Chapter 127
Chapter 127
The Withered Hand hurriedly shielded its face, then rolled and crawled away from the trash can.
Judging by the direction it moved, Jiang Li figured the Old Lady had likely hidden behind the door.
Jiang Li could feel a bitter, resentful stare shooting out from behind it-like the Old Lady hated her to the bone.
Jiang Li pretended she hadn’t noticed and kept doing what she was doing.
The Withered Hand gripped the lounge door handle, as if it meant to open the door and leave.
Probably because it had tried to steal a chicken and ended up losing the rice-after being tormented so badly, it was ready to give up.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jiang Li saw the Withered Hand resting on the handle, hesitating for a long time.
The Old Lady seemed unwilling to let it go.
She’d planned to come in and make Jiang Li suffer a little, but instead she was the one who’d paid the price.
The Withered Hand paused on the handle for a moment. In the end, it let go-and crept back in again.
At that moment, Jiang Li was standing by the bed, straightening the quilt.
The Withered Hand moved behind Jiang Li once more.
This time, the Old Lady had gotten smarter. She didn’t plan to attack up close.
A close-quarters attack was too easy to expose-and the one who’d suffer would only be herself.
Better to grab a weapon and ambush from a distance.
The Withered Hand crept up to the bedside table and quietly stole a glass tumbler.
Then it shifted behind her, lined it up with Jiang Li’s head, and smashed down viciously.
With a loud *thunk*.
The glass struck the back of Jiang Li’s head.
But Jiang Li, still tidying the quilt, acted as if she couldn’t feel a thing-there wasn’t the slightest reaction.
The Withered Hand hung suspended in midair, blanking out for a second.
Then it went and stole another glass.
Catching Jiang Li off guard, the Withered Hand raised the cup again and slammed it into the back of her head a second time.
The moment it hit, it immediately darted into the bathroom to hide.
The Withered Hand clung to the bathroom doorframe, carefully watching its victim-Jiang Li-for a reaction.
But it was very Aberration-like.
Other than a dent sunk into the back of her head, Jiang Li-still folding the quilt-showed no reaction at all.
The Old Lady started to feel something was off.
She was just about to go out and take a closer look when a hand from behind… slowly came down on her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Jiang Li’s voice sounded.
The Old Lady jolted so hard her whole body visibly shook.
She turned around-and saw a face that looked exactly like the Service Staff member who’d been folding the quilt!
“Ah!! A Specter!!…”
The instant the Old Lady opened her mouth, Jiang Li snapped to the source of the sound and stuffed a rag into it.
The Mirror Person, which had been folding the quilt, heard the commotion behind it.
It immediately pulled out the hemp rope it had prepared and rushed over, working together with Jiang Li to capture the Old Lady.
With the Mirror Person in front and Jiang Li behind, they moved swiftly, winding the hemp rope around the Old Lady and tying her to a chair.
“Old hag, fine, you hit me with a cup! But you actually hit me twice?” the Mirror Person complained.
It rubbed the dented back of its head, hands on hips, indignant.
Jiang Li went to the side, grabbed a plastic bag, pulled it over the Old Lady’s head, and tied it tight.
The Old Lady’s facial features immediately showed up clearly through the transparent film.
Just to be safe, Jiang Li tore two small holes in the plastic bag where the Old Lady’s mouth and nose were.
“Talk. What were you doing sneaking into my room?” Jiang Li pulled the rag from the Old Lady’s mouth.
The Old Lady didn’t answer head-on. Her voice trembled as she asked, “Y-you two… are you human or Specters…?”
Jiang Li smiled and bent down. “We’re Evil Ghosts. If you don’t answer my question properly, I’ll eat you right now.”
The Old Lady seemed to believe it. She stammered, “D-don’t, don’t, don’t! Don’t eat me! I’m just an old bag of bones-my meat won’t even taste good…”
“She asked you a question. Why did you come in here?!” The Mirror Person knocked her on the head.
The Old Lady hurriedly said, “I… I came to get revenge for my granddaughter, Ran Xinxin. Yesterday, you made her get blown away by the wind-she fell and broke both her legs.”
Jiang Li’s expression faltered.
So this Old Lady who’d tried to ambush her… was actually Ran Xinxin’s grandmother?
