Chapter 43: Breakfast
Su Min was still lying in bed when he heard the scream. He was awakened only a few minutes ago by the cinema’s prompt.
The hint from the cinema was no different from the previous ones: 【Audience Member Su Min, congratulations for successfully changing your script. Please continue with your hard work. As a reward for your achievement, you will receive keyword hints. The first hint: Corridor.】
Su Min actually guessed that the hint would be corridor.
The photo Jiang Taozhi took earlier had given it away. There was something wrong with the carpet in the corridor and it was likely a trigger for something to happen.
With the appearance of the scream, Su Min subconsciously looked out the room.
The sound was very short and then it became quiet.
He didn’t know what happened, but he could vaguely guess. He stood behind the door and waited for a minute before opening the door.
Outside the door, Li Chi Yu was knocking on Le Ling’s door and he constantly checked his surroundings.
Li Chi Yu said: “Ah Su Min you’re up?”
Su Min asked: “Did you come out after hearing the noise?”
Li Chi Yu lowered his hand and thought for a moment before answering: “Yeah. The others also came out. They probably all heard that scream.”
Su Min followed his line of sight.
There were a few dozen rooms on the fourth floor and about half of them were occupied. Some of the rooms were occupied by twos and threes.
At this moment, the door to Le Ling’s door opened.
Li Chi Yu looked over quickly: “Le Ling, are you okay?”
Le Ling asked back: “Why won’t I be okay?”
She was still wearing the clothes she wore when she came, and her hair was still neat. You couldn’t tell if she slept or not.
Jiang Taozhi came out from her room gripping tightly onto her phone.
There were both men and women gathered there. Some were speaking while others just looked over. They all looked surprised when they saw them.
Li Chi Yu said: “I didn’t expect so many people to be here.”
He had thought that there wouldn’t be much but turns out there are already twenty people in just this floor alone. He didn’t expect to see so many.
Le Ling crossed her arms and said to Li Chi Yu: “If there’s nothing then go back to sleep. Stop making a ruckus.”
As the two conversed, Su Min used his phone to take a photo of the ground in the corridor. The photo of the carpet was the same as how it was in reality. He didn’t know if it was because he couldn’t get it on his phone or if it had restored itself to its original appearance.
He stored away his phone and decided to act like nothing had happened.
A man suddenly walked over. He didn’t even spare a glance at Li Chi Yu and just looked at Le Ling while smiling: “h.e.l.lo, my name is Liu Huida. Did you guys just hea———-”
Before he could finish, Le Ling closed the door.
Liu Huida’s expression changed instantly. He snorted and then angrily glared at Li Chi Yu next to him.
He then left and returned to his room.
Li Chi Yu was confused: “Why did he glare at me?”
Su Min answered: “Maybe he was jealous of you being able to stand next to Le Ling.”
Hearing that, Li Chi Yu was very pleased. He leaned against the door and said: “Then let him glare. It doesn’t do me any harm anyway.”
The people in the corridor didn’t see anything when they came out, so they all returned back to their rooms. Very quickly, it became quiet again.
Jiang Taozhi asked: “Was the voice that you heard a woman’s voice?”
Li Chi Yu nodded: “Yes.”
That’s why he knocked on Le Ling’s door. He was afraid that something bad happened in the hotel.
As they spoke, the door to Le Ling’s room once again opened. She still looked the same: “That voice came from the middle of the corridor. She probably encountered something scary.”
Su Min pointed in a direction, “If I remember right, it should be there. The corridor is carpeted so footsteps cannot be heard, but voices can.”
From that distance, it seemed plausible.
Li Chi Yu asked with curiosity: “Then did she scream the moment she opened the door or was she screaming in front of someone else’s door?”
Jiang Taozhi said: “How should we know?”
Le Ling pointed down the corridor and said: “Li Chi Yu, if there’s nothing else just go to sleep. Don’t knock on the door in the middle of the night.”
After she closed the door, the three of them looked at each other.
It was Su Min’s first time seeing such a cold woman and he couldn’t get used to it.
Li Chi Yu waved his hand: “I’ll go sleep.”
After he returned to his room, Su Min turned to Jiang Taozhi and asked: “Can you use your phone to take a photo of that same place from earlier?”
Jiang Taozhi: “Sure.”
She pointed it at that place from earlier and then exclaimed with surprise. She showed it to Su Min, “It’s restored.”
Su Min received the phone. The photo was the same as reality. It was as if the wrinkles from last time didn’t existed and not a trace was left behind.
He came to an understanding and said: “Go back and sleep.”
Jiang Taozhi nodded. She deleted the photo and then returned to her own room.
Once again, Su Min was the only one left in the corridor. As he looked down the black and white corridor, it looked like the junction between time and s.p.a.ce.
He turned and went back into his room.
The moment the door closed, the lights in the corridor instantly darkened.
Su Min had never turned off the lights in his room and at this moment it looked a little warm and comforting. He felt his way over to his bed and got ready to sleep.
Things would usually be calm after something had already happened.
Su Min decided to call this the cool-down period. Afterall, a horror movie wouldn’t take place over just one night so it would need time to recharge.
But as soon as he laid down in bed, he felt a cool sensation. A hand touched his shoulder.
Su Min stiffened and didn’t move. He only reacted after half a minute and he said: “Chen Su!”
