Chapter Six: The Girl in White

  "No way, what are you thinking? Things may not be that bad, but we can't do stupid things. Besides, this is your one-sided wish, what if she wants to take us down together?" Fat Chen was the first to object.

  Liu Ping and others also echoed: "Right, we can't do stupid things. If we don't gain anything but lose our lives instead, let's think of another way."

  "What else can we do? If there was a way, we would have left long ago." Hong Jun smiled bitterly.

  "No, things are not without a turn for the better." Liu Ping raised his voice, drowning out the cacophony of advice, and everyone's gaze shifted back to him once again.

  "Hong Jun, do you still remember that first small coffin incident? That female ghost was about to strangle you when that voice appeared."

  "I remember, it was a very old voice that shouted retreat, and all the abnormalities disappeared. Are you saying he will come to save us?" Hong Jun said this, his eyes lit up with sparkling light.

  Liu Ping nodded, although he thought "If only he had a way to come and rescue us earlier", but still comforted everyone: "Maybe he's thinking of a way..."

  Liu Ping and the others didn't know that the old man was indeed trying to find a solution, but he could only temporarily suppress the fatal attack of the female ghost, allowing Hong Jun and the others to be safe for the time being.

  "Is anyone there?" A soft and gentle voice sounded, everyone was caught off guard, and they were all startled. Fat Chen was the first to lose his balance, and he fell softly to the ground with a thud. The others also changed color, in this place where you couldn't enter or exit, except for the five people present, another person's voice suddenly sounded, especially a woman's voice. At this moment, the thoughts of the five people were highly consistent: the female ghost that Hong Jun saw had appeared.

  The crowd was filled with fear, and they all looked up to see a girl standing at the glass door. She had a tall figure, wearing a snow-white dress, her skin as white as if it were covered in snowflakes, shining with a crystal light.

  Hong Jun blinked his eyes, rubbed them again, and indeed saw a girl, about twenty years old. Her bright eyes sparkled with starlight, her full lips had a hint of rouge, and her willow-leaf eyebrows were like crescent moons. Suddenly, Hong Jun realized that he had wasted ten years in school, learning so much knowledge from his language teachers, but only being able to use twenty words - "In the north, there is a beauty, unmatched and independent. One glance can topple a city, another can overthrow a nation."

  Hong Jun felt that this girl must be Lin Meimei who had fallen from the sky, no, Lin Meimei was nothing compared to her, in front of this girl, she was simply an unbeatable ugly woman. Her beauty couldn't be described with human language, it's just that every part of her body was so harmonious and natural, adding a bit would be too much, subtracting a bit would be too little.

  Several others also completely forgot how the girl had entered this enclosed space, and upon seeing her beauty, they were all infatuated, even Lin Jie was staring foolishly, with not a hint of jealousy in his eyes towards another woman, but instead filled with admiration.

  The girl may have been used to such attitudes from others, she smiled lightly, the clock on the wall held its breath, and put the moving footsteps to the lightest, for fear of affecting the rare beauty of this smile.

  The girl flipped her long hair, and the black locks drew a beautiful waterfall in front of everyone. "Tap" Her high heels lightly kissed the ground, taking a step towards the crowd.

  "Ah." Everyone finally woke up from their infatuation, fear filled their minds again. Lin Jie let out a cry and collapsed onto Chen's body, knocking Chen's mouth askew.

  "Stop, don't come any closer! Who are you?" Xu Ming asked with a thick tongue, his body shaking violently, but he also remembered a sentence said by some ancient sage: "To die under the peony flowers is to be a romantic ghost."

  Liu Ping's words suddenly relaxed the atmosphere, to the point where Hong Jun didn't dare believe that things would turn out this way: "She's just an ordinary girl."

  Such a beautiful girl, if she was really a female ghost in their hearts, several people couldn't think of any reason to believe it. Now hearing Liu Ping say that she is an ordinary girl, everyone let out a sigh of relief, Lin Jie and Fat Chen supported each other and stood up, "I was scared to death." Fat Chen patted his chest, through the clothes, the fat on his chest trembled.

  "What's wrong with you? Am I that scary?" The girl was stunned, she was used to people's envy and admiration, and even more used to men fawning over her, but for the first time, she saw someone being scared by her beautiful appearance, and it was five people at once, two of whom were even scared stiff on the ground. This made her feel like she had seen a ghost, "Is there something on my face?" She subconsciously touched her cheek.

  "No, miss, you look so beautiful, how could you be scary? We were just discussing something here and were too focused to notice you coming in, so we got startled." Hong Jun hastily made an excuse, he didn't want this beautiful girl to know about his being scared. As he said this, he suddenly thought of something important, weren't they all trapped in the illusion? Liu Ping had said there was no way in or out, and an ordinary girl, no matter how beautiful, shouldn't be able to come in from outside. Could it be that this illusion has been broken? He subconsciously looked towards the glass door behind the girl.

