33. Not the Upper Realm, You Say

33. Not the Upper Realm, You Say

A little before ten, Cheng Yan went outside to buy two skewers of grilled meat. After eating them, she went upstairs and returned to her room.

Heroine Yin calmed herself down and began mopping the floor as well.

Meanwhile, Cheng Yun propped his chin on his hand and stared blankly at the surveillance monitors divided into little squares. He was tired of watching shows and needed to rest, to empty his mind for a while.

"Whew!" Heroine Yin straightened and let out a long breath. The floor tiles behind the front desk were already spotless, gleaming brightly enough to reflect a person's face. "All right, I'm about done here!"

"Are you going back to your room to rest?" Cheng Yun asked.

"Mm. I want to go back early and watch TV."

"I was thinking of buying some barbecue later to fill our stomachs," Cheng Yun said. "You don't want any?"

"This..." Heroine Yin was immediately caught in a dilemma and fell silent.

The food in this world was undeniably fresh and tempting to her. After all, she had hardly ever eaten so much meat before, much less so many different varieties! These past few days in this world had also taught her a general truth: the three meals a day that she had once thought only an emperor could eat were not even the most delicious things. The most delicious things were these snacks, late-night meals, and treats.

But television was just as novel to her. No matter what program she watched, she found it fascinating, wishing she could crawl right inside the machine! She even felt that as long as there was a television, she could stay in her room for three days and three nights without a problem!

After struggling with it for a long while, Heroine Yin finally said, "Then I'll... stay here and keep you company for a while. But after that, I'll have to go upstairs and watch TV!"

Cheng Yun smiled. He could not help remembering how obsessed he had been with cartoons as a child, feeling as though he could never get tired of watching them.

"I have a TV here too." As he spoke, he waved Heroine Yin over, then continued, "What do you want to watch? Come sit here, and I'll put it on for you."

Faced with his rather creepy-uncle-like gesture, Heroine Yin hesitated for only the briefest moment before setting down the mop and gloves and walking over to sit beside him at the front desk.

She suddenly froze, then leaned her head fully against the back of the chair and spun it around like a child. "This chair is so comfortable to sit in!"

"I have to sit here for ten hours. How could I stand it if it weren't comfortable?" Cheng Yun opened the browser and left it on the search page before turning to ask, "What do you want to watch? I'll put it on for you."

"I... I don't know." Heroine Yin still could not distinguish between the different kinds of television programs.

"Let me think. I won't show you any period pieces. As for modern domestic programs, what good TV shows, dramas, or movies are there?" Cheng Yun felt that, given Heroine Yin's simple outlook, she would find anything he played interesting. No matter what he showed her, it would surely shock her. "Maybe I should look for a suitable police-and-bandit movie."

Cheng Yun felt that it was important to instill the correct outlook on life, morality, the world, and values in Heroine Yin, although... her views had probably already taken shape long ago.

In the end, Cheng Yun rejected those police-and-bandit films and found her Operation Mekong, which had been released the previous year.

"Here, once you watch this movie, you'll understand. In our world, especially in our country, never try to resist the state authorities, and definitely don't commit crimes. Otherwise, even if you flee overseas, our officers will still hunt you down and kill you." After saying this, Cheng Yun pressed the play button, leaned back in his chair, and put on his headphones to listen to music. "Call me if any guests arrive."

"Oh." Heroine Yin obediently answered, staring at the computer screen without blinking.

After listening to about two songs, Cheng Yun heard Heroine Yin call out to him softly. He looked up and saw several young female faces in front of him, full of youthful energy.

"Handsome boss!" Hao Nianwen called out first.

"Boss, we're back again." The plump He Qing spoke up as well. "We booked rooms through Meituan."

"Why are you so late today?" Cheng Yun said with a smile, casually pressing the pause button on the computer before switching to the merchant backend webpage.

"Because a bunch of idiot teachers were coming to inspect the dorms, and they even pretended to launch a surprise inspection! We didn't get notice until six in the evening. We had no choice but to wait until they left before coming here." He Qing complained unhappily, "They won't even fix the air conditioner, yet they insist everyone has to live in the dorms. What a pain!"

"It's like this every year during finals. They always have to go through the motions." Cheng Yun had been through it himself.

"Hey, Boss, which school did you graduate from?" Hao Nianwen suddenly stared at Cheng Yun.

"I'm your senior."

"So you're our senior!"

"Ahem, register, please," Cheng Yun said.

"We'll use my ID card and Nianwen's. We've put the deposit on the table too." He Qing took out her ID card and a hundred-yuan deposit, then continued, "Boss, you don't know what happened. Apparently, a girl from the economics and management department rented a place off campus and ended up hanging herself. She'd been hanging there for two days before the landlord discovered her at noon today. In this hot weather... tsk, tsk, tsk. That's why the school leaders have been checking so strictly lately. They're banning students from staying out overnight!"

"Oh, no wonder." Cheng Yun nodded, then sighed. "Life is difficult enough as it is, so we should cherish it. Otherwise, once you're dead, you won't know anything anymore, but the ones who suffer will be your closest relatives."

He was not particularly interested in gossip. After all, university lasted four years, and with tens of thousands of students at a school, who had not heard of several students dying while they were in college?

Especially with society developing so rapidly in recent years, all kinds of chaotic things had appeared.

