Chapter 92: A Cold Gaze Was Everywhere
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
"Damn it!" Cui Jiayu pushed open the car door and got out. "Quickly go guard the front and back exits of the hotel, leave one person by the elevator, and another in the surveillance room to monitor all the hotel cameras. Cheng Yu, you go to the stairwell!"
A group of plainclothes police rushed toward the hotel, splitting up to carry out their tasks. Cui Jiayu took the elevator upstairs, heading straight for the room where Ding Qihong was.
In Xi Mo's room, Yan Tinghuan kept her eyes closed and couldn't be woken no matter how much they shook her. Fortunately, her breath and heartbeat could still be distinctly felt, seeming to indicate she had just fallen into a coma.
Ruan Yesheng and Xi Mo stood by Yan Tinghuan's side. Even though both of them were usually calm and unflappable, they could not help but fall into brief panic at this moment.
Yan Tinghuan had been releasing cicadas earlier. They both knew that Yan Tinghuan's current condition was likely not due to illness but something strange. However, they knew nothing about the mysterious cicada incident and had no idea what was going on, let alone how to handle it.
The two of them worked together to carry the unconscious Yan Tinghuan to the bed, making sure she lay down steadily.
At this point, Xi Mo finally calmed down and said, "Make a call, wake up Gu Qisong, and have him come over. I think something's not right."
Ruan Yesheng nodded, immediately pulling out her phone to call Gu Qisong.
Xi Mo then walked to the door, pressed her ear against it, and listened quietly.
There was a sound of a door opening from next door. The door over there was opened, and it seemed like someone was coming out from the adjacent room.
The surveillance was being handled by Yan Tinghuan, and Xi Mo didn’t know the exact appearance of the guest staying tonight. From Yan Tinghuan's description, she knew the person was around forty years old.
Xi Mo heard the noise, leaned closer to the peephole, and prepared to check the movement outside.
The view through the peephole was already slightly distorted, and when Xi Mo looked through it, she saw a middle-aged woman in a grayish-brown coat standing at her door.
This middle-aged woman had a worn face, with dark brown spots all over her face. Her skin looked poor, but her eyes held a shadowy light. She leaned closer, pressing her eyes against the peephole, peering into the room.
Xi Mo stood inside the door, and the woman stood outside. The two of them were looking at each other through the peephole.
At that moment, Xi Mo could even see the bloodshot veins in the woman's eyes, her pupils unmoving, staring intently into the room.
The special thing about the peephole was that the person inside the room could clearly see what was happening outside, while the person outside couldn’t see anything. That’s why Xi Mo had felt safe peeking through the peephole to assess the situation.
What she hadn’t expected was that the woman outside would press her eyes so closely to the peephole to look inside.
And then, the woman looked at Xi Mo, slightly stepping back. In the peephole's view, her entire face was revealed. After that, she grinned and showed Xi Mo a horrifying and eerie smile.
This smile seemed as if she had already seen Xi Mo through the peephole, seen everything inside the room.
How could that be? It’s impossible.
The person outside couldn’t possibly see inside through the peephole.
How did she do it? How on earth did she do it?
Xi Mo felt lightheaded, as if the small peephole in front of her suddenly morphed, stretching and elongating, eventually becoming a small grid window on the door with a glass pane embedded in it. Iron bars were nailed securely over the window.
It felt like she was hallucinating. The lights and shadows shifted before her eyes, and a pair of eyes appeared behind the iron bars, a cold gaze everywhere.
Someone was watching her from outside.
Someone was watching her from outside again!
At that moment, Xi Mo felt as if her body had been suddenly thrown into an ice cellar, the cold seeping from her bones and rapidly spreading through her limbs and body.
She froze, almost unable to think, barely managing to shakily turn off the light switches by the door. The room was immediately plunged into darkness.
Ruan Yesheng was surprised when the lights suddenly went out. She hurried over to the door, only to see Xi Mo shrink quickly into the corner next to the door after turning off the lights.
Xi Mo crouched in the corner, hands clutching her head, muttering something under her breath.
Ruan Yesheng felt her heart being violently thrown out at that moment as she saw this scene.
Xi Mo, who always cared about her image, was showing such a broken and lost demeanor for the first time.
Ruan Yesheng quickly rushed to Xi Mo’s side. As soon as she touched Xi Mo's hand, Xi Mo pushed her outward with one hand, while the other hand remained protectively over her head.
It was entirely a defensive posture. Ruan Yesheng could feel that Xi Mo's whole body was tense. Ignoring the pain of being pushed away, she still threw herself forward and tightly hugged Xi Mo.
