He was going to kill that grinning bastard.
If ^ ^ himself had been standing here, Yu Qing would have beaten him half to death, tied him up, and hung him inside the elevator. Then he would have pressed every floor button, sending the bastard up and down for everyone to admire his miserable state.
Unfortunately, the man was still occupying his body.
Yu Qing added another offense to the bastard's growing list of crimes and left the elevator with a face like thunder.
At least the hotel was relatively accommodating to someone with his obsessive tendencies. The main building was perfectly symmetrical, with the elevators positioned in the center, directly opposite Rooms 1812 and 1813. Yu Qing turned left upon leaving the elevator and reached his room within a few steps.
He had barely opened the door with his key card when another assault on his senses greeted him.
The room still reeked of an excessively strong floral fragrance, and the note he had left for ^ ^ was still lying on the desk.
But the enormous bed was no longer smooth and immaculate. Someone had left in such a hurry that they hadn't bothered to straighten the sheets, leaving them covered in wrinkles. Strange water stains had seeped across the ceiling and walls, while great clumps of hair lay scattered over the carpet.
What a magnificent mess!
Even someone as composed as Mr. Painted Skin was beginning to feel that life was hardly worth living.
Yu Qing had no desire to approach those filthy stains, much less touch them.
He warned the little skeleton, "If you step in so much as a speck of filth, I'll have you thrown out with the rest of the rubbish."
The little skeleton, which had just entered the room, was so frightened that it began walking stiffly, moving the legs on the same side together.
Having delivered his warning, Yu Qing carefully skirted the filth and approached the desk.
He took hold of the skeletal kitten's white-furred paw and used it to press the speakerphone button, followed by the button for reception.
The little skeleton: "?"
The moment the call connected, Yu Qing said coldly, "Send someone to clean my room."
The puffy-faced man's hoarse voice came through the phone, sounding almost incredulous.
"You want what?"
"My room cleaned."
The receptionist: "..."
Yu Qing frowned. "Do you not provide housekeeping?"
"We do," the receptionist muttered. "I'm just a little surprised, that's all. Someone will be up to clean your room shortly. Anything else? If not, I'll hang up."
"Yes."
"What?"
"Dry cleaning."
"Huh?"
Yu Qing was growing impatient. "You don't offer that either?"
The receptionist answered reluctantly, "...We do, but no one's ever used it."
"Someone has now."
"...Fine."
"Oh, right." The receptionist seemed to remember something and added, "Dry cleaning is handled by the laundry department. They'll call you in a moment to confirm your details. Anything else?"
Yu Qing considered the wreckage of his room.
The receptionist finally lost patience.
"...You're not going to ask for room service too, are you?"
"No," Yu Qing replied calmly. "I imagine the food would be terrible."
The receptionist was struck speechless.
After a long silence, he slammed down the phone.
A short while later, the laundry department called to confirm the details.
"Is this Room 1811?"
"Yes."
******
Yu Qing hung up and retreated into the bathroom, unable to endure the state of the bedroom any longer.
Fortunately, the bathroom hadn't been ravaged quite as thoroughly. There was even an iron and an ironing board in the dressing room.
Unfortunately, Mr. Painted Skin wasn't particularly skilled at using them. Uncle Yuan normally took care of such things.
He could, of course, use a little of his most basic spiritual power to clean and dry his clothes instantly.
But he was far too particular about these matters. Unless his suit jacket had been properly disinfected and pressed, he would feel uncomfortable all over.
He washed himself thoroughly, took a pristine white bathrobe from the wardrobe, and put it on.
Then he tossed the skeletal kitten into the bathroom.
By the time he emerged, the doorbell was ringing.
The person responsible for cleaning his room was a young man with dark skin. He seemed thoroughly accustomed to the strange marks scattered around the room and efficiently set about removing the various stains.
He even remembered to warn Yu Qing, "There'll be quite a bit of dust when I clean the carpet, sir. You might want to keep your distance."
Naturally, Yu Qing knew to keep his distance.
In fact, he had already retreated into the corridor outside his room before the young man even opened his mouth.
Suddenly, a noise came from farther down the corridor.
A young woman with her hair tied in a simple ponytail emerged from the elevator carrying a laundry bag.
She turned right, stopped in front of a room, and rang the doorbell.
"Hello, laundry service."
Yu Qing frowned slightly.
The young woman waited a few seconds before ringing the bell again and raising her voice.
"Hello? Is anyone there? Laundry service."
"If I'm not mistaken, I'm the one who requested the laundry service," Yu Qing said.
"Huh?"
The woman looked over at him, then lowered her eyes to double-check the information in her hand.
"I just confirmed it over the phone. The laundry service was requested by Room 1811."
