*Knock, knock, knock!*
Ji Li had just finished his shower. Weariness weighed on him, and he was ready to collapse into sleep—when an urgent knock came at the door.
He sighed, pushed his damp hair back, cigarette dangling from his lips, and went to answer.
Yu Guo's thin face appeared, carrying an uneasy, tangled expression that Ji Li couldn't immediately read.
"What is it?"
Ji Li could sense something unusual in Yu Guo's demeanor.
Yu Guo glanced up and down the hallway, then slipped inside without waiting for permission.
"Come look at this!"
He plopped onto Ji Li's bed, fumbling out his streaming phone.
The account had been permanently banned, which stung, but that wasn't the point.
What mattered was the other ghost caught on the stream.
Ji Li sat beside him, narrowing his eyes at the replay.
Slowly, his face grew darker.
Onscreen was the headless ghost from Room 210—yet outside the window, floating eerily, was another phantom cloaked like a billowing coat, as if communicating with it.
Ji Li exhaled a plume of smoke, his face grim and silent.
He had long suspected it. So far, their main duty as staffs had been introducing ghosts to the hotel.
But the second responsibility—managing the residents—had remained vague. For now, it only meant patrols and enforcing rules.
Since the coffin mirror ghost's arrival, the second floor had been disturbingly quiet. Too quiet.
And now, a ghost outside the hotel was contacting a resident inside.
"…When you noticed it, what did the headless ghost do?" Ji Li asked.
"At first, I didn't notice the cloaked one," Yu Guo admitted, scratching his head. "By the time I checked the replay, it was gone. The headless ghost looked spooked and slipped back into its room."
Ji Li drew deeply on his cigarette, then crushed it underfoot.
He led Yu Guo quickly to the second floor. The corridor, bathed in morning light, still carried a unique chill.
At last he said loudly, "By authority of the acting manager, I demand a reassignment of residents."
The hotel's sweet, mechanical female voice responded at once:
Understood, Mr. Ji Li. This falls within your duty to regulate residents. Please state your instructions.**
Ji Li nodded. He had no precedent to follow, but reasoned that the cloaked phantom had approached because the headless ghost's window sat closest to the outside world.
As a living man, he couldn't prevent such collusion completely—but he could at least adjust.
"Leave the peeping ghost in 201.
The coffin mirror ghost stays in 203.
Move the wrist-slitting ghost from 205 to 204.
Move the headless ghost from 210 to 202."
Adjustment accepted. Thank you, Mr. Ji Li.**
The voice faded. Immediately, the two residents ordered to move manifested in the corridor.
Yu Guo stared wide-eyed—this was his first time clearly seeing them.
The headless ghost appeared first, in the form of a boy in patterned cloth, rolling a glass marble between his fingers.
The wrist-slitting ghost from 205 was far uglier, resembling a dried-out corpse. The moment it emerged, it plunged a knife into its left wrist, dark blood dripping onto the carpet.
Ji Li frowned. "Take your blood with you to 204."
...
Once the moves were complete, Ji Li and Yu Guo walked to the far end of the second floor, stopping by the window.
"The cloaked phantom was right here," Yu Guo pointed.
Ji Li nodded. By now it was clear—the residents had evolved from restless to conspiring.
But the boundaries of their supervisory duty remained vague. How was he supposed to prevent or resolve this?
After a long silence, Ji Li finally asked the hotel itself:
"Hotel, did you hear what the cloaked phantom and the headless ghost were discussing?"
Sorry, Mr. Ji Li, I cannot monitor any movements outside the hotel.**
Ji Li hadn't expected the female voice to answer, but that sentence brightened his eyes.
If it couldn't see outside movements, did that mean it knew the situation inside?
"Then what did the headless ghost inside the window say?"
The voice replied without hesitation: It said nothing and did nothing.**
That answer surprised Ji Li. He had assumed the headless ghost's odd behavior was coordinated with the cloaked phantom outside, their endgame being to break free of the hotel's constraints.
But now it seemed the cloaked phantom had actively called to it.
The headless ghost had passively accepted everything and appeared uneasy about what the cloaked phantom proposed—perhaps undecided, perhaps refusing.
Ji Li laughed aloud at the thought, startling Yu Guo beside him.
"What's up?"
"Nothing—just finding it interesting that even ghosts scheme against one another. I hadn't expected that."
Yu Guo chuckled and said, "Yeah. Maybe ghosts don't just plot—they might also fight each other."
Ji Li nodded, waved his hand, and prepared to return to his room.
"Hotel, seal the second-floor windows completely. Ensure absolute isolation."
Understood, Mr. Ji Li.**
...
Over the next three days Ji Li organized new hotel-rule materials to distribute to incoming staffs.
Yu Guo spent every moment trying to get his streaming account unbanned.
Fang Shenyan disappeared for a long stretch; no one knew what he was doing.
At 1:00 p.m. on October 26, Ji Li left his room carrying three packets of the new materials. He tapped the hotel-issued phone against the wall three times.
Soon after, Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo stepped out of their rooms simultaneously.
Ji Li watched them approach and said quietly, "Let's go—see if any unusual newcomers arrive this time."
Fang Shenyan, as composed as ever, his sideburns streaked with gray, walked briskly beside them.
"The peeping ghost is off. For three nights straight, at midnight it's been crouching at my door, watching me through the peephole."
You can read Eerie Overseer ahead by 30+ chapters ad-free and for free at htt ps://ravenarchives. com/book/eerie-overseer]. Bulk uploads are a bit tricky, so updates here might be irregular, but they'll keep coming.