CH 115

Translated by Crooked

Edited by Dust Bunny 

The elevator doors slid open in an instant. Li Yan heard himself gasping heavily and his heartbeat pounding in his chest, faster and faster.

He’d just run from monsters, and sweat beads as big as soybeans rolled from his temple to his jaw.

Drip.

Drop. 

The sweat beads dropped.

Finally, it’s here!

8002, he saw it! Quick, faster!

“Clang!”

Li Yan ran too quickly and slammed into the door with a loud noise. Violent pain shot up his nerves, and his breathing was in chaos. The short sprint had already exhausted his energy, and he used his final dregs of strength to turn the doorknob.

“Kacha——”

8002’s door swung open. Li Yan legs were weak, and he used the wall to support him as he pushed open the door. He was just about to go in when he heard a loud sound, and Si Yu and Tang Xiaoshi rushed over.

Li Yan saw Si Yu and knew he was Gu Ran’s companion. He said urgently, “Hurry, it’s Gu Ran! Something happened to Gu Ran! He’s inside!” 

Seeing Li Yan’s flustered and alarmed appearance, Si Yu frowned and rushed in. There were no ghosts inside, and the scarlet red-eyed owner wasn’t there either. The room was extremely calm and quiet enough to hear a pin drop.

Si Yu’s heart skipped a beat. What about Gu Xizhou?

He panicked, looking around the whole room. There was someone lying on the bed. Even without approaching, Si Yu felt that they exuded a kind of piercing chill.

The quilt blocked the person’s face. Si Yu went over and pulled back the cover. 

It’s cold.

It’s cold.

Gu Xizhou was half asleep and half awake, only thinking that his body was ice cold, without a hint of heat. His consciousness was hazy and sticky, exactly the same as the day he was resurrected. His body was bound in intangible chains, and he couldn’t move.

It hurts, what happened to me? 

What’s wrong with my body?

Am I dead again? Just like before?

Don’t, don’t, blood, there’s too much blood…

My pulse is weak, I hear it. Death is summoning me again, it’s calling me… 

His heartbeat slowly faded, slowly becoming weaker.

Suddenly, the heavy object on his body was taken away, and he immediately felt his body fall into a warm embrace. It was very warm, very comfortable.

Gu Xizhou didn’t know how much time passed until he opened his eyes. Si Yu looked at him worriedly, his eyes bloodshot.

What happened? 

Gu Xizhou’s brain still hadn’t come back online. He knew something must have happened to him, but why was he being held by Si Yu? What actually happened?

Si Yu looked exhausted. After seeing him wake up, he let out a sigh.

Gu Xizhou noticed a thick quilt was wrapped around his body, and Si Yu was holding him. The inside of his head turned to paste.

Si Yu held Gu Xizhou gently, using a hand to softly cradle his cheek. He said warmly, “It’s good that you’re alright…” 

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After Gu Xizhou rested for a while, Fang Zhi asked in a whisper, “Gu Ge, do you still remember what happened last night?”

Gu Xizhou noticed that the sky was already bright outside. He nodded. “I remember what happened before. Yaoxing and I found a recording pen outside in the snow and confirmed that the tour guide is the current owner of the hotel. He killed his own wife, and he should have been the one who killed the people from the tour group… After that, I went upstairs and entered room 8002 to investigate. After I went in, the sound of the fingernails scraping the floor stopped instantaneously, but there was nothing abnormal in the room. 

“I remember that when I went in to investigate, the door to 8002 suddenly closed. I went to open it when the room suddenly turned freezing cold. I don’t remember anything after that.”

Gu Xizhou recalled last night’s events thoughtfully.

“Do you know, you were ice-cold all over when we found you, just like you were dead!”

Gu Xizhou looked over at the speaker and saw Tang Xiaoshi frowning as she spoke nervously. 

“Gu Ge, you nearly died, you were freezing to death!” Fang Zhi was clearly still panicking. His eyes were red, and he was obviously crying not long ago. “Si Ge held you the whole time, and his body was also covered in white frost. Your body was like an ice cube, and I thought… I thought…”

Then Fang Zhi gave a sob, and his words choked off.

“Xiao Fang, don’t cry. Aren’t I alright?” said Gu Xizhou. “In fact, doesn’t this prove my luck is pretty good?”

“Your luck is pretty good?” Li Yan was speechless. “If it weren’t for my prop, you would have already frozen to death!” 

Gu Xizhou looked at Li Yan distrustfully. He was about to open his mouth to ask when Si Yu answered from the side, “It was Li Yan who first discovered something was off. Li Yan has a telephone prop that lets him hold a conversation with himself from the next day. Last night, he said he received a call from today and… you died.”

Gu Xizhou scowled in response. “Originally, I should have died in that room yesterday?”

