Tianyi walked to the door and was about to touch the door handle when the phone beside his bed rang.
He rushed over and picked up the receiver: "Who?"
The moment the call was connected, that is, the second Tianyi picked up the phone, he heard the snap of hanging up the phone from the receiver, so when he blurted out the word "who", the only response was a busy signal. beeped.
This is another weird thing. It seems that this room "1408" consciously prevents Tianyi from approaching the door.
Dong-dong-dong, the knock on the door suddenly sounded again.
Tianyi's thoughts were pulled back. He walked over and turned the door handle. The door opened smoothly. It was still the same doorman from before, but his expression looked quite strange.
"Well... Sir, I'm really sorry to disturb you. I have something to trouble you with." The doorman looked at the room behind Tianyi with strange eyes.
Tianyi replied: "Is what you want to say related to this room?"
The doorman's expression changed, as if he had been told the truth. He rolled his eyes half a circle, and Tianyi could see through his nostrils that this guy was making up lies.
"It's like this... Sir, when you checked in the room before, Lucy at the front desk made some small mistakes in her work. She shouldn't have given you the key to this room. Because... um... there are some small problems with this room, that is ... You know, the electrical wiring, water leaks and the like all need to be repaired, so... this place should not be accessible to guests for the time being.
I'm sorry for the trouble. Could you please change your room? We can arrange a room with the same layout as here on the ninth floor. "
Tianyi smiled when he heard him finish his words hesitantly. This was not a sneer, but he really thought this kid was funny. Even if he didn't use the book of heart, this kind of made-up lie would be too easy to expose.
Tianyi took half a step back, glanced around the room a few times, and replied, "Why didn't Lucy at your front desk call me and tell me?"
The doorman replied: "Ah... that's right. The manager thinks it's better to tell you this matter in person. I'm really sorry."
"Was the lady at the front desk still there when you came up?"
"Of course, she is here, and the manager informed me to come up in front of her."
"Really..." Tian paused and said, "That's strange. I called the front desk just now, but no one answered. Is it a line problem?"
The doorman was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Ah, that's right! You see, this room really has a lot of problems that need to be repaired, so I'd better ask you..."
Tian Yixin said: You are quite good at making up what I say.
On the surface, Tianyi still had a standard decadent look, with no emotion or anger, no idea: "Okay, I'll get my luggage and go down with you. You wait here."
"Thank you, sir, please excuse me!" If the doorman was granted amnesty, he stood at the door and waited, leaning against the door intentionally or unintentionally, as if he was afraid that the door would be closed and never open again.
Tianyi said he was taking luggage, but in fact his luggage consisted of: a wallet containing cash and fake documents, a set of clothes that were not yet dry, and a dozen underwear that he had just bought.
After taking the "luggage", Tianyi returned to the door: "I don't have to sort out the used things, right?"
"Of course not, we will be responsible for putting everything back in its place." The doorman replied.
"I wore this bathrobe downstairs." Tianyi said.
"Yes, please..." The doorman didn't dare not agree. If he said he had to keep this bathrobe, he might throw the clothes into the room on the first day of the day and walk into the elevator wearing only a pair of underpants.
Ten minutes later, Tianyi checked in again on the ninth floor. The doorman had a very good attitude. As soon as he came to the door of the room, he handed him the key to room 908. He was extremely sorry and did not dare to do anything shameless and ask for tips again. He took the key to room 1408 and closed the door. I went downstairs in a flash.
Tianyi used his ability to track the boy's whereabouts. It seemed that he went to the front desk to return the key, and then went to meet someone. Based on the perceptual positioning of the people in the building and preliminary observations of the building's appearance, Tianyi could roughly construct a floor plan of the building in his mind. The room the doorman went to was on the first floor, not in the accommodation area. Maybe he went to find the manager to return to work.
Tianyi didn't pay attention to the doorman for too long. His attention quickly shifted back to room 1408. He could sense that about fifteen minutes after he left, two people entered the room. After being active inside for about ten minutes, the two left. This is probably the cleaning lady doing the cleaning work, which is not surprising.
