Chapter 58

... Lucky beads.

In the bathroom of the B&B, Xu Ming pondered the word, looked at Lu Yueling not far away, and spoke cautiously:

"Are you... sure..."

"Are you sure?" Lu Yueling said without hesitation.

Xu Ming: "Maybe it's just the same style..."

"Lucky beads are all selected and matched by yourself. There are hundreds of beads to choose from, not to mention various combinations." Lu Yueling said, her tone was a little anxious, "Can this also be a collision?"

"Okay." Xu Ming sighed lightly, "So, what is your judgment?"

Lu Yueling: "..."

"I don't have any judgment." After a moment of silence, she whispered, "I just think this is very strange."

It's so strange that people can't help but have some bad and uneasy guesses. But she didn't want to think about it.

Seeing her entanglement, Xu Ming did not say anything more. He leaned out to take a look, and then he simply felt the situation outside. He quickly turned back and helped Lu Yueling to walk out slowly.

"What are you doing?" Lu Yueling felt a little awkward being helped by her. "I'm fine now. I can walk by myself."

"Forget it." Xu Ming said bluntly, "If you had the strength to walk, you would have gone out earlier."

Although Lu Yueling did not say it clearly, she could see that the impact of the monster on her was still there. Lu Yueling was still in a relatively tired and weak state. The most typical manifestation was that this guy was actually leaning against the wall of the bathroom.

You know, the only things she was willing to touch before were the toilet paper and faucet in the bathroom.

Not sitting directly on the ground, I'm afraid this was Lu Yueling's last stubbornness.

Thinking of this, Xu Ming couldn't help but sigh again, raised his eyes to look at the unfamiliar space outside, and frowned again.

——As mentioned before, they are now in a homestay.

Xu Ming has just gone out to explore. The homestay is not big, with a total of three floors. They are now on the third floor. In addition to the public bathroom they are currently in, there are two closed rooms with password locks; and a small open-air balcony. The not-so-spacious corridor is full of portrait oil paintings of various sizes.

The layout of the second floor is similar, but there is no balcony. The first floor is a public lounge decorated with sofas and electronic fireplaces. There is also a very exquisite small bar next to the lounge, and there is a billiard table in the bar. Next to the billiard table, there is a tall bookshelf filled with hardcover books.

There is a sense of mood everywhere, but it gives people a mixed feeling.

"On the other side of the lounge is a small restaurant for eating... but I don't know why, there is no one here now."

Xu Ming helped Lu Yueling to the sofa in the public lounge, and synchronized his previous observations with her: "The locked room should be the bedroom, but I'm not sure which one we will stay in. The owner of the B&B is not here..."

"Could this be the kind of place where no one is in charge?" Lu Yueling guessed, "The kind where the owner gives the door code online, and you can call him if you have something to do, and he won't show up at all if you don't have anything to do?"

Xu Ming thought about it and it was possible. Then she ran to the door of the B&B and found the owner's contact number on the decorative mailbox at the door.

She wanted to call directly with her mobile phone, but when she was halfway through entering the number, she noticed that the B&B had its own landline. For safety reasons, she used that one instead; not long after she called, the phone was picked up, and a distorted female voice came from the other end of the receiver. The voice was wrapped in a hissing noise, which sounded a bit irritating.

"Um, oh... Miss Guo Shuyi, right?" Hearing Xu Ming introducing himself, the attitude of the other party was very enthusiastic, and the reply was given quickly, "You forgot the password to enter the room, right? Wait a minute, I will check it for you..."

The other party quickly gave a string of numbers, including the house number. Xu Ming took note of it carefully, glanced at Lu Yueling who was sitting alone, and said with a stiff face: "It's like this, I met another girl in the B&B, also named Guo Shuyi. She also encountered the same problem as me..."

"Oh, Miss Guo Shuyi, right?" The person on the other end of the phone was still enthusiastic, as if he didn't think it was strange to have two Guo Shuyi in the same B&B. "Did you forget the password to the room? Let me check it for you..."

