One Too Many

Lu You: '...'

After Jiang Luo said this, Lu Youyi couldn't help but shiver, his scalp tingling, rubbing the clothes of the person in front of him.

The fabric was rough and stiff, and on closer sniffing, carried a strange musty smell, as if left to molder through a long stretch of rainy weather, along with a faint, earthy tang.

It really wasn't Jiang Luo.

Lu Youyi broke out in a cold sweat, wanting to let go but afraid of disturbing this 'person': 'Ye Xun, there's really something extra between me and Jiang Luo.'

The extra 'person' between them stood motionless in place, seemingly not understanding their conversation.

Ye Xun asked: 'What is it?'

Lu Youyi was nearly in tears. 'I don't know, but from the smell, it seems like a walking corpse.'

How could a walking corpse appear here?

Ye Xun frowned, tucking a Spirit Paper into Jiang Luo's hand: 'Stick it to the tianzhong, tianting, and sikong points.'

Jiang Luo: 'Sorry... where are those three points?'

Ye Xun: '...Stick it to the center of its forehead.'

Jiang Luo held the rabbit plushie in his left arm, freed a hand, and reached up to stick the paper. He'd braced himself to touch something terrifying, but to his surprise, he touched nothing at all.

Jiang Luo froze for a beat, then his fingers moved lower and met something sticky and cold—stiff yet yielding, with something writhing beneath what he was touching, like maggots.

Jiang Luo yanked his hand back, realization hitting him instantly. His face darkened: 'It has no head.'

What he'd touched was the flesh of the walking corpse's neck.

He didn't need to spell out what kind of bugs grew on rotting flesh.

Ye Xun grabbed Jiang Luo's arm and moved to confront the walking corpse. Jiang Luo raised a hand to stop him, calm: 'Let's turn on the lights first. Since it's been following us without doing anything, we're safe for now. Get it to the Workshop with the lights on, then we'll talk.'

Jiang Luo had a point—fighting this thing in the dark wasn't to their advantage. The three of them kept their original formation and moved forward. Lu Youyi, behind the walking corpse, felt a flicker of relief: 'Good thing it's following you.'

Jiang Luo kept his guard up against the danger behind him. He replied offhandedly: 'How do you know it's following me? It has no head. What if it's facing you, walking backward, and just happened to grab me with its hand behind it?'

Goosebumps exploded across Lu Youyi's skin. 'Holy shit, don't joke around!'

The walking corpse's grip on Jiang Luo's clothes tightened, and the scraping of its steps grew louder—the sound of a corpse being dragged across the floor. The group walked on edge until they reached the Workshop. Ye Xun found the switch, and a minute later, blinding light snapped on.

Lu Youyi blinked against the light, and the next moment saw the walking corpse clearly—the space where its head should be was indeed empty. It wore a Prison Robe soaked in blood, its skin a mottled blue-purple with cadaver spots. The wound at its neck was horrific: flesh peeled back, traces of rust from the blade still visible, and maggots crawling through it.

Jiang Luo had already bolted several meters away, pulling out a pack of wet wipes and scrubbing his hands furiously, staring at the walking corpse with a blank expression. The corpse had gripped his clothes so hard that when he ran, part of the fabric tore away, barely covering his waist anymore.

The walking corpse was a terrifying sight. Lu Youyi said in shock, 'Holy fuck, there really are corpses that move...'

Before he finished speaking, he looked down at the walking corpse's feet.

The toes were pointing right at him.

Lu Youyi shrieked: 'Holy shit ahhhh!!!'

The walking corpse had really been facing him, walking backward, the entire way!

Lu Youyi screamed and kicked the walking corpse, then scrambled toward Jiang Luo and Ye Xun in a panic. The walking corpse stumbled a step, turned to face them, and suddenly charged.

The three of them turned and ran. Ye Xun was perfectly calm, watching Jiang Luo still wiping his hands while sprinting, and offered comfort: 'Experts have studied it—maggots aren't dirty. After consuming rotting flesh, they excrete salts with antibacterial properties, and their bodies contain antibiotics and immune-boosting compounds. They're actually good bugs.'

