Bonus release 2/3 thanks to Anon!

Arc 3: Death Show

Chapter 45: Vase

From the corridor, you could see most of the lobby but, because the angle is limited, you can only see one part of it. This gave people a strange feeling.

It's as if you're walking down the corridor upstairs and, despite seeing that there is s.p.a.ce further on, it is blocked by a window.

Ji Chi Yu asked as they walked: "Should we go upstairs now?"

Su Min looked ahead and thought for a moment before saying: "Why don't you guys go up first. I'll explore around a little."

He didn't see what the bald man saw earlier, and he wanted to check. Perhaps it may lead him to a clue of some sort.

Jiang Taozhi said: "Why don't we go together? There's nothing to do in the room anyway. This hotel has a courtyard and a fountain outside."

Su Min said: "We can go together if you want."

Le Ling didn't say anything the entire time but she also didn't seem to be against it.

After walking to the end of the lobby, it is the hall. At this moment, there is a pair of people asking something at the front desk but the woman sitting there didn't move or say anything. She just continued to stare at them.

In the end, those people got a little angry.

But it was as if the lady at the front desk had no emotions. Her expression never changed. She seemed as if the person they're angry at wasn't her.

Li Chi Yu muttered: "This front desk lady is really scary."

Since last night until now, her expression never changed. He didn't know if she's a human or a ghost.

Le Ling suddenly said: "The driver from earlier was the same as her. They only exist for check in."

Su Min looked at her and had another guess.

Le Ling seemed to be quite familiar with this and everything that she said was the same as his thoughts.

The driver and the woman at the front desk probably aren't living humans. To be more accurate, they're probably the living dead.

The living dead here are also not zombies. An existence like this in a horror movie isn't strange. This is the same for dead people. The front desk woman and the driver had no other role apart from registration and driving. It was just their character design.

The main culprit behind all this wasn't them.

Li Chi Yu stared for a long time and asked: "If I go over and cause a disturbance, do you think she would react?"

Su Min said: "……….You can try it."

Le Ling side-eyed him: "You might get thrown out of the hotel by her."

Su Min also thought this could be the case. He feared that the front desk woman would suddenly explode and then throw Li Chi Yu outside. There is definitely something dangerous awaiting out there.

Being mocked like this, Li Chi Yu asked curiously, "Why did the bald man run off and then come back again?"

And when he ran back, he seemed to be very scared.

Su Min said: "You will need to ask him that to know."

Speaking of the guests here, Li Chi Yu thought of the man that was thrown to the floor by Le Ling. He felt very refreshed inside.

Afterall, he himself didn't get thrown. She didn't even give him a particularly bad att.i.tude. He felt certain that he had taken a big step and the future looked bright.

Li Chi Yu was very happy, but he naturally didn't dare say anything.

Jiang Taozhi who was in her own thoughts searched through her phone. She then said: "There are no delivery services in this d.a.m.ned place. Looks like we will have to eat the hotel food for lunch too. I wonder if there are anything nice. The food this morning wasn't very good."

Su Min: "………….."

Seeing that she ate so much, it didn't seem like it tasted bad at all.

Jiang Taozhi looked up: "Sigh."

Su Min and them silently looked at each other.

After a while, Jiang Taozhi once again broke the silence, "It's so boring staying in this hotel. We don't even know when the show is going to start. What's the point of staying here for so long. This show is too unprofessional…….."

For the first time, Su Min felt the effects of a gossipy person.

But Jiang Taozhi didn't give others an unpleasant feeling. In fact, everything she said was reasonable and she also seemed very accepting.

Seeing that she wanted to continue speaking, Li Chi Yu quickly stopped her: "We should be notified when it's time. They wouldn't make us stay here the whole time."

Especially since the tickets were so expensive.

Su Min said: "Anyway, I think it's best not to go out too long and not to go around alone. This hotel is quite big."

He knew that he has Chen Su with him but the others don't so they would practically be fated to die.

Su Min didn't want all of them to come together to the hotel and then end up with him alone at the end. Such an experience would be equivalent to not experiencing the movie.

He still didn't know what happened to that scream from last night. There was also the incident involving the kelp and the headless corpse in the restaurant.

Only they were left standing in the hotel lobby.

The woman at the front desk faced the computer and didn't pay any attention to them.

Jiang Taozhi was a phone addict. After she finally stored away her phone, she exclaimed in a quiet voice: "That person is so skinny."

Su Min looked over and saw that it was Xu Jian from last night. The plump woman he saw next to him that night wasn't there.

Despite the fact that he was silent and not acting any different, Su Min felt that something wasn't right, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

Li Chi Yu saw Su Min staring at him and asked: "Do you know him?"

Su Min nodded: "Yes. I saw him last night."

He briefly mentioned what he saw last night.

Li Chi Yu was shocked: "That doesn't sound like a couple at all. How can they interact like that?"

Perhaps it's because he has never been in a relations.h.i.+p before.

Xu Jian didn't notice their stares and turned into the restaurant. His tall and thin figure left behind a deep impression.

Su Min removed his gaze, "Let's take a look outside."

