Edited—

Xiaomi’s hair fell out very quickly. In the blink of an eye, she had turned completely bald.

And that black mass of hair originally crouched on her shoulder, after landing on the ground, instantly split into several clumps and began squirming toward the people standing around.

Zhou Jiayu saw the situation turning bad and hurriedly took out the talisman papers he had prepared long ago. He rushed to the front of the crowd and slapped the talisman papers in his hand onto the squirming black hair-masses.

The moment the talisman papers made contact with the hair-masses, a sizzling sound rang out. White smoke rose from the hair-masses, emitting a smell of burnt protein. Almost everyone froze upon seeing this sudden scene. The boy standing next to Shen Yiqiong said in terror, “Shen Fu, what’s wrong with your idiot friend?”

Shen Yiqiong knew that Zhou Jiayu must have seen something and said, “Calm down. He’s not an idiot!”

“How could he not be an idiot!” Another person reacted very intensely upon hearing this. “I saw him tilting his head and drooling with my own eyes. Who can pretend to be an idiot that convincingly?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Friend, those words are a bit heartbreaking.

“He really isn’t an idiot.” Shen Yiqiong quickly explained. “This Xiaomi isn’t normal. We’re here to investigate this matter!”

“You! You!” Xiaomi, who had originally been lying on the ground crying, also heard Shen Yiqiong’s words. She slowly climbed up from the ground, her expression terrifyingly ferocious. “Do you know what you’ve done!”

Honestly speaking, her appearance at this moment should have been quite frightening, but Zhou Jiayu’s attention was drawn to her bare, bald skull. The hair there was already gone, smooth and shiny like a freshly boiled egg. The light shining on it was actually reflecting.

Xiaomi said, “I’m going to kill you all, I’m going to kill you all!”

Shen Yiqiong, this little bastard, actually dared to retort. “How are you going to kill us? By reflecting light off your head to blind us to death?”

The moment these words came out, everyone’s faces showed expressions of wanting to laugh but not daring to. Laughing didn’t seem appropriate for the atmosphere, but not laughing… it really was quite funny…

Of course, Xiaomi, the person involved, definitely couldn’t understand Shen Yiqiong’s sense of humor. Her expression instantly became even more terrifying. Her facial features were practically twisting as she said, “Hehehehe, I can’t kill you, but they can kill you. No, not just you, but all of us, everyone!”

As if echoing Xiaomi’s words, the glass of the window began making crisp shattering sounds, as if it could no longer withstand the dirty things about to rush in from outside.

Zhou Jiayu said very calmly, “Everyone, don’t be afraid. Come get some talisman papers from me. Three per person. The dirty things are about to come in. Let’s form a circle with the talisman papers!”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Damn, when did you prepare all this stuff?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I prepared them long ago—did you really think I was intellectually disabled?”

Shen Yiqiong let out an awkward laugh and said that he looked quite cute when playing the idiot.

Zhou Jiayu glared at him and told him to stand under the light and not run into dark corners, or else no one would be able to see him later.

Shen Yiqiong: “…”

The enemy hadn’t even arrived yet, and the two of them had already begun cruelly hurting each other, every strike fatal.

Everyone’s nerves were taut, all their attention focused on the window.

With a crisp crack of shattering glass, what was meant to come finally came. The glass covered in countless bloody handprints finally broke. A violent wind blew into the room. Zhou Jiayu watched with his own eyes as seven black shadows crawled in through the window. These black shadows crawled very fast, reaching everyone in the blink of an eye. Zhou Jiayu said, “Don’t panic. Let’s assess the situation first!”

The few of them stood in the small circle formed by the talisman papers, not daring to move a muscle. They watched as the black shadows drew closer and closer, about to make contact with the talisman papers.

But just as they were about to approach the talisman papers, the movements of the black shadows suddenly slowed. They seemed to truly fear those bright yellow talisman papers with cinnabar drawings. Each one stopped outside, not advancing another step.

However, at this moment, Xiaomi, who had been lying on the ground, suddenly attacked, pouncing toward Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong.

Zhou Jiayu dodged to the side. Shen Yiqiong was caught squarely by Xiaomi. He said, “Damn, what are you doing!”

