Chapter 99
Chapter 99
Lili’s laughter suddenly died away. As if something had occurred to her, she looked at Wei Sen and the others with a strange, unsettling gaze.
“Speaking of which, you all missed lunch. You must be hungry by now. Why don’t I go make you some dumplings?”
Everyone instantly went on alert.
Check-in Rules, Article Three: Lunch is from 12:00 to 12:30. The inn only provides food during mealtimes. No food will be supplied at any other time.
Lunch had long since passed. Just what kind of dumplings was she planning to make for them?!
“Thank you, but we already ate in the village,” Wei Sen declined.
“Really?” Lili blinked suspiciously and looked at Lin Xiaoxue. “What did you eat?”
“Roasted sweet potatoes!” Lin Xiaoxue answered without thinking.
Huang Xinze sucked in a sharp breath. “Little ancestor, why did you answer her…”
“She asked me, so I answered on reflex…” Lin Xiaoxue pouted and explained in a low voice.
Huang Xinze looked at Lili worriedly. What if she realized they were lying?
Wei Sen watched Lili without letting anything show.
People who lied often answered questions too quickly out of nervousness.
Not only did this woman know that, she had deliberately chosen the most simple-minded person among them to question.
She was not simple…
Lili stared at Lin Xiaoxue, her eyes narrowing slightly. A bizarre “kekeke” laugh came from her mouth, and she said in a faint, eerie voice, “Don’t you want to try the dumplings I make? They’re delicious…”
Lin Xiaoxue swallowed, remembering the sauced meat buns from that morning.
“We don’t want any!” Wei Sen refused firmly.
The rules clearly stated that food would not be provided outside mealtimes. That “food” should refer to normal food, which meant the dumplings the innkeeper was talking about now were definitely not normal food. Most likely, the filling was made from Human Fragments too.
Besides, the rules never said they could not refuse the innkeeper’s requests. If they did not want to eat, what was she going to do, stuff the dumplings into their mouths?
Huang Xinze also stepped forward and said, “Beautiful innkeeper, you go ahead and take care of your own business. We’ll entertain ourselves. No need to worry about us.”
After being rejected, Lili’s gaze cooled a few degrees. “In that case, I hope you all enjoy yourselves.”
With that, she turned lightly and slowly went upstairs.
“Whew, that scared me to death!” Lin Xiaoxue let out a breath. “Lying is way too hard!”
“It’s fine now. As expected, this brother of yours is overflowing with righteous energy. Even if I see a ghost, I won’t be scared,” Huang Xinze comforted her.
Wei Sen looked toward Meiya at the front desk. Seeing this, Meiya hurriedly lowered her head.
When Wei Sen had been asking Lili about the village earlier, she had deliberately paid attention to Meiya, who was a villager.
Back then, the moment Meiya heard the question, she had abruptly raised her head, and a flash of panic had crossed her face.
Even now, she still looked flustered, as though she knew something.
“I’ll go ask Meiya. You two wait for me over there first,” Wei Sen said.
“Then I’ll go see if there are any other people in the inn and find out whether we can trade some information,” Huang Xinze said.
Lin Xiaoxue said, “I’m going too!”
“Okay. When you’re done, meet at the first table by the window.”
Wei Sen went to the front desk, and Meiya stood up to greet her as usual.
“How may I help you?”
“You heard our conversation with the innkeeper just now, didn’t you?” Wei Sen got straight to the point.
A trace of nervousness flashed through Meiya’s eyes. She lowered her head and did not answer.
“Do you go back to the village to rest at night?” Wei Sen asked.
“Yes…”
“So you do know what the people in the village are actually guarding against?”
After a long while, Meiya raised her eyes to Wei Sen and said, “In the past few years, there have been a lot of jackals, Wolf, tigers, and leopards in the forest, so everyone has become more vigilant. There’s nothing strange about that.”
Wei Sen raised an eyebrow slightly. “But I saw that well over half the households here keep a black dog. Why black dogs, specifically?”
Meiya stayed silent and did not answer.
Wei Sen’s eyes took on a coaxing glint. Lowering her voice, she went on, “Because black dogs can ward off evil and avert disaster. So for this entire village, what exactly is that ‘evil’ thing?”
Meiya met Wei Sen’s gaze and abruptly took a step back. Shaking her head, she said, “There is no evil thing! There never has been! You can’t trust anything the villagers say! If you want to leave this place alive, all you have to do is follow every rule of the inn!”
Wei Sen hadn’t expected Meiya’s answer to differ from both the village chief’s and the village doctor’s.
Rules could certainly protect people like them, the Order Keeper, but Meiya had said they couldn’t trust anyone in the village. Could that statement itself be trusted?
The way she had denied the existence of an “evil thing” so urgently only made her seem guiltier.
Meiya knew the inside story. And with all the other employees fired, she was the only one who could remain at the inn. Her relationship with Lili couldn’t be that simple either.
Could Meiya be one of the “roles” mentioned in that mountain song?
Unfortunately, it would be difficult to pry anything more out of Meiya for the time being.
With that in mind, Wei Sen stopped pressing her. But in her heart, she was certain that Meiya might become the breakthrough point for achieving a Perfect Clearance.
Based on the current deductions, no matter what the exact conditions for a Perfect Clearance were, they would almost certainly have to uncover the truth behind the entire Instance first.
So the more clues they collected, the better.
Just then, her watch vibrated. It was a message from Huang Xinze in the Green Team group chat.
[Huang Xinze: Come to the hot spring pool. It’s kind of horrifying, so prepare yourselves!]
After reading the message, Wei Sen suddenly thought of something and turned back to Meiya.
“Meiya, did you stay on as an employee here of your own free will?”
Meiya stared blankly at the person in front of her. She had received batch after batch of travelers, but this was the first person who had ever asked her that question.
From Meiya’s expression, Wei Sen had already guessed the answer.
Terrifying things happened at this inn every single day, and Meiya was a living, breathing person. She was not on the same side as Lili, either. If she had a choice, why would she stay at the inn and continue working for a vicious ghost?
So Meiya either had a reason she had no choice but to obey, or she simply had no other way out.
“Maybe we can help each other.” With that, Wei Sen turned to leave. “If you need help, you can come find me anytime.”
Meiya’s lips trembled.
It had always been her asking others if they needed help. She had never imagined that anyone could help her.
But… was she really worth helping?
These tourists from out of town were nothing more than a group of ordinary people. What could they possibly change…
Wei Sen ran into Lin Xiaoxue and two other Red Team girls in the corridor.
“Sister Sen, I met them on the second floor. We were just about to talk things over when we saw Brother Ze’s message,” Lin Xiaoxue said.
“Let’s go. We’ll take a look together.”
The two Red Team women looked grave, as if they had already guessed something.
The group arrived at the hot spring pool. Huang Xinze was standing by the edge, shaking his head.
“Xiaomeng!” The two Red Team girls looked toward the hot spring pool, their faces filled with horror and grief.
In the blood-red hot spring pool, two corpses soaked pale-white floated silently on the surface.
The skin had been peeled from both their faces, so they could only be identified by their clothes. They were none other than Mengsi, the Blue Team member who had appeared here that morning, and Xiaoxiao, the last remaining member of Purple Team.