Ji Mingxia hid in a corner behind the pavilion, his eyes closed, his hands covering his mouth and nose, and breathing as lightly as possible.
The wind from the lakeside was so chilly at night that it made Ji Mingxia's lower back feel cold. He tried his best to endure it, and squatted stiffly, not daring to move at all.
It was quiet all around, without any sound, as if he was the only one left in the world.
Time passed by little by little, and no one knew how long it had been. Suddenly, at a certain moment, Ji Mingxia suddenly discovered that the wind had stopped.
The temperature quickly warmed up, as if we had returned to a midsummer night. Occasionally, the sound of flowing lake water could be heard. The gurgling sound of water revealed a sense of tranquility and peace. The cold feeling just now completely disappeared without us noticing.
Ji Mingxia opened his eyes as if sensing something and looked around.
It was still the same lake, the pavilion was still the same pavilion, and the corridor was still the same corridor, but somehow, there was no longer that creepy feeling.
Just then, a sound of footsteps came closer.
Ji Mingxia's heart tightened, and before he could see who was coming, the next moment, a red light came out from Ji Mingxia's pocket for some reason.
Ji Mingxia was startled and quickly covered the light with his hands.
The light was like a living thing. Although Ji Mingxia covered it, it still slipped out from between his fingers and twisted flexibly in the air.
The more Ji Mingxia looked at it, the more he felt that the red light was somewhat familiar. Before he could recall what it was, the red light slowly floated away.
There was already a person standing there unknowingly. The red light fell on his wrist, filling the gap in the inner circle of the ring on his wrist. The whole ring was finally restored to its original state.
With the help of the red light and moonlight, Ji Mingxia could see the other person's face clearly at once.
"Yu Ning!" The moment he saw Yu Ning, Ji Mingxia felt relieved and could hardly control himself from calling his name.
The surroundings returned to calm, and there was a ring on Yu Ning's hand again. Ji Mingxia's intuition told him that this Yu Ning was the real one.
He almost couldn't wait to stand up and ran to Yu Ning.
As a result, he was in such a hurry when running that he didn't pay attention to the steps of the pavilion and almost tripped in front of Yu Ning.
The ring on Yu Ning's hand was glowing. Seeing Ji Mingxia almost fall, he quickly reached out to help him.
Ji Mingxia was caught by him and his face was buried directly in Yu Ning's chest.
Although it was a bit awkward, this physical contact made Ji Mingxia more certain that this was the real Yu Ning.
He held Yu Ning's arm and stood firmly. He was about to ask Yu Ning what he had just experienced. However, when he raised his head and saw Yu Ning's face clearly from a close distance, Ji Mingxia was stunned.
"Mingxia? Are you okay?" Yu Ning supported Ji Mingxia and saw that he was in a daze, so he asked with concern.
"Ah? I'm fine." Ji Mingxia said, looking at Yu Ning's face uncertainly, "Yu Ning, your eyes..."
Yu Ning's eyes were originally one gray and one black. However, at this moment, he didn't know if it was Ji Mingxia's illusion. He looked left and right, and both of Yu Ning's eyes turned dark gray
Yu Ning's gray eye had a very light pupil color, and one gray eye looked quite scary. Both eyes were gray, and at first glance, it looked like there were no pupils. There was only a faint gray light between the two eyes. Combined with Yu Ning's delicate face, she looked very creepy at night.
Fortunately, Ji Mingxia was already familiar with Yu Ning. If he had seen Yu Ning like this when he first came here, he would have been so weak in the knees that he would have avoided her and would not have dared to look at her again.
Yu Ning's expression paused for a moment. He closed his eyes, then opened them again after a moment. Yu Ning looked at Ji Mingxia and said, "So."
"It's the same as before." Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning's eyes that had returned to their original state and asked in surprise, "Your eyeballs can change color?"
Yu Ning looked at the ring on his hand and said, "It should be caused by using it."
Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning's face, then at the ring, completely puzzled.
The original book said that Yu Ning had a very special personality, but because he did not subdue the mysterious object, he did not unlock any special abilities.
Thinking of the original novel, every time the protagonist Pei Yuan dealt with a mysterious object, he would be miserable, either exhausted or injured, Ji Mingxia hurriedly asked: "Yu Ning, how do you feel now? Are you feeling unwell?"
