Chapter 36

Chapter 36

For Number Four, Song Xue, choosing an event suited to her was not difficult.

She had settled on one the day before. Number Three’s sudden “absence” did not put her under any pressure.

After lunch, Song Xue told Tina which event she had chosen. Tina acknowledged it and said she would notify the organizers to prepare the appropriate home round.

Song Xue spent the entire afternoon making preparations in her room. At nine thirty that evening, she went to bed early so she would be rested for the next day’s challenge.

Once she turned off the entryway light and bedside lamp, darkness engulfed the room. A full moon hung in the night sky beyond the balcony, casting fine strands of white light across the sea like soft silk. Moonlight and seawater intertwined in an eerie blue-white shimmer.

Song Xue fell asleep to the sound of the waves and slept deeply.

She did not notice the terrifying thing happening as she slept.

The light comforter covering her was being tugged, inch by inch, toward the left side of the double bed.

For years, Zhao Bo had slept on the left and Song Xue on the right. Now that Zhao Bo was dead and she was alone, Song Xue could have slept in the middle. But years of habit kept her on the right side of the bed.

Before long, more than half the comforter had been pulled over to the place where Zhao Bo should have been sleeping.

Song Xue felt cold. She pulled the comforter back and tucked it more securely around herself.

A few minutes later, “someone” on the left dragged a large section of it away again.

Half asleep, Song Xue murmured instinctively, “Stop stealing the covers.”

It was one of her husband’s bad habits in bed.

Several seconds after she spoke, her eyes flew open. Only then did she remember that her husband was no longer in this world.

Then who had pulled the covers?

Fear crept up Song Xue’s spine. She slowly turned around. In the moonlight spilling into the room, she could see that the other side of the bed was empty, yet much of the comforter had been pulled over there.

What happened? Was I too groggy to know what I was doing? Maybe I kicked the covers away in my sleep, she told herself.

There could be no other explanation. She pulled the comforter back into place, turned onto her side, and tried to sleep again. This time, sleep did not come so easily.

Song Xue closed her eyes and forced herself to relax. Then she felt someone tugging at the comforter again. Someone was even pulling at the back of her pajamas.

Terror seized her as she tried to decide whether it was an illusion. Before she could think it through, a tremendous force ripped the comforter off her and sent it tumbling to the floor.

No… No!

Song Xue tried to scream, but no sound emerged from her throat. She could not move any part of her body. It had never happened to her before, and she trembled in terror.

Then she unmistakably felt a hand settle on her shoulder.

It was no illusion. The hand exerted force, rolling her from her side onto her back, then turning her head toward the left.

Song Xue saw the person lying beside her.

It was her husband, Zhao Bo. He had just used one hand to roll her onto her back, and now he was turning her head to make her look at him.

Zhao Bo’s mouth opened and closed as if he were saying something. But fear had overwhelmed Song Xue’s mind, filling her head with a deafening buzz. She could not hear his words at all. Or perhaps he was not speaking. Perhaps he was merely opening and closing his mouth like a fish in water.

It was unbearable. Worse, Song Xue had no idea how to end it. She could not move or speak. She could not even seem to close her eyes. All she could do was stare helplessly at the horrifying sight.

Was this what people meant by a ghost pinning someone down in their sleep?

How could she end it? How long would it last?

The torment continued for five or six minutes before Song Xue finally regained control of her body. With a heartrending scream, she leaped from the bed, raced out of her room, and stumbled into the hallway.

It was after one in the morning. Song Xue’s piercing scream woke everyone on the floor, as well as some of the people on the eighth. Many opened their doors and stepped into the hallway, staring at her in shock.

Chen Nuo and Tang Ying were naturally among them. Chen Nuo had heard Song Xue scream once before, when her husband had walked out of the hotel and died as his head exploded. Now the poor woman stood huddled in the hallway, dressed in pajamas and shaking violently. He hurried over.

“Song Xue, what happened?”

Tang Ying, Ruirui, Hong Long, Saisi, Lv Chao, Che Dongming, and others gathered around her. Tang Ying went back to her room, brought out a jacket, and draped it over Song Xue’s shoulders.

“Are you feeling any better?”

Song Xue nodded slowly. Surrounded by so many people, she felt some of her terror recede. After a long while, she said, “Something horrible happened in my room just now…”

“What happened?” Tang Ying asked.

Song Xue told them about her terrifying experience. Ruirui’s face went white as she listened, but Hong Long dismissed it.

“Is that all? It was just a nightmare.”

“It wasn’t a nightmare! I saw the comforter on the floor on the other side of the bed with my own eyes! And I felt someone pulling it!” Song Xue insisted.

“You probably kicked it onto the floor yourself,” Hong Long said.

