Looking from Ji Xingchen's position, through the empty shelves used to place ingredients, he could just see the appearance of the kitchen.

When the chef was in the kitchen, he walked slowly and leisurely in front of the row of knives, as if he was looking at his own collection. He looked like a craftsman choosing the right tools, or... a soldier choosing a handy weapon.

Finally he stopped in front of a knife. It seemed that he was very satisfied with the knife. He picked it up, looked at it for a while, and then walked out.

Ji Xingchen watched him throughout the whole process. He did not ask any questions and did not interfere. He just watched him pick out a suitable knife and prepare to go out.

In front of him was the tomato and egg fried rice that the chef had brought him. The tomatoes were shiny, the eggs were golden, and the rice grains were distinct but covered in egg and tomato. It looked good, but he didn't pick up his chopsticks.

After the chef finished speaking, he did not leave immediately. Instead, he continued to look at Ji Xingchen and repeated, "Eat slowly."

As the chef looked on with a friendly smile, Ji Xingchen raised his hand.

That smile seemed to want him to taste the delicious food he made himself, but Ji Xingchen just pushed his glasses.

The chef looked a little disappointed, and even the look he gave Ji Xingchen showed a slight change.

After pushing his glasses, Ji Xingchen raised his hand and picked up the chopsticks beside him. Under the gaze of the chef, he slowly took the first bite of fried rice.

The chef's eyes immediately became relieved when he looked at him. Ji Xingchen did not comment on the fried rice, and the chef did not ask him whether the fried rice was delicious or not. It was as if Ji Xingchen eating this bite of fried rice was the greatest recognition for him.

"Don't go out." Leaving the last words, the chef disappeared at the door of the restaurant.

Ji Xingchen sat by the window and finished the plate of fried rice very slowly. From his expression, he didn't think the rice was bad. As for why he ate so slowly, it was probably because he thought it would help digestion.

After finishing lunch, Ji Xingchen slowly stood up from his seat. He did not leave immediately, but walked towards the kitchen.

The missing knife they saw last night was not there today, and here, only one knife was missing.

The barbecue grill next to it was still the same as when they returned it last night. It seemed that the chef did not notice that someone had borrowed the barbecue grill last night, and he did not care much about his kitchen.

After touring the kitchen, he poured himself a glass of water and sat back by the window.

He stayed here not just because he listened to the chef.

He is waiting for someone.

The sky was a little gloomy, which made the view outside the floor-to-ceiling windows look not very good. The green plants looked listless. Ji Xingchen put his hands on the table and sat there calmly. He did not look outside, like a gloomy and introverted young man.

Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long.

"Hello."

Soon, the restaurant door was pushed open, and a middle-aged man appeared at the door. He had smile lines at the corners of his eyes and looked very approachable. This appearance was easy to remember. This was the hotel staff who knocked on the door to give them Dongshan specialties.

Ji Xingchen looked up and said, "Hello."

Although this hotel staff member was smiling, his face was a little pale, which gave him a different feeling from when they saw him at the hotel entrance before.

"Mr. Ji, are you used to living here?" The middle-aged man still smiled politely.

"Your restaurant has too few dishes to choose from." Ji Xingchen said, and he seemed to be giving serious advice. "The services promised when booking the room were also mixed. The only good thing was your natural hot springs... and the free osmanthus wine. Other than that, the evaluation I can give is: very poor."

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, obviously not expecting him to give a serious evaluation.

"I think you people working in the service industry would be more interested in hearing the truth." Ji Xingchen continued coldly, as if he was really here for tourism.

"Yes, yes." The middle-aged man said quickly, "I'm sorry, these are indeed our shortcomings. I'm really sorry that I couldn't satisfy you. I will give your suggestions back to my superiors..."

The middle-aged man looked very sincere when he apologized, and spoke very smoothly, as if he had memorized these words countless times. If you gave him a handkerchief, he would probably wipe the sweat off his forehead.

Ji Xingchen said: "Be careful next time."

"Okay, okay."

The middle-aged man nodded repeatedly, and suddenly he stopped nodding. He seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then he remembered what he was doing here. He straightened his face and said with a smile: "I see you seem to be looking for someone. I can take you to the monitoring room. Do you want to go and have a look?"