Yu Ning shook his head.
Ji Mingxia saw that he was completely intact, except for his habitually pale face, and he did not look like he was tortured by a ghost. He thought for a moment and asked again: "Then, can both eyes turn black?"
"It seems not." Yu Ning said.
Ji Mingxia was afraid that Yu Ning would be sad after hearing this, so she hurried to comfort him, "It's okay. When we get back, we'll buy a box of colored contact lenses, red, yellow, and green. You can match them according to your mood. Buy whatever color you want."
Upon hearing this, Yu Ning smiled faintly.
When he was young, he was particularly concerned about all the suffering these eyes brought him.
But as he grew up, he had already let it go.
When I was a child, I didn’t know there was such a thing as colored contact lenses, and I didn’t have the means to buy them. But when I grew up and saved some money for urgent needs, I can afford them.
But for him, it was totally unnecessary.
Everyone was afraid of him, terrified of him, and disgusted with him. The reason for this was his eyes, but it was not entirely because of his eyes. It was also because of the various rumors surrounding him.
And these rumors are not entirely false. After all, he can indeed see things that ordinary people cannot see.
He was born like this. People who care about him will not get close to him, and the only person who doesn't care about him so far is Ji Mingxia.
"Let's go back first." Yu Ning said to Ji Mingxia.
"That ghost..." Ji Mingxia pointed to the box not far away.
Yu Ning took out the bronze mirror that looked like an ornament and handed it to Ji Mingxia, saying, "It won't appear again."
Seeing the changes all around him just now, Ji Mingxia already had a premonition in his heart that Yu Ning, the protagonist of the cheat game, must have dealt with the mastermind behind the scenes, and they were safe again.
But what Ji Mingxia didn't expect was that Yu Ning actually got another mysterious item.
Moreover, this mysterious object was not the ring in Li You's hand, but a brand new mysterious object that looked like a miniature bronze mirror? !
"This is a new mysterious item... You actually got another mysterious item?!" Ji Mingxia was shocked, "Isn't it Li You who is causing trouble?"
"No, Li You is not in the hotel at all." Yu Ning said.
Ji Mingxia was stunned when he heard this, and his brain was completely confused.
Li You clearly stated on her Weibo that she was resting in Quanzhuang Resort.
On their first night at the hotel, when they encountered a mysterious incident for the first time, Zhao Zhuoyue saw with his own eyes a ghost who looked like Li You.
But now Yu Ning told him that Li You was not in the hotel at all
"All this...what on earth is going on?" Ji Mingxia was shocked.
Yu Ning held Ji Mingxia's wrist. Ji Mingxia had been hiding in the pavilion and blowing in the cold wind for a long time. His body temperature was now almost the same as Yu Ning's.
Yu Ning said: "It's windy here, let's go back and talk slowly."
"Oh, okay." Ji Mingxia's mind was full of various messy clues. After hearing what Yu Ning said, he nodded blankly and obediently followed Yu Ning to leave the lakeside and walked towards the room.
As soon as they returned to the double room, Yu Ning made hot tea for Ji Mingxia, and then placed the ring on his bracelet and the newly acquired bronze mirror on the coffee table.
The warm yellow light in the bedroom was so cozy, as if all the strange events that happened tonight were just a dream.
However, the two mysterious objects on the coffee table reminded Ji Mingxia that everything was true.
Although these two mysterious objects are very small, they glow under the light and are as exquisite as if they have life. It is obvious at first glance that they are not ordinary objects.
Ji Mingxia always felt that this bronze mirror looked somewhat familiar, but for a moment he couldn't remember where this familiar feeling came from.
It has been less than a month since he traveled through time.
In such a short period of time, he and Yu Ning obtained two mysterious items
Is this pace too fast
I’m afraid the protagonist’s attack on Pei Yuan is not as efficient as this.
Ji Mingxia felt mixed emotions when he saw the mysterious item.
But what he was more curious about at the moment was what was going on.
When Yu Ning saw Ji Mingxia's complexion return to normal after drinking a cup of hot tea, he slowly began to tell the story.
