In the dead of the night.
“Knock knock knock—”
Someone was knocking on the door.
Tang Qizhuan had just fallen asleep, and Zhao Mingchong didn’t want to wake him, so he quickly went to the door.
Opening the door, outside stood someone in black clothes with black hair and a stern countenance.
Zhao Mingchong said, “So it was Mr. Baili.”
“I have something to ask you.” Baili Wuchang cut straight to the chase.
Zhao Mingchong nodded. “Let’s go outside to talk. I don’t want to disturb Xiao Zhuan’s rest. He only just fell asleep.”
If Tang Qizhuan woke up, he might behave like a roaring drunk again.
Baili Wuchang and Zhao Mingchong exited Room 0728 to talk in the hallway.
The hallway was empty save for the two of them. Zhao Mingchong asked, “Mr. Baili, are you going to ask about the psychic joss stone?”
Baili Wuchang said, “Who gave the psychic joss stone to you?”
Zhao Mingchong had mentioned before that he received the psychic joss stone from someone else. Someone wanted to get on Zhao Mingchong’s good side, so they gave him a strange little toy.
Zhao Mingchong didn’t try to hide it. “It was the head of a small TV studio who gave it to me. I didn’t think much about it at the time. After Xiao Zhuan had his accident, I put all my hopes into the psychic joss stone. I did think about finding that person before…”
At this, Baili Wuchang wrinkled his brow, a bad premonition in his heart.
“But,” Zhao Mingchong continued, “I couldn’t find that person anymore. The studio was too small, and it went bankrupt. The employees didn’t know that person’s whereabouts. When I called that person’s number, nobody picked up.”
Baili Wuchang’s brows furrowed even tighter. “Do you have any other leads?”
Zhao Mingchong contemplated before shaking his head. He said, “Not at all. His appearance was an extremely plain man. Thinking back, I can’t think of anything peculiar. I only remember his name…”
Zhao Mingchong thought carefully again before speaking. “I think it was something-Dong Ming.”
“What?” Baili Wuchang’s eyes flashed at the mention of the words “dong ming”.
Zhao Mingchong said confidently, “When he introduced himself, he was called Dong Ming. It was such a strange name, so I likely didn’t remember it wrong.”
“Dong Ming…” Baili Wuchang was a little bit lost in thought. “How could this be?”
Zhao Mingchong didn’t know why Baili Wuchang was lost in thought, but he quickly returned to Room 0728 to continue taking care of Tang Qizhuan. Baili Wuchang also turned and left.
The hallway once more became quiet, and not even a trace of a breath’s sound could be heard.
Not long after the door to Room 0728 closed, the door to the stairway next to the elevator was pushed open. Someone’s shadow peeked out from behind.
Fan Liangda wore his hotel uniform. He glanced at Room 0728, then he glanced in the direction Baili Wuchang left…
“Dong Ming…”
Fan Liangda softly repeated these words to himself before revealing a smile that wasn’t quite like a smile.
……
Ever since he had that thrilling nightmare, Wen Nuan hadn’t had such strange dreams again. However, that changed today when he was once more caught off guard by an astonishing matter.
Wen Nuan couldn’t believe it. How could his dream self be so bold and unconstrained? As soon as he opened his mouth, he started to hit on Baili Wuchang, even asking him if he wanted to become his person…
Of course, comparing this dream to the colorful dream from last time, this was nothing extravagant.
Wen Nuan was puzzled by his dream. He suddenly opened his eyes, jolting up from his bed.
He was the only one in the dorms. Wen Nuan blankly looked at the sun shining outside the window. He had once again slept until the afternoon…
“I dreamed about the nice waist guest again…”
Wen Nuan lifted a hand to press against his forehead. Everything was Baili Wuchang’s fault; before, his attitude was cool and indifferent. These past two days, he’d randomly appear wherever he was with a face full of “enthusiasm”, making Wen Nuan all confused.
Wen Nuan had been at the Hell Chain Hotel for a good length of time now. It wouldn’t be long before he finished his internship and became a formal employee, so his salary would increase by a considerable amount as well.
Wen Nuan felt like working here was more interesting than he ever could’ve imagined. Granted, it was terribly busy at times, busy to the point where Wen Nuan wished he could grow an extra set of hands.
The Hell Chain Hotel wasn’t just a place on the yin-yang borderline for guests to stay. It was also a place to rent out meeting rooms, hold auctions, etcetera. No matter what kind of company anniversary, wedding event, or Chinese New Year celebration, the Hell Chain Hotel was always a top choice.
