Was the road completely cut off?
Ningma turned his head. The distance between the hotel’s elevator lobby and the bright floor-to-ceiling windows outside the lobby was a corridor. It was still raining heavily outside the windows. If he wasn’t here, it would be hard to imagine what kind of rain could fall continuously for twelve hours, and it wasn’t just ordinary rainfall.
“Then when do you estimate we can leave?” Ningma asked, looking at the incessant rain.
The female front desk manager was also slightly overweight. Perhaps due to years of reception work, even a hint of impatience was replaced by a habitual, natural smile. “I’m sorry, Mr. Ningma. We are in constant contact with relevant departments at the County level. As soon as the road is open and safe, we will notify every guest as soon as possible.”
Just then, a commotion came from the front desk at the end of the lobby. The front desk manager said “I’m sorry” again and jogged over.
“Please put my luggage back in the room,” Ningma said, turning to the bellhop who had been standing behind him. “Thank you!”
“Okay, sir,” Luo Kang said with a smile, pushing the luggage cart and pressing the up button. The moment the elevator doors closed, Ningma glanced back, and the bellhop’s eyes weren’t on the floor display, but on the guest’s suitcase?
Ningma’s hand remained in his pocket, the Heart Bead in his palm exuding a slight chill, the warmth of a top-grade raw jade combined with the unique texture of metal—perhaps the delicacy that only centuries of time can nurture…
The noise grew louder, and Ningma walked forward, following the sound.
[If you see this text, please exit reading mode or go to the “source page” to read normally]
[Please go to the source webpage to read. The following content is automatically replaced to prevent collection] you–me, big–small, more–less, up–down, left–right….
From a distance, he heard a man’s low voice, “Do you think we want to keep you at the hotel? What five-star hotel, don’t you just want to earn a little more money from the rooms?”
Another male voice also shouted from the crowd, “I don’t care! Even if it’s raining knives today, we have to leave!”
“Exactly!” The male voice spoke with fervor, “We came for a trip, and we haven’t seen anything before you say the road is closed. Are you kidding us?”
“Quick, check out!” The male voice became more impatient, and then incited the crowd, “It’s a lie about the road closure. This hotel clearly has ulterior motives.”
The onlookers finally began to whisper. Even the front desk manager, with her good professional demeanor, couldn’t help but look a little strained as she tried to dissuade the troublemaking couple and had the back office call the County Disaster Prevention Office.
Ningma watched from a short distance. It wasn’t accurate to call it a “crowd.” Besides the couple eager to leave, there was also a mother with a boy of about seven or eight years old, a middle-aged couple, a lone backpacker, and two middle-aged men in suits who looked like businessmen.
It has to be said that the couple’s coordinated agitation made the group of strangers talk amongst themselves. However, before hearing the “official notification” from the staff on the other end of the phone, the middle-aged couple and the mother and son left to go upstairs, while the others were still a little hesitant.
The man and woman seemed annoyed by the bureaucratic tone on the phone. They insisted on checking out, and finally slammed their room card on the counter and stormed out!
The rain in the hotel was still pouring down. Not far away was the hotel’s rooftop parking lot. A small pickup truck was parked not far from the exit. The narrow vehicle looked like a toy compared to ordinary cars.
Through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, Ningma watched the couple get into the pickup truck in the heavy rain. It seemed they had something to rely on: 4×4 drive, all-terrain tires, and a raised chassis could handle many extreme terrains.
The pickup truck with the tiger head printed on the door passed through the hotel. The woman in the driver’s seat didn’t forget to roll down the window and honk the horn, leaving in a grand manner under the gaze of the crowd!
Everyone in the hotel just watched quietly. As the pickup truck disappeared from view, the guests who had been surrounding the front desk gradually dispersed, some heading towards the elevator lobby, and the rest heading towards the second-floor staircase on the other side.