After all these twists and turns, Tianyi became more and more concerned about the ending of the novel just now. He took out the e-book in Room 908, looked through it, and quickly found the "Those Years I Lived in" through the search function. "Haunted Hotel", jump directly to the last article "1408", and continue reading the part you just read.
Because he had read a lot, Tianyi finished reading the last story carefully in less than twenty minutes. The ending of the book is not unexpected. The protagonist, the author Mike Anselin, left the hotel safely the next day. Although many inexplicable events happened, there was still no ghost in the book, at least there was no conclusive evidence. Prove the existence of ghosts.
All the strange events are vaguely explained as the wind outside the window, the wiring failure in the room, the hotel manager's pretentiousness, and various psychological suggestions exerted by the author on the readers' minds.
After reading it, Tianyi felt that this was actually a boring story, but it was quite exciting. The key is that the content is quite authentic, and it is difficult for readers to tell which scenes are added by the author and which are weird coincidences that really happened.
Putting down the e-book, Tian Yi went to wash his face. At this time, it was past midnight in Paris, but he was still energetic. When he was about to pick another novel to read, he suddenly had a whim and used his ability to sense the upstairs. Is anyone still here
As a result, he discovered that at this moment, there was actually a person in room 1408.
The person cleaning the room should have gone in, so the person inside now is the repairman? Tianyi thought: They have already kicked me out, why are they still in a hurry to repair it? There are still many vacancies in this hotel, and the supply of rooms will never exceed demand. Is it necessary to call the repairman to repair an unused room in the early morning? Maybe they just don't want to keep the night shift staff idle
Tianyi can't rule out this possibility. Maybe the hotel management here is really strict, and any problems will be solved immediately, and they are always ready 24 hours a day.
But there is another possibility that cannot be ruled out. There is another person living in that room now...
Tianyi said to himself: "If the reason why the room has so-called 'various minor problems' is fabricated, then... there is no need to repair it at all, but why should I be removed and let another person live in it? Just now Chocolate, this room 908 doesn’t have it, and those two phone calls…”
Thinking of this, Tianyi picked up the phone number in room 908 and pressed it. Soon someone at the front desk picked up the phone and said, "Hello, what do you need?" It was still the voice of the female staff member before. She was the Lucy the doorman called her.
"Hello, I am the guest who stayed in 1408 before." Tianyi originally just wanted to test whether the call could be connected normally, but now that it was connected, he thought it would be better to say something.
It took a while for the other party's voice to ring, and his tone was obviously not normal: "Well... it's you, sir. I'm sorry about what happened before..."
Tianyi interrupted: "Ah, don't worry, let me ask, are you on duty tonight, uh... Lucy?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, okay, nothing's wrong." Tianyi hung up the phone.
He pondered for a long time and became very curious. He wanted to find out what was going on in the hotel. He knew that there must be some hidden secret behind the things he had just experienced. Although it did not seem to be a very important event, the reasoning that revealed the truth at this moment Games are undoubtedly a great way to kill time.
Tianyi walked into the bathroom, picked up the hair dryer and started drying the clothes. He worked on them carefully for twenty minutes, and finally they were ready to be worn. After putting them on, he went to get a bottle of liquor from the freezer and took a few sips. Of course, he was not To embolden people, they create the illusion of being drunk.
He hid the key in the inner pocket of his clothes, took the bottle of wine, and used his hands to make his already messy hair even messier. Then he walked out of the room, closed the door, and headed straight to the fourteenth floor.
When he arrived at the door of 1408, Tianyi specially dipped the wine in his hands and applied it on both sides of his neck like perfume. He poured another mouthful of strong wine into his mouth, gargled it before swallowing it.
Bang bang bang bang the door hard.
There was only the sound of something falling to the ground in the room, and then there was no sound for half a minute.
Tianyi knew that there was someone in the room, but for some reason the other person remained silent. Tianyi knocked on the door for the second time. The people in the room walked slowly to the door step by step. After looking through the peephole, they opened the door a crack and said, "Who are you? What's the matter?"
