Chapter 5 - the boss's wife
Lu Youyi: "..."
After Jiang Luo's words, Lu Youyi winced uncontrollably, his scalp tingling as he fondled the clothes of the man in front of him.
The fabric is rough and stiff, and on closer inspection, there is an inexplicable mouldy smell, as if it has been smothered for a long time in the rain, along with an unmistakable earthy smell.
It is indeed not Jiang Luo.
Lu Youyi was sweating coldly and wanted to let go of his hand, but he was afraid of disturbing this "person": "Ye Xun, there really is something more between Jiang Luo and me."
The extra "man" in their midst was motionless, still standing in the same place, seemingly not understanding their conversation.
Ye Xun asks, "What is it?"
Lu Youyi is on the verge of tears, "I don't know, but it smells like a walking corpse."
Why are there walkers here?
Ye Xun frowned and slipped a talisman into Jiang Luo's hand, "Stick it in the middle of the sky, in the court of heaven, and at the Sikong."
Jiang Luo: "Sorry ... are these three places?"
Ye Xun, "... against the centre of its forehead."
Jiang Luo put the rabbit doll in his left arm and lifted his hand to stick it, ready to touch something scary, but surprisingly, he didn't touch anything.
Jiang Luo froze for a moment as his fingers descended and encountered something slimy and cold, stiff and soft in texture, some kind of gushing worm rolling beneath what he was stroking, like maggots.
Jiang Luo withdrew his hand instantly, and he reacted in an instant, grimacing, "It doesn't have a head."
What he touched was the flesh on the neck of the walker.
He can go without saying what kind of worms grow on top of the rotting flesh.
Ye Xun grabbed Jiang Luo's arm and was about to tackle the walker when Jiang Luo stopped him with a raised hand and said calmly, "Let's go and turn on the lights first. Since it's following us and not doing anything, it's safe for now, so let's take it to the studio and turn on the lights."
Jiang Luo was right, dealing with something like this in the dark didn't give them an advantage. The three maintained their original positions and walked ahead, Lu Youyi behind the walking corpse and a little thankful, "It's a good thing it was you it was following."
Jiang Luo, wary of danger from behind him, sniffed casually, "How do you know it's following me? It doesn't have a head, so what if it's facing backwards towards you and just grabbing me with its opposite hand?"
Lu Youyi's goose bumps exploded, "Fuck, don't be ridiculous!"
The walking corpse tugs at Jiang Luo's clothes with increasing force, and the scraping of his feet grows louder, resembling the sound of a corpse being dragged along the floor. Ye Xun goes to find the switch, and a minute later, a blinding light suddenly comes on.
Lu Youyi blinked subconsciously, and the next moment he saw the corpse in front of him, and the place where his head had been was indeed empty. The corpse was dressed in a bloodstained prison garment, his skin bruised and stained with corpse spots, and the wound on his neck was hideous, the flesh turned out, with traces of a rusty knife and some crawling maggots.
Jiang Luo had already run a few metres away and found a pack of wet wipes to wipe his hands, staring at the corpse without expression. The force of the corpse's grip on his clothes was so strong that when he ran away, his clothes were partially torn off and could barely cover his waist.
The visual effect of the walking corpse was so horrifying that Lu Youyi said in shock, "There really are fucking moving corpses ..."
Before the words were out of his mouth, his eyes widened in horror as he looked down and saw the feet of the walker.
The toes are pointing in his direction.
Lu Youyi screamed out, "Crap ahhhhhhh!!!"
The walker actually faced him and walked all the way backwards!
Lu Youyi screamed, kicked the corpse and ran towards Jiang Luo and Ye Xun in a panic. The corpse stumbled, turned to face them and suddenly ran towards them.
The three men turned and ran, Ye Xun was calm as he watched Jiang Luo run and wipe his hands, reassuring, "Experts have studied that maggots are not dirty, maggots can pull out salt containing antiseptic properties after devouring rotting flesh, there are also antibiotics and immunity boosters in their bodies, they are actually a good bug."
Jiang Luo faked a smile and said, "Brother, if you don't do something, you can taste the maggots yourself."