“I never kick off the covers in my sleep. And what happened just now didn’t feel like a dream or a hallucination. This hotel is haunted. My dead husband came back as a ghost, and I think he was trying to tell me something…”
Song Xue continued to tremble as she spoke, her face deathly pale. Nothing about her looked feigned. Chen Nuo frowned slightly as he considered her story.

It was possible that she had suffered a nightmare. But could a woman in her thirties truly be unable to distinguish a nightmare from reality? Even after a frightening dream, most people realized it had been a dream once they woke.

Besides, Song Xue claimed she had felt someone pulling at the comforter, then found it on the floor on the other side of the bed after she woke. If she was telling the truth… He had heard that many hotels in Southeast Asia were haunted. Could this be one of them?

Most importantly, the “ghost” Song Xue had seen was none other than her husband, Zhao Bo. She said he had seemed to be trying to tell her something.

Could Zhao Bo’s soul have lingered in the hotel instead of ascending after his death? Perhaps as a ghost, he had learned the truth about something and wanted to tell his wife.

At the moment, the most useful secret imaginable was the Mastermind’s identity.

The thought sent a tremor through Chen Nuo.

“Song Xue, you said Zhao Bo seemed to be trying to tell you something. Do you remember what he said?”

“It was too terrifying… No sound came from his mouth. I only felt that he wanted to say something to me…”

“You actually believe she saw a ghost?” Che Dongming scoffed.

Chen Nuo turned to him. “Do you think she’s lying?”

“Not necessarily. But what she described is clearly sleep paralysis, what people used to call a ghost pinning them down in their sleep. Medicine explained the phenomenon long ago. A person’s mind suddenly wakes during a dream, but their limbs and muscles remain in a state of low tension and fail to obey conscious commands. Being unable to move often produces terrifying hallucinations, as though a ghost were holding them down. People only blamed ghosts in the past because they didn’t understand the science. Ms. Song Xue, you seem like an educated woman. You shouldn’t be claiming that this hotel is haunted,” Che Dongming said.

Song Xue lowered her head without answering, apparently wondering whether he was right. A moment later, she asked,

“Doctor, if that’s what happened, what about everything before the sleep paralysis? I clearly felt someone pulling at the comforter and my pajamas. I also felt a hand press down on my shoulder, roll me from my side onto my back, and turn my head. Can sleep paralysis cause that too?”

She quickly added, “I’m not challenging you. I genuinely don’t know. If it was sleep paralysis, at least science can explain it. But if it wasn’t… I won’t dare go back into that room to sleep tonight.”

Che Dongming thought for a moment. “Honestly, I’ve never experienced sleep paralysis, so I don’t know precisely what it feels like. Those sensations may have been part of the hallucination.”

Song Xue shook her head. “But the comforter really was on the other side of the bed. That couldn’t have been a hallucination…”

“You must have put it on the floor yourself,” Che Dongming said.

“I’ve already told you that I never kick off the covers.”

“I didn’t say you kicked them off. I said you put them there yourself.”

Song Xue stared at him for several seconds before she understood. “You think I did it deliberately?”

“We can’t rule it out. Tomorrow is your home round, and tonight you suddenly stage this scene and disturb everyone’s sleep. Are you trying to put the rest of us at a disadvantage?”

Song Xue gaped at him. “If that were true, I’d be losing sleep too. What would I gain from it?”

“Who knows? Perhaps you spent the entire afternoon and evening asleep and have already had all the rest you need.”

Song Xue could no longer be bothered to argue. “Think whatever you want. I won’t sleep in that room again tonight. I’d rather spend the entire night sitting on a sofa in the lobby than go through something like that again!”

She returned Tang Ying’s jacket and thanked her, then went into her room to change before taking the elevator down to the first floor.

The others dispersed and returned to bed. Unease showed on several faces. Song Xue’s story had clearly cast a shadow over them.

Lv Chao also went back to his room. After closing the door, he stared blankly at the suitcase. The large wheeled case held his and Lu Qian’s clothes and daily necessities. Looking at her cosmetics, sunscreen, makeup remover, underwear, and cute little jewelry box made his heart ache. Their owner was no longer in this world.

Honey, I miss you, Lv Chao thought as tears slid down his face. Only after you left did I realize how much you meant to me.

He wept silently for a long time before wiping his eyes and going into the bathroom to wash his face with warm water.

The moment he opened the bathroom door, he froze.

On the mirror above the sink, someone had traced one enormous word with a finger: DEATH.

The strokes were perfectly clear. Lv Chao recognized his wife Lu Qian’s handwriting.

Song Xue was right. The hotel truly was haunted.

For some reason, he was not afraid. He even wanted to see his wife’s ghost. But she did not appear. She had left behind only that venomous word.

Honey, you still blame me, don’t you? When our lives were on the line, I was a coward. I let you die right in front of me so I could survive.

Even in death, you can’t forgive me.

Then show yourself and take me with you. If I can see you again, I don’t care whether you’re alive or a ghost.

The tears began to fall once more.