Yu Qing tapped the number on his own door.
"It says so right here. 1811."
The woman froze.
Then, as though suddenly realizing something, she hurried over.
"Oh! I'm terribly sorry. I got the wrong room just now. I hope you won't hold it against me. How many garments would you like dry-cleaned? Please fill out the laundry form and put them in this bag."
"One suit and one shirt."
Yu Qing returned to his room and picked up the clothes.
He was about to place them in the laundry bag when he felt something in his trouser pocket.
"..."
What sort of rubbish had that bastard stuffed into his pocket this time?
He pulled out a thin piece of paper bearing intricate patterns surrounding a single character meaning "wish."
Yu Qing recognized it.
Many households in the island city kept wish slips. By burning one before an altar, a person could make a wish to the deity they worshipped.
The slip was as delicate and light as a butterfly's wing, yet extraordinarily expensive. Ordinary people had to pay a considerable price each time they used one, but that did little to discourage them.
Compared with other deities, however, Yu Qing had received relatively few wish slips.
For one thing, he had never had many believers.
For another...
By the time his believers made their wishes, they generally no longer had time to use a wish slip.
That was why he had a blue-winged swallowtail butterfly that flew through the island city's ceaseless rain and mist every day, listening on his behalf for the wishes his believers had no time to put into words.
It was a pity the blue-green butterfly hadn't followed him here.
Otherwise, it could have helped with a few things.
It might not be capable of carrying anything heavy, but surely it could sniff around and investigate things. Anything that spared him the trouble of doing the work himself would be welcome.
Mr. Painted Skin privately regretted its absence.
Yu Qing put away the wish slip and pulled another object from his pocket.
This one was filthy.
Pinching it by the tiniest possible corner, he examined it closely and discovered that it was a scorched room key card.
Half of it was missing, making the room number impossible to read.
But there was a peculiar smell lingering on the card.
Other people might not have been able to detect it, but Yu Qing recognized it immediately.
It was exactly the same overpowering, strange floral fragrance that permeated his room.
After being subjected to it for an entire night, he was hardly likely to forget it.
Perhaps because he had been holding the card for some time, a holographic screen suddenly appeared before him.
【Half a Scorched Room Key Card】
【Among the scattered remains of the ghosts, you have discovered the remains of a room key card. A strange fragrance still lingers on it.
The toiletries provided by this hotel differ according to room category. Search carefully.】
Yu Qing: "?"
What exactly was he supposed to search for?
The room that belonged to the key card???
Yu Qing: "..."
Wasn't that obviously Room 1811?
Holding the damaged card between his fingers, he gave it a look of utter disdain, as though it were an idiot, and pressed it against his own door.
Another holographic screen popped up.
【You appear to have discovered the room from which the Half a Scorched Room Key Card originated!
You have obtained Event Clue Fragment ×1. Please claim your reward and keep it safe.
Within the beginner instance, clue progress is shared by the entire team.
Team Clue Progress: 1/5.】
The message appeared simultaneously in Team Chat.
Three Ks sprang upright as though rising from his deathbed.
—Three Ks: ???????????
—Just Plain Rude: Didn't we only just get that half-scorched room key card????
Yu Qing, however, saw none of their reactions.
All he could see was the irritating holographic screen in front of him and the notifications that kept popping up.
He tapped Claim Rewards.
The scorched card in his hand immediately changed, transforming into a complete room key card.
It bore the same silhouette of the hotel, and the reverse displayed the same number.
1811.
The only difference was that the design on this card was the mirror image of the one Yu Qing already possessed.
Tapping the card revealed another description.
【A Room Key Card from the Past】
【Before that family of five became cold corpses, they too had known warmth and moments of happiness.
Even after death, they remain reluctant to let go of those memories.
Occasionally, they return to visit the place where they once stayed.
Be careful not to run into them.】
"Sir? Sir!"
The woman from the laundry service called to him twice.
Yu Qing came back to his senses and closed the holographic screen.
The woman glanced at the room key card in his hand. She seemed unwilling to linger any longer.
"Are these all the clothes, sir? In that case, I'll take them now."
Yu Qing returned to his room.
The young housekeeper had already finished cleaning, and the room now looked spotless.
Mr. Painted Skin was exceedingly satisfied.
As soon as the housekeeper left, he retrieved the skeletal kitten from the bathroom and forcibly dried it in an instant.
"You weren't nearly this much trouble before you got all moldy," he complained.
The kitten looked thoroughly aggrieved.
The phone lying on the bed was vibrating incessantly, apparently receiving a great many messages.
But as far as Mr. Painted Skin was concerned, all those messages concerned the mess ^ ^ ought to clean up himself.
