"You think I'll provoke the guys upstairs?"
"It's not 'think,' it's 'definitely'!"
"Alright then, ask away."
A few snickers came from the Front Desk's throat, but they sounded quite chilling.
"Excuse me, do you think I will give you the key?"
"That's it?"
"Yes! That's it! I will only say 'yes' or 'no,' and you only have three chances."
"Then will you give me the key?"
"No, you only have two chances left now."
The Front Desk was full of confidence, already preparing to go back to his room to get a knife.
Bai Yuze frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, then asked again.
"If my next question is 'Will you give me the key?', will your answer be the same as the answer to the next question?"
"....How cunning... Take it, child."
The Front Desk didn't pick out a key; instead, he threw the entire key tray to Bai Yuze.
"Thanks."
The Front Desk ignored Bai Yuze, simply returning to his room and quietly closing the door.
While the Front Desk was returning to his room, Bai Yuze opened the cabinet in room 107. This time, he wasn't making Molotov cocktails; instead, he tucked the bag of white sugar into his pocket.
After doing all this, Bai Yuze returned to room 104 and informed the two women.
Then, the three of them embarked on their journey to the second floor. As for Yamauchi Haruki in room 106... Bai Yuze had his own arrangements.
The stairs and corridor on the second floor were not as neat and clean as the first floor; instead, they were covered in stains, and shoes would stick when stepping on them.
"Ew! How disgusting! By the way, Xiao Ze, why are we here?!"
Tuanzi suppressed her inner discomfort; she had already tried her best to calm herself down.
"There's something we need to get here, otherwise, there will be trouble later."
If it weren't for an important item, Bai Yuze wouldn't have come here even if he were beaten to death.
As for why he brought Yukino and Tuanzi, it was because when the next floor opened, the things on the floor below would enter a frenzied state, so it wasn't safe for the two women to stay downstairs.
"How much longer do we have to walk?"
Yukino asked the answer she urgently wanted to know. Although she could control her physical discomfort, she couldn't resist the psychological discomfort. Feeling the sticky sensation from the soles of her feet, the dark lines on Yukino's face had not disappeared for a moment.
"You know room 202? That's our resting place."
It must be said that the strangeness of this residence was truly bizarre. The layout of the first floor was from left to right, from bottom to top, but the second floor was completely opposite.
After successfully passing through the staircase area, Bai Yuze breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't told the two women not to count the steps when climbing the stairs, because sometimes the more you try not to care, the more you do.
Fortunately, neither of the two women had the habit of counting steps, which made the stair climbing process, although disgusting, safe.
But the moment the three of them stepped into the second-floor corridor, a greasy, rough voice shouted.
"Outside! Keep it down! If you mess up my good thing, I'll chop you all up!"
The three exchanged glances. Bai Yuze waved his hand, signaling the two to follow him. But after only a few steps, the iron door of 207 burst open, and then a fat-headed, big-eared middle-aged man emerged from inside, holding a cleaver. However, what was most striking was his head; there was a cut at his neck, and his head hung on his neck, as if about to fall off.
"You guys really want to die, don't you? I almost won the bet! It's all your fault; you scared away my leopard! I want your lives as compensation."
Saying that, the fat-headed, big-eared monster, with his head dangling, charged at the three with his cleaver. Just as Tuanzi and Yukino were in a panic,
Bai Yuze held their hands and gave them a knowing smile. Although the two women were puzzled, they still chose to trust Bai Yuze.
Just then, the iron door of 205 was kicked open. A tall, burly man walked out of the room, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that the man's eye sockets were hollow.
"Zhu Daqiang, are you looking for death? What are you yelling about in broad daylight? Did you gamble away your father this time, or did you gamble away your mother?"
"Damn it, Yuan Xing! Talking so tough, have your eyes grown back?"
"Zhu Daqiang, I'll curse your mother."
"I'll send you to see your bastard child right now."
The situation happened so suddenly; two anomalies started fighting right in front of the three.
No sooner said than done, Bai Yuze pulled the two women, sprinting all the way to the door of 202. He quickly found the key to room 202 on the key tray, inserted it, turned it, opened the door, all in one fluid motion.
With the closing of the iron door, this meant that the three finally had time to rest.
"Were those things just now still human?"
Tuanzi said with lingering fear. The fat, greasy uncle with a dangling head, the tall man with only black hollow eye sockets—these two monsters would probably become elite monsters in Tuanzi's nightmares.
Now, Tuanzi suddenly felt that the male corpse in room 102 was much more agreeable. Although he would occasionally move, at least her sanity didn't drop too much.
"They are not human; they merely retain memories from their former lives."
"It looks like those two monsters have a conflict. Did they have a grudge from their previous lives?"
"Exactly. That Fat Man had a happy family in his previous life, but because he became addicted to gambling and drugs, his house was gone, his car was gone, his wife remarried, and his child stayed with him, but he forgot the child at home, who starved to death.
As for Yuan Xing, he was a hooligan who couldn't find a wife, so he married his simple-minded older sister. When his sister gave birth, she died in childbirth, and because of the close kinship, the child was born simple-minded. He was a debt collector, but because he provoked someone he shouldn't have, he was retaliated against, had his eyes gouged out, and his child was put in a bag and drowned in the river.
He and Zhu Daqiang disliked each other. He despised people like Zhu Daqiang who personally ruined their good lives, while Zhu Daqiang hated those debt-collecting snitches the most. Did you notice his right hand holding the cleaver? His pinky finger was chopped off by a debt collector."
"Wow! Xiao Ze, you know so much!"
Tuanzi's eyes sparkled, her emotional value completely maxed out.
"They had a habit of keeping diaries, although they called their diaries 'confessions.' In reality, they just wanted to find some psychological comfort, to reassure themselves, to make themselves mistakenly believe that they still had a devout and repentant heart. In truth, genuine repentance doesn't need any 'confession.' If you think of something, you immediately correct it. That's much more useful than writing any damn confession."
Bai Yuze shrugged, after all, people always find countless reasons to excuse themselves, sometimes even feeling smug, thinking how clever they are.
But what about reality?
Bai Yuze: No comment