Xia Chuhe and Li Yue returned to the hotel covered in filth, the stench so strong it woke up the front desk staff who were pretending to be asleep.
"Where have you two been playing?"
Xia Chuhe wrinkled his nose, pretending to be unable to stand the smell on himself: "Don't even mention it, I don't know which scoundrel dug a stinky pit, and I fell in without noticing."
The receptionist looked sympathetic: "Our deluxe suites have bathtubs. Would you like me to call a robot butler to give you a massage?"
Xia Chuhe politely declined, then asked about the restaurant: "The lobby was quite chaotic before, with a bunch of people running around. What happened?"
"Oh, a thief broke into the hotel. Don't worry, it's been taken care of."
Hearing this, Xia Chuhe became even more worried.
Sneaking into the restaurant, they found some small robots manipulating the tables and chairs, but nothing unusual in the kitchen.
Xia Chuhe was pondering how to find Zhao Maomao, so he first asked him a question, and the answer he received was "there is another possibility".
Not knowing how to interpret it, Xia Chuhe suddenly heard a faint "Boss" coming from the corner. Turning his head, he saw a red-haired, eyebrowless, tattered-clothes version of Zhao Maomao squatting in the corner. Behind him, a boy's head was also visible.
Zhao Maomao slyly scanned the restaurant, grabbed the boy by the collar, and ran quickly to Xia Chuhe's side: "Go back?"
Xia Chuhe breathed a sigh of relief. Although Zhao Maomao was a bit ugly, at least he was a decent human being.
Xia Chuhe: "Go back to your room, take the stairs. You here? And him?"
Zhao Maomao looked around uneasily: "Let's talk about it when we get back."
They had been in the hotel all day and still hadn't seen any stairs. The tea room was opposite the elevator, and the corridor was lined with walls at both ends.
The little boy suddenly spoke up: "The stairs are inside the tea room door."
The four sneaked into the tea room, found a hidden door, opened it, and sure enough, there was a staircase.
The nineteenth floor, though high, was nothing to the evolved beings. Only the boy Zhao Maomao had picked up, who looked about twelve or thirteen years old, was not very good at climbing stairs. He was trembling and almost fainted after climbing only three floors.
Xia Chuhe looked at the wounds on Zhao Maomao's body and the thin and small Li Yue, grabbed the boy and carried him on his back, quickly going up to the nineteenth floor.
Xia Chuhe knocked on the door: "We're back."
From inside the room came Bu Yi's question: "What did you say to me before you left?"
Xia Chuhe: "..."
Xia Chuhe: "Keep an eye on Bao'er."
Bu Yi: "What are the people who stayed outside doing?"
Xia Chuhe said helplessly, "I have high hopes for Zhuguan Mountain."
The door only opened after I answered both questions.
Upon opening the door, Xia Chuhe was met with Bao'er's resentful gaze. Bao'er said softly, "You clearly told me to keep an eye on the headquarters."
Xia Chuhe gave a dry laugh, finding the question difficult to answer. Moreover, she needed to destroy the other Bluetooth earphone before she could continue the conversation.
Fortunately, Zhao Maomao immediately came to her rescue, telling her about her experience at the restaurant.
After Zhao Maomao ran out, she couldn't hide in the open dining area, so she could only randomly choose a kitchen to go into.
This kitchen is different from the others. It looks like an enlarged version of a stove, with a fire burning in the center of the bottom ring. Several thick iron plates, about half a person's height, are supported on the outside of the fire, and a large pot is placed on the iron plates. The outside of the pot is covered with a thick layer of black grease.
The room was extremely hot. As soon as Zhao Maomao entered the room, her passive ability, Extreme Adaptation, was immediately activated.
Outside the room, footsteps grew closer.
With a heavy heart, Zhao Maomao picked the piece of iron furthest from the door and pressed it against the scorching hot iron.
The door opened—
"Damn it... don't bother checking this room. It'll set you on fire the moment you open the door. Going in is a death sentence."
"Let me take a closer look."
"Yes, there are new instructions. Team Two received."
"..."
The group lingered at the entrance for a while before slowly leaving.
Even with his supernatural powers protecting him, Zhao Maomao's hair and eyebrows were charred, and ashes fell down with every stroke.
After those people left, Zhao Maomao didn't dare to go out immediately, but instead hid in a corner. It was only then that he discovered a boy who had fainted from the heat lying behind the door.
Zhao Maomao waited a while longer, then opened the door a crack to make sure no one was outside before slipping out. Remembering Xia Chuhe's instructions to be kind, he went back and dragged the boy out as well. The two waited in the restaurant for a long time before Xia Chuhe and Li Yue returned.
Bu Yi also took out his phone, only saying that he wanted Xia Chuhe to take a look.
Xia Chuhe had just finished reading two text messages when the boy said, "Can I see your phone?"
Xia Chuhe read the text message again, deleted it, and then handed the phone to the boy. The boy said, "This is my grandma's phone. Where did you find it?"
Xia Chuhe lied through his teeth: "I picked it up at the hotel entrance."
Boy: "Can you give it back to me? My grandma lost her phone and she's very worried. I can give it to her tomorrow."
Xia Chuhe said, "Is that so, little friend? It's not that I doubt you, but you should at least provide some evidence, right?"
“My name is Mao Xiaotian. You can check if my name is in your phone’s contacts. My grandma and I checked into this hotel two days ago, and my phone went missing yesterday. I had an argument with my grandma today and wandered into the restaurant. Luckily, this young man saved me.”
"Are you and your grandmother the only ones at the hotel?"
Mao Xiaotian said decisively, "Yes."
Xia Chuhe saw Mao Xiaotian fiddling with his phone clearly. He didn't touch anything on the phone or open the contacts, but there was indeed a name "Xiaotian" in the contacts.
Xia Chuhe casually said, "It looks like it's yours. I'll give it back to you tomorrow. Don't argue with Grandma anymore. It's not easy for you and Grandma to live together. You don't have parents, so you should be more considerate of the elderly in your family."
Bu Yi glanced at Xia Chuhe and Mao Xiaotian without showing any emotion.
Mao Xiaotian paused for a moment before saying, "I will be obedient from now on. Grandma really worked very hard to raise me."
Xia Chuhe glanced at Zhao Maomao: "Take him to rest."
Watching Mao Xiaotian walk into the room and close the door, Xia Chuhe chuckled, "Task updated: Return the phone. Unfortunately, this is another fake task."
The text message clearly revealed that Mao Xiaotian had parents, but Xia Chuhe deliberately tested him by saying he "didn't have parents," and the result showed that this Mao Xiaotian was a fake.
Putting the matter aside for the time being, Xia Chuhe briefly explained the basement incident and the fact that 23 was not a good person.
Hearing that Xia Chuhe did not heed 23's words, Bu Yi's expression relaxed visibly: "The results I got in this instance are clearer than at other times. There seems to be a strong metaphysical power here."
Bu Yi told him the result of the divination: "23 is not good. In this instance, what we need to do is find the real Mao Xiaotian."
Unfortunately, the powerful metaphysical force comes at the cost of overdrawing one's body, and Bu Yi couldn't get any more information out of him.
Xia Chuhe stroked his phone: "Two text messages with the same time but completely different content... If I'm not mistaken, Mao Xiaotian must have set up a timed text message, but for some reason, he set the wrong time to send it, causing two text messages to be sent to the phone at the same time."
Based on all the clues so far, Xia Chuhe has deduced a clue that is completely unrelated to the robot butler—
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