Night fell, and Bai Yuze was the first to move. He yanked the door open.
Zhu Daqiang had disappeared from outside the door. Bai Yuze said nothing, but instinctively tightened his grip on the Molotov cocktail in his hand.
"He's gone. Could he be healing himself in his room?"
"Looks like we need to hurry."
The three of them made their way to the door of Room 205. They tried to push it open, but the iron door wouldn't budge.
"What do we do? Are we supposed to wait for him to finish healing?"
Yuigahama Yui asked worriedly, but Yukino beside her looked calm.
"You must have a way, right?"
When Yukino asked, Bai Yuze was just about to answer, but she suddenly cut him off.
"Stop wasting time. I know you have the key to this room."
"Uh... Okay."
Bai Yuze couldn't help sneering at himself. He'd thought Yukino was relying on him, but he'd ended up looking like a fool.
As the key slid into the lock, the iron door of Room 207 creaked open ever so slowly, like someone hiding under the covers on a winter morning and refusing to get up.
The room was pitch-black. They couldn't see inside.
"Zhu Daqiang, I know you're in there. Why don't we talk?"
Bai Yuze called into the room several times, but there was no response.
"Not in there? Then I'll go talk to Yuan Xing. You know you didn't kill him, right?"
"I'll count to three. Three... two..."
"Fine. You can come in."
"Okay."
Hearing Zhu Daqiang's reply, Bai Yuze grinned, then lit the Molotov cocktail in his hand.
A beautiful arc of flame sailed through the air, and Room 207 was suddenly warmed up.
"Ah!!!"
Zhu Daqiang's bloodcurdling scream came from inside. Bai Yuze simply tossed in a few more Molotov cocktails without a trace of panic.
"Zhu Daqiang, I was thinking just now, and your room is filthy. I'm tidying it up for you."
"Why would you do that? Can't we work together?"
Zhu Daqiang's anguished question was full of disbelief and resentment.
"Heh. Working together takes the right attitude. Your room's pitch-black. Who knows what'll happen if I go in?
"But I'm not a bad person. I haven't even closed the door. Why not just come out?"
Bai Yuze's voice was like a demon's whisper, breaking through Zhu Daqiang's defenses.
Zhu Daqiang knew there was no way he could go outside, but his instinct to survive had already made him stop thinking.
He ran and roared, flames billowing from his body.
The three of them hurriedly moved aside. Zhu Daqiang charged out of the room and plunged headfirst into Room 206. The flames on his body set the bed in Room 206 alight, but, unbelievably, the flames in Room 207 vanished as soon as Zhu Daqiang left.
Seeing this, Bai Yuze casually threw a Molotov cocktail into Room 206, then shut the door and locked it with the key.
"Quick, we're running out of time. That iron door won't hold him for long."
At Bai Yuze's command, the three entered Room 207. In less than a minute, they had turned the room upside down.
"It's not here, Xiaoze. Could he have hidden it on himself?"
Yuigahama Yui called anxiously. She could tell that the iron door of Room 206 was at its breaking point.
"A kitchen knife. Where could he hide it?"
Bai Yuze's mind raced.
Suddenly, he looked at the monitor on the table. He picked it up, then raised his foot.
Bang!
Bai Yuze kicked the monitor to pieces, and the kitchen knife fell out.
"So that's where he hid it. He gutted the thing inside. Now let's get out of here."
Yuigahama Yui said excitedly.
"No, we can't yet. Taking it would count as theft, and the rules would punish us."
"Huh? Then what do we do?"
"Wait a moment... What time is it?"
Yuigahama Yui quickly pulled out her phone to check.
"It was 7:50 before we came. It's 8:30 now. And I remember the clock said 8:50 before we came, so it should be 8:30 now."
"Damn, time's almost up. All we can do now is hope Zhu Daqiang gets out quickly."
With so little time left, a few beads of cold sweat appeared on Bai Yuze's forehead.
Bang!
Zhu Daqiang smashed through the iron door of Room 206. His body was charred black, and his gaze locked onto the three of them in an instant.
"You three bastards! I'll tear you limb from limb!"
Zhu Daqiang had lost his mind. He stepped into the hallway, where the sticky squelch of the floor mingled with his rough, labored breathing.
"Should we close the door?"
By the time Yukino asked, she had already reached the iron door, but Bai Yuze stopped her.
"No. Don't close it. This isn't where we're staying, after all, and who knows what might happen if we shut the door?