Si Yu nodded noncommittally.

Gu Xizhou couldn’t help but feel a bit dizzy. He really almost went cold yesterday. Now, he looked at Li Yan differently. In a sense, Li Yan’s prop could be said to be a sort of unconventional foresight ability. 

Gu Xizhou turned to Li Yan and quietly said two words. “Thank you.”

Li Yan forced a smile and nodded. He just saved himself, that’s all, but this matter came up too suddenly, and he couldn’t explain his knowledge, so he could only admit he had a prop.

In the past, he absolutely wouldn’t use this prop so suddenly. He could tell himself some important information on the phone, and then he could pretend to coincidentally discover the rules. Then, he’d tell his teammates.

He watched Gu Xizhou carefully and found that there was no greed in his expression, only a little curiosity, and he relaxed. 

Gu Xizhou’s eyes swept over all the people present, and his eyebrows wrinkled. There were only seven people here, and Tang Jiajia was absent. He asked, “What about Tang Jiajia?”

As soon as he said this, everyone paled. Fang Zhi pointed at the picture on the wall where there was once again a snowman missing, and he realized that Tang Jiajia died yesterday.

A new snowman appeared once again.

Gu Xizhou glanced at Fu Yiran, who was the furthest away, standing silent with a lowered head. He frowned and then looked away. 

Everyone was silent for a while. Finally, Li Yan put his fist against his mouth and cleared his throat, changing the subject: “We still need to talk about that one room, ba. When we found you, apart from being cold, there was a lot of frost. Can you remember anything?”

Gu Xizhou wasn’t afraid of ghosts at all, and obviously his accident had nothing to do with a ghost. Instead, he triggered a death condition.

“Rule…” Gu Xizhou hesitated before continuing. “When you put it like that, I actually thought of something.”

Seeing everyone all look at him, Gu Xizhou said quietly, “After I went into the room yesterday, I didn’t feel anything, but after the door closed, I suddenly felt cold air well up from the bottom of my heart. It should be because of that. All the anomalies happened after the door shut.” 

Gu Xizhou analyzed the circumstances of last night.

“When I went into the room, nothing was unusual. After the door closed, it was suddenly freezing. Bone-chilling, that kind of strange cold. It didn’t come from outside, but from my heart. It should be some kind of rule.”

“That’s the problem,” Si Yu said, nodding. “Closing the door satisfied a death condition. When the room is sealed, the people inside freeze to death.”

“Did that one scarlet red-eyed ghost shut the door? After you went in, did it go out and close the door?” Tang Xiaoshi pondered. 

Si Yu directly rejected Tang Xiaoshi’s hypothesis. “Impossible. If it could shut the door, then when we went in to find Gu Ran, it could’ve closed the door immediately and triggered the condition, killing all four of us inside.”

“Then, is there a ghost outside, and that ghost shut the door?” Shen Bo guessed.

Li Yan said in a low voice, “That’s possible. When I went up to look for Gu Ran, there was something peculiar. Originally, I planned to go upstairs to find you, but when I went to the elevator, the elevator went down to the 7th floor and wouldn’t move. I received today’s phone call after that.

“I climbed the stairs all the way to the 7th floor, and I saw someone put a chair to block the elevator door from closing and going down.” 

Tang Xiaoshi questioned, “But… yesterday that ghost chased me all the way into the elevator and pressed the button for the 8th floor, so it obviously wanted us to go to the 8th floor. Why would it block the elevator on the 7th floor?”

“Who knows? Who could understand the thoughts of a ghost?” sighed Li Yan, feeling the outline of the prop in his pocket. Even though he survived after saving Gu Ran, he still couldn’t understand why Gu Ran’s death led to everyone else dying, too.

He told everyone all about his prop, but he didn’t mention that after Gu Ran’s death, everyone else would die. He subconsciously felt like this piece of information was very important, and he observed Gu Ran carefully.

Apart from being unable to bear Xiao Ran, Gu Ran has always been very reliable and active, but he couldn’t see anything special about him aside from his handsome looks. 

Gu Ran’s death would lead to the entire team’s death… Li Yan remembered that after they entered the room, Si Yaoxing’s eyes were dark red and murderous. He shivered, and a thought sprang into his mind. Maybe it wasn’t this world that was too difficult, but his teammates who were too insane…

No, that was impossible. Murder was punished by the mission world. If Si Yaoxing really killed someone, then the world would have already killed him after the first victim for violating the rules. It should be the world that killed them!

Of course, he could exploit the rules to kill the others, but after Gu Ran died they would know there was something off about room 8002. As long as more than two people died, he would know the issue as soon as he received the phone call from his future self. But the problem was, when he received the phone call, ‘he’ clearly told him that everyone was dead. This implied that the day after Gu Ran died, they directly experienced a TPK.