Xi Mo struggled continuously, but Ruan Yesheng didn’t dare to let go, holding her tightly.
Xi Mo pried open one of her hands, and she immediately used the other hand to latch on, locking Xi Mo's wrist. Xi Mo pushed outward with her leg, but Ruan Yesheng bent her knee and hooked her lower leg inward, catching Xi Mo's leg. Her whole body wrapped around Xi Mo like a snake.
Ruan Yesheng had danced for years, giving her exceptional flexibility. Now that she was using Xi Mo's body, her flexibility was not as good as before, but it was still decent. At this moment, she tightened her legs around Xi Mo, clinging to her.
The two remained locked in a standoff in the corner.
Xi Mo let out a low, sharp breath, panting heavily. Ruan Yesheng, holding onto her tightly to keep her from moving, was breathing even more heavily. She pressed down her voice and softly comforted her, “Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, it’s okay. Relax, relax. We won’t move around, alright? Be good and don’t move.”
Xi Mo listened to her murmuring whispers, curled up in her embrace, and gradually stopped struggling.
This translation was originally posted on https://love4baihe.blogspot.com please read it there. and check out other stories too.
Seeing that she seemed less tense than before, Ruan Yesheng loosened her grip slightly, afraid of hurting her.
Xi Mo kept shrinking into Ruan Yesheng’s arms, as if in a trance, murmuring, “Yezi... Yezi, Yezi*.”
*leaf, not sure if she's talking about literal leaves since she has a collection of leaves mentioned in the past chapter, or it's a person’s name, will correct this later.
Ruan Yesheng listened carefully and realized that Xi Mo was indeed calling out “leaves.” When Xi Mo had a fever before, she had been delirious and muttered something about leaves in her unconscious state. At the time, Ruan Yesheng didn’t understand what it meant, and now, she was even more confused.
“She’s looking at me again… looking at me through the little window on the door again… What do I do, what do I do…” Xi Mo seemed completely out of it, rambling incoherently.
The word "again" seemed rather eerie. Logically speaking, Xi Mo had only taken one look just now, so there was no reason for her to use "again."
And she mentioned a "little window" on the door. But the door only had a peephole—where was there any little window?
Could it be… a hallucination?
Ruan Yesheng didn’t dare think too much about it. The most urgent matter was to stabilize Xi Mo first. She could only tighten her embrace, pressing her cheek against Xi Mo’s.
Although she didn’t understand what Xi Mo was talking about, she still followed along and soothed her, “No, no one’s watching anymore. No one is looking at you now, don’t worry.”
As her gentle words brushed against Xi Mo’s ear, Xi Mo’s breathing gradually steadied.
“It’s okay, I’m here with you. There’s no one outside,” Ruan Yesheng said softly.
Xi Mo seemed to still be in a daze, not fully recovered from her episode. She blankly nodded.
Cui Jiayu rushed out of the elevator at the fastest speed and arrived at the floor where Ding Qihong’s room was located.
She even took out her gun as she ran. Earlier, she thought Ding Qihong was just a lead, but after watching that spine-chilling scene in the surveillance footage, her instincts told her that this woman was extremely dangerous.
This danger might even exceed everything she had known before.
Ruan Yesheng was holding Xi Mo behind the door when she heard the sound of running footsteps in the hallway. The sound grew closer and closer. It didn’t sound like Gu Qisong’s footsteps—she had no idea who it was.
Xi Mo obviously heard it too and immediately became alert.
Ruan Yesheng felt her tense up again and quickly leaned in to whisper softly against her ear, “Don't make a sound.”
Xi Mo stopped moving, even quieting her breathing.
Cui Jiayu ran straight past Xi Mo’s room and stopped at the door of Ding Qihong’s room next door. The door was ajar, leaving only a small gap. Inside, it was pitch black. Holding a flashlight in her left hand, she rested her gun on the same arm and kicked the door open with her foot.
Ruan Yesheng and Xi Mo, listening from the next room, held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
The flashlight beam swept through the room, casting a pale bluish-white glow before swiftly shifting to another corner, breaking through the darkness. Cui Jiayu’s footsteps moved across the room. Only after confirming that the room was empty did she rush out, running toward the stairs while speaking into her earpiece, “Ding Qihong isn’t in her room. We’ve blocked all hotel exits. She must still be inside—find her immediately!”
Cui Jiayu ran down the stairs, pursuing Ding Qihong along the corridor.
