Going on an impromptu trip can be fun sometimes, but other times it can be quite a headache.
Jian Jing and Ji Feng left at 1:30 in the afternoon to investigate an old case from 2009. According to Ji Feng, he had already contacted the other party in advance, so they could just go directly.
However, the weather is unpredictable – literally.
It started raining halfway through the trip.
The slippery ground and poor visibility due to the hazy fog lingering in the air was especially annoying.
Jian Jing said while eating a hamburger, "I don't dislike rainy days, but I dislike going out on rainy days."
"Is that why you let me drive your car?" Ji Feng retorted.
She replied, "I provided the car, you provided the labor, it's very reasonable."
Ji Feng reminded, "I said I could come pick you up."
"Moving stuff is too troublesome." She tossed away the wilted leaves in her hamburger with distaste, "I definitely have more stuff than you."
Ji Feng glanced at her car, unable to refute.
She just bought a new car not long ago right? But there was already a lot of stuff piled up in it, even snacks filling up the back seat.
It really looked like a kid going on an outing.
"But the fog seems to be getting thicker and thicker." Jian Jing looked out the window, "Drive slower."
Ji Feng said, "Then we won't get there until night time."
"Then we'll just go there tomorrow, I brought luggage anyway." She was fearless.
Ji Feng: She really is going on an outing.
But it was reasonable to drive slower in the rain. He didn't object and slowed down the car, driving slowly while the navigation reminded them every so often.
Two hours later, the sky was completely dark. The car exited the highway and turned onto a rural road.
The number of surrounding vehicles decreased visibly.
Jian Jing said, "It's a small place."
"Yeah. Small city, insufficient police force. The family they chose was two elders and a child." Ji Feng said, "This was the first case after he officially started down this path, but not the first time he took action."
She nodded, "According to the pattern, the first victims should be his loved ones."
Ji Feng raised his eyebrows, "Is that an insight or just a guess?"
"Intuition," Jian Jing didn't want to explain further, "He believes death is liberation, happiness is just a trap to make people continue suffering. This kind of understanding must be related to his childhood."
Ji Feng glanced at her, "Did you remember something?"
"I found my old diary." She skimmed over it, not wanting to dwell on it.
But he was very interested, "When did you write a diary? What did you write about?"
Jian Jing turned her face away, "You're asking too much."
"Oh come on, just chat, don't mind." Ji Feng laughed, "I'm worried about you."
She sized him up, "Worried? Really?"
"Absolutely."
"Just saying it is useless, do something concrete."
"Like what?"
"Let me see the case file."
Ji Feng shrugged, "Don't force me, I can't give it to you, but..." He made a look, "It's in the bag in the back."
Jian Jing made a "tsk" sound and climbed into the backseat to grab the file bag.
"Hey, don't do dangerous things in the car." Ji Feng pulled her back, "Sit properly, there's traffic enforcement cameras ahead."
But Jian Jing didn't listen and reached out to grab it anyway, "What traffic cameras in a place like this..." She noticed something was off, "It's getting more and more desolate, are you sure this is the right way?"
Ji Feng also felt something was wrong and pulled over to check the navigation carefully, "The navigation directed this way, but it seems a bit far from the city we're supposed to go to."
"Let me see!" She leaned over to look.
Under the dim car lights, after studying for a while, they discovered the problem.
The originally planned road had malfunctioned, so the navigation re-routed them, mysteriously leading them to the middle of nowhere.
At this time, there were no towns ahead of them or rest stops behind them. It was extremely desolate.
Even the highway was narrow, giving off a remote feeling.
"Let's circle back around the front way." Ji Feng resigned himself to his bad luck.
Jian Jing also had no choice, "That's all we can do now."
However, they still underestimated their bad luck today. Half an hour later, torrential rain arrived.
Jian Jing said fairly, "If we left tomorrow like I said, we might even get there earlier than today."
Ji Feng: Tell me something I don't know.
