Resident Adjustment

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Ji Li had just finished showering. Exhaustion had returned, and he was preparing to sleep.

But at that moment, a series of urgent sounds came from outside the door.

Somewhat troubled, Ji Li gathered up his loose hair strands and sighed. With a cigarette between his lips, he walked toward the door.

When he opened it, Yu Guo's gaunt face appeared before him. The emotions above it looked strange and complicated, making Ji Li unable to read him at first glance.

"What's wrong?"

Ji Li could vaguely sense that something was unusual about Yu Guo's condition.

Yu Guo pursed his lips and first looked left and right along the corridor. Then, without waiting for Ji Li's permission, he squeezed into the room.

"Come look at this!"

He plopped down on Ji Li's bed and hurriedly took out his livestreaming phone.

The livestream room had already been permanently banned, which pained Yu Guo somewhat. But the most important matter right now wasn't the livestream itself.

It was the other ghost that had appeared during the livestream!

Ji Li was somewhat bewildered. He sat down beside Yu Guo and suspiciously stared at the phone screen, watching the replay.

Gradually, his expression grew more and more solemn.

He saw the Headless Ghost belonging to Hotel Room 210. At the same time, he saw the Cloaked Ghost floating outside the hotel window, seemingly communicating with it!

Ji Li exhaled a cloud of smoke. His face had turned livid, and he remained silent.

He had long since formed some suspicions. Up until now, the primary task of all the staff, including himself, was still to receive ghosts.

As for the hotel's second duty—supervising the ghosts—

That task currently consisted only of inspecting the residents each day and ordering them to keep to their duties. Nothing more.

After the Mirror Ghost in Coffin arrived, he had felt that all the residents on the second floor were far too quiet.

Such silence was clearly not a good thing.

Now he had discovered that another ghost was outside the hotel and had actually come into contact with one of the residents.

Then...

"After you saw this, what did the Headless Ghost do?" Ji Li turned and asked.

Yu Guo scratched his head. "I didn't notice the Cloaked Ghost at first. When I watched the replay later and spotted it, the ghost outside had already disappeared.

"The Headless Ghost seemed guilty. It left the corridor and returned to its room."

Ji Li smoked silently in distress. After a long while, he tossed the cigarette butt to the ground and stamped it out.

Taking Yu Guo with him, he quickly arrived on the second floor. He looked at the long corridor now covered in morning sunlight and sensed the unique darkness lingering there.

After a moment, he spoke loudly. "I, Ji Li, am invoking my Acting Manager authority and requesting that the residents' rooms be reassigned."

As soon as he finished speaking, the sweet voice of the Female Voice under the Hotel's Will rang out.

"Hello, Mr. Ji Li. This falls under the duty of supervising the residents and is also your rightful authority. Please state your instructions."

Ji Li nodded. He had never dealt with the current situation before, either.

Judging from what had just happened, the reason the Cloaked Ghost had sought out the Headless Ghost was likely related to its room. That room guarded the window and was the closest to the outside world.

As a living person, he didn't know how to restrict this kind of collusion between inside and outside, but he could only do what was within his ability.

"The new Peeping Ghost doesn't need to move. It stays in 201.

"The Mirror Ghost in Coffin doesn't need to move, either. It stays in 203.

"Move the Wrist-Cutting Ghost from 205 to 204, and move the Headless Ghost from 210 to 202."

"Reasonable allocation. Thank you for your suggestion, Mr. Ji Li."

The Female Voice offered no objection. After she finished speaking, the only two ghosts that needed to move suddenly materialized in the corridor!

This was Yu Guo's first time truly seeing the ghosts in the hotel, and he stared at them eagerly.

The Headless Ghost from 210 looked like a young boy from its build. It wore floral-patterned clothes and toyed with a glass marble in its hand.

The Wrist-Cutting Ghost from 205 looked far uglier. It seemed as though all the blood had been drained from its body, leaving it like a mummy.

The moment it emerged from 205, it took out a knife and violently stabbed it into its left wrist. Bright-red blood dripped onto the dark carpet.

Ji Li frowned. "Take your blood with you to 204!"

After the two ghosts finished moving, Ji Li brought Yu Guo to the far end of the second floor and stopped beside that window.

"The Cloaked Ghost was right here at the time." Yu Guo pointed to a spot outside the window.

Ji Li nodded. Even now, he could sense that the Ghost Residents had progressed from their initial restlessness to scheming and collusion.

But faced with the vague duty of supervising ghosts, he still didn't know how to avoid or deal with it.

After thinking for a long time, Ji Li could only seek help from the Hotel's Will.

"Hotel, did you hear what the Cloaked Ghost and the Headless Ghost were discussing?"

"Sorry, Mr. Ji Li. I cannot monitor any activity outside the hotel."

Ji Li had never expected the Female Voice to give him an answer, but his eyes lit up because of those words.

There seemed to be a deeper meaning behind what the Female Voice had said.

It didn't know what was happening outside the window. Did that mean it knew what was happening inside?

"Then what did the Headless Ghost inside the window say?"

The Female Voice replied without the slightest pause. "It said nothing and did nothing."

This answer surprised Ji Li. He had originally thought that the Headless Ghost's abnormality meant it was coordinating with the Cloaked Ghost from within.

Its ultimate goal, naturally, would have been to escape the hotel's restraints.

But now, it seemed that the Cloaked Ghost outside had called out to it of its own accord.

The Headless Ghost had passively accepted everything, and it seemed troubled by what the Cloaked Ghost had said.

Perhaps it hadn't made up its mind. Perhaps it had refused.

At this thought, Ji Li couldn't help laughing aloud, startling Yu Guo beside him.

"What happened?"

"No, I just thought it was quite interesting. I never expected that ghosts could scheme against each other, too."

Yu Guo laughed as well and casually said, "Yeah. Perhaps ghosts don't just scheme against each other. Maybe they can even end up fighting."

Ji Li nodded and waved a hand, preparing to return to his room.

"Hotel, seal the windows on the second floor completely. Make sure they're absolutely isolated!"

"All right, Mr. Ji Li."

For three days, Ji Li kept organizing the new hotel rules into documents to distribute to the new staff members.

Yu Guo, meanwhile, was constantly researching how to get his livestream room unbanned.

Fang Shenyan had disappeared for quite some time, and Ji Li had no idea what had happened to him.

It wasn't until one in the afternoon on October 26 that Ji Li left his room carrying three sets of new documents.

He took out the phone issued by the hotel and knocked three times on the wall.

Before long, Fang Shenyan and Yu Guo emerged from their respective rooms at the same time.

Watching the two of them approach, Ji Li said softly, "Let's go and see whether there will be any unusual newcomers this time."

Fang Shenyan was still dressed in that mature, dignified style. The slightly graying strands at his temples were neatly combed as he strode forward alongside the two of them.

"The Peeping Ghost. Something's wrong.

"Over the past three days, at midnight every night, it has crouched outside my door and peered at me through the peephole."