Chapter 4

The red-dressed woman was so terrifying that Ah Mei hurriedly opened the door and stumbled into the room, quickly slamming the door shut with a loud "bang." She sat on the edge of the bed, breathing heavily, and it took a while for her to calm down. Due to the intense fear, the cold sweat on her body had soaked through her clothes, making them cling tightly to her skin, which was uncomfortable, and she had to take a shower. Ah Mei opened the wardrobe, looking for something suitable to wear. But as the wardrobe door opened halfway, she was so frightened that she stepped back several paces because it seemed like someone was standing inside the wardrobe. She thought about calling hotel staff to check, but then realized that she had only felt it, and if there was nothing there, it would be quite embarrassing to ask someone to check. After thinking it over, she gritted her teeth and decided to check herself. She closed her eyes, pulled the wardrobe door open quickly, and then opened her eyes immediately. There was no one inside the wardrobe. The only thing that had made her suspicious was the clothes she had hung there earlier that morning. "Thank goodness!" Ah Mei sighed with relief. "I thought it was a pervert hiding inside the wardrobe, waiting to attack me while I was sleeping! Turns out it was just my clothes. Good thing I didn't go out to call the staff, otherwise, that would have been embarrassing." She took the clