In the fifth-floor corridor, Ji Li knelt on one knee, his long dark-brown hair hanging down as he raised his gray-black eyes to the little girl before him, whose gaze was as clear as water.
Every sound in the world had faded away, leaving only their breathing.
There was the man's groaning from the throbbing pain in his head, and the little girl's helpless, tentative breaths.
Ji Li slowly rose from the floor and straightened his slightly disheveled clothes.
"So Xiao Qi really is Lao Xue's daughter..."
The answer to why Xiao Qi had not died was already clear.
Her status within this building was special.
She was not an employee. Like Ji Li and the other hotel staff, she was an outsider!
That meant that whether the mission instructions were true or false, the ghost could only attack her last.
Otherwise, a girl of seven or eight who held the secret to survival could never have survived alone for so long!
Ji Li looked past the frightened Xiao Qi toward the far end of the corridor, at the office where operatic singing had once resounded.
It was utterly silent now. No one had set foot inside since Lao Xue had been found dead.
But Ji Li did not understand something. Lao Xue had died right here on the fifth floor. Although Xiao Qi looked only seven or eight, she should have had some understanding of death.
"Didn't you see your dad?"
With that in mind, Ji Li could not help asking. Perhaps something had changed after he left.
Xiao Qi was like a startled fawn. She was terrified of Ji Li's gaze, but he was the only adult she could rely on now.
After a moment's hesitation, she said in a small, clear voice:
"No..."
Ji Li gave the girl a curious look, then took her by the arm and headed deeper into the fifth floor.
Neither spoke along the way.
When Ji Li finally returned to the office where Lao Xue's corpse had been, however, there was nothing but an empty desktop. Not a single figure remained!
"Lao Xue's body is gone..."
Ji Li stared at the scene before him in disbelief.
The ghost had never shown itself so far. Why would it move Lao Xue's body?
He took Lao Xue's phone from inside his clothes and lit up the screen. Looking at the unread messages from Text Message Man, he pressed his lips together.
Turning to the bewildered Xiao Qi, he asked, "Why were you in this building?"
Xiao Qi did not quite understand why Ji Li had brought her here. At his question, she tightened both arms around the teddy bear in her embrace.
"The power went out at home, and Dad had to work his shift, so he brought me here to spend the night.
I was sleeping over there, holding my teddy bear.
Then Dad woke me up all of a sudden and said he wanted to play hide-and-seek.
I was half asleep and really didn't want to, but Dad sounded very firm. He insisted that I hide.
So I hid in a cardboard box outside.
But then I fell asleep again.
When I woke up, Dad was gone..."
As Xiao Qi spoke, her eyes gradually reddened, but she seemed remarkably strong and did not let her tears spill over.
Ji Li remained unmoved. He focused on her account and speculated:
Xiao Qi probably isn't lying. Lao Xue woke his daughter in the middle of the night and ordered her to hide. He must have discovered something he wasn't supposed to.
He probably already knew there was a ghost in the building by then, and sensed danger approaching, so he had Xiao Qi hide beforehand.
Everything fit together remarkably smoothly.
But Ji Li suddenly realized something. He drew in a sharp breath and began making calculations in his head.
Then he realized something was wrong.
There are forty-three employees in the building. Whether that number came from the ghost or the hotel, it can't be wrong.
But Xiao Qi is different. She's an outsider. That means there should be forty-four people in this building, including her!
The other person who was left out...
Ji Li suddenly saw a way forward. Lao Xue, Text Message Man, and that omitted person very likely knew one another.
Lao Xue had stayed on the fifth floor the whole time. He could not have been the one who discovered the ghost in the building.
Perhaps the two people at the heart of it all were the omitted person and Text Message Man. They had learned about it and informed Lao Xue.
In a sense, those two had dragged Lao Xue into this.
Whatever those three had discovered was the most crucial secret of this mission!
Ji Li hurriedly pulled Lao Xue's phone from inside his clothes. This time, he had to see exactly what Text Message Man's unread messages said!
Lao Xue's phone was an older model. It had no fingerprint unlock, only a passcode.
He bent down, trying to soften his expression, and asked Xiao Qi gently, "This is your dad's phone. Do you know the passcode?"
"Why do you have my dad's phone...?"
Xiao Qi was still immature, but she was fairly perceptive. In particular, she was frightened of Ji Li's pupils, which had already begun turning gray.
Ji Li was unaware of the changes in himself. He was simply desperate to uncover the truth.
Judging roughly by the time, he thought the deaths downstairs had already ended. He could be attacked at any second now.
But he had not yet noticed that his Hotel Phone could no longer receive calls, nor did he know what was happening with Fang Shenyan and Tong Guan.
That included the ten employees on the first floor who still had not died!
Faced with a child who could not even be called an adolescent girl yet, Ji Li could not be bothered to invent an excuse.
"I don't know where your father is, but if you want to find him, you need to help me unlock his phone."
Xiao Qi's little face instantly went deathly pale. She had woken up to find her only family missing. Holding on until now had already been hard enough.
After hearing Ji Li's words, the tears she had held back for so long finally spilled out.
Watching Xiao Qi's tear-streaked face, Ji Li felt both helpless and impatient. He simply had no time to comfort a child.
"Just tell me the phone's passcode, and I'll take you to find your dad. Stop crying!
I can only give you two seconds!"
"!"
This time, Xiao Qi promptly gave him Lao Xue's passcode. Ji Li glanced at her and said nothing more.
He successfully unlocked the phone and immediately opened the conversation between Lao Xue and Text Message Man.
"Xiao Li, what are you trying to show me in the middle of the night? Why all the secrecy?"
"Lao Xue! Don't think I'm joking. Brother Xu and I found a group of terrorists on the eighth floor!
They're searching room by room right now! All the other coworkers have been taken away!"
"How is that possible? I've been sleeping with Xiao Qi this whole time. I haven't heard a thing."
Xiao Li was probably Text Message Man's name. It seemed he had discovered something and wanted to show it to Lao Xue.
But Ji Li frowned as he read this. He could not understand why Tong Guan and Chang Nian, who were responsible for this floor, had failed to locate Lao Xue and Xiao Qi.
That did not fit what he knew of Tong Guan.
But he set that question aside for now, his attention immediately drawn to the messages below.
"What picture are you trying to show me, exactly?"
"Don't get scared when you see it.
There are... ghosts in this world!"
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