CH 65

(All of them are good people!)

Edited by Silver Wind 

As the female attendant led the way, her movements were a little rigid.

The two of them crossed through the hotel’s large hall. Two particularly difficult guests seemed to have arrived and they occupied the smile-wearing bellboy and the front desk’s attention, such that they did not notice the two of them walking past.

Shen Dongqing looked over. Standing at the entrance to the hall was a young and beautiful female internet celebrity and she was leaning against a potbellied businessman affectionately. The internet celebrity was insufferably arrogant as she ordered the bellboy around but compared to the treatment he gave to the players, the bell boy was incomparably respectful as he nodded his head and bowed slightly.

He only managed to catch a hasty glimpse of them before another group of people obstructed his sight. 

The female attendant stopped, stretching her hand to make a gesture for him to move: “Please follow me.”

Shen Dongqing retracted his gaze and continued to walk forward.

The female attendant seemed to be bringing him further away from the human crowds and deeper into the hotel. In the beginning, there were still some passing attendants who would offer greetings but when they reached their destination, it was completely devoid of people.

An exquisite bronze plaque was hung on the wall and the elegant words “Running and Excessive Noise is Prohibited” were carved into it.

Holding on the door handle, the female attendant said: “We’re here.”

Kacha—

The female attendant twisted the door handle and the heavy, huge doors opened slowly. Then, she turned her head to look at Shen Dongqing, revealing an emotionless smile on her ashen-pale face.

“Please come in.” 

Would he go in?

When an average person realised that they had fallen into a pit trap by mistake, they would definitely run, right? And if they did that, they would be violating a hotel rule, when that time came……

Alas, Shen Dongqing was not an average person.

He rubbed his nose and strode in directly. 

There was no cold medicine in, nor was there Zhou Wenyan.

Unfazed, Shen Dongqing asked the female attendant: “What did you bring me here for? I already have a boyfriend, it’s not very appropriate for me to be in a room with a woman alone.”

After recovering from her brief surprise, the female attendant did not acknowledge his words at all as she zipped into the room while bringing the door to a close.

In the instant where the door sealed shut, cold air seeped out from the recesses of the room, covering the walls with a thin layer of frost and plunging the entire room to a freezing degree that made people shiver. 

With a stiff smile, the female attendant asked: “Do you want to drink some soup?”

She was similar to Lisa from the snow-capped mountain.

Shen Dongqing did not beat around the bush as he replied: “Thanks, but I’m not drinking it.”

The soup smelled too strange like they had added three days’ worth of hogwash. Anyone who drank it would probably die on the spot. 

The female attendant issued a long peal of hoarse laughter: “That’s truly unfortunate.”

As she said that, her full cheeks malformed and hollowed out, turning her into an emaciated and withered corpse, “Stay here and accompany me……”

Shen Dongqing interrupted his words: “Who wants to stay with you?” He gave her a disdainful glance, “You look so ugly.”

Do you not have some self-awareness in your heart? 

The female attendant, no, Lisa had never received such a personal attack before. She affixed her dead eyes on Shen Dongqing and she kept yammering: “You should have drank my soup, drink it, drink it.”

She pressed closer to entice him with the soup that had appeared in her hand abruptly, and she inched closer to Shen Dongqing step by step, wanting to force feed him the soup.

However, imagination had always been easy, whereas execution was decidedly not.

Without any hesitation, Shen Dongqing gripped onto Lisa’s wrist and took the soup bowl from her before pouring it down her mouth. 

Lisa: “Wuu wuu……”

Under the complete oppression of his strength, Lisa was forced to drink all the contents in the bowl.

It was unknown as to what the soup had been made out of, because her entire body started shaking once she drank the soup as if she had been overcome by a fit of epilepsy and she rolled on the ground endlessly.

Shen Dongqing placed down the soup bowl and reprimanded her: “This soup is spoiled and yet you’re forcing other people to drink it, why don’t you taste it yourself for once? Even if you’re a ghost, you ought to know that you’re not supposed to coerce people…” 

After giving a strict lecture, he walked towards the door, wanting to open it and leave.