On the first day of staying in the hotel, they encountered a supernatural incident. Both Yu Ning and Ji Mingxia reflexively thought that all this was related to Li You.
After all, Li You posted his real-time location on Weibo, and Zhao Zhuoyue only encountered danger after seeing "Li You" with his own eyes.
It was not until the next day, when everyone lost their memories and Yu Ning himself encountered the faceless man, that he began to have doubts.
"No matter the way the ghost appears, the duration and coverage of the attack, or even the means by which the ghost materializes, they are all completely different from the first ring. So I tried to contact the hotel, and the performance of the hotel manager confirmed my guess." Yu Ning said.
Upon hearing this, Ji Mingxia carefully recalled all the details.
After the faceless man in the spa disappeared, Yu Ning immediately pulled him to investigate the hotel's surveillance. Ji Mingxia did have doubts in his heart at that time, but Yu Ning quickly gave an explanation.
If he remembered correctly, all doubts had been summarized after returning from the spa.
First, they confirmed that Zhao Zhuoyue and others were in a safe area. Only people with amnesia would not be targeted by ghosts.
Second, the ghosts are very mobile and their attack frequency is getting faster and faster. In order to protect themselves, they must act as soon as possible.
That's why they took the initiative to go to the Lakeside Restaurant late at night.
In Ji Mingxia's opinion, it was not just a brief confrontation with the hotel manager. It was already very difficult to extract these two important clues.
As a result, Yu Ning now told him that there was more known information, which was confirmed one by one in Yu Ning's mind.
Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning in shock, his mind full of question marks.
Obviously, the two of them were sticking together the whole time, and Yu Ning had experienced everything himself, so why did he seem to have lost his memory and couldn't find any clues?!
Although I have long known that there is a difference between academic elites and ordinary people, this difference... is too big!
"Apart from the two points we discussed...are there any other clues that I haven't noticed?" Ji Mingxia asked blankly.
In his view, the whole thing was very clear and simple. There was no small detail that he had overlooked, and he couldn't remember it no matter how hard he tried.
Seeing Ji Mingxia pondering, Yu Ning explained, "First, the ghost's different attack methods made me guess about the second mysterious item."
Ji Mingxia nodded seriously.
Yu Ning said: "We skipped the spa and went directly to the hotel to check the surveillance in order to prove whether the people with amnesia were just tourists or whether it covered everyone. This was the motivation for our unreasonable behavior."
They had discussed this point before. The reason they were able to confirm that Zhao Zhuoyue and others were safe was the result of reverse deduction based on this information.
Up to this point, everything was still within Ji Mingxia's understanding.
Like a student who was listening attentively to the lecture, he nodded again to show his understanding.
Yu Ning: "Then, our behavior is obviously unreasonable, why does the hotel cooperate with us?"
"Ah?" Ji Mingxia didn't expect Yu Ning to ask this question. He was stunned for a moment and was stuck in an instant.
He had never thought about this kind of reverse thinking at all.
Ji Mingxia said: "Maybe it's for the reputation of the hotel? After all, someone almost drowned the day before, and the next day..."
Yu Ning said to Ji Mingxia: "Mingxia, you are in a wrong way. Everyone in the hotel has lost their memory. Only the two of us have our memories."
Hearing this, Ji Mingxia stared at Yu Ning in a daze. After a few seconds, he suddenly reacted and almost jumped up from the ground.
Tong Jing is the person in charge of the hotel and can mobilize all the employees in the hotel.
The reason why they were able to see Tong Jing was because on the first night, Ji Mingxia and Zhao Zhuoyue both fell into the water and almost lost their lives.
In any hotel, any incident involving the life safety of customers is considered a major accident. In serious cases, it may even make the headlines.
This kind of incident must be resolved by the person in charge at the highest level.
But nothing happened in the spa the next day. To outsiders, it even seemed like Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning were just talking nonsense.
In this situation, a person in charge of Tong Jing's level not only showed up, but also cooperated very well...
Yu Ning said that he suspected the spa was not clean, so Tong Jing personally took people to the spa and checked it with great effort.
After finally finding out that there was no accident, not only did he not blame Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning, he even gave them gifts...