Anyone who experienced many mission worlds would know that the cruelest mission worlds also leave you a ray of hope. For example, the veteran he knew from reality who entered the certain-death world. Even in that world, under the protection of the rules, a person could still leave alive. 

What circumstances could lead to everyone dying together?

Unfortunately, he couldn’t get the answer now. Even if he received another phone call from tomorrow, the contents would only follow the future after today’s changes.

Li Yan shook his head. There were too many doubts in his heart, but now wasn’t the time to think about these things. The most important thing was to leave this mission world as soon as possible. He was nervous that Gu Ran would have another emergency. If he died, they’d all be buried next to him.

He said, “We should go confirm your analysis. Let’s have two… no, one is good, one person go in, and the other people will close the door.” 

“Of course, we’ll immediately open the door again after shutting it!” Li Yan decided.

Aside from Si Yu and Gu Xizhou, everyone else turned a little pale, and their eyes held a glimmer of fear. They saw Gu Xizhou’s appearance after being saved, and to let them personally experience it, this…

Shen Bo said hesitantly, “This, isn’t this too risky?”

Li Yan shook his head. “We have to verify it. There’s definitely something wrong with this room. We should split into two groups: one group will stealthily ask about what happened in that room in the past, and the other group will go upstairs and check out the situation!” 

Gu Xizhou felt that Li Yan’s plan was very reasonable. Even though this person was a pervert, his basic nature wasn’t bad, and he was also clear-headed at crucial moments.

Li Yan pondered, “Let’s do this, ba. Gu Ran, you rest for the time being. Si Yaoxing, you take Xiao Tang and Xiao Ran to ask about the room. Fang Yuan, Shen Bo, and I will go upstairs to investigate the room.”

Li Yan’s main purpose was to look after the two girls, so he arranged it this way, but Shen Bo disagreed. His body shook and his face was pale as he said, “Li Yan, I know you want to take care of the two girls, b-but I’m really scared. I can’t…”

“And who’s going to go in, huh? Is it you?” asked Shen Bo. 

Li Yan was stunned by his words and said, “Of course it’s you or Fang Yuan who will go in. If I go in and die immediately, then there won’t be any phone call, and we won’t be able to change the future!”

Shen Bo wanted to refute this, but Si Yu intervened and said to him, “We’ll swap. You take those two.”

Shen Bo was overjoyed and kept saying, “Good, ah! Thank you!”

Off to the side, Tang Xiaoshi despaired a bit, and Fu Yiran heaved a sigh of relief. 

After arranging their missions… Everyone split up into two groups. Gu Xizhou looked at Si Yu and Fang Zhi, both of which were going with Li Yan. That meant one of them would have to enter the room alone. He couldn’t help but frown and say to them, “Close the door for three seconds at most, then immediately open it. There’s a fixed time it takes to freeze to death, but I predict that it isn’t very long.”

Li Yan said, “Right. The time between when I received a phone call to go up stairs and when Gu Ran went in isn’t very clear. I predict that this time was…”

“What time did you receive the phone call?” asked Si Yu, raising his eyebrows slightly.

Li Yan fished out his PHS phone and opened the call record. The call time was 12:11:24-12:11:27. It was only a brief three seconds. Si Yu glanced at Li Yan with a raised eyebrow and said, “It seems that today’s you was in a big hurry to make that phone call.” 

“En… After all, a teammate was in peril. Isn’t it normal to be in a hurry?” For some reason, the expression in Si Yu’s eyes spooked him, and his explanation was very quiet.

Fang Zhi looked at Li Yan meaningfully and didn’t say much. Li Yan’s lie was so clumsy that even he could catch it.

According to Li Yan’s words, when he made the phone call, Gu Ge was dead, but so was Tang Jiajia. Why would Li Yan risk his life to save Gu Ge and not choose to rescue Tang Jiajia? There was definitely something they didn’t know about, but it seemed like Li Yan didn’t want to speak up.

Si Yu didn’t say anything more about it. He just glanced at Li Yan and said, “Go on, let’s go upstairs.” 

Shen Bo took a deep breath. He was so unlucky. The first day, Liang Ke, who he shared a room with, had an accident. The next day, that female ghost came to find him. He didn’t know what kind of terrible fortune he had. The worst thing was that there was a gorgeous young lady on their team, but every time she watched him lose face!

“Xiao Ran, aren’t you afraid to walk in the back?” asked Shen Bo, watching the woman with dew-bright eyes.

Fu Yiran nodded faintly and grabbed the hem of the jacket with red eyes without speaking.

“Don’t worry, we can get out safe and sound!” Fu Yiran looked really miserable and quite pitiable. Delicate weakness always aroused people’s desire to protect, and Tang Xiaoshi’s heart also couldn’t help but shake. She remembered her own fright last night and patted Fu Yiran’s shoulder, speaking quiet words of comfort. 

