“Yiyi, are you okay, Yiyi?”
Xia Waner handed him back his phone and sympathetically patted his shoulder.
Gu Yi was on the verge of tears but had none to shed. After taking the phone, he looked as if his soul had left his body, and he was utterly dazed.
Xia Waner comforted him, saying, “Don’t worry, Yiyi. Boss Bo is the kind of man whose words are harsh but whose heart is soft. He won’t do anything to you. I’ve already sent him the address. In a little while, he’ll come pick you up and take you home.”
Gu Yi grew even more terrified.
Boss Bo personally coming to take him home, no way. Just how furious would he have to be… If he didn’t come, would Gu Yi still have a home to go back to tonight?
Gu Yi was pushed forward by Xia Waner, and walked ahead in a daze. Suddenly, Xia Waner stepped on something and cried out, “Ah!”
“What is this?”
Lying beneath Xia Waner’s foot was a doll.
Gu Yi looked over. It was just an ordinary doll, with blond hair and blue eyes, its big eyes wide open, lively-looking, but it seemed to have been abandoned. Its whole body was filthy, dust clung to its long eyelashes, and even the little red dress was missing a corner.
When he had come here, Gu Yi had not seen a doll lying on the floor, but it was there now, so abruptly, without any warning.
Gu Yi stared at the doll for some reason, and felt that it was a little… pitiful.
Yes, pitiful.
That feeling was utterly inexplicable, but it suddenly welled up in his heart.
Xia Waner picked the doll up and brushed the dust off it, saying, “Who would throw a doll here? That’s so inconsiderate. But dolls like this have no distinguishing features, so it’s no wonder it got abandoned. Come on, Yiyi, let’s throw it away.”
“Let’s just leave it here,” Gu Yi said. “If we throw it away, its owner won’t be able to find it. If we leave it here, what if its owner comes looking for it in a bit?”
Xia Waner burst out laughing. “Yiyi, Yiyi, you’re so kind. The doll is already like this, how could it still have an owner?”
“I don’t know either,” Gu Yi said softly. “I just have a feeling that this doll is looking for its owner. I can’t really explain it, but the feeling is very strong.”
Xia Waner frowned. “If you really have that feeling, then this is getting spooky. Looks like this doll can’t be touched.”
“How so?”
Xia Waner sighed and said, “You, hanging around with Boss Bo all the time, how do you not even know this most basic common sense? Look, Qingsang is a puppet master, and the dolls he controls are actually a kind of doll too. Whether it’s a puppet or a doll, they’re all things that are closest to humans, and also things that most easily develop feelings for humans. A lot of wandering, unbound souls often take up residence in the dolls they liked best when they were alive, and these dolls also very easily become malevolent spirits that harm people. In short, this doll appeared out of nowhere, and I don’t think it’s anything good either. The more I look at it, the creepier it gets. You’re right, let’s leave it here and wait for its owner to come find it.”
With that, Xia Waner carefully put the doll back in its original place.
“To be safe, the two of us should go wash our hands, using my talisman paper.”
Xia Waner went to pull Gu Yi, but Gu Yi looked at the doll on the floor and, as if possessed, walked over.
The doll lay on the floor with its eyes open. Its delicate little face was now covered in dust, and from that face, Gu Yi read a strangely eerie sadness. That sadness seemed to rise from the depths of the heart. Driven by emotion, Gu Yi bent down and touched the doll’s head, murmuring, “Your owner will definitely come pick you up very soon.”
“Yiyi!”
Xia Waner was frightened by his action, really thinking he had been struck by something sinister, and hurried over to help him up. “All right, stop minding this doll. I think it really is a little strange.”
Xia Waner took out a yellow exorcism talisman, chanted an incantation, and with a flick of her hand, sent the talisman flying. It immediately landed squarely on the doll’s face.
“Let’s go, Yiyi.”
Xia Waner pulled Gu Yi away.
After they disappeared down the corridor, the talisman stuck to the doll’s face suddenly fell off.
The doll’s eyes darted smartly, and a terrifying smile tugged at the corners of its mouth.
That smile was as if someone had merely drawn a curve across a stone, utterly mechanical, devoid of any emotion or warmth.
After Gu Yi and Xia Waner returned to the private room, everyone was still chatting lively as before, but this time there was one more woman.
This woman was very beautiful, the kind with a hot body. Every gesture of hers was full of allure. Gu Yi noticed that after she arrived, many of the men present had their eyes fixed on her, but Qingsang was not among them.
A group of women were chatting away. Gu Yi just listened quietly from the side.
“Shu Qing, why are you so late today? Is it because your husband is worried about you going out?”
“Of course he’s worried. Shu Qing is so beautiful. She was the class beauty back in school. If I were her husband, I’d definitely have come with her.”
“That’s right, Shu Qing. Where’s your husband? Why didn’t he come with you?”
The beautiful woman called Shu Qing sighed and said, “Don’t mention it. My husband has been too busy, and the child is sick, so that’s why I was late.”
“Oh my, being too busy is a good thing. It means your husband knows how to make money. Look at what you wear and use, none of it isn’t the best!”
“That’s right, Shu Qing. You have no idea how much I envy you!”
