Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Qingshan Hotel Murder Case (Part 1)
Having a water fight with beautiful girls was indeed a delightful experience. Watching the streams of water arc through the air, hitting their lovely bodies, eliciting shrieks and laughter, their calls of “Lu Li” echoing around him, he felt a sense of euphoria. If only the rest of my life could be this blissful.
Lu Li’s water gun malfunctioned, forcing him to retreat to the small supermarket near the Qingshan Hotel for a replacement weapon.
As he walked, he took out his phone to check his messages. The sunlight was so bright that he had to shield the screen with his hand to read a message from “Zhu Xi”: “Can I call you Lu Li from now on?” The Fourteenth Princess is at it again. Lu Li casually replied, “Sure.” “Zhu Xi” then said that he could call her Xiao Qiao.
Xiao Qiao… The name didn’t suit the fox-eyed Zhu Xi at all. So Zhu Xi’s nickname is Xiao Qiao. Is this a sign of our growing closeness?
Lu Li bought a red and yellow water gun. As he left the supermarket, he saw the Qingshan Hotel’s cleaning lady carrying a large bag towards the back alley. Her hearing was poor, and her eyesight wasn’t much better; she didn’t notice him waving. The bag looked heavy. Curious, he followed her, watching as she walked towards the incinerator and pulled out a black, plastic-wrapped object.
Besides the black plastic, the object was also tightly wrapped in gray plastic, but he could still make out the rough shape of a human body. A human body? Did the Qingshan Hotel use mannequins? Hesitant to disturb her, Lu Li hid behind a dumpster, observing the cleaning lady.
The woman, in her fifties, struggled to shove the human-shaped object into the incinerator, then hurried back towards the hotel. Lu Li remained hidden, unnoticed.
After she left, Lu Li emerged from the alley, frowning. Perhaps An Baili’s ghost stories had gotten to him, but he couldn’t shake off a sense of unease.
When he returned to the beach, the girls were lounging on their chairs, their swimsuits damp. An Baili pouted when she saw him. “Li, where have you been?”
Lu Li decided not to mention his discovery; unfounded speculation would only worry them. He aimed his new water gun at Sister Yameng and fired. “You’re already tired? I’m still full of energy!”
Sister Yameng rolled her eyes at him. “You were sleeping with your head on Hupo’s lap all morning, of course you’re full of energy.”
At her words, the other girls turned to look at Wen Hupo, who calmly brushed her wet hair aside, her expression unchanged. Chu Jingyi pouted, a pang of jealousy stabbing at her heart. The feeling was becoming more frequent, more intense, like someone was scooping out her heart with a small spoon. He was her boyfriend, so why was he so close to other girls, to everyone but her?
Lu Li noticed Silly Goose’s mood. Of all the girls, she was the most sensitive, harboring unrealistic fantasies about love, fantasies he was reluctant to shatter. He sat beside her. “Can I use you as a pillow next time?”
“…Okay…” Silly Goose was easily appeased. Lu Li hadn’t even started his usual charm offensive, and she’d already forgiven him.
Chen Jianing watched them silently, her expression darkening. She picked up a slice of watermelon and started eating, her spirits low. Hmph… This watermelon isn’t even sweet. Grandma’s watermelons back home are huge and sweet, too bad the heartless Lu Li will never get to taste them… Hmph… He’ll regret it when he finds out.
As the girls chatted idly, the topic turned to Lu Li’s inability to swim. Zou Yameng volunteered to teach him. The other girls decided to play blind man’s buff. Lu Li, finding the game rather enticing, wanted to join, but Sister Yameng’s glare stopped him.
Lu Li rubbed his earlobe. Ever since Sister Yameng had confessed her feelings, she’d become more controlling, less like a sister and more like a wife.
“I’m not completely helpless in the water. You’re exaggerating… And who can drown in a city? Chen Jianing was just being dramatic.” Despite his protests, Sister Yameng remained silent.
“Sister?”
“Li,” she said, her tone making him straighten up, “which of those girls do you like the most?”