Jiang Luo smiled falsely: 'Brother, if you don't act soon, you can taste the maggots yourself.'

Ye Xun stopped short, pulling a Black Net from the rabbit plushie's mouth. 'Lu Youyi!'

Lu Youyi grabbed Jiang Luo and led the headless walking corpse in another direction. 'Ye Xun, hurry up! This thing's fast, I can't hold out long!'

He was spitting words out so fast he didn't pause for breath, and Jiang Luo was nearly yanked off his feet. Jiang Luo shouted: 'Lu Youyi, don't you have any way to deal with this thing?'

Lu Youyi shouted back even louder: 'Jiang Luo, is your brain broken? Sure, you're last in the class, but second-to-last is me!'

Jiang Luo: '...'

Lu Youyi thought of Jiang Luo's earlier praise and trust in him, felt a little guilty, and the more guilty he felt, the louder he got, like a lit firecracker: 'Besides, I've only ever heard of walking corpses before, never actually seen one!'

Jiang Luo: '...Stop talking.'

He suddenly accelerated, surging ahead of Lu Youyi.

Lu Youyi gaped: 'Shit!'

The headless corpse closed in fast, and within moments was only half a meter behind Lu Youyi. Lu Youyi gritted his teeth, suddenly spun around and roared: 'I'll fight you to the death!'

But the headless corpse simply blew past him, its target clear—Jiang Luo.

Lu Youyi's face was a question mark.

Did happiness really come this suddenly?

Jiang Luo saw it too, his temple throbbing: 'Why does it insist on chasing me?'

The sprint made his breathing ragged. The original body's owner had neglected exercise, so reaching this speed and overtaking Lu Youyi was already a miracle. Jiang Luo felt his breath turn hot, a sting building in his throat. He pressed his tongue to his palate, struggling to keep his breathing even.

Ye Xun had already stretched the Black Net open using a pillar as anchor, calling out: 'Jiang Luo, run back!'

Jiang Luo turned and led the walking corpse toward him.

The walking corpse didn't tire, and its speed kept increasing. The sprint sent the stench of its rotting body flooding the Staircase and Workshop. Jiang Luo heard his own ragged breathing and pounding heart, his legs gone soft, teetering at the edge of his limit.

He glanced up at the Black Net overhead. It would take time for it to drop, and the walking corpse was less than three meters behind him—even if it fell, it probably wouldn't cover the corpse.

He needed to go faster, to buy time for the net to come down.

The taste of blood spread from his throat into his mouth. Jiang Luo was helplessly aware of his own physical limits. He took one deep breath, squeezed out his last reserves, and sprinted through the Black Net's zone.

The instant he passed through, Ye Xun yanked the Black Net down, dropping it squarely over the headless walking corpse.

The headless corpse thrashed, and its skin was immediately scorched with deep black burn marks by the Black Net. The smell of roasting rotten flesh was both savory and acrid. Lu Youyi gagged a few times, pinched his nose, and handed Jiang Luo a bottle of water.

Jiang Luo stood against the wall with trembling legs for a moment, then sat on the nearest workbench. His breathing was still ragged, black hair plastered to his neck and face, a complete mess. Ignoring the foul air, he gulped for breath, and only after a while did he have the strength to twist off the cap and take a sip: 'What is this Black Net?'

'Rope soaked in black dog blood,' Lu Youyi said, stuffing two wads of paper into his nostrils and crouching beside the Black Net to study the walking corpse. 'There's probably a layer of Spirit Papers wrapped inside.'

Ye Xun's Black Net had bound the headless corpse tightly; it lay motionless as if dead. Lu Youyi stared at it for a long time, curious: 'Ye Xun, why do you think it picked Jiang Luo to chase?'

Ye Xun shook his head: 'I don't know.'

Jiang Luo coughed a few times, pinched his sore throat, and said: 'It's wearing a Prison Robe, right?'

Lu Youyi: 'Yeah.'

'Judging by the style of the Prison Robe, this corpse has probably been dead for several hundred years,' Jiang Luo said, studying the walking corpse with certainty. 'Since it's from the old days, its head should have had long hair too. Of the three of us, my hair is the longest—it's probably mistook my head for its own.'

