What do you mean by saying that the corpses I sew are all ominous creatures?

By now, it was already dark, and the streetlights in the town were sparsely lit, casting a dim yellow glow.

Because it was about to rain, there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets.

Only a few trucks occasionally rushed by, splashing mud and water all around.

Jin Wanliang slowed down and smoothly drove the SUV into the main street of Luohua Town.

"Brother, we've arrived."

Jin Wanliang looked at the receding street scene on both sides and said in a low voice.

"The 'Yuelai Hotel' that Lao Hei mentioned in the text message is located in the latter half of this main street, near the river."

Should we go straight there?

I shook my head, my gaze sweeping silently over the seemingly closed doors and windows on both sides of the street.

"No rush. Let's find an inconspicuous spot in town to park the car first."

I said slowly.

"Since Lao Hei's convoy could disappear into thin air here, it cannot be ruled out that there are still their spies in the town."

Our car with out-of-town license plates is too conspicuous.

After parking the car, we walked over to check it out.

Jin Wanliang responded, turned the steering wheel, and drove the car into a relatively secluded alley, stopping next to a closed repair shop.

We got out of the car and locked the doors.

After closing the car door, I took a deep breath of the humid air of Luohua Town.

Then, I turned to Jin Wanliang and said, "Let's go, let's go and meet this Yuelai Hotel."

At this moment, the dark clouds in the sky finally gave in and a light drizzle began to fall.

Rainwater fell on the uneven asphalt road in Luohua Town, splashing up small circles of muddy water.

The damp heat in the air was not washed away by the rain; instead, it became even more stifling, mixed with the earthy smell.

Jin Wanliang and I each held an umbrella and walked along the sidewalk at the edge of the main street toward the Yuelai Hotel that Lao Hei had mentioned in his text message.

The streets here are not wide, and the buildings on both sides are mostly two or three-story self-built houses.

The ground floor is mostly occupied by hardware stores, general stores, or small shops selling specialties from southern Xinjiang.

Because of the rain and the darkness, most shops had already lowered their roller shutters halfway, letting out a dim and lazy light.

"Brother Chen, that bright red sign up ahead is the Yuelai Hotel."

Jin Wanliang lowered the edge of his umbrella and pointed to a three-story building about 100 meters ahead.

I looked in the direction he pointed.

The so-called "Yuelai Hotel" was actually just an ordinary small inn in a rural town.

There's an old LED sign hanging at the entrance, with the words "Yuelai" still lit up.

However, the character for "wine" in "hotel" was missing half of its light, and it shimmered with a slightly eerie red light in the rain.

"Actually, Ma San and his group came to this hotel to check a few days ago."

As Jin Wanliang walked, he spoke softly to me.

"After Lao Hei went missing, I had people thoroughly investigate every possible place in Luohua Town."

Ma Sanlai asked the shop owner, and it turned out that Lao Hei and his group hadn't checked in there that night at all.

There wasn't even a car parked in front of their door.

I nodded, without slowing my pace:

"Old Hei is a cautious man. If he sensed something was wrong when he entered the town, he definitely wouldn't have checked into this hotel as originally planned."

However, there are some things we still need to confirm ourselves.

Jin Wanliang, a seasoned veteran in the business world, is extremely experienced, and his subordinates are naturally reliable.

However, this may involve techniques beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.

Sometimes, what ordinary people can find out is just the surface.

We walked to the entrance of the Yuelai Hotel, put away our umbrellas, and pushed open the glass door covered with a heavy plastic curtain.

At first glance, the hotel lobby is very small, only a dozen square meters.

A set of worn-out faux leather sofas sat against the wall in the lobby, and behind the bar opposite, sat a middle-aged woman in her forties with big, wavy hair.

At that moment, she was eating sunflower seeds and watching a TV series on a television set in the corner.

When she saw us come in, the proprietress just glanced at us sideways without standing up.

Then, she turned her gaze back to the television and asked in a lazy tone:

"Accommodation? Standard room is 80, double room is 100, deposit is 100. Did you bring your ID?"

Jin Wanliang and I walked to the bar.

Jin Wanliang ignored her words and instead pulled out a wad of bright red hundred-yuan bills from the inside pocket of his jacket, slapping them onto the bar.

The proprietress stopped eating sunflower seeds instantly.

Her gaze immediately shifted from the television screen to the stack of banknotes, a hint of undisguised greed flashing in her eyes.

"Boss lady, we're not staying here, we just want to ask you something."

Jin Wanliang extended a chubby finger and pressed it on the stack of banknotes.

The proprietress swallowed, and the laziness on her face vanished instantly.

She immediately put on a slightly ingratiating smile, stood up, and moved closer:

"Oh, what do you two bosses want to ask?"

I will tell you everything I know.

However… with so many people coming and going every day, there are some things I might not remember very clearly.”

"Big sister, you don't need to rack your brains for too long."

I spoke softly, my voice still in that unhurried tone.

"Just check the check-in records from eight days ago, that is, the night of the 14th."

"May I borrow your registration form for a look?"

Upon hearing "number fourteen," the proprietress's eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.

She hesitated for a moment, her gaze sweeping over the stack of banknotes that must have been at least two or three thousand yuan.

In the end, she gritted her teeth, pulled a thick hard copybook from the drawer under the bar, and pushed it in front of us.

"Bosses, it's not that I'm not cooperating."

A few days ago, someone asked me about what happened that night.

But I'm so busy every day, how could I possibly remember who came and who didn't seven or eight days ago?

"Look for yourselves, this is a record of the people who stayed at the inn that night."

The proprietress paused, then added:

"Moreover, I haven't seen a single one of those big trucks you guys are talking about during this period of time."

This open space in front of our hotel is usually only used by a few cars.

If three big trucks really drove by, how could I not hear them?

I didn't refute her, but instead opened the registration form.

The paper was slightly yellowed, and the information of the guests was written on it crookedly with a ballpoint pen.

I flipped to the record from the 14th and read it carefully from beginning to end.

As Ma San reported, only two individual guests checked in that night, and both checked in before 8 p.m.

From 1 a.m. onwards, no new records were added to the registration form.