Chapter 23
At the same time.
Upstairs, Room 8203.
The door was unlocked with a click, and Mint was pushed out with a confused look on her face.
"Oh, no, wait!" She turned back unwillingly, and pressed one hand on the door panel that was about to close, "Are you really okay? How about I stay with you..."
"...I'm not angry, I'm just worried. You've slept for an afternoon, but now you still don't seem to be feeling well. You had a headache at noon...
"Are you really not hungry? How about I get you some snacks from the room?
"...Okay, then I'll go back first. Have a good rest. If you feel uncomfortable, send me a message..."
Mint said, sighing helplessly.
In front of her was the half-open door of Room 8203. The room was dark and the lights were off.
The door closed slowly, and Mint scratched her cheek, still showing some worry and confusion.
But there was no way to worry, because her friends had already kicked her out, and she couldn't force her way back in.
Sighing again, she thought for a moment, and thought there was nothing else to do, so she simply turned back to her room, planning to wash up and go to bed early.
Her original room was 8204, right next to her friend. When her friend found out, she said that the number 4 was unlucky, and asked someone to help her change to 8207. It was a very comfortable single room located in the middle of the corridor, but it was a bit far from her friend's room.
Mint swiped her card and entered the room. She immediately removed
her makeup and took a shower. After showering, she looked for a hair dryer and found the TV cabinet. She accidentally glimpsed the white folded card pressed under the clock and was stunned. On the one hand, it was because of the clock - it was a clock with a very unique shape, but it was also a bit weird.
It had a very delicate dial, and there was a circle of mice carved around the dial. Those mice overlapped layer by layer, and they looked like they were desperately rushing into the dial, which reminded her of the human ladder and stacking arhats she played when she was a child; some of the mouse images had already rushed into the dial, hanging on the moving hands in groups of three or two.
It was obviously a very cute posture, but she felt a little uncomfortable when she looked at it.
Mint frowned and couldn't help but reach out to turn the wall clock over. Then she looked at the folded card underneath, and her expression became more subtle.
This was another reason why she was stunned just now -
the folded card was wrapped with a waistband with a mouse silhouette printed on it, and it was obviously never opened. At least Mint was sure that if it were her, she would never put the waistband back in its original state after opening it, and she would just throw it away.
But on the other hand, she instinctively knew that this should be a set of accommodation instructions for guests, and she always felt that she should have seen this thing...
or read it with a friend.
...Maybe I remembered it wrong? Maybe I had seen the one in my friend's room before, so I mixed it up?
The puzzling memory was barely explained, which eased Mint's inner confusion a little. She stared at the folded card in her hand for a moment, and thought that there seemed to be nothing urgent at the moment, so she simply opened it and read it casually.
Inside the card, there was a large piece of printed font, which was densely packed at a glance——
[Hello, welcome to our hotel. In order to improve the quality of your accommodation as much as possible during your stay, we have specially prepared the following instructions for you. I hope you can read it patiently:
[1. This hotel is an immersive horror movie experience hotel. In order to match the hotel theme, special robots will be used from time to time to create a weird audio-visual experience. However, some robots are still under debugging and cannot be fully guaranteed to be safe. So when you encounter something you cannot understand, no matter what, please stay away from it as soon as possible.
[2. If you find that the other party is chasing you when you are away, please try to find cover and do not expose yourself to the other party's sight.
【3. If you cannot find a shelter nearby, please enter your own room/your acquaintance's room/the exhibition room with the statue/the lobby on the first floor as quickly as possible. Please give priority to the option that is closest to you among the above locations.
【4. If you cannot find a shelter nearby and there is still some distance from a safe place. Please take out the souvenir candy given to you by the front desk when you check in, throw it in the opposite direction of your escape, and leave quickly. Please do not look back when you escape.
【5. Please try to avoid unnecessary actions when taking candy, including but not limited to counting, picking, aiming, etc. Please grab as quickly as you can, and throw all the candies you get at once. Do not put the candies you take out back into the recycling bag, and throw them away as soon as possible.
【6. Do not let the person chasing you find out that you have extra candies on you.
【7. Please do not enter the exhibition room or exhibition hall without the statue. If you enter by mistake, please leave quickly.
