Chapter 15

Yes, she had already grown accustomed to kissing Xia Zhiming, even able to do so in a composed and leisurely manner. Xia Zhiming just needed to crook her finger, and she would proactively lean in, pressing her lips together with hers.

They did not make any overly bold moves, not even sticking out their tongues, but the physical contact still made Qi Xu feel that she and Xia Zhiming were growing ever closer.

During this period, Qi Xu had received her salary. She decisively bought herself a bed, no longer willing to sleep on the sofa bed. Because it was the first bed she had ever purchased herself, she even made a special trip to the furniture mall. Following online guides, she chose a bed that had been on display in the showroom for a long time.

Because she—she was about to use it right away.

If it were a bed fresh from the factory, most of them carried formaldehyde, and Qi Xu wanted to lie on it immediately, so she deliberately picked one that had been sitting around for ages. She also selected a natural latex mattress.

The bed ended up costing far more than she had anticipated. All in all, Qi Xu spent seven thousand yuan. She quietly comforted herself: It was fine, it was fine—she had just received a salary of twenty thousand yuan!

When her little bed was finally placed downstairs, Qi Xu felt quite happy.

Her life had become incredibly stable, all the way until June 15th. When the e-commerce ads for 618 had run round after round, she suddenly realized with shock that a whole month had truly passed. During this time, it seemed like she had done nothing at all, nor had she sought any way to restore her human identity. She felt a twinge of unease.

Just taking money without doing any work—this made her feel quite uncomfortable.

With a nervous heart, she first went to find the Vice Bureau Chief. Regardless of anything else, in terms of affinity, Xia Zhiming could not compare to the Vice Bureau Chief at all.

The Vice Bureau Chief told her not to worry. Then, when Xia Zhiming returned that evening, she brought back the mission that the Vice Bureau Chief had just assigned her that day.

“Come on, pack your things. You could say you’ve got what you wished for—a mission has come.”

“Huh? Pack my things?” Qi Xu was stunned. “Aren’t we only operating in Xintan City?”

“That’s true, but this mission is in a small county town next to Xintan City’s jurisdiction. Conservatively speaking, we’ll be there for two or three days. If you don’t pack, don’t blame me when your clothes get dirty with nothing clean to change into.”

Xia Zhiming’s words reminded Qi Xu of how many times she had fallen flat on her butt at the temple fair last time, so she could only get up immediately and pack a small backpack. She did not forget to bring her power bank.

They set off on June 16th. While others were preparing to grab deals, Qi Xu and the others drove off toward the small county town.

Sitting in the car, Qi Xu was initially full of enthusiasm, tinged with a bit of nervousness, because this was her first mission. She had no idea what she was supposed to do. When Qi Xu asked Xia Zhiming what she should do, Xia Zhiming replied, “Stay by my side obediently and don’t go anywhere. You’re just an ordinary person—do you think you can fight others with your head? Or you could turn into a ghost and fight, that’s fine too, but think this through: the more times you turn into a ghost, the longer the duration, the heavier the yin energy on your body becomes, and the further you stray from being human.”

Hearing Xia Zhiming’s words, Qi Xu instantly settled down.

She once again clearly understood: she was just an ordinary person. If not for Xia Zhiming occasionally saving her, she would never have encountered such things in her lifetime—she would have just kicked the bucket already.

After a while, the clear-headed yet foolish college student still couldn’t help asking out of curiosity, “So, what ghost are we catching this time?”

Xia Zhiming chewed on a lollipop in her mouth. The white lollipop stick bobbed up and down in the air. Her teeth ground against the candy, seemingly chewing hard, producing a crunch crunch sound. After biting for a bit, with the lollipop still in her mouth, she spoke with exceptional clarity.

“No idea. The haunted place is a hotel, and several people have already died there. It was initially ruled as suicides, but later it was found to be too bizarre—not just simple suicides—so it got reported up.”

“In a hotel like that, too many people die. Who knows what kind of ghost it is or how it died.”

They set off in the evening. Qi Xu sent a message to her counselor on the way. Since the Vice Bureau Chief’s side had already provided official documentation for her, she got approval right away for work reasons. The counselor earnestly advised her: Focus single-mindedly on serving the people. Put the people first, and the people will lift you up high.

At that moment, Qi Xu unexpectedly felt a spontaneous sense of mission. She quickly replied to the counselor: I will definitely work hard!

With the lollipop in her mouth, Xia Zhiming saw her like that and knew exactly what Qi Xu was thinking: Tch, college students are just too quick to get fired up.

Xia Zhiming drove for an hour and a half before arriving at a guesthouse near the small county town’s police station. Staff from the Spiritual Countermeasures Bureau met the two of them and briefly explained the situation.