Unfortunately, the door was locked and he could not open it no matter what.

Shen Dongqing lowered his head to inspect it. The original heavy, large wooden doors had changed into a sliding, bolted iron gate. Left without options, he looked over his shoulder again, only to see that the previous decorations in the room had disappeared without a trace and became a cold storage room with a constant discharge of white mist.

Lisa was still lying on the ground except she was no longer in her attendant outfit, having swapped out to her long down jacket instead. Her eyes were lifeless as if it was trying to convey the words “you cannot escape”. 

When he blinked again, another group of people surrounding a small pot and sitting on the ground appeared in the middle of the cold storage, and they were staring at Shen Dongqing simultaneously.

Their visages looked quite familiar, and they were precisely the four players he had experienced an aviation accident with.

“Come over and drink some soup.”

“Come over ah, aren’t you cold?” 

They urged him ceaselessly.

Shen Dongqing sneezed.

Lf kjr bcis kfjglcu j atlc beafg pjmxfa jcv atf ojma atja tf tjv meggfcais tjv j mbiv vlv cba tfiq wjaafgr , tfcmf, tf tjv ab jvwla atja la kjr delaf mbiv. Coafg tfjglcu atflg defralbcr, tf cbvvfv rfglberis, “Pa gfjiis lr delaf mbiv.”

Cwlmjyif rwlifr rqgfjv jmgbrr atflg ojmfr jcv atfs yfmxbcfv tlw, “Tbe kbc’a yf mbiv jcswbgf bcmf sbe vglcx atf rbeq.” 

Shen Dongqing walked over.

Their smiles became increasingly weird the closer he was to them. While the amiability was still present, their eyes were brimming with dense deathly air.

“Come.”

“Come and drink the soup.” 

Shen Dongqing stopped in front of the firepit, and under the expectant gazes of the group, he pressed the person closest to him to the ground and said: “Since it is quite cold, lend me your clothes for a while.” Saying that, he tugged off the down jacket that he was wearing on his body.

After doing so, it certainly felt warmer but it was far from enough. Shen Dongqing pulled up the zip and looked at the remaining people.

That gave the remaining people a start, and they unconsciously fled in different directions.

However, as they were running, some of them snapped back to themselves. 

This was not right at all, they were obviously the ghosts, what were they being afraid for?

All of them should turn around and take down that person as soon as possible…..

One of them turned his head back and happened to see Shen Dongqing pressing closer with a fierce violence, and any ideas of counterattacking were immediately tossed to the back of his mind as he focused on running away hastily.

However, the cold storage was only so big in size; there was not much space for them to run around in to begin with. In the end, each and every one of them was caught by Shen Dongqing. He used his legs to kick down two of them and used his hands to seize the other two, which left him in a dilemma because he did not know how to arrange these people. 

He glanced left and right before his eyes were brightened.

This cold storage was meant for storing food and all the walls had meat hooks. Without any suspense, Shen Dongqing plucked off their down jackets and hung them on the hooks like they were slabs of meat.

In an act of kindness, he left them with their other articles of clothing before he wrapped himself up with their down jackets from head to toe. Then, he settled himself in front of the firepit comfortably to warm himself up, no longer cold in the least.

Not long after, the dried meat became frozen meat. 

* * *

On the other end, Zhou Wenyan had just returned after collecting some cold medicine and he did not see Shen Dongqing. Upon internalising that fact, he immediately understood that something was not right and he hurriedly went out in search of him.

However, he was met with the attendants’ placid attitudes, and no matter what he asked, they would always reply with  “I do not know’ and ‘I am uncertain’.

When he received the same results after asking two attendants,  Zhou Wenyan’s complexion darkened. He clutched the third attendant’s neck and slammed him against the wall in a direct manner. 

“I’ll ask you one more time.” His voice was squeezed through clenched teeth, “Do you know it or not?”