“Kill you!” Xiaomi’s expression was twisted to the extreme. She hugged Shen Yiqiong’s waist tightly, trying to push him toward the black shadows. Zhou Jiayu saw this and hurriedly grabbed Shen Yiqiong’s hand. “Yiqiong!”

Shen Yiqiong frantically slapped a talisman paper onto Xiaomi’s shiny bald forehead, only to discover that the talisman paper had no effect. He immediately understood that Xiaomi still seemed to count as a human for now; he just didn’t know why her strength was so great.

“Fuck! Let go, or I really will beat you to death!” Zhou Jiayu couldn’t help but curse.

“Go ahead and beat me to death!” Xiaomi refused to let go no matter what. She said, “Even if I die here today, I’m taking you all down with me!”

Hearing Xiaomi’s words, Zhou Jiayu knew this matter couldn’t be resolved peacefully. So with one hand pulling Shen Yiqiong, the other searched everywhere for something that could be used as a weapon. Who knew that the moment he turned his head, he heard a loud bang, and then the force in his hand loosened. Shen Yiqiong was directly pulled back by him.

Zhou Jiayu turned around and saw a scene that left him dumbstruck. Xiaomi was lying on the ground covered in blood, looking like she had lost consciousness. And standing before her was a girl holding a stool. This was that number two girl who had previously looked trembling and very timid. At this moment, her face was covered in tears as she whimpered, “Go die, you pervert! Pervert!”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Who said women are inferior to men?

Xiaomi lay on the ground, but those seven black shadows were still surrounding them. Although they were unwilling to approach, they showed no intention of leaving either.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Hold on for now. We can do this!”

Shen Yiqiong pulled open his clothes to look and, unsurprisingly, saw several bloody fingerprints on his waist. From the location of the injuries, one could tell just how strong Xiaomi’s strength had been. If Zhou Jiayu hadn’t used all his strength to pull him back, he would probably have been forcefully pushed out of the circle made of talisman papers long ago.

If they could wait here until Lin Zhushui returned, that could be considered a kind of victory. But sometimes, the development of events clearly wasn’t as beautiful as Zhou Jiayu imagined.

Xiaomi, who had been hit on the head until she was covered in blood by the number two girl, slowly climbed up from the ground. This time, there was no expression on her face. Her cheeks were covered in fresh blood, making her look even more terrifying.

Zhou Jiayu saw that hair monster originally crouched on Xiaomi’s back again. After that hair monster fell down, it had been cowering in the corner of the wall. Now it slowly squirmed its body and arrived at Xiaomi’s side once more.

Zhou Jiayu was wondering what it was going to do when he saw that a black sharp knife had suddenly appeared in Xiaomi’s hand. This sharp knife was about half a meter long, flashing with cold light, looking extremely sharp. One didn’t even need to think to know what kind of situation it would be if it chopped into a person.

Xiaomi was expressionless, carrying the knife and walking step by step toward them.

“Where did that knife come from?!” Shen Yiqiong went crazy. Talisman papers were useful against ghosts but completely useless against humans. Xiaomi’s strength was so great, and she was carrying a knife like this. She could probably chop them up like watermelons.

“We can’t stay here anymore!” Zhou Jiayu said. “Let’s run!”

Shen Yiqiong said, “How do we run—”

Zhou Jiayu said, “Open the door! Run outside!” He had given everyone talisman papers. Carrying them on their bodies should be fine. Right now they had no weapons. Going head-to-head with Xiaomi would definitely end badly.

By now, the knocking sounds had stopped. Zhou Jiayu gritted his teeth and told them to stay put for now. He held talisman papers in his hand and slowly moved his body out of the circle.

Sure enough, when holding the talisman papers, those black shadows didn’t dare approach him. Zhou Jiayu rushed to the door, directly opened it, and said, “Hurry over. Hold the talisman papers in your hands and run downstairs!”

The few people in the room had originally been somewhat hesitant, but seeing Xiaomi carrying the knife and about to reach them, they all reluctantly moved their feet toward the door.

Zhou Jiayu was the last to leave. Before leaving, he glanced back and saw that Xiaomi was slowly walking this way. Her walking speed wasn’t fast. That long sharp knife dragged on the ground, making an ear-piercing noise that sounded especially unnerving.

