The village beauty and me!

The fat man thought Qiao Lingling was joking.

He chuckled and said, "In broad daylight, under the clear sky, there can't be any ghosts anywhere except in people's hearts."

Qiao Lingling sneered, "You don't believe me? Go up and see for yourself."

"If you can stay inside the building for three minutes without making a sound today, then whatever you say goes."

Upon hearing this, the fat man immediately perked up, "Qiao Lingling, you said it yourself."

"If I make any demands later, you're not allowed to back out!"

Qiao Lingling crossed her arms and gave a disdainful look. "I, Qiao Lingling, always keep my word. I'm much more reliable than you."

"But before you go in, I'd like to remind you that it's best to wear a diaper or something."

"To avoid wetting your pants and making a fool of yourself."

The fat man gritted his teeth. "That's impossible."

"You just wait here. I want to see what kind of monsters and demons a mere restaurant can harbor. You think you can scare Fatty like that? Are you kidding me?"

After saying that, the fat man strode in with his head held high and chest puffed out, walking straight into the first-floor entrance.

Chen Huan rubbed his nose and asked, "Beautiful Qiao, what's going on here?"

He knew that Qiao Lingling was not a liar and would not joke around in this situation.

Although Chen Huan didn't believe in ghosts in broad daylight, he still felt that things weren't that simple.

However, Qiao Lingling remained tight-lipped, saying, "I'll tell you myself when Fatty comes out."

"So that you won't accuse me of exaggerating or fooling people here."

There was nothing Chen Huan could do but wait on the sidelines.

He originally wanted to go in with the fat man to take a look.

However, Fatty is currently engaged in a playful bet with Xu Lingling, and it would be inappropriate for him to get involved.

Thinking it over, he decided to give the fat guy a chance to show off; maybe he could actually get a date with Qiao Lingling.

Less than a minute after the fat man went inside, a blood-curdling scream suddenly erupted from within: "My god, there really is a ghost!"

"Huh?" Chen Huan was stunned on the spot.

A moment later, the fat man practically tumbled and crawled out of the lobby on the first floor.

His head was covered in cold sweat, and his face was deathly pale.

As he ran outside, he stammered, "It was a ghost! It scared the hell out of me!"

"Brother Huan, our restaurant is finished."

"We just dealt with the rats, and now we've been cursed again. Maybe we should just give up?"

Chen Huan grabbed him by the collar and shook him violently twice. "Calm down, are you acting?"

The fat man wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Brother Huan, I can't play you, no matter who I'm playing."

  

"There's a spider demon inside, with eight legs, six eyes, and as big as a pot lid! It's terrifying!"

Qiao Lingling frowned and said, "Weren't you supposed to be a snake spirit? How come you've turned into a spider spirit?"

Why do people see different things when they go in?

"Some of the people over there are talking about Ox-Head and Horse-Face, and others are saying they saw the dead old woman. What's going on?"

"Is it really that eerie inside? How come it has all sorts of things?"

Chen Huan stood there completely confused. "What 'Grandma'? Ox-Head and Horse-Face?"

"Even if it were really haunted, it wouldn't be this chaotic."

Chen Huan had no reason to doubt the fat man's words.

So he figured that the kid must have really seen something unclean.

I subconsciously observed the fat man's condition to avoid frightening him.

Upon closer inspection, it became clear that something was amiss.

He quickly grabbed the fat man's hand, then moved closer to him, raised his nose, and sniffed all over the fat man's body.

"Brother Huan, what are you doing? Didn't you say you had no problem with your orientation?" The fat man grinned, his expression very unnatural.

Xu Lingling couldn't help but laugh.

Because Chen Huan's action at this moment was rather presumptuous, and also ambiguous.

Chen Huan frowned. "Fatty, you've been poisoned."

"Did you smell anything unusual when you went in?"

The fat man blinked, thought for a moment, and said, "You know what, the last hotel I went into had a musty, damp smell."

"This time when I went in, I smelled a fragrance, a very rich and layered fragrance, like the fragrance of a girl, and it was the fragrance of many girls together at the same time..."

Qiao Lingling frowned, "You're really disgusting."

"But I think I can smell a fragrance too."

"Chen Huan, you said you were poisoned, what happened?"

Chen Huan released the fat man's hand. "Actually, what you saw wasn't a ghost at all, but the shadow in your own hearts."

"Fatty, you're such a big guy, why are you afraid of spiders?"

"Qiao Lingling, you seem like a pretty cool girl, are you actually afraid of snakes?"

The fat man looked embarrassed. "How did you know? I've never been afraid of anything since I was a child, but once I got bitten by a spider, and it was bitten in that private place. It hurt for a month!"

"It left me with psychological trauma."

Qiao Lingling blushed, "I was also bitten by a snake when I was a child, and it left me traumatized..."

The fat man blinked and leaned closer. "What's wrong? Are you biting in a private place too?"

Qiao Lingling gritted her teeth and kicked him, "Bullshit, do you think I'm as shameless as you?"

Chen Huan ignored the two's playful banter, put his hands behind his back, and walked straight towards the gate.

"What are you doing? We haven't explained things clearly yet. There's danger inside." The fat man and Qiao Lingling grabbed him from both sides at the same time.

Chen Huan calmly replied, "Someone has poisoned this place, a hallucinogenic drug that can make people have wild thoughts and stir up their inner shadows."

"Moreover, this poison works remarkably quickly, and the antidote is also quick to take effect."

"If the fat guy hadn't run out in time, I wouldn't have realized he was poisoned."

"Right? I always manage to play a role." The fat man raised his head.

Qiao Lingling mocked from the side, "Stop bragging. You didn't even see how scared you were just now."

"I'm a woman, and I couldn't run as fast as you just now..."

The fat man blushed deeply and fell silent.

At this moment, Chen Huan had already led the way into the building.

Seeing how confident he was, Qiao Lingling followed him, and the fat man naturally didn't lag behind.

According to the two individuals, the symptoms only appeared after they went up to the second floor.

Renovation hasn't officially started yet, so the elevator on the ninth floor isn't operational.

The only way to get up is via wooden stairs.

As they reached the corner leading to the second floor, Chen Huan stretched out his arm to stop the two.

Then he pointed to the corner of the wall and said, "Someone has tampered with this place. You two, don't go over there."

After saying that, he walked over and, relying on his excellent sense of smell, accurately located the spot. He then pried out a very thin piece of burning incense from a crack in a board in the corner of the wall.

Strangely, an incense stick that looked very ordinary, even though it was burning, didn't produce any smoke.

And it has no noticeable odor whatsoever.