Chapter Twenty-Four: Strange People
[You might not believe it if I tell you! I™ have been kidnapped by an urban legend!
I am being forced to do some unwilling things!
Help!!!
If anyone sees this message, please help me contact Jiang Li or An Qing!]
“Ah——!”
After flashing through that almost neurotic line in his mind, Luxianbei rubbed his forehead and sighed.
“I’m really going crazy, I’m even starting to engage in this useless nonsense!”
Standing at the end of Mudan Street, muttering to himself, Luxianbei raised his hand to hail a taxi.
“Driver, please take me to the Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel.”
“Flower Language Sunshine…” The taxi driver hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Alright!”
……
The Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel is located near a plateau lake scenic area in the outskirts of Huacheng, surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing a lake, making for a picturesque view.
Luxianbei had heard of this resort hotel before, but only to the extent of hearsay—he had never visited for any luxury expense.
He is a very homebody kind of person and has little interest in places like scenic areas. Moreover, the cheapest room at the Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel costs 988 per night.
With that money, I™ could spend a couple of transactions in “Love and Magical Girls”; isn’t that more appealing? What if I actually got a good item? I’m sure the next roll, the next roll I do will surely be fruitful! I’ll pull another ten billion consecutive!
As Luxianbei was calculating how to maximize his spending if he had 988, the taxi he was in suddenly came to a halt.
“Driver, why aren’t we moving?”
“Can’t go!” The taxi driver shrugged, pointing outside, “Look, the road ahead is blocked!”
Luxianbei had been lost in his thoughts about spending until the taxi stopped, pulling his attention back to reality.
At this moment, he looked in the direction the taxi driver was pointing and saw several rows of conical roadblocks in the middle of the road, blocking their way.
“What’s going on?” Luxianbei was taken aback, “They’ve blocked the road, does that mean the resort hotel isn’t operating?”
“Operating? It hasn’t been in business for nearly two months!” The taxi driver replied.
Luxianbei frowned and pressed on, “Not operating? Why?”
The taxi driver glanced around warily and leaned closer, lowering his voice mysteriously, “You don’t know, do you? There are rumors that this hotel hides a pervert who specializes in luring flower-season girls into a secret room, drugging them, and then disemboweling them!”
Luxianbei, “？？？”
Aside from the disembowelment plot, how is this™ completely different from the version I know?!
“Just half a year ago, a few young men accidentally stumbled into that secret room and discovered three girls hanging in mid-air like slaughtered pigs, with rusty iron hooks piercing their throats. The three girls had their eyes wide open, staring at them, and bright red bl**d dripped continuously from their swaying bodies…”
“Wait! Wait!” Luxianbei started to feel something off, chills running down his back, and couldn’t help but interrupt the taxi driver, “I mean, how do you sound like you saw it with your own eyes?”
Saying that, he discreetly hugged his guitar case closer, preparing to pull out the Ming King Statue at any moment and swing it at the driver.
Although he didn’t yet know how to use the Ming King Statue against an urban legend like Zhu Linglong, he had experience dealing with urban legends that had a physical form.
“Hey!” The taxi driver awkwardly laughed and scratched the back of his head, “Actually, I drive during the day and work part-time as a horror radio station host at night. What I just told you was from a script I wrote recently! How about that? Exciting, right!?”
Luxianbei, “……” Did you see my expression? That’s right, it’s speechless and devoid of expression!
“However, I’ll say this! That was based on a true story!”
True story? Luxianbei frowned slightly; if it’s really like the taxi driver said, that the resort hotel is closed, aside from Zhu Linglong, could there be other hidden circumstances?
In any case, it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious! If all else fails…
I will think of a way to slip away!
“Right now, there’s an uproar about urban legends everywhere. As soon as people hear that someone might have died here, no matter how beautiful the scenery, who would dare to stay? With no business for several months, about a month ago, the owner simply decided to close it down temporarily.”
As the taxi driver said this, Luxianbei suddenly felt a faint pain in his abdomen.
Luxianbei gritted his teeth; did that Zhu girl seem pretty money-minded? Hearing her father’s business was affected, she immediately couldn’t sit still.
While pondering, he slapped the back seat of the taxi, his gaze sharpening as he spoke solemnly, “Since you know it’s not open, why didn’t you tell me that back at Mudan Street?”
The taxi driver seemed startled by Luxianbei’s emotionless face and piercing gaze, retracting his neck, chuckling awkwardly, “I was just worried that if you knew and didn’t come, I’d miss out on a fare, you know? Haha!”
Luxianbei, “……” There’s something I want to say in the dialect of Zuan, but I’m unsure if it’s appropriate?
