Mi Xiaobai’s sudden stunt really had been one hell of a shock.
Even the employee taking the photo had jumped, never mind the two teammates clinging to the doorway and watching.
Three Ks’s legs instantly turned to jelly. He grabbed Shan Bei and stumbled several steps backward, just in time to end up at the feet of the employee with the gaping bloody maw.
Three Ks slowly raised his head.
The enormous mouth lowered toward him.
“…”
The instant their eyes met, Three Ks sprang up and ran!
The big-mouthed employee snatched up a chair and chased after him, swinging it as he went.
Ten seconds later, Three Ks suffered a tragic defeat and was pinned in front of a makeup mirror.
By then, Shan Bei had already been forcibly coated in an even layer of foundation at the mirror beside him.
Neither of them had the ability to peel off their skin and expose bare bone. There was no escaping the rouge and lipstick.
Mi Xiaobai really was a bastard. When he came out of the photography room and saw what his two teammates looked like, he actually laughed.
Three Ks and Shan Bei hung their heads and shuffled into line for their photos.
Behind the camera, the employee told Three Ks, “Smile.”
On the verge of tears, Three Ks forced his lips apart.
“Too ugly.”
The employee was clearly dissatisfied and kept shaking his head.
“Show all your teeth.”
My mouth isn’t as big as yours! I can’t!
Three Ks had just been about to say that when two icy arms suddenly curled around him from behind.
Cold fingers hooked into the corners of his mouth and yanked viciously outward—
He screamed in terror as a sharp pain tore through both corners of his lips.
Just when he felt as though his mouth really was about to be ripped open, the employee finally nodded from behind the camera.
“That’ll do. Three, two, one.”
Click.
The shutter snapped.
“Who the hell pulled my mouth?!”
Clutching his face, Three Ks practically rolled and crawled his way out of the photography room. He whipped around—
The spot where he had just been standing was completely empty.
There was no one there.
Shan Bei’s luck proved equally terrible. He ran into much the same thing.
So when Mi Xiaobai returned from the front desk with the photographs, he found his two teammates crying out for their parents as they came barreling toward him one after another.
“What?” Mi Xiaobai shifted half a step aside. “Saw a ghost?”
Then, out of the goodness of his heart, he added, “I’d suggest not rubbing all that powder on your faces against these clothes. If I can’t get out because of you, you two are finished too.”
“We did see a ghost! An actual ghost! There’s something in the photography room!”
Three Ks was almost incoherent.
“Boss, Boss—when you were taking your picture, did something pull your mouth too?”
Mi Xiaobai raised an eyebrow and blinked at him.
“What do you think?”
A few seconds later, Three Ks finally caught up.
“…Oh. Right. I’m an idiot.”
When Boss Smiley had taken his photograph, he had not even had a mouth for anything to pull.
The short-haired studio owner in the qipao had returned to the front desk at some point and was once again seated on her narrow high stool.
She accepted two small white paper packets from an employee and handed them to Three Ks and Shan Bei.
“One copy stays on file, one copy goes with you,” she said in her airy voice. “They haven’t developed yet. Give them two or three minutes and the images will show.”
“On file?”
Three Ks might have been timid, but he never stopped asking questions.
He trembled as he paid.
“Don’t photography studios need the customer’s permission before keeping photos? Do you absolutely have to keep a copy?”
The owner held an exquisite little folding fan and tapped it against the counter.
“Everyone who comes here leaves a photograph on file with me. What makes you special?”
With that, she flicked the fan open and leisurely fanned herself.
Anyone with eyes could see that every rib of the fan was as thin and sharp as a blade.
Three Ks immediately raised his hands.
“Sure. Keep it. Keep it however you want.”
You’ve got the knives. You make the rules.
“Little Eight. See them out.”
She continued fanning herself, her tone thoroughly impolite.
The employee with the enormous bloody mouth walked over and expressionlessly shut the door in their faces.
The word Scram was practically written across his forehead.
But the moment the door closed and the three guests were gone, the studio owner’s glamorous expression collapsed.
Her elegant brows drew together. After pondering for a long while, she said to the employee called Little Eight,
“That man was strange.”
Little Eight asked blankly and mechanically, “Who? Weren’t there three guests just now?”
“You couldn’t tell? Are you blind?”
The owner showed him no mercy.
Little Eight tried hard to widen his eyelids and rolled his completely black eyes around.
“Maybe my eyes are large but lifeless.”
The owner: “…”
She fanned herself with the blade-like fan.
“The one in the suit.”
Realization dawned on Little Eight.
“Oh. Yes. That thing he did with his skin was even scarier than us.”
The owner: “…”
After another moment of thought, she looked distinctly unwell.
“From one angle, he reminded me of a certain… living King of Hell who makes even ghosts quake.”
Little Eight asked again, “Who?”
As everyone knew, the island city had once been home to two famously terrifying figures who fit that description.
The owner cursed him again.
“Didn’t one of them disappear? Are you stupid?”