The hotel had an extensive range of services. Sometimes when there were meetings, the guests coming and going would be off the charts, and the employees would therefore have to work harder than ever.
It was already eight in the evening. Wen Nuan got ready in his dorms, then went to the lobby front desk to start work.
Once he arrived on the first floor, Wen Nuan asked in surprise, “Senior Fan, are there people renting the space today?”
“That’s not the case,” Senior Fan replied as he greeted Wen Nuan with a smile. “Wen Nuan, you’re here.”
“It’s not?” Wen Nuan looked around curiously.
There were quite a few people in the lobby. They looked stern and professional, all wearing uniform suits. Wen Nuan had thought that there was a company gathering in the hotel or something.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Vb sbe’gf jii…?” rajgafv Qfc Rejc.
Hei Wuchang adjusted his necktie and said, “It’s nothing, really. There’s just a new mission. This new mission is a bit particular.”
It turned out that the guests wearing uniform suits in the hotel lobby were all ghost envoys. More specifically, they were all Baili Wuchang’s subordinates.
Wen Nuan usually only saw Heibai Wuchang. He rarely ever saw any other ghost envoys, so he never imagined that Baili Wuchang had that many subordinates.
Hei Wuchang said excitedly, “There’s an enthusiastic citizen who donated an unusual pillow to the Underworld Museum. Our mission this time is to transfer the pillow from the human world to Hell. Thus, we’re using the Hell Chain Hotel as a transit point.”
Wen Nuan had heard about how the ghost gates had opened, so there were many evil ghosts running around and wreaking havoc. At the present, there were still many evil ghosts who had yet to be apprehended, so the Underworld was in a state of alert. Everything required approval documents. Even the approval for passports became stricter.
An enthusiastic citizen wanted to give the Underworld Museum a “pillow”, and if it was in the past, a ghost envoy would’ve just taken it back to Hell with them. However, right now was a critical period. There were a few more audit procedures that needed to be done first. According to Hei Wuchang’s explanation, the audit hadn’t been conducted, so the “pillow” couldn’t yet cross the ghost gate.
Hei Wuchang said, “How annoying. At least it’s being transferred tonight. Hopefully by tomorrow, it’ll be approved, or else the night will be extra long.”
Wen Nuan could understand this process, but…
“Pillow?” Wen Nuan was extremely curious. “What kind of pillow needs that many people to protect it?”
There were so many ghost envoys in the hotel, all for the sake of protecting a pillow. Didn’t that seem too excessive?
“Little cutie, I don’t know about that.” Hei Wuchang was about to start gabbing again when he was stopped by a cough from Bai Wuchang.
Hei Wuchang turned around to see his boss Baili Wuchang return.
Like a bootlicking dog, Hei Wuchang plastered a smile onto his face and ran over. “Boss, the little cutie was just asking about the Youxian pillow.”
Baili Wuchang also wore a suit. He oozed an aura of formality, and Wen Nuan stared in rapture.
This kind of feeling was the same as in his dream when he saw Baili Wuchang for the first time.
“Thump thump!”
Wen Nuan heard his own heartbeat. It was loud and clear like a giant hammer, smashing his eardrums.
Baili Wuchang furrowed his brow. He reached a hand up to pull at his collar. The movement of him unbuttoning one of his buttons dazzled Wen Nuan’s eyes.
If he kept staring, Wen Nuan felt like he might get a nosebleed…
Baili Wuchang lowered his eyes at Wen Nuan. “The Youxian pillow? If you want to know, you can ask me anything.”
“I want to…”
Wen Nuan felt like he had been led astray, responding to Baili Wuchang without hesitation.
Baili Wuchang finished undoing a button on his suit before sitting down.
Wen Nuan’s gaze was like a hungry wolf. He quickly shifted his attention to Baili Wuchang’s long legs, admiring them to his heart’s content.
“As for the Youxian pillow, it can be considered a good thing,” Baili Wuchang said.
The Youxian pillow’s name sounded erudite in nature, like an artifact. It wasn’t an ordinary pillow. Legend had it that if one was to sleep upon this pillow, they would be able to enter a “mysterious dreamland”.
“Dream…” Wen Nuan faltered. Speaking of dreams, his entire brain was full of those words he said to Baili Wuchang…
—You…do you want to be my person, too?
