Chapter 214: Late Night Snack
Around 10 p.m., all four girls in the dorm were staying in their hotel room.
Li Mu was still reading, cramming for the exam at the last minute. Wang Ruoyan was playing a game, Chen Li was putting on skincare products, and Lin Yuanyuan was sitting cross-legged on the bed watching TV.
Besides Li Mu, the others didn’t seem to feel nervous about the upcoming spring exam at all.
“Li Mu, where did you go with Yu Fan today?” Wang Ruoyan suddenly looked up and asked curiously.
“Yintai Mall.”
“You bought a bunch of stuff, huh?”
“Just clothes.”
Li Mu glanced at the shopping bags piled in the corner. The clothes were all picked out by Yu Fan for her. She didn’t actually like some of them, but she couldn’t say no to Yu Fan’s hopeful puppy eyes.
There were short skirts, crop tops, off-shoulder shirts…
Anyway, summer was still a while away, so there was no need to wear them yet. And since they were on sale, they were cheap.
She understood why Yu Fan liked these kinds of outfits. After all, guys are usually perverts. To be honest, she used to like them too.
But now that she had to wear them herself, she couldn’t stand showing so much skin.
“So nice~” Wang Ruoyan lay back on the bed and sighed. “I want a boyfriend too.”
“If you lower your standards a bit, you’ll find one.”
“My standards are already super low…”
She rolled around on the bed, groaning, “Where is my Prince Charming?!”
The other three quietly ignored her drama. After a few minutes, she calmed down and sat up again.
“Let’s go get a late-night snack! Didn’t they say there’s a buffet on the second floor?”
“I don’t want to get fat…” Chen Li hesitated, shaking her head.
“I’m kind of hungry too.”
“I’m not. I already ate too much with Yu Fan earlier.”
Li Mu suddenly noticed all three of them looking at her. She looked back, confused. “What’s wrong?”
“Back in the day, people like you would’ve been burned at the stake!” Wang Ruoyan glared at her. “Come on! Even if you’re not hungry, you still have to come with us!”
As she spoke, she grabbed Chen Li, who still had a face mask on.
“Hey! Let me wash my face first!” Chen Li panicked, threw off the mask, and ran into the bathroom.
There’s still a whole day before the exam. How can they be so relaxed?
Li Mu noticed Lin Yuanyuan looking at her, and to blend in, she sighed and got up to join them for the late-night snack.
Honestly, in a place like this, you really shouldn’t be going out this late at night.
Even though she’d already warned her roommates and Yu Fan also had reminded their classmates in the group chat, most students still liked wandering around the hotel in the middle of the night. Luckily, nothing bad had happened yet.
After getting ready, the four girls stepped out of the room in their pajamas.
Li Mu was wearing a cotton pajama shirt and long cotton pants. She still wasn’t used to nightgowns, they were just too annoying when you had to use the bathroom and needed to lift the whole thing up and hold it in place.
Plus, this outfit didn’t look weird even if she wore it outside the room.
She followed her roommates through the dim hallway. From the rooms on both sides, they could faintly hear their classmates chatting and making noise.
“They really don’t turn the lights up brighter…” Chen Li was timid. After just a few steps, she was already clinging to Li Mu, nervously mumbling, “If you’re easily scared, you wouldn’t dare go out at night.”
“It’s probably because it’s bedtime. Turning the lights up too much would waste electricity,” Wang Ruoyan guessed.
Lin Yuanyuan was still daydreaming about food. “I bet the hotel’s buffet has lots of tasty things.”
“If Chen Li hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have even known the hotel had a late-night buffet,” Wang Ruoyan said as they stopped in front of the elevator. “Should we message the group chat and ask if anyone else wants to come with us?”
“Is that really necessary?” Li Mu watched them talk from the side, too tired to join in. She kept yawning.
She had already eaten way too much earlier with Yu Fan, and even now, she still wasn’t hungry at all.
Wang Ruoyan sent a message in the group chat, but no one replied. So, the four of them took the elevator down to the hotel’s second-floor lobby.
When the elevator doors opened, all four girls were surprised.
“Why is it so dark?”
Chen Li was clinging to Li Mu so closely she was practically hanging on her. Luckily, Chen Li wasn’t heavy. Otherwise, Li Mu might have been pulled to the ground too.
“Are you sure there’s really a late-night buffet?” Wang Ruoyan mumbled while looking around.
She finally spotted some lights at the far end of the hallway and let out a breath. She explained confidently, “Well, it is super late. Maybe the buffet is a new perk and not many people know about it yet, so they didn’t bother turning the lights on?”
It looked like this part of the hotel didn’t normally take regular guests. The signs with names on them outside the elevator suggested this area was for weddings.
“Maybe it’s actually haunted?” Li Mu suddenly said in a teasing tone.
The others immediately turned to look at her. Chen Li’s voice shook a little. “Can you not say stuff like that? You always try to scare people.”
“Yeah! Chen Li scares easily, don’t freak her out.”
Lin Yuanyuan nodded too. “You weren’t like this before. I didn’t know you liked scaring people so much.”
Just then, they all heard something. Quiet sobbing, like someone was crying but trying to hold it in.
The three girls froze, curling up together like scared little birds.
The crying got louder and louder until it echoed all around them.
“It’s just someone crying,” Li Mu said calmly, looking toward the light at the end of the hallway. The sound was coming from that direction.
She took the lead and started walking that way, while the other girls huddled close together and nervously followed her.
“Maybe we should go back?”
“Yeah, I’m not hungry anymore.”
Li Mu sighed. “There’s nothing to be scared of. At most, it’s just a ghost.”
That made the three behind her even more terrified.
They crept along behind her like snails, moving slowly and carefully. Li Mu had already left the hallway and peeked into the second-floor lobby.
Inside, there were a bunch of hotel workers wearing different uniforms. Almost all of them looked very worried, and some young women were crying together in a corner.
If it were just that, it would be fine. But then she noticed something else, some of the workers were removing their arms and legs, as if doing maintenance. On top of the round tables covered in red cloth, there were body parts lying everywhere.
At first glance, it looked like a bunch of monsters having a human buffet.
Li Mu’s appearance caught the workers’ attention.
For a moment, the entire lobby went still, so quiet that she could hear people talking outside the hotel.
“We’re here for the late-night buffet,” Li Mu said, then quickly turned and pushed Wang Ruoyan’s head back into the hallway. “Um… what are you guys doing?”
“Welcome…” One of the girls who had been crying quickly snapped out of it. While shoving the workers who hadn't had time to put on their limbs under the table, she said, “Please wait a moment in the hallway! We were just having a meeting!”
The room instantly exploded with chaos. Workers ran off carrying heads, arms, and legs. In just a few seconds, the big lobby was almost empty, leaving behind only three staff members.
Then some chefs quickly got dressed and stood inside the half-open kitchen area, still whispering among themselves.
“Whose arm is this? It doesn’t feel right to use…”
“Who took my leg? Do you think they’ll notice I’m missing one?”
“Where’s my, uh… elephant trunk?!”