Suddenly, a loud “bang, bang,bang” came from outside the door.
All the girls shuddered and looked towards the door in fear.
Dong Qing’s warm and soft voice came from outside: “Min Min?”
The cued Min Min shuddered, looking at Bai Lixin in terror.
Bai Lixin was silent for a couple of seconds, then he said in a calm and steady voice, “She’s asleep.”
Min Min: “…”
The other three: “…”
There was silence from outside for a moment before Dong Qing’s voice resumed, “Why are you in the room? Are you with Min Min? What were you two doing?”
His voice had lost its previous gentleness and now carried a dark tone that could be felt even through the door.
Bai Lixin: “What I do isn’t something I need to report to you, is it?”
Dong Qing was silent for a couple of seconds, then said in a deep voice, “Fine, Min Min’s with you, but what about the other three girls?”
Bai Lixin: “Oh, they’re all asleep too.”
Dong Qing: “What?! Damn, You have such a big appetite!”
The four girls: “…”
Absolutely ridiculous.
Dong Qing banged on the door, “Open the door! Min Min! Man Man! Qiu Qiu! Qian Qian! Don’t be fooled by this pretty boy, open the door for me!”
Man Man shouted from behind the door with annoyance, “Get lost! Don’t disturb us while we’re resting.”
The banging on the door stopped abruptly.
A few seconds later, Dong Qing’s voice turned gentle again, “Man Man, are you feeling alright? Do you have any discomfort?”
Man Man replied coldly, “I’m feeling just fine.”
Dong Qing: “What about your stomach? Are there any issues?”
Man Man stared into the doorframe with a pair of angry eyes. She suppressed her fury and said, “My stomach is just fine too.”
There was no movement outside for about ten more seconds.
Just as they thought Dong Qing had left, his voice came again, “Is Min Min asleep?”
The girls exchanged glances. Min Min pinched herself and, pretending to have just woken up, said, “Brother Qing, I’m sorry, I just fell asleep, and you woke me up.”
The others: “…”
Dong Qing: “Min Min, is your stomach okay?”
Min Min rolled her eyes behind the door, “Brother Qing, you’re such a pervert, always staring at a girl’s stomach.”
Dong Qing stammered from outside, “T-that’s not what I meant. I’m just concerned about you.”
Min Min responded in a coquettish voice, “Oh Brother Qing, my stomach is perfectly fine. But I’m really sleepy now. Can we talk about this tomorrow? I need to get some rest.”
Dong Qing: “What’s your plan for tomorrow?”
The girls inside exchanged glances again and looked at Bai Lixin.
Bai Lixin: “We’re planning to go to Snake God Mountain tomorrow.”
Dong Qing: “What time are you going? I’ll come with you. Oh, by the way, Min Min, Man Man, my mom said she felt really close to you both. She asked me to invite you to come to our house again tomorrow night for dinner. She’ll be cooking dragon meat.”
At the mention of “dragon meat,” the girls’s faces turned pale, and they nearly threw up on the spot.
The girls exchanged looks, and Man Man said with irritation in her voice, “We’ll talk tomorrow. We’re going to sleep now. Can you leave?”
Finally, Dong Qing said, “Alright, alright, I’m leaving. You all get a good rest. If any of you feel unwell, call me or Jin Jing immediately.”
After hearing footsteps fade away, the four girls let out a collective sigh of relief.
The long-haired girl whispered, “I’m scared. It seems like Dong Qing and his family are fixated on us.”
Min Min no longer had her usual flirtatious attitude, and looked at the door coldly, “Judging by their behavior, they definitely know that this so-called ‘dragon meat’ is no good. They fed it to us on purpose. Damn it, I hate being tricked, especially by men.”
The short-haired girl asked, “Can we even make it out of here alive?”
Man Man turned to Bai Lixin, who was standing by the window, “Bai Lixin, can we still escape?”
Bai Lixin looked out the window. Dong Qing was standing by the entrance of the inn.
He wasn’t alone; his mother was with him. The two were standing with their backs to him, talking quietly. After a moment, Dong Qing’s mother glanced in the direction of their room before they both hurriedly left.
After confirming they were gone, Bai Lixin turned back to the room and said, “We can escape. It’s likely they don’t want your lives.”
Man Man: “Then what do they want?”
Bai Lixin shared the information he had gathered from the boss, “They probably just want you to give birth to those snakes.”
The thought of all the strange occurrences over the past few days made the girls’s faces turn pale and green alternately.
The sudden increase in their appetites, the snakes blocking their way during the day, the white snake, and the bizarre behavior of Dong Qing’s family.
Man Man took a deep breath, trying to suppress the fear welling up inside her, “This town is too strange. How could people give birth to snakes? We treated Dong Jing as a friend, but she treated us as wombs. I want to kill her right now.”
Min Min’s face was full of anger, “Who wouldn’t?”
The short-haired girl asked, “What should we do tomorrow? Are we really going to Snake God Mountain with Dong Qing?”
All eyes turned to Bai Lixin.
Bai Lixin: “I’m planning to go to Snake God Mountain. You can either stay here or come with me. If you stay, it might be safe, but you could also be caught by the Dong family. If you come with me, I can’t guarantee your safety either.”
Man Man immediately said, “I’m going up the mountain with you. I’d rather die than let them use me as a womb for their snakes.”
Min Min added, “I’m coming too.”