Gu Yi listened quietly for a while. At that moment, Xia Waner secretly poked his arm and whispered in his ear, “This Shu Qing was never a proper woman back then. Relying on a little good looks, she was kept by someone starting in college. Back then, she even wanted to make a move on Qingsang, but Qingsang ignored her. I heard she even had a child out of wedlock with someone. I thought her ending would be tragic, but I never expected her to actually marry another rich man, and the other side even accepted her daughter. Tell me, what kind of world is this?”
Hearing that, Gu Yi carefully looked at the woman across from him called Shu Qing. She really was beautiful, the kind of beauty that felt very natural. Although she was wearing makeup, one look was enough to tell she was a natural beauty who had not had plastic surgery. For a woman like that, if she set her mind on doing something with a man, it should be very easy.
Women like her were probably the type Boss Bo liked. If Boss Bo met her, maybe he would, just like the men around him, have his eyes fixed on her too.
“Yiyi, Yiyi, I’m talking to you. What are you thinking about?”
Xia Waner poked Gu Yi a few more times before he finally came back to himself.
“What’s wrong? Are you also like those men, and like women like Shu Qing?” Xia Waner pouted in dissatisfaction.
Gu Yi hurriedly explained, “How could I? Not everyone likes women like that. Look, isn’t Young Master Qingsang not moved at all? I can tell he likes you.”
“Then what were you staring at her thinking about just now?”
“I…”
Gu Yi was speechless.
What was he thinking? He couldn’t very well say that he was thinking this woman was definitely Boss Bo’s type. That thought was too strange, wasn’t it?
However, Gu Yi soon noticed some problems with that woman. He happened to need a change of topic, so he blurted it out without thinking, “Waner, why do I feel like this Miss Shu Qing is a little strange?”
“Oh? What’s strange about her?”
No matter how Xia Waner looked at her, she only felt that this woman was normal in every way except that her chest was outrageously large.
But that chest was definitely fake, hmph!
Gu Yi looked at Shu Qing’s face and said, “Look, although she’s wearing makeup, I feel like her complexion isn’t very good. Her dark circles are also very heavy. She has a kind of indescribable haggardness, and her forehead is dark…”
“Hahahaha!”
Xia Waner laughed again. Afraid of drawing everyone’s attention, she laughed in a very restrained way, even her shoulders shaking. “Yiyi, so you can actually read faces? Hahaha… You definitely haven’t been in love before, so you don’t understand what the adult world is. Let me tell you, for a married woman, especially one like Shu Qing, looking haggard sometimes is normal. People at night have it harder, after all. Sigh, you’re still young, you don’t understand. I won’t lead you astray.”
Gu Yi said awkwardly, “That’s not what I meant…”
He accidentally looked toward the private room door.
He saw that the door was open.
Gu Yi was slightly stunned.
He remembered clearly that when he came in, he had closed the door.
Why was the door open?
As Gu Yi was wondering, suddenly, a child’s figure ran past the door.
Gu Yi steadied himself and looked again. The door was actually properly closed, with not even a crack left.
An illusion?
Gu Yi did not believe it was that simple. Thinking of the doll just now, he felt that this was no coincidence. He stood up, wanting to leave the private room. Xia Waner grabbed him. “Yiyi, where are you going?”
Gu Yi said, “I drank too much water. I’m going out to use the restroom.”
“Oh, then hurry back.”
Xia Waner let go of him.
Gu Yi left the private room.
Outside the private room, there was nothing.
Only a long corridor, covered with a red carpet, stretched ahead.
The surroundings were extremely quiet.
Gu Yi could not see anyone else, but just now, he had clearly seen a child run past the door.
Had the child run farther ahead?
Or had it never left at all, and was right beside him?
As he was thinking, a faint sound of crying reached his ears.
Drawn by the sound, he slowly walked forward along the carpet.
At the corner of the corridor, he suddenly stopped.
A filthy little girl appeared right in front of him.
Gu Yi recognized her. This was the child who had just run past the doorway.
But how could a child like that appear in a five-star hotel?
The lights in the corridor flickered on and off. At this moment, the little girl turned around and looked at him with a pair of big, dim eyes.
The little girl’s princess dress was in tatters, and there were black spots on her cheeks, impossible to tell what filth they had come from. She was barefoot, and water was dripping from beneath her feet with a steady drip, drip, drip. Very quickly, the carpet was soaked in one patch.
Gu Yi felt a strong chill.
There was a smell in the air coming from the girl, fishy and foul.
The water under her feet was still flowing continuously. He did not know where that water was coming from, but it seemed like it could never run out. Her eyes kept staring straight at Gu Yi. Although Gu Yi felt the girl was strange, he still stepped forward, crouched down in front of her, and gently said, “Little sister, how did you get here? Are you lost? Where are your family members? Tell big brother, and big brother will take you to find them, okay?”
The little girl tilted her head and silently shook it.
Gu Yi was afraid of scaring her, so he spoke very carefully, keeping his voice very low. “Little sister, big brother isn’t a bad person. Tell big brother who you are, and big brother will take you home.”
“Home?”
Hearing that word, the little girl finally spoke.