Judge of Souls - Chapter 110

Yama was going, so Jiang Feng had to follow along.

He requested another extended leave from school. His attendance record for this semester was clearly going to be insufficient. Several of his course instructors were quite strict – if attendance wasn’t met, students would fail directly. He could only ask Zhang Yangyang for help.

Zhang Yangyang was very concerned about where he was going. After all, he had a tendency to get involved in supernatural incidents from time to time, and last time he had even ended up at the police station. But he was powerless to help, as his own luck wasn’t much better than his. He could only tell him to find a reliable Taoist priest to go with him.

When Chu Xuanliang learned that they were going to dig up the Judge’s remains, he said he wanted to go along too.

The Judge had been dead for many years. When he first died, he hadn’t yet achieved the position of Judge. But now his remains had been influenced by the Mountain God’s presence and divine essence, making them very important. They indeed couldn’t be left scattered carelessly. Even Yama or the Judge couldn’t directly bring earthly objects back to the Underworld – they needed their help to handle this.

If it became too troublesome… they would have no choice but to destroy them.

Jiang Feng felt this situation was somewhat subtle, but it was really hard to describe.

Chu Xuanliang also felt it was somewhat subtle seeing Yama. This teenager who was still in adolescence – it had been nearly a year since they’d last met, hadn’t it? And he was still as… short as ever.

Yama’s wooden puppet body was still at Jiang Feng’s house. They needed to book train tickets to the mountainous area of V City. But because that place was too remote, they expected to transfer several times.

First they’d take a bullet train to the city center, then a bus to the suburbs, then a coach to the edge of the mountain area. After that, there was no travel guide for the long stretch of road ahead – they’d either have to hire a private car or rely on luck.

By the time they reached the city, it was already evening. Everyone decided to rest nearby for the night and search carefully the next day.

Before meeting up with them, Chu Xuanliang had just finished a large-scale ritual ceremony on behalf of Taoist Master Xuanyi. He couldn’t sleep on the train either, and was completely exhausted both physically and mentally. After getting off the train, he didn’t want to move at all, so he directly searched for and booked a hotel near the train station.

Seeing that there were many restaurants in the area, Yama agreed without any concerns.

This area was very crowded because there were many scenic spots nearby with high foot traffic. Even though it wasn’t peak holiday season, the occupancy rate was quite high, and the rooms he wanted to book were already taken.

Chu Xuanliang went to book two rooms, then brought everyone over to check in with a gloomy expression.

Only after moving in did they discover that the rooms had poor soundproofing and were close to the main road, making them uncomfortable to stay in. At first glance, it seemed like a fairly clean place, but upon closer inspection, they found several hairs on the bed, and the sheets were quite old, causing them to be slightly yellowed. The previous guest had probably been a smoker who didn’t open the windows to air out the room when they left, and there was still a faint smell of smoke in the bathroom.

Chu Xuanliang immediately felt disgusted and regretted not checking the reviews earlier. However, he no longer had the energy to move, so he could only pretend not to see it, took a shower directly, lay down, and closed his eyes to sleep.

Yama was quite energetic, dragging Jiang Feng out to wander the streets. They didn’t return for a long time. After Chu Xuanliang fell into a deep sleep, someone in the adjacent room also checked in. Faint sounds came through the wall.

The newly checked-in man started complaining as soon as he entered the room.

“This room is terrible! Oh my god, it’s really terrible.” He grabbed a bath towel with his fingers, then put it back, pushed the water kettle aside, and said, “Let me tell you, this kettle absolutely cannot be used. God knows what the previous person did with it.”

A girl said softly, “I think it’s okay? My room is about the same. It’s close to the city center and cheap. When you’re traveling, it’s all like this – we’ll make do.”

The man, who appeared to be around twenty-five, continued complaining, “Look at this comforter and these sheets – they’re yellowed. I don’t know if they cleaned up after the previous person stayed here. The training at these hotels is getting more and more inadequate. These hotels hire cleaning staff carelessly and don’t care at all.”

Another male voice said, “Well, we’ll just take another shower tomorrow morning. Besides, we’ll be sweaty from going out to have fun anyway, so we’ll be dirty too. The hotel can’t possibly be using recycled water, right?”

“I always feel like this hotel isn’t legitimate.” The man curled his lip, turned off the lights, opened his phone camera, and started scanning around. “I always feel like this hotel isn’t legitimate. Illegitimate hotels have all kinds of management loopholes. Didn’t they say before that someone discovered system vulnerabilities in these electronic locks? Any simple lock-picking device could become a tool to open locks in hotels everywhere? But hotels don’t want to replace them because the cost is too high.”

He walked inside in small steps, following so-called online tutorials to check for hidden surveillance cameras. “There are so many news reports now, you have to be careful. Some might not be surveillance installed by the hotel – guests with disgusting fetishes are also very likely to install them.”

His friend asked, “So did you find any?”

The man put away his phone, stuffed it in his pocket, and signaled to the person at the door to turn on the lights. “Initial testing shows none. That’s fairly good.”

His buddy clicked his tongue. “Wu Teng, that’s enough. Don’t scare the girl here.”

“Alright, are we playing cards or not?” A male voice shuffled the cards in his hands. “Come on quickly while I’m still in the mood.”