“En.” Fu Yiran’s head drooped, hiding any emotion.

They found people to ask one after another, but they didn’t discover anything useful. Shen Bo and Tang Xiaoshi were a little dejected. This mission was a lot simpler than verifying the room’s rule, and they’d feel guilty if they returned without achieving anything.

When it was time for lunch, Gu Xizhou finally saw the six people return.

“It’s confirmed. After the door closes in that room, the things you talked about happen, but the time it takes someone to freeze to death can’t be verified.” said Si Yu. 

Hearing that Si Yu’s side had already made progress, Shen Bo spoke with a little embarrassment. “We found many people, but none of them knew anything about what happened in room 8002.”

“Ai, I knew it would be like this. Our guess should be that someone froze to death in that room, but who? And what do they want?” sighed Li Yan. He was asking himself just as much as anyone else. If they didn’t know the other person’s identity, then they couldn’t grant their wish.

“The person in the room might be the first owner of the hotel, an old man,” said Gu Xizhou thoughtfully. “I remember that day there was a waiter who told Si Yu and me that the old man died accidentally. He might have frozen to death.”

“Accidentally?” Li Yan repeated. He said, “I’m afraid that it wasn’t an accident, but it’s best to confirm it first. Do you still remember what that waiter looks like?” 

Gu Xizhou remembered, “Short hair, square face, very small eyes, approximately 1.7 to 1.72 meters, wearing size 42 to 43 shoes. Oh, he was wearing leather shoes.”

Li Yan’s eyes widened, and he looked at Gu Xizhou in shock. Why did he think this description was a little strange? Even if you could guess a person’s height, how could you know a person’s shoe size?

After their meal, everyone decided to try to find the waiter who might know the inside story before tonight. They split into three groups: Gu Xizhou and Si Yu; Fang Zhi and Shen Bo; and Li Yan, Tang Xiaoshi, and Fu Yiran.

Everyone split up, and after two hours—— 

Li Yan took out a cigarette helplessly. They couldn’t find that waiter at all. It was just like he vanished off the face of the earth!

Even though he said that, at the very least they learned one thing. The tour guide killed his wife, and the tour group that went missing before that should have also been his handiwork. After they killed this tour guide, who could say whether or not they’d be able to leave this world directly?

They all knew it wasn’t a requirement to find the root cause! Only, how could they kill the tour guide?

Li Yan ignited his lighter, sighing deeply. He’d really never killed an NPC, but couldn’t he always just take a knife and give the tour guide a stab? 

While he was letting his thoughts run wild, he heard a voice, melodious as a skylark, soft and light, speak, “Why don’t we split up to look for people to ask? It’s not very efficient if we stick together.”

Tang Xiaoshi was a little surprised, and her face showed her internal struggle, but soon she said, “I agree. Anyway, as long as it’s daytime when we go up to the 8th floor, it won’t be too dangerous. Splitting up is also fine.”

Li Yan hesitated for a moment, scowling. “Can you two do it?”

Seeing that the two girls had both decided to split up, Li Yan didn’t prevent them. Since he hadn’t received a phone call, this plan shouldn’t cause any problems. Li Yan nodded and said, “Ok, be careful.” 

After half an hour, they’d completely turned over floors 1-7, but they hadn’t found any trace of the waiter. Li Yan frowned, watching as the elevator doors opened and a man exited. Then, he was shocked. If he wasn’t on the first seven floors, could the waiter be on the 8th floor?

As if demons and gods were at work, Li Yan entered the elevator and pressed the button for the 8th floor.

“Ding——”

This is wrong. He pressed the button for the 8th floor, so why is the elevator stopped motionless at the 4th floor? 

Li Yan pressed the close door button and once again pressed the button for the 8th floor. The elevator doors closed and then immediately opened again.

“Fuck, what’s going on?” Just when he was getting irritable, he suddenly noticed a lone figure in the hallway. He was surprised. “Yi, Xiao Ran, what a coincidence. You’re also on the 4th floor.”

“I was just about to take the elevator back to the third floor. I just found that waiter you were talking about!”

Li Yan was pleasantly surprised. “What? You found him? Where is he?” 

“He just left…” Fu Yiran said helplessly. “But he told me room 8002 was where the hotel’s first owner had an accident. That day, after it snowed, the hotel short-circuited. There was no heat in the room, and I heard that the window, which was old and in need of repair, was blown in by the snow. The snow chilled the room and paralzyed the old man’s body. No one discovered anything wrong, and he was slowly frozen to death while he was still alive.”

The author has something to say:

Fang Zhi: I feel like Gu Ge and Si Ge are hiding something from me… I’m a little anxious. They won’t abandon me, right?