Chapter 119
Chapter 119
Qin Song sat on the floor, gasping for air. For a moment, it felt as if every pore on his body had opened up.
After taking a few seconds to recover, he crawled over to the phone and dialed the front desk.
The front desk at this hotel was painfully slow to answer. The line rang for a full half minute before someone finally picked up.
Sweat gathered in Qin Song’s palm, more and more of it, until he could barely keep his grip on the receiver.
At last, the girl at the front desk answered.
“Hello, sir. How may I-”
Qin Song shouted, “Security! Send security up here! Call security!”
The girl at the front desk froze for a second, then said, “Of course, sir. Could you please tell me what kind of trouble you’re having?”
Qin Song stammered incoherently, “Someone… someone is outside my door! Hurry up and get here!”
The receptionist immediately notified security to go upstairs, while Qin Song sat trembling on the floor and waited.
About two minutes later, Qin Song heard footsteps outside, followed by a knock on the door.
He went over and opened it. Two security guards stood in the doorway, one tall and one short.
“Hello, sir. What seems to be the situation?”
Qin Song did not answer. Bracing one hand on the doorframe, he stuck his head out and looked up and down the hallway. Huang Yuanrui was nowhere to be seen.
He swallowed and said, “Check the surveillance footage.”
The taller security guard said apologetically, “I’m sorry, sir, but the cameras on this floor suddenly went down half an hour ago. We’re currently inspecting them and arranging repairs…”
Qin Song stared into his eyes. “What a coincidence. The cameras that just happened to break are the ones on my floor?”
The taller guard nodded helplessly. “What trouble did you run into just now, sir? Is there anything we can help you with?”
Qin Song wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “Go back downstairs for now. Everything’s fine here.”
After closing the door, Qin Song sat on the bed for a while.
He suspected there was something wrong with those two security guards too. Maybe they were not security guards at all, but two people who had died horribly seven days ago.
Today was also the seventh day after their deaths, so they had put on two convincing uniforms and were roaming through the hotel, disguising themselves as living people and joining forces to deceive him.
He knew the thought was completely absurd, but right now he could not stop his mind from going in that direction. His thoughts were no longer able to connect properly.
Qin Song called the front desk again.
“Hello, sir. How may I-”
Qin Song said, “Your surveillance cameras are broken?”
The girl at the front desk replied, “Yes, sir. We’re truly very sorry. When you called the first time, I was busy checking the surveillance system with my colleagues, so I was delayed by a few seconds before answering your call.”
Qin Song slammed the receiver down.
There was no way he could stay in this hotel tonight.
By now it was already half past midnight. After hesitating for a moment, he still called Hu Heng.
The line rang twice before Hu Heng picked up immediately.
“What’s wrong, Old Qin?”
Hu Heng did not sound like he had been startled awake by the call. His voice was perfectly clear.
Qin Song said, “I’ve seen a ghost.”
Hu Heng paused. “…What did you say?”
Qin Song said, “I saw Huang Yuanrui again.”
Hu Heng took a few seconds to react, then asked, “What do you mean… again?”
Qin Song said, “When I was in Singapore, I saw her in my hotel room. I saw her lying on the bed, in the same position she was in when she died. I know that was a hallucination. Just now, I had that same hallucination again. I saw her standing outside my door through the peephole.”
Hu Heng seemed to be frightened by those words. He was silent for a long time.
“Old Qin, and then…”
Qin Song said, “Then… then I called hotel security, but when they got here, there was no one in the hallway. And the surveillance cameras here are broken.”
Hu Heng said, “Change hotels. Don’t stay there tonight.”
Qin Song shut his eyes in pain. “I’m scared I’ll see her no matter where I stay. I’m really suffering right now. I want to die.”
Hu Heng said, “Don’t say that! Old Qin, listen to me. You’ve just been through one blow after another. It’s normal for psychological issues to show up now, do you understand? Right now, it would be normal for you to be abnormal! But this will all pass!”
Qin Song said, “I’m afraid I won’t make it through.”
Hu Heng panicked. “Stop it! I’ll come find you tomorrow!”
Qin Song said nothing.
Hu Heng said, “I’ll send you my address and the door code. Move somewhere else right now!”
Qin Song gave a bitter laugh. “Changing places can help you hide from a person, but not from a ghost.”
Hu Heng said, “You’re losing it. There are no ghosts in this world.”
Qin Song said, “There is one in my own heart.”
Hu Heng coaxed Qin Song like he was soothing a child. “We can talk about all of that later. For now, just go somewhere else.”
Qin Song said wearily, “Fine. Send it to me. I’ll take a cab over.”
After hanging up, Qin Song collapsed onto the bed, sprawled out like a starfish.
Now he felt that there was something wrong with Hu Heng, too.
He had emphasized over and over that he was hallucinating, that there was a ghost in his heart. Obviously, this was not a problem that could be solved by changing locations.
But Hu Heng insisted that he stay somewhere else, as if switching places would stop the hallucinations from appearing. How ridiculous was that?
And it was already very late, yet Hu Heng had picked up the phone immediately, as if he had stayed up all night just waiting for Qin Song to call.
Qin Song felt he had been too naive. Where in this world was there kindness without reason? Hu Heng had treated him well for so many years, but only now did Qin Song feel that there might be more to it than it seemed.
Qin Song began to suspect and scrutinize Hu Heng the way he had suspected everyone else before. Now, he firmly believed that there was no such thing as kindness without a reason in this world – only evil without a reason.
Just then, Hu Heng’s message came through. It contained an address and a string of numbers for the door code.
Qin Song booked a car through a ride-hailing app, packed his things, and prepared to head downstairs. There was a twenty-four-hour convenience store downstairs. He planned to go in and buy a knife or something else sharp.
After he changed locations, if any person – or any thing that wasn’t human – stood grimly at the doorway to scare him again, he would raise his hand and neatly drive the knife into its eye.
It didn’t matter who it was. Even if it was Huang Yuanrui. He had killed someone already, after all. Killing one person and killing several didn’t seem all that different.
He was now convinced that Hu Heng was trying to harm him by telling him to move, but the more convinced he was, the more he wanted to do exactly as Hu Heng said and prove his suspicion right.
He felt furious and grief-stricken. He wanted to know what even more terrifying thing would happen after he changed locations, and what role this good brother of so many years had played in his tragedy.
Qin Song felt he was becoming more and more like Huang Yuanrui. Once he charged into a dead end, he could never find his way out again, his thoughts racing down the path of paranoia without slowing.
He understood that thinking this way was wrong, but he did not know how to correct himself.
Perhaps once you killed a person, you became responsible for carrying the rest of their life. You inherited their thoughts, imitated their personality, until in the end, you became them.
The murderers who were caught all went to prison. The ones who weren’t caught all fled. Qin Song could not even find someone like him to ask whether they had gone through the same terrifying sequence of events after killing someone.
Qin Song finished packing, pulled out the key card, opened the door, and walked out.
After taking two steps toward the elevator, he seemed to suddenly remember something, and slowly came to a stop.
He looked back. The corridor was empty. Under the dim light, there was only his own shadow.
He turned around and walked back to the door of his room.
The doormat was gray. There seemed to be something on it.
Qin Song crouched down and touched it – it was a small pile of dirt.