Although he was aware that Shen Dongqing was not in any danger, he could not help but worry.

The attendant had never met a player who dared to act against him and he was scared silly as a result. After recovering from his shock, he noticed that black mist was winding around Zhou Wenyan’s palm which caused him to shudder and change his attitude instantaneously. With an extremely sycophantic smile, he said: “It’s over there, I’ll bring you over—”

Zhou Wenyan relaxed his hand. 

The attendant’s legs softened and he almost fell to the ground. As he wiped away some of the sweat forming at his forehead, he led the guest over to the location in a brisk walk that was short of running.

It was too terrifying.

It was almost like he wanted to devour him alive.

The attendant marked Zhou Wenyan as a person who should not be reckoned with internally. 

“It’s, It’s here.” The attendant brought him into the depths of the hotel where the cold storage was located.

As an employee in the hotel, the attendant knew every movement of the guests staying here and he knew that a particular guest had been deceived into entering the cold storage. Furthermore, the time he had spent there was not short and he was most definitely frozen into a popsicle.

As he was thinking, he took a step back silently so he would not be dragged into the situation.

Zhou Wenyan examined the huge doors that reached the ceiling and tried pushing at it. 

The door had been locked.

Hence, he grabbed hold of the huge lock hanging in front of the door and allowed the black mist from his hand to entangle with it and forcibly snap it off. When it was done, he pushed the door open.

Behind, the attendant touched his neck fearfully as he poked his head in with great caution.

However, what greeted him was the guest – who was supposed to be a popsicle by now – sitting by the firepit with several down jackets wrapped around him as he roasted a few skewers. 

Hearing the movement, Shen Dongqing turned his head back to see Zhou Wenyan, and he waved his hand happily, “Why are you here? Come over and eat some roast meat with me.”

This cold storage was meant for food and there were a lot of ready-made products. After waiting for a long time, Shen Dongqing decided he might as well take some of the skewers to roast and they were almost done by now, such that the oil formed from the fats were sizzling as they dripped downwards.

Zhou Wenyan strode over and sat by Shen Dongqing’s side, even fixing his clothes for him. “Why did you come here?”

Shen Dongqing replied, “Someone tricked me over.” 

Zhou Wenyan’s fingers tapped lightly. “And where are they now?”

Shen Dongqing looked over his shoulder but those dried meat and Lisa had vanished without a trace, and only the fire was still burning.

“They’re gone.” Shen Dongqing said without care, “Actually, they’re quite nice. They gave me clothes to wear, a fire to sit by and they even asked me if I wanted some soup to drink. It’s just that the soup was a little strange so I didn’t want to drink it.”

He gave a verdict: “They’re all good people.” 

Meanwhile, the attendant standing outside, listening, comprehended everything. He watched as the so-called “good people” climbed across the ceiling, all hard and stiff after being frozen into popsicles, and judging from their appearances, they looked like they were fleeing after being defeated.

It has been hard on you……

This was the attendant’s first thought, followed by the conviction that he should never offend these two big bosses.

Once Shen Dongqing’s mutton skewers were roasted, he gave Zhou Wenyan a good portion of it. The taste of the mutton was not bad; the meat was not greasy, it had the slight taste of game and it was quite tasty. 

The pair ate all their meat skewers before they left.

Originally, Shen Dongqing wanted to return the large pile of down jackets he was holding, but upon seeing the attendant standing at the door, he chucked him all the clothes instead.

He was even particularly polite as he said: “It should belong to the guests here. They thought I was too cold so they lent their clothes to me first. I’ll be troubling you to help me return it back to them, thank you.”

With a rigid expression, the attendant accepted the clothing: “S-Sure.” 

He recalled the group of people who were fleeing in a panic. Why could he not perceive any “willingness” to lend their clothes on their part?

But who cared if it was lent or not; whatever the big boss said was the truth.

Zhou Wenyan asked: “Do you know whose clothes they are?”