Which one do I like the most? An Baili’s smiling face appeared in his mind. Despite her past mistakes and flaws, she was changing, evolving. The An Baili of this life had overcome some inner demons and was becoming more and more like a normal girl. And he still carried the weight of their promise to see the white dolphins, a responsibility he felt deeply.
So is An Baili the one I like the most?
As he was about to nod, Wen Hupo’s image surfaced in his mind. His affection for her was like a migratory bird’s yearning for home, an unbreakable bond. When they were together, they were like two kites flying side by side, soaring through the vast sky.
Then is it Wen Hupo?
But Chu Jingyi also evoked similar feelings. She was like the person holding the kite string, allowing him to fly freely, knowing he could always look back and see her loving, forgiving smile. She had placed all her hopes for love on him, a burden and an honor.
Then is it Chu Jingyi?
Lu Li shook his head. “Definitely not Chen Jianing.”
Zou Yameng said calmly, “She’ll be heartbroken.”
“She might have some feelings for me, but it’s not romantic love.” Lu Li drew on his experience from his past life. Chen Jianing had repeatedly emphasized that she liked tall, muscular, athletic, and outgoing guys, not sensitive, poetic boys like him. Whenever he’d mistakenly thought she might have feelings for him, she would remind him of her preferences, telling him not to be so conceited.
Zou Yameng didn’t comment, simply continuing, “What about the other three?”
“Zou Yameng.”
Sister Yameng smiled. “Besides your sister?” Her smile widened.
Besides Sister Yameng… Does he really have to choose?
He hated multiple-choice questions. Test papers were always full of them, demanding a single, correct answer. But he wanted to argue that there was no single right answer in life, no predetermined path to happiness. Why did he have to choose?
“You’re not allowed to say you like them all equally,” Zou Yameng said, cutting him off. “Love always has a hierarchy. You’re not a machine; you can’t divide your love equally down to the decimal point.”
Who do I like the most?
The seemingly simple question plunged Lu Li into deep thought.
Chapter Thirty: The Qingshan Hotel Murder Case (Part 2)
Who do I like the most?
Lu Li continued pondering the question even during their seafood dinner that evening.
The expressionless cleaning lady served dish after dish of seafood. Lu Li stared at a large mantis shrimp, finding its appearance rather intimidating. Curled up in the shallow porcelain bowl, it resembled a giant centipede.
“Lu Li, what are you thinking about?” Chu Jingyi, sitting beside him, asked. “You’ve been distracted all afternoon. Is something troubling you?”
He was indeed troubled.
Lu Li stroked his chin, the hairs still soft, not the rough stubble of his later years. Should I shave? Or grow a beard? A man who never grows a beard is missing out on a crucial life experience.
So, who do I like the most?
He looked at the three girls sitting around the low wooden table: An Baili, with her charming smile; Chu Jingyi, gentle and shy; and Wen Hupo, calm and composed. He felt like he was facing the biggest dilemma of his life. As Sister Yameng had said, he wasn’t a robot; he couldn’t divide his love equally. But could such an abstract concept as love truly be quantified? As a child, love had been the one-yuan sausages Sister Yameng cooked for him. As he grew older, love became the certificates of merit and scholarships from his teachers. And now, what did love mean to him?
“Yi, do you love your mother or your father more?” Lu Li asked Chu Jingyi.
“Huh? Isn’t that a question for little kids?” Chu Jingyi looked surprised. “Of course I love them both. My mother gave birth to me, my father provided for me, and they both raised me. There’s no difference.”
“If your mother and father both fell into the water, who would you save?” It was a silly question.
Chu Jingyi frowned, considering the question seriously. Wen Hupo, who had been listening, said, “Such extreme moral dilemmas are meaningless. Answers given under extreme circumstances are merely instinctive reactions, not reflections of one’s true values. Like the five explorers trapped in a cave, whether extreme situations should be judged by normal ethical and legal standards is debatable.”
“What are you guys talking about?” An Baili asked, confused.
“What if there was a situation where you had to choose?” Lu Li looked at Wen Hupo.
