmare place.

  Later, we went to see Taoist Master Lin again and reported to him what had happened. After listening, Taoist Master Lin nodded, "You are very brave and lucky. That Judge Zhao has been sent back to hell to receive his punishment and won't come out to haunt us again for a short time."

  "What about Li Ming?" I asked, "Is his spirit still wandering?"

  Daoist Lin smiled, "When the main soul is suppressed, the subsidiary souls controlled by it will also be freed. Li Ming should already be able to rest in peace."

  The next day, I moved out of that basement and found a new place to live with plenty of sunlight. Old Wang helped me contact another takeout platform, and I got back to work.

  Life gradually returned to normal, but that experience left a deep impression on me. Whenever I pass by the Rongfeng neighborhood or deliver orders at night, I can't help but think of that horrible Judge Zhao and its Room 2304.

  On the day of the Mid-Yuan Festival, I purposely bought some joss sticks and paper money, and found an open place in the countryside to pay tribute to Li Ming and those poor people like him who were killed by Judge Zhao. I hoped that their souls could rest in peace and no longer be trapped by evil spirits.

  On my way home from worship, I received a delivery order. The pickup location was nearby and the delivery address was not far away, an ordinary residential neighborhood.

  The order was taken, picked up and delivered, and all went smoothly. When I knocked on the customer's door, it was opened by a young girl, looking to be in her early twenties, who took the delivery with a smile on her face.

  "Thank you," she asked suddenly as she took the bag of food, "Did you deliver a nighttime order on the day of the Chinese New Year Festival once before? Over in the Rongfeng neighborhood?"

  My heart skipped a beat, "How did you know?"

  The girl's smile became a little mysterious, "Because I've seen you there. I'm a resident of that building and I happened to see you standing in the hallway that night, talking to the wall."

  "What did you see?" I take an involuntary step back.

  "Nothing special, just you standing there alone, talking to the air, and then suddenly took out a bell and shook it." The girl cocked her head, "I thought you were drunk, so I didn't bother."

  I was relieved that ordinary people couldn't see that door and Judge Zhao's presence.

  "Yeah, I was probably too tired that day," I said perfunctorily, "Thanks for asking."

  I was about to leave when the girl suddenly called out to me, "By the way, why did you knock on the wall three times that day? It was a strange move."

  The blood in my body froze instantly.

  "What?"

  "It was that night when you knocked three times against the wall and started talking to yourself," the girl continued, the smile on her face fading into an odd one, "like this..."

  She slowly raised her hand and knocked on the doorframe: thud, thud, thud.

  Three strokes, no more, no less.

  "Do you remember?" The girl's voice suddenly became hoarse, and her eyes flashed with a green light that didn't belong to humans, "Our agreement... Every year on the Mid-Yuan Festival... Deliver a special 'takeaway' order..."

  I turned around and ran, but the corridor suddenly became incredibly long, and I ran for a long time, but remained in the same place. When I looked back, the girl was already standing in front of me, and her face began to twist and distort, revealing a face I was all too familiar with - Judge Zhao.

  "I told you I'd be back," it grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, "and this time, you won't be able to get away."

  I awoke from my sleep in a panic, covered in a cold sweat. Outside the window, it was already light, and sunlight poured into the room through the curtains. I picked up my cell phone and looked at the date - two months before the Midwinter Festival.

  It was just a nightmare. I took a long breath and got up to get ready to wash up.

  In front of the mirror, my eyes were suddenly drawn to a mark on my wrist - it was three thin scratches, as if they had been scraped by a fingernail, like a... The mark of three knocks on the door.

  My cell phone suddenly rang and I picked it up, it was an unknown number.

  "Hello, is this Master Liu?" On the other end of the phone was a sweet female voice, "I'm the customer of your last delivery, would you like to take a private order? The tip will be generous this time oh..."

  I hung up without waiting for her to finish, my heart beating wildly. The voice on the other end of the phone was exactly like the girl in the dream.

  The cell phone screen lit up, displaying a new message:

  Private message from "Anonymous": Don't forget our promise. On Chinese New Year's Day, Room 2304, Block 17, Rongfeng District. Knock three times.

  Below the message, was a photo - a takeout delivery bag, placed in front of a door I knew well.

  The door number is 2304.

  And the date the photo was taken was, quite literally, this year's Midwinter Festival.

  I know that the nightmare is far from over. Judge Zhao will return, and I, once again, will face the door that shouldn't exist, and the ever-hungry evil spirit behind it.

  Only this time, I'm not sure I'll be lucky enough to escape again.

  Whenever my cell phone beeps with a new order, I shudder in fear of seeing that familiar order number: GH8571.

  I knew that sooner or later, that order would show up on my phone again.

  And at that time, I would have to once again set foot on that long corridor leading to room 2304 and face Judge Zhao and its insatiable hunger.

  Because it's a pact between us, a pact made in blood and soul.

  Every year on the Chinese New Year's Day, we deliver a special "takeaway" order.

  Knock three times.

  Then, await the judgment of fate.