Fee Travel Hotel.

Yang Zicang, stepping in leather boots, walked out of the guest room and closed the door behind him. None of the people outside managed to catch a clear glimpse of the occupant inside.

“Did you make it? “

The first thing the young man saw was Xue Qi, looking at him with gentle concern.

“Yeah. ” Yang Zicang nodded to her, then flashed Bai Yuan an OK gesture amidst the crowd.

Bai Yuan smirked.

“Looks like there’s nothing left for me to do in this corridor. “

“These gardening shears come in pretty handy. ” Yang Zicang wagged the pair of shears before depositing them into his coat pocket.

“Hey, I’ve been making preparations for the past two months. “

Two months, eh.

To think he had known two months ago that I’d turn up here—who exactly is that Full Moon Angel backing him? That great entity’s ability to peer into the future is far more terrifying than that of us Crossing Folk.

“Yang Buchen, congratulations! ” the crowd cheered, filling the hallway with noisy celebration.

“The lobby manager said this room guest was very special. I didn’t think you’d win the bid for him too. Now we’ve only got one room left. “

“It sure came fast—soon enough we’ll be holding the residence permits to all ten rooms. “

I originally thought it would be an extremely difficult task, but now, in less than two hours, it’s almost about to succeed!

“Who exactly lives in there? ” several people asked.

“That’s a secret. Did you get a response to the bid you submitted? “

“No. I guess the people from the Weiting Travel Merchant Association are also preparing. Perfect timing—we need to prepare too. “

At that moment, a shout came from the first floor below.

“Today’s desserts are here, everyone come and get them! Especially you, the family governess—where are you? “

Hua Mi was gone.

Instantly, a commotion broke out among the more than twenty people present.

“When did that woman disappear? “

“Front desk manager, did you see her? “

“She followed you all upstairs earlier, ” said the front desk manager. “As a resident of Room 203, she might have entered the room. But… “

“But what? “

Someone hesitated and said, “We all agree that Teacher Hua Mi is the current resident of Room 203, right? “

The crowd exchanged confused glances. At that moment, a loud slamming door echoed from upstairs.

Hua Mi’s figure came clattering down the stairs, her face filled with terror as she looked at everyone. When her gaze found Yang Zicang in the crowd, she—a graceful, slim woman with delicate features—rushed over in panic.

“Who is Li Qian? Do any of you remember! “

“Li Qian? ” Yang Zicang paused slightly. “Never heard of her. “

Hua Mi’s gentle, well-proportioned face was now entirely stricken with panic. She looked around at the people nearby.

“Who here still remembers who Li Qian is? The girl who invested in Yang Buchen. On the roster, she was first… right, the roster! “

Hua Mi rushed to the reception desk, and the lobby manager had already handed her the roster from the “Hotel United Administration of Lighthouse Tour Group. “

Yang Zicang, Bai Yuan, She Liqi, and the others looked over. In front of the name “Bai Zilong, ” there indeed seemed to be a very faded signature—the characters “Li Qian. “

“This is… “

Everyone around was gripped by a deep sense of horror.

“Sure enough, it’s the legendary kind of inn. “

“What does that mean? “

“Everything looks normal, but in reality, everything is abnormal! You can check in, but you can never leave! We, we’re all likely to meet our doom here! We’ll end up just like that Li Qian! “

Yang Zicang grabbed the collar of a man with stiff, scarred skin and yanked him out of the crowd.

“Do you know who this name belongs to? “

“There’s a vague impression. “

“I… I think I have a bit of an impression too. “

Yang Zicang looked at the other person who spoke. Were there at least three people with memory fragments of this Li Qian?

“You… just now, did you do anything specific? “

“I just went to the bathroom, ” said the man Yang Zicang was holding.

Next, Hua Mi spoke, “I went back to my room. After I entered, I saw my name tag… and just then, the initials on my name tag started jumping and turned into ‘LQ,’ and also, there was another dusty room key there. “

“Key? “

“I picked it up, and then I remembered things I’d completely forgotten! I recalled that I never invested in you, Yang Buchen. Your kindness to me was all an illusion. “

Hua Mi’s hands clenched into delicate fists, rising as she shook her head in pain.

“I never invested in you. All my memories with you beforehand were actually Li Qian’s actions. It’s just… her experiences ended up on me, overlapping with mine! “

A wave of incredulous exclamations erupted from the surrounding crowd. Voices cried out, “This can’t be real, ” “A haunted inn, ” “Can we even get out of here? ” and the like.

