Ye Zhao fought down the urge to turn and run. With a thought, an Exorcism Talisman appeared in her palm from her Personal Space. Without a word, she slapped it at the Child Ghost!
"Ah—" The Child Ghost was sent flying by the Exorcism Talisman, letting out a cry of pain. Ye Zhao took off running, not even bothering with her suitcase since it would slow her escape. She ran so fast she left afterimages.
She ran ten kilometers in one go. Only after confirming the Child Ghost wasn't following her did Ye Zhao finally breathe a sigh of relief and take a taxi back to her hotel room.
That was terrifying.
Trembling, she unwrapped a milk candy and popped it into her mouth. After pacing around the room and making sure it was safe, her tense nerves finally relaxed a little. She lay on the sofa to recover her lost Sanity Value.
She lay there for two hours, and her Sanity Value went up by 2. Ye Zhao's Sanity Value was now 82. When she thought of the Child Ghost's bizarre appearance, with eyes covering its entire head, she couldn't help shuddering. Her Sanity Value dropped by 10 again.
Ye Zhao saw that her Sanity Value had fallen to 72 and felt a pang of heartbreak. She hurriedly shook her head, forbidding herself from dwelling on it.
The Child Ghost shouldn't follow her here, right?
When she'd fled, she hadn't gone straight to the hotel because she was afraid the Child Ghost would discover her lair and come after her to claim her life.
It's fine, it's fine, Ye Zhao reassured herself, forcing herself to calm down.
Ye Zhao took out her binoculars and leaned at the window to peer down at the ground. She didn't see any sign of the Child Ghost. Hopefully, it hadn't followed her.
After the Child Ghost's appearance had shaken her so badly, Ye Zhao didn't dare go outside for the time being. She planned to rest today and see how things went tomorrow.
"Knock, knock, knock." A gentle rapping sounded at the door. "Miss, the things you bought have arrived. May we bring them in now?"
When Ye Zhao heard that the things she'd bought at the supermarket had arrived, she was delighted. At last, some good news. She sat up, ready to go open the door.
But the Child Ghost's appearance had jolted her clear mind awake. Ghosts could come out during the day, and she could see and hear them indiscriminately. What if the staff member outside was a ghost in disguise?
If she gave even the slightest response, she'd be done for.
Ye Zhao silently sat back down and picked up the landline nearby to call the front desk. "Hello, I'm the guest in room 909. Have the things I bought at the supermarket arrived? If they have, please have the young man who was at the front desk today bring them up. I was very pleased with his service."
The front desk replied, "Certainly, miss. Your things just arrived, and we were about to bring them up. Please wait a moment."
Ye Zhao was suddenly sweating profusely. She was incredibly grateful that she'd had the sense to make that call.
Sure enough, the person outside seemed to have heard her voice.
The gentle knocking turned into a pounding on the door. "Open up! Open the door! I said, open the door—"
Ye Zhao didn't move an inch, steady as a rock.
She didn't know how much time had passed. It felt like a whole century. The pounding turned back into gentle knocking, and the familiar voice of the young man sounded. "Hello, Ms. Ye. This is Qiao Ping. I've come especially to deliver your things."
Ye Zhao breathed a sigh of relief. It was that voice. It shouldn't be a ghost in disguise, right?
Clutching the Exorcism Talisman, she walked to the door and looked at the peephole. There was no way she dared look through it. She was afraid she'd see something she shouldn't and lose more Sanity Value.
She pulled the door open directly. At worst, she'd waste a Talisman Paper!
Outside, the clean-cut young man wore a warm smile. "Ms. Ye, the supermarket delivered all your things. Would you like me to check them off for you?"
He was human.
Ye Zhao discreetly relaxed, her legs weak as she leaned against the door. "Bring them in."
Brother Qiao was a clever man. Though he was puzzled as to why someone who casually spent a hundred thousand yuan on a hotel room would buy so many instant meals, he didn't ask.
Ye Zhao casually took a stack of cash from her pocket as a tip and instructed him, "From now on, don't let anyone knock on my room door. I have a condition that makes me lose my temper, and hearing noises can set it off. I'll contact you if I need anything. Do you have X-Messenger?"
Brother Qiao took the money and pulled out his phone. His smile grew even warmer, making her feel as if she were basking in a spring breeze. "Of course, Ms. Ye. Just let me know if you need anything."
Ye Zhao liked clever people like him. She grabbed a handful of milk candies and shared them with him. "I want to go to the restaurant. Please take me there."
She spent 1 Creation Point to make a pair of sunglasses, then perched them on her nose. Ye Zhao had decided: from now on, she'd look down on everyone. No one would ever catch her eye.
Brother Qiao showed her the way, and Ye Zhao soon reached the Chinese restaurant on the third floor. She ordered a few vegetable dishes and ate until she was full.
When she left the restaurant, Brother Qiao was already waiting outside. He escorted her all the way back to her room. Her ten-thousand-yuan tip really hadn't been wasted. She felt completely safe.
Back in her room, Ye Zhao tidied up all the things and moved them into the bedroom. She opened the boxes and put everything inside into her Personal Space. It had a volume of 3 m³, so everything fit with room to spare. Only the empty boxes were left as a cover—though she didn't plan to let anyone in for the next month.
The afternoon passed peacefully enough. No Customer Service Ghost came knocking.
That evening, she made a self-heating hot pot and prepared a cup of instant noodles, then turned on the TV to watch the news.
As she watched, something began to feel off. The female news anchor suddenly winked at her?! She even seemed to be about to come running out of the TV...
[Sanity Value: -10.]
Ye Zhao instantly lost her appetite!
She'd finally managed to get her Sanity Value back up to 80 that afternoon, and now it was down to 70 again!
No, no. If it dropped to 60, she'd start hallucinating. She couldn't let it fall any further, no matter what.
Although she had Sedatives, she still didn't know what might happen next, so she had to conserve them.
She changed the channel without expression. These ghosts really were everywhere. She couldn't even get any peace hiding in her room.
She flipped through dozens of channels, feeling as if she couldn't find anything good to watch. With a click, she turned off the TV.
Although she'd lost her appetite, she thought about how she still didn't know what might happen that night. If it was this dangerous during the day, with one trap after another, who knew what the night would bring? Besides, she really was hungry, so she quickly polished off both boxes of instant food.
After dinner, Ye Zhao lay on the sofa and browsed her phone.
Online, everything was perfectly peaceful. No one was discussing the ghosts at all. On top of that, the entertainment industry was busy with some charity gala, which supposedly most of the celebrities would attend. Every day, a few more names were announced, and fans were at each other's throats. The internet was lively indeed.
Ye Zhao: People's joys and sorrows don't always align.
Ye Zhao had originally planned to spend the month holed up in her room, watching TV until it was over. Now, that didn't seem possible. She didn't even dare play games, afraid a teammate might turn into a ghost while she was playing—or that she might get so engrossed that she overlooked the dangers around her.
At ten that night, she went to bed.