Cui Cui's face instantly turned deathly pale. "What should we do? If the villagers find out I've returned to the village, they definitely won't let me off... I can't just go and get plastic surgery just to go back to the village, can I?"
He Zhiping was amused by Cui Cui's wild imagination. "Don't worry. There are many highly skilled makeup artists nowadays. It won't be a problem for them to change our looks."
Early the next morning, a makeup artist from Feng Chengyuan's company came to the Qingxin Temple.
As she was doing Yu Nian's makeup, she sighed, "Both you and our CEO have such outstanding looks. Since you don't want to be recognized, I can only make you look more ordinary."
The makeup artist was truly amazing. Two hours later, everyone walked out of the room.
They stared at each other blankly for a long time before they could barely recognize who was who.
Yu Nian originally had extremely delicate eyebrows and eyes, but now she had become an ordinary-looking person with a bit of elegance. She wouldn't stand out in a crowd.
As for Feng Chengyuan, the makeup artist deliberately toned down the sharpness in his eyebrows and eyes, making him look much softer.
Yu Nian cast a spell to make the makeup stay on their faces. Even if they washed their faces and removed the makeup, they would still look the same in the eyes of others.
...
They drove for a long time before they finally reached a small town near Wuxiang Village.
It was already getting dark. Cui Cui looked around at the street scenery and sighed, "It'll take at least another five or six hours to get to Wuxiang Village from here."
Yu Nian looked at the flickering sign of a hotel not far away and said, "Then let's find a place to stay first and go there tomorrow morning."
After walking around for a while, they finally saw a pitch-black hotel.
A huge yellow LED screen was leaning crookedly against the wall. Due to years of disrepair, only a few words were still lit up, emitting a pale white light that gave off an ominous aura.
Feng Chengyuan squinted his eyes and read out the words, "The Yellow Spring Inn..."
Everyone:???
The door of the hotel was wide open. There was a vermilion pillar on each side of the door. Feng Chengyuan stared intently and saw that there was a line of words engraved on each pillar. When combined, it turned out to be a couplet.
The upper line read, "In the three lives in the mortal world, all evil deeds are up to you."
The lower line read, "In the underworld, has anyone ever been spared through the ages?"
The horizontal scroll above the doorframe was written in silver hooks and iron strokes: "So you've come."
The male ghost twitched the corner of his mouth. "Is this really a hotel for the living? I feel like the yin energy inside is heavier than mine."
Cui Cui was also so scared that she took a step back. "I've lived in Wuxiang Village for so many years, and I've never seen this hotel before."
Yu Nian stared intently at the hotel. The resentment and spiritual energy inside were intertwined in a chaotic mess.
She said softly, "It's normal that you haven't seen it before. This isn't a hotel at all. It's a convergence point of the Three Realms. During the Ghost Festival, when the gates of the underworld are wide open, there is a huge flow of people from all realms. At midnight, many hotels like this will appear everywhere. Whether it's humans, ghosts, gods, or demons, they can all stay here."
There was an old man smoking a pipe sitting at the door of the hotel. He had dark skin and a deeply hunched back. When he heard Yu Nian's voice, he lifted his eyebrows slightly, and a lot of wrinkles appeared on his face.
Through the curling smoke, his gaze scanned everyone vaguely and finally landed on Yu Nian.
The old man opened his mouth, his voice hoarse. "Where are you from and where are you going?"
Yu Nian replied calmly, "We're from the capital and we're going to Wuxiang Village."
The old man was stunned when he heard "Wuxiang Village". He laughed as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, and his back became even more bent.
"Wuxiang Village is not a good place to go. Be careful not to return. You might end up separated by life and death... Hehe..."
His laughter was cold and deep. He Zhiping shivered and whispered, "Do we really have to stay here? I always feel that this old man is a bit strange."
As soon as he finished speaking, He Zhiping felt the old man's cold gaze land directly on him.
"This is the only hotel within a few miles. This place is surrounded by mountains. Wild wolves and wild boars often come out to look for food at night. Now that the gates of the underworld are wide open, you might even encounter something else... Whether you stay or not is up to you."
He Zhiping's face stiffened, and he looked at Yu Nian.
Yu Nian didn't hesitate. "We'll stay."
The old man's eyes disappeared in his laughter. "Please come in."
There was a man standing at the front desk. He had his head bowed deeply, so it was hard to see his face.
Yu Nian said calmly, "We need three rooms."
The man suddenly looked up, and everyone gasped.
His face was as pale as paper, and his facial features seemed to be drawn by a brush. His eyebrows and eyes were as black as charcoal, but his lips were as red as blood. It was a bit creepy.
The man's black pupils rolled in a strange direction, and he said in a muffled voice, "Three thousand yuan per room."
Cui Cui suddenly widened her eyes. "How much? Do you think this is a five-star hotel? Isn't this taking advantage of the situation?"
The expression on the front desk clerk's face suddenly became a bit strange. He stared at Cui Cui with a half-smile.
His eyes were very cold, without a trace of the aura of a living person.
Cui Cui felt her scalp tingle. She felt as if a cold and slimy snake was crawling up her calf, freezing her whole body so that she couldn't move.
Just as Cui Cui was about to faint, Yu Nian gently patted her on the shoulder.
A warm current instantly dispelled the gloomy feeling around her. Cui Cui took a deep breath and came back to her senses.
Cui Cui stared at Yu Nian in surprise as she took out a stack of ghost money from her pocket and handed it to the man.
Under the illumination of the light, the man's mouth curled up strangely. He took it without hesitation.
"Follow me."
The man led Yu Nian and the others up the stairs.
Only then did they notice that his posture when going up the stairs was very strange.
When a normal person goes up the stairs, their upper body will tilt at an angle to some extent, but this person was standing straight in a straight line, mechanically taking steps.
When they got a bit closer, Feng Chengyuan realized that this person's chest wasn't rising and falling at all. He wasn't breathing.
When they reached the third floor, the man stopped and turned his head stiffly.
His voice was low. It seemed like a reminder and also like a warning. "No matter what you hear at night, don't pay attention to it. Just close your eyes and go to sleep."
Cui Cui was a bit scared. "What do you mean? What will happen at night?"
The man didn't say anything. He gave them a deep look and then disappeared at the end of the corridor.
With a soft creak, the door was gently pushed open. The musty smell filled the room.
The room wasn't very big. The most eye-catching thing was the black bed in the middle. It was wider in the north and narrower in the south, in a vertical shape. There were also strange and intricate golden patterns engraved on the bed board.
Cui Cui's face didn't look very good. "Sister Yu Nian, this bed looks like a coffin."
As soon as she finished speaking, two pale hands suddenly reached out from under the bed and unexpectedly grabbed Cui Cui's ankle.
Cui Cui let out a shrill scream. She lost her balance and was about to fall to the ground.
Yu Nian quickly stepped forward and caught her firmly. Then she pasted a talisman paper on the bed. The hands twisted and struggled violently and finally turned into a mist and completely disappeared into the air.
Yu Nian took out an incense burner from her bag. After the sandalwood was lit, the atmosphere in the room suddenly became much softer.
Cui Cui's fear dissipated a lot. She had been on the go all day and was very tired and sleepy. She was about to take off her coat and go to sleep.
But Yu Nian stopped her. She said softly, "There are all kinds of people in this hotel. Not all of them are good people. Although it seems peaceful now, accidents can happen at any time. You'd better not sleep too soundly."
Cui Cui was stunned. Although Yu Nian was about the same age as her, she always had an aura that made people convinced and in awe.
She obediently nodded and lay down on the bed shoulder to shoulder with Yu Nian, fully dressed.