Wen Nuan: “…” That’s too shameful!
Baili Wuchang continued, “The Youxian pillow not only brings the user into a dreamland, it can also use the dreams to twist reality.”
Wen Nuan didn’t quite understand. Was he talking about “dreams come true” or something?
Originally, the Youxian pillow was used for leisure. Just like how living people watched TV or played video games, it was something along those lines. However, later on, someone took interest in the Youxian pillow, wanting to use it to manufacture a dream that could break through reality.
In this way, the Youxian pillow also became a dangerous thing.
Baili Wuchang said, “The Youxian pillow went missing for years. Many people thought it was a myth. I didn’t imagine it to be in the living world all this time.”
The enthusiastic citizen from the living world wanted to give the Underworld Museum the Youxian pillow, and since Hell viewed the Youxian pillow with great importance, they didn’t want the Youxian pillow to fall into the clutches of an evil ghost harboring evil intentions. Therefore, they asked Baili Wuchang to come protect the Youxian pillow, safely transporting the Youxian pillow from the living world to the Underworld.
Wen Nuan nodded and said, “In short, it’s a really precious article. For something this important to be left at the hotel, it seems kind of unsafe.”
“That’s right, that’s what I said!” Hei Wuchang interjected from the side. “The higher ups have given us countless instructions about sending the Youxian pillow back to the Underworld as soon as possible without fail. But they themselves haven’t even finished the audit. Now that we’ve gotten the Youxian pillow, they still want us to wait. How annoying. If the Youxian pillow suddenly gets lost, is it their responsibility or ours?”
Once Hei Wuchang finished speaking, he felt a cold gaze upon him from Baili Wuchang.
Bai Wuchang said plainly, “With the boss here, the Youxian pillow definitely won’t be lost.”
“No no no, I didn’t mean that boss, I don’t have a crow’s mouth.” Hei Wuchang laughed awkwardly. Ol’ Bai’s bootlicking skills are getting better and better!
As they spoke, Fan Liangda came over. In his hands was a set of keys. He said, “These are the keys to the hotel’s strongroom. The strongroom has already been prepared. Lord Baili, please follow me.”
Baili Wuchang nodded. He stood up and motioned with his hand, and Heibai Wuchang immediately got to work.
In the time Wen Nuan blinked, they had gone off. He couldn’t laze around either, so he returned to the front desk to keep working.
The Youxian pillow was in the hotel, so it was specially kept in the strongroom.
Fan Liangda said, “I’ll watch over the keys. Lord Baili can arrange the ghost envoys to keep watch of the strongroom. That way, there’ll be double safety. The Youxian pillow absolutely won’t go anywhere.”
Baili Wuchang nodded and looked at Heibai Wuchang.
Hei Wuchang quickly caught on and said, “Boss, don’t worry. Bai Wuchang and I will personally stand guard outside the strongroom. We won’t step away for even a moment. No cat or dog, person or ghost will distract us from our post.”
Baili Wuchang hummed calmly in response. “If anything happens to the pillow, I’ll have you take a bath in the Wangchuan River.”
“I understand.” Hei Wuchang stood as straight as a pencil and said, “I guarantee this mission will be completed perfectly.”
Wen Nuan stayed on the first floor to work. He was a bit curious as to what the Youxian pillow looked like. This one pillow was hyped up quite a bit. Just how could it make a dreamland alter reality?
“I really want to have a glimpse of the Youxian pillow, too,” his coworker next to him said wistfully. “If I could use the Youxian pillow, I would definitely use it to make a top-notch beautiful dream.”
Wen Nuan asked,” What beautiful dream?”
“Do I even need to say?” His coworker was a bit embarrassed, raising a hand and whispering, “In my dream, I would absolutely make Lord Baili my boyfriend!”
Wen Nuan: “…” Uh…
So it wasn’t just him who was obsessed with Baili Wuchang. After all, who let Baili Wuchang have such a high-quality face?
Hearing about his coworker’s fantasies, Wen Nuan was once more reminded of his own dream. It seemed like he already had them beat.
Dreaming about having Baili Wuchang as a boyfriend was nothing. In one dream, Wen Nuan went straight ahead and slept with him!
The coworker continued, “I heard that when you dream with the Youxian pillow, your dreams can alter reality. No matter how cold and callous Lord Baili was to me in the past, after I wake up, he’ll love me until he goes wild and crazy!”