Ye Xun stopped on his feet and pulled a black net out of the mouth of the doll Jiang Luo was holding, " Lu Youyi!"
Lu Youyi pulled Jiang Luo and led the headless corpse in another direction, " Ye Xun, hurry up this thing is fast I can't hold on for long!"
Jiang Luo was on the verge of being pulled up by him, and Jiang Luo said loudly, "Lu Youyi, don't you have any means of dealing with this thing?"
Lu Youyi replied even louder, " Jiang Luo, are you out of your mind! Although you are the bottom of the class, the bottom two is me!"
Jiang Luo: "..."
Lu Youyi thought of Jiang Luo's praise and trust in him before, his heart was a bit weak, and the more weak he was, the louder his voice became, like a big cannonball, "Besides, I've only heard of fucking walkers before, I've never seen one!"
Jiang Luo: "... You don't say anymore."
He surged ahead of Lu Youyi and picked up speed.
Lu Youyi was dumbfounded: "Grass!"
The headless corpse was hot on his heels, so fast that he was only half a metre away from Lu Youyi in a matter of moments. Lu Youyi gritted his teeth and suddenly turned around and roared, "I'll fight you!"
The headless corpse, however, overtook him and went after Jiang Luo with clear aim.
Lu Youyi is full of question marks.
Did happiness come so suddenly?
Jiang Luo also saw the scene and his temples popped, "Why does it have to chase me?"
His breath caught in his throat as he ran at a rapid pace; the original owner had neglected to exercise and it was incredible to be able to lift such a speed to overtake Lu Youyi. Jiang Luo's breath felt hot and his throat tingled vaguely as he pressed the tip of his tongue against his palate, trying to keep his breathing even.
Ye Xun had already torn the black net away by means of the pillar and shouted, " Jiang Luo, run back!"
Jiang Luo turned and ran towards him with the walkers.
The walkers don't get tired, they get faster and faster, and the rush makes the smell of decay on the walkers' bodies permeate the stairway and the workroom. Jiang Luo hears his nostrils getting heavier and his heart pounding, his legs already sore and weak, on the verge of reaching their limit.
He looked up at the black net not far above his head, it would take time for it to fall, the distance between the walker and him was already less than three metres, even if the black net fell, the chances were that it would not cover the walker.
He had to be a little quicker and set aside time for the black net to land.
The taste of blood was spreading from his throat to his mouth and Jiang Luo was a bit helpless about his fitness. He took a deep breath, used the last of his strength to pick up speed and sprinted hard across the black netting.
Almost as soon as he passed through, the black net was yanked down by Ye Xun and covered the headless walker head-on.
The headless corpse struggled, and the skin was immediately scorched with deep black scorch marks from the black netting, and the smell of rotting flesh being roasted was so fragrant and pungent that Lu Youyi dry-heaved a few times, covering his nose and handing Jiang Luo a bottle of water.
Jiang Luo stands for a moment on shaky legs, holding onto the wall, and then sits down close to the workbench. His breath was still a little fierce, his black hair sticking to his neck and face, woefully out of place, and he didn't care about the unpleasant smell of the air as he panted heavily, only half a moment later did he have the strength to unscrew the cap of the bottle and take a sip of water: "What is this black net?"
"The rope soaked in black dog's blood," Lu Youyi stuffed two balls of paper to plug his nostrils and crouched beside the black net to study the walker, "should still have a layer of Fu Lu wrapped inside."
Ye Xun's black net entangled the headless corpse so tightly that it seemed to be dead and did not move. Lu Youyi looked on in wonder for a long time, " Ye Xun, how do you think it recognized Jiang Luo to chase it?"
Ye Xun shook his head, "I don't know."
Jiang Luo coughed a few times, pinching his throat in discomfort, and said, "It's wearing a prison uniform, isn't it?"
Lu Youyi said, "Yes."
"Looking at the style of this prison uniform, this corpse must have been dead for hundreds of years," Jiang Luo said with certainty as he surveyed the walking corpse, "Since it is ancient, it should also have long hair on its head, and since I have the longest hair of the three of us, it probably identified my head as its head."
