Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Song Xue and Zhao Bo were a middle-aged married couple in the tour group.

They had chosen to remain childfree from the day they married. Without the expense of raising children, they could spend nearly every summer visiting famous destinations at home and abroad.

They had dreamed of visiting Xiangji Island in Country T for years.

The moment they entered Naca Hotel, its grandeur and opulence took their breath away.

“I can’t believe our tour put us in such a fancy hotel. We certainly got our money’s worth,” Zhao Bo whispered to his wife. Song Xue nodded repeatedly, delight written all over her face.

After breakfast at the upscale buffet, they became even more convinced that this package tour was the bargain of a lifetime.

That was why Zhao Bo suggested, “There’s a heated indoor pool on this floor. Let’s go swimming!”

“Why? You can find a swimming pool anywhere,” Song Xue said.

“Sure, but you can’t find an upscale buffet with free food twenty-four hours a day just anywhere! We’ll swim for a while, burn some calories, and then we can eat again. That buffet doesn’t limit us to three meals. Let’s aim for six or seven today. We’ll make back the entire price of the tour in one day!” Zhao Bo laughed.

“I’ll gain several pounds…” Song Xue worried about her figure.

“Oh, forget about that today. You can lose the weight later. An opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day!”

“I suppose you’re right…”

Having agreed, they headed to the heated indoor pool on the second floor. Free swimsuits, bathrobes, and towels were provided. After changing, they jumped into the crystal-clear water and swam to their hearts’ content.

A little over ten minutes later, Zhao Bo said he needed the bathroom and left the pool.

No phone signal. How convenient for me. A sly smile crept across his face. Even if he disappeared for half an hour, his wife would have no way to find him. He could make up some excuse afterward and brush her off.

He already knew exactly where he wanted to go.

While riding the elevator earlier, Zhao Bo had noticed that the tenth floor had massage rooms. Tina had mentioned them too.

He also knew that the sex industry was legal in Country T.

More importantly, Tina had said that all recreation and entertainment in the hotel would be free today. Surely that included massages.

Swimming had only been an excuse. His real goal was to shake off his wife and indulge himself on the tenth floor.

When the elevator arrived, an attractive woman with exotic features was waiting to greet guests. “Good morning, sir. Would you like a massage?”

“Yes. I’m with the tour group. Does that mean the massage is free?” Zhao Bo asked tentatively.

“Yes, sir. All recreation and entertainment in the hotel is complimentary for your group,” the receptionist replied with a smile.

Fantastic! Zhao Bo suppressed his excitement and forced himself to sound calm. “All right. In that case, I’ll have a massage.”

The receptionist led him to an ornate private room and summoned five therapists. All were beautiful young women, each with an angelic face and a figure as striking as a Victoria’s Secret model. They wore very little: essentially bikinis with wisps of sheer fabric wrapped around their waists, doing nothing to conceal their long legs or slender curves.

The sight alone nearly gave Zhao Bo a nosebleed, and he felt himself responding below the waist. Struggling to contain his delight, he selected the woman he found most alluring.

“I’ll… I’ll have her massage me.”

“Actually, sir, you may choose two,” the receptionist said. “It’s all free, and there are no other guests right now. We might as well take especially good care of you.”

The sudden rush of bliss nearly made Zhao Bo faint. He could not believe his luck. He almost blurted out, “Can they all stay, including you?” Deciding that would be too much, he swallowed and pointed at another woman, this one with long legs.

“Then her too. The two of them.”

“Of course, sir.”

The receptionist and the other three therapists withdrew, closing the door behind them.

The two women who remained smiled warmly. “Sir, please remove your bathrobe. Before the massage, we’ll help you bathe.”

Zhao Bo glanced at the wide bathtub to his right, large enough for three people. His throat went dry, as if a fire had begun to burn inside him. He swallowed again and asked hesitantly, “Should I… keep my swim trunks or underwear on in the bath? Or…”

The long-legged woman tossed back her hair and gave him a dazzling smile.

“Whatever you like,” she murmured.

Oh God. I can’t take this. I’m going to die in here.

Zhao Bo closed his eyes at the thought.

Meanwhile, after swimming several more laps, Song Xue realized her husband had been gone for more than twenty minutes.

Could using the bathroom really take that long? Even if he needed more than a quick piss, this was ridiculous.

Song Xue was now alone in the heated pool. Although it was broad daylight, she was in a foreign country and could not help feeling uneasy.

All she wanted was to find her husband. She climbed out of the water, wrapped herself in a bathrobe, and changed in the restroom.

There were restrooms right beside the pool. She stood outside the men’s room and called Zhao Bo’s name, but no one answered.

A male employee approached her. “Can I help you, ma’am?”

“I’m not sure whether my husband is in the men’s room. Could you please go in and check?” Song Xue asked.

“Of course.”

The employee went inside. A minute later, he emerged and said, “There’s no one in there, ma’am. Could your husband have gone somewhere else?”
“Oh,” Song Xue murmured anxiously. Had he gone back to their room to use the bathroom?