Lu Youyi and Ye Xun had a sudden moment of clarity. Lu Youyi said: 'That makes sense.'

'The ball-bouncing sound we heard earlier on the Staircase was probably its head,' Jiang Luo took another sip of water. 'I just don't know why its head and body are separated.'

Ye Xun looked thoughtful, then said suddenly: 'The three missing girls also had long hair.'

Lu Youyi immediately clenched his fists. 'Dammit! It must have mistaken their heads for its own—that's why it killed them.'

But Jiang Luo wasn't so sure.

If the headless corpse really killed the three girls, even if it took their heads, why couldn't the bodies be found either?

Not to mention, the room was clean and tidy the day they disappeared—not a drop of blood. Were the girls supposed to have willingly followed a headless corpse?

But he didn't argue with Lu Youyi, just shrugged and hopped off the table. 'Want to check out where the other stream of incense smoke is leading?'

Of course they did.

On the way, Lu Youyi dragged the Black Net roughly, turning to Jiang Luo with a look of disdain: 'Jiang Luo, want to work out with me when we get back to School? Your fitness is terrible.' Can't even outrun a ghost for long.

Jiang Luo recalled how awful the sprint had felt, still shaken: 'Sure, I really should exercise more.'

The incense in Ye Xun's hand was two-thirds burned, ash falling onto the rice, but the smoke still split into two streams—one pointing back at the captured headless walking corpse, the other leading them to an unfamiliar door.

Jiang Luo stepped forward and knocked, twice in succession. No answer from inside. He simply pushed the door open, and the incense smoke streamed straight in, slipping under the bed.

There was no one in the room either.

The three of them cautiously surrounded the bed. Ye Xun set the incense on the floor beside it, took back the rabbit plushie from Jiang Luo, and said coldly: 'Come out.'

A ball-rolling sound suddenly came from under the bed, and a head rolled out from the foot of the bed, black hair tangled around it, almost like a ball covered in hair.

Ye Xun stood still. The head rolled familiarly to Jiang Luo's feet, and one eye peeked out from the hair: 'Young friend, your hair is truly flowing and lustrous—might you tell me how you care for it?'

Lu Youyi laughed coldly, stepped forward, and grabbed the head, viciously: 'I think your hair's not bad either!'

The head let out a piercing shriek: 'Don't pull me like that, I'll go bald! I'll go bald!'

Lu Youyi flinched, his fierce grin faltering, nearly letting go: 'Holy shit, stop screaming!'

The head whimpered and cried, 'You dead ghost, stop pulling a person's hair.'

Lu Youyi shuddered in disgust, set the head on the bed, and the three of them stared it down from three sides: 'Tell us, why are you in Hotel 129?'

The head bounced twice, tossed its hair back, revealing a pale bluish face: 'This one is called Ning Xiu, once a scholar. Long ago, this one was beheaded for peeping at an official's daughter bathing, and died at the execution ground.'

The head sniffled twice as it spoke: 'This one's death was truly shameful. My family refused to collect my body—how can an incomplete corpse be buried? So this one carried my head and wandered. This place used to be a tailor's shop, so I came here hoping a tailor would sew my head back on.'

Ye Xun: 'The Slaughterhouse next door was indeed an execution ground, long ago.'

There was always a tailor's shop near an execution ground—people of that era valued keeping the body whole. The families of beheaded criminals would usually bring the corpse to the tailor to have the head sewn back on. For uncollected bodies, at night the corpse would carry its own head to the tailor to be sewn together.

The head said: 'But the tailor always closed up before dark, and I couldn't find anyone to sew my head on, so I kept waiting and waiting. A month ago, I happened to discover that the Madam Owner here is also a tailor, so I've been coming to her room every night, asking her to sew my head on.'

Lu Youyi asked with a dark look: 'Fine, you want your head sewn on, but why did you kill people?'

The head's eyes went wide, furious: 'Young friend, don't slander me out of thin air—when has this one ever killed anyone?'

Lu Youyi was stunned, suspicious: 'The three girls who disappeared from this Hotel—weren't they killed by you?'

The head bounced twice in anger, shouting: 'Little child, don't think because I have a good temper you can slander my reputation!'

