The person outside the door, of course, could not open it.
This was because Ye Tiancheng and the others had already locked the door from the inside, certainly not leaving such an obvious loophole. People who had stayed in inns or hotels frequently would generally have this habit.
After all, staying outside was inherently less safe.
The person outside the door clearly discovered this fact quickly. After trying to twist the doorknob a few more times and finding it impossible to open, they gave up.
The commotion even woke up Nie Chongyang and the little fox, who were asleep. They were already not daring to sleep too deeply, being light sleepers, as they needed to be ready to face danger at any moment.
The little fox, half-asleep, quietly asked Ye Tiancheng, "Big Brother, what's going on?"
Ye Tiancheng also spoke in a low voice, "We don't know for sure yet. Let's see what the people outside want to do, and then we'll talk."
Afterward, Ye Tiancheng and the others then heard the sound of the room door being knocked upon.
Seeing this, Ye Tiancheng was the first to call out loudly, "Who is it?"
Immediately, the four people in the room heard the person outside say, "I rented a bed in this room, why did you lock the door? Don't you know this place is rented by the bed? Do you really think the whole room belongs to you?"
Ye Tiancheng immediately replied, "Impossible, all the beds in this room have been booked by us, not a single one is left. You've got the wrong room!"
The person outside seemed unwilling to accept this explanation and retorted, "I clearly rented a bed in this room. I don't care about your business, open the door for me!"
Since the other person was speaking rudely, Ye Tiancheng naturally wouldn't be polite either.
"I don't care about your business either. Anyway, all the beds here were booked by us long ago, and the money has been paid. We're not opening the door for you. Either confirm if you've found the wrong room, or if you're really not satisfied, go find the boss!"
The person outside cursed a few times. Seeing that Ye Tiancheng was absolutely unwilling to open the door, they turned around and eventually left.
Despite this, Ye Tiancheng and the others still felt that the matter was not that simple.
This was not an ordinary place. The possibility that the so-called "people" they saw were actual humans was quite slim. With such an incident occurring, they were more inclined to believe that the other party had ill intentions.
However, they couldn't figure out what the other party intended to do. Ye Tiancheng and the other three couldn't come to a conclusion, so they could only wait for the other party to make a move and see what they wanted to do.
Liang Ping walked to the window, partly to pull the curtains tighter and check if the windows were securely closed, and partly to observe the situation outside.
Unexpectedly, as he looked, Liang Ping was startled.
He stood by the window, then froze. After reacting, he immediately called out to everyone, "Quick, come and look out this window!"
Nie Chongyang asked him, "Has anything new happened outside?"
Liang Ping nodded vigorously.
Ye Tiancheng, Nie Chongyang, and the other two gathered over, peered out the window, and were immediately shocked.
They saw that the pedestrians who had seemed perfectly normal moments ago now appeared extremely abnormal. Their postures were stiff, their movements slow, and their complexions were pale and greenish. They looked eerie no matter how you looked at them.
The little fox couldn't help but say with a trembling voice, "What the hell..."
Suddenly, there was a "pat" sound from somewhere. At least, to the ears of Ye Tiancheng and the other three, it sounded like it was near the window where they were gathered. Following this sound, the eerie pedestrians on the road suddenly stopped their movements, all raised their heads, and looked towards the window where Ye Tiancheng and the others were.
The four reacted extremely quickly, shrinking back and drawing the curtains tightly.
"...Oh my god!"
Several of them felt a lingering fear.
The little fox asked, "Did any of you hear clearly what that sound was? It drew the attention of those ghastly things below. Although we hid quickly, we still don't know what will happen next."
"I didn't expect this place to be like this at night."
Nie Chongyang couldn't help but exclaim, "This scene, wow! Is this a parade of a hundred ghosts?"
Liang Ping added, "Listening to the sound, it seems like a stone hitting the windowsill."
Upon hearing this, the little fox's expression turned somewhat angry, "This is too wicked. What grudge? What enmity?"
Ye Tiancheng said helplessly, "All beings in this space, even if they have no grudge or enmity with us, probably harbor great malice. What's a stone hitting the windowsill? It's already showing mercy that they didn't smash our window directly."
Hearing this, the little fox's face turned pale with shock.
"Don't jinx it, Brother! Quick, spit it out!"
Ye Tiancheng thought about it and felt that what he said was indeed inappropriate, no different from casting a hex on himself. So, he cooperated by spitting three times, signifying that he was spitting out the bad words.
"This scene is truly terrifying, and not much time has passed. Not long ago, we still saw what it was like outside, and everything was normal. This is just the beginning, and we don't know what it will be like later."
Nie Chongyang pondered with a frown.
Ye Tiancheng's mind was racing with thoughts. He spoke up and said, "However, since it's become like this outside, then what was the deal with the person who knocked on our door just now?"
"I don't know. Will he come again later? Will something break through the door?"
The little fox cast another resentful glance, and Ye Tiancheng consciously spat three more times.
