Chapter 431
A car drove into the parking lot of Xianshi Inn. Aimee, Detective Lee and Jason came out of it, and with Jason carrying a man wrapped inside of a silver cocoon over his right shoulder. Detective Lee and Aimee went to the back of the car and took out another man that was wrapped in a silver cocoon. All of them then carried the two men into the inn through a backdoor.
“Hey Jason, you’re back.” Rash was sitting behind the reception’s desk, and seemingly was chatting with a young woman in brown attire and had brown hair: “What’s with these men?”
“It’s kinda hard to explain. Sorry, it’s a bit urgent.” Jason put one man wrapped in a silver cocoon on the floor of the lounge and asked: “Is Boss here?”
“He went out with Miss. Wong earlier, he didn’t tell me when he would be back.” Rash sighed and shook his head: “It sounded pretty urgent, so I didn’t ask. Do you need help?”
“Yeah, I think we’d need some help.” Aimee came in with Detective Lee carrying the other man wrapped in a silver cocoon and laid the man they were carrying beside the first: “Do you have anything that could help treat… someone who was poisoned.” She tried using other words because she saw the girl in brown.
“Oh, Natalie here is not a civilian, so no need to hide the existence of magical powers from her.” Rash nodded and said: “I think if you need to find something to detox or heal someone, you should try the bath close to the place where you train. You’ll probably need to read the instructions though, since these two men seemed to be civilians - and your friend here is also a civilian.”
“Yeah, understood, thank you!” Jason simply picked up the two men on the floor and apologized to Aimee and Detective Lee: “Sorry about that - I should’ve done this earlier. Aimee can you get the door?”
“On it, the bath near our training room right?” Aimee went to the door to the diner, closed its ajar door and opened again, a dark tunnel with torches on the wall appeared behind the simple non-assuming door to the diner, which made Natalie, the girl in brown open her eyes wide and stare at it with visible amazement on her face.
Jason rushed through the door, then Aimee dragged Detective Lee over and pushed in through, and finally she went in herself. When the door closed and swung open again, the tunnel disappeared, and all there was left was but the sight of the humble diner.
“Sorry, where were we?” Rash turned around and asked Natalie: “You were saying that your friend went out for a late night stroll and did not come back at all? And they didn’t respond to your contact attempts?”
“Yes, yes. ” Natalie nodded: “And I know that they’re okay - we’re connected via a special artifact where we can tell if any one of us gets hurt - but unfortunately we can’t locate each other through it, all I know is that they’re nearby - and if this, this wonderful hotel has many magical doorways like what we’ve just saw, they could be just… lost?”
“Oh, that wouldn’t be possible.” Rash answered with a welcoming smile: “These doorways can only be opened by authorized individuals, so your friends couldn’t have stumbled into one.”
“But… but do you have any place that they could have mistakenly stumbled into?” Natalie went silent for a brief moment and asked: “Things like - like a wine cellar, or, or something like an underground parking lot … or a basement?”
“Well, we DO have a wine cellar, but it’s really small, so I don’t think the two of your friends would end up in there.” Rash scratched his jaw and said: “And we only have the outside parking lot - hmm wait, there IS a basement, and the owner doesn't usually lock it.”
“Huh, why doesn’t he?” Natalie appeared confused: “If so, can we go and take a look? Is it a big basement where they can get lost in?”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s go and check.” Rash stood up from his chair: “The owner likes to be a bit messy sometimes.”
Natalie stood up with Rash and walked behind him with no clue of what she was going to do next - she had no idea what she could do if they found her two teammates in the basement. From the stories this man, nicknamed Rash, told her last night when she was trying to stall and make time for her teammates, she became aware that this mild mannered tall and slim man was far beyond what he seemed from the outside, and the owner, who built this inn from the ground up was not one with whom they could mess with.
“Ah? What do you know? They fell asleep here.” Rash said with a surprised voice: “Miss Natalie, please close your eyes first, there are drawings in this room you should not lay your eyes on lightly, or just to be safe, let me get them out for you.”
Natalie froze right in front of the door to the basement, still wondering what she should do, and before she could come to a conclusion, Rash already carried her two friends on his arms: “My apologies, looks like this door is unlocked, would you like me to escort them back to your room?”
“Huh? What? Uh...” Natalie was shocked and confused by Rash’s attitude.
“Please, allow me to help them and you get back. I will send up some drinks for you as a token of our apology.” Rash appeared genuinely sorry and oblivious to the obvious implications here right in front of his face: “I will contact the owner and see if I can comp you for your stay - again, I am really sorry for what happened. Luckily there doesn’t seem to be any serious issues.”
“What? No!” Natalie immediately dragged Carmen and Kate with her from Rash’s arms, lifting their weight using her magic so that she wasn’t incapacitated by the weight: “It’s okay! It’s okay! It’s totally fine! We were not going to stay for too long anyway! Please don’t tell your boss anything! Goodbye!” Then she did not even let Rash finish before she bolted out the door.
When Natalie finally managed to load her two deeply asleep teammates into the car, she found that they were not able to start the car - even though before they came they were assured that the car could withstand most ordinary damages, and now there was no sign of any on the car.
“Need some help?” Rash appeared by the car, and Natalie almost jumped out of the car window on the other side.
The innocent and warm smile on Rash’s face now seemed extra unsettling and even creepy in Natalie’s eyes.