A burly man rushed angrily to the front desk. He tried to grab the lobby manager behind it, only to find that no matter how many times he jumped, his hand fell just short of reaching the man’s clothes.

“You demon, you’re a demon! “

He barked at Mus:

“What the hell is this place? What are these so-called bids? Have you been fooling us all along? Is there actually no Weiting Travel Merchant Association, and it’s all just our illusion?! “

The lobby manager merely smiled without a word.

Yang Zicang’s brow furrowed tightly.

She Liqi approached with a grave, low voice: “Mr. Buchen, in your memories, was it also Hua Mi who invested in you? Ah… did I ever really invest in you? Was the 50,000-sequence dividend I got also fake? “

“It’s been less than two hours! Are we all suffering from a collective hallucination? “

Are the people from the Weiting Travel Merchant Association really that powerful!

Yang Zicang grabbed the roster, scrutinizing it carefully; among the names further down, there were no other dull signatures.

He asked the last person in the crowd who still had any recollection of Li Qian:

“What exactly did you just do that made you still remember Li Qian a little?“

“I… I went back to our shared dormitory… or rather, the room for a look.“

This person said hesitantly, “After I went in, I touched my key, and some vague memories surfaced. This is it.“

He handed Yang Zicang the key engraved with the numbers “209“. After feeling it over, there was nothing particularly special about it.

“I understand now. The crucial point seems to be entering the rooms here. With a key, the memories regarding a person named Li Qian become much clearer.“

Having said this, Yang Zicang cast a deep glance at the smiling lobby manager, then pulled a key out of his own pocket.

｛I pay a 10N tip for the key-opener at COSTELLA HOTEL.｝

A warped stream of energy quickly enveloped Yang Zicang. The onlookers watched as he seemed to be swallowed by a ripple in the motel’s air, vanishing from where he stood.

In room 407.

Yang Zicang watched the rippling aura around him recede and bowed his head to contemplate the key in his hand… Actually, from the moment he’d entered the room, certain things had started coming back to him.

He… had left a girl all alone and stranded here.

An ominous chill crept over Yang Zicang’s heart.

“I… took Li Qian here. It wasn’t long ago!“

He took three steps in two, approaching the door. The moment his hand touched the doorknob, the young man fell silent.

He didn’t turn the doorknob. Instead, he pressed his eye to the peephole, sliding aside the tiny cover that shielded the keyhole-like lens, and peered outside.

There was no one outside.

Click.

Yang Zicang gently twisted the doorknob, and an aura of orange phantoms—augmented by over ten thousand years—enveloped his body.

No one had ever stood in the hallway outside. He looked at the door itself, clean and pristine, marred only by the natural grain of the wood.

With a gesture from Yang Zicang’s hand, a miniature black vortex spun into existence, from which a silver spear extended. It followed his steps as he made his way toward the place where that girl had originally been.

There was not a trace of anyone at the corner.

Musing Night’s perception could glean little exchange of information here, but that itself signified the absence of anyone like him on this first floor of the hotel—for if such beings were present, their very existence would surely have been detected.

“Miss Snow Pear. “

Striding straight to the lobby, Yang Zicang looked at the winding-key manager, who always wore a faint smile and possessed a face of elegant curves.

“May I ask, did anyone come here just now? “

“We maintain confidentiality regarding our guests’ actions. “

“So that means someonehasbeen here. “

“No, sir. No one has come. Not even any non-human entities. “

Yang Zicang studied her intently.

The lobby manager responded with utmost politeness: “feilü Travel Hotel collects only experiences. These experiences contain the fragments of your genuine memories. “

“Genuine? “

“Some of your experiences haven’t originated within the hotel. In any case, I’d advise residents to return to Fee Travel Hotel once a month for a meditation session to sort through their memories. “

Yang Zicang looked at her, who had fallen silent.

After a moment’s thought, Yang Zicang gave a slight nod. “Thank you. I understand. “

He turned and walked toward the staircase.

Suddenly, the front desk manager behind him spoke up again.

“One more thing—consider this a friendly reminder and piece of advice, now that you’ve gained control over most of an entire floor. “

“What is it? “

“If you wish to ｛regret something｝, confess it to the Saint Statues. They will soothe that scarred past which can never be revisited on your behalf. “

“This… “

Did the hotel’s divine owner adhere to some sort of ecclesiastical doctrine?

Turning his head back, Yang Zicang nodded again in thanks to the front desk manager, who hadn’t forgotten to preach even while serving guests, then strode up the stairs.

Xueli’s gaze withdrew as the young man’s figure disappeared up the staircase, leaving her standing there in tranquil stillness.