False evidence

Chapter 325 The Hotel's Secret (1)

I asked Anxin, "Do you have any valuable treasures at home?"

An Xin grinned, her smile forced. "Heh, if I had anything valuable, I would have sold it long ago to pay for my funeral. Do you think it's easy to borrow money from people?"

I shook my head inwardly. This girl had endured far too much for her age, and her personality wasn't as cheerful as Pidan's. Unless her life underwent a major change, she was likely to live a tragic life.

"Go and take care of your mother and younger brother!"

"What about you?"

"If something happens in the building, we have to find my companions first."

As I spoke, I went upstairs, but Anxin followed behind.

I couldn't help but frown: "Why are you following me? Your mother and brother are left unattended. What if some snakes, insects, or rodents come again?"

An Xin said softly, "I feel at ease with you."

"As you wish!"

My impression of this girl has changed. After all these strange things happened tonight, her mother and younger brother were given sleeping pills and are unable to take care of themselves. She abandoned them, but said she felt safe with me.

I cannot understand this kind of selfishness.

I don't know if An Xin is down-to-earth or not, but as soon as I stepped onto the stairs, I suddenly felt a sense of panic.

I don't know how to describe this feeling in detail, but it felt like, in that instant, I stepped through the door to another world.

The building was still pitch black, but it didn't feel eerie; instead, it had a serene and ethereal quality. It was so quiet that even the sound of rain was barely audible.

As soon as I got to the second floor, the little monkey that was perched on my shoulder suddenly jumped down and ran towards the side of the corridor.

I had a gut feeling that something was wrong, so I followed without hesitation.

The second floor is the same as the third floor, with endless corridors on both sides, and all the rooms have disappeared.

Because the windows were blocked off, not a single ray of light could pass through. As we walked through the corridor with flashlights, all we could hear were the soft footsteps of Anxin and me, making it feel as if we were truly walking through a tomb passage.

Blind Liu, Blind Liu, I believe Xiao Shensan when he says you have real skills, but where are you now?
Could it be that he drank too much and really became a 'wise man,' chatting with the Duke of Zhou in his dreams?

"Squeak!"

A sudden, strange cry startled the little monkey in front, making it jump three feet high.

It seemed to have suddenly become possessed; while its body was still in mid-air, it suddenly pushed off the wall with its hind claws and slammed sideways into the opposite wall!

I was startled. At this rate, wouldn't his brains splatter out?
Why would this little female monkey want to commit suicide?
My movements could never be faster than a monkey's, and it was too late to stop me.

However, the next second, I watched as the little monkey crashed into the wall, but instead of the terrible thing I had imagined, it disappeared into the wall!

"It's so evil!"

I rushed to the spot where the monkeys had disappeared and examined it closely. It was just a wall. I reached out and touched it, but there was no door hidden by any illusion.

"Where did the monkey go?" An Xin was also full of surprise.

"I also want to know the answer..."

I muttered to myself, thinking that I would see the 'monkey' every day when I got back, but for now I should look for the 'bald man,' the 'ugly man,' and the 'blind man' first.

Just as I was about to turn around, my peripheral vision caught a glimpse of the ground, and what I saw made me shudder several times.

Lu Xin and Liang Kaiyuan are both just consciousnesses; in other words, apart from the monkey that just vanished into thin air, there are only An Xin and me left now.

How can two people have three shadows?!

I'm in the front, and the one in the middle, judging by her figure, is An Xin.

Who is that little guy at the very back?
I gripped the flashlight tightly and looked behind An Xin, but there was no one there.

He pulled An Xin to his side and shone the flashlight on the ground again. This time, even An Xin could see it; sure enough, there was another person's shadow!
“What is that…” An Xin asked in a trembling voice, hiding behind me.

"I'm asking you who you are!"

I shouted something to my shadow and took a step forward.

Unexpectedly, the shadow opened its arms to me.

Of course, I didn't think it was going to give me a loving hug. Judging from its appearance, it was clearly trying to stop me from going back!

Logically, I should be able to see ghosts, but all I see is a shadow. Besides, ghosts don't have shadows.

Another strange thing is that the shadow looks like a person, but it is much shorter than An Xin. When it spreads its arms, its arm length is almost the same as its height!
Looking at the prominently protruding ears on both sides of the head, it looks to me like...

"It's Gou Dan!"

An Xin suddenly pointed at the shadow and said, "That's Gou Dan, the monkey my dad used to keep!"

I realized that this shape was just like a monkey, only much larger than the little monkey before, and at first glance it looked like a short person.

The shadow, like a person, saluted us, then clasped its paws together and bowed repeatedly to us.

An Xin became even more certain that it was indeed Gou Dan.

Judging from the shadow's movements and recalling the scream I had just heard, I vaguely realized what the key was.

I tried asking the shadow, "Was that little guy your child?"

The shadow nodded repeatedly.

I retreated to where the little monkey had disappeared, looked at the wall, gritted my teeth, and slammed my shoulder against it.

"Holy crap!"

Half of my body was numb from the impact. The wall was solid; there was absolutely no hidden door.

Shadows cannot make a sound, yet they keep jumping higher and higher in place.

I stared at it for a while, and suddenly the key point came to mind.

It's true that the little monkey crashed into the wall and disappeared, but it leaped upwards in mid-air.

There is indeed a hidden door, but it's not down there, it's up there!

I faced the wall, assessed the height, jumped up, and reached out to feel around above.

With just two swipes, I managed to pry open the wooden frame.

"They really are obsessed!"

I was thrilled and immediately stuffed the flashlight into my clothes and climbed up using both hands.

When we got to the top and looked down, I saw that An Xin was looking at me with a very strange expression.

That's because, in her eyes at that moment, I should be in a half-lying position, with half of my body embedded in the wall!
I am now certain that the so-called hidden door was actually a horizontal rectangular window. The little monkey crawled through that window.

I turned my head, shone my flashlight into the wall and looked around, then turned back and held out my hand to An Xin: "Come on up!"

It's unrealistic to ask her to come downstairs at this point.

After catching one last glimpse of the monkey's shadow, the two climbed over the wall.

The space behind the wall was very narrow, no more than two feet wide. Stepping down, one landed directly on wooden steps.

It turns out this is a staircase squeezed into a crack in the wall!
An Xin didn't know there was such a staircase, but she remembered that there was indeed a cantilevered window somewhere on the east side of the second floor. It had just been boarded up, and no one had thought about what was inside.

(End of this chapter)