Exactly the same words, the same tone, and the same process. It didn't take much effort for Xu Ming to get the door number and entry password of another room.

"Um... sorry to ask again."

Seeing the "person" on the other end of the phone, Xu Ming couldn't help but think, and while the other party didn't hang up, he quickly said: "I noticed that there are two empty rooms in the B&B. I want to ask if there are other people staying here besides us these two days? My schedule is a bit chaotic, and I'm afraid of disturbing others..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a sudden silence on the other end of the phone - the "chi la chi la" sound that had been lingering suddenly disappeared.

The sudden silence made Xu Ming instinctively startled. Immediately afterwards, he heard the female voice on the other side rang again, but this time, the voice was much clearer:

"Welcome to the B&B 'Spirit Inn'. To ensure your safety, please strictly abide by the B&B rules. I wish you a pleasant stay, and goodbye."

After that, he hung up the phone without hesitation.

Xu Ming was left alone, holding the receiver, and blinked thoughtfully.

Lu Yueling, who was still sitting on the sofa, looked over curiously: "Hey, what's wrong? Why do you suddenly look so serious?"

"...Nothing." Xu Ming was silent for a while, and put down the receiver, "It's just that I may have asked something I shouldn't have asked..."

"Let's go, let's go back to the room first and find out the living rules here."

Lu Yueling nodded in confusion, and followed Xu Ming upstairs in cooperation -

but, I don't know if it was her illusion.

When going upstairs again, Xu Ming's eyes were obviously much more alert than before.

*

According to the information provided by the B&B staff, their bedrooms are both on the second floor, and each occupies a single room.

The rooms are not big and have their own private bathroom and shower room. Because they had not figured out the situation yet, the two of them squeezed into a room first, trying to avoid being left alone.

There was a very sentimental handwritten paper on the back of the room door. Xu Ming took it down and saw that it was the guest instructions for this B&B. I think the "B&B rules" mentioned by the customer service are also referring to this:

[Hello, welcome to the self-service B&B [Xinling Inn]. In order to ensure your living experience, please read the following rules carefully and strictly abide by them. If there are any serious consequences caused by violating the rules, this B&B will not be responsible:

【1. Please respect the privacy of others. Do not inquire about or disclose other tenants' information under any circumstances.

【2. Please pay attention to your personal safety. Remember to lock the door every time you enter the room.

【3. Do not talk to strangers.

【4. The eyes of the portraits in the corridor generally do not move. If you notice that the portrait's eyes are moving while you are walking in the corridor, please turn your head back immediately and stare in the direction the eyes are looking at. Wait until the portrait's eyes return to normal.

【5. Do not approach the place where the portrait is looking before

you make sure that the portrait's eyes have returned to normal. Do not run blindly in other directions. 【6. If you live alone, please check under the bed, behind the cabinets and curtains every time you go out. Make sure there is nothing unfamiliar in the room before locking the door.

【7. When you run out of the room, remember to unlock the door chain first.

[8. If you hear someone banging on the door outside at night, ignore her.

[9. If you hear someone running in the corridor at night, ignore her.

[10. If you hear someone knocking on the wall next door at night, ignore her. ]

"..."

"Tenant Instructions" ended here.

Lu Yueling sat on the bed, holding the paper and studying it for a long time, and couldn't help but curled her lips:

"Another few consecutive 'ignore her'... Is this a special rule of this place? It's the same in the school and the cinema."

"No." Xu Ming thought for a moment, but shook his head, "It's still a little different."

"......?" Lu Yueling looked over in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Xu Ming pursed his lips, but did not answer. He just slowly got up and checked all the shadowy corners in the room as required by the rules. Then she sat back on the bed, took out the rule book again, and gently flipped through it, as if she was looking for something.

After flipping through it for a while, she seemed to suddenly notice something, her movements paused, and her brows knitted tighter. Then she looked a little hesitant, reached out and picked up the paper with "Tenant Notice" written on it, and took out a pen from her bag with her other hand.