Tianyi took advantage of the situation and leaned on the door with one hand to push, pushing the door half open, allowing him to see the man in front of him clearly. A Caucasian in his forties, with a slightly backward hairline, a beer belly, a bad complexion, pale, and a lot of sweating.
"Eh? Why are you in my room?" A burst of alcohol sprayed on the other person's face: "Who are you?!" Tianyi's eyes widened: "What is your relationship with my wife?!" He stepped forward He grabbed the opponent's collar.
"What are you doing?!" The man blocked Tianyi with his hand, "Sir, are you drunk and went to the wrong room? I'm the only one here!"
"Hiccup... ah?!" Tianyi tilted his head and pretended to look at the house number, "Oh... ha... haha! Sorry, man, I'm sorry." He said while moving closer to the house.
As a result, he was pushed out by the other party: "Okay, sir, do you need me to call a waiter to take you back to your room?"
"No... no need... haha... I... I can find it myself." Tianyi took two steps back unsteadily, and the man closed the door decisively with an unhappy look on his face.
Tianyi knew that the other party must be peeking out from behind the door. He took a few bumpy steps to confirm that he was out of the visible range of the peephole on the door, and then resumed his normal gait.
"This man didn't even open his luggage and put it next to the bed. When I knocked on the door, he dropped something on the ground. But just now I poked my head in and didn't see the object, which means he had already picked it up." Tianyi muttered. He said: "There are no people with abilities or modified people who have been specially transformed by combat in this hotel. There are only a group of ordinary people here. What is going on? Why did the hotel staff send me away and let this person stay? Yes Is there anyone in the hotel trying to frame this man? Or did he ask to stay in 1408 no matter what? Is there any secret hidden in that room?"
Tianyi didn't get much useful information from this investigation. He immediately took the elevator to the lobby on the first floor, went straight to the front desk, and walked up to Lucy: "Do you remember me? Lucy."
"Oh! It's you, sir. How can I help you?" Lucy replied.
Tianyi said: "About that room, 1408, is there anything you can tell me?"
Lucy's expression became tense, and she hesitated; "That...that room..."
"Hello, sir!" A tall and thin white man came over. He put on a lot of hair wax and wore a crisp suit. He intervened in the conversation: "I am the manager Todd, you should be..."
Tianyi interrupted: "Just call me Krause." His fake ID used the name of Tea Fairy, but he did not dare to copy the emperor's surname, but chose a different surname at random.
"Sir, could you please come to my office to talk." Todd said.
Two minutes later, Tianyi came to the manager's office and sat down unceremoniously. As soon as the other party opened the door, Tianyi said: "Actually, Todd, I don't need any apology. I don't need any apology either." I'm not angry, I have no objection to the guy living in 1408 at the moment, I just want to know, what happened tonight?"
"Well... Actually, that's the case. That gentleman is a fan of a certain novelist." Todd said.
At this moment, Tianyi basically knew the answer to the mystery. He smiled and said, "You must be a fan."
Todd shrugged and said tactfully: "Judging from his current behavior, it is obvious that he has gone far beyond the scope of ordinary fans." He paused: "Do you want something to drink?"
"No, you can do it yourself."
Todd poured himself a cup of coffee: "Did you know there is a book called "The Haunted Hotel I Stayed in Those Years"?"
Tian Yiyi said: "Yes, I have read it." He did not say that he had just finished reading it.
Todd said: "Then you should also know that the last article of the book is about the murderous room 1408 in a Dolphin Hotel in New York, right?"
"Oh, that's it!" Tianyi pretended to suddenly realize it, as if he had just understood it. He didn't want to be thought of as a fan of that writer.
Todd said: "But that story is false. There was indeed a hotel in New York called the Dolphin Hotel, but it closed down in the last century."
Tianyi said: "So?"
Todd continued: "You know, the author of that book, Mike Anselin, always personally stays in the hotel rooms written in the book for one night before writing the novel, but this 1408 The story is not a true experience because the story was not written by him."
At this moment, in the rainy sky outside the window, there was a timely thunder...