Lu Youyi and Ye Xun were suddenly enlightened, and Lu Youyi said, "That makes sense."
"The sound of the leather ball we heard earlier on the stairs must have been its head," Jiang Luo took another sip of water, "I just don't know why its head was separated from its body."
Ye Xun thought for a moment and then suddenly said, "The three girls who disappeared also had long hair."
Lu Youyi clenched his fists, "Damn it! It must have been this walking corpse that identified their heads as their own that killed them."
Jiang Luo doesn't think so.
If it really was the headless corpse that killed the three girls, even if it had taken the girls' heads, then why would the bodies not be found?
What's more, the scene in the room on the day of the disappearance was clean and tidy, without a trace of blood, so it's unlikely that the girls would have followed the headless body of their own accord.
But he didn't contradict Lu Youyi's words, he just shrugged and got off the table, "Want to go see where the other stream of smoke is drifting?"
Naturally, it's the way to go.
On the way, Lu Youyi dragged the black net, moving roughly, he turned his head and said to Jiang Luo disgustedly, " Jiang Luo, do you want to go to workout with me when you go back to school? Your physical condition is too poor." You can't even escape for long if you're being chased by a ghost.
Jiang Luo remembered how uncomfortable he felt just after the run and had heart palpitations, "Good, I really should work out more."
The incense in Ye Xun's hand is two-thirds burned, the ashes falling on the rice, the cigarette still splitting into two strands, one pointing to the headless walker caught behind them, one leading them to the door of an unfamiliar room.
Jiang Luo went up to the door and knocked twice, but when no one answered, he simply pushed the door open and the cigarette drifted straight in and under the bed.
There was no one in the room either.
The three men cautiously surrounded the bed, Ye Xun placed the incense on the floor next to the bed, reclaimed the rabbit doll in Jiang Luo's hand and said coldly, "Get out."
There was a sudden sound of a ball rolling under the bed and a head rolled out from the end of the bed, black hair tangled around this head, almost like a full-grown ball of hair.
Ye Xun didn't move, his head rolled itself to Jiang Luo's feet, revealing one eye through his hair, "Little friend, your hair is really flowing and shiny, can you tell me how you take care of it?"
Lu Youyi sneered, stepped forward and grabbed the head, saying viciously, "I see your hair is not bad either!"
The head let out an ear-piercing scream, "Don't yank me like that, I'll go bald! I'll go bald!"
Lu Youyi shivered in fear, unable to maintain his fierce smile, and almost let go of his hand, "Crap you stop screaming!"
The head whimpered and cried, "Damn it, don't you yank on people's hair."
Lu Youyi winced in disgust and placed the head on the bed as the three men stared intently at the head from three sides, "Say, why are you at Hotel 129."
The head bounced twice, tossing his hair to the back of his head, revealing a green and miserable face, and said, "My name is Ning Xiu, and I used to be a scholar. Many years ago, I was beheaded for peeking at the official's daughter's bath, and died on the execution ground."
The head sobbed twice, "I died in disgrace, and my family did not want to collect my body. So I walked around with my head in my arms. This used to be a tailor's shop, so I came here and asked the tailor to sew my head on."
Ye Xun: "The slaughterhouse next to it did seem to be a torture chamber a long time ago."
There was a tailor's shop around the execution site, because in the old days it was important to leave the body intact, and the family of the beheaded prisoner would usually bring the body to the tailor's shop to have the head sewn on. If there was no family to collect the body, at night the body would come to the tailor with the head in its arms to have the head and body sewn on.
The head said, "But the tailor always closed before dark, so I couldn't find anyone to sew my head on, so I waited and waited and waited. I waited until the month before last, when I happened to find out that the owner's wife here was also a tailor, so I came to her room every night in the middle of the night to find her and try to get her to sew my head on."
Lu Youyi asked with a scowl, "If you sew your head, you sew your head, why are you killing people."
The head's eyes widened in anger as he said, "Little friend don't slander people out of thin air, when did I kill someone?"
Lu Youyi froze for a moment and said suspiciously, "Didn't you kill the three girls who disappeared from this hotel?"