【8. No matter how urgent it is, please do not knock on the door of a stranger, let alone enter.
【9. Please do not seek help from nearby staff, even if they are wearing hotel uniforms. If you need help, please go to the lobby on the first floor to find the front desk staff.
【10. If you encounter something incomprehensible in your room, please contact the front desk immediately using the bedside landline. After the call is made, whether or not it is connected, please keep the receiver on and leave the room as soon as possible. The front desk contact number is 9414.
【11. The bedside telephone in your room has no function except to call the front desk contact number. Please do not try to use it to call other phones, and please do not answer any calls. The front desk will not call you.
【12. There are no rooms with numbers ending in 13 in this hotel. If you encounter one, please leave immediately.
【13. The restaurant is open from 9:00-11:00, 14:00-16:00, and 20:00-24:00. The restaurant will not be open during non-business hours. If you find someone in the restaurant during non-business hours and invite you to dine, please ignore it and do not eat any food in the restaurant.
【14. During non-restaurant opening hours, you can choose to call the front desk to order food, and we will deliver the food to your door.
【15. Your check-in time is 18:00 on May X, 202X, and your scheduled check-out time is 12:00 on May X, 202X. Your stay is three days and two nights. Because you are a special guest, we cannot provide you with extension services, nor can we check out for you in advance. Please understand.
【Finally, thank you for choosing this hotel and wish you peace. 】
...
Strange.
Was this the guest instructions I saw last time?
Mint's brows tightened a little, turned around and sat on the bed to think for a moment, and his eyes suddenly became a little dazed.
*
On the other side.
The lobby on the first floor.
Qiu Yufei looked down at her work badge, and then looked again. Finally, she made up her mind and walked towards the front desk not far away.
There was still only one staff member next to the service desk. She raised her eyes to Qiu Yufei who was approaching, and quickly retracted her gaze, her tone still so cold: "What can I do for you?"
"Uh, I want to consult something." Qiu Yufei folded her hands on the table, and glanced vaguely at the check-in register on the counter, "I came here with my friend, but now we are separated, I can't contact her, so I want to go to her room to find her..."
"Then go ahead." The staff member didn't even raise his eyes.
Qiu Yufei: "..."
Qiu Yufei: "But I can't remember her room number, so I wanted to ask..."
"Impossible." The staff member didn't think twice, staring at the computer in the front desk, constantly tapping the keyboard, and no one knew what he was busy with.
"You don't have the conditions for amnesia."
Qiu Yufei: "..."
What does it mean? Do you have to verify amnesia these days?
"You can't say that, you're not me." She muttered softly, trying to imitate Xu Mingli's arrogant look, "Why do you assume that my brain is working well?"
"..."This time, the staff member finally raised his head again. Although the work at hand did not stop.
After a cold glance at Qiu Yufei, her tone finally showed some fluctuation: "Are you sick?"
"What else?" Qiu Yufei admitted it straightforwardly, raised her hand to support her forehead, and looked like she didn't want to say more, "Last week, I went out to run errands for the leader and fell and got a concussion. Since then, my brain hasn't been working well."
"..." This time, the staff member even stopped the work at hand.
Looking at Qiu Yufei again, she opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but closed it again after thinking about it, and took out the registration book instead.
At the same time, she also took out a pad, which was quickly covered the moment it was opened, and soon the top of the registration book was covered, leaving only the bottom two lines exposed.
——Qiu Yufei and Xu Ming were the last people to check in, so they were at the end of the line, and there was nothing to cover after that.
"Oh...thank you." Qiu Yufei's eyes turned slightly, "By the way, I met a friend before. I can take a look at her room number..."
Before she finished speaking, the pad in front of her was pressed hard.
She raised her eyes slightly and met the emotionless gaze of the staff.
"Sorry. In order to protect the privacy of the guests, we can't show you other registration information." The staff said coldly and withdrew his hand, "Please leave immediately after finding the information you need."
Qiu Yufei: "..."
"Just that?" She tentatively asked, "What if I insist on seeing it?"
The staff looked at her in confusion and emphasized again: "Sorry. This is to protect the privacy of other guests."
Oh...got it.
