Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Zhang Qiong’s gaze was fixed on the tightly closed wardrobe doors.
She felt increasingly certain that those two faint sounds had come from inside that massive wardrobe.
Could it really be as Liang He said-that every hotel room was inhabited by invisible “things”?
Zhang Qiong was well-educated and had always excelled in her studies. She was a materialist through and through, never one to believe in the supernatural or ghost stories.
Even if ghosts truly existed in this world, she had always felt that people were far more terrifying. A ghost was merely a loved one whom others longed to see but couldn’t, whereas every living person harbored their own sinister intentions.
Zhang Qiong studied the shape and craftsmanship of the wardrobe, trying her best to appear natural. She made a conscious effort to keep her eyes from drifting toward the narrow gap between the two doors.
If someone really was standing inside that wardrobe, Zhang Qiong would effectively be staring them in the eye through the wood. She was terrified that if she looked through that thin sliver of a gap, she would see a pair of glinting eyes looking back.
Never before had she realized so vividly that a wardrobe was the perfect place to hide a person.
When we play hide-and-seek as children, we always feel that hiding behind a door is too flimsy, and crawling under a bed leaves us covered in dust. You can’t hide behind a chair, and the balcony is too exposed… We search and search, finally ducking into a tall wardrobe, quietly pulling the doors shut, and holding our breath as we wait for our friends to find us.
The wardrobe doors fit perfectly, leaving us safe in the darkness inside.
There are many other square, upright containers suitable for holding a human body.
Like elevators, or coffins.
Zhang Qiong suddenly felt that a coffin and a wardrobe were essentially the same thing. A giant wooden box is a coffin when laid flat, and a wardrobe when stood upright.
In that case, could the sound from inside this wardrobe have come from something other than a living person?
Startled by her own thought, Zhang Qiong lost the patience to wait around for her terrifying imagination to run wild.
She leaped off the bed, dressed quickly, put on her hat, mask, and sunglasses, grabbed her phone, and bolted out the door.
Wrapped up tightly like a secret agent, she sat on a sofa in the lobby to wait for Qin Song.
Not long after she went down, Qin Song arrived at the hotel. However, because she was dressed like someone heading to claim a lottery jackpot, he didn’t recognize her at all. He walked right past her, headed straight for the elevator, and went up to the 6th Floor.
By the time Zhang Qiong realized what had happened, Qin Song’s elevator was already gone. She had no choice but to wait for it to come back down before she could head back up.
Once on the 6th Floor, Zhang Qiong slowly retraced her steps. The further she walked, the more she felt something was wrong-Room 616 had vanished!
She clearly remembered this was the path she had taken when she ran out, so why couldn’t she find 616 now?
She started again from one end of the hallway, looking left and right as she walked to the very end before turning back to search slowly once more.
Halfway back, she finally found 616. As it turned out, one of the “6”s had come loose and was hanging upside down on the door, looking like a “9.” That was why she hadn’t recognized it.
Before Zhang Qiong swiped her card to enter, she glanced at the room across from 616. Directly opposite was Room 618.
She suddenly recalled the sounds she had heard in the hallway earlier while she was still inside her room.
That person seemed to have walked past, then walked back, finally stopping right at the door.
But even if the “8” had come loose, it would still look like an “8” hanging upside down; that wouldn’t mislead anyone.
If he wasn’t looking for 618, then what exactly was he looking for?
When Zhang Qiong opened the door, Qin Song was in the middle of changing clothes, having left the wardrobe door wide open.
Zhang Qiong peered inside sensitively. Only a few hangers dangled in the wardrobe; there was nothing else inside.
“I’ll leave my things here for a bit,” Qin Song said. “I need to head downstairs in a moment.”
“Where are you going?” Zhang Qiong asked.
“Huang Yuanrui just told me she got a shot today. I need to go see if she’s sick.”
“You’re quite concerned about her.”
“I couldn’t care less if she’s sick or not,” Qin Song replied. “It’s just that if I know she got an injection and don’t go ask about it, she’ll start a fight with me again. I want to avoid that.”
With that, Qin Song walked out the door.
Zhang Qiong left the wardrobe doors wide open; she intended to keep them that way. There couldn’t be a single closed container in this room tonight that might hide a person, otherwise her thoughts would start diving headfirst toward the most terrifying possibilities again.
Zhang Qiong stood by the wardrobe and flared her nostrils. She smelled that scent again.
That strange smell from her home was inside the wardrobe.
She couldn’t tell if it was the scent of shampoo, conditioner, or body wash; it also smelled a bit like laundry detergent. If she had to call it perfume, it was hard to distinguish whether it was for men or women. However, it was mixed with a faint hint of tobacco.
Zhang Qiong thought of Liang He.
She sent a message to Liang He on WeChat: “Let’s meet tomorrow. I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown from being scared lately. I have a very bad feeling.”
This time, Liang He didn’t use being busy as an excuse.
He replied quickly: “OK. 2:00 PM, Simu Coffee Shop.”
Zhang Qiong hadn’t expected him to be so straightforward this time.
When Qin Song opened the door to 302, Huang Yuanrui wasn’t bedridden and sickly as he had imagined.
She was barefoot, munching on potato chips while watching a comedy with great interest.
“Ruirui, you look perfectly fine. What kind of shot did you get today?” Qin Song leaned in and asked her.
Huang Yuanrui gave Qin Song a loud peck on the lips. “A Panda Needle!”
“A what?” Qin Song asked.
Huang Yuanrui smiled happily. “You big dummy, a Panda Needle is a cosmetic injection for dark circles!”
Qin Song breathed a sigh of relief. “Gosh, you should have said so earlier.”
Huang Yuanrui glanced at him. “What’s the difference between saying it sooner or later? Was I getting in the way of something?”
“Of course not,” Qin Song said. “I was just worried about you.”
“Is that so? Well, that’s good then.”
“You eat and sleep well every day, where would you even get dark circles? You’re wasting money again!” Qin Song teased.
Huang Yuanrui laughed. “I like staying up late. I have so much fun playing every night that I get dark circles.”
Qin Song opened two bottles of mineral water and handed one to her. “Drink more water. Eating just chips is too dry.”
Huang Yuanrui playfully clinked her bottle against Qin Song’s. “Cheers! You have to celebrate often to be successful!”