“Let’s go!” Shen Yiqiong pulled Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu nodded and followed Shen Yiqiong running toward the other end of the corridor.

To go downstairs, one could either take the elevator or the stairs. Although the elevator was fast, it didn’t feel safe. Who knew if Xiaomi might suddenly stop it and trap them inside? Although the stairs were slower, at least they offered strong mobility. If they really encountered Xiaomi, they could still go around her.

When Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong ran to the stairwell, they could no longer see the people from the room. Shen Yiqiong cursed, “Wow, these people really have no humanity. They didn’t even wait for us.”

Zhou Jiayu heard that ear-piercing sound of a blade scraping across the floor again and knew Xiaomi was chasing them. He said, “Stop talking. Hurry downstairs.”

The two took a breath and began rushing downstairs, one floor after another. The dim stairwell was like a labyrinth with no end in sight.

Zhou Jiayu had been paying attention to the floor numbers in the stairwell. Watching the numbers gradually decrease from eighteen, he felt relieved in his heart.

“I’m exhausted.” Shen Yiqiong looked up and saw that they had already run to the third floor. “Almost there, almost there. Once we get out, I’ll call the police and have that bastard Xiaomi eat prison food.”

The two had used every ounce of strength they had while fleeing for their lives, so their speed was naturally quite fast. By the time they reached the second floor, both Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong were gasping for breath. Their feet were also a bit weak; they felt their stamina couldn’t keep up.

He hadn’t expected going downstairs to be this tiring. As Zhou Jiayu thought this, he and Shen Yiqiong supported themselves on the stair railing and slowly moved toward the first floor.

However, when they turned the corner in the stairwell and looked at the number for the next floor down, the smiles on their faces instantly froze.

Where the number one should have been hanging, there were instead two glaring numbers—eighteen.

They had looped back.

And at the same time, the door to the stairwell was slowly pushed open. Xiaomi carrying the knife appeared in the doorway. Her skirt was stained with blood dripping from her face. Behind her followed seven squirming shadows. Xiaomi grinned at Zhou Jiayu, her voice extremely sharp: “Found you.”

Shen Yiqiong cursed, and he and Zhou Jiayu turned and ran together.

Going upstairs wasn’t as easy as going downstairs. The two had only climbed two floors when they felt their bodies growing heavier and heavier, to the point where they could barely move their feet.

“Something’s wrong.” Shen Yiqiong was panting. “My stamina isn’t this bad. It’s only eighteen floors… and we were going downstairs. I can’t do it, I can’t climb anymore.”

Zhou Jiayu swallowed. He wasn’t doing too well either. He said, “How about we go inside this floor and hide?”

Shen Yiqiong took a look and saw that he and Zhou Jiayu were on the third floor. He nodded and agreed to Zhou Jiayu’s suggestion.

So the two left the stairwell and ran wildly toward the third floor.

The third floor was also a guest room floor. The corridor was very long. After running up, Zhou Jiayu discovered that the doors to most of the guest rooms on the corridor were actually half-open. He said, “Why are all the doors open?”

Shen Yiqiong also saw this. He reached out to wipe the sweat from his forehead, panting as he said, “Open… open?”

Indeed, all the room doors were open. As they passed by from the side, they could still see the scenery inside through the cracks. Zhou Jiayu glanced inside but didn’t discover anything abnormal.

“Where do you think we are?” Shen Yiqiong ran forward and said, “Why does it feel like we’re no longer in the original hotel?”

But Zhou Jiayu suddenly thought of something. He hesitated and said, “Wait, do you remember what happened with Xu Jian’s soul leaving his body?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “I remember. What about it?”

Zhou Jiayu observed his surroundings, his tone carrying some suspicion: “What do you think… could our souls have already left our bodies too?”

Shen Yiqiong was startled by Zhou Jiayu’s words, but after thinking carefully, what Zhou Jiayu said seemed very reasonable. After all, if they were in the real world, how could there be a situation where running from the first floor directly brought them to the eighteenth floor?

“Then how do we confirm it?” Shen Yiqiong said, “Otherwise I’ll stab you with a knife and see if you bleed?”

Zhou Jiayu was shocked: “Why isn’t it me stabbing you?”