  There, the grayish-black fog was gone. Outside the glass door, neon lights flickered with a dazzling array of colors. Occasionally passing vehicles cast piercing beams of light. Looking back, the staircase had returned to its original state. Hong Jun glanced at Liu Ping, who nodded, his eyes shining with the joy of rebirth. Everything had returned to normal. The space that was inaccessible and inescapable had vanished, and the five of them were back in the real hotel lobby.

  They escaped. Although it is not clear how they escaped, however, a seriously ill patient who was on the verge of death suddenly being told that his illness has disappeared, would he care about how the illness disappeared?

  Just a moment ago, she was helplessly waiting for death, but in the blink of an eye, she discovered that life was full of vitality. A few people were hugging each other, happily jumping and singing, which made the girl even more confused. It was already midnight, how could this hotel have five madmen? Seeing that the five people didn't notice her at all, and they all looked crazy, she turned around and left the hotel. She wouldn't think that these five people had just experienced the fear of death, the joy of surviving a disaster. Now, not to mention just one beauty, even if it were a room full of money and beauties, they probably wouldn't give them a second glance.

  However, the joy was still fleeting. After more than a dozen minutes, several people slowly calmed down and finally remembered the girl. When they thought of hitting on Lin Meimei who was next to them, the girl's figure had already disappeared.

  "You, such a beautiful girl, how come you didn't even greet her?" Xu Ming complained to others and also to himself. Only Liu Ping, with his eyebrows tightly furrowed, was thinking about something that made him very puzzled and surprised in the dark, but seeing everyone so happy, he moved his lips, and finally swallowed his words back into his belly.

  Hong Jun looked at Xu Ming, his childhood friend, then at Fat Chen, the timid colleague, and Liu Ping, the Buddhist disciple he had just met. He also glanced at Lin Jie, a woman who was dressed to impress but valued loyalty above all else. Without saying a word, Hong Jun turned around and ran out of the hotel, leaving behind Xu Ming's loud shouts and Fat Chen's cries of surprise. In front of these friends, whether they had just met or grown up together in shorts, Hong Jun felt that he owed them too much. Now that they had escaped, and the female ghost was after him, he knew he had to quickly distance himself from them, lest he drag them into another deadly trap set by the vicious female ghost.

  The streetlights emitted a dim glow, the time was already past eleven at midnight, but in this highly industrialized small town, people who had just finished their night shift were gathering at the roadside barbecue stall to enjoy themselves, the aroma of roasted meat mixed with the smell of charcoal wafted through the air.

  "Hey, why are you running so fast?" A soft voice stopped Hong Jun's hurried footsteps. Under the streetlight, a girl in white clothes smiled brightly.

  "Is it you? You..." It was the girl who had just arrived at the inn. Hong Jun suddenly found himself brain-dead, unable to control his mouth, and so his wicked mouth started running wild: "You don't have a boyfriend, do you?"

  The girl was stunned, and then a loud slap hit Hong Jun, making him dizzy. Hong Jun looked at his right hand, which was red and swollen, and his right cheek was also burning with pain. "You little brat, you don't even feel pain when you fight," Hong Jun scolded himself.

  The second slap fell, much lighter in force, but still stinging with pain. Hong Jun didn't have the courage to hit himself a third time. "Look at me, I'm just talking nonsense," Hong Jun explained with an awkward smile to the girl.

  The girl giggled and her face turned red with embarrassment: "No boyfriend, what's wrong? You won't care about me if I don't have a boyfriend?"

  "What luck, a girl like you, I'm thrilled to be able to chat you up." Hong Jun's oily mouth was speaking fluently, he began to thank the roadside barbecue stall, it was the oil from the roasted meat that wafted over and allowed him to speak smoothly.

  The girl smiled again, and her sweet smile filled this summer night with refreshing coolness.

  Men are lustful, and I feel even more so than most men. Seeing such a beautiful girl, it's definitely an opportunity that can't be missed, and she's even taking the initiative to come over. Isn't this just a piece of meat delivered right to my mouth? Although I just came back from the brink of death, seeing beauty made Hong Jun immediately forget about the danger he just faced. However, Hong Jun felt his brain was still short-circuited, and no matter what, he couldn't come up with even a single sentence that could liven up the atmosphere. He blushed and choked for a long time before finally saying: "How about I treat you to dinner?" After speaking, he slapped himself in the heart, thinking how lame it was - just because of an accidental encounter, he invited someone to eat. Would she agree? However, Hong Jun also comforted himself that it was almost midnight, and if he had followed the usual steps to hit on her, by the time they got to the main topic, the girl would probably have gone back to her place to sleep already. Now, he was simply trying his luck - taking a shot in the dark.

  As expected, the girl's face turned red and she shook her head: "I still have to go to work tonight." My heart felt like it was suddenly tied to a huge boulder, sinking, sinking, sinking...