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墨書 Inktalez
Zhong Kui's Diary
When the word "basketball" was mentioned, both Xiao Qingcheng and I were almost stunned. What was going on? How did another Jin Luoer appear?
I stammered, "What do you mean? Are you saying you are Jin Luoer?"
Without a second thought, 'Basketball' turned around and pulled out a badge from a bag behind the counter, slapping it down on the Stage while glancing at me sideways.
I leaned in to take a look and saw that the top of the badge displayed the name of Shoushan Grand Hotel along with its logo. Below was a photo of the person standing in front of me. Further down were the employee number, position, and name; the employee number was 0049, the position listed as Front Desk, and the name boldly stated was Jin Luoer.
The badge looked slightly worn, and there was a red stamp over the photo, indicating it wasn't something hastily made for us to see. Clearly, this 'Basketball' was indeed the real Jin Luoer.
But what about the previous Shoulder-Length Curly Hair and Round-Faced Girl? Why were they impersonating Jin Luoer? I smiled awkwardly at Jin Luoer: "Maybe your colleagues were just playing a joke on me. How many front desk staff do you have here?"
Jin Luoer huffed, took back her badge, and pulled out an A4-sized organizational card from under the counter, slamming it down on the table: "You can see for yourself."
Looking closely, I saw that the card displayed the front desk duty roster, featuring three laminated photos with corresponding numbers and names printed below.
In the center was a slot with a label above it reading "On-Duty Staff," displaying Jin Luoer's photo. Below were two more photos: one of a big-eyed girl with employee number 005 named Zhang Ting, and another of a girl with an oval face with employee number 0081 named Hu Yun.
Xiao Qingcheng and I exchanged incredulous glances; neither of them appeared as 'Jin Luoer' on this list. Yet, they had both been wearing Shoushan Grand Hotel uniforms, and Shoulder-Length Curly Hair had even helped us check in.
I asked Jin Luoer with a teasing tone: "Does your hotel only have these three front desk staff?"
Jin Luoer looked at me disdainfully: "Three not enough? Are you suggesting we need three hundred front desk staff standing from the entrance to the third floor?"
Even though I had mistaken her identity, her repeated condescending tone ignited my temper. I huffed in annoyance: "Is this how you speak to guests? Have you ever read 'Self-Cultivation for Front Desk Staff'? Do you know that Shandong's Blue Sky Technical School and Beijing New Oriental have specifically established programs for front desk training?"
Upon hearing my words, Jin Luoer raised her eyebrows: "What? Not satisfied? Go ahead and complain! Let me tell you, I really don't want to work here anymore. That bastard Liu Zhenjie, after eating without acknowledging it, wants to transfer me to the office. Damn it! I feel like I've been screwed over; I'm done! I'm really done!"
The more angry she got, she slammed her badge onto the counter again and grabbed her bag as she headed toward the door. Both Qingcheng and I were stunned for a moment, unsure of what to do. From what Jin Luoer said, it was clear that the boss of Shoushan Hotel had promised to transfer her to the office but then backed out after playing basketball, leaving her feeling extremely unbalanced.
"That Liu guy has quite an appetite!" I watched as Jin Luoer's curvy figure disappeared through the door, feeling an unexpected admiration.
Qingcheng shot me a glare with a slight curl of her lips, overflowing with disdain: "Are you envious?"
I chuckled lightly and was about to head upstairs when I heard footsteps at the door. A girl walked in, tall and slender with an oval face. She seemed to be named Hu Yun, right—she was the one on duty this morning.
Seeing us, Hu Yun paused slightly, then walked up to the front desk with a professional smile on her face. "Hello, how can I assist you two?"
It seemed she didn't know we were the ones who left with Jin Luoer earlier, and I secretly sighed in relief. I pointed outside and asked, "What was going on with that front desk staff just now?"
"I don't know anything about it. Luo Er met me outside; she quit, and I came in because I was worried no one was covering the front desk," Hu Yun replied, implying that she was just filling in and didn’t want to discuss anything else.
I had no choice but to change the subject. "Who was that front desk staff you were working with this morning?"
"This morning? Jin Luoer was covering my shift," Hu Yun looked at me suspiciously. "What are you thinking?"
"Hey, you were sleeping at the front desk this morning, and wasn't there another staff member with shoulder-length curly hair next to you?" I exclaimed in surprise.
"Hey, what do you mean by that? That joke isn't funny at all!" Hu Yun glared at me.
Just as I was about to continue, Xiao Qingcheng pulled me back and said to Hu Yun, "My friend just likes to joke around; it's nothing serious. We're leaving now!"
With that, she dragged me upstairs.
Once we entered Qingcheng's room and closed the door, I finally asked, "Why didn’t you want me to keep asking?"
"You won't get anything out of her!" Qingcheng frowned. "When we went downstairs this morning, wasn't Hu Yun sleeping at the front desk?"
"Yeah!"