Tian Yi said: "Oh? Then why?" He also became interested.
Todd said: "You may not know that "The Haunted Hotel I Stayed in Those Years" is Mike Anselin's last novel, and it is also the end of his series of haunted hotel stories." He paused: "Facts Yes, Mike Anselin did come to our hotel a few years ago, when I was a foreman. Our manager was very surprised why the writer came to visit. You know, there have never been any supernatural rumors in this hotel. , let alone invited the writer. But he suddenly arrived on a rainy night and specifically requested to stay in room 1408."
"Maybe he came to Paris just for personal reasons, or simply for travel." Tianyi continued.
"Yes, that's what I thought at the time." Todd replied: "But the next day, he died in that room of unexplained hypothermia." He took another sip of coffee and said: Knowing that the writer was only middle-aged, had no history of heart disease, his blood sugar did not exceed the standard, and the heating system in the room did not detect any malfunction, his death itself became the kind of supernatural event that he tried his best to deny during his lifetime."
"So...how did that book appear?"
"It was a book compiled by Mike Anselin's editor who compiled all the unpublished manuscripts during his lifetime, but the length seemed to be too short. So the editor imitated Mike Anselin's writing style. , spent a long time and carefully created a story, with 1408 as the last story of this writer who does not believe in ghosts and gods...both in his life and career."
Tianyi said: "And that editor does believe in ghosts and gods, right?"
Todd said: "That's right, sir. Therefore, this story is the only one that intentionally changed the city where the hotel is located in the book. The editor was worried that someone would come to our hotel after reading the novel and encounter something unexpected."
Tianyi smiled and said: "Haha, what do you think, Mr. Todd?"
Todd said: "I don't have any personal opinion. Objectively speaking, that room was normal. Although it was empty for a period of time after the deceased was found, there were people who stayed in it in the following years, and nothing strange happened. None of the guests who stayed there said anything about the incident." He sighed: "The gentleman today, I think he is really a crazy fan. He claimed to have followed in the footsteps of Mike Anselin. After passing through every hotel room in his writing, I think he must have found this place on the Internet, or read the editor's blog or something, in short... "
Tianyi continued what Todd said: "Anyway, he has a very tough attitude and asked you to make every effort to help him move into 1408, so I was fooled into moving to 908, right?"
"Yes, that's the truth you want."
Tianyi stood up and said, "What, so that's what happened."
The two chatted for a few more words, and Todd sent Tianyi out of the office.
"Oh, there's one more thing I want to confirm." Tianyi stopped when he passed the front desk, and he said to Lucy: "About eleven o'clock, you left for a while, right?"
Lucy thought for a moment: "Yes sir, I'm sorry, I'm the only one at the front desk tonight. Did I miss your call?"
Tianyi asked again: "Did you call my room later?"
Lucy replied: "Oh, that phone? Originally we wanted to use the phone to communicate with you about the situation here, but Mr. Todd said it would be better to ask Wanda to come up and talk to you in person. Did you pick up the call at that time? I'm so sorry, I thought the call wasn't connected when I hung up."
Tianyi smiled and said: "It's nothing, I understand everything."
After solving the mystery, it turned out that it was just such a boring thing. When Tianyi returned to the room, he collapsed on his chest and sneered: "What the hell? It turned out to be such a boring thing..."
Before he knew it, he fell asleep and spent the night speechless.
By noon the next day, police cars and ambulances were parked outside the Dolphin Hotel.
A middle-aged man died mysteriously in Room 1408. The cause of death was myocardial infarction. The deceased was a freelancer who traveled around the world. He had no history of heart disease and no signs of violence. The corpse was lying on his back, with a horrified expression and a pale face. The sheets were soaked with sweat. He didn't even open his luggage. There was a paper novel on the bedside table. Afterwards, the only food the coroner found in the stomach of the deceased was chocolate.
At one o'clock in the afternoon, when the investigation and evidence collection came to an end, the man lying in room 908 yawned, stretched, got up, and said listlessly: "I actually had a nightmare, it's disgusting."
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