Qiu Yufei remained calm, quickly made a gesture behind her back, and then laughed again.
"Okay, wait a minute, I'll take a picture with my phone. I've been forgetting things lately... I have a concussion."
Qiu Yufei said, pretending to take out her phone from her pocket. Seeing that the staff member didn't seem to want to continue asking questions, she frowned unconsciously and sighed again.
"Sister, you know, sometimes I really envy your kind of work. Simple, pure, without stupid leaders and stupid colleagues, how great..."
She pursed her lips and shook her head tiredly: "Not like me..."
"..." After the voice fell, the staff member opposite raised his head again.
This time, she finally spoke: "
Is your job bad?" "Not really." Seeing her take over, Qiu Yufei became excited instantly, "It's mainly tiring, and the environment is not very good... too cruel."
She raised her chin towards the other party: "Have you heard of the Strange Talk Demolition Office?"
After that, without waiting for the other party to respond, she waved her hand helplessly: "I guess you haven't heard of it either. It's quite small. But the qualifications are quite old, and it has some achievements... Hongqiang, do you know? It's a large consulting company. Our company has its shares and it also provides special technical support. It's a pity that Hongqiang was not doing well later, and he was half dead... Speaking of which, I jumped from Hongqiang to my current company.
"But how should I put it? My current company is that strange demolition and relocation office. Actually, the company is quite stable, but the working atmosphere is not so good. My direct superior, Director Xu of the demolition and relocation office, is very capable. She often thinks of one thing and then another. She will hold a meeting whenever she wants. Sometimes you don't know what's going on in her brain. But what can I do? She is the leader, so I have to go to the meeting.
"There is also a colleague of mine who is also very weird. He never does his job and just likes to put on makeup at work, which makes me do the work of two people..."
As she spoke, she raised her hand casually, showing a little of her ID card on her chest. After confirming that the other party saw the words "怪談恷澦", she quickly put it down:
"Oh, I'm so sorry to make you listen to my nonsense. I've been under too much pressure recently, and I especially like to spit black mud... By the way, sister, what's your name? I don't even know you..."
As she spoke, her eyes fell on the name card on the other party's chest.
Then she slapped the table and said "Wow" in surprise.
"Qiu Shan - Qiu for autumn, Shan for coral, what a great name that makes people applaud!"
"..."
In the face of her generous praise, the staff opposite only gave her a cold look back.
Not even a thank you or compliment.
"..." Although Qiu Yufei is quite famous in the community, she finally couldn't hold back her excitement.
But soon, she curved her eyes and smiled again.
"Qiu Shan." She called the other person's name again, her eyes slid across the sudden red thread on the other person's body, and soon she pretended to be calm and moved away, instead putting a piece of paper on the service desk and pushed it forward:
"This is what the director asked me to give you."
"..."
The staff member lowered his eyes coldly, his eyes fell on the paper.
Then she blinked, and other than that, there was no more expression.
But her eyes were still glued to the piece of paper, and she didn't move away for a long time.
"..." Qiu Yufei pursed her lips slightly, silently observing her actions, and swallowed unconsciously.
After a while, the other party finally responded.
"What a mess." She said softly, and Qiu Yufei's heart skipped a beat. Then she looked up and glanced at the wall clock on the hall wall.
"What are you thinking about holding a meeting at this time? I don't know if it's too late to go there now."
The staff member muttered, and in Qiu Yufei's eyes that could not hide her astonishment, he closed his eyes unhappily, turned around and walked out of the service desk.
——And almost the next moment after she left, Qiu Yufei quickly took action——
pushed the mat away, took out her mobile phone, and took a silent photo in one go.
After taking the photo, she did not forget to put the mat back, turned around and ran to the showroom. After running a few steps, she saw Xu Ming sticking his head out from inside and waving at her.
"Go back, go back quickly!" She whispered, "Bring back the notice!"
Qiu Yufei finally reacted, ran back quickly, quickly collected the paper that fell on the service counter, turned around and ran to the showroom again——
When she entered and saw him, she was immediately shocked.
"Are you okay?" She looked at Xu Ming, who had a paper ball stuffed in his nose, in surprise. "Why are you bleeding from your nose?"