Several people pulled the comforter up on the big bed, then took off their shoes and sat on it together, starting to deal cards with laughter and chatter.

Everyone first played a game called “Shuangkou,” then played “Dou Dizhu.” After playing two rounds, their initial fighting spirit began to fade, and they found it boring. They had other people who were watching TV come over to substitute for them, then absentmindedly went to play on their phones.

Someone started telling ghost stories. Then the story plots inevitably developed in supernatural directions.

One man joked, “Maybe in the walls of our hotel, or behind the mirrors, there’s a corpse hidden. It could be the boss’s lover, or it could be a hotel guest, haha.”

The man called Wu Teng continued the topic with a laugh. “It could also be a hotel staff member. Enthusiastic about work, dissatisfied with the current unprofessionalism of hotel service staff, he would come out to clean the room like a living person, then hide back in the walls during the day.”

A friend started teasing. “Damn, do you think this is the Snail Girl fairy tale? If there were such employees, why would the hotel worry about not being able to operate? They’d save on cleaning staff wages!”

(TL: 田螺姑娘 (Tiánluó Gūniang) refers to a figure from Chinese folklore — a magical snail spirit girl who secretly helps with household chores (like spinning, weaving, or cooking) while staying hidden.)

Everyone’s divergent thinking went off on a tangent and couldn’t be reined back in. They talked about boring topics with unclear punchlines, yet enjoyed themselves immensely.

After chatting for a while longer, the corridor outside became quiet.

Wu Teng glanced at the time – it was already midnight. Outside the window covered by white gauze, lights were bright, and the sound of car horns had died down. He stood up and said, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

He yawned and walked into the glass-doored bathroom, where he saw a black figure standing in front of the iron rack that held bath towels, folding the things he had messed up earlier, then placing them back meticulously with both hands.

Wu Teng blinked, feeling somewhat detached, stared stupidly for a while, then asked, “Who are you?”

“Your things fell down, so I came to help you arrange them properly.” The other person wore what looked like the Western-style waiter uniform he’d seen on TV, with hair neatly combed back, a corner of a handkerchief showing from his chest pocket, wearing white gloves, and bowing respectfully and professionally.

Wu Teng: “What the hell!”

The other person said, “Wishing you a pleasant stay, I’ll be leaving now, sir.”

“What the fuck?!” Wu Teng threw his head back, finally reacting. “Who the hell are you? How did you get in? Who opened the door for you? Is there something wrong with your hotel? Opening doors and coming in without our permission?”

The other person walked toward the door. Wu Teng instinctively jumped to the side, pressed against the wall near the switch, keeping his distance.

His friends outside heard his aggressive questioning and asked one after another: “What’s wrong, Wu Teng? Did someone come in? What’s wrong with this hotel now?”

Wu Teng shouted loudly toward the outside. “What the hell, this hotel is absolutely sick! Sneaking into guest rooms silently, claiming it’s for cleaning – cleaning my ass! This is violating people’s privacy rights!”

Hearing his words, everyone immediately stood up and crowded to the doorway to check.

There was nothing there. The door was closed, with a tea cup still hanging on the handle.

Wu Teng came out from behind the door, looked around, and didn’t see the person from just now. Confused, he said, “I just saw him. He should have gone out by now, right?”

One man said, “Bullsh*t, I didn’t hear any sound of them opening the door at all! Did you guys hear anything?”

Everyone shook their heads in unison.

“Wu Teng, did you drink alcohol today? How could you have hallucinations?”

Wu Teng refused to believe it. “That’s impossible! It must be your problem!”

Six or seven people started jeering, “You’re seeing things, aren’t you?”

“Wu Teng, are you really that timid? You can get scared like this, and you still want to scare others?”

“Stop pretending. Men nowadays are really hard to understand. Instead of acting manly, they all pretend to be pretty boy fresh meat. Do girls really like such unimpressive men?”

Wu Teng’s face turned red, and he began to doubt himself. Not having time to think too much, he hastily said, “Pfft! I was just joking, okay?”

“Give it up! If you’re scared, just say so! Maybe it could even trigger some maternal compassion from the females. Opportunities to cry are rare!”

“Everyone, don’t be so vulgar. Can you consider that there are female comrades present?”

After this little episode, they put down their playing cards. Since they were also finding it boring anyway, they naturally said, “Let’s call it quits. We have to get up early tomorrow to take buses and go sightseeing.”

The group of young people clapped their hands and decided not to stay up late anymore, leaving the room one after another.

Wu Teng’s room instantly became empty.

He dusted off the bed sheets, changed into pajamas, and lay down. He turned over and switched off all light sources, closed his eyes, and sighed.

At 2 AM, his phone on the bedside table popped up a notification from a news app, and the screen lit up.

Wu Teng smacked his lips unconsciously and turned over, his face happening to face toward his phone. The faint light made him vaguely aware, so he drowsily opened his eyes to look.

He didn’t see his phone, but instead, by the light, he first caught sight of the black shadow standing at his bedside.

—It was exactly the waiter he thought he’d seen as an illusion tonight.

His face was deathly pale, staring at Wu Teng with an indifferent expression, his eyes seemingly showing no whites. He asked, “I fulfilled your wish. When will you take me to the afterlife?”

Wu Teng blinked hard, confirming it was real. Then he blinked hard again and immediately began screaming in panic.