But when she returned to the room, Zhao Bo was not there either. Song Xue began to panic. She wanted to call him, then remembered that her phone had no signal.

Whatever else he was doing, he had to be somewhere in the hotel. Surely he had not gone outside. Where could he be…?

Then a place occurred to her: the massage rooms on the tenth floor.

She too had noticed the words “Massage Rooms” marked in three languages beside the elevator buttons: English, the language of Country T, and Chinese.

Her eyes narrowed. Knowing her husband, there was every chance he had deliberately ditched her to go have some fun on his own.

Song Xue stormed into the elevator and pressed 10.

The same beautiful receptionist was waiting when she reached the tenth floor. She smiled. “Good morning, ma’am. Would you like a spa treatment?”

Song Xue shook her head. “I’m not here for that. I’m looking for my husband. Did a slightly overweight man about one hundred seventy-five centimeters tall come here a little while ago?”

The receptionist hesitated. “A gentleman did come in, but we don’t know whether he’s your husband…”

Song Xue already had her answer. Without waiting for the woman to finish, she marched deeper inside. The receptionist tried to stop her, but she was too late.

The doors to all the other private rooms stood open. Only one was closed. Song Xue turned the handle and shoved it open.

Inside, two scantily clad women were massaging a man on a treatment table, one working on his chest and stomach, the other on his legs. A towel lay across his waist, but otherwise he was completely naked.

The man was her husband, Zhao Bo.

Fury erupted inside Song Xue. She charged forward and roared, “Zhao Bo! You bastard!”

Zhao Bo had been lying there with his eyes closed. He jolted upright, saw his wife standing before him, and hurriedly covered himself with his hands. His face turned crimson as he stammered, “W-what are you doing here?”

“I should be asking you that! You left me alone at the pool so you could come here and fool around, you cheating scumbag!”

“What did I do? I only came for a massage…”

“Does a normal massage require you to strip like this? Do you think I’m an idiot? The sex industry is legal in Country T. You think I don’t know that?”

“I didn’t do anything… It was only an ordinary massage…”

Song Xue could not be bothered arguing. She seized one of her husband’s ears and dragged him off the table. “You’re coming with me!”

“Hey, wait! At least let me put on my robe!”

The couple struggled all the way out of the massage area and into the elevator. Zhao Bo tied the belt of his bathrobe, looking utterly humiliated. Perhaps he was ashamed that his wife had dragged him out naked, or perhaps he was frustrated that his good time had been interrupted. Either way, he became angry instead.

“What the hell is wrong with you? We came on vacation to relax. If the hotel offers free massages, why shouldn’t I enjoy one?”

“Now you’re acting like you’re in the right? Was that a legitimate massage parlor? If I’d arrived any later, God knows what you would have done in there!”

“Well, what did you actually see me do? At most, I was just… The point is, I didn’t do anything to betray you! Why are you making such a big deal out of it?”

They kept arguing in the elevator, and neither pressed a floor button. Someone below must have summoned it, because the car descended to the lobby and the doors opened. An employee stood outside. The flushed couple fell silent. Family shame was not something to display in public, and both restrained themselves.

Realizing he was still in a bathrobe, Zhao Bo rode back up to the changing room beside the second-floor pool and put on his clothes.

He knew returning to their room would only start another fight, so he took the elevator downstairs again.

“If you’re not going back to the room, where are you going?” Song Xue asked.

“Outside for a walk. I need to clear my head!” Zhao Bo replied, striding toward the hotel’s front doors.

“Clear your head? Or since you didn’t get your ‘release’ upstairs, are you looking for another massage parlor to finish the job?” Song Xue jeered.

Disgust twisted Zhao Bo’s face. “Listen to how vicious you sound! I don’t care where I go, as long as I’m away from you!”

“The guide told us to show team spirit and not go out on our own.”

“What am I, a preschooler? Do I need to ask the teacher’s permission before I go outside?”

Zhao Bo wanted nothing more than to get away from his infuriating wife. He strode toward the exit, while Song Xue hurried after him and tried to keep him from acting rashly.

“Your phone has no signal. What if you get lost…”

Before she could finish, Zhao Bo stepped out of the hotel.

As Song Xue reached for him, she heard a bang, like a balloon bursting.

Hot red liquid with a raw, bloody stench sprayed across her face. She instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.

Several seconds later, she opened them again. A red veil seemed to cover everything she saw.

Zhao Bo’s body swayed before her. His head was gone, and his neck was a ragged ruin of blood and flesh. At last, Song Xue understood what had exploded.

Her husband’s headless corpse tottered for another moment, then collapsed to the ground. Song Xue was drenched in his blood, and perhaps his brain matter too.

The sudden horror left her frozen. For several seconds, her mind was completely blank.

She tried to scream, but her throat felt clogged with cotton. No sound emerged. Her mouth opened and closed as her entire body trembled. Only after a long moment did a heartrending shriek finally tear from her lungs.

“Aaaaaah!!!”