Ruan Yesheng listened to the sounds outside, realizing that everything seemed to have quieted down. Only then did she let out a breath of relief. Xi Mo's emotions also seemed much calmer as she remained curled up in Ruan Yesheng’s embrace, motionless.
Feeling Xi Mo’s reliance on her, Ruan Yesheng’s own fear was gradually diluted by it. Her thoughts at this moment couldn’t be simpler—no matter how weak or powerless she was, she still wanted to protect Xi Mo.
After a brief silence, Yan Tinghuan, who had been lying on the bed, suddenly shot up into a sitting position.
After experiencing so many twists and turns tonight, Ruan Yesheng was startled again when she saw Yan Tinghuan suddenly sit up like a bound rice dumpling.
Fortunately, Yan Tinghuan immediately jumped out of bed. Her body seemed to have fully recovered. She ran over to Ruan Yesheng and Xi Mo, fuming as she said, “I was careless! I actually got played!”
Relying on the dim light leaking through the door crack, she saw Ruan Yesheng holding Xi Mo, practically coiled around her. She was stunned for a moment. “What’s going on? Are you two hiding behind the door practicing yoga?”
Ruan Yesheng: “…”
Xi Mo: “…”
The situation was urgent, so Yan Tinghuan didn’t say more. She simply instructed, “I’ll go check outside first. You two stay put. The one next door isn’t a good person. It’s pitch dark in here, Ruanruan, turn on the light.”
After saying that, she carefully opened the door and stepped out.
Hearing that the light was about to be turned on, Xi Mo seemed to panic. She hurriedly said, “Let go of me.”
Ruan Yesheng still didn’t let go.
Xi Mo was completely tangled up by her, unable to move at all. If the light was turned on, her current disheveled state would be completely exposed. With Xi Mo’s proud nature, she absolutely couldn’t bear such humiliation.
“Hurry up and let go. I need to go to the bathroom.” Xi Mo urged repeatedly.
Ruan Yesheng knew why she was in a hurry, so she slowly loosened her grip. Xi Mo broke free, immediately stood up, and walked straight to the bathroom.
The door next door was still open. Yan Tinghuan stepped into the adjacent room, which was filled with a faint smell of mosquito coil. But since the door had been opened earlier, most of the scent had already dispersed.
She headed straight for the spot where Ding Qihong had burned the mosquito coil.
The coil had long since burned out, leaving only a pile of ash in the dish. Yan Tinghuan cursed under her breath, took a small portion of the ashes, and carefully wrapped them in a napkin. She was extremely cautious while collecting the ashes, leaving no trace behind.
After all, the police were currently in chaos, busy chasing the suspect. They had no time to bother with this room for now. But once they caught their breath, they would return here to search for clues. She had to be extra careful.
Yan Tinghuan returned to Xi Mo's room with the ashes. The lights were back on, and the brightness brought a slight sense of reassurance.
Xi Mo was still in the bathroom and had not come out. Ruan Yesheng stood alone, her mind in turmoil over Xi Mo’s situation. Seeing Yan Tinghuan, she hurried forward and asked, "What exactly happened? You just… fainted."
Yan Tinghuan’s expression was strange as she said, "I made a mistake."
"What?" Ruan Yesheng rarely saw her with such an expression and felt a little nervous.
"That woman actually knew I am a cicada breeder. I really underestimated her." Yan Tinghuan said in a low voice, "She actually knew from the start that there was a cicada in the room. My cicada and I are one. There was something wrong with the mosquito coil she lit. The scent dazed my cicada, and that is why I fainted along with it."
Ruan Yesheng felt a chill run up her spine. "How does she know? Didn’t you say your cicada can’t be seen or heard?"
"Yeah, to ordinary people, cicadas are invisible and inaudible," Yan Tinghuan said. "But there are a very small number of people who are different from normal. Their five senses are exceptionally sharp, and they can perceive my cicada. And…"
Yan Tinghuan’s expression grew even colder. "And it’s almost impossible to daze a cicada. I don’t know what she put in that mosquito coil. Looks like she’s an unimaginable trouble."
Author's Note:
I have repeatedly reminded you before that there is a lot of suspense and reasoning in this, which is quite complicated. Many of them need to be read in conjunction with the previous and later parts. Otherwise, it’s easy to get confused while reading.
Also, I hope everyone can rate and comment more under the article. This is good for the article.
My energy is limited, and I cannot reply to every comment. I apologize for this. But I will carefully read each one. I will see everyone's comments and encouragement. If there is something very important, I will explain it. This way, when everyone sees my answers, it can also avoid some confusion or misunderstanding. Thank you, everyone.
