A Manual for Surviving a Weird World

Chapter 421 Investigation
Taking off his coat and sitting on the soft round bed, Ning Zhe took out his notepad and upside-down pen, and played a game with Plumeria remotely again.

Since taking control of [Aiqu], Plumeria has become increasingly adept at mastering the rules of gambling. She has spent a great deal of time and energy studying many professional books on the psychology and mathematics of gamblers, and can easily design several seemingly fair but actually sure-win gambling games.

However, as one gains a deeper understanding of the rules of gambling and the number of times one gambles increases, the side effects of "love of taking" begin to appear, namely—greed.

Uncontrollable greed.

The gambler is a greedy ghost who wants everything he sees. He wants the serpent god's almanac, the bestowal items, and even the lives of mortals. He gambles wherever he goes, wishing he could collect all the valuable things in the world.

Influenced by the gambler, Plumeria also became greedy, but her greed was more directed at the 'god' she believed in. In the eyes of a fanatic, nothing is more precious than the favor of a god, and Plumeria's greed went even further than that.

She harbored presumptuous thoughts towards the lofty god, wanting to possess him, to monopolize him, to chain Ning Zhe and make him her own. This possessiveness was so twisted that she harbored intense hostility towards anyone who approached Ning Zhe, regardless of gender.

Ning Zhe was genuinely afraid that one day he would open his eyes and find himself locked in a basement, but looking at the words appearing on the sticky note, he didn't have a solution for the time being. It wasn't like he could just go to any random place and happen to encounter a ghost that matched his flaws.

Most ascendants struggle to survive, enduring the torment of bizarre side effects, and ultimately die.

"Let's trust the wisdom of future generations..." Ning Zhe picked up a pen and wrote a line on a sticky note.

While Ning Zhe and Plumeria were playing games, Feng Yushu took off her clothes and went to the bathroom to take a shower.

She was a very clean woman. She had worked for half a day in the mill at the mortuary and was covered in sweat. Her underwear was sticky and she felt uncomfortable if she didn't take a shower.

After taking a shower, Feng Yushu changed into a bathrobe from the hotel wardrobe to cover her plump, snow-white figure. She then slipped on her slippers and went to the bedside. She saw that the ghost pen in Ning Zhe's hand had disappeared, and his bet with Plumeria was over.

"I wonder if locking myself in the mirror world will prevent that ghost pen from causing trouble..." Ning Zhe felt a little uneasy. This was a warning from 'Inspiration', but he didn't have a better way to control that thing at the moment.

Suddenly, a sweet fragrance wafted from behind him, softly lingering around his nose. Ning Zhe turned around and saw Feng Yushu sitting on the bed, wearing a loose bathrobe, looking at him tenderly.

"Finished showering? I need your help with something."

Feng Yushu nodded obediently: "Go on."

"I need you to send your shadow to the front desk, find the hotel's customer registration records, write down the guest list and basic information, and then come back and tell me," Ning Zhe said. "Be careful to avoid the surveillance cameras, don't hurt anyone, and don't get caught."

"Okay." Feng Yushu responded softly, stretched out her body and lay down on the bed, closed her eyes, her consciousness had already left her body along with Te Rang, leaving only an unguarded body lying in front of Ning Zhe.

Ning Zhe bent down to cover her with a blanket, glancing sideways at the city bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun outside the French windows, lost in thought.

Before it got completely dark, she carefully lay in wait at the front desk, observing and recording information. Finally, she returned to her single-story apartment on the 27th floor via the elevator shaft. Feng Yushu opened her eyes, sat up in bed, and glanced to the side. Ning Zhe was sitting next to her, a semi-transparent four-fingered ghost hand extending from his spine, echoing Ning Zhe's right hand, seemingly testing some of the ghost's characteristics.

"You're back?" Ning Zhe raised an eyebrow, and the transparent ghost hand vanished instantly.

"You're back." Feng Yushu nodded, moved closer to Ning Zhe, and softly told him about the residents she had observed:

“This hotel has VIP rooms on each floor from the 20th floor upwards, a total of 8 floors up to the 28th floor. Floors 29 to 31 are specially reserved fireproof floors.”

"Of the eight VIP rooms, only four are occupied, one of which is ours, while the other four are empty."

"The remaining three households are Liu Jidao on the 24th floor, Xu Beicheng on the 23rd floor, and Xia Hua on the 21st floor."

Feng Yushu paused for a moment, then said:
"Xu Beicheng is the same Xu Beicheng we know. He has also checked into a hotel here."

"Liu Jidao on the 24th floor is a 'local.' I went to his floor and took a look. He should be a rich second generation. There were four young girls with good figures changing clothes and putting on makeup in his room. Liu Jidao himself was not in the hotel. It seems that he has not arrived yet."

"Xia Hua, who lives on the 21st floor, has signed a long-term lease with the hotel and uses the VIP suite as his long-term residence. He is probably an artist. I saw some of his drawings on his computer screen. The level of skill is very high. He seems to be a well-known and high-income artist in the industry. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to afford such an expensive hotel."

"I also noted down some information about the other guests in the regular guest rooms..."

There was a man named Huang Jingshen who lived in 161 with his wife and two children. The family was dressed simply, and the boy looked sickly. They were probably a working-class family from the county who had brought their child to the city for medical treatment.

Another young woman named Jiang Chunlu was staying in room 163 with another woman of similar age. They seemed to be best friends traveling together. There were quite a few girls like them staying together.

There was another man named Li Shunan staying in room 199. He and a young girl were already rolling around on the bed before it got dark. He was probably a college student from the neighborhood who brought his girlfriend to the hotel.

There were quite a few young couples checking into the hotel like this, dozens of families in total, in addition to those on business trips.

Feng Yushu couldn't remember everything, but she picked out some memorable names and clients to focus on and told them to Ning Zhe.

"Were there any strange people or things that caught your attention?" Ning Zhe asked after listening.

Feng Yushu shook her head: "Nothing special, except that a little girl named Lin Bei cut her wrists in the bathtub and was caught on a hidden camera. The hotel staff were so scared that they quickly grabbed a spare room key to stop her..."

...It turned out she was using a plastic fake knife to imitate metal; she was just filming a video for fun, probably hoping to post it online to gain some traffic and attention.

(End of this chapter)