"Mountain Inn": Let Him Keep Misunderstanding

Just as the burly man was about to speak, the refined man cut in first. "Although we just ran into danger, the good news is that we discovered a forbidden rule. But the danger hasn't truly passed yet. We don't know if there are other things like that lurking in the dark, so our priority should be discussing the clues we each found."

The refined man wasn't as hot-tempered as the burly man. He rarely let strong emotions show on his face. Even when the burly man had seized leadership of the group at the start, he had merely smiled and let it pass.

He wasn't angry that Xu Xi hadn't responded to him. Xu Xi's quick reaction to that strange thing was enough to show that he was both extraordinarily observant and quick-witted. He had even warned them. He simply didn't talk to everyone much, which was hardly a problem.

With someone that smart on the team, their chances of clearing the instance could only improve.

What the refined man said was perfectly reasonable. The burly man also knew that cooperation was more important than infighting right now, so after a cold snort, he showed everyone the crumpled piece of paper he had been holding.

Xu Xi had just figured out what the refined man meant.

There hadn't been any candles lighting the inn's rooms, so there had to be something wrong with the candles.

The man probably thought Xu Xi had noticed that, which was how he knew the candle had attracted the figure.

...Although it was actually because he had died once, it was nice not to have to come up with an explanation. He would let the man keep misunderstanding.

Xu Xi didn't know that people outside suspected he had deliberately set up the short-haired woman with glasses. If he had known, he would have felt he'd been unfairly blamed out of nowhere.

He had a special ability, which naturally gave him confidence. That was why he had planned to test the strange figure. Who could have known the flashlight beam would provoke that thing?

It could only be said that different perspectives and gaps in information had caused the misunderstanding.

Once he had sorted everything out, Xu Xi turned his attention to the crumpled paper the burly man had produced.

"I found this in room 202," the burly man said as he carefully unfolded it. "There weren't any useful clues in there. The only thing that looked even a little useful was this missing-person notice."

Hearing that, Xu Xi and the woman with the high ponytail carefully examined its contents.

A photograph of a young woman was printed on the wrinkled paper. Beneath it were her personal details, the circumstances of her disappearance, and her family's contact information.

Notably, the last place the woman had been seen before she disappeared was this inn.

"She has the same surname as the occupant of room 202. They're both surnamed Yang. And one of the contact numbers listed belongs to Yang Wu, the occupant of room 202. It matches the number in the register. They look to be sister and younger brother."

So his older sister had disappeared at this inn, and perhaps even after the police were called, no trace of her had been found. Was that why Yang Wu had come to the inn alone, looking for traces of her?

Next, the refined man took out a phone. Its screen was badly shattered, but surprisingly, it still worked.

"I found this phone in room 204. It was switched off, so I tried turning it on. I didn't expect it to have any charge left."

"The two people staying in that room were either a couple or married. This phone belonged to the man. At first, we didn't know the lock-screen password, but we found their identity cards in their luggage. We tried the man's birthday first, but it was wrong. Then we tried the woman's birthday, and it worked."

"We looked through the chat history and some other information. Everything else was pretty normal, but..." The refined man opened the recordings, adjusted the volume, and placed the phone in the middle of the group. "Listen to these call recordings."

Everyone held their breath. After a brief burst of static, an older woman's voice sounded first.

"Son, didn't you say you were going hiking with Xiaoxue? How's it going?"

A clear male voice answered her.

"Pretty well. The scenery here is nice, though it's a little tiring."

"Oh, when are you planning to come back?"

"The day after tomorrow. Xiaoxue wants to stay and have fun for another day tomorrow."

"All right, all right. Come back as soon as you can, and remember to be careful. Don't let anything happen."

"Don't worry, Mom. I know."

The first call ended there.

Xu Xi lowered his head in thought.

He hadn't heard anything wrong, but he still felt that something was strange.

The refined man played the second call recording. "Listen to this one too."

This conversation wasn't as harmonious as the first. The man's voice was filled with terror and panic.

"Mom! I—I ran into something strange!"

"What is it, son? Don't panic. Tell Mom what happened."

"I definitely—I definitely pushed her off, but she came back the next day."

"...You, what nonsense are you talking about? Are you under too much pressure? Listen to me, all that stuff about gods and ghosts is fake. It's just your mind playing tricks on you. If you've done it, come back quickly. We can talk about the details when you get back."

The man sounded as if he had broken down and began shouting at the woman on the other end.

"Don't you think I'd know if it was fake? She really came back! I saw her come back completely unharmed with my own eyes! How is that possible? The cliff was so high, and I definitely pushed her off. I couldn't have remembered it wrong..."

At that point, the older woman sounded panicked too.

"Ah! Th-this... Son, don't be afraid. Just come back fir—"

The call cut off right there. The woman on the other end hadn't even finished comforting him.

Several more calls came in afterward, but once they connected, all that could be heard was the woman anxiously asking questions. There was no further response from his end.

"..." Xu Xi looked up and saw that everyone wore the same grave expression.

Even though the burly man and the refined man had already heard the recordings once, both still had their brows tightly furrowed.

The man had brought the woman hiking, but he had actually conspired with his mother to push her off a cliff. What they hadn't expected was for the woman to return completely unharmed afterward.

But was the one who came back... really still human?

The woman with the high ponytail handed the diary she was holding to the burly man and the refined man to look through. She briefly summarized its contents. "A grandparent and grandson were staying in room 103. The old person opened the door after hearing a knock at night, probably underwent a strange transformation, and even ate the grandson."

After skimming the diary entries, the two men felt even more weighed down.

The burly man went straight to the point. "Taken together, these things seem to tell us a lot, but we still don't know what actually happened. For example, what exactly does 'they' in the inn rules refer to? Are the things that happened to these guests connected to them? And... where did all these people, including the innkeeper, end up going?"