"Where do we spend the night?" She readily changed the topic, "It's already past 9 pm."
He brushed through the map on his phone and found a hotel 3 km away, "Stay here to get by for a day?"
Jian Jing nodded.
Ten minutes later, the car stopped in front of their destination.
It was a small inn that maintained its appearance from the previous century, looking especially like the lodges of the past. There was a notice by the entrance: Filming location of Zombie Village, all room types available, Alipay and WeChat Pay supported.
It was just very... creepy.
But they couldn't go elsewhere on a rainy night like this, so they had no choice but to make do.
Jian Jing pushed open the door. The interior décor was also very old-fashioned with yellowed wallpaper. Dust piled up on the pendant lights, making the dim lighting even more oppressive.
The female receptionist at the counter said, "How many people? We only have one room left."
Jian Jing was surprised, "Where did all these people come from?"
"It's raining heavily. Guests who went up the mountain are stranded." The receptionist's attitude was very bad, "Are you staying or not? If not, get lost."
Jian Jing: How rude.
She was reluctant, but Ji Feng calmly nudged her behind him, "We're staying, of course we're staying. Having a room is great."
He had a very upright face, speaking gently, "Is it safe in such heavy rain? I saw a car in the parking lot that seemed to be hit. No one was hurt right?"
"No one was hurt, just startled." The receptionist's expression changed, speaking mysteriously, "They... encountered a zombie."
Jian Jing: "?"
She interrupted, "What's the 'Zombie Village' posted outside? Is this where some horror movie was filmed?"
"You don't know?" The receptionist asked in surprise, "You haven't heard about it?"
Her tone and expression made Jian Jing involuntarily reflect whether she was too uncultured.
"This is one of the top ten ghost photographs in China. There's a movie of the same name filmed based on it." A young man coming down the stairs resolved her confusion. "You haven't seen it?"
Jian Jing: Non-native, sorry.
Ji Feng said, "We don't pay much attention to this stuff usually – is it the photo on the wall?" He pointed at a picture frame on the background wall, "Is that shadow a zombie?"
An old photographic plate was hung on the wall, capturing a rainy thunderstorm night in a village. Lightning cracked down from the sky, briefly illuminating a human figure in the bushes.
It was an extremely tall person with stiff features and pale complexion, staring straight at the camera.
The atmosphere was creepy and terrifying.
"Yes, this was taken at our inn." The receptionist was very proud, "Many people didn't believe it and came to investigate, but this photo has no edits."
The young man supplemented, "Others also went to the village to investigate. There have always been zombie rumors around here. There's an old person still alive who witnessed a zombie with her own eyes, on the seventh day after her mother-in-law's passing."
Whether intentional or not, his voice gradually lowered, "It was a night of thunderstorms. She was keeping vigil in the mourning hall when suddenly, from afar, there was a..."
"Cat's meow?" Jian Jing finished.
The young man paused, "You've heard it too?"
She: "I guessed. What happened next? The cat jumped onto granny's body and she suddenly sat straight up in the coffin?"
"Uh, yes, then..."
"Granny gnawed on the old lady's face?"
The young man's voice abruptly stopped, looking at her in inexplicable horror, "No, she ran away... Why would you think that? Zombies don't eat people right?"
"Then I remembered wrong. I thought they eat brains, that's foreign zombies." She recalled, "Locally it should be sucking blood?"
The young man said dryly, "Maybe."
The conversation died.
Ji Feng took the chance to ask, "So your car collided with a zombie?"
The young man wanted to say something, but at this moment, a voice called from upstairs, "Xu Tao, are you done yet? It's taking so long just to buy instant noodles?"
The young man named Xu Tao – he dyed his hair yellow, so let's call him Xu Huangmao – apologetically smiled and asked the receptionist to buy two packs of instant noodles, hurrying upstairs, "Coming, coming!"
The conversation was interrupted.
The receptionist hastily recorded down their names. The internet was bad so she just threw over a key, "205."