The head bounced twice in anger and exclaimed, "Little doll, don't look at my good temper and defile people's green and white!"
Jiang Luo rubs his chin with both hands around his chest, the torn T-shirt on the left side of his hem revealing a palm-sized patch of waist skin. It was as white as jade and glowed with a smooth coldness, and in this position he inadvertently tugged his shirt upwards, his poise and beauty value soaring. Jiang Luo curled his lips and smiled, "Scholar, do you come to this room every night to find the boss's wife?"
The scholar looked at him dumbly, already a lustful man, now even more so as two flushes tinged his green face, "Yes, I come here every night to look for the boss's wife."
Jiang Luo said, "But the owner's wife doesn't seem to live here."
The head said loftily, "Little friend, you don't know. The man and woman who owned this shop went through many quarrels a month ago, and the mistress' temper became more and more strange, so they lived in separate rooms. The mistress lives in this room, and I have seen her threading a needle to mend her body, but to my surprise, whenever I come looking for her in the middle of the night, she is always not here."
Ye Xun caught the point, "Mend your own body?"
The head said with deep emotion, "Yes, what a good seamstress she is, she would have been able to sew my head and my body together properly." But after looking at the body in the black net, the head couldn't resist a pained expression, "But as soon as I saw my body, I didn't want to sew it together."
Jiang Luo smiled and turned his head to Ye Xun and Lu Youyi, "Where do you think a boss lady who would thread a needle and mend her own body late at night would go in the middle of the night when she's not sleeping?"
Ye Xun frowned in thought for a moment and threw the heads into the black net, leaving Lu Youyi to tug them back out into the corridor and call his boss.
The electricity used by the landline is on a separate circuit and will not be affected whether the power is off or on at Hotel 129.
The phone beeped for a moment and the sleepy voice of the boss came through, "Hello?"
Ye Xun asked, "Where is the boss's wife."
The boss instantly sobered up and asked cautiously, "What's wrong, Mr. Ye? My wife is sleeping with my mother with the baby in her arms."
"Isn't her room in 102?"
"Yes, she had a fight with me and moved to 102," the boss said with a bitter smile, "probably because my business is getting worse and worse, she has become much grumpier, she doesn't know where to go in broad daylight all day long, I see her occasionally, her makeup is getting thicker and thicker ... but she can't let go of the children, every night after the children go to bed back, stay with the children until dawn and then disappeared, I want to have a good chat with her have no time."
The owner's family lived across the street from their building, and the more Ye Xun heard, the more he felt something was wrong, so he decided, "Let's go there now."
The group went there in the dark, and the incense had burned out by the time they reached the opposite floor. Ye Xun sighed, put the rice bowl in the corner and went upstairs to meet the owner, who was waiting at the door with his clothes on.
The owner took them inside and looked a little uneasy looking and rubbed his hands together, "That, you guys meant that before ..."
"We need to see your wife," Ye Xun said, "she may have some problems."
The boss squeezed his hand tightly at once, he was silent for a long time and forced a smile, "How can that be."
"That's impossible," the boss said to himself, crying and laughing, "Don't tease me, you guys."
Lu Youyi looked at him sympathetically, "Boss, if you want to deal with this sooner, be prepared for the worst possible scenario."
The owner, his whole body dishevelled, led them to a bedroom door and gently pushed it open.
A stiff shadow was standing at the end of the bed, staring straight at the sleeping grandmother and child. The figure was suffused with a black mist, the same black mist Jiang Luo had seen on the child's arm.
Lu Youyi exclaimed in a low voice, "What a strong Yin Qi!"
As soon as he pushed open the door, a coolness struck Jiang Luo, whose gaze fell on the quilt, which was gathered up in two quiet bumps, where an old man and a young woman were sleeping heavily, half awake.
The figure standing at the end of the bed heard the sound and stiffened, turning his head towards them.
Jiang Luo's pupils constricted.
The hotel owner's body was covered in dense stitches, and she seemed to be a mass of broken flesh that could only rely on stitches to sew herself up, her features were crooked and bloody, and her appearance was frightening.
The boss behind him sat on his buttocks, his legs shaking in terror, "Aaaahhhh-!"