Chapter 16: Knocking at the Hotel (Part One)
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“Heh heh heh.”
Thanks to the pained expressions on everyone’s faces, as though they had been fed some indescribable substance, Zhou Ke was in an excellent mood.
This man’s temperament had deteriorated to the point where he could derive pleasure from the suffering of others.
Just as Zhou Ke was boasting about his flawless talent for writing fairy tales while walking back to his room, another woman’s voice called out to him.
“I’ve had an awfully abundant romantic streak today.” Zhou Ke stopped and said, “Though I suppose that’s only natural.” He turned around and looked doubtfully at Chen Minqun, who was pretending to be bashful. “What is it?”
“Your name is Zhou Ke, right? Could I stay with you?”
The collar of Chen Minqun’s school uniform had been deliberately tugged open, exposing most of her neck. Beneath the dark-blue collar, the snow-white skin of her throat was as pale as tofu, and the little scheme behind it was obvious to all.
“Why?” Zhou Ke narrowed his eyes. His expression could not exactly be called cold; it was more accurate to say he was utterly unmoved.
That actually counted as a good attitude.
If this had been Mr. Zhou yesterday, when food was scarce, the first thing he would have wondered was whether the meat would be tender and springy.
“Because you’re so clever! You exposed the mole and deciphered the telephone number. I think intelligent men are the most reassuring!”
He more or less understood the nonsensical, painfully awkward speech Chen Minqun had just delivered.
In short, the woman had no idea how to survive independently and wanted to attach herself to someone else in order to stay alive.
Still, something seemed off.
A sense of incongruity rose within Zhou Ke.
At that moment, Li Hua came over, patted him on the arm, and whispered, “There’s something wrong with that woman. She was badmouthing you behind your back just now.”
“That’s normal. How many people have you met who don’t badmouth me?”
Li Hua spread his hands. “Hey, you know what? I really haven’t met a single one.”
The exchange offered ample proof of just how infamous Zhou Ke was.
Zhou Ke rubbed his chin and asked Chen Minqun, “Aren’t you afraid that I’m the mole—the one working for the tiger?”
“How could that be? You were the first to expose the mole! That makes you the least likely candidate!” Chen Minqun said excitedly.
“Heh.”
Zhou Ke let out a strange laugh.
He felt Chen Minqun’s reasoning was rather shallow.
If he really were the mole, he might also choose whether to inform the others depending on the circumstances.
There would be an advantage to that: it could provoke a crisis of trust among the tenants, sow panic, and make it easier for him to take advantage of the chaos.
“Is there any benefit to letting you stay with me?” After thinking it over, Zhou Ke decided he should not agree too readily. “For example—”
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His gaze fell upon Chen Minqun’s exposed collarbone, then continued downward.
The others cast him looks of contempt.
“Ahem. I mean, what is your Truth? What can it do?” Zhou Ke coughed twice.
“My Truth is the Water Chapter of Five Elements Theory by Zou Yan, the Initiator of the Five Elements. It can do this.”
Chen Minqun opened her palm and, after expending considerable effort, condensed a small, wobbling sphere of water about the size of an orange.
One probably could not count on it for attacking, but its other uses might be worth considering.
“Can you drink it?” Zhou Ke asked with sudden interest.
Compared with growing or shrinking, or smashing doors with a hammer, Chen Minqun’s ability was much closer to what ordinary people would consider magic.
Water control, fire control, earth control—and, in rarer cases, freezing things into ice, or wielding twin forces of light and darkness.
Though commonplace, there was no denying that such abilities were both practical and dazzling.
“Yes. It’s purified water!” Chen Minqun seemed desperate not to be abandoned and was putting in an extraordinary effort to prove her usefulness to Zhou Ke.
“All right, then. Come into the room with me.”
With the frugal principle of using anything that might prove useful, Zhou Ke led Chen Minqun back to Room Seven.
Night soon approached. After entering, Zhou Ke casually found a wooden chair, braced both hands against its back, and stood off to one side.
“Don’t be shy. Find somewhere to sit,” he said.
Chen Minqun followed him inside. Though she looked somewhat nervous, her movements were brisk.
First, she secured the door latch. Then she buttoned up her school uniform.
“Don’t be so nervous. I’m not going to eat you.”
Zhou Ke delivered one of those sleazy lines that appeared so frequently in television dramas.
Yet he truly had not expected Chen Minqun’s next words to be even more explosive.
“I’m the mole.”
Chen Minqun stared at Zhou Ke’s face, her tone so serious that it was as if someone else had temporarily taken her place.
“Oh?”
Zhou Ke arranged an appropriately surprised expression on his face.
Secretly, he relaxed his grip. The chair he had silently raised five millimeters behind his back settled back onto the floor.
“Miss Chen, what makes you say that?” Zhou Ke looked utterly baffled, with even the faintest hint of disappointment.
Why?
Because he had already suspected that Chen Minqun was the mole. He had been planning to wait until she entered the room, knock her out with the chair, and then use certain methods too unsavory to pass censorship to sound her out.
He had not expected this mole to confess of her own accord, leaving him somewhat embarrassed about attacking her outright.
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Well, the most crucial point was this: Mr. Zhou could not guarantee that, without the advantage of striking first, he could overpower this “weak woman” in a head-on confrontation.
In a world of magic, one could not judge a person’s physical strength solely by gender.
Anyone who could enter the Door was necessarily a mage who had awakened a Truth.
Although Chen Minqun’s Truth appeared feeble and ineffectual, the physical enhancement granted by ether was very real.
At least two years had passed since she had awakened her Truth, whereas Zhou Ke had awakened his less than a week ago.
The disparity in ether reserves and experience in operating a Truth was like heaven and earth.
On top of that, his own Truth lacked any offensive capability. If he forced a confrontation, he would certainly be the one to suffer.
Thus, after weighing the matter repeatedly, Zhou Ke lowered the chair and continued the conversation in a half-braced, half-gripping stance.
“Thank you for being willing to give me time to explain.”
Chen Minqun had no idea that she had just escaped a blow from the chair. Seeing that Zhou Ke was willing to communicate peacefully, she breathed a sigh of relief.
“It happened like this. When I woke up, I found these words on the ceiling.”
“The sacrifice is the key. Scarlet shall open the door for you. Offer up a skull to claim your reward. The killer is the one who lives.”
“Hmm.”
After listening, Zhou Ke fell into thought.
The meaning of the sentence was not complicated. All four clauses conveyed the same message, and the final one made that message unmistakably clear.
A human life must be offered as a sacrifice. Only those who killed someone could survive.
Chen Minqun saw that Zhou Ke had remained silent for a long while. Assuming that someone as clever as him had grasped the deeper meaning between the lines, she got straight to the point.
“That’s right. There is no fifth day on which we leave the hotel. Five days is the deadline. Before it arrives, we must kill one of the tenants in order to earn the right to live and leave safely.”
As she spoke, she pulled up her school uniform. On the smooth skin of the left side of her lower abdomen, the bloody character for “live” was starkly carved.
“This appeared after I tricked the middle-aged man from Room Two into coming out and watched him get killed by the Doorbell Ghost.”
Chen Minqun admitted to the killing without the slightest attempt to hide it. She showed no guilt or remorse. Instead, she exuded a frank, almost noble air of someone who had been forced into a desperate choice.
“The Doorbell Ghost isn’t dangerous. It’s merely a killing tool that can be used. The truly dangerous ones are us!”
Her lovely features were replaced by a vicious, venomous expression, as though a veil of blood had descended over her face.
No trace of grace or gentleness remained—only a chilling intent to kill.
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