Wen Hupo stirred her dipping sauce. “Lu Li, hasn’t human civilization progressed to this point precisely to give people more choices, to minimize the occurrence of such extreme situations?”
Her words sparked something in Lu Li’s mind. He felt like he was grasping at an elusive thought.
Just as he was about to speak, he heard a soft “whoosh,” then a faint pop, and then darkness descended. The room plunged into blackness. He could only make out the large bowl of mantis shrimp in front of him, its spiny form and mottled shell looking grotesque in the dim moonlight filtering through the cracks in the closed window.
Chen Jianing let out a short, sharp scream, like a whistle. Silly Goose gasped softly and immediately grabbed Lu Li’s arm, moving closer to him in the darkness.
An Baili, usually the timid and easily frightened one, remained surprisingly calm. She reached out and took his hand, as if comforting him. Lu Li looked towards her in surprise, able to see only her silhouette in the darkness. Perhaps he had underestimated her transformation.
Wen Hupo remained seated, but he’d noticed her flinch at the sudden darkness. She probably hoped he hadn’t seen her momentary fear.
Sister Yameng, sitting opposite him, stood up abruptly. “Don’t move, everyone. The power probably went out.”
Lu Li’s voice followed. “Everyone huddle together and hold hands. It’s probably just a power outage. Chen Jianing, come sit in the middle.” Little Tiger was the most easily frightened, so she should be in the middle, where she’d feel safer.
As their initial panic subsided, they heard the cleaning lady’s voice from outside. “Sorry, the hotel hasn’t had so many guests in a long time. The fuse blew. We’re getting someone to fix it.”
So it really was a power outage?
Lu Li suddenly recalled the scene he’d witnessed earlier that day: the cleaning lady’s emotionless face as she shoved the human-shaped bundle into the incinerator. He then remembered An Baili’s stories about the hotel, and a sense of unease washed over him.
Human society had progressed to avoid such extreme situations. But what if they still occurred? What if there really was a killer lurking in this hotel, and one of them had to be sacrificed? Who would he choose to live, and who would he choose to die?
An Baili’s voice broke the silence, her words ill-timed. “Could it be the murderer?”
Her words rekindled the forgotten rumors of the murderer, sending shivers down the girls’ spines, even Wen Hupo and Zou Yameng feeling a flicker of fear in the oppressive darkness.
Lu Li quickly said, “Don’t scare yourselves. Stay close together, and don’t wander off. I’ll open the window and let some moonlight in.”
As he stood up, he felt a tug on his robe. Silly Goose was clinging to him, afraid of his sudden departure. He patted her head gently. “I’m just opening the window. I’ll be right back.”
He pushed open the wooden shutters, letting the pale moonlight stream into the dining room, illuminating their surroundings.
“Why would a hotel like this have a power outage?” Chen Jianing asked nervously.
So easily scared. Lu Li thought. She had thought she was dying when she’d caught the flu. She was a master of self-induced fear.
“Someone must have done it on purpose. It’s always like this in horror movies,” Chu Jingyi whispered. “First, there’s always an athletic character who doesn’t believe in the supernatural and goes out to investigate, then they encounter the killer.” Everyone instinctively looked at Zou Yameng.
“Then there’s the popular girl, who likes to wander off alone and gets caught by the killer.” Everyone looked at Wen Hupo.
“And the only survivors are usually a black guy and the main characters. The black guy sacrifices himself to save the others, yelling ‘Don’t worry about me! Run!’ And the main characters stumble around like they’re possessed, the girl always tripping over something ridiculous.” Chu Jingyi continued, drawing on her years of horror movie expertise.
Chen Jianing’s voice trembled. “Stop it! It sounds like you’re talking about us.”
“We don’t have a black guy,” Silly Goose said seriously.
As the girls chatted, they suddenly heard heavy footsteps outside. They were slow and deliberate, like a lead-filled container being dragged across the floor. The cleaning lady couldn’t possibly walk like that. A faint metallic scraping sound accompanied the footsteps, making Lu Li imagine someone dragging a chain.
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