Nie Chongyang chuckled, "Spitting won't help. We still need to analyze the situation and consider all possibilities. I'm afraid if they really break in, we won't be able to rest. We still need to think about how to escape next."
The little fox thought about it and was also scared, saying, "There are so many pedestrians outside, and each of them is abnormal. Where else can we run?"
Nie Chongyang also said, "But looking at this situation, it's fortunate we didn't decide to rest in the car. Otherwise, at this point, if we accidentally looked out the car window, wouldn't we be scared to death?"
"And if we were trapped in the car, it would probably be even harder to react and find a place to run."
The little fox said with a bitter face, "But it's not much better right now."
Ye Tiancheng comforted the little fox, "Let's just observe the situation. It might not be that bad. You've already assumed that this house can't be defended at all and we'll have to escape outside, but the reality might not be that bad."
It was still a matter of taking it one step at a time.
Fortunately, their quick evasion at the window earlier seemed to have gone unnoticed, and it didn't seem to have truly alerted the eerie pedestrians below. Nor was there a second stone thrown to hit their windowsill or window.
Just as the four of them were filled with unease and on high alert, their room door was suddenly knocked upon again from the outside.
Ye Tiancheng made a gesture, signaling the other three. Then, he approached the door alone, listening to the commotion outside while controlling his volume, pretending not to be too close to the door.
"Who is it again? It's so late at night, can't people get any rest!"
This was a continuation of the earlier incident of someone trying to twist the door and then knocking, playing along with the narrative.
Then, they heard a voice from outside that Ye Tiancheng and the other three found somewhat familiar, "Dear guests, I am the innkeeper. Could you please open the door?"
Judging by the voice alone, it was indeed the innkeeper's voice.
However, in a place like this, judging people by their voice was the least reliable method.
Moreover, who could be sure that this innkeeper had no problems? Even if he was the real innkeeper, so what?
No matter who was knocking on the door, Ye Tiancheng certainly had no intention of opening it.
He simply asked the person outside, "What is it?"
The person outside, who claimed to be the innkeeper, replied to Ye Tiancheng, "A guest came looking for us earlier, and we realized that an employee was careless and didn't explain things clearly, causing someone to find the wrong room and knock on your door, which caused you some trouble."
"Therefore, I've brought something to apologize to you."
"I saw that you guests checked in quite early and didn't seem to have eaten yet, so I've prepared some food. Please come out and collect it, guests."
Who knew if opening the door would result in Ye Tiancheng and the other three getting food, or if the four of them would become food?
Besides, the food here might not even be edible.
Ye Tiancheng did not accept the offer.
He replied to the person outside who claimed to be the innkeeper, "It's fine if you know it was a misunderstanding. We don't need the boss to apologize for anything. We had eaten before checking in, so please keep the food. We don't need it. Boss, please go back."
There was a moment of silence outside the door.
After a long while, the person outside continued, "It's not food that spoils easily. You can keep it and have it for breakfast tomorrow morning. Everything is prepared, so please accept it, guests, and don't waste it."
Ye Tiancheng then proceeded to make up excuses, just to fool them. In any case, the gist of his words was that they would not open the door, and they would die before opening it for the person outside. They just wanted them to go back.
Regardless of whether the other party's intentions were good or malicious, Ye Tiancheng and the others had no intention of accepting.
Ye Tiancheng said, "We have our plans arranged for tomorrow. Breakfast is being treated by someone else, so we need it even less. If it's left to us, it will be a waste. Boss, perhaps you could see if other guests need it, or keep it for your employees or yourself."
The person outside was very unwilling and was about to speak again, "Guest..."
However, this time, Ye Tiancheng had no intention of letting them finish speaking. He directly interrupted the person outside and said, "We really don't need any compensation. It's very late, and we need to rest. Please do not disturb our rest again."
As soon as Ye Tiancheng finished speaking, the person outside seemed to become anxious.
Their voice became strange, neither male nor female, and it seemed like many voices were mixed together, old and young, male and female, distorted and sharp, shouting "guest" repeatedly.
At the same time, they began to knock frantically on the door.
The knocking grew louder and more frequent, becoming unbearable.
Nie Chongyang, the little fox, and Liang Ping, the other two, all wore expressions of pain from the disturbance, covering their ears tightly. Ye Tiancheng looked a little better, but in reality, it wasn't much better.
The little fox put on a sullen face and said resentfully, "Is he thinking that he'll either annoy us to death, or annoy us so much that we can't stand it and will open the door ourselves to run out?"
Ye Tiancheng heard the little fox speak and replied, "It's just a form of interference and stimulation. After all, we refuse to open the door, and we're not willing to go out. However, looking at this, there's at least one piece of good news that can be confirmed."
"If we don't open the door, they probably can't get in easily. This is a good thing."
After saying all this, he looked at the little fox and the other two, who were all looking at him innocently, as if they didn't understand what he was saying.