"Uh... what are you doing?"

Lu Yueling's eyes moved back and forth between the paper and pen she took out, and she felt more questions popping up in her mind: "Is this another method?"

"It's not a method..." Xu Ming choked because of her wording, and deeply suspected that she might have some misunderstanding about him, "I just want to try something first."

"?" Lu Yueling's eyes became more curious, but Xu Ming did not explain further, just said "wait a minute", and quickly turned his attention back to the rules in his hand.

Seeing her serious expression, Lu Yueling was not interested and said nothing more, just watching quietly. Xu Ming closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind. When he opened his eyes again, there was a little more brilliance in his eyes. He raised his hand and turned the pen neatly. The tip of the pen fell down and made a heavy stroke with a domineering momentum .

"Ah!"

The next moment, there was a scream.

... Everything happened so quickly that Lu Yueling paused for two seconds before she reacted. The scream was from Xu Ming. The latter didn't know what stimulated him, and he had thrown the pen in his hand away, and his left hand was pressed tightly on the back of his right hand. Immediately afterwards

, a large piece of red was seen seeping out from between the fingers of her left hand, dripping onto the bed.

"Oh my god...oh my god!"

Lu Yueling realized that Xu Ming was injured. She jumped up and searched through the boxes for something to stop the bleeding. After searching for a long time, she only found two clean towels in the bathroom and immediately had them brought over.

Xu Ming's face turned slightly pale. He whispered a thank you and pressed the towel on the wound.

Lu Yueling looked at the red color spreading on the snow-white towel and became more and more confused. Just as she was about to ask Xu Ming what he had just done, she heard a snap from above her head. The familiar red light suddenly enveloped the room -

Lu Yueling was shocked again, and her lush hair almost exploded instantly.

Strangely, the red light this time seemed a little different from the previous ones. The color was a little dimmer, and it only lasted for a few seconds before fading away quickly.

The room soon returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened. Only Lu Yueling was still standing there, looking around nervously. After a long while, she turned her gaze to Xu Ming again.

"Okay. Can you tell me now?" Knowing that the abnormality just now was definitely related to what Xu Ming had done, she decisively added an appropriate adjective to her question, "What on earth were you doing just now that was so outrageous?"

Xu Ming: "......?"

Because she couldn't see the fleeting red light, it was her turn to be confused.

After learning about the anomaly from Lu Yueling, Xu Ming was obviously stunned for a moment, and then sighed.

"It's nothing." She held her injured hand and said with some frustration, "I tried to modify the rules of this place, but failed. I also pissed off the boss of this place..."

"That's probably what happened."

Lu Yueling nodded in sudden realization: "Oh..."

Although she didn't understand.

But it seemed to mean something very powerful.

*

In fact, it was Lu Yueling's fault that she didn't understand.

If someone who understood was here, such as a certain whale blubber man, Xu Ming would probably have gone crazy in his head by now.

After all, in the absence of sufficient means of self-defense, directly changing other people's core rules - this kind of thing, no matter which strange story it is in, is quite explosive.

"Honestly, I didn't expect the reaction here to be so big. The red light came out directly." Xu Ming sat on the bed and said helplessly, "And it gave such a big cut directly..."

The key point is that the change has not been successful yet.

She was actually a little scared herself. After all, when using the rule book before, it would not count if it failed. Even if there was a price to pay, it was common diseases such as joint pain. The only time blood was seen was a nosebleed.

This is the first time she has encountered such a big wound without changing anything.

Lu Yueling was sitting opposite her, trying clumsily to bandage her with a towel. After trying several times and failing to fix it, she simply took her hair and wrapped it up until the towel pressed on the wound was completely wrapped tightly, then raised her head and looked at Xu Ming:

"I still don't understand. So why did you change that rule?"

"...I said, just give it a try first." Xu Ming said, carefully retracting his right hand that was wrapped like a mangosteen, "Haven't you discovered yet?"