They had nothing to do with him.
He absolutely refused to lift another finger over the matter.
Besides, he had already done the bastard a favor just now.
At the very least, he had helped turn half a room key card into a complete one.
Even using a room key card took a certain amount of effort, after all.
That particular card had been covered in filth. The mere fact that Yu Qing had been willing to pick it up ought to have been enough to make ^ ^ fall to his knees in gratitude.
That was how Yu Qing saw it.
Yet an hour later, he picked up the infuriating phone anyway.
It simply would not stop vibrating.
Who on earth was being so noisy?
Yu Qing opened the messaging app.
Team Chat, which had once been quiet and empty, now displayed ninety-nine unread messages.
Yu Qing: "?"
The moment he opened it, a flood of strange photographs came pouring in, accompanied by so many vibrations that his hand went numb.
What was all this?
He opened a few of the photographs and gave them a cursory glance.
They showed the interior of a room.
Its layout was more or less identical to his own.
More precisely, it was exactly the same, except that the furnishings were arranged in the opposite positions.
It was a mirror image.
He scrolled upward and found his teammates' messages.
—Three Ks: We felt kind of bad just lying around and getting achievements for free, so we took that room key card we got and went upstairs to try it out. @Sushi Bar @^ ^
—Just Plain Rude: Yeah. We didn't see anything particularly unusual when we opened the room with the card, so we took a bunch of photos to make sure we didn't miss any clues.
—Three Ks: We photographed pretty much every corner. No idea if any of it'll help, though. Neither of us has any leads. Why don't you guys take a look? If we really can't figure anything out, we can always go back to Room 1811 later. It's pretty close. Just turn right when you come out of the elevator. @Sushi Bar @^ ^
How tedious.
Yu Qing was about to close the app when the room number caught his eye.
1811.
His finger stopped.
For a moment, he almost thought the two of them had entered his room.
Of course, that was impossible.
Yu Qing had remained in his bedroom the entire time.
Which left only one other explanation...
There were two rooms numbered 1811 on this floor.
One was the room he occupied.
The other was on the right-hand side of the elevator.
That explained why the woman from the laundry service had gone to the wrong room.
It was also the room his teammates had entered.
The same room number?
Symmetrical locations?
Mirrored furnishings?
Yu Qing opened the photographs again, this time examining them more carefully.
The longer he looked, the deeper his frown became.
Because in one of the photographs, he noticed something exceedingly strange.
The photograph showed the desk in the other Room 1811.
But lying on that desk was a familiar note.
It was the threatening message Yu Qing had left for ^ ^, ordering the bastard to show himself and clean up the mess he had caused.
The paper lay perfectly straight in the center of the desk.
But the writing on it was reversed, as though reflected in a mirror.
Yu Qing opened several more photographs.
He found one showing the bathroom, with a towel hanging beside the sink.
He had used that very towel to dry the skeletal kitten's fur just ten minutes earlier.
The only difference was that he had left his towel on the left, while the one in the photograph hung on the right.
It wasn't simply that the two rooms had identical layouts.
The other room was a complete copy of his own.
Even the traces he had left behind had been reproduced.
If inanimate objects had been copied so precisely, what about living creatures?
Would there be a skeletal kitten in the other room?
Would there be another Yu Qing?
And if another version of him existed, what exactly would that mirrored self be...?
Yu Qing actually had the key card needed to open the other Room 1811.
It was even on the same floor. All he had to do was leave his room, walk past Rooms 1812 and 1813 in the middle, and take a look for himself.
But he made no move to do so.
He still hadn't received his freshly dry-cleaned suit.
Leaving the room wearing nothing but a bathrobe would be far too undignified.
He absolutely refused to venture more than a meter beyond his door.
After considering the matter for a moment, he walked over to the telephone.
Like other hotels, this establishment had an interconnected in-room telephone system. To call another room, all a guest had to do was dial its number.
Yu Qing gathered his now completely dry hair into a loose half-up style.
Then he picked up the telephone and dialed 1811.
Ring—
Ring—
Ring—
...
The phone rang for a very long time.
So long, in fact, that Yu Qing was beginning to believe no one would ever answer.
Then, with a soft click, someone spoke on the other end.
It should have been an unfamiliar voice.
And yet Yu Qing had the distinct impression that he had heard it somewhere before.
He froze for an instant.
Then he remembered.
On the day he had been about to cease to exist, just before entering the instance, he had heard this voice at the very end of his dream.
It had sounded like wind passing through the cracks in a deity statue.
If he wasn't mistaken, the voice seemed to belong to the person who had occupied his body.
The voice on the other end of the telephone said:
"I'm surprised. I didn't expect we'd be able to speak to each other like this."