I Became a Hotel Tester in a Supernatural Hotel

Holding her umbrella, Xiang Ya gazed at the orange-and-yellow building in front of her.

The rain in early spring still carried the bone-seeping chill of late winter. The drizzling rain outside of the umbrella flew in, desperately clinging to the living being it found.

Xiang Ya dressed thinly, couldn’t bear the cold and let out a few coughs; she coughed until her face was flushed red. She took out an orange leaflet from her arms and gazed at it for a while.

She couldn’t figure out why she came here on a whim, perhaps she went crazy due to being poor and believed what was on the leaflet.

A month ago, her parents mysteriously disappeared, leaving her with her father’s huge debt. She repaid whatever she could, the house had been mortgaged out, and she was left with a year’s rent of a bun shop to live in.

She is a senior preparing for an internship and basically had no high-paying job for her to pay off the remaining $300,000 in such a short time.

But this evening, she found the leaflet in the crack of the bun shop.

Xiang Ya looked down again, and the recruitment requirements were written in the middle:

[Hotel Tester wanted: Are you constantly running around trying to make a living; bored from your dreary and tasteless job? The website link is here. We sincerely invite people aged 18-45 year-olds to participate in the interview. If you are out-going, courageous, and have some reasoning ability, feel free to submit your resume. ]

[Job Content: The hotel tester will be required to arrive at the designated hotel for a sleep evaluation. The tester will be required to submit the assessment of the room and reasonable suggestions for improvement when leaving the hotel. Travel expenses, food, and accommodation can be applied for reimbursement, a monthly salary of $100,000 (salary can be pay in advance after the first check-in), there is additional performance bonus if the evaluation attracts more guests. ]

[What are you waiting for? Sign up! ]

It would only take three months to pay off the debt and it’s not that Xiang Ya had never doubted about this job.

After all, the methods to make easy money were basically written in the criminal law, and what remained were those with high-risk.

Xiang Ya gritted her teeth and sent her resume over to try, thinking that if she encountered any danger, she would immediately call the police to escape.

It didn’t take long for Xiang Ya to receive a call from a person claiming to be the site’s recruiting manager, who immediately invited her to participate in a recruitment interview at 10 pm.

The website even provided a subsidy, regardless if the interviewee had been interviewed or not, there will be 1,000 yuan credited into the bank card.

…

Xiang Ya took out her mobile phone and made sure that the money had been deposited into the bank account over and over again. She folded the leaflet, took a deep breath and walked towards the hotel.

The designated hotel was called Xi Er Wang, and it was two blocks away from the bun shop.

During her high school years, she often passed by here on her way to school.

The hotel was very tall, about twenty stories tall. The orange-yellow building began to show signs of decay. Colorful lights hung on every floor outside the building, flickering in the middle of the night.

The entire hotel loftily stood in the night rain, its lines were blurred by the drizzling rain, giving people a sense of eerie gaudiness.

She struggled to shake the bizarre imagery out of her head.

A minute later, Xiang Ya walked into the lobby and on the right side of the front desk were two young girls who were both looking down at their phones. She wondered what they were looking at.

“Hello, I’m here to stay for a night.”

The female receptionist near the door glanced at her and lowered her head and continued to play with her phone, “218 yuan per night for a single room.”

Xiang Ya paused, “Uh, I was recommended by Ancheng website for a sleep evaluation. My name is Xiang Ya.”

Ancheng was the website where she submitted her resume.

The receptionist didn’t seem to hear what she said. When she wanted to say it again, the receptionist that was sitting inside suddenly stood up and smiled at her.

Xiang Ya was a little frightened, she stared at the girl who smiled at her, her feet were nailed to place.

She was delicate and pretty but her complexion was as white as paper. Her pupils were very dark and sinister, and her smile was indescribably strange.

“Xiang Ya, right? We received a message from Manager Yan. The room arranged for you is room 2301 on the 23rd floor. I will take you up.”

Xiang Ya hesitated for a moment, took out her ID card to register.

While she was waiting, she caught a glimpse of the receptionist with a bad attitude just now. She was still ignoring her, as if she didn’t exist, and that she had completely left her to her colleague to deal with.