The attendant answered honestly: “They belong to the new batch of guests that arrived today.” 

Zhou Wenyan: “Where do they stay?”

The question placed the attendant in a difficult spot, “This…” pertained to the privacy of their guests.

Just as he said that, a sudden chill ran down his back, causing him to throw the professional ethics of not exposing his guests’ private matters to the back of his mind as he sung another tune: “They’re staying on the 14th floor.”

Zhou Wenyan pieced it together. 

The new batch of guests today should be the players who had died in the “minigame”. According to the game’s words, they should be unreconciled to the fact that someone had escaped with their lives and they had chased them to the hotel, wanting to drag the remaining survivors down to Hell with them.

However… the players who managed to die in the “riddle minigame” did not boast a high intelligence quotient, was the game certain that they could harm others?

Could this hotel be a garbage recycling station, and those idiots happened to be recyclable trash?

Zhou Wenyan thought absentmindedly. 

Shen Dongqing tugged on his arm: “Let’s go and explore.”

He was a little bloated from the food he just ate, he needed to digest some before eating again.

Zhou Wenyan reminded him: “Eat your medicine first.”

Shen Dongqing: “Is it bitter?” 

Zhou Wenyan read through the description of the cold medicine carefully. “It’s bitter.”

Shen Dongqing’s face scrunched in reply. “Can I choose not to eat it?”

Zhou Wenyan felt the urge to laugh.

His Xiao Dongqing, who was unafraid of everything, was unexpectedly afraid of bitterness. It was really… too cute. 

Despite laughing at his predicament, he still said heartlessly, “No.”

* * *

This vacation hotel had been standing for far too long, and every interior detail bore the signs of the long years.

The pair left the remote cold storage and returned back to the large hall of the hotel. 

Zhou Wenyan requested a glass of warm water from the lady at the front desk to help Shen Dongqing swallow the medicine with water.

Shen Dongqing continued to stall because he did not want to eat the medicine at all.

However, he had no choice in the matter, since  Zhou Wenyan kept staring at him, and no deception would pass under his gaze.

Zhou Wenyan coaxed him, “You’ll be fine once you eat it.” 

Shen Dongqing glared at the pill in his palm with deeply ingrained and long-standing resentment, and he refused to swallow it even after a long time.

Just as Shen Dongqing was having a stiff face-off with his cold medicine, another batch of guests had arrived through the main entrance of the hotel and they attracted his attention.

These guests were strange. In this sort of weather, they were wearing thick clothing that covered up every inch of their skin and even their hands were not spared from gloves, in fact their only exposed feature was their indifferent eyes.

Under the bell boy’s guidance, the guests walked past the sofa Shen Dongqing was seated on. 

In spite of the cold that Shen Dongqing had, he could still smell the scent of scorched flesh.

Shen Dongqing: “No burnt rice straw.”

When they came in, the bell boy had burnt rice straw on the stairs leading to the entrance, but the guests that just arrived did not receive such treatment.

Zhou Wenyan: “Don’t change the topic, eat your medicine first.” 

Shen Dongqing pinched his nose, finally swallowing his medicine in one decisive gulp. Before he could taste the bitterness, another hard fruit candy was pushed into his mouth.

It was watermelon flavoured.

The sweet taste suffused through his entire mouth cavity, overshadowing the bitter medicine.

Shen Dongqing’s eyes brightened: “It’s not bitter anymore.” 

Zhou Wenyan ruffled his hair, “Then eat your medicine obediently.”

Shen Dongqing drooped again.

* * *

Afterwards, the pair explored the entire hotel once. 

The long-standing hotel had weathered through the years for the scars of age could be perceived in every decoration and looking at them for an extended period of time caused some vision fatigue. When the pair had seen most of what the hotel had to offer, they decided to go back to the veranda on the second floor of the hotel to have lunch.

Shen Dongqing flipped open the thick menu and pointed at various dishes. “This, and that, I want all of it.”

