Chapter Fifty-Five: How Could One Survive?

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Tongguan listened to the footsteps growing fainter and more urgent, his smile slowly fading from his face. Gradually, he turned to the little girl beside him, her eyes red-rimmed and tear-streaked. On the eighteenth floor, only the two of them remained.

He smoothed his slightly wrinkled clothes and approached her, bending down to gently wipe the tears from her cheek with his hand.

"Xiaoqi, would you be willing to help me?"

The fragile little shoulders trembled slightly under the warmth of his palm, and after a moment of tension, her small face tightened and she nodded.

"I’m willing to help you. Uncle, can you take me home afterward?"

Tongguan gazed into those pure, unblemished eyes and smiled kindly, nodding in return.

...

On the eighteenth floor, there was a room unlike any other in the building — the surveillance room.

Once occupied by Ji Li and Li Xing, it was now held by two very different individuals.

The cold glow of the fluorescent screens cast an icy light on Tongguan’s face, making Xiaoqi even more uneasy.

Tongguan settled into a chair and began manipulating the monitors, searching for Li Xing’s whereabouts.

Aside from the unique presence of Ji Li, the building now contained only one employee and a number of ghosts.

No ghosts lingered near Tongguan; the last was within Li Xing’s body.

No one knew when Li Xing had died, but since their last encounter, Tongguan was certain he was completely possessed by a ghost.

Under normal circumstances, the only way for Tongguan to complete his mission was to actively locate Li Xing.

Now that he understood the true nature of the task, and the hotel had granted him a method to dispel ghostly attacks, he was fully capable of resolving the situation with a mere thought and safely handing over the ghost attached to Li Xing.

Thus, he found himself in the surveillance room.

His goal was to determine Li Xing’s current location, but that wasn’t the entire plan.

From Tongguan’s perspective, seeking Li Xing in person was unreliable.

They knew Li Xing was possessed, but if the ghost left him, it would become a purely ethereal entity.

Without the ability to see or sense it, searching on foot could easily result in the ghost immediately possessing and killing him.

After all, based on the previous mutual accusations between Fang Shenyen and Yu Guo, once possessed, even one’s thoughts would abruptly cease.

With this in mind, Tongguan was performing a rather strange act.

He placed his spare phone in front of the screen as a stand, positioning the camera to face his own face.

Staring at his reflection on the phone screen, he began to speak softly and repeatedly:

“The ghost is on me, the ghost is on me, the ghost is on me...”

Just that simple phrase, repeated over and over, until he recorded a short video lasting about one and a half minutes.

Afterward, he lifted his hand slightly to stabilize the phone, ensuring it remained pointed directly at him, and set the video to loop.

The low, strange male voice echoed through the enclosed room, sounding like a bizarre chant or hum.

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Tongguan’s purpose was to actively attract the ghost.

He now knew the true mission time was twelve hours. The ghost had two targets: himself, the employee carrying out the task, and Xiaoqi, an outsider.

However, Tongguan guessed that Xiaoqi posed no threat to the ghost under the hotel’s rules.

Only Tongguan’s unique status allowed him to hand over the ghost to the hotel, so the ghost would inevitably focus its efforts on him.

The rule that allowed identification of ghosts by any means was something Tongguan expanded upon by pre-recording the identification video, ensuring that even if his consciousness ceased the moment the ghost arrived, the video would still reveal its location.

This was Tongguan’s plan, though it seemed overly optimistic.

Having done all this, Tongguan turned to Xiaoqi, eyes shining with a certain hope, and asked:

“Are you ready?”

Xiaoqi rubbed her reddened eyes and nodded firmly.

“Xiaoqi is ready.”

...

Time passed little by little; the sky outside began to pale with dawn.

Still, the fierce downpour showed no sign of stopping, washing over street billboards and soaking the three employees waiting outside the building.

Inside the surveillance room, Tongguan remained alert, his eyes fixed unblinking on the phone screen.

Xiaoqi, meanwhile, was growing weary. Thankfully, she had taken a short nap earlier in the night; otherwise, she would not have been able to endure this long.

Her small hands twisted together tightly on her lap. Though she was not involved in Tongguan’s plan, her nervousness about what was to come was evident.

Tongguan silently counted thousands of numbers, waiting for the ghost’s sudden attack, but no movement came.

After another tense twenty minutes, he glanced at his watch. It was 5:30 AM.

Dawn was near.

Taking a deep breath, Tongguan couldn’t help but admire the ghost’s patience after such a long wait.

Suddenly, his eyelids grew heavy and dry. Instinctively, he raised his hand to rub his eyes.

At that very moment, as his palm touched his brow, a sharp, intense intuition swept through his mind!

His hairs stood on end as he snapped his head toward the surveillance room door.

Though it was empty, his instincts screamed that something had already entered!

Before he could react, his arm stiffened abruptly!

In an instant, his upper body froze!

Tongguan’s head remained turned, which only hastened the ghost’s deadly control!

The video facing him continued playing, repeating the words, “The ghost is on me...”

As long as the video completed those five words, Tongguan’s absurd method could bring the mission to a complete close.

But the next moment, the video was unable to finish the phrase because Tongguan’s controlled body did not immediately break its own neck.

Instead, the ghost-controlled hand grasped the still-playing phone fiercely!

Then, with ruthless force, it smashed the device to the floor!

“Crack!”

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The phone shattered instantly.

Tongguan’s plan seemed to have failed; relying on a recorded video to identify the ghost was perhaps wishful thinking.

The ghost’s move was cunning — it did not rush to kill Tongguan but first destroyed the identification tool.

Tongguan’s head was held by the ghost-controlled hand, and his struggling only hastened his death.

Yet, at that moment, the ghost overlooked one thing — another living person watching from a corner of the surveillance room.

Xiaoqi was not the ghost’s primary target, since as a non-employee, she had no authority or ability to identify it, posing no threat.

But suddenly, Xiaoqi dropped the stuffed bear she held onto the floor.

In her palm appeared a phone — her own.

As Tongguan’s head was twisted to its limit, she turned the phone’s screen toward him.

She played a video that had been recorded earlier, though when, no one knew.

The phone was hers, but the video was recorded by Tongguan.

“At this moment, the ghost is inside my body,” the video declared.

This was Tongguan’s contingency, part of his plan. He had long anticipated the ghost would try to seize and destroy the phone to cut off his identification method.

So, on the way to the surveillance room, he had quietly borrowed Xiaoqi’s phone to record a backup video.

The video on the surface was a lure to draw the ghost, but the true identification relied on Xiaoqi, the person the ghost was destined to overlook.

Tongguan’s neck stiffened and then relaxed; his ability to move returned.

He completed the identification with Xiaoqi’s help and simultaneously received the hotel’s evacuation alert in his mind.

...

Outside the Boguo Building, Fang Shenyen and Yu Guo stood before the entrance.

Their narrow frames were wrapped in wind and rain as they gazed at the place of evil just beyond the glass doors.

The lights remained on, but from outside, they could not see the carnage that should have littered the first floor.

Something had sealed the entire building in advance — whether ghost or hotel, no one could tell.

Then, Tongguan emerged from the doors carrying Xiaoqi.

Chang Nian, whose legs were numb from crouching, immediately rushed forward.

Tongguan set Xiaoqi down and turned to look back at the building, his eyes filled with some unspoken emotion.

“The building is still sealed. The mission is not over. This means Ji Li is still alive.

You are the only living person left inside, but two portions of ghosts are watching you.

No matter what you do, you will inevitably be possessed beyond hope.

Ji Li... Ji Li...

In such a situation, how can you survive? How can you turn the tide?”