It's late at night.

Xia Yao sensed something was amiss and glanced at the flowers a few more times.

Most hotels don't put potted plants in guest rooms because the soil is prone to mold and odor, and they are inconvenient to maintain.

So why would a hotel that's still in its trial operation put a hard-to-care-for potted plant in its space?

My Android phone beeped with a "beep beep beep" sound. I opened it and saw a message from the "Yaoshan Tingsen Holiday Exchange Group".

At that time, WeChat was not yet popular, and QQ dominated the market.

Xia Yao first put her phone on silent before clicking on the penguin icon to view the content.

The user with the cute profile picture posted several photos, all of which were of hotel room furnishings. One of them, a photo of a potted red rose, caught Xia Yao's attention.

Then several more messages popped up in the group, all of them different photos of potted plants.

Goodness! The potted plants in each room are different! There's everything from lucky bamboo and money trees to pothos.

Xia Yao also followed suit, taking photos of her potted plants and posting them in the group chat.

The user whose nickname was changed to 703 posted a photo of a citrus fruit and then sent a notification.

[The different potted plants don't seem to have any particular meaning, so please keep that in mind.]

Please change the note to your room number. Before going to bed, please check that the doors and windows are closed and the curtains are drawn tightly. In particular, remember not to go out at night no matter what noise you hear.

See you in the hallway at 8 AM tomorrow.

They all returned the items, seemingly having made the ponytail man from 703 their leader.

Xia Yao didn't care who was in charge; he only cared about his own situation.

Xia Yao locked the doors and windows, drew the curtains, and then began to check the bag that had been randomly assigned to her.

The bag contained a change of clothes and essential travel items. At that time, electronic payment was not yet widespread, and there was more than a thousand yuan in cash in the wallet.

A palm-sized camera with a silver casing caught his attention.

This must be some important game item, right?

Xia Yao tentatively took a few photos in the room, but the images showed nothing unusual.

Is it for filming ghosts? Is it only effective when a ghost appears?

Xia Yao thoughtfully put her camera away and started searching for information about the scenic area and hotels on her phone.

However, in the early years, the internet was not well-developed, and there was very little information available, only official introductions and news about the trial operation ticket lottery.

Xia Yao lay on the bed with her eyes closed, her mind beginning to analyze the situation.

If the danger originated from the hotel, then the ghost could very well be a tourist or staff member who died unexpectedly.

However, this hotel is newly built and is in the trial operation phase, so tourists can be excluded.

The most likely explanation is that some accident occurred to the workers during construction.

As Xia Yao pondered, drowsiness overwhelmed him, and he fell asleep without realizing it.

In the moment of blurred consciousness, a faint scent entered my nostrils.

It smelled like fresh grass and trees, with a hint of sweet and sour.

But how could a room that was originally closed suddenly have a different smell?

Xia Yao was startled and suddenly opened her eyes.

All that met my eyes was darkness. The lights in the room had been turned off at some point, with only a faint light filtering through the curtains, making the outlines of the furniture vaguely discernible.

Oh no, this is not a good sign.

He didn't dare turn on his phone screen, afraid of seeing another pale face.

Xia Yao dared not relax; he lowered his breathing and carefully observed everything in the darkness.

But several minutes passed, and nothing unusual happened.

Is it just that I'm under too much pressure and too nervous?

Xia Yao carefully moved closer to the bed, trying to turn on the light to ease his fear.

But then I heard a slight rubbing sound.

The sound was so faint that it was almost inaudible unless you listened very carefully.

Xia Yao carefully examined the details, her back already beaded with cold sweat.

Outside the window!

The sound came from outside the window!

After determining the direction, Xia Yao rolled off the bed.

He lay prone on the soft carpet, trying not to make a sound.

I had just gotten out of bed when I heard knocking at the window.

"Knock knock knock—"

It sounded like something was tapping on the window, and there was a slippery sound of something rubbing against the glass, like jelly or flesh.

Xia Yao felt a chill run down her spine and her hair stand on end. This was the seventh floor. What was that outside?

If he had been even a little later, or if he hadn't noticed the subtle anomaly and turned on the light, would the things outside the window have noticed?

Thankfully, he didn't let the brief calm after waking up lull him into complacency.

A soft tapping and a soft rubbing sound continued to come from the window.

With his head bowed, he couldn't see the window, but he could vaguely imagine what the scene looked like.

There was light coming from outside the window, and at that moment, you could see a distorted shadow pressed against the white curtain.

Its outline resembles both a human and a gecko.

The things outside clearly hadn't noticed him; the distorted shadow moved slowly in another direction.

Soon, the surrounding area returned to deathly silence.

Has that thing left?

Xia Yao dared not make any rash moves, and silently calculated the time in her mind.

Half an hour had passed, and the area remained eerily quiet.

Just as Xia Yao was starting to feel a little better, a loud crash hoisted him up again.

"Bang bang bang—"

This time, the sound moved from the window to the door on the other side.

The rapid knocking on the door pounded against his heart.

Has this been discovered? Damn, can it even see through things?

"Hey! Open the door, bro! Room 701 is on fire! The whole building is without power! If you don't run, you'll burn to death!"

The voice outside sounded familiar; it sounded like the voice of the ponytail-wearing guy from room 703.

The door was pounded on loudly, and other people's voices could be heard outside.

"Holy crap, how did it catch fire?"

"This damn fire hydrant has no water! How the hell was this inspected?!"

"Forget about him! Let's run!"

There was a lot of noise outside, as if it were a real scene of people fleeing for their lives, and the fire was about to reach the door.

But Xia Yao remained unmoved, lying on the soft carpet, showing no intention of getting up.

The door was banged on a few more times, and then everyone seemed to really ignore him. With a series of footsteps, they left, leaving only the crackling sound like burning and the red light seeping in through the crack in the door.

A faint fragrance still lingers on the tip of my nose. Whose house is on fire? That's the smell.

The hotel is covered in carpets, and this stuff is flammable. If it really catches fire, wouldn't it produce thick smoke? Will the fire really spread fast enough for someone to run away?

Therefore, the fire is fake, the teammates outside are fake, and the ghost uses sound to deceive people.

Xia Yao even suspected that the ghostly thing from before was still stuck to the window, just waiting for him to be exposed in his panicked escape.

If he gets up now, won't he be discovered immediately? And even the most sturdy safe house will become incredibly vulnerable and crumble at the slightest blow.

But this scam is so clumsy that anyone with a brain wouldn't believe it.

Soon everything returned to calm, and the faint scent of grass and trees disappeared.

This time, Xia Yao was certain that the thing was really gone.

Even so, he didn't go back to bed. He remained lying on the carpet, afraid that if he went up and lifted the covers, he would find something else.