Hospital 444
Chapter 696 - 8 The Owner of Eden Hotel

Chapter 696: Chapter 8 The Owner of Eden Hotel

When Gao Menghua’s consciousness cleared, she found herself in the lobby of the Eden Hotel.

She didn’t even remember when she arrived here. Among her fellow tenants, only Xia Li and Ziye were left.

The humid and musty smell mixed with some rotting odor hit her, making Gao Menghua’s toes tremble slightly. She instinctively clenched her hands, her knuckles whitening from the force.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Ying Ziye’s voice came from behind, tinged with a barely noticeable tension.

Gao Menghua did not answer immediately.

Her gaze swept past the cobweb-covered reception desk and landed on the crystal chandelier that was still lit — fourteen years had passed, and this light was still working.

The dark red stains spreading across the wallpaper resembled dried-up blood or traces of fungal growth. In the lounge area on the right side of the lobby, she remembered that she had once been there with He Yan...

He...

He Yan? Who is He Yan?

"This is the place." She finally spoke, her voice steadier than she imagined, "Eden Hotel, the place where prophecies are unfailingly accurate."

Xia Li took out a bronze compass, its needle spun wildly for a few cycles before pointing toward the elevator.

This was the cursed object Yin Wuque had given him before he died.

Ying Ziye inspected the talisman on his surgical scalpel, the silver blade glinting coldly in the dim light.

Gao Menghua stepped forward toward the reception desk. The hem of her white coat brushed the ground, stirring up tiny specks of dust. With each step, childhood memories flashed back in her mind like an old film reel — her mother squatting down to straighten the creases in her skirt, the sound of her father’s pen scratching across the paper as he signed in at the reception desk, and the voice of the unseen boss transmitting through a telephone speaker mixed with electronic noise. At that time, the boss only appeared when performing prophecies.

A winding crack marred the marble surface of the reception desk, Gao Menghua’s fingers brushed past the dust-covered register. What sent chills down her spine was finding three familiar names on the latest page of the register — the signatures of the other accompanying tenants, dated yesterday.

"Impossible..." She snapped the register shut, but the next second she heard the "ding" of the elevator.

The three turned simultaneously. The elevator door opened slowly, revealing a bellboy in a scarlet uniform standing inside, his face pallid with an eerie, standard expression.

Gao Menghua’s blood froze instantly. This bellboy — she knew him. Fourteen years ago, it was this bellboy who took her parents to the prophecy room, and they never returned.

"Are you human or ghost?" Ying Ziye stepped forward, twirling the surgical scalpel in his fingers, "Take us to see the hotel owner."

The bellboy’s pallid face remained unchanged, as if his facial muscles were frozen in that particular expression.

Xia Li’s compass suddenly emitted a sharp buzzing sound, its needle swinging violently as if manipulated by an invisible hand.

"He’s an apparition... the harmless kind."

Gao Menghua suddenly noticed a dark stain circling the bellboy’s uniform collar — stitching marks. This realization made her stomach churn.

"Follow me." The bellboy’s movements were unnaturally stiff as he turned and walked into the elevator, "The boss doesn’t like waiting."

Ying Ziye glanced at Gao Menghua, silently asking for confirmation. She took a deep breath and nodded. The three stepped into the elevator, and the bellboy pressed the top floor button. As the door closed, Gao Menghua distinctly saw two blurry figures sitting on the lobby sofa — one wearing her mother’s favorite lavender dress, the other sporting her father’s signature slicked-back hair.

She didn’t even have time to scream before the elevator door shut.

The elevator began to ascend, making creaking sounds as if straining under a heavy load. Xia Li stared at the jumping floor numbers and suddenly frowned: "This building has twelve floors? From the outside it looked like it had at most six."

Gao Menghua just then realized something was wrong. She had lived here as a child, and the hotel indeed had only six floors. Yet the elevator buttons listed up to "19", and they were now passing the "8th" floor.

"Space distortion." Ying Ziye whispered, "This place is no longer fully within our dimension. It is likely due to the Demon Cursed Item from Sargeni back then."

The elevator stopped at the "19th" floor, revealing a corridor lined with deeply red carpeting, and walls adorned with countless mirrors. Gao Menghua glanced at the nearest mirror, horrified to find that her reflection did not follow her real movements, but instead stared directly at her, a slow smile creeping across its face.

"Don’t look at the mirrors." She urgently warned her companions, "They are not reflections."

The bellboy led them to a black door at the end of the corridor, a gold-painted eye design on the door stared back at them. "The boss has been waiting for a long time." The bellboy bowed so deeply his head nearly touched his knees, "May your prophecy be fruitful."

Having said that, he turned and left, his footsteps on the carpet making no sound.

Gao Menghua turned to look again, but the bellboy had already vanished.

Gao Menghua placed her hand on the door handle, the coldness of the metal reminding her of the morgue at Hospital 444.

"My parents disappeared after entering this door." She said softly.

The terrifying memories of that time were still vivid, if not for Doctor Jiang from Hospital 444, she wouldn’t be alive now.

Ying Ziye already had three syringes filled with clear liquid prepared.

Yin Wuque had given them all his most treasured items.

"This is Karma Ghost Spinal Fluid, extremely rare even in the hospital, effective against Ferocious Spirits. If anything moves, inject first and ask questions later."

This fluid is usually extracted during operations by removing parts of the Karma Ghost that can visualize in the Three-Dimensional Space. It’s a rare substance, only the deputy director Yin Wuque could provide them.

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