"I suspect she wasn't actually sleeping but was knocked out by that shoulder-length curly-haired person to cover up the fact that she isn't really a front desk staff member!" Xiao Qingcheng coughed lightly and continued, "You heard earlier that Jin Luoer was supposed to be on duty last night, but for some reason, she didn't show up, and those two took the opportunity to impersonate her."
"So you're saying these two impostors aren't employees of Shoushan Hotel? Where did they get their uniforms? That shoulder-length curly-haired person even took us for breakfast; don't hotel employees recognize her?" I asked three questions in a row.
"Uniforms? That's easy; they could just sneak into the storage room and grab a set; there are plenty of those clothes in the hotel's storeroom. As for taking us for breakfast, that's even easier to understand. In this industry, people come and go all the time; it's not surprising to encounter a few unfamiliar faces," Xiao Qingcheng said with a smile. "That Jin Luoer we saw downstairs is a perfect example."
I took out a bottle of water, twisted off the cap, and gulped down half of it before wiping my mouth. "Alright, you make a good point. But what could be their reason for doing this?"
“Zheng Nan, let's first organize the two incidents that happened.”
“Okay!”
“First, we were ambushed by the stream and slept for almost four hours. Why didn’t the person who plotted against us take action during that time? It doesn’t make sense, right? That’s the first point!” Xiao Qingcheng extended her right hand, fingers spread out, then curled her thumb. “Second, after one of the impostors Jin Luoer ambushed Brother Five, why did the other one engage in a fight with her? Could it be that they come from different factions?”
“Okay, and then?” I watched as Xiao Qingcheng curled her index finger.
“Third, when we were climbing the rock wall, a Golden Blade flew out from the pool trying to kill me, while another silver sword was blocking the Golden Blade. What’s going on there?” Xiao Qingcheng curled her middle finger and then her ring finger. “Fourth, last night in the hotel, that round-faced girl knocked out the girl with shoulder-length curly hair and stuffed her into a cabinet. We can conclude that they definitely aren’t on the same side.”
“What about the fifth?” I listened to Xiao Qingcheng and felt something was sprouting in my mind, hoping she could come up with more points.
“There’s no fifth!”
“Okay, your four points are all interconnected.” I frowned.
“Have you not thought of it yet? Let’s assume that one of these two is a ghost guarding the tomb whose purpose is to kill us, while the other is here to protect us. When we were ambushed by the stream, wasn’t there someone fighting on the grass where we were sleeping? There were traces of a large Spell being cast at the scene. From this point, it’s not hard to deduce that the person who drugged us wasn’t unwilling to act but was forcibly stopped by someone else.” Qingcheng paused and continued, “The one who killed Brother Five is naturally that ghost, and that Golden Blade was probably also created by that ghost.”
I nodded repeatedly. “Yes, with this assumption, everything is connected. But among those two Jin Luoer, who is the ghost guarding the tomb and who is protecting us? Also, why would this person protect us when we don’t know her at all?”
“I don’t know the reason for that.” Qingcheng took out her phone to check the time, sent a message, then opened her computer and logged into QQ. “Alright, I need to prepare for a video call with my grandfather!”
I responded with an “uh-huh” and sat on the bed. There are two beds in this double room; sitting down doesn’t matter much.
“Why aren’t you going out?” Qingcheng looked at me in surprise.
“Why should I go out?” I looked at her even more surprised. Qingcheng blushed under my gaze but said nothing. About seven or eight minutes later, she received a message and hurriedly sat in front of the computer. She glanced at me and adjusted the camera so it wouldn’t capture me.
Seeing this made me smile; I simply lay back on the bed as various questions flooded my mind: Where exactly is the entrance to the tomb? What did Brother Five mean by ‘yes’ before he died? Who is the person protecting us? Why does she want to protect us?
In my confusion, I unexpectedly fell asleep.
When I woke up, it was already early morning of the next day. Sitting up and looking over, I saw Xiao Qingcheng sleeping on the adjacent bed. Even in her sleep, she frowned tightly; it seemed she had been quite worried about me during this time. A surge of compassion filled my heart.
After a while, Qingcheng's eyelashes fluttered lightly as she opened her confused eyes, glanced at me, and then closed them again. After two seconds, she suddenly opened her eyes wide, her face slightly flushed, and said, "What are you looking at!"
"Hehe!" I replied with a universal phrase.
The two of us tidied up a bit, had something to eat, and headed straight into the mountains. This time our goal was clear; the entrance should still be near the pool, and the Nine Dragon Pool above did not have any mechanisms.
Reaching the edge of the pool, I submerged myself again, checking inch by inch. Unfortunately, I still found no secret passage.
How strange! If there was no secret passage, where did those two Jin Luoer leave the pool? And where did the Golden Blade and Silver Sword come from?
Climbing back up, I looked around and finally focused my gaze on the stone wall in front of me. Due to my climbing yesterday, many vines had been torn away, revealing the stone wall underneath, which faintly showed some patterns.
"Qingcheng, do you remember the word Brother Five said before he passed?" I asked with a frown.
"He said 'yes'."
"Could it be referring to the character for stone? Was he trying to indicate this stone wall?" I said solemnly as I looked at the wall.
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