It was the key he picked up last night at the foot of the lobby stairs.
In its difficulty.
Holding it in front of Liu Yu: "This key you said is used to open the basement, right?".
With an unpredictable expression, he said: "Just guessing, this key can open other doors, not necessarily the basement."
"What?". He squinted and glared at him.
But at that moment, he really believed it! He thought that this guy had lived for decades and had experience, so he could know everything in advance. Who would have thought that now he was standing here with a blank face and making random guesses.
Calm down, accept it: "So what door does this key open?".
"Try opening the locked doors around, see which one you can open." He sat down on the chair and leisurely lit a cigarette.
The smoke curled under the flashlight, he handed the cigarette to him and Liang Zun: "Smoke to relieve hunger."
"Hehe, thanks but I don't know how to smoke." Liang Zun scratched his head and smiled wryly.
He didn't say anything and raised his eyebrows at him. Xie Ying took the cigarette. The lighter in his hand lit up. He bent down to let the tip of the cigarette touch the flame.
Leaning against the pillar and exhaling smoke, he looked very carefree.
Liang Zun scratched his head and said, "Then can we go on a mission?".
He looked like a puppy standing between a big wolf and a big tiger. The pressure created a distance that made him more afraid of these two people than those ghosts. Especially now, the two people looked very indifferent and didn't care about the non-human things in here.
He raised his head and glanced down at Liang Zun: "Recover your strength and continue later."
Suddenly being glanced at by a cold gaze, he felt a little cramped inside, so he silently sat down on the chair and pretended to take out his glasses to wipe them.
Thud!
As soon as the smoke was exhaled, Xie Ying suddenly collapsed to the floor, his face dark and he held his heart.
"Wh... What the hell?".
"Hey, are you okay?!". Liang Zun put on his glasses and immediately came to support him. Although he was a bit scared of him, but since they were teammates, if they wanted to be closer, they couldn't ignore him.
He felt everything inside his body was heavy and painful, as if a thousand hammers were crushing his intestines.
He threw away the cigarette, forced himself to stand up unsteadily, and put out the fire with his foot.
He sat down on the chair and supported his head: "Where did this cigarette come from? Why would I smoke?".
Liang Zun beside him was puzzled: "You took the cigarette from Liu and smoked it, didn't you?".
Liu Yu's expression was cold and emotionless, he brushed off the cigarette ash, crossed his legs, leaned back on the chair, and propped his chin up, looking at him. His amber phoenix eyes flashed with a faint golden light.
He shivered, his body jerked, then he fell back on the chair, his head tilted back, and gasped. The pupil flashed a bright red light, wanting to kill him immediately.
Suddenly, a stream of red smoke escaped from his body and flew into the air, suddenly shooting out into a jet of fire, rushing into his body and taking over his body once again. His mind was floating, feeling his body flying.
Witnessing this scene, Liang Zun was extremely frightened and jumped behind Liu Yu.
He smoked again: "Who are you? Why did you enter this boy's body?".
He remained silent, not answering or moving his hands or feet, just glancing at him.
Liu Yu exhaled smoke, took the cigarette box on the table, and said: "In addition to being a cigarette to smoke, it can also help me distinguish who is a ghost and who is a human."
Sharp phoenix eyes pinned him down.
Xie Ying wiped his face and closed his eyes, sighing: "I didn't say it, so what? What are you going to do to me?".
He curled his lips: "Ha... I was already not pleased with you from the start, and now you're deliberately hurting me."
The red aura gradually returned to him, his two fists clenched tightly and he rushed to attack Liu Yu. He nimbly jumped out from behind and grabbed his neck, one hand pinning his two hands down, pressing him to the ground. Xie Ying lay prone, struggling with his face, angry.
Liu Yu's strength was extremely great, easily catching a big kid like him.
"Damn it!".
"Ah!". He twisted his arm, leaving him with no strength to resist.
Lying still, he closed his eyes.
His voice suddenly became soft: "I didn't harm anyone, I just wanted to protect Xie Cheng Cheng."
Him: ".....".
Silently looking at him with a thoughtful gaze.
Loosening his grip slightly, he still couldn't help but be wary.
"You feel lucky to have met me, if it was Bai Hu, your soul wouldn't be here right now." He snorted and let go of him to stand up.
Xie Ying tiredly sat up and rotated his broken arm, which instantly straightened out and returned to normal.
It was true that he was possessed, but he could still see and hear everything and move his body, unlike other possessed people who lost consciousness and when they woke up, they couldn't remember what happened.
It was just that his mind and mouth were not in control.
Standing up, he dusted off his body, smoothed his hair, and tightened his grip on the baseball bat in his hand. And everything was as if it had never happened.
"Let's go." He paused, then continued: "Don't tell him anything."
Liu Yu was cold.
Liang Zun didn't dare to approach him because of what had just happened.
He didn't have multiple personalities, but this current state was judged by Xie Cheng as a mental illness that needed treatment.
He probably had to tell him the truth later, but he was afraid that if he told him, would this soul still be able to stay by his side?
•
Returning to the mission, Xie Ying was the one holding the key. He took the lead in shining the light to find his way, trying to use the key to open the door leading to the hotel's backyard.
Clang.
The key couldn't be inserted.