He wanted to try all the food once.

Once they were done ordering, Shen Dongqing leaned against the periphery of the veranda to look downwards. 

The strange thing he noticed was that, apart from the guests who arrived just now, no other guest had stepped foot into the hotel.

Without having to wait too long, the attendant brought the first soup they were supposed to have before their meal.

“Cream of mushroom soup……” The attendant smiled as he served the soup. However, when he took in the two guests that were seated in front of him, his smile stiffened instantaneously.

Why was it these two again!? 

Shen Dongqing turned his head back, “Oh, it’s you.”

The employee who helped him return those clothes.

Attendant: “Yes, it’s me.”

He placed down the soup, pivoting his foot in an attempt to flee, but before he could take a single step, he heard a “Wait” sound from behind him. Thus, he could only stop and twist his head back. 

“Do you need anything?”

Zhou Wenyan spoke with a friendly tone, “I have something I would like to ask you.”

The attendant was not deceived by his outward appearance. He mustered his courage and asked: “What’s the matter?”

Zhou Wenyan: “Rice straw.” 

Attendant: “Huh?”

Zhou Wenyan: “Why did you burn the rice straw?”

A trace of loss flitted past the attendant’s eyes before he said: “It’s a custom.”

As Shen Dongqing sipped on his soup, he said: “Why did the new guests not require it?” 

The attendant had a moment of indecision but he eventually replied: “…… Because you are different from them.”

Zhou Wenyan did not continue asking what the difference was.

The reason being that the guests who arrived today were all dead people while they were players. Most importantly, they belonged to the living.

Zhou Wenyan asked two more questions. For instance, what rules and regulations had to be followed in the hotel. 

Under the circumstances where his life was under threat, the attendant spilled everything he knew. However, it was undeniable that he was just a small employee and he was not privy to much and he could only divulge to them fragmented information.

As he was interrogating, the other players chanced upon the scene where the attendant was standing by their side respectfully as he answered all the queries he had as they walked past the veranda.

The other players became sour right away.

It was not that they did not ask the employees in the hotel. 

It was just that all these employees had given them the cold shoulder; they replied with an “I don’t know” to every question and they refused to leak a single bit of information. Furthermore, owing to their worries about triggering some kind of plot, they did not dare to threaten the employees with any deadly measures.

They would have felt nothing had it been someone else, but in what respect did these two differ from them exactly?

The NPC was akin to an obedient sheep, allowing them to do whatever they wanted.

Truly, the comparison between people could anger one to death. 

If the attendant could hear what they were saying in their heart, he would definitely say this:

Hehe, if all of you had witnessed the two big bosses’ actions, you would definitely be more obedient than he was. Afterall, you belong to the living.

The other players exchanged looks.

Since someone could coerce the NPCs into speaking, why don’t they patronise and gain some clues for free? 

Translating words into action, Puffy Skirt stepped into the fray and squeezed out a saccharine smile, “Older brothers, what are you talking about?”

With such an interruption, the attendant took the opportunity to slink away speedily.

Zhou Wenyan directly ignored Puffy Skirt while Shen Dongqing was still cutting his steak earnestly. The skies and earth might be vast, but there was nothing more important than food to him.

Puffy Skirt found it difficult to maintain her smile but she would refuse to relent easily. Thus, she persisted in her efforts and used a sweet and cloying voice to call out to them again: “Older brothers?” 

This made Shen Dongqing react by pointing to himself: “Me?”

Puffy Skirt: “Yeah, what were you talking about just now?”

Shen Dongqing thought about it before he corrected her: “The order of seniority isn’t right.”

Puffy Skirt went still, “Seniority? What seniority?” 

Shen Dongqing answered her in a matter-of-factly tone. “I’m older than you by a thousand years, you shouldn’t be calling me older brother. It would be more appropriate if you addressed me as ancestor.”

When all was said and done, being older than her by a thousand years was still ten full centuries.

Puffy Skirt: ?

What does he mean by ancestor?