A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 365 Who hid my corpse?

Waves lapped against the breakwater, and the harbor of Vivian was shrouded in a thin mist in the early morning.

Plumeria took out her phone and glanced at the time: "That guy is also looking for Katya. We don't have much time left."

Andrei naturally didn't know who "that guy" was, but Mary nodded knowingly and said, "Let's not delay, let's start by investigating the suite where Katya stayed before she disappeared."

“Okay, please follow me.” Andrei gestured for them to enter and led them through the main entrance of the Anju Jiayuan Hotel, leaving only a few police cars parked downstairs.

The Anjujiayuan Hotel consists of two adjacent buildings. The main building is 36 stories high and the annex is 30 stories high. The two buildings are connected by a corridor bridge on the 18th floor. There is an external sightseeing elevator and a regular elevator on each side of the corridor bridge. The two followed Andrei into the sightseeing elevator of the main building.

The sightseeing elevator is essentially a hollow glass tube, transparent except for the side against the wall. Standing inside, one can directly see the scattered lights in the city below and the breakwater constantly being battered by the tide in the distance.

The elevator ascended smoothly, taking the three of them upstairs. The button number '28' lit up on the control panel was the elevator's target floor, where Katya's previous high-rise suite was located.

Ding--

The elevator stopped at the target floor. Mary turned around and glanced at the distant sea, then took Plumeria's hand and walked out of the elevator with her.

Outside the elevator doors is a spacious glass foyer. The green plants and flowers lining the walls are meticulously cared for, swaying brightly under the fluorescent lights. The hotel has dedicated staff who strictly follow the climate and seasons to replace the flowers with those in season, ensuring that the place is always filled with the fragrance of flowers throughout the year.

“Next is Miss Katya’s suite,” Andrei said, taking out an ID card from his pocket and preparing to go forward to unlock the door.

Meilin stopped him and asked, "Who else came here before us?"

“There were three groups of people in total,” Andrei answered truthfully.
"First, our staff member, the blind masseuse, explained the strange situation in the room to the hotel reception after leaving the suite. However, she was in poor mental condition and incoherent, and was unable to explain the situation clearly. Therefore, the manager here, along with two male staff members, entered the suite after repeatedly knocking on the door without receiving an answer, and discovered Ms. Katya's body."

Plumeria tilted her head and examined the pink rose beside her, saying softly, "Are you sure this is Katya's corpse?"

Andrei nodded and said, "The body shape, facial features and bone structure match perfectly. We can basically confirm that it is Ms. Katya's remains. In order to protect the scene, she is still lying next to the bathtub in this suite. We can see her as soon as we open the door."

“I understand.” Plumeria turned her gaze away from the roses beside her. “What about the second group?”

“The second and third groups were police officers and Mr. Julius’s men. They entered the suite one after the other, with no more than 10 minutes between them,” Andrei replied. “The police recorded the scene, took away some evidence, and took tissue samples from Ms. Katya’s body for further DNA comparison. As for what Mr. Julius’s men did here… I don’t know.”

"Hmm." Mary Jane glanced sideways, indicating that he could open the door.

As Andrei affixed his access card to the door, the lock clicked open, and Mary, reaching inside her coat, was the first to enter the suite. While called a suite, it would be more accurate to describe it as an apartment, its vast size encompassing the entire 28th floor of the main building. From the 20th floor upwards, each floor of the Anjujia Hotel is a single unit, accommodating only one VIP guest, a practice common to both the main and annex buildings. With each floor above, the price increases exponentially, with the top floor of the main building costing billions of euros.

"Actually, our hotel has a dedicated team of massage therapists who can provide services to our VIP guests, but unfortunately, Ms. Katya's requirements are too special. She only accepts female massage therapists who are completely blind, and we are unable to meet this requirement at the moment."

Andrei did not go in, but stood outside the door and shook his head, saying, "This is the hotel's poor hospitality, and it is my inescapable responsibility."

Blind people are also divided into several categories, such as total blindness, partial blindness, and visual impairment. Many blind massage therapists are nominally blind, but in reality they still retain some vision and can vaguely see some things. This is something that Katya, who has a strange personality, could never accept.

Completely blind, female, and requiring professional certification and proof of total blindness, the only person we could find in such a rush was Ms. Andanieva from yesterday.

A buzzing vibration suddenly came from his pocket. Andrei apologized softly, took out his phone, glanced at it, and then smiled and said, "It's a message from the Vivian Port Police Station. The police have just found the car that collided with you on the road."

Plumeria's brow furrowed. "What about the driver? Have you found him?"

Andrei shook his head: "It's strange, although the police car set off from the old town of Vivian Port to the scene, we didn't encounter the man you described along the way. If he really was walking along the road towards the old town as you said, we should have run into him..."

That's the theory, but in reality, I haven't encountered it.

“His destination is 151 Apostle Road. If you can’t find him on the way, wait at his destination,” Plumeria added.

Andrei nodded repeatedly: "The police officers downstairs are already on their way there."

"That's good." Plumeria said no more and stepped through the door with Mary into the suite.

Upon entering, a huge floor-to-ceiling window immediately catches the eye, followed by a long, oval bathtub. Several asparagus ferns are planted beside the tub, and the pink water ripples with light, reflecting the night sky outside the window and a moon as crisp and delicious as a slice of watermelon.

Mary stepped into the room and immediately saw the yoga mat laid out beside the bathtub. The yoga mat was empty, with only a few green and yellow bamboo leaves on it—Katyuya's body should have been lying here.

The two instinctively turned around, only to find that the door behind them had been closed at some point.

"Damn it," Meilin cursed inwardly. "This is a trap. Andrei and Fenwu are in cahoots!"

Plumeria didn't speak, but silently squatted down and picked up a bamboo leaf from the empty yoga mat. Outside the French windows was the sparsely lit Vivian Harbor.

(End of this chapter)