"Do you think I'll attract the attention of those guys upstairs?"
"It's not what I think. It's a certainty!"
"Fine, then. Ask away."
A few chuckles came from the front desk clerk's throat, but they sounded bone-chilling.
"Tell me, do you think I'll give you the key?"
"That's it?"
"Yep! That's it! I'll only answer 'yes' or 'no,' and you get three tries."
"Will you give me the key?"
"No. You've got two tries left."
The front desk clerk was brimming with confidence, already preparing to go back to his room and get a knife.
Bai Yuze furrowed his brow slightly and thought for a moment before asking again.
"If my next question is 'Will you give me the key?' will your answer be the same as your answer to that next question?"
"...How clever... Take it, kid."
The front desk clerk didn't pick out a key. Instead, he tossed the entire key ring to Bai Yuze.
"Thanks."
The front desk clerk ignored Bai Yuze, simply returning to his room and quietly closing the door.
While the clerk was inside, Bai Yuze opened the cabinet in Room 107. This time, he didn't make any Molotov cocktails. He just slipped the packet of white sugar into his pocket.
After that, Bai Yuze returned to Room 104 and let the two girls know.
Then the three of them set off for the second floor. As for Yamauchi Haruki in Room 106... Bai Yuze had his own plans for him.
The stairs and hallway on the second floor were nowhere near as neat and clean as those on the first. They were covered in grime, so thick that their shoes left sticky strings behind.
"Ugh! That's so disgusting! Hey, Xiaoze, why are we here?"
Tuanzi did her best to suppress her discomfort, trying to keep herself calm.
"There's something we need to get here. Otherwise, we'll be in trouble later."
If there hadn't been an important item here, Bai Yuze wouldn't have come even if someone held a knife to his throat.
As for why he'd brought Yukino and Tuanzi along, it was because once the floor above opened, everything on the floor below would go berserk. So it wouldn't have been safe for the girls to stay downstairs either.
"How much farther do we have to go?"
Yukino asked the question she was desperate to have answered. She could control her physical discomfort, but not the psychological kind. As she felt the sticky sensation beneath her feet, the frown on her face never let up.
"See Room 202? That's where we'll take a break."
This residence was bizarre beyond belief. The first floor was laid out from left to right and bottom to top, but the second floor was arranged in exactly the opposite way.
After they made it through the stairwell, Bai Yuze let out a sigh of relief. He hadn't told the girls not to count the stairs as they climbed. Sometimes, the more you tried not to pay attention to something, the more you did.
Luckily, neither girl had the habit of counting steps. That was why they'd made it up the stairs safely, despite the disgusting conditions.
But the moment the three of them stepped into the second-floor hallway, an oily, gruff voice shouted at them.
"You outside! Keep it down! If you ruin my good time, I'll chop you up!"
The three exchanged glances. Bai Yuze waved for the girls to follow him, but they'd barely taken a few steps when the iron door to Room 207 flew open. A fat, middle-aged man with a cleaver in his hand lumbered out. The most striking thing about him was his head: a gash ran across his neck, and his head dangled from it, almost but not quite falling off.
"You really wanna die, huh? I was this close to winning that bet! You scared off my lucky streak! I'll make you pay with your lives!"
As he spoke, the fat monster grabbed his dangling head and charged at the three of them with his cleaver. Tuanzi and Yukino were panic-stricken.
Bai Yuze took their hands and gave them a reassuring smile. The girls didn't understand, but they still chose to trust him.
Just then, the iron door to Room 205 was kicked open. A tall, burly man stepped out. But on closer inspection, his eye sockets were empty.
"Zhu Daqiang, are you looking to die? What the hell are you yelling about in broad daylight? Did you bet your dad away this time, or did you gamble your mom off too?"
"Damn you, Yuan Xing! You're pretty damn cocky. Did your eyes grow back or something?"
"Zhu Daqiang, I'll fucking curse your whole family!"
"I'll send you to see your bastard kid right now!"
It all happened in an instant. The two monsters started fighting right in front of them.
In the blink of an eye, Bai Yuze pulled the girls along and sprinted to the door of Room 202. He quickly found the key in the ring, inserted it into the lock, turned it, and opened the door—all in one smooth motion.
The iron door slammed shut, finally giving the three of them a chance to rest.
"Were those things even human?"
Tuanzi asked, still shaken. A fat, greasy man carrying his own dangling head, and a towering man with nothing but black, empty eye sockets—those two monsters were practically elite enemies from one of her nightmares.
Suddenly, the Male Corpse in Room 102 seemed a lot more agreeable to Tuanzi. Sure, he moved from time to time, but at least he didn't drain much sanity.
"They don't count as human. They've just retained their memories from when they were alive."
"It looked like those two monsters had a grudge against each other. Did it start when they were alive?"
"That's right. The fat man had a happy family when he was alive. But then he got addicted to gambling and drugs. He lost his house and car, and his wife remarried. His child stayed with him, but he forgot about the kid and left him to starve to death at home.
"As for Yuan Xing, he was a thug who couldn't find a wife, so he married his mentally disabled older sister. She died in childbirth, and the baby was born mentally disabled because they were related. Yuan Xing worked as a debt collector, but he crossed the wrong people, and they retaliated by gouging out his eyes. Someone stuffed his child in a sack and sank him in the river.
"He and Zhu Daqiang couldn't stand each other. Yuan Xing despised Zhu Daqiang for throwing away his own happy life, while Zhu Daqiang hated debt collectors. See his right hand holding the cleaver? A debt collector chopped off his little finger."
"Wow! Xiaoze, you know so much!"
Tuanzi's eyes sparkled, and her admiration was plain to see.
"They were in the habit of keeping diaries, though they called them 'confessions.' In truth, they just wanted to comfort themselves—to make themselves believe they still had sincere hearts that wanted to repent. Real repentance doesn't need some 'confession.' When you realize you've done something wrong, you should change right away. That's a lot more useful than writing some damn confession."
Bai Yuze spread his hands. People always found countless excuses to let themselves off the hook. Sometimes, they even patted themselves on the back, thinking they were so clever.
But in reality?
Bai Yuze: No comment.
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