His intuition told him that he should open the door under the stairs, so he went through.
The door opened, and cold wind blew out through the dark corridor. Deep inside, there was the silhouette of a tall, skinny humanoid creature, with red, sunken, and crooked flesh rushing out.
Liang Zun's face turned pale as he jumped behind Liu Yu: "What the hell?!".
He swung his stick, and a red light flashed through the air, and the demon in front of him crushed his head and fell down motionless.
He was about to kick the demon to see if he was completely dead when suddenly, under his feet, it dissolved into the air. The sticky blood on the floor dried up in the blink of an eye as if this demon had never appeared.
Xie Ying frowned and picked up the glowing object on the ground.
"Gold?".
Liu Yu spoke up: "Keep it safe, you might need it later."
He threw the gold to him without thinking: "You keep it."
Liu Yu: ".....".
So there were four in his pocket.
He raised his eyebrows: "Which way should we go now, uncle?".
He observed the three paths, thinking that the path on the left still had many turns and doors he had not explored, at that time he followed the suspicious waiter and found a hole in the ceiling. There must be something important above for this mission.
"Go this way." He jerked his chin towards the left turn.
Following his instructions, he reached the staircase, and went up, stopping to scan the surrounding lights.
"Hey, uncle, were these things originally here?"
Liu Yu frowned slightly as he walked up, and in front of him were headless mannequins dressed as male and female waiters, lined up in two rows on both sides of the wall.
Liang Zun also peeked out to look, and the scene in front of him startled him because he mistook the mannequins for ghosts.
The three of them walked out and stood in the middle of the hallway.
"These weren't there in the first place." Liu Yu glanced around.
"Then... Then who put them here?" Liang Zun squeezed between the two.
Xie Ying walked to a mannequin, looking it up and down. He silently assessed it.
Under the flashlight, he could see that the clothes of the old mannequins were covered in dirt, and there were traces that looked like dried blood.
"13 mannequins, 6 men, 7 women." He stopped at the mannequin wearing female clothing.
The clothes were tattered in some places, standing close to it one could smell an extremely unpleasant musty smell.
"Cough cough!". Liang Zun tried to lift up a mannequin's skirt, dust flew out everywhere making him cough.
Something suddenly fell from under the mannequin's skirt, he curiously bent down to pick it up. In the dim flashlight of Xie Ying standing in the opposite row, his face turned pale with fear at the thing in his hand.
"Ah ah ah!!!". He screamed and threw the thing out, it rolled and hit Liu Yu's foot.
He picked it up: "A hand?".
The rough and large hand seemed to belong to a man, missing the little finger. There were traces of a knife being cut by a spear or something rusty, it seemed like the cut was difficult to smooth so the flesh was hanging loosely from the wound.
"This person must have caused a lot of trouble in the underworld when he was alive, so he had his little finger and hand chopped off." Xie Ying despised the owner of the hand.
A cold face glanced at him, he silently turned the hand over to look.
Under the light of the lighter, he saw a faint number written on three fingers.
"7 2 2". He read it out.
"What is it? Password?". He guessed.
"Used to open doors or objects locked with a code". He said.
Xie Ying: "Oh".
".....".
Usually, when Liu Yu finished explaining something, there would always be Liang Zun who would follow along and praise enthusiastically even though he was very scared. However, at this moment, he couldn't hear what he said.
He waved the flashlight around but couldn't see him. The quiet hallway now had only two people left.
"Where did this coward run off to again..".
While speaking, his pupils suddenly flashed a bright red light, frowning at the black shadow at the end of the turn. The shadow stood still and didn't move.
"Hey." Liu Yu suddenly patted his shoulder.
He said: "Let's go."
He didn't care about the appearance of the black shadow in front of him and kept walking.
The footsteps of the two people echoed throughout the dark hallway, only the flashlight illuminated the way.
The two of them walked closer to it, under the flashlight they saw the figure of a person standing with his back turned.
"Liang Zun?". Xie Ying frowned.
He didn't answer or turn around, he was a bit annoyed and grabbed his shoulder.
"Cough cough cough!".
"Haha ha ha!! Are you scared yet?". Liang Zun turned around and laughed happily, scaring Xie Ying.
"Hahaha! You think I'm a ghost, right?" He held his stomach and laughed heartily.
I thought he was startled, but no, Xie Ying was annoyed and punched him to the ground.
"You coward, focus on your mission!"
This punch really hurt, Liang Zun stood up unsteadily, leaning against the wall and pushing up his glasses.
"I'm just kidding, why are you so tense?" Liang Zun said.
What's wrong with this coward? I remember he was usually timid and afraid of you, but after receiving your punch, he was still able to stand up and talk. Could it be that he went crazy after holding that person's hand?
The three of them continued walking, and in front of them appeared a hallway with two rows of mannequins.
Does this hotel like playing with dolls that they put so many mannequins?
There were only a few mannequins, no other clues or objects, the three of them ignored them and continued walking.
Turning, the three of them walked out into a hallway that also had two rows of mannequins, just like the two hallways before.
There was a strange feeling in this cold, dark space.
They felt eyes following their every step, every move.
But in the middle of this hallway, there were only three people, who else...
No, there were 13 headless mannequins.