Wen Nuan: “…”
Wen Nuan felt like he was going to fall ill from this secondhand embarrassment. The handsome high-powered businessman dramas Baili Wuchang loved to watch weren’t even this weird in plot.
“Wen Nuan!” The coworker was quite bored, asking, “What would you want to dream of?”
“Me?” Wen Nuan faltered. Being asked so suddenly, his mind drew a blank.
In the next moment, Wen Nuan’s brain conjured up Baili Wuchang’s flawless countenance, his tall, straight, and perfect figure, and his rough and magnetic voice.
“Ba-thump…” Wen Nuan quickly shook his head. He laughed dryly, “I’d dream about having lots and lots of money?”
The two of them chatted the day away. There weren’t any guests, anyway, so the night was quite leisurely.
Wen Nuan had clearly slept through the afternoon, but he didn’t know why he was a bit tired again, his eyelids feeling especially heavy.
Raising his eyes to glance at the clock, he saw it was only one in the morning. It was still a while until he got off work…
“I need to keep my spirits up,” Wen Nuan said to himself. “But how do I keep my spirits up?”
He poked at his own face, but it wasn’t very effective.
“What did you say?!”
“How could that be?”
“It’s gone? How could it be gone?”
There was a sudden round of shouts that entered Wen Nuan’s periphery, scaring his drowsiness away.
Wen Nuan turned towards the noise to see a couple of ghost envoys in a haste. It seemed like something had happened.
Gone?
Wen Nuan thought of the Youxian pillow he had just heard about.
“It couldn’t be that the Youxian pillow is gone, could it?” Wen Nuan blinked. “No way. How could there be such a coincidence?”
The first floor elevator opened, and someone walked out. It was Baili Wuchang.
Baili Wuchang’s face was dark. As he walked, he said, “Find it, quickly! Bring out all the surveillance camera recordings.”
“Yes!” Hei Wuchang stood at his side. Even he couldn’t smile at this time. “Boss, Ol’ Bai and I already told Fan Liangda to put the hotel on lockdown. If the thief is still in the hotel, we’ll dig him out in no time.”
“I’m just afraid…” Hei Wuchang hesitated, whispering, “I’m just afraid that the thief might have left the hotel already.”
Wen Nuan was flabbergasted. He didn’t think there would be such a coincidence. The Youxian pillow had just arrived at the hotel, and it hadn’t even been five minutes before it suddenly disappeared without a trace.
Fan Liangda had promptly put the hotel on lockdown; not even the employees were allowed to leave. An emergency investigation began in hopes that they would quickly be able to locate the Youxian pillow’s whereabouts.
Under normal circumstances, the Youxian pillow should have been in the hotel’s strongroom. There was only one set of keys, and it was under Fan Liangda’s guard. Besides this set of keys, there was no other way to open the safe where the Youxian pillow was kept. The level of security was especially high. Heibai Wuchang had been standing guard outside the doors as well, so not even a fly could get past them. But in the end, the Youxian pillow vanished.
Fan Liangda said the keys had never left his side. Heibai Wuchang said they didn’t see anyone go into the strongroom, so they didn’t see even a hair of this thief go by.
There was only one door to the strongroom, and it was a special room in the Hell Chain Hotel. There was a secret barrier system set in place, so besides going straight through this door, there was no other way to enter the strongroom.
“It sounds as if there’s been a ghost…”
Wen Nuan mumbled to himself. The Youxian pillow going missing was even more surprising than encountering a ghost.
The Youxian pillow was noticed to be gone around one in the morning. Baili Wuchang, being worried, had gone to the strongroom to check on it. The door hadn’t been broken into. Heibai Wuchang were standing out front. Baili Wuchang and Fan Liangda arrived together, so using the key, they opened the safe to find that the Youxian pillow was gone.
If Baili Wuchang hadn’t gone to check, perhaps nobody would have noticed that the pillow was ever gone.
The hotel was now on lockdown. Fan Liangda had started the investigation.
What was curious was that the strongroom security camera had been tampered with early on. It was broken, so nothing had been caught on tape.
Baili Wuchang’s entire body emitted a bone-chilling aura, making people tremble uncontrollably.
The way Wen Nuan saw it, this whole thing had been premeditated. Someone had wanted to cause an “accident” in advance, having taken notice of the Youxian pillow.
Baili Wuchang had Heibai Wuchang search through the entire hotel. He himself made a list of names to search outside the hotel.