Jian Jing sincerely prayed it was a standard room, so she wouldn't have to enact a bloody drama after a long day.
But she was thinking too much. Most hotels only have standard rooms, and this one was no exception. The bed was a little narrow—the gap in the middle was so tight they'd have to side-step through—but it was a double.
However... "This is the first time I've seen a room without a bathroom," Jian Jing was shocked, her worldview shattered. "A room can actually not have a toilet?"
Is that scientific?
What year is this?
Why would a room not have a toilet?
Ji Feng seemed to find her meltdown quite amusing. He answered, "Very common. If you're lucky enough to go on a business trip to remote rural areas, you might even have to use a dry toilet. Teacher Jian, try to be more open. The toilet is just down the hallway."
Jian Jing glared at him. Frankly, she said, "I've decided I hate going anywhere with you."
He laughed heartily.
"What's so damn funny?"
"You're so cute." Ji Feng waved his hand, declining to argue with her. "Ladies first, inside or outside?"
Jian Jing looked left and right, and finally chose the spot nearer the door.
Ji Feng glanced at the old window and said, "It seems you feel the outside is unsafe."
"Have you ever seen a zombie knock on a door? It's definitely more likely to be crouched on the window." Jian Jing said on purpose.
"A novelist's vivid imagination." Ji Feng remarked objectively. "Unfortunately, there are no zombies in this world."
Jian Jing looked up at him, "It seems you don't believe in resurrection either?"
"Not counting fake deaths, of course not."
"The police's lack of imagination," she said. "What a pity."
Ji Feng: "..."
Jian Jing felt slightly better after this minor victory. At least until she tidied up and walked into the bathroom.
Yes, a public bath!
At the end of the first floor, male and female, four faucets, two facing each other on opposite walls with no separation in between.
To be honest, Jian Jing had been through much worse, like suicide chambers, escaping fires, burial grounds hauntings, each with its own horrors. She couldn't say she felt no fear, but at least she had overcome them.
Yet in this moment, she surrendered.
"This can't be real," she said incredulously to the attendant. "Hotels nowadays can actually not have private bathrooms?"
The attendant's tone was indifferent, completely unmoved. "This is a filming location for a classic movie. It maintains the original layout from when they shot it. Also, bathrooms in the North are all like this. What's the problem?"
Jian Jing asked again, "Is there a separate bathroom? I can pay extra."
"No." The attendant said coldly. "No hot water after 11pm."
Jian Jing pursed her lips. "You have an attitude problem."
"You can choose not to stay." The attendant was extremely arrogant.
"I've already paid. Please be more conscious of your contractual obligations." When treated rudely, Jian Jing could also be firm.
The attendant rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll refund your money."
"This isn't about money." Jian Jing glanced at the license hanging behind her. "Keep being so arrogant, and I'll file a complaint at the Commerce Bureau—I saw earlier the evacuation signs on the second floor are paper, not lamps or glow-in-the-dark, and this floor only has one fire extinguisher."
The attendant was immediately silenced.
At this moment, two girls who were about to shower walked over. The one with a high ponytail spoke righteously, "What's the point of harassing them? Even if you file a complaint, it won't magically make an independent bathroom appear. If you don't want to stay at this kind of hotel, book a luxury one. What's the point of this?"
The other girl with a bun pulled at her, signaling her to say less, so as not to make enemies.
But the ponytail ignored her. "I hate people who don't respect others the most. If you've got the guts, then don't stay. Stop being so pretentious."
"Not butting into other people's business is also basic etiquette." Jian Jing said.
The ponytail shrugged with an "and what can you do to me" attitude. The girl with the bun quickly pulled her away, not wanting to make enemies.
Drenched by the heavy rain, Jian Jing stood in the lobby for two seconds, glumly realizing no matter how much she protested, reality was that an independent bathroom would not magically appear.
What an awful day.
Never going anywhere with Ji Feng again.