The courtyard outside the hotel was similar to the gardens you see in manors. Separated into several green areas, to the left and right of the gate was a fountain and a statue respectively.

Su Min didn't go there and just went directly over to the gate. The iron gate was a few metres wide and you could look outside through the bars.

It was dark outside, like it was covered in thick fog. The fog lingered around the forest causing them to be unable to see further into the distance.

Su Min touched the door. It was an ordinary iron door.

Le Chi Yu walked over and said: "I'll reach out and see. The sun's clearly out so why is it so dark outside?"

He stretched out his hand as he said that, and Su Min didn't have time to stop him.

The moment his hand and arm went through the gap between the bars, the thick fog outside came over and wrapped around his arm.

The next moment, he was pulled back by Le Ling. The thick fog suddenly hit the iron gate and then it scattered again.

Li Chi Yu felt fearful: "It felt scary."

When the fog came over, he felt a very cold sensation on his arm along with the distinct sense of danger.

Jiang Taozhi asked quietly: "Can this fog swallow people up?"

If the fog is light, you wouldn't be able to see its shape but the thick fog here were all gathered together to the point that it looked like one big ma.s.s.

It's as if it had its own consciousness.

Su Min intuitively felt that this thick fog wasn't right. He warned them: "It's best not to touch it. That bald man was able to live because he was lucky."

With what happened with Li Chi Yu, if the bald man responded a second too late, he would have probably been swallowed.

What was more important was that Su Min was afraid that this fog will get worse.

Right now, the hotel can block the fog outside but how long can it last? Can it still block it once it gets worse? Or will it eventually flood in?

Su Min held slight suspicion that the show was probably just a cover for the strange hotel.

But after thinking about it more carefully, that would mean that the name "Death Show" was just a means to attract audience?

Su Min thought about this for a long time. Soon, more people appeared in the courtyard. They were all people that had appeared in the restaurant earlier.

In fact, he has already seen what he needed to see.

Su Min said: "Let's go back."

There are about twenty or thirty people in the courtyard. In pairs and threes, they stood to one side to take pictures. No one went over to the iron gate. Perhaps it was because they were scared after seeing what happened to the bald man earlier

But Su Min felt that they didn't appear worried at all.

He pulled out the show ticket from his pocket and glanced at it under the sun.

There weren't any changes to the ticket. On the front, there weren't any mentions of the show's name and all it had was the word "Ticket" on the far right hand side. Below were are a few small characters and there was no indication of time.

The rest of the ticket was a blurry photo. At the very centre was something that he felt looked like a woven basket.

This basket was a little different to the baskets he had seen before. It narrowed at the neck before widening around at the body. Like this, it looked like a vase.

Because it was very blurry, Su Min also wasn't sure if it was a basket and he didn't know if the show has anything to do with a basket.

But Death Show sounded like a thriller show.

Su Min even suspected that there might be something inside the basket like a human head that would jump out……….For example, the headless corpses' head.

If it is a performance involving a group of heads or some kind of corpse party, then his worldviews would collapse.

Li Chi Yu came over and said: "The show ticket looks very old fas.h.i.+oned but the paper quality isn't bad."

He only got the ticket just before he came here. At that time, his first impression was that it was quite unique. After looking at it more carefully, he didn't know what to make of it.

Su Min turned the ticket around. There were words on the back.

The content was very simple. It didn't disclose the organiser for the show and only had some disclaimers which included the fact that they would need to stay in the hotel and avoid venturing outside as they will not be responsible for any accidents.

Su Min: "……..You only paid attention to the paper quality?"

The paper quality of course wasn't bad.

He examined it carefully but didn't find anything special. It was just a ticket that was a little tougher than regular tickets.

When he read the last line of small print, Su Min realised that this show didn't care much about personal safety.

But if he thought about it, it is also quite normal.

This was originally a horror movie. It would be strange if no one died. If no one died, then it'll definitely be a flop movie.

The sun outside was getting stronger. Su Min stored the ticket away, "Okay, let's go back. It's getting crowded out here."

It was only at this time that he realised how terrible this hotel could be.

Although it probably wasn't everyone but. if he calculated the people coming in and out of the restaurant, there were about fifty to sixty people.

Su Min was a little surprised. How large were the funds used for this movie?

After entering the lobby, the temperature dropped. Li Chi Yu looked around the hotel and couldn't help but comment: "Why is there just a single vase in this hotel? Why isn't it a pair?"

No matter how poor you are, it is common sense to get two for good fortune.

Su Min also directed his attention to the vase for the first time. It was taller than him and looked very normal. The porcelain surface was decorated with lotus that covered the entire case reaching all the way up the neck.

In addition to the blooming lotuses, there were also some fine decorations that was very colourful. The pattern in general was very complicated.

There were no flowers in the vase but it didn't seem strange to them.

Li Chi Yu walked over to the vase and stretched his hand out to compare. He spoke with surprise: "It's taller than me. It's my first time seeing something so big."

<> <>

KK has something to say:

Le Ling is suspicious but fortunately she doesn't seem dangerous. I don't want to see Li Chi Yu get heartbroken – he seems like a genuinely nice guy