Ji Xingchen seemed to think about it for a moment, then said, "Okay."

The smile on the man's face widened a little, and he turned to lead the way: "Then please follow me."

The middle-aged man walked in a somewhat stiff manner, with one hand hanging powerlessly by his side. There were dark marks on his black coat. As he walked, a drop of blood dripped from the sleeve of that hand, followed by the second drop, and the third drop...

Ji Xingchen looked down at the bloodstains on the ground.

The middle-aged man suddenly turned around and asked him with a smile: "What's wrong? Why don't you come over?"

"It's okay." Ji Xingchen said calmly and followed.

——

Chi Shen walked around the hot spring area and found that the two male students were gone.

He thought for a while, squatted down in a random pool, and asked about the male student's situation.

The reply he got was that the two male students had just left in a hurry and no one knew where they had gone now. Chi Shen thought about it and returned to the hotel building.

The development of this matter was a little different from what he expected, just like he didn't expect that there would be someone writing a travel guide for them after they came in. The situation here seemed to become a little complicated.

When he arrived at the hotel building, it was pretty much as he expected. Two male students shouted excitedly at the front desk: "There's something wrong with your hot spring pool!"

The lady at the front desk looked at them like they were idiots: "Oh, oh, ok, ok, you guys mean there's a ghost?"

"There is a ghost!" one of the boys shouted. They were still wearing their swimsuits and only had a bath towel on them, shivering with cold in the lobby.

"What did you see this time?" The front desk lady took out her opinion book skillfully. "Did you think the footprints were not made by you, or did you see bloodstains by the hot spring pool?"

"It's blood words, not blood stains!" a boy said quickly, "It also says 'Leave now, don't come to the hot spring area'. We didn't see anyone coming, and this line of words suddenly appeared. There must be a ghost here."

"Wait, did you know this place is haunted?" Another boy noticed something unusual and quietly pulled the other boy to stop him from talking.

"Classmates," the receptionist stopped taking notes and looked up at the two boys. "You have all gone through nine years of compulsory education, so you should know that there are no ghosts in this world. I don't know where you get all these weird ideas. The police have come to check here. If you don't believe me, you should believe the police. There are no ghosts, no ghosts! Do you understand?"

"But we just see——"

"Go back and change your clothes first to avoid catching a cold." Suddenly a voice interrupted them.

The two boys turned to look at the nosy man. When the receptionist saw him coming, she coughed dryly, adjusted her expression, and tried to make herself look friendly and gentle.

"Don't even see the ghost, and freeze yourself to death first." Chi Shen said.

"Do you know what we encountered?" a boy said excitedly.

"He's right. Let's go back and change our clothes, and then we'll leave, right away." Another boy held him back.

Chi Shen observed the two boys, then he smiled: "Such an expensive hotel, why don't you stay one night before leaving?"

"Only idiots live here." The emotional boy cursed a few words and was pulled away by the other one. Perhaps they were really cold, so they went back to change clothes.

Their clothes were in the changing room at the entrance of the hot spring area. The two of them went back shivering and quickly changed their clothes, cursing as they changed. After they finished cursing and changing their clothes, one of the boys suddenly said, "Do you think we are really going to leave like this?"

"Do you still want to stay here?"

"Tell me, this is not someone's doing, just to drive us away."

"The hotel itself would definitely not do such a thing. Isn't this driving away customers? Wait, did you hear laughter?"

"No... No, it seems like there is?"

"Who's laughing?"

This time they heard it clearly. The laughter was low and light, and seemed to echo in every corner of the room. The sound seemed very joyful. After laughing a few times, it disappeared.

"Is this some kind of haunted house theme?"

"Let's go——"

"etc."

The door to the dressing room opened automatically, but no one was outside.

They saw a line of wet footprints at the door of the locker room, but the soles of their shoes had dried long ago from the process of going back and forth.

So these are not their footprints. They may be brave, but they are not stupid. On the contrary, their experience of watching horror movies has allowed them to clearly judge the current situation.

The place where the footprints disappeared was right at the door.

——It came in.

—Or it’s right at the door.