Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 11: Modern World [Complete]

1340: Passing By

In the dead of night, Deng Yilan, dressed in pajamas and slippers, sat on the side of the main road like a madwoman. She suddenly stopped a girl passing by to ask a question. How could the girl not be wary?

The girl didn't answer and was quickly escorted away by her colleagues, which was only natural.

Deng Yilan sighed inwardly and opened the door to room 203.

The girl still had to go to work the next day. She would surely encounter her again if she continued to wait at Copper Harbor in the morning. Today, she would just spend the night in this small hotel.

She set an alarm on her phone but couldn't muster the energy to check for hidden cameras in the room. Instead, she crawled under the covers. Her mind had been rolling like a nightmare since she received the call from the injured woman in the afternoon. She tossed and turned for a while, unable to sleep but feeling thirsty. She got up again. She looked at the kettle, remembering the rumors of people boiling underwear in hotel kettles for disinfection.

'Forget it.'

They sold bottled water at the front desk. Without touching her phone, Deng Yilan grabbed her wallet and room key and walked out. When she reached the staircase, she heard voices drifting up from downstairs.

"...Yes, yes, she was only wearing pajamas, very strange." The middle-aged woman who had checked her in was now surprisingly gentle in tone. "She came in over half an hour ago. She might already be asleep."

They were talking about her.

Deng Yilan's palms became sweaty, and she almost couldn't hold onto her wallet. She stretched her neck to look down but could only see a few pairs of feet, all wearing similar black leather shoes. She turned her head to look around the corridor, took off her slippers, and slowly backed away toward the direction of the emergency exit, her ears standing straight up.

"Which room number?" a man's voice asked.

"203," the middle-aged woman immediately replied. She asked, "Shall I take you to open the door now?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Deng Yilan's heart skipped a beat, and she ran for it. Luckily, she had left in time. She would have been trapped in the room if she had been a half-minute later. As she pushed open the fire door and slipped into the corridor, she saw several figures coming up the stairs—the same staircase where she was. With a glance, she recognized the middle-aged man in charge of the Han Jun case.

Why were they coming to find her? How did they know to come to this hotel to find someone?

To avoid making any noise, Deng Yilan slowly closed the door, put on her slippers, and felt her hands and feet go weak for no reason. If only Han Jun were here... They had agreed to spend their lives together, but she was suddenly alone. Nobody in the world knew how lost and scared she was now, and she wanted to ask what was going on, but there was no one she could ask.

She crawled out of the hotel's ground-floor window. After such a long day, she was tired and sleepy. She fell asleep sitting in a fast-food restaurant that was open all night. When gradually increasing noise awakened her, she momentarily forgot where she was. She almost called out "husband" out of habit.

With a start, Deng Yilan held onto the table's edge tightly, as if afraid of falling off, blinked her eyes, and gradually remembered yesterday's memories.

What time was it?

She hurriedly looked at the clock on the wall, her heart skipping a beat, and quickly reached for her wallet to leave. It was already half past eight, and if that girl from last night had come early, she might already be at work in Copper Harbor. However, as she grabbed for her wallet, she found it empty. She looked around the table but couldn't see her wallet anywhere.