Jiang Luo crossed his arms, hand on his chin. The torn T-shirt on his left side exposed a palm-sized patch of skin at his waist—jade-white, smooth and cool to the eye. The pose pulled the fabric up a little further, his beauty rating spiking. Jiang Luo smiled with curved lips: 'Scholar, do you come to this room every night to find the Madam Owner?'

The scholar stared at him blankly. Already a lecher by nature, his bluish face now flushed with two patches of red: 'Yes, this one comes here every night to find the Madam Owner.'

Jiang Luo said: 'But the Madam Owner doesn't seem to live here.'

The head said with an air of profundity: 'Young friend, you don't know. The male and female owners of this shop had many arguments a month ago, and the Madam Owner's temper grew stranger and stranger, so they began sleeping in separate rooms. The Madam Owner lives in this room. I once saw her threading a needle, mending her own body. But whenever I come looking for her at midnight, she's never here.'

Ye Xun seized on the key point: 'Mending her own body?'

The head said with deep feeling: 'Yes, what an excellent tailor she is—she must be able to sew my head and body together beautifully.' But after glancing at the body in the Black Net, the head couldn't help but show an expression of utter agony: 'But the moment I see my body, I don't want to be sewn to it anymore.'

Jiang Luo smiled, turning to Ye Xun and Lu Youyi: 'Tell me—a Madam Owner who threads needles and mends her own body late at night, where does she go when she can't sleep?'

Ye Xun frowned in thought for a moment, tossed the head into the Black Net, had Lu Youyi drag them back to the Corridor, and called the owner.

The landline ran on a separate circuit, so it worked regardless of whether Hotel 129 had power.

The phone rang for a moment, and the owner's groggy, half-asleep voice came through: 'Hello?'

Ye Xun asked: 'Where's the Madam Owner?'

The owner snapped awake, asking carefully: 'What's wrong, Student Ye? My wife is sleeping with my mom and the baby right now.'

'Isn't her room 102?'

'Right, she had a fight with me and moved to 102,' the owner said bitterly. 'Probably because business keeps getting worse—her temper's gotten much more volatile. During the day I never know where she's gone, and when I do see her, her makeup keeps getting heavier... But she can't let go of the kid. Every night she comes back after the baby's asleep, stays with the child until dawn, then disappears again. I never even have time to have a proper talk with her.'

The owner's family lived in the building across from theirs. Ye Xun felt increasingly uneasy as he listened, and decided on the spot: 'We're coming over now.'

The group made their way over in the dark. By the time they reached the opposite building, the incense had burned out. Ye Xun sighed, set the rice bowl in a corner, and after going upstairs, found the owner waiting at the door in a hastily thrown-on coat.

The owner led them inside, looking uneasy, rubbing his hands: 'Um, what you were saying earlier was...'

'We need to see your wife,' Ye Xun said. 'There might be something wrong with her.'

The owner immediately clenched his hands. He was silent for a long moment, then forced a smile: 'That's impossible.'

'It can't be,' the owner muttered to himself, laughing and crying at once. 'Don't toy with me.'

Lu Youyi looked at him with sympathy: 'Boss, if you want this resolved quickly, you need to prepare for the worst.'

The owner deflated entirely, leading them to a Bedroom door and gently pushing it open.

A stiff shadow stood at the foot of the bed, staring fixedly at the sleeping Old Lady and child. Black Mist swirled around the figure—the same Black Mist Jiang Luo had once seen on the child's arm.

Lu Youyi gasped quietly: 'Such heavy Yin Qi!'

The moment the door opened, a wave of cold rushed at Jiang Luo. His eyes fell on the blanket, which rose in two quiet bumps—an old one and a young one, sleeping deeply, not stirring at all.

The figure at the foot of the bed heard the sound and stiffly turned its head toward them.

Jiang Luo's pupils contracted.

The Hotel's Madam Owner was covered in dense stitching everywhere—she looked like a mass of minced flesh, held together only by thread and needle. Her features were crooked and blurred, flesh and blood a mess, terrifying to behold.

The owner behind them dropped to the floor, legs trembling in terror: 'Ahhhh—!'