Shen Yiqiong laughed very honestly: “Because my strength is small.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…”

But at this moment, there was actually a quite convenient method to determine where they were.

Zhou Jiayu said in his mind: “Jiba, Jiba.”

Before long, Jiba’s voice came out. He seemed to be sleeping and slowly yawned: “What’s up?”

Zhou Jiayu said, “I haven’t heard you speak in a long time. What are you doing?”

Jiba said, “I suspect Lin Zhushui can hear my voice… If he discovers there’s a me in your brain, will he send you to be dissected?”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Having a black Jiba in his brain did indeed look quite terrifying.

Jiba said, “What’s up? What did you guys encounter?”

Zhou Jiayu briefly explained the situation and then asked Jiba whether they were still in reality or if their souls had already left their bodies.

Jiba said, “You want to determine this? Simple. Just find any mirror and see if you have a reflection in it. Or if you have a phone on you, you can take a photo of yourself and see if it can capture your appearance.”

Hearing this, Zhou Jiayu took out his phone from his pocket, preparing to open the front camera.

Shen Yiqiong was startled when he saw Zhou Jiayu’s action: “Wow, you’re taking selfies at a time like this? Guan’er, why are you so narcissistic?”

Zhou Jiayu said irritably, “I’m just trying to see if our souls have left our bodies—”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Oh…”

The front camera appeared before the two of them. But in the camera, there was only empty space, completely unable to see the two people standing in the corridor. Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong, who should have appeared in the frame, seemed to have turned invisible in the image.

Although he had been mentally prepared, Shen Yiqiong still sucked in a cold breath: “We really have left our bodies?”

Zhou Jiayu nodded.

Shen Yiqiong looked at Zhou Jiayu.

Zhou Jiayu said, “What are you looking at me for?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Didn’t you leave your body once before? You should be a senior with more experience than me… I-I’m still a first-timer.”

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Why the hell are you blushing?

However, previous experience wasn’t of much use. Zhou Jiayu was just about to say something to Shen Yiqiong when he heard that sound of a sharp weapon dragging across the floor behind them again. This sound was telling them—Xiaomi had come again.

Shen Yiqiong said with a complicated tone, sighing that this was the first time a girl had chased him this tightly.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Shen Yiqiong, can you please shut up?

The two discussed it and were just planning to go around in circles with Xiaomi on this floor when they suddenly heard a burst of footsteps.

Those footsteps came from above them. It wasn’t a sound that one person could make; rather, it sounded like a group of people moving their feet.

“Someone upstairs?” Zhou Jiayu looked up at the ceiling.

“I heard it too. Could it be them?” Shen Yiqiong added, “The ones who played the game with us…”

When they came down earlier, Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong had walked a bit slower and separated from that group. He just didn’t know where those few people had run off to by now. But Xiaomi had been staring at them the whole time chasing them, so those few people should be safe for now.

Zhou Jiayu said, “Go up and take a look?”

Shen Yiqiong nodded.

Xiaomi didn’t seem to plan on changing targets. She dragged the knife and followed them relentlessly. As for the reason, Zhou Jiayu attributed it to Shen Yiqiong, feeling that if Shen Yiqiong hadn’t mocked Xiaomi for being bald, Xiaomi wouldn’t have harbored such a grudge and chased the two of them relentlessly.

Shen Yiqiong also reflected on this, saying that in the future he would respect other people’s flaws. After all, she was a girl; being called bald must have been quite upsetting.

Zhou Jiayu said yes, that’s right.

While talking nonsense, the two went around Xiaomi and reached the fourth floor.

The atmosphere on the fourth floor was clearly very different from the third floor. Most of the lights on the corridor were off, carrying a somewhat gloomy air.

Zhou Jiayu discovered that there was actually a conference room at the end of this floor’s corridor too. And he could clearly see that the door to the conference room was half-open. He looked in that direction and said, “Should we go over and take a look?”

Shen Yiqiong said, “Mm… let’s go take a look.”

The two reached an agreement and walked toward the direction of the conference room.

Still some distance from the conference room, Zhou Jiayu heard that kind of footsteps he had heard downstairs again. These footsteps sounded indescribably strange, like a group of people slowly moving their feet.