Little Eight had another revelation and quickly agreed.
“Right. There’s only one left.”
After dutifully agreeing, he tried to reassure her.
“But don’t worry, Boss. I was standing closest to that guest in the suit. If it really were that person, wouldn’t he be overflowing with ghostly energy? I didn’t sense much of that from him. I even forced the album on him and he didn’t hit me.”
The owner: “…”
Little Eight continued, “I’m not completely brainless. I checked him on purpose. He’s only level four. That skin-shedding looked more like some kind of illusion. The technique was clumsy, and he couldn’t maintain it for long. It probably wasn’t the real thing.”
His delivery was wooden, but what he said did make some sense.
After thinking it through carefully, the owner nodded.
“True. I worried for nothing.”
At the front desk of the shabby little hotel, the receptionist held out one hand expressionlessly.
Without even looking, Mi Xiaobai dropped the packets of photographs into his palm.
The receptionist checked them one by one.
When he reached Mi Xiaobai’s, his head snapped up. His face was covered in question marks.
“What the hell did you give me?”
Mi Xiaobai propped one hand on the reception desk.
“Me. Can’t you tell?”
The receptionist thought, Maybe I really am completely blind.
He was about to refuse it when Mi Xiaobai said,
“You only asked for an individual two-inch photograph. I even threw in formalwear and no headwear as bonuses. Very sincere of me. The photo just happened to come out a little wild.”
The receptionist: “?”
Mi Xiaobai added, “Of course, if there’s anything that doesn’t meet your requirements, feel free to tell me.”
“…”
There really wasn’t.
The receptionist’s face turned blue from holding everything in, but he could not come up with a single additional requirement.
In the end, he had no choice but to accept the photograph and lead all three of them upstairs.
The elevator in the shabby hotel was astonishingly cold. A thin layer of white frost had even formed over its metal walls.
The car was so narrow that one person would have fit best, yet the receptionist insisted on squeezing inside to accompany them.
Three guests meant three separate trips up and down.
He apparently did not mind the trouble.
The guests, however, were rapidly reaching the limit of their tolerance.
The guest who had submitted a skeleton photograph even smiled as he threatened him.
“You’d better press yourself against the wall and keep at least a foot away from this body.”
The receptionist stared at him gloomily.
And what exactly are you going to do if I get within an inch of you?
The guest promptly told him.
“Whatever part of you touches me, I’ll cut off.”
The receptionist: “…”
He had never met such an impossible customer in his life.
Fortunately, the elevator might have been slow, but nothing happened along the way. The receptionist safely delivered all three of them to their suite.
The moment they stepped inside, Three Ks turned into a profanity machine and hissed out an extremely quiet but extremely furious stream of censored curses.
“I fing knew it! You call these fing rows of drawers a suite?!”
They had already considered the possibility that they might have to sleep in coffins.
What they had not expected was that the room would contain no proper coffins at all.
Instead, there were five dusty gray metal drawers.
Each drawer had a small empty frame on its front, exactly the right size for a two-inch photograph. Beside it was a tiny screen displaying a string of pink-and-blue neon digits.
It looked half like a room number and half like the code on a parcel locker.
Something along the lines of:
1933-1100-009-12.
There was also a small round hole beside each drawer handle. At first glance, none of them could tell what it was for.
They soon got their answer.
The receptionist produced three roses from who knew where and inserted them into the holes one by one.
Each dark-red bloom ended up resting neatly beside a two-inch photograph.
“Wow. With this little arrangement, how should I put it…”
Three Ks stared at his own photograph and spoke in a perfectly flat voice.
“I look so peaceful. Serene. Almost lifelike.”
He gave a dry laugh.
“…Did I move into a columbarium early?”
“What columbarium?”
The receptionist gestured toward the drawers as he introduced them.
“This is the cheapest lodging in the island city. Some poor souls who’ve only just arrived and have absolutely no money stay here.”
“Have you considered,” Three Ks said darkly, “that people with no money can still sleep on the street? At least there’s ventilation.”
The receptionist could not be bothered arguing with him. With an expression that clearly said You understand nothing, he said,
“If you walk out of our place, the noodle shop downstairs won’t charge you much either. When prices are at their lowest, one coin will get you a bowl of noodle soup.”
“So basically, they can tell you’re dirt-poor on sight.”
Shan Bei paused.
“Still, if that’s true, the owner downstairs sounds pretty nice.”
“She is. And the food really used to be excellent. Everyone around here has eaten there at least once. People even came all the way from other districts just to try it.”
The receptionist smacked his lips as though he could still remember the taste.
After reminiscing for a moment, however, he continued,
“But the old woman’s daughter was the better cook. Ever since her daughter died and her little grandson took over, it hasn’t tasted the same. At the very least, the stock isn’t nearly as fragrant as it used to be—”
Three Ks pressed his palms together and bowed to him.
“That’s enough. Now I’m hungry. We’re going first thing tomorrow morning.”