"It's okay, it's not important." Xu Ming quickly closed the book in his hand and pushed her inside. "Go back first! That guy shouldn't have reacted yet, right?"
She said, looking back hurriedly. The front desk staff who left still hadn't returned, but Xu Ming's expression didn't relax at all. He pushed Qiu Yufei to the elevator as fast as possible. Although his movements were obviously a little stiff, he didn't dare to slow down at all.
It wasn't because she was afraid, but she was still a little panicked.
... After all, this was the first time she really tried to use the rule book to take advantage of the inhuman hand.
*
In fact, at the beginning, Xu Ming still had some luck -
in the hierarchy of "paper robe authority", the second-level rule basis is the only means she has successfully used so far. And the well-known saying "customers are God" should belong to the second-level rule basis.
Therefore, Xu Ming originally wanted to establish a rule based on this basis, thereby influencing the other party's behavior and letting her directly agree to show the registration book to Qiu Yufei...
Unfortunately, the establishment of this rule was not successful.
To say it was unsuccessful, there was actually no hint of failure. It was just that when Xu Ming tried to establish the opposing rule, before she finished speaking, she felt a buzzing sound in her ears, and even a little black in front of her eyes.
...The desire to survive surged almost instantly, making her instinctively realize that this rule could not be established. She might not be able to afford the required cost.
As for the reason why it cannot be established, she soon guessed it -
the second-level rule basis can only establish or modify marginal rules. And from the reaction of her body just now, the rule she wants to establish is likely to touch the core rules here.
There is no other way, she can only choose to save the country in a roundabout way.
And because the second-level basis of "customers are God" has been established, it would be a waste if it is not used. So Xu Ming thought for a moment, and simply used it, and established another seemingly unimportant rule:
[Customers are God - so when customers want to complain, staff should listen patiently. ]
... This rule directly caused Xu Ming's nosebleed, but fortunately it still worked.
This is the premise for the subsequent rules to take effect:
because of the complaints, the service staff will temporarily believe in the existence of the "Strange Talk Demolition Office"; and when she believes in the existence of this stupid unit, even if it is only for a few minutes of communication with Qiu Yufei, the third-level rule based on the theme of "Strange Talk Demolition Office" will quietly take effect -
she will be affected mentally to a certain extent. Xu Ming has not experimented with the specific effect before, but according to the whale fat man, it is roughly the same as the impact of Hongqiang's original marginal rule, a little confusion, plus a slight cognitive modification.
On this basis, the last two second-level bases and rules were established:
[You wear the same company ID card as your company - so people wearing [怪談恷徦] ID cards can be considered employees of [怪談恷徦]. ]
[During working hours, employees should have a reasonable concept of time, team consciousness, and obedience - so when the company leader requires a meeting, you should arrive in time and not delay other people's time. ]
... These two rules were relatively troublesome to handle, mainly because the bases I wanted to use were not very convincing and never met the standards of the second-level bases, so Xu Ming had to try several times. Especially the last one.
In the end, she had to add some qualifiers, and the last secondary basis was barely effective, and the most critical rule based on it was able to stand firm.
The price she paid was also a bit of a headache. Her tendonitis recurred, and her waist began to hurt at the same time.
However, everything after that was very convenient -
she wrote a meeting notice from the "Strange Talk Demolition Office" in advance and asked Qiu Yufei to wear it in advance. While she was arguing with the other party, she hid in the showroom and completed the other party's work badge as quickly as possible. Then, when the other party's work badge appeared, Qiu Yufei showed the notice to the other party in the name of the demolition office...
Because she did not get the other party's consent in advance, the information on the work badge must be as accurate as possible in order to be hung up smoothly; as for the content of the notice, it was to ask the other party to go to the office of his direct superior for a meeting immediately.
Of course, Xu Ming didn't know whether there was such an office. If there was, it would be the best... If there
wasn't, it didn't matter.
Anyway, she just wanted the other party to leave for a while.
As long as she left the front desk, even if it was only for one minute, it was enough for Qiu Yufei to take action.
Finally, she quickly ended the situation by canceling the other party's work badge immediately after Qiu Yufei left, and then turned around and ran away...
The ideal situation is to cancel it before the other party reacts. After all, this is still on the other party's territory, and the less noise, the better.