"Senior, you're so young, but you sound like you've been through a lot," Hao Nianwen said, clearly unconvinced by his words.

"Mm." Cheng Yun lowered his head and swiped her ID card.

The six girls all stood outside the counter. Once the conversation got started, they could not help chattering away.

Hao Nianwen continued, "I think I've seen that girl before. She used to be in the street dance club too, but she stopped coming later. I heard she was pretty wild. Anyway... her reputation wasn't very good."

"Really?" He Qing's appetite for gossip was roused as well. "Do you know why she killed herself?"

"Not clearly. Rumor has it that it was because of love." Hao Nianwen shrugged, completely calm. "But the college students who've killed themselves these past two years have usually done it for similar reasons. Either they were trapped by love, or they borrowed online loans and couldn't repay them."

"Tsk, tsk. Single dogs really can't understand this!"

Another rather petite girl frowned. "The school didn't announce the cause of death either. They're all just rumors. One moment people say she hanged herself, the next they say she was strangled. Who knows?"

"Really?"

"Who said she was strangled?"

"Seriously?"

"All right, stop discussing it. She's dead already. Keep blabbing and she might come looking for you tonight." The quiet and gentle Wu Wenshan spoke as she took the deposit receipt from Cheng Yun and casually stuffed it into the side pocket of He Qing's backpack. Then she took the room card and headed upstairs.

After they left, Heroine Yin stared blankly at him and said, "Isn't this the Upper Realm? People still hang themselves here? Are they stupid? Other people can't even come here if they want to."

"Who told you this was the Upper Realm? Don't talk nonsense." Cheng Yun shook his head. "I told you, this is just a transit station. Your destination is still ahead."

"And you still say it isn't the Upper Realm..." Heroine Yin muttered with a frown, then suddenly raised her voice. "Even if this isn't the Upper Realm, you have big bowls of white rice with every meal, and you can't even finish eating it all. How could anyone be stupid enough to hang themselves? If it were me, I wouldn't do anything all day. I'd just eat white rice and happily live like that forever!"

"We've never experienced the kind of hard life you went through, so we can't understand it. Naturally, you can't understand us either." Cheng Yun shook his head. "People's desires in life are endless. Once they have white rice, they no longer crave white rice. Instead, they pursue more things."

"What things?"

"For example, love. Freedom. Wealth and power. Fame and status, things like that."

Heroine Yin fell silent. She remembered the movie she had watched earlier.

After a brief silence, she pursed her lips at the computer screen. "Hurry up and turn it back on. I want to keep watching."

Cheng Yun switched to the movie page and pressed play.

********************

July 2, 2017.

Cheng Yun had slept exceptionally well, without dreaming at all the previous night.

After washing up and coming down to the first floor, Cheng Yun happened to see two uniformed police officers pushing open the door and walking in from outside. They knocked on the front desk, and their stern expressions startled Yu Dian, who had been working on her own task with complete concentration.

"Comrade, hello."

"H-Hello." Yu Dian looked as though she had been caught daydreaming in class by her teacher.

Cheng Yun hurried over.

When the two police officers showed their IDs, the young Yu Dian predictably became flustered, her face flushing red. As soon as she saw him arrive, she looked at him for help. "Boss!"

At this, the two officers turned toward Cheng Yun. They seemed somewhat surprised by how young he was, then asked, "Are you the owner of this hotel?"

"Yes." Cheng Yun nodded and frowned. "What's the matter?"

"We're from the Criminal Investigation Team of Jinguan Public Security Bureau. We'd like to ask you about something and need to take up a little of your time." One of the officers handed him his ID. His attitude was fairly good, though his expression was a little stern. "Don't be nervous. If you know anything, please cooperate and tell us the truth. If you don't, just say you don't know. We'll leave once we're finished asking."

Cheng Yun looked at the ID. The officer's name was Zhou Jiaxing. The document looked genuine enough, but Cheng Yun could not tell for sure.

"Oh." He nodded. "Have a seat."

"Sorry to trouble you." Zhou Jiaxing said this as he sat down.

The two police officers did not look very old, twenty-seven or twenty-eight at most. One of them was fairly tall—that was Zhou Jiaxing. The other was a little over 170 centimeters tall, but Cheng Yun did not know his name.

Cheng Yun took a paper cup and poured three cups of water. The other officer hurriedly waved his hand and declined, so Cheng Yun set the water in front of them and held his own cup, blowing on the hot water.

The young Yu Dian hesitated before somehow bringing him two steamed buns and a cup of soy milk. She timidly glanced at the two police officers and said, "Cheng Yan left these for you and told you to eat them when you woke up."

"Put them here. Thanks." Cheng Yun was hungry as well.

"If it's convenient for you, we'll begin asking about the situation now." After briefly exchanging a glance with the other officer, Zhou Jiaxing began questioning him. "On the twenty-ninth of last month, at around eight in the evening, who was working at your front desk?"

"I'm always the one on duty at night," Cheng Yun said. "The twenty-ninth? Was that the day it rained?"

"Yeah, it rained pretty heavily." Zhou Jiaxing nodded. "Did any foreign nationals come here that day? Anyone with particularly distinctive features, such as a Black person or a white person?"

After speaking, he paused before adding, "This matter is extremely serious, so please answer truthfully."

"Foreign nationals?" Cheng Yun frowned and thought for a moment before remembering. "There seemed to be a Black man. He was very tall, at least 190 centimeters."