Lying in bed, Yang Xiao tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The horrific state of Kato Atsushi continuously flashed in his mind, refusing to go away.
The Ghost appeared twice tonight but only killed Kato Atsushi, leaving Yang Xiao puzzled. The marks on Kato Atsushi’s body were suspicious, and the exact cause of death remained undetermined.
Regardless, soone had died tonight, allowing the rest to breathe a sigh of relief. Generally speaking, the Ghost doesn’t kill consecutively in a short period of ti.
The night passed uneventfully. As the sky began to pale, Yang Xiao finally allowed himself a nap, knowing daylight was more important for them. Dayti is their chance to investigate clues, requiring ample energy.
In a daze, Yang Xiao heard shouting, it was Sato Shouta’s voice echoing in the corridor, "Mr. Yang! Mr. Yang, where are you?!"
"Bang bang bang!"
There were knocks, but not on his door, rather nearby.
Yang Xiao glanced at the clock on the wall; it was already 9:30 a.m. He had slept for almost five hours, regaining a lot of energy.
In the corridor, not only was Sato Shouta there, but also Shibuki Naoko and Takeuchi Tomoya, all of whom stayed on the 8th floor, just above his.
Seeing Yang Xiao open the door and co out, Sato Shouta dashed forward, greeting Yang Xiao like a long-lost friend, "Mr. Yang, you look great and full of energy, did you rest well last night?"
"Not bad. I told you to find at 6 a.m. Why didn’t you co?" Yang Xiao got straight to the point.
Upon hearing this, Sato Shouta looked embarrassed and whispered, "Mr. Yang, I thought you were too tired last night and hadn’t rested well, so I decided to let you sleep longer. I’m fine; I can handle it."
Yang Xiao stared into Sato Shouta’s eyes, noticing his obvious dark circles and bloodshot eyes; clearly, he hadn’t slept all night.
At that mont, rustling sounds ca from downstairs, as if people were talking. Yang Xiao and the three others went downstairs, finding a crowd gathered in the corridor. Sakurai Miyuki stood leaning against the wall, her head lowered, looking out of place amidst the crowd, lost in despair.
She was still being interrogated repeatedly, like a criminal, her responses becoming chanical from the frequency.
Under such pressure and fear, she was almost numb. She couldn’t understand why just because Kato Atsushi had died and not her, she beca a sinner.
Everyone looked at her with strange eyes, filled with resistance, rejection, disgust, and undisguised distrust. But she didn’t understand, what had she done wrong, or could it be...is being alive a mistake? Was she, a newcor, ant to die?
After gathering everyone, they went downstairs and found Jiu Shan Sha Yue and Mitsuo Takeda among others in the first-floor lobby. Except for the deceased Kato Atsushi, everyone else was present, giving the group so relief.
Jiu Shan Sha Yue pointed to the hotel’s glass door, where the lock was now missing, "At 6 a.m., two cars arrived, soone got out and opened the lock, then hurriedly left."
"They left so money and a note." Mitsuo Takeda picked up an envelope from the table and emptied its contents.
It was a stack of bills, quite a sum, with a note instructing them to lock the door punctually at 6 p.m., warning them to return on ti, wherever they were.
"Such concern for our well-being," Hasegawa Hideji joked to himself, but the humor fell flat.
The hotel had mineral water but virtually no food; to survive, they needed to go out for supplies.
One couldn’t fathom their captors’ thought process, not even providing the most basic instant noodles and sausages.
Pushing open the glass door, everyone left the hotel nad Yae Kashi Mountain, and right outside the doors, Beiyu Ye seed to have discovered sothing and stopped.
Under his lead, they found a few black ceramic jars buried in several nearby flowerbeds, unnoticed until they dug them out.
"Mr. Beiyu, what are these?" Heize Lin addressed Beiyu Ye very respectfully, second only to his deference for mafia boss Qingshui Cangjie.
Beiyu Ye held a ceramic jar for a while, seemingly realizing its origin, "These are Resentnt Bottles buried by Jiangmu Road Shrine, containing relics of wrongfully dead individuals, filled with heavy Resentnt."
"Why are these things here?" Yamada Kengohei stared at the black ceramic jar, asking cautiously.
"It seems that what’s here was beyond their control, so they used a poison-against-poison thod, burying these Resentnt Bottles nearby to limit that thing’s range within the hotel," Beiyu Ye explained naturally, as he had authority on the matter. Being the legitimate heir of Dragon Tiger Mountain, these minor artifacts were trivial to him.
This ti, his role was a Martial Servant Officer of a Shrine, naturally knowledgeable about such things, fitting his character setting perfectly.
"Can these things suppress the Ghost?" Takeuchi Tomoya appeared delighted, "Then we should move these jars back."
"Fool! If it were that simple to deal with that thing, would they need to involve us?" Heize Lin reprimanded with a stern face.
Takeuchi Tomoya dared not retort; Heize Lin clearly wasn’t soone to be trifled with, and indeed, he had raised a foolish question.
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