Ningma didn’t follow either group. Taking advantage of the departure of the crowd, he slipped to the front of the lobby, pushed open an inconspicuous door, and went straight to the inner courtyard. If his memory was correct, the site of last night’s fall was not far away.
No one followed, not even the hotel’s front desk manager. Perhaps she had found a place to rest after dealing with the crisis, and if you weren’t paying attention, you wouldn’t notice the figure on the other side of the amber floor-to-ceiling glass.
He walked a long way along the inner courtyard without finding any traces left from last night. Ningma went back in. This time, just a few steps away, he found something different on a moss-covered drain cover. Compared to the other covers—the edge of this one at his feet seemed to have been wiped?
Ningma squatted down—this should be the place. Although there were no traces of blood, the fallen moss formed a “big” shape. However, with the nourishment of the rain, the dark green moss would soon return to its original, unrestrained state of growth.
Tilting his head and looking up—only small raindrops were visible, and he could only see the hotel’s straight exterior facade. There was nothing else different.
So, what was the probability of surviving a fall from the fifth floor? And the landing point was a hard cement surface?
Or did he happen to…
Ningma constructed several landing postures in his mind. Without exception, they would all result in fatal injuries. No human bone could withstand a free fall from nearly twenty meters.
But no one had come looking for him. This alone was difficult to understand.
His fingers caressed the moss layer that had been crushed and almost broken. Such a big thing happened, and it was strange that there were no police cars, and it was even more incredible that there wasn’t even an ambulance…
Unless?
Through the almost continuous rain curtain dripping from the eaves, Ningma’s gaze crossed the direction of the mountain road leading in and out of the hotel—could it be that it was cut off last night?
So no vehicles could get in, and there would be no phone notifications? But even so, it still couldn’t explain why everything was as if nothing had happened. At the very least—where was the person who fell?
Ningma stood up straight and took one last look at the almost blurred “humanoid” ground. Then he returned to the hotel lobby. The huge hotel lobby was empty at this time, except for two front desk staff on duty who were staring intently at a guest who appeared out of nowhere.
“Excuse me,” Ningma walked up and asked one of them, “Wasn’t there someone who fell from the building last night? How is he now? Is his life in danger? Has he been taken to the hospital?”
“Fell from the building?” The two front desk receptionists exchanged a look, both showing puzzled expressions. “Sir, I don’t quite understand what you’re saying?”
“Around 3 a.m. last night,” Ningma pointed in the direction of the inner courtyard, “Someone was stealing in the room, and when I discovered him, he tried to climb out of the window, but he accidentally fell. There—he fell over there.”
The two young women both looked incredulous. “I’m sorry, sir, we haven’t received any news about a guest falling from the building. Are you sure?”
Ningma frowned. It was also possible that there was an oversight in the shift handover. “By the way, our front desk manager last night, the female one, a little overweight, surnamed Huang, where is she now?”
“Manager Huang?” One of the girls clearly breathed a sigh of relief. “She was on the night shift yesterday. She went home early this morning after getting off work. Do you need us to contact her now?”
Ningma looked at his watch, 7:47, “Yes, if it’s convenient.”
“Okay, please wait a moment,” the receptionist picked up the phone, pressed “outside line,” and dialed a mobile phone number. After waiting for about half a minute, she said apologetically, “I’m sorry, sir, Manager Huang’s phone is temporarily unavailable.”
“I see,” Ningma frowned even deeper. “Then can you contact her when she’s on duty again?”
“Okay, sir, we will inform you in time.”
Ningma nodded, about to turn and leave, when a male voice sounded from in front of him, “Mr. Ningma?”
He turned around and saw the female front desk manager who had greeted him earlier. Ningma was about to speak when he heard a series of engine roars outside the hotel door. A black pickup truck with a tiger’s head printed on the door drove back into the parking lot, its tires covered with a thick layer of mud.
The couple who had left ten minutes ago rushed back into the hotel, holding their heads in the rain, their attitude completely changed.
The man said in a disheveled manner, “Um, please give us another room, um, thank you!”