A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

"The entire building," Zhou Lang said. "The inn's drainage system connects to every room and every wall. It's not hidden inside the inn—it's an integral part of the inn. All the pipes are its blood vessels."

Han Yingying swallowed.

The two continued searching the second floor. Room 203 belonged to Tie Zhu, and the door was unlocked. The room layout was the same as Zhou Lang's, but the color of the curtains was different—Tie Zhu's curtains were dark red, almost black.

Zhou Lang lifted the curtains and looked out the window. The window should face the back mountain, but the view through the glass had an inexplicable sense of disharmony.

The outline of the mountain behind it shifts slightly in the light. It's not the swaying of trees in the wind, but rather the very slow movement of the entire mountain's edge, like a giant breathing.

The view of giants.

The name of this place may not be just because of the shape of the mountain.

"Go up to the third floor," Zhou Lang said.

The corridor on the third floor is narrower than that on the second floor, and the light bulbs are also lower wattage, making it dim even during the day. The doors to rooms 301 and 302 are both closed, and the door to the storage room is at the end of the corridor.

Ma Defa once said that the storage room should not be opened.

Zhou Lang walked to the door.

This door was different from the others. The wood was thicker, the color darker, and something was stuffed in the crack—he crouched down to look—it was salt. Coarse salt, a thick layer sprinkled along the crack.

"For sealing purposes?" Han Yingying asked from behind.

Zhou Lang didn't answer. He pressed his ear against the door and listened for a while.

It was very quiet inside. There was no squirming, no crying, nothing at all.

But he smelled something else.

Burnt smell.

The lingering smell of burnt food wafted through the gaps in the door panel, mingling with the smell of salt.

A young couple. The two people who burned to death in the fire.

"There are two strange things locked up in this room." Zhou Lang took a step back. "A young couple who were burned to death. Ma Defa sealed them with salt."

Why?

"Because those two weirdos hate him," Zhou Lang said. "The fire was set by the mastermind, but Ma Defa was an accomplice. This couple died unjustly, and their resentment is the strongest. If it were released—"

He didn't finish his sentence because footsteps sounded.

Someone is going upstairs.

Zhou Lang pulled Han Yingying back to the side of door 301. The footsteps grew closer, and a figure appeared around the corner.

Lin Yuan.

He stood alone at the top of the stairs, looking at Zhou Lang and Han Yingying with a blank expression.

"Weren't you going to town with An'an?" Zhou Lang asked.

"An'an said her stomach hurt and went back to her room," Lin Yuan said. "I took a walk around by myself, but didn't find anything, so I came back."

His gaze shifted from Zhou Lang's face to the door of the storage room, paused for a second, and then looked away.

"That door can't be opened," Lin Yuan said. "The boss said so."

"I know," Zhou Lang said.

The two locked eyes for a moment. Lin Yuan's pupils were lighter than normal, appearing grayish-blue in the dim light, like the base color left after the blood clots in the eyes of a drowning person had receded.

Lin Yuan turned around and went downstairs.

"He's spying on us," Han Yingying said.

"It's not just surveillance," Zhou Lang said. "He's protecting the storage room."

"Protect him? Isn't he weird? Why protect him—"

"Because the male member of the couple possesses him," Zhou Lang said. "That couple was burned to death and had a grudge against the mastermind. If the seal on the storage room is broken and the female member comes out, the two of them together will be a threat to the mastermind."

"So the mastermind behind this had Lin Yuan keep an eye on us, preventing us from releasing another one?"

"almost."

Han Yingying processed the information for a moment, then asked, "So, should we release them or not?"

"We should release it," Zhou Lang said, "but not now."

-

At noon, everyone met in the lobby.

Tie Zhu and Su Yan returned from the back mountain. Tie Zhu was covered in mud, with several scratches on his arms. Su Yan, on the other hand, was clean and tidy, not even a speck of dirt on her skirt.

"There's a lake behind the mountain," Tie Zhu said, wiping his wound. "There's a shed by the lake, with fishing nets and stones inside. Ropes are tied to the stones, and the other end of the rope is tied to something—"

He paused for a moment.

"What is it tied to?" An'an pressed.

"A lock of hair." Tie Zhu's voice deepened. "Very long, a woman's hair. Tangled in rocks, turned white from being soaked in water."

silence.

"Someone was tied with stones and thrown into the lake," Su Yan concluded in a very soft tone, "and they've never been pulled out after they sank."

Zhou Lang listened without interrupting. That's how the landlady died. She was tied to a rock and drowned in the lake by Ma Defa. Her resentment after death was so strong that she climbed up and smeared Ma Defa into the cement wall.

What no one knew was that Ma Defa, who was currently stir-frying vegetables in the kitchen, seemed perfectly fine during the day.

It's eerie. It takes on human form during the day, but transforms into a dead state at night.

In other words—at night, Ma Defa will no longer be the smiling, welcoming middle-aged man he is now. He will become a dead man encased in a cement wall. And what is trapped in that cement wall will come to life at night.

It's hard to say what will happen tonight.

"We also found something else." Su Yan took a folded piece of paper out of her pocket.

She unfolded it and placed it on the table.

It was a clipping from an old newspaper, dated three years ago. The headline read: "Fire Breaks Out at Giant View Inn in the Middle of the Night, Five People Die."

The report was brief. The fire started at 2:00 AM and spread extremely quickly, reducing the entire building to ruins within half an hour. The victims included two guests (a couple), a female temporary worker, the innkeeper (who is missing and presumably perished in the fire), and an unidentified man.

"Five people," Tie Zhu counted on his fingers, "two couples, one female factory worker, one female boss, and one man whose identity is unknown."

"Where's the boss?" An'an asked, tilting her head. "Isn't the boss dead?"

Tie Zhu was taken aback.

Yes. The fire burned the entire building, but the owner, Ma Defa, wasn't on the death list. Did he survive? Or—

"Maybe he's that 'unidentified man'," Su Yan said softly.

"That's not right," Zhou Lang finally spoke. "If he's dead, who will open the door for us?"

All eyes were on him.

Zhou Lang glanced at everyone's expressions. Tie Zhu was confused, Su Yan was wary, An An showed just the right amount of fear, and Lin Yuan's expression was blank.

Han Yingying lowered her head and made a gesture to him under the table—be careful.

"What I mean is," Zhou Lang rephrased, "that the inn in this instance is the one that burned down three years ago. Ma Defa was the owner back then. Whether he's a man or a ghost, he's still running the inn here, entertaining us 'guests'."

"What do you want to say?" Su Yan looked directly at Zhou Lang.

"I'm telling you, don't leave your room tonight," Zhou Lang said, standing up. "Anyone who goes out will die."

After lunch, Zhou Lang called Han Yingying back to room 201.