This is also why she gave the notice to transfer the other party away from the front desk, instead of directly asking the other party to hand over the registration book to Qiu Yufei——
Let’s not talk about whether this requirement that directly conflicts with the core rules can be effective - although it is still uncertain based on previous experience; and even if it is effective, the notice may not be taken back after it is issued, and it is likely to fall into the hands of the other party in the end.
From previous contacts, the front desk staff are not stupid and inhuman, at least they can use their brains. If it is directly written on the registration book, the other party will be able to see the problem immediately after waking up; leaving an ambiguous meeting notice, at least there is room for quibbling.
For example, this was accidentally issued by Qiu Yufei because of a brain twitch... Anyway, as mentioned before, Qiu Yufei’s brain is not working well. People with poor brains can do anything.
The only thing left is a stupid unit called "Strange Talk Demolition Office".
As for the next development, based on the gossip I heard from the whale blubber man and my unfortunate supernatural experience in the past, there are three most likely scenarios:
First, the other party is not stupid, but their behavior in the ghost story area is restricted, and they need to play their "personality" well. Therefore, even if they realize that their cognition has been affected, they must immediately get back on track and give priority to continuing to play the role of hotel staff.
Then they probably can't find faults casually. If they really come to ask, they won't panic. Anyway, there is no evidence, so they just deny it.
This can be divided into two situations. One is that the other party will not synchronize this matter to the equal or higher-level beings, which is naturally the best. If the other party will take the initiative to synchronize information, it will be relatively troublesome. At least they need to be mentally prepared to be noticed and targeted in the future.
Second, the other party noticed that their cognition was affected, and at the same time they had a certain degree of freedom in their behavior. They could retaliate against them immediately after discovering the problem; or mobilize other beings in the strange story area to attack them.
However, in Xu Ming's opinion, this probability is actually not very high. This strange story area has not directly expressed its intention to take their lives, which means that like Hongqiang, human life is not its first priority; on the other hand, when the staff prevented Qiu Yufei from looking at the registration book, they did not give a direct and severe warning, indicating that "viewing the registration book" is not an inviolable core rule. Even if it is violated, it will not directly constitute a condition for harvesting...
But for this low-probability bad situation, Xu Ming thinks it is better to be prepared. If it really doesn't work, we still have to rely on the rule book to continue to survive:
It's still the same sentence, "Customers are God", this rule has been established as a secondary basis. Based on this rule, we can build some marginal rules to restrict the other party's behavior. I can't say that it will be unscathed, but at least it can prolong its survival.
The third possibility, and the best possibility:
the other party did not notice the existence of the work badge from beginning to end, and her IQ is not enough to make her realize the changes in her cognition in just a few minutes. In the end, even if she woke up, she only returned to her post after a brief confusion.
Just pretend nothing happened.
- Fortunately, I don't know if it was finally Qiu Yufei's luck, until they ran into the elevator, there was no strange movement behind them.
The elevator was also very quiet. After going up to the third floor safely, Xu Ming finally felt relieved.
"I'll go back and confirm the situation." She turned around and handed her room card to Qiu Yufei, "You go back to your room and hide first."
Qiu Yufei had just shown up, but she hadn't. If something really happened, her room should be safer than hers.
... Provided that no new monsters spawned in it.
Qiu Yufei still seemed to be a little unresponsive. She nodded hurriedly after hearing this, took the room card and ran inside. Her heart, which had been slightly settled, jumped to the highest point again when she saw Xu Ming's room door open -
she saw a man in a hotel uniform standing in the room.
To be precise, he was standing in front of the air conditioner.
With a stool under his feet, tools in his hands, and facing the air conditioner, he turned his head slightly when he heard the door open.
Qiu Yufei thought she was being ambush: "..."
"Hello, Master." It took her two seconds to react. This should be the maintenance personnel who had been agreed upon before. She spoke as calmly as possible, trying to pretend that nothing had happened, "What kind of work is this?"
"..."
The maintenance engineer who was trying to pull out the cat-faced woman hanging on the air conditioner fell silent.
Then he looked at the monster in his hand, and then at the air conditioner in front of him.
It seemed that he didn't know how to answer this question.