The cold autumn wind blew in through the open window, slicing into the flesh of every living person in the room.
Ji Li's thick dark hair fluttered in the wind as he crouched and began rifling through his toolkit.
Ropes, a headlamp, a drill — he laid them out one by one on the floor in a row.
Ji Li's theory about a way to survive echoed through the others and grew more intense.
"Yeah… yeah! If the ghost's rule is to kill the woman first and then come for us, as long as we interfere with its killing, maybe we can delay it until morning!"
Yu Guo's nerves were frayed tight and he could not settle, pacing the room relentlessly.
From time to time he leaned toward the east wall's hole, watching the killing unfold next door in 702.
"We must hurry. The woman is still struggling, but it won't last long — two minutes! At most two minutes!" Yu Guo counted down.
Fang Shenyan looked at Ji Li's grave face, then turned his head toward the window: "What's your plan?"
Ji Li tied a safety rope to himself and anchored the other end at the window, then lightly jumped up onto the sill.
Moonlight fell across his back, making his face look even colder.
"The corner only gives a glimpse. I need to see the whole killing directly. If the dead end is reversed, it becomes a way out.
I don't know how I can stop that woman from dying.
But I want to try."
Fang Shenyan nodded. "Are you sure? The task point is 701 — if you go to 702's window, does that violate the hotel's rules?"
"I checked the distance between the two windows. If I lie sideways and brace my feet on 701's sill, I can reach up and lean into 702's window from above the chest. That still keeps me effectively at the task site."
Ji Li wasn't fully confident, but delaying indefinitely seemed the most promising survival option.
A corpse had already appeared, and a second death was imminent.
With only a one-in-four chance, he couldn't gamble.
Fang Shenyan said nothing more and crouched beside Yu Guo. "We'll cover you as the situation demands."
Knowing time was short, Ji Li didn't hesitate. He flipped onto the narrow sill and spun once in the air.
From facing up to facing down, both toes dug into the sill while his body swam with dizziness.
The autumn wind cut at his cheeks like knives, making them sting.
Without the safety rope he wouldn't have dared the move.
With his gloved right hand he gripped the rope and began lowering himself inch by inch, relaxing his body as his left arm stretched out.
He reached, bit by bit, for the tiny seven-centimeter ledge of 702's window.
Within two seconds he was sweating; his long hair hung down his neck, itchy.
Every ounce of his attention focused on that narrow ledge.
His position was torturously awkward: his right hand held the rope steady while lowering him, each inch precisely controlled; his left arm reached forward to clutch the thin ledge; his feet never left 701's sill.
It was an excruciating posture.
Outside, Yu Guo watched the peeping hole with growing gravity.
He had the best composure of the group — in some ways even steadier than Ji Li, who'd seen several ghosts.
"Almost… almost… I can see her struggles weakening, her moans growing faint!" Yu Guo's face beaded with sweat as he turned to Fang Shenyan's outwardly gentle but truly rigid expression and asked, "Can you stop it from that position?"
Fang Shenyan pursed his lips and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Yes. But there's risk."
Yu Guo glared. "This is our chance for survival. Don't hedge — say it straight."
Fang Shenyan nodded, then looked to the only man who had been idle.
"Cao Yuan, go to the living room and get that voyeur diary."
Cao Yuan had been listless and panicked; he was stunned by the command. "What?"
"Hurry!" Fang Shenyan barked sharply, startling even Yu Guo.
Cao Yuan saw Fang Shenyan's blank, steady face and dared say nothing. He ran to the living room, grabbed the diary, and returned.
Yu Guo watched Fang Shenyan flip through the pages and asked, bewildered, "What are you going to do?"
Fang Shenyan ignored him, shoved Yu Guo aside, faced the hole, and began to read aloud in a clear voice:
"There's always a faint, ephemeral scent on them. I lie on the sheets they slept on, feverishly sniffing, intoxicated…
They would never know that each night when they lie down, they are sleeping where I slept, wrapped in my scent.
When I think of that I wish I could cut myself and melt into their quilt as blood-red down, so I could embrace them every night!"
Yu Guo gagged at the words; Cao Yuan was terrified.
But they recognized Fang Shenyan's tactic.
Enrage it.
The diary was the ghost's own handwriting; to it those words held indescribable meaning.
Now, spoken aloud by the staffs, they ripped off its last shred of shame and proclaimed its putrid obsession.
And it worked.
The raincoat man, who had been sitting on the woman, shuddered violently as Fang Shenyan's words neared, then seemed to spiral into frenzy.
He yanked the woman off the bed, his whole body carrying a chilling stench as he strode quickly toward the peeping hole in the corner wall.
"This ghost is different. Its obsession runs deep — it even has to torment the woman before killing her!
If it were another ghost, maybe it couldn't even be provoked!"
Fang Shenyan ignored the approaching ghost. Based on earlier deductions, unless the woman died first, they themselves could not be harmed.
Though the pattern was only a guess drawn from Ding Miaoxin's death, carrying out such tasks was gambling with life itself. Fang Shenyan, who seemed cautious on the surface, was in fact daring.
"Yu Guo, take out the knife!"
"Why?"
"The rule of killing still needs further proof."
Fang Shenyan swiftly pulled the slender dagger from his side and shoved it into Yu Guo's palm.
"When it comes, drive this blade into its eye!
If it still can't kill us, then the rule is confirmed, and Ji Li's idea of a way to survive becomes even more plausible!
Since we're provoking it, let's provoke it harder!"
Yu Guo clenched the gleaming dagger, gazing for the first time at the man who had entered the hotel with him.
His eyes burned with excitement — to him, no ghost-hunting attempt so far compared to this.
He was about to stab a ghost in the eye!
Fang Shenyan noticed Yu Guo's shoulders trembling slightly. With a casual smile, he said, "Don't be afraid, most likely it won't—"
Yu Guo was already trembling with exhilaration, eyes blazing, muttering nonstop: "Yes! Perfect! This is what we should've done from the start!"
Fang Shenyan swallowed the rest of his words, cursing silently in his heart: *Pervert!*