The short-haired girl and the long-haired girl quickly followed suit, saying they’d go with Bai Lixin.
With the plans for tomorrow settled, Bai Lixin was about to leave when Min Min suddenly blocked the door, “Don’t go tonight.”
Bai Lixin: “It’s safe now.”
Min Min: “What if the Dong family breaks in again in the middle of the night? The door is so flimsy, and the window is just a single layer.”
But Man Man pulled Min Min aside and said, “Bai Lixin, thank you for tonight. You should go now. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
Bai Lixin: “Alright.”
As he was walking out of the room, Min Min was still worried, “Man Man, why did you let him leave? What if Dong Qing breaks in during the night?”
Man Man: “What else can we do? Him helping us is a favor. If he stays tonight, are you going to ask him to stay tomorrow night too? We need to figure out how to save ourselves.”
Min Min: “How do we save ourselves?”
Man Man: “First, close the door. Let’s discuss…”
The door closed, cutting off the sound inside.
The inn had four floors. The first, third, and fourth floors were plain white walls, but the second floor had goose yellow wallpaper.
As Bai Lixin walked past the wall beside Room 201, he slowed down and tapped his fingers against the wall a few times.
Thump! Thump! Thud! Thump! Thump!
The first and last taps sounded solid, but the middle one was hollow.
Bai Lixin tapped the hollow spot again. Sure enough, the sound was still hollow. Underneath the wallpaper, a faint seam could be seen, tracing a rectangular outline along the wall.
Clearly, this wasn’t originally a solid wall.
There should be another room behind the wallpaper.
“What are you doing here?” The proprietress’s voice drifted over from behind him.
Bai Lixin turned and saw that the proprietress was standing at the stairwell at some point, staring at him with a pair of dark eyes.
She was smiling gently as usual, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Bai Lixin ran his hand over the rough wallpaper, “It seems there’s another room behind this wallpaper.”
The proprietress stared at Bai Lixin for a long moment before sighing, “Ah, it’s a long story. There used to be a room here, but ever since something happened three years ago, strange things kept occurring in this room. Since we run a business, we had no choice but to seal it off.”
Bai Lixin: “Was it the case where a couple went missing without a trace?”
“So you’ve heard about it,” the proprietress looked Bai Lixin up and down, “Yes, that’s the one. It was a shame that couple didn’t follow the rules. Before that, we used to verbally tell every guest about the rules. After that incident, we started posting the rules behind the doors.”
“Auntie, can you tell me how that couple went missing?” Bai Lixin started walking toward her.
The proprietress: “It’s quite late now, how about tomorrow…”
Bai Lixin smiled, “I’m a night owl, it’s not late at all.”
The proprietress scrutinized Bai Lixin more closely, her brows furrowing. “Young man, you look familiar.”
Bai Lixin: “The girl from the missing couple was called Su Yixue. My real name is Su Zhen, and I’m her younger brother. Do I have the right to know what happened to my sister now?”
The proprietress froze in place.
A few minutes later, the two came to the living room and sat down.
The proprietress poured herself a cup of water and drank several gulps before she remembered to pour a cup for Bai Lixin as well. “Here, have some tea.”
Bai Lixin: “Thank you, Auntie. Please, start your story.”
The proprietress cleared her throat twice, hesitated for a long time, then finally sighed softly, “Young man, do you believe there’s a god on Snake God Mountain?”
Bai Lixin: “It depends on what kind of god.”
‘A Snake God? More like a malevolent spirit.’
The proprietress: “I remember it clearly. The couple arrived a few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival.”
“They seemed very happy at first, and were inseparable and intimate. Both of them were good-looking, a perfect match. They were hard to forget.”
“But after a few days, they started arguing. It got really bad.”
Bai Lixin: “Why did they argue?”
The proprietress took a sip of tea, “It seemed the boy suspected the girl had betrayed him. He claimed he saw her holding hands with someone else. The girl cried and felt very aggrieved. It was quite late that night. After they fought, the girl stormed out angrily.”
The proprietress thought for a moment. “That night was the fifteenth of August, the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon was as bright and big as a silver platter.”
“After the girl ran out, the boy was still angry. At first, he didn’t chase her. But after more than ten minutes passed and she didn’t return, he got worried and went after her.”
“And that was the last time anyone saw them. They never came back.”
The proprietress continued, “The next day, I called the number they left, but no one answered. I was worried something had happened to them, so I called the police. The police arrived quickly and started searching the area. They looked for days but couldn’t find the couple.”
Bai Lixin: “Which direction did… my sister run off to?”
The proprietress: “We have surveillance cameras outside the inn. From the footage, she ran east, toward the entrance of Snake God Mountain. The police suspected they went into the mountain that night. They searched the mountain for days but never found a trace of them.”
“Oh, right,” the proprietress took another sip of water, “I just remembered. That night, Dong Qing appeared on the surveillance footage, but he left quickly. The police questioned him and his family, but they didn’t find anything.”
Bai Lixin: “Did my sister act strangely before she disappeared?”
The proprietress thought for a long time. “If you’re asking about strange behavior, she did eat a lot during those days. Our restaurant offers a buffet, but we prepare the food based on the number of guests to avoid waste. She ate all the dinner that night, which caused complaints from the other guests. I remember that very clearly.”
Bai Lixin: “Is there anything else you remember?”
The proprietress shook her head, “Sorry, that’s all I can recall. It’s been a long time.”
