Zhong Yi immediately picked up the phone and entered the password. The phone was unlocked immediately. He was not in a hurry to see what was in the phone, but turned to the next page of the notebook.
“My memory was failing, and I realised I had to write this down.
My name is Li Xin, I was born on November 23, 1989, and I am a policeman. Although sometimes I feel like a cleaner, when I am sober, I still remember that I came here to investigate the missing tourists case of Dongshan Hot Spring.
There were three other people who came with me at that time. I have forgotten their names. I hope they are all safe and have left here safely.
The recent days have become a little blurry. I tried hard to recall why I stayed here, but I couldn't remember it. The only thing I still remember is that I opened a door that day and saw a series of footprints made of water.
I probably shouldn't have opened that door.
Oh, I think I said something at that time. I said hello to the footprints that stopped in front of me.
It answered me.
It asked me if I was afraid, and it asked me if I wanted to help others.
My job is to help others, so I said I wanted to.
When I came to my senses, I saw a line of words written on the ground with my own hand: Don't go near the water.
This was the advice I gave them. One man followed my advice and stayed away from the water. I think he survived.
I also told the other two people how to get out alive, but I forgot everything about them. If you are lucky enough to see this note, I hope you can tell me whether they survived.
Later I realized that no one could see me, but I was repeating some things, as if I had always been doing them, even though it was my first time here.
I wrote down what I would repeat tomorrow, and although my memory about the police was a little fuzzy, what I should do every day became clear to me.
Five o'clock in the morning is my working time. I need to go to the utility room, change into cleaner's clothes, sort out the garbage generated in the utility room, collect them and put them away.
At six o'clock in the morning, I need to push the cleaning cart out to clean the corridors and squares.
Cleaning is a very strange thing. There are many cleaners at this time. They will clean the places I have cleaned over and over again. I think it is because I am old, my eyesight is not very good, and my hands and feet are not very flexible, so the places that should be cleaned are not cleaned well, and I can't see it. But they understand me and never say anything about this problem to me. They just help me clean again enthusiastically.
The colleague who works here is really enthusiastic and responsible.
Although it is repetitive work year after year, I am very happy here.
After cleaning, I can rest.
It is important to note here that if there are guests coming, I need to go to the utility room to write a note for visitors and then put it in the gift box that will be given to visitors. That is something I must do.
I hope they can have fun here, so I will tell them what they should do and what they shouldn't do.
I hope they can listen.
I think it is right to operate within limited rules, just like me.
I know what I can and cannot do here.”
The notes stopped here, and the following words became a bit messy, with some crooked fonts appearing. Zhong Yi tried hard to decipher them and figured out the general meaning of a few lines of words.
“I’m not a cleaner.”
“I’m a police officer.”
"…cleaner."
"police……"
This page was almost torn apart. After Zhong Yi identified it for a moment, he turned to the next page.
The handwriting on this page became clearer and was obviously different from the handwriting on the previous page. Zhong Yi recognized that it was written by the same pen. He even suspected that the same person wrote this page.
“I’m a cleaner.
I am already dead.
I knew I was dead.
So I can't go to the restaurant to eat.
Can't go home.
Can't leave the spa hotel.
That’s what I thought at first.
But one day I was very hungry and I went to the restaurant
I know that dead people cannot go to restaurants, and if they go, they must eat all the food provided by the chef.
But the chef didn't prepare my meal that day, he didn't even look at me.
I thought I might still be alive, and I wanted to go home and see.
But I was very hungry and I wanted to eat something first, at least so that my family wouldn’t worry too much when I got home.
I saw tourists coming and they were carrying food with them, and I smelled the aroma of food.
The chef didn't prepare any food for me, so I tried to ask the tourists for some.
I seem to have forgotten something.
The tourists disappeared.
I started to get scared, but I told myself that I was still alive, so it wasn't me, I was alive, why else wouldn't the chef prepare a meal for me?"
The following notes were a bit messy again, and even the next few pages were a bit messy. Zhong Yi flipped through several pages and finally found clear handwriting that he could read.
"I discovered some secrets. There is a reason why people keep disappearing in this hot spring resort.
It wasn't me who did it, nor was it the cleaner.
The cleaner and I are the outliers here. The ghosts will not eliminate us, and we will not turn into humans. Correspondingly, neither humans nor ghosts can see us.
We no longer have bodies, we only exist in the form of consciousness, and when we move, we leave footprints of hot spring water on the ground.
This is no longer the world we live in, and I don't think this is the underworld either. I have heard about what the underworld looks like, where evil spirits are rampant. Although there are ghosts here, everyone lives and works according to an orderly schedule. There is only one man-eating ghost, so this is not the underworld either.
I think this should be a gap, or a man-made world, something like a barrier, the purpose of which is to provide ghosts with the best humans.
If you soak in a hot spring for too long, you will turn into a ghost. You are safe in a hotel most of the time because ghosts are not interested in people living in hotels.
In other words, even though ghosts don't like to go into hotels, they will still go in when necessary.
Ghosts like to go out at night to eat people. They eat people's skins but leave their souls. The souls are reborn in this world created by ghosts. They don't know that they are dead and continue to live like ordinary people, going to work and coming home as usual.
But they cannot walk out of this world created by ghosts. At least I have never seen a soul go out and come back.
The manager knew everything and he volunteered to work for the ghost because the ghost promised him that he would find him a new skin and resurrect him.
Half of the hotel employees have been eaten, but the ghost is not greedy. It won’t even move when it is full. I think it has no interest in this world it created. It may not know that serious mutations have occurred here.
Some ghosts may think that they are human and should be expelled from the hotel where they work and live.
Some people, however, think they are ghosts and do things for ghosts.
My thoughts started to get confused again, and if I still remembered my name, I would continue to record what I observed.
My name is Li Xin.
I am a police officer.
I hope what I do can save more people.”
Zhong Yi flipped through a few more pages and found that there were some incomprehensible symbols or repetitive mumblings at the back. He flipped to the last page and found a few lines of scribbled handwriting.
“I have to keep it well, someone will come and find it.
I'm going to hide it so it can help someone else.
#￥%#&&…The ghost has woken up.”
Seeing this, Zhong Yi was suddenly awakened. He immediately raised his head and looked at Officer Xiao Li's mobile phone.
He had realized by now that there might not be anything useful in the phone, but he still opened it to check.
In the memo, Officer Li wrote down his name and the purpose of his visit to Dongshan Hot Spring over and over again, but the most recent date was a week ago, and Officer Li seemed to have forgotten his own affairs.
Seeing this, he suddenly remembered something.
Most of the people working here are villagers from nearby. They do not stay in the hotel and go to get off work and go home as usual.
If this is the case, then the area covered by this mysterious hot spring hotel may not be limited to the hotel.
——Instead, it includes the entire Dongshan Village.
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