Both of them involuntarily lightened their movements. They walked to the side of the open conference room door and glanced inside—

However, although he had been mentally prepared, Zhou Jiayu was still startled after clearly seeing the scene inside. In the conference room, countless people stood densely packed. These people slowly moved around the conference table. But what surprised Zhou Jiayu the most was the person sitting cross-legged in the middle of the conference table—it was actually Xu Ruwang’s master, Xu Jian.

Xu Jian seemed to sense Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong’s gazes. He opened his eyes and glared over fiercely. His gaze was sharp. Even someone with a clear conscience like Zhou Jiayu trembled slightly in his heart from being glared at by him.

“Who’s there!” Xu Jian said sternly.

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong exchanged a glance. They stopped hiding, got up, and walked into the conference room. Zhou Jiayu called out, “Master Xu.”

“How are you here?” The question Xu Jian asked was exactly the same as what they wanted to ask. A hint of confusion appeared on his face, as if he was suspicious of Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong’s true identities. “Are you really Lin Zhushui’s disciples Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong?”

Zhou Jiayu nodded obediently: “Yes, Master Xu. Your soul left your body, so Sir accepted the Xu family’s commission and wanted to come find you.”

Hearing this, a hint of embarrassment appeared on Xu Jian’s face, but in less than a moment it turned into righteous confidence: “Hmph, I don’t need him to come help me!”

Zhou Jiayu thought to himself, you’re a burly man even sturdier than Xu Ruwang, so don’t act tsundere. When you act tsundere, it’s really not cute at all, okay? Shen Yiqiong probably thought roughly the same thing; his expression was also somewhat complicated.

“But since he’s the one looking for me, what are you doing running here?” Xu Jian thought of something again. “Coming here isn’t so easy to leave.”

Zhou Jiayu said, “You can’t leave either?”

Xu Jian said, “Of course I can leave, but I can’t.”

Zhou Jiayu was initially a bit puzzled, but he immediately thought of something. He swept his gaze over the people in the room and discovered that most of the people currently circling around Xu Jian had dull expressions, looking like idiots.

Zhou Jiayu pointed at them and said, “Because of these people?”

Xu Jian let out a light sigh and nodded.

Shen Yiqiong said, “These are people? I thought they were ghosts…”

Xu Jian explained briefly: “These are actually people who had one of their souls forcibly extracted. They’re missing one soul and have signed a contract with certain things, which is why they’ve become like this.”

“What happens when a person is missing one soul?” Zhou Jiayu asked.

Xu Jian said, “If it’s just missing one soul, it’s not a big deal. But the contracts they’ve signed are quite troublesome. If you want to nullify them, you must find the locked-away soul and return it.” After saying this, he frowned as if hearing something. “What did you two bring over here?”

Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong both showed embarrassed expressions upon hearing this. Because they had both been a bit excited upon seeing Xu Jian, they had nearly forgotten about Xiaomi who was still chasing them.

Of course, they had forgotten about Xiaomi, but Xiaomi hadn’t forgotten about them. She was carrying the knife and about to arrive.

Zhou Jiayu quickly told Xu Jian about Xiaomi’s situation and asked if he could handle it. If not, he and Shen Yiqiong would find another place to hide.

“Of course I can.” Xu Jian said very proudly upon hearing this. “You can hide inside the room. I can’t leave this place, but if she dares come in, I guarantee she won’t return!”

Only then did Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong breathe a sigh of relief. They entered the room and found a corner to hide in.

Creak… creak… Xiaomi, dragging her knife, slowly walked to the doorway. She slowly poked her head in, seemingly wanting to search for Zhou Jiayu and Shen Yiqiong.

And when Xu Jian inside the room saw Xiaomi, the first thing he said was actually: “How is this dirty thing bald?”

The moment these words came out, Zhou Jiayu clearly saw Xiaomi’s facial expression twist violently.

Zhou Jiayu: “…” Can you please not poke at other people’s sore spots?

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Jiayu: Sir, Sir, I learned a new saying today.

Lin Zhushui: Mm?

Zhou Jiayu: Once a teacher, forever a father.

Lin Zhushui: Good.

Zhou Jiayu: Huh?? Sir, what are you going to do??