Chapter 51: The Eighteenth Floor
With only a few steps left, Fang Shenyan, spotting Tongguan and Chang Nian above, swung his hand and tossed Xiao Qi into their arms!
No one expected such a move. With a startled cry, Tongguan hurried forward and barely caught her.
Chang Nian bent over to hold Xiao Qi, her ponytail whipping as she glared at Fang Shenyan and shouted, "What are you doing?!"
But Fang Shenyan didn't glance at them. He grabbed Yu Guo's arm and dashed past, heading straight into the depths of the eighteenth floor.
"Ji Li! Ji Li!"
Fang Shenyan didn't trust Tongguan, nor did he think they knew the key to escape. Everything now depended on Ji Li.
Finding Ji Li meant finding the direction to safety.
He shouted, his voice echoing through the corridors, but deep inside there was no response.
Yu Guo's expression flickered. He turned to look at the empty space behind them, a hint of worry on his face.
"What if we can't find Ji Li?"
Fang Shenyan adjusted his glasses, suppressing his impatience, and said as he moved:
"After Ji Li discovered the clue on Old Xue's phone, he went straight upstairs. Clearly, there's something here he wants."
Yu Guo frowned. "How can you be sure he'll come to the eighteenth floor?"
Fang Shenyan seemed to be searching for something, his pace quickening.
"The only abnormal place upstairs is the eighteenth floor, where last time Ji Li and Li Xing came with five staff members.
He didn't explain why he came, but I'm certain he hid it because he feared a ghost among us.
Since the matter concerns the eighteenth floor and Ji Li deliberately concealed the clue, there is only one possibility!"
Yu Guo suddenly understood, exclaiming:
"The eighteenth floor holds the breakthrough clue for this mission, a backup Ji Li left for himself!"
Suddenly, a bone-chilling wind swept past Fang Shenyan, coming from the deep darkness directly ahead!
It felt as if a window on the top floor had broken, letting the storm rush in instantly.
Fang Shenyan felt a sense of foreboding, but after a moment of thought, he sprinted toward the source of the wind.
When Fang and Yu reached its origin, they saw an empty elevator shaft.
On the ground lay a phone, smashed to pieces…
Fang Shenyan's eyelids twitched violently. He reached out trembling to touch the phone but quickly withdrew.
Yu Guo's eyes nearly popped out:
"It's Ji Li's hotel phone!"
A chill ran down Fang Shenyan's spine. He seemed to realize something, turning his upper body toward the dark, abyss-like shaft.
But…
A living eye could not pierce that distance.
Beyond the darkness, there was nothing.
Yu Guo crouched, picking up the phone Ji Li had used, feeling an indescribable sense.
He was reluctant to believe Ji Li could be dead. If he were, the truth they sought would become even more distant.
For this mission, besides Ji Li, no staff member knew the truth…
Fang Shenyan's expression shifted repeatedly. He suddenly looked up at the cold ceiling light, his face pale.
"Not necessarily…
Even if Ji Li is dead, why would he take out the hotel phone before dying?"
Yu Guo, crouching, looked up and offered his theory:
"Maybe he discovered something he wanted to tell us…
Or perhaps the hotel phone itself is malfunctioning…"
Fang Shenyan rubbed his stiff face, nodding as he analyzed:
"Remember how all our hotel phones suddenly lost connection without explanation?
I'm certain Ji Li wasn't trying to leave us a clue.
First, that's not the kind of person he is.
Second, the situation must have been extremely critical. If he had time to report, he wouldn't have gone missing!"
Yu Guo stood, eyes fixed on a certain direction, and said firmly:
"You said the eighteenth floor is Ji Li's secret place.
If he can find the way out, then so can we."
...
Tongguan listened at the floor below. Li Xing's pursuit had left no trace, which surprised him.
Meanwhile, Chang Nian comforted the frightened Xiao Qi, conversing with her to gather information.
Seeing this unexpected little girl left Tongguan feeling uneasy.
"I've been with Dad all along in the innermost office on the fifth floor. Didn't you and Uncle see us?"
Tongguan and Chang Nian were both puzzled by what Xiao Qi said.
They had been responsible for searching floors one through ten during the initial sweep, but they had no idea about the office Xiao Qi mentioned, where voices played theatrically.
Even after carefully questioning her, Chang Nian realized that the office's location was treated as a solid wall in their original search plan.
Tongguan even felt an urge to return to the fifth floor to check whether his memory was faulty or if Xiao Qi was lying—but there was no time.
Chang Nian set Xiao Qi on the ground, then stood and addressed Tongguan, still confused:
"Perhaps Xiao Qi and Old Xue are both key figures in the main clue line…"
Tongguan suddenly lifted his head, fixing his gaze on Chang Nian to signal her to continue.
"Xiao Qi and Old Xue belong to a hidden line…
It's a line the ghost had to conceal. If we had discovered it prematurely, it would have exposed the ghost's arrangements too early.
So the ghost created a smokescreen, temporarily hiding their office location, bypassing our first search.
Only when the dead began appearing, and Ji Li and Li Xing returned to the fifth floor, was this hidden line finally revealed."
Chang Nian's explanation broke Tongguan out of his rigid thinking, and he fully grasped the situation.
He looked at Xiao Qi's innocent face and suddenly recalled Ji Li's series of strange actions.
"Ji Li withheld information deliberately—he was hoarding the clues for himself!"
Chang Nian nodded, understanding Ji Li's actions. Under the circumstances, he could not have known the ghost's location or identity.
If he had revealed the intelligence too early, the ghost might have sensed it and silenced him.
In fact, Xiao Qi surviving until now was thanks to Ji Li's secrecy and discretion.
Tongguan's eyes darted around, still waiting for Li Xing to arrive.
The hotel phone remained in his hand, always on the task email page.
The earlier conversation with Chang Nian in the stairwell had already highlighted the most critical course of action.
"The curse's transmission medium is each staff member's hotel phone!"
All the deceased had become conduits through it.
At first, they thought the staff themselves were spreading the curse, but until the last batch of deaths, no one else knew.
Only Tongguan understood, because the hotel phones had recorded all staff members.
Only this could explain the ghost's pattern of killings!
The task itself could be wrong.
But the pattern of killing is not affected by the task!
Everything depends on the ghost!
With this realization, Tongguan no longer hesitated. He rose, taking Chang Nian and Xiao Qi, and ran deeper into the eighteenth floor.
"We need an opportunity, the trigger for the true mission. We are missing only a spark!"
Only now did he understand the enormous role Ji Li had played in this mission.
Coming here was Ji Li's indirect guidance—leading them to the point where the true mission would surface.
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