Lu Yueling: "?"

"Guo Shuyi. Our names are both Guo Shuyi now." Xu Ming said softly, and raised his head to look around, "And in the Guo Shuyi serial case, more than one girl was killed."

"One of them disappeared in the B&B." "

..." Lu Yueling was silent, her eyes gradually changed, "You mean..."

"When I was in school, I was wondering, how come everyone's name has changed to Guo Shuyi? This means that this strange story must be related to the case. But Beiwan No. 2 Middle School has no connection with Guo Shuyi, so I can't confirm it further..."

Xu Ming said, pursing his lips: "Until I came here."

Among the girls who were killed, Guo Shuyi is definitely the most well-known. But because of the popularity of the case itself, the names of other people have also been reported, and many people have visited the social accounts they used when they were alive to pay tribute online. Among

them, the girl who disappeared in the B&B had the biggest hobby of traveling when she was alive. There are many sharings about traveling alone in her social account. Xu Ming had read related articles, and what impressed him most was that she liked to experience B&Bs in various places, and thought it was a very interesting way to expand herself.

"Spiritual Inn" - in her social account, she called those very unique B&Bs like this.

This is also why her face changed instantly when she heard the B&B customer service say this word.

"Not only that, those homestay rules... in a sense, also match up."

Xu Ming raised his eyes with some complexity, looking at the stunned Lu Yueling: "Didn't you read the article about Guo Shuyi before you came in? I remember that it also mentioned other victims, as well as the restoration of the corresponding cases."

"Well..." Lu Yueling nodded blankly, "I remember one of them went missing in the amusement park, and later speculated that he was knocked unconscious and taken away in a box..." "

And the girl in the homestay, it was because the room password was leaked." Xu Ming whispered, "Someone sneaked into her room in the homestay. After she found out, she fled to the corridor, but was caught back..." She

was followed, her password was leaked, and she was sneaked into the room. She sensed something was wrong and wanted to escape quickly, but because of her panic, she was unable to unlock the door chain in time, which delayed her even more...

This seemed to be a perfect portrayal of the girl's experience as a victim.

"That is to say, the first seven rules are all advice from the victimized girl to those who come later. It may also be for yourself." Xu Ming said, "Then why, in the last three, they all become 'ignore her'? This doesn't make sense at all."

It was she who pounded on the door because she wanted to escape. It was she who finally ran out and rushed in the corridor. It was also her who was still unwilling to give up after being caught, and desperately knocked on the wall to ask for help from the people next door.

Why are all the rules written with "ignore"?

Xu Ming didn't understand. But she instinctively felt that the existence of such rules itself might represent some kind of problem.

That's why she wanted to try to change this part of the rules. It happened that the corresponding pronouns "he" and "it" were in the reading records she collected, so she said, just replace all the "she" and see if these three rules can be directly abolished...

The result is clear.

The rules were not abolished.

Her hand was almost broken.

"Why is this..." On the other side, Lu Yueling, who finally caught up with the rhythm, opened her mouth wide, "In other words, we are now equivalent to those girls who were murdered? Then what about those monsters that are chasing people...ah."

When she said this, she suddenly reacted.

"I understand." Her eyes suddenly widened, "So those monsters chasing us are actually the incarnation of the murderer? Because they don't want those girls to be saved, so they said 'ignore her'... Well, wait, but this doesn't seem to make sense."

She had confronted monsters from both worlds before. She was very sure that they were definitely not the same thing.

Hearing this, Xu Ming's expression changed several times.

"About this point... I actually have some guesses."

After a pause, she spoke again, and for some reason, her tone was a little hesitant:

"But it's just a guess, it may not be correct."

Lu Yueling: "?"

Lu Yueling looked over in confusion, and met Xu Ming's slightly tangled eyes.

She inhaled again and exhaled forcefully, as if trying to calm down a restless mood:

"I suspect that we may, perhaps, have already encountered the so-called monsters in those worlds in another way."