Fan Liangda printed out the list and said, “We’ve checked that from eight in the evening to one in the morning today, there were a total of eight guests who left the hotel, which isn’t many. However, these are just the people who were checked in. Apart from them, there were about fifty-three guests who were not checked in, but had passed through the hotel doors.”
Those fifty-three guests had gone either to the hotel restaurant, the upstairs gym, or one of the meeting rooms. In any case, as long as they were in the hotel during that time, they were suspects.
Baili Wuchang took the list and said, “I’ll take some people to search for them one by one.”
He turned to leave, not wanting to waste a second.
Although, Baili Wuchang had only taken a single step before he paused. He looked at Wen Nuan and said in a deep voice, “Before I come back, don’t go running all over the place.”
“Me, running all over the place?” Wen Nuan said, confused. “When have I ever run all over the place?”
Baili Wuchang replied, “In short, when I’m not by your side, you have to be careful.”
After saying this, he quickly and confidently left, leaving only his shadow for Wen Nuan to see.
Wen Nuan stared at Baili Wuchang’s retreating figure in a daze. Recently, the nice-waist guest had been acting weirder and weirder. For some reason, those words he said earlier sounded like something one would say to a lover.
Wen Nuan slapped his face and said to himself, “I’m done for. I don’t even need the Youxian pillow to start dreaming.”
That night the Youxian pillow was stolen, it wasn’t just the ghost envoys who were working to the bone, but also the hotel employees who had to work overtime to help with the search.
Wen Nuan ran up and down the entire hotel. His entire face was covered in sweat, unable to catch a break.
Fan Liangda was worried just looking at Wen Nuan. “Wen Nuan, your complexion doesn’t look too good. It’s almost daybreak, so you should rest. The day shift workers will continue the search.”
Wen Nuan was indeed tired to the core. He wanted to help, but he also wanted to rest, or else he wouldn’t be much help at all.
Nodding, Wen Nuan prepared to go back to his room and rest. He ate a slapdash meal of bread and such before he had to get back to work.
Along the way, he was lost in thought. How did the Youxian pillow disappear? No matter how he thought about it, the whole thing seemed preposterous.
“Ka-chak—”
He opened the door to his room, but before he could close it behind him, he gasped in surprise.
“What’s this?”
When Wen Nuan left his room previously, everything was the same as it usually was. Now, upon returning, he found something laid on his bed.
It was unfamiliar, as he had never seen it before. The thing was square-shaped, and it was placed on the headboard.
Wen Nuan briskly walked closer to look at it closely, gasping once more in shock.
The square-shaped thing upon his bed was likely made out of jade. It looked beautiful and unadorned, no doubt an artifact from ancient times. More importantly…
It was undoubtedly a pillow.
“The Youxian pillow?!”
Wen Nuan had only just heard of the Youxian pillow, so he’d never seen it before. However, just looking at this pillow’s appearance, Wen Nuan could only guess one thing.
“What’s it doing in my room?” Reaching out to feel the jade, Wen Nuan found it cool to the touch.
He picked up the jade pillow, wanting to quickly bring it downstairs for Fan Liangda and Heibai Wuchang to see whether or not this really was the Youxian pillow.
“Oh—!”
Holding the jade pillow, Wen Nuan didn’t even get to turn around before he saw a shadow appear on the ground.
Someone was standing behind him.
That person had entered at an unknown time. They reached out with a swift chop. Wen Nuan felt a sharp pain in his neck. He choked out a breath before everything went dark, falling unconscious.
As Wen Nuan fainted, his body softened, and the jade pillow in his hands fell towards the ground.
The person who knocked Wen Nuan out reached one hand out to grab him by the waist, and one hand to grab the falling pillow. Finally, he put both things together on the bed.
It was completely dark in the room. The uninvited guest’s face was completely shadowed.
In the shadows, after setting Wen Nuan down, he tucked the Youxian pillow underneath Wen Nuan’s head, allowing Wen Nuan to properly sleep upon the Youxian pillow.
After doing all this, the uninvited guest said three words to Wen Nuan.
“I am sorry…”
Thanks for the chapter!
Anyone else think it’s…..
Thanks for the chapter!
Anyone else think it’s…..
I’m suspecting this is Baili Wuchang for some reason.. Also, Fan Liangda I can’t figure you out 😭
Senior fan is definitely sus… What does he want with that dong ming person.. And oh oh oh, what kind of reality will wen nuan change now that he’s asleep on the youxian pillow? OwO