Chapter 33.3 ?

After a while, the door opened again, and Xu Ming and Qiu Yufei’s footsteps entered. The wardrobe creaked open as Gu Yunshu searched for a place to rest, and moments later, the room light was switched off with a click.

This was their third night at the hotel.

Barring any surprises, it should be the last night.

On the other side.

In Room 8207.

Mint turned off the lights early and lay in bed, but for some reason, she couldn’t fall asleep.

She was still thinking about the two sets of guest notices she found in the room not long ago—identical in material but completely different in content.

Comparing them sent chills down her spine.

Finding it too eerie, she even asked her friend about it. Her friend said both were fake, just props released by the hotel to create a scary effect, and told her not to believe or mind any of it.

…Although her friend said that, Mint couldn’t help but mind.

Upon careful thought, her friend had been acting strangely since this morning. She didn’t wake Mint up when she fell asleep on the bus, went alone to check in, kept complaining about a headache, and stopped Mint from eating… even though the restaurant was still open, she insisted Mint come back to sleep…

The more she thought about it, the weirder it seemed.

Mint pursed her lips, tossed and turned again. After dozing off for two hours, she woke up and couldn’t sleep anymore, so she sat up, turned on the night light, and took out her phone to kill time.

Her phone didn’t have any games, so the only way to pass the time was social media. She opened her usual platform and scrolled for a while, then realized she hadn’t posted any photos since she checked in, so she quickly found a good angle, took a delicate empty mirror photo, edited it, and uploaded it.

After posting, she habitually opened her album to delete the unedited photo—however, upon seeing her album, her expression froze.

…There were many photos in her album that she didn’t know when were taken.

Many selfies of her in the hallway, posing with display statues, some she remembered, others she had no recollection of taking at all—going further back, there were photos of her with her friend, the background being the first-floor exhibition hall, the two girls smiling happily at the camera.

Mint stared intently at the photo, her mind buzzing, hair standing on end—

She remembered clearly, her friend checked in before her, and they met in her friend’s room. Her friend hadn’t left the room since checking in…

They couldn’t have taken photos together in the exhibition hall!

Realizing this, Mint’s scalp tingled even more. Just then, her phone started beeping with a series of notifications, along with pop-up windows. She instinctively clicked, and the screen switched to another interface.

It was the social platform where she posted the check-in photo.

The notifications were all comments.

Mint had accumulated some followers on this platform, and in just a short while, there were already dozens of comments.

The liveliness of the comments momentarily dispelled her fear, and she closed her eyes to calm down, finally feeling her heartbeat return to normal.

…Thinking back carefully, it seemed she had indeed taken photos with her friend in the exhibition hall. They both dressed nicely today, and with such a photogenic place, it would be strange if her friend didn’t want to take photos…

She must have remembered wrong.

Yes, she just remembered wrong.

Constantly reassuring herself, Mint finally opened her eyes.

The moment she saw the comments on the screen, her gaze froze again.

Under the photo, the comments were neatly aligned, all with blank avatars, random usernames, but strangely similar focus:

? This butterfly is so beautiful! ?

? I’ve never seen such a beautiful butterfly, breathtaking! ?

? The butterfly in your photo is so pretty— ?

Mint was dumbfounded, opened her previous empty mirror photo, and repeatedly zoomed in, looking carefully.

There were no butterfly at all.

Just then, as if sensing her reading, the comments started to skyrocket again, the phone incessantly beeping, pop-ups one after another, all with the same content—

? The butterfly in your photo is so pretty ?

? The butterfly in your photo is so pretty ?

? The butterfly in your photo is so pretty ?

? Such a beautiful butterfly. ?

? Go and see— ?

? It’s watching you. ?

The oppressive fear grew as the comments piled up, and seeing the last line, Mint couldn’t hold back anymore and let out a scream!

She threw her phone, which landed with a clatter, exactly where she took the photo earlier.

The phone on the ground kept flashing and ringing. Mint, terrified, backed away instinctively. As her eyes glanced upward, she caught a glimpse of an unusual color—

Her heart skipped a beat. She sat frozen, her survival instincts screaming, yet she couldn’t help but look up, her gaze slowly moving upward.

…At that moment, her eyes were suddenly covered.

In a room supposed to be empty, a pair of hands suddenly appeared behind her. The hands covered her eyes, arms brushed her cheeks. Both hands and arms were chillingly cold.

“Don’t look.” She heard her friend’s voice in her ear, “Now, with your eyes closed, walk out, follow me. I’ll take you downstairs.”

“Don’t open your eyes. Don’t look at it. Don’t read any words. If you hear me suddenly change my tone, don’t listen to me either.”

“Hurry up, get up, and leave. It’s very angry.”

“That stupid woman messed everything up…”

“I knew it, I shouldn’t have trusted her.”

At the same time.

On the other side.

Xu Ming was sleeping well when she suddenly heard the anxious voice of the blubberman in her ear.

The voice was low, as if afraid to disturb something. She drowsily opened her eyes and saw the blubberman scrambling into her bag. Confused, she turned her head and saw that Qiu Yufei, who was sleeping beside her, had sat up.

She was watching TV, her eyes glued to the screen.

The room was dark, only the TV screen flickered with light, making a constant buzzing sound.

Xu Ming instinctively felt something was wrong and subconsciously glanced at the TV, seeing only static; looking back at Qiu Yufei, she was still staring at the screen, mesmerized.

“…Yufei?” Xu Ming’s breath hitched, she tentatively called out. Qiu Yufei only responded with a soft hum, not even glancing at her.

…Xu Ming’s expression grew graver, glancing at the blubberman that had completely hidden, only hearing its cautious voice in her mind: “Not good, really not good!”

Xu Ming: “…What do you mean?”

“The ‘butterfly’ suddenly went berserk and started causing trouble!” the blubberman’s voice was more feeble, tense, “I’m so stupid, really! I guessed it would take the chance to invade, but I didn’t expect it to be so impatient, not even giving an extra day…”

“You can’t see it, but there are butterfly wings and scales everywhere, places without words are growing words, and places with words are almost completely distorted…”

Xu Ming quietly got out of bed, reaching into Qiu Yufei’s bag while asking softly: “Distorted into what?”

The blubberman hissed, making a sound reminiscent of a toothache, and on the other side, Qiu Yufei gave Xu Ming the answer she wanted.

—Almost at the same moment she found Qiu Yufei’s work badge, she heard Qiu Yufei’s intoxicated murmur.

She said, the butterflies here are so beautiful.