She hadn’t expected them to be family.
“The people on this floor… they aren’t all your relatives, are they?” Jiang Li felt that was entirely possible.
The Old Lady shook her head. “Other than that monster in 206, everyone else is our family. We all came here on vacation.”
Jiang Li didn’t care about their vacation plans.
However, she was very interested in the “monster” the Old Lady had mentioned.
“Isn’t Guest 206 quite nice? How did she become a monster?” Jiang Li asked the Old Lady.
The Old Lady thought for a moment and said, “Let me put it this way.
One night, I went into the wrong room and accidentally pushed open the door to 206.
As soon as I entered, I saw that woman from 206… She kicked away the stool and hung herself from the rafters!
But the next day… she came back to life. You tell me, isn’t she a monster?
As long as that monster in 206 is still alive, my family will be killed by her sooner or later!”
This rhetoric from the Old Lady was likely the reason they were targeting Guest 206.
Both factions wanted the other side dead.
Both sides believed the other was the monster threatening their safety.
…Wait.
Jiang Li was suddenly startled.
Didn’t this mean that both factions considered themselves “human”?!
This entire family felt they were normal people and the other party was a monster.
Meanwhile, Guest 206 also felt she was a normal person and the family were the monsters!
Jiang Li furrowed her brows, pondering the situation.
She couldn’t determine yet whether the Girl from 206 was actually human.
But as for this family…
Jiang Li lifted her eyelids and glanced at the Old Lady.
She thought of the Old Lady’s granddaughter, Ran Xinxin.
Yesterday, Ran Xinxin clearly had an Aberration item in her possession.
Therefore, this family was more likely to be Aberrations themselves!
However, when Jiang Li beat Ran Xinxin yesterday, the girl had acted as if she were in great pain.
Aberrations don’t feel pain.
But if an Aberration mistakenly believes it is human, then it’s hard to say…
If an Aberration’s subconscious mind believes it hasn’t died yet,
Then when it witnesses an attack, it will subconsciously use its memories from when it was alive to project a sensation of pain onto itself.
In psychology, this is known as “psychological suggestion.”
This further corroborated the fact that this group of Aberrations had a blurred “self-perception.”
Thinking of this, Jiang Li took a strip of cloth and blindfolded the Old Lady’s eyes.
She took out a pen and used the cold tip to write on the Old Lady’s arm.
“I’m cutting you with a knife. Does it hurt?” Jiang Li asked.
The Old Lady hissed in pain, and tears immediately welled up, wetting the blindfold.
The Old Lady nodded frantically, her voice old and raspy:
“It hurts! It hurts so much… Please, spare this Old Woman. I’ve told you everything I know…”
The Old Lady began to sob and wail.
Jiang Li withdrew the pen tip and instead went to the fruit plate to pick up a small knife.
She pulled up the sleeve on the Old Lady’s other arm. “Don’t worry, I won’t use a knife this time. I’m just going to write a few words on your arm.”
The Old Lady quickly nodded in agreement.
Jiang Li took the small knife and carved a long gash into the Old Lady’s arm, from which thick black blood flowed.
“What did I write?” Jiang Li asked her.
The Old Lady replied, “It should be… the number ‘1’.”
“Does it hurt? I didn’t use any force with the pen tip,” Jiang Li said with a smile.
The Old Lady shook her head. “No, it doesn’t hurt.”
Jiang Li pulled both of the Old Lady’s sleeves back down.
“Alright, you can go now.” Jiang Li untied the ropes for the Old Lady. “Don’t come looking for trouble with me again. I can see you all, understand?”
The Old Lady nodded repeatedly. “I understand, I understand.”
Under Jiang Li’s watchful eye, the Old Lady used her withered hand to undo the lock and left the room.
As of now, Jiang Li could confirm that this family had indeed “passed away.”
They were the true monsters of the second floor.
This family didn’t believe they were dead at all.
On the contrary, they joined forces to bully Guest 206, believing they were “ridding the people of a menace.”
Thinking of this, a solution began to sprout in Jiang Li’s mind.
Jiang Li remembered that Guest 206’s request was to eliminate these things on the second floor.
If Jiang Li presented evidence to let these monsters know that they were actually long dead,
Would their voluntary departure after learning the truth count as another form of elimination?