"But there'll be a good show in a moment. If you're interested, you can watch."
"A good show?" the two girls asked in unison.
But the next moment, their question was answered.
A long-limbed monster suddenly appeared behind Zhu Daqiang. Zhu Daqiang saw it and tried to say something, but he missed his chance.
Rip!
The hulking, obese Zhu Daqiang was as fragile as paper before the long-limbed monster. It tore him in half, and this time his corpse slowly turned transparent. A little while later, all that remained on the floor was a cloud of black mist.
The black mist seemed to have a mind of its own. It tried to escape, but before it could react, the monster sucked it into its mouth.
"Um... Are you sure we don't need to close the door?"
Yuigahama Yui's voice trembled. Watching someone get torn in half was still too gruesome for her.
"No need. But you can toss it a bag of the candy in your pocket. We still need its help."
At Bai Yuze's reminder, Yuigahama Yui hurriedly threw out the bag of white sugar in her pocket. In her nervousness, she even forgot to open it.
The monster outside the door seemed to recognize the sugar. Its arms were about as tall as an adult, so it easily picked up the item from the floor.
It lifted the bag of sugar above its head. With a hand as large as a human head, it tore the bag open, then opened its mouth beneath it to catch the sugar.
It quickly ate the whole bag. Then it stood still, as if savoring the intoxicating taste.
Once the monster had quieted down, Bai Yuze took out Yuan Xing's knife.
"All right, we've dealt with Zhu Daqiang. Now it's time to talk about our business, don't you think, Yuan Xing?"
Seeing Bai Yuze talking to himself, Yuigahama Yui couldn't help turning to Yukino.
"Could Xiaoze be sick? What do you think, Xiaoxue?"
"Hard to say. Let's watch for a bit."
Yukino didn't understand Bai Yuze's behavior either. The two girls' looks, as if they thought he was an idiot, made him feel a little awkward.
"Playing dead, are you? Just you wait."
With that, Bai Yuze grabbed the kitchen knife and raised it as if he were about to bring it down.
Just as the kitchen knife was about to touch Yuan Xing's knife, Yuan Xing's voice rang out.
"Wait!"
"Oh? Weren't you playing dead? How come you're alive again?"
Yuan Xing ignored Bai Yuze's teasing. He had only one question: how had Bai Yuze seen through his disguise?
"Can you tell me how you saw through my disguise? I attached myself to the blade. I can hear and see, and I've been watching your every move. How did you know?"
"You mean that? I didn't know before, but I do now!"
Yuan Xing: ...
Crack!
Bai Yuze chopped the knife Yuan Xing had transformed into in half with the kitchen knife.
A cloud of black mist seeped out of the blade, but the monster outside the room quickly absorbed it.
Bai Yuze had lied in response to Yuan Xing's question. When Zhu Daqiang and Yuan Xing fought, Bai Yuze had realized the knife in his hand was fake. So when Tuanzi asked him a question, he came up with a plan. First, he deliberately explained his and Yukino's plan to Tuanzi, especially the part about passing messages on slips of paper.
As for why Tuanzi asked about the "real" way out, it was because Bai Yuze had folded the note in half. One half said, "Something on your head is listening. Play along."
The other half had a "drawing." Bai Yuze held the side with the "words" facing Tuanzi and covered the first three words, "Something on your head," with his finger. That left Tuanzi seeing, "...is listening. Play along."
That was also why he gave Tuanzi a thumbs-up after their conversation.
From Yuan Xing's perspective, Bai Yuze had only been fiddling with the note and hadn't written down anything new. So the two of them had managed to communicate without a word right under Yuan Xing's nose.
Since Tuanzi had heard about his and Yukino's experiences, she immediately understood Bai Yuze's aim: to make her ask him about the "real way out." After all, both supernatural entities cared about that.
To keep Yuan Xing from escaping, Bai Yuze deliberately stated the way out he had guessed, intending to strengthen Yuan Xing's belief that the safest place was the last place anyone would look.
But he also admired Yuan Xing's nerve. He'd actually tried hiding in plain sight. If Zhu Daqiang hadn't said, "Where's that crappy knife of yours? Can't you conjure it anymore?" Bai Yuze really wouldn't have suspected the blade.
But if you choose a risky plan, you have to be prepared to bear the consequences of failure.
Risk and reward went hand in hand.
Thinking of Yuan Xing's actions, Bai Yuze mused,
Maybe this is what they mean by being too clever for your own good.
Before you continue