Ji Mingxia retained his memory of the previous day and did not think that Tong Jing's behavior was abnormal.
But once you get out of the misconception and think about it carefully, this is simply too unreasonable.
They are not just ordinary travelers. How could they deserve the hotel to cooperate with them so well
Yu Ning’s words really woke Ji Mingxia up. After Ji Mingxia realized this, he had no other thoughts except “What the hell” in his mind.
Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning and asked, "So, from that time on, you began to doubt Tong Jing?"
Yu Ning nodded: "Well, after checking the bill, I am almost 100% sure it is her."
"Check the bill?" Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning puzzledly.
Several seconds later, Ji Mingxia suddenly remembered that in the reception room, while waiting for the surveillance video to be sent back, Yu Ning rejected Tong Jing's kindness and asked her how much room fee would be refunded if they left that day.
Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning in shock: "I thought you were calculating the room fee to help Zhao Zhuoyue and the others figure out how much money they can get after checking out."
Yu Ning said: "They are safe and do not need to check out. It is actually us who should check out."
Ji Mingxia said: "But we came here for the ring, we can't leave..."
After discussing this, Ji Mingxia realized that Yu Ning's behavior of calculating the room fee seemed reasonable at first glance, but in reality, it was illogical.
But also because of the misconception in thinking, no one except Yu Ning himself would suspect that there was anything wrong with his behavior.
After all, since I had just expressed my dissatisfaction with the hotel, it was normal to check the bill.
Ji Mingxia asked: "So, why do you calculate the room fee?"
Yu Ning: "Do you remember, after you and Zhao Zhuoyue fell into the water, Tong Jing, as an apology, promised on behalf of the hotel the day before that we would all be upgraded to lifetime VIP members."
Ji Mingxia thought about it and it seemed to be the case.
But at that time, his attention was all on the supernatural events, and he didn't care about this kind of compensation at all.
Fortunately, this happened just two days ago, and Yu Ning reminded Ji Mingxia, who then barely remembered it. Otherwise, if it had been a little longer, Ji Mingxia would have forgotten this detail long ago.
Thinking of this, Ji Mingxia pondered: "The hotel promised us lifetime VIP membership, but everyone lost their memory the next day. You checked the room rate to see if the VIP membership promised the day before was still available the next day?"
Yu Ning nodded: "VIP member information is registered in the database. The unique energy of the mysterious item can make people lose their memory. I want to see if I can make the software lose its memory."
Ji Mingxia didn't expect that Yu Ning would even consider this detail.
This is simply the mysterious power versus the scientific power.
Ji Mingxia didn't know what to say. He thought it was just a normal surveillance check, but he didn't expect Yu Ning to have other intentions.
This was a silent and decisive move that killed two birds with one stone. Not only Tong Jingxuan, but even Ji Mingxia, as his teammate, had to admit defeat.
Ji Mingxia almost forgot about the VIP membership and the room charge, let alone paying attention to the details.
He looked at Yu Ning impatiently and asked, "What conclusion did you come to?"
Yu Ning said: "According to the room rate calculation results, in the hotel database, Zhao Zhuoyue and his friends are still ordinary users, and only the two of us are VIP members."
"Only the two of us? Didn't Zhao Zhuoyue and the others get an upgrade?" Ji Mingxia was surprised, and then suddenly remembered something, "Oh, I remember, the reason why we have VIP membership is that when we checked into the hotel, there were no double rooms at first, and then the hotel agreed to change the room temporarily and upgraded us to VIP membership."
Yu Ning: "Yes, they agreed temporarily and only gave us two upgrades. When Zhao Zhuoyue encountered the ghost, the ghost did not take the initiative to attack, but when it was our turn, it killed us with every move."
The scenes that happened in the past two days flashed back in his mind, and a chill gradually crept up Ji Mingxia's spine.
Ji Mingxia looked at Yu Ning and said, "You mean, Zhao Zhuoyue's accident was an accident, and the ghost itself didn't want to deal with him. Its only target was us two? The moment we entered the hotel... we were already targeted?"
Yu Ning nodded.
At this point, Ji Mingxia finally understood what was going on.
Mysterious objects can devour each other.
Tong Jing’s first prey should be Li You.
