Chi Mu quickly answered the call. On the other end came a sweet female voice.
"Hello, Mr. Chi Mu. This is the front desk. Your delivery has arrived. We need your confirmation before the courier can come upstairs."
"It's mine. Let him up," Chi Mu replied calmly.
"Very well, sir."
The call ended, and Chi Mu exhaled quietly.
The first time the phone rang, he didn't speak right away. That's because he suspected the caller might be a woman. If he had answered first, he would've violated Rule Four of Sequence One.
Counting to three and hanging up had been due to Rule Five of Sequence Two:
[5: If the room's landline rings, confirm the caller's identity. If they don't state it within three seconds, hang up immediately.]
After the near-miss during breakfast with Yang Qu, Chi Mu had committed every rule to memory. He wasn't about to make another careless mistake.
This phone call had two potential traps—Chi Mu handled them both without breaking a sweat.
—"Goddamn! This is the legendary Mu God in action! He's playing 4D chess!"
—"If it were me in this cursed hotel, that call alone would've killed me..."
—"Oh my god, this is the Dragon Nation's chosen one? He's way sharper than our country's James! How many dollars to get your citizenship?"
—"Foreign friend above, Dragon Nation doesn't accept immigrants. Keep dreaming!"
In the operations room, Qin Jianghe watched the big screen, his admiration for Chi Mu deepening. He had initially pegged Chi Mu as just a carefree young man, but the man's composure and sharp analysis far exceeded most experts he'd seen.
Back in the livestream...
Chi Mu opened the door. The delivery guy handed him a massive bouquet of roses and a bundle of colorful balloons.
"Appreciate it, bro. Want to come in for a glass of water?" Chi Mu asked politely.
The delivery guy's smile twisted into something off.
"Sure, I'd love to," he said, too cheerfully.
The moment Chi Mu saw that eerie grin, his skin crawled.
Something was wrong.
The delivery guy had been polluted.
"Ah—sorry, man. Just remembered—I'm out of water. Next time, yeah?"
BAM!
Chi Mu slammed the door shut.
He placed the flowers on the floor and peered through the peephole. His heart skipped.
The delivery guy was still standing there, grinning at the door.
Unmoving. Smiling.
Chilling.
After several long seconds, he finally turned and walked away. Chi Mu didn't relax—he kept watching.
To his surprise, the delivery guy stopped again—right in front of the storage room—and stood there for several minutes before finally taking the elevator down.
"The storage room again?"
Chi Mu scratched his head, mentally flagging it with an exclamation mark.
This was strange. When he ordered the flowers and chatted with the courier over the phone, the guy had seemed completely normal.
So why did he start acting weird the moment he reached the hotel room?
And why the lingering outside the storage room?
Chi Mu sat down, blowing up balloons while pondering it all.
Thirty minutes passed. The room was now filled with balloons. He'd even requested candles from the front desk, intending to arrange them into a heart shape for some romantic flair.
Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock.
The door thudded.
Chi Mu opened it. A male staff member stood there, face twisted with the same strange expression.
"Sir, here are your candles. Heh... heh..."
Chi Mu snatched the candles and shut the door without hesitation.
Through the door, he waited until the man left—then peeked again.
Sure enough, the man had also stopped at the storage room for several minutes before finally taking the elevator.
This time, Chi Mu had a solid guess:
The contamination source is likely in that storage room.
Sequence Three, Rule One had said that little girl A-Jiu was contaminated.
Now both the delivery guy and the hotel worker had exhibited the same symptoms. And they all had something in common—they passed by the storage room.
Still, Chi Mu wasn't ready to jump to conclusions. He hadn't confirmed whether those two men had already been contaminated before entering the area. Drawing conclusions too quickly would be unscientific.
If he wanted to be sure, he'd need to observe someone uninfected pass by the storage room, and see if they changed.
With the balloons inflated, the heart-shaped candle arrangement set, and the roses placed neatly at the center, Chi Mu sent a message to Yang Qu.
"Babe, when are you coming back? I've got a surprise ready for you."
Yang Qu replied quickly.
"I just bought a purse and now I'm trying on clothes. Might be a few more hours!"
"Cool, no rush. Have fun!"
Chi Mu grinned and sent her a red envelope. Now reassured that he had a few hours, he could focus on his investigation.
Step one: Find the shadow on the wall.
He suddenly remembered something—he had shoved that annoying chicken, A-Kun, into the bathroom earlier. He rushed to let it out.
"You cluck again and I swear I'm making soup!"
Chi Mu glared at A-Kun, holding it by the wings.
A-Kun flapped indignantly.
Chi Mu didn't care. He tossed it into the bedroom and closed the door.
Just as he was about to leave and begin his search for the wall shadow, a chill ran down his spine.
There it was.
A shadowy silhouette on the wall beside the bedroom wardrobe.
[7: If you see a shadow on the wall in your room, find a way to cover it.]
Chi Mu scanned the room. There wasn't much he could use to block it.
Worse, the shadow was moving.
Growing.
Expanding.
As if it were about to crawl out of the wall.
—"Chi Mu! Quick! Cover it before it comes through!"
—"Push the wardrobe over! Anything!"
The livestream chat exploded in panic.
Chi Mu's eyes darted around. He spotted several nails scattered on the floor—alongside a small iron shovel.
He grabbed the shovel and hammered the nails into the wall, then yanked off his shirt and hung it over them.
Finally, the shadow vanished beneath the fabric.
Disaster averted.
But something still felt off.
Chi Mu stared at the little shovel in his hand... then at the scattered nails on the ground.
His brows furrowed.
"Why the hell are there nails and a shovel inside a hotel room?"