Xiang Ya even glanced at the receptionist a few times, but she didn’t even glance back at her.

“Okay, I’ll take you up.” The beautiful girl’s words called her attention back.

Xiang Ya took her ID card back and followed the girl in front and turned past the decorative wall. There were three elevators in front of her. She was a little surprised. Generally, hotels only have two elevators, and it is rare that there are three.

The receptionist pressed the elevator in the middle, and the display next to it showed that the elevator was coming down from the 23rd floor, and the speed was unexpectedly fast. In the blink of an eye, the elevator came to the first floor.

“Ding dong, arrived on the first floor.” The prompt sounded.

Xiang Ya originally thought that since it was so late, there should be few guests coming in and out. She took a step and was about to walk over, but as soon as the elevator door opened, a large crowd of people walked out: men, women and children. They spoke loudly and it was bustling with excitement and liveliness.

She was surprised and thought: ‘This hotel is so shabby, unexpectedly there are so many people staying here. ‘

Perhaps it was the sense of security that came with the crowd, her uneasiness dropped a little.

Xiang Ya evaded the people with the top half of her body. When everyone was gone, she was just halfway into the elevator when she accidentally bumped into someone’s elbow.

Xiang Ya frowned at the pain and looked sideways, a short-haired woman pushing a stroller full of apologies, while busily pushing the little boy who stood up in the stroller and excitedly waving his fist at her.

“I’m sorry, my little darling is too excited to see a stranger.”

Xiang Ya loosened her brows, shook her head and said, “It’s okay.”

Entering the elevator were several unfamiliar men and women, and soon the trip up was full.

Xiang Ya was standing in the corner, a fist away from her was the little boy who hit her just now. He looked at her motionlessly and pointed to the bag on her back.

Xiang Ya thought that this child was too smart, how did he know that she had candy in her bag.

She’s a little hypoglycemic and always carries candies and chocolates with her.

She took out a candy and handed it over, “Here.”

The little boy took the candy and looked up at her and smiled.

The little boy’s teeth were small but sharp, at first glance it looked like the teeth were serrated.

His face was pale, too. Facing Xiang Ya, he tore the wrapper, rolled up the chocolate candy with his scarlet tongue, chewing non-stop, his eyes fixed on her.

Everyone else in the elevator was immersed in their own world, and only the sound of little boys chewing was left in the cramped space.

Xiang Ya continued to be stared at by the little boy. She quickly raised her head and burrowed further into the corner, but she couldn’t help but focus on the mother and son beside her.

The boy looked about three years old. By definition, he passed the age of sitting in the stroller, when he sat in it, he stuffed the stroller full.

‘When did the two of them and the people in front arrive at the elevator?Did they have no sound when they walked? ‘

Before she had time to think about it, the elevator reached the 23rd floor. Only then did Xiang Ya realize that the people in the elevator were all residents of this floor.

Her restless heart beat frantically again. She took out the phone and stared vigilantly at the surrounding strangers, but these people didn’t care about her, and walked out of the elevator on their own.

The receptionist who led the way also walked out. Seeing that she was still in the elevator, she couldn’t help urging her.

“Miss Xiang, come out quickly, or you won’t be able to get out later.”

Xiang Ya was nervous and didn’t notice the weirdness of this sentence. She waited for everyone to walk out and as the elevator was about to close, she stepped out.

After a little delay, Xiang Ya didn’t speak and  this time, she honestly followed the receptionist. After a turn around the corner, she discovered that the people who took the elevator together just now were nowhere to be seen.

She looked back at the elevator and there were about ten more people standing in front of it, waiting.

She felt cold air blowing through her spine. To get to the elevator from the rooms, it seemed like the only way to get there was the one she was standing on now.

But she only took a few steps, and she didn’t see these people pass by.

The author has something to say:

The start of a new book, everything is going swimmingly.

The children who came out to find a job should not learn from Xiang Ya. The setting is fictional, but in reality, easy money jobs are illegal and criminal.

The truth is, “Free things are the most expensive.”