For some unknown reason, Li You is not in the hotel at the moment, but it doesn’t matter, Ji Mingxia and Yu Ning will be there soon.
They are all rings anyway, so it doesn't matter which one you eat, so Tong Jing naturally accepts both.
No wonder they were suddenly upgraded when there were clearly no rooms at the beginning. Ji Mingxia thought he was getting a good deal by paying, but it turned out that the other party had been eyeing them for a long time.
Giving VIPs this kind of benefit is itself a form of compensation to maintain the hotel's reputation.
Giving out benefits in advance will facilitate subsequent operations, which not only stabilizes the hotel's reputation, but also allows the prey to be eaten without making any noise.
I have to say that Tong Jing is very careful and experienced. If it weren't for Yu Ning, Ji Mingxia would not have known before she died that she was sold out.
Then, a new question arises. Tong Jing is so powerful, how did Yu Ning manage to not only defeat her but also subdue the bronze mirror
At least the two of them cooperated this time. Although Ji Mingxia did not play any role, he still participated in the whole process.
This time, because of the illusion, the two were separated. Ji Mingxia was running away the whole time, and in a short while, Yu Ning had already finished the job.
Facing Ji Mingxia's question, Yu Ning explained: "Do you remember what the driver you met said to you before we came to Quanzhuang Resort?"
"Driver? You mean... trapped in a maze?" Ji Mingxia said as he recalled.
Yu Ning: "For long-distance drivers, fatigue is most likely to occur at night. When people are tired, they will have various hallucinations. The most worrying situations during driving are, first, hitting something they shouldn't hit, and second, taking the wrong road, which is commonly known as "ghost wall".
Ji Mingxia entered the lecture mode again and looked at Yu Ning curiously: "This can only mean that there are supernatural events near the hotel. Is there any connection between this ring and the bronze mirror?"
Yu Ning patiently said, "The Ghost Wall happened a few years ago. At that time, Li You and Lin Siyun were just ordinary students and did not get the ring at all."
When Ji Mingxia was reminded by Yu Ning, he was shocked to realize that although these two things seemed to be the same thing, they were staggered in time.
In this way, not only can we confirm that what happened in the hotel may not be related to the ring, but we can also use this incident to deduce the approximate function of the other mysterious object.
After Yu Ning revealed so much information, Ji Mingxia's brain finally started to work.
He immediately perked up and guessed, "If the function of the other mysterious item is related to the ghost wall, and the ghost wall is related to the illusion, combined with Zhao Zhuoyue and the ghost you encountered, we can basically guess the behavior style of this mysterious item and its specific ability."
"That's right." Yu Ning said, "What it is best at is creating illusions and crushing people's hearts with fear."
We can infer from Tong Jing's methods of dealing with them that Tong Jing is careful and cautious by nature. From a certain perspective, she even cherishes her own nest very much and takes great care to maintain the environment and external reputation of the resort.
Fundamentally, the purpose is to create a safe environment so that she can lie in her nest and have food delivered to her door continuously.
This style of behavior has been implemented from the Ghost Wall to the reputable Quanzhuang Resort.
After all, if a long-distance delivery driver encounters a ghost while driving, he might die on the spot.
There are so many deaths on this road section that the government will definitely order a road closure.
Only the ghost wall, although scary, will not attract large-scale attention, which is in line with Tong Jing's steady eating style.
Therefore, since the establishment of Quanzhuang Resort, the ghost wall problem has disappeared without a trace.
The supernatural events that Ji Mingxia and others encountered after they checked into Quanzhuang Resort can indeed be explained by illusion and fear.
Ji Mingxia said: "So... the ghosts in Quanzhuang Resort are a reflection of people's inner fears.
“The reason why Zhao Zhuoyue saw Li You’s ghost was because he was obsessed with helping me find Li You;
“The reason why I saw Lin Siyun’s ghost is because deep down in my heart, what I fear most is her… The illusion materializes fear based on our inner thoughts.
"Once you are defeated by the fear in your heart, you will become Tong Jing's prey and fall into the trap of amnesia?"
When Ji Mingxia said this, he suddenly remembered something.
Based on this inference, the faceless man in the spa is actually the embodiment of Yu Ning's inner fear.