Mi Xiaobai, who had been unusually quiet, turned his head and gave him a peculiar look.
Three Ks noticed.
“What? Is it not safe to eat?”
Mi Xiaobai shrugged.
“If you really are a gluttonous ghost reincarnated, you might manage a couple bites.”
Then he added,
“But you won’t get any.”
The receptionist looked at Mi Xiaobai in surprise.
“You’re an outsider and you actually know?”
Three Ks was still completely lost.
“Know what?”
The receptionist said, “The noodle shop downstairs usually only accepts coins. They won’t sell to people like you who pay by scanning a code.”
Three Ks thought, Who the hell turns down money?
Perhaps his disappointment showed too clearly, because even the receptionist started laughing.
Unfortunately, even his laugh sounded mechanical—a clucking noise like a rooster.
The sound sent goosebumps crawling over everyone’s skin.
Once he finished clucking, he said,
“Since you’re such a glutton and you booked a suite, I’ll give you a few meal vouchers for the noodle shop.”
Three Ks: “?”
Mi Xiaobai: “?”
With that, the receptionist dug several crumpled vouchers out of his pocket and held them out.
A holographic screen appeared simultaneously before all three of them.
Congratulations! You have obtained Event Clue Item x1.
[A Crumpled Meal Voucher]
The enthusiastic inn receptionist had such an enjoyable conversation with you that he voluntarily gave you a meal voucher for the noodle shop downstairs. Once the noodle shop opens, go give it a try! Enjoy your meal.
Mi Xiaobai had never imagined that a walking idiot like Three Ks could blunder his way into a clue item purely because he was greedy for food.
Three Ks had not imagined it either.
He had no idea what was strange about the noodle shop downstairs. As far as he was concerned, he had gotten both a clue and a free meal.
Two birds with one stone.
The feeling of pure profit was so wonderful that even the metal-drawer columbarium suddenly became much easier on the eyes.
The receptionist had barely left before Three Ks crawled into the drawer bearing his photograph and tried lying down inside.
“There’s a button in here. Press it once and the drawer slides shut automatically.”
Three Ks pressed it.
Lying flat inside, he was slowly drawn into the cabinet.
His muffled voice came from within.
“It’s not stuffy. There’s an air vent. Other than being a little dark and a little cold, there’s nothing seriously wrong with it.”
He paused.
“Honestly, this feels safer than that huge suite at Blue Bay last time. It’ll do for one night.”
Shan Bei had never met anyone so absurdly adaptable and could only stare in amazement.
But there really was nowhere else for them to go.
After hesitating for a moment, he politely asked Mi Xiaobai,
“Boss, then I’m going in too?”
Mi Xiaobai leaned lazily against one of the drawer doors and tilted his head toward the cabinet.
“Sure. Do whatever you want.”
Shan Bei awkwardly climbed into his drawer, pressed the button, and settled himself in.
The dim light outside was sealed away.
The world abruptly plunged into total darkness.
The two of them vaguely heard a few faint noises outside. Silence soon returned, and they guessed that Boss Smiley had probably gone to sleep as well.
Who knew how long Three Ks drifted in and out of sleep before a bright, chiming alarm suddenly woke him.
He remembered setting it according to the noodle shop’s opening time.
That meant the night had passed without incident.
It had to be morning.
He fumbled for the button and slid himself out of the metal cabinet.
All he saw was the dusty chandelier swaying gently overhead.
Beyond the faint circle of light beneath it, every corner of the room remained swallowed in darkness.
The entire building was deathly silent.
I’m screwed. I woke up at a time when I wasn’t supposed to.
Three Ks closed his eyes in despair.
He was just about to quietly slide himself back inside when something brushed across his face.
Cool.
Slightly ticklish.
He instinctively scratched his cheek.
Then froze.
Hair.
It was hair.
Long strands of hair drifted softly across his face, as though someone were bending over him, motionless, staring down.
“!!!”
Three Ks’s eyes flew open.
There was still nothing there but the gently swaying chandelier and flickering shadows on the wall.
His heart hammered wildly.
Politeness was the last thing on his mind now.
All he wanted was to bang on Boss Smiley’s drawer.
But the moment he started climbing out, he saw something that nearly stopped his heart altogether.
The photograph inserted into the drawer door was supposed to be an individual two-inch portrait.
At some point, however, another person had appeared inside it.
Long hair hung around the figure’s face.
Pitch-black eyes stared through the gaps between the strands.
Expressionless.
Watching Three Ks.
“What the f—!”
Three Ks screamed and launched himself out of the drawer.
Body first, soul trailing behind, he shot toward Boss Smiley’s drawer and began pounding on it with everything he had.
He kept at it for nearly half a minute.
By then, his voice was almost gone.
Boss Smiley still gave no response.
Three Ks pressed his palms together.
“Sorry.”
Then, without waiting for permission, he yanked the drawer open.
There was no one inside.
Only a small white kitten crouched there, staring back at him with a numb expression.
Three Ks: “?”