After entering the door, you will see a long and narrow metal staircase leading directly to the underground.

Quack, quack, quack...

Bang!

The iron door behind him closed, followed by another sound of gears turning.

Click, click, click...

The stairs were dark, with only the white light strips on the walls on both sides emitting a faint light, providing some illumination.

Looking at the broken lamp and the rust on the walls on both sides, Xia Mu squinted his eyes and quickly discovered the problem.

Logically speaking, this kind of metal wall panel will not rust unless it undergoes hundreds of years of oxidation, or a special catalyst is used to accelerate the oxidation reaction.

However, this neighborhood has only been established for more than a hundred years, and no one would deliberately expose so much rust to ruin their bodies. It is obviously unreasonable to have so many rust stains on the walls.

This is also true for the iron door outside. Xia Mu had already noticed this problem at that time...

If he guessed correctly, this should be related to the strange stories that troubled Mr. Shi, and he couldn't help but become interested.

If it is a strange story, then it is not surprising to cause such a violent oxidation reaction in a short period of time...

However, the specific rules of this strange story can only be determined after meeting Mr. Shi.

When, when, when...

The rusty metal stairs were a bit steep, and Natsuki walked very carefully, slowly going down, making waves of echoes in the stairway.

Half a minute later, he finally reached the end. He looked up and saw a passage about five meters in front of him. At the end of the passage was another rusty iron door.

Quack, quack, quack...

As if knowing that Xia Mu had arrived, he just took a look and the iron door slowly opened.

However, perhaps because of the rust, the iron door did not open so smoothly, and it was accompanied by a harsh friction sound.

Zi————

Listening to this scalp-numbing voice, Xia Mu frowned, resisted the urge to help the other party repair, and walked in quickly.

Inside the door is a spacious living room, which looks like it should be used for living, but strangely, the rust in it is thicker and denser than in the stairway.

Not only the walls and floors, but also the wooden furniture and glass dishes displayed there were signs of decay to varying degrees.

Even the glass is rotten?

Xia Mu was stunned when he saw this.

Then he lowered his head and touched his chin, realizing the seriousness of the matter.

At this time...

Squeak~

There was another harsh and unpleasant sound of opening the door. An iron door directly opposite Xia Mu opened, and a figure walked out...

He took a closer look and found that the man was actually a young man, about fourteen or fifteen years old, and the look in his eyes was full of scrutiny.

The young man is very fair, and his hair must have been freshly washed. Although the clothes on his body are a bit old, there are no traces of wrinkles due to lack of ironing.

He stood out of place in this living room that smelled of rust and decay, like a white rabbit stuck in a puddle of mud.

In addition, Xia Mu also noticed that the young man's expression did not have the slightest hint of youthfulness and immaturity in line with his age. Instead, he had a sense of vicissitudes and exhaustion, as if...

A middle-aged man who has experienced many things in the world.

Recalling the information about "timepieces" in his database, and comparing it with the boy in front of him, he quickly realized one thing...

This boy is probably the clock!

Timepiece, male, 43 years old, owner of a timepiece and clock shop, the largest ID dealer in the lower city of Chongxing City.

This person has an eccentric temper, has a mysophobia, loves small and precise objects such as clocks, and is also proficient in code. He is a well-known master in the hacker circle.

The young man in front of me looks very similar to the timepiece in the information. He is basically the younger version of the timepiece.

As for mysophobia... it can be seen from my body. As for the situation in this living room, I am probably helpless.

"Hello, Mr. Shi, my name is Xia Mu. You must already know my identity."

After some analysis, Xia Mu confirmed his judgment, then stretched out his hand to the young man, smiled and spoke.

"Natsumu, a D-class fallen person, fell for three years. After returning, he opened an office. The business... is pretty good."

The young man did not correct Xia Mu's title, which showed that Xia Mu's judgment was not wrong, but he just glanced at Xia Mu's right hand and then waved his hand to express no need.