He looked into the distance, where two tall white buildings were constructed in the shadow of the mountains; from a certain angle, they looked somewhat like a tomb.
……
“Bang——!”
Luxianbei got out of the car, slammed the door shut, tightened the strap of his guitar case, and walked around the roadblocks toward the direction of the Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel.
The power of nature is always stronger than what humans can imagine. In just under two months without any road maintenance, the vegetation along the sides of the road had gone wildly overgrown, twisting and tangling, standing over half a person tall; even if one or two people were hiding behind them, they would hardly be noticed.
Scattered tree branches lay across the road, creating natural barriers. As Luxianbei walked by, he carefully cleared them away to open up a passage for easier movement.
For every few hundred meters he walked, he would pause momentarily to observe the nearby scenery, then bend down to pick up a handful of stones, stacking them into unique shapes as markers.
Although he didn’t know what he would encounter inside the resort hotel, the chances of encountering trouble in places like this, if not a hundred percent, were at least eighty or ninety percent!
Planning an escape route in advance is entirely necessary!
As he continued forward, the buildings on either side became fewer. Soon, the area was surrounded by lush, verdant woods; in times of heavy foot traffic, this scenery could be called serene and exquisite.
But in the current desolate, empty situation, it could only be termed desolate. Looking at the dense, deep woods on both sides, a cool breeze was blowing, and he seemed to hear ethereal laughter echoing, as if the glorious past was reemerging.
Facing this situation, Luxianbei expressionlessly took off his guitar case, pulled out the Ming King Statue, holding it in his hands. Feeling its slight chill, a sense of courage surged within him as if he could slay gods and ghosts alike.
It must be said, carrying the Ming King Statue these past few days, Luxianbei felt his physical strength and arm power had increased somewhat, evolving from a weak homebody into a strange homebody who could swing a several-kilogram copper statue multiple times.
As he approached the Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel, Luxianbei noticed a small building by the roadside. It looked like it should be the reception area for tourists.
The exterior of the small house still appeared quite new, surrounded by police tape. However, peering through the half-open window revealed a messy interior, with garbage strewn about and the furniture covered with a thick layer of dust; occasionally, unknown insects scuttled by in a flash.
“Not even a single person to look after the hotel? Could it really be as eerie as the taxi driver said?”
Luxianbei muttered softly to himself as he continued forward.
……
The main entrance of the Flower Language Sunshine Resort Hotel was tightly shut, and the lock was already rusty. Luxianbei circled the large hotel several times before finally finding a broken window in a corner.
Crouching down, he carefully examined the shards of glass scattered on the ground. Luxianbei then looked up at the opening large enough for a person to pass through, and his mood suddenly became serious.
The edges of the glass shards were still fresh, not a speck of dust on them; it must have been smashed not long ago.
Has someone been here recently!?
And left behind…
Also, torn pieces of clothing?
After discovering the scattered shards of glass, Luxianbei immediately abandoned the idea of finding a suitable entry point and using the Ming King Statue to smash open a side door to enter the resort hotel.
Whoever had entered the resort hotel with some purpose also probably didn’t know if they had left. If there was too much noise and they were found, that would put him at a disadvantage with the enemy hiding and him in the open!
With that thought, he stood up, walked to the window, pulled down a piece of white fabric hanging on it, frowning slightly.
He pinched the clothing fragment between his fingers, rubbed it, but couldn’t discern the fabric type.
“Tsk!”
Luxianbei, although you tend to cause trouble wherever you go, you shouldn’t think of yourself as Conan!
Luxianbei inwardly complained about himself, raising his head to glance inside the hotel. The lobby, with its tightly shut doors and windows, was filled with dust, the light dim, and a chill crept in. A few broken strands of police tape were blowing in from who knows where, gliding across the ground, making a “sasa” sound.
The ominous lobby, the crime scene of Zhu Linglong, and the mysterious figure that might still be within…
“Suddenly, I don’t want to go in! It’s getting late, I need to go back and cook. How about I… just leave for now?”
Luxianbei murmured to himself. As soon as he turned around, a sharp pain shot through his abdomen, making him break out in a cold sweat.
“d*mn! I’ll go in; I’ll go in now!” Luxianbei muttered a curse under his breath, hurriedly stuffing the piece of clothing into his pocket, and then quietly climbed inside.
I’ll put that piece of clothing away for now. If I encounter any strange people inside, I might be able to compare…
No! Ugh! I can’t set that kind of flag! I absolutely won’t run into any strange people when I go in! Sigh!
Thinking this, Luxianbei jumped down from the nearly two-meter-high window sill, steadied himself, looked up, and then saw the strange people.
A whole group of strange people!