The flat blankets swelled up. Chen Su asked: “Not sleeping?”
Su Min got off the bed and saw that he was occupying half the bed and didn’t appear to have any intention to leave, “You’re sleeping here?”
Chen Su: “I can’t?”
“Of course you can’t.” Su Min was still in a state where he would recall the events in the romance movie whenever he sees him.
Chen Su pulled aside the blanket.
If others saw this, it would have looked like the blankets moving aside by itself.
Su Min stood next to the bed.
After a long stalemate, he couldn’t kick Chen Su out so he could only lie stiffly on the edge of the bed with his back facing him. He was determined to not give him any attention.
After not sleeping all night, he soon started to get sleepy.
Su Min didn’t sleep for long when Chen Su started to move. He reached over to hold him by his waist and hugged him from behind. There was no extra movement after that.
***
The next morning, Su Min woke up.
He sat up from the bed, stretched his neck and found himself sleeping in the middle of the bed. As for Chen Su, he didn’t know when he left.
Su Min remained in daze for a few minutes before pulling away the blankets.
He didn’t know what kind of reaction he should have. After washing up in the bathroom, he had sobered up significantly.
Every room in the hotel had a window. After pulling aside the curtains, the light from outside entered the room and everything looked very normal.
There were already messages in the group chat.
Li Chi Yu: “I heard the others mentioning that there are food downstairs. Do you guys want to go down to eat?”
Jiang Taozhi: “Of course. What’s there to eat?”
Li Chi Yu: “Don’t know. But it should be too bad.”
Le Ling: “Waiting for the gathering.”
Su Min replied and then left his room. He knocked on Li Chi Yu’s door, and Le Ling and Jiang Taozhi soon also came out.
The place they needed to go eat was downstairs. When Li Chi Yu came out this morning, he heard two people talking about it.
When they went down on the elevator, they ran into some other people but, because they didn’t know each other, they were all silent.
Reaching the first floor, they all went their way.
Li Chi Yu finally spoke up: “That suffocated me to death. They don’t talk and look like mannequins. It’s so scary.”
Su Min internally thought that they may not be human.
Mannequins and non-humans were both equally as terrifying.
After going out from the corridor and entering the main lobby, the person waiting at the front desk was still the same woman from last night. She sat there with an expressionless face.
Many people were staying down here, and they formed pairs and trios. Some didn’t have a good expression while others looked excited.
A bald man said: “This hotel doesn’t have anything. I’m going to go back. It’s better working than being here.”
The person next to him said: “If you want to leave, leave by yourself.”
There seems to be a tone of gloating.
Su Min whispered: “Let’s wait a bit before eating. I think there’s something going on so I want to take a look first.”
The bald man was naturally angered by this. He walked straight out of the hotel lobby and soon reached the courtyard outside.
Everyone looked out and watched him from the hotel lobby.
The bald man climbed over the iron gates and walked straight ahead. The lobby was then filled with silence and there were only the soft sounds of murmuring discussions.
Su Min didn’t understand what the purpose of this scene was.
At this moment, Jiang Taozhi suddenly let out an “ah” of exclamation. She whispered: “Look, that man.......”
Before she could finish her words, the bald man again appeared outside the iron gate. He hurried back and climbed back over.
After climbing over, he fell from the gate onto the ground. Supporting his body with both hands, he couldn’t help but back away.
Su Min saw this and could tell that something definitely happened outside.
He reminded the others: “We better not go out if we don’t need to.”
The bald man appeared to be quite strong but he had returned scared. There was probably something outside.
There were almost twenty people gathered at the entrance of the hotel.
Li Chi Yu said: “They don’t look like the people from last night. They’re probably people staying on the other floors.”
Le Ling said with a cold face: “It’s unsafe outside the hotel and its unsafe in the hotel. We should all be careful.”
Li Chi Yu said in a small voice: “It’s all my fault.”
Jiang Taozhi comforted him: “No one’s blaming you.”
Le Ling also comforted him, “No one’s blaming you.”
When Su Min was also about to say a few words of comfort, he saw Li Chi Yu come alive again. Like he was just reborn, he was filled with life.
Su Min: “............”
Li Chi Yu spoke excitedly: “Let’s go. Let’s go have breakfast.”
There was a sign in the hotel lobby. They would need to enter the restaurant from the other side. After entering, they saw a long table covered in food.
There were many people here. Next to the long table was a round table.
Si min didn’t expect to see so many people here coming to watch the show. He could tell in an instant that they are normal people.
Li Chi Yu has already moved over to the long table in excitement.
To be honest, Su Min was a little worried about seeing food on the long table that shouldn’t be there and possibly losing his appet.i.te.
For example the finger in the fish belly, the eyeb.a.l.l.s in the fish soup...........It had been engraved into his mind.
“Ugh!” From not far away, a painful cry was heard.
Su Min subconsciously looked over.
There was a man sitting there and he had a plate in front of him. There were several things on the plate and his fork was still holding up half a piece of kelp.
The man covered his face and he reached into his mouth with his fingers before proceeding to pull something black and stringy out. The more he pulled, the longer it was.
In less than a minute, it had already covered the entire plate in front of him.
But the thing from his mouth appeared to be endless.
Seeing something like this, Su Min once again lost his appet.i.te.