"Don't get me wrong, I just don't want to cause trouble to you."

Shi Ji explained lightly, then turned around and motioned for Xia Mu to follow.

When Xia Mu saw this, he didn't think anything of it. He just shrugged and followed the timepiece into the iron door on the opposite side.

"This is... the collection room?"

After entering the iron door, you will see an empty room. The smell of rust and decay inside is heavier than outside.

It can be seen from the surrounding iron shelves and glass display cabinets that this should be a collection room... at least it used to be.

Now, except for an old pocket watch and some tools on the table in the middle, the rest of the shelves and display cabinets are empty.

Xia Mu guessed that Chongji was afraid that his collection would be affected by the rules and become rotten, so he moved them all.

"It's this pocket watch. Everything started from getting it, including what I look like now..."

The timekeeper walked to the table and picked up the pocket watch. He moved very carefully, but it didn't look like he was afraid, but rather he looked very protective of it.

"This is a masterpiece by the famous ancient European clockmaker Lawrence. It was sold to me by a young man. It cost me half a million federal coins to get it...

It is the first ancient European pocket watch that I have seen in so many years that is so well-preserved and well-maintained. I am sure that even if I search for this thing all over the world, I will not be able to find a few pieces of it."

Seeing the timepiece's eyes full of obsession, Xia Mu knew that this might be the difficulty in dealing with this strange story...

Generally speaking, ghost stories with artifacts as the main body can get rid of the influence of the rules only by staying away from the main body of the ghost story, but it is obvious that Timepiece will not give up this pocket watch, nor will it choose to stay away.

Regarding this, Xia Mu can understand that if people living in Xiacheng District want to survive, they must have something of their own pursuit.

For some people, this pursuit is even more important than their own lives!

"So...Mr. Shi, it's been half a year since you got this pocket watch. I think you should know its specific rules."

Now that he understood the timepiece's idea, Xia Mu naturally would not choose persuasion. He directly asked about the situation and was ready to start with the rules to find a way to crack it.

"Of course, you have also seen what I am doing here. It is actually very simple... its rule is to 'affect the flow of time'.

Under its influence, the time of all non-living objects will be accelerated forward, such as those metal plates and glass. Can you believe that they were brand new half a year ago?

The time of living objects will accelerate in the opposite direction. For example, I am now almost thirty years old.

At this rate, within four months I will turn into an embryo and disappear from the world."

Even so, the tone of the watch was very relaxed.

It can be seen that he was satisfied with getting this pocket watch. Even if he died, he would have no regrets.

"But in my opinion, this pocket watch is not a 'murderous ghost story', it just took too long and malfunctioned.

So I spend more than ten hours every day trying to fix it. Although I haven’t found the real problem yet, I think...it shouldn’t be far away.”

"clear……"

In Xia Mu's eyes, the timepiece at this time was like a terminally ill but stubborn "patient".

As a "doctor", he only needs to acknowledge him, appease his emotions, and "prescribe the right medicine". As long as he can cure the disease to the satisfaction of the other party, the matter will be solved.

Through simple observation and the description of the rules of the timepiece, we can find that the pocket watch in front of us is not some weird story, but just the most common "ordinary level".

Although it can be regarded as the more powerful category among the "ordinary level", Xia Mu is confident as long as he does not break away from the "ordinary level" category.

He is professional in solving ordinary-level ghost stories!

"Okay, Mr. Shi, I understand the general situation. You probably hope to solve the ghost story problem without damaging the pocket watch, right?"

"That's right, can you do it? If you can do it, I can promise you any conditions, as long as they are within my capabilities, just make them."

Shiji looked at Xia Mu, the suspicion in his eyes still not diminishing, but he also had an attitude of "treating a dead horse as a living horse", and was a little confused for a moment.

But he didn't expect that Xia Mu nodded directly when he heard the words, without any hesitation, and said at the same time:
Chapter completed!