The Vivid Red Hotel was a guesthouse run by locals and the largest one in the town. This place was even more remote than Qi Xu had imagined. Though called a small county town, it was actually a town under the county. Most of the townsfolk had gone to the county seat or Xintan City’s urban area to work, leaving hardly anyone in town.

There were no attractions nearby either, so guesthouses were pitifully scarce.

Against this backdrop, deaths kept occurring at this guesthouse. After police investigations, they were classified as suicides. But there were far too many such suicides, especially in the past two months—from early May until now—five people in a row had ended their lives in the hotel.

Only after noticing something was off did it get reported upward, eventually landing on the Third Bureau’s desk.

“That’s the gist of it. I’m the investigator stationed in the county, but I only know some family-passed skills and don’t have much ability. After coming to investigate, I could only confirm that something ghostly is indeed at work—the hotel is definitely strange—but I couldn’t even find a shadow of the ghost, so I had to request aid from above.”

The investigator also handed over a lot of documents to Xia Zhiming. While Xia Zhiming flipped through them, Qi Xu stood behind her and, to see more clearly, even stood on tiptoe. The investigator gave Qi Xu a complicated look, because no matter how you sliced it, Qi Xu just looked like an ordinary human to him—maybe even less capable than himself.

And her actions… they were really childish!

Childish or not, she actually spotted quite a few things. According to the compiled documents, all those judged as victims of this supernatural incident were men. Their death methods varied wildly, and their ages and backgrounds showed no similarities. No wonder the police initially ruled them as suicides—even Qi Xu wouldn’t have suspected murder if she didn’t know about ghosts.

Xia Zhiming looked for a while, then continued flipping downward.

It had to be said that the documents were meticulously prepared. Besides those victims the investigator had identified as ghost-killed, all deaths and related cases at the Vivid Red Hotel from its construction to the present were documented.

The Vivid Red Hotel was an old establishment, the first guesthouse in the town. It dated back to 2006, over a dozen years ago. Back when the internet wasn’t as developed and people weren’t as sensitive to news, murder cases wouldn’t spread. If it were like today’s internet, any case would go viral worldwide in no time.

The Vivid Red Hotel had ceased operations earlier this year after someone committed suicide by burning charcoal there, which even made local news. Under pressure, the owner announced a shutdown for rectification. Yet people still sneaked in one after another to commit suicide there, even getting labeled online as a “suicide holy land.”

But because it was so remote and the exact address wasn’t marked online, not many people came.

The later documents recorded all deaths at the Vivid Red Hotel over the past dozen years. At this moment, Qi Xu gained a clear understanding of what Xia Zhiming had said earlier: “In a hotel like that, too many people die. Who knows what kind of ghost it is or how it died.”

There were those who got drunk, fell in the bathroom, hit the back of their heads, and died; those who slipped on the escape stairs and fell to their deaths; those who fell from third-floor rooms and died on the spot; those who ate food they were allergic to and couldn’t be saved in time; lovers’ murders, revenge killings…

All sorts, varied and sundry.

“Besides that, I have another suspected target.”

The investigator pulled out another document. “This person didn’t die in the hotel but was dragged there by others, suffered abuse and humiliation, then jumped into a river the next day after leaving and committed suicide.”

Hearing the investigator say this, Qi Xu thought it seemed highly plausible. That’s how it always played out in TV dramas—suffer inhuman treatment in life, turn into a ghost after death. And this one had committed suicide too, similar in nature to the victims ruled as suicides.

Xia Zhiming, however, sneered. “No wonder you’ll spend your life as an investigator in this rundown little county town. With skills like that, better stay away from big cities.”

One sentence from Xia Zhiming left the investigator red-faced. She directly flung the document back at him. “Jumped into a river to die? Then that ghost can only be a drowning ghost. Either an earthbound spirit in the water pulling unlucky passersby as substitutes, or not becoming an earthbound spirit at all and specifically targeting those beastly bastards for revenge—there’s no way it would return to the hotel to harm strangers.”

Her reasoning was sound, leaving the investigator even more speechless. “If you’d just search the Xintan City Spiritual Countermeasures Bureau forum carefully, you’d know this case was resolved eight years ago. That ghost was captured back then, and you’re still treating it like some treasure. Just stay put, you.”

Xia Zhiming’s mouth was truly vicious.

Qi Xu gave the investigator a sympathetic glance. At that moment, Xia Zhiming turned to leave and called out to Qi Xu.

“Coming! What are we doing?” Qi Xu hurried to catch up, but Xia Zhiming’s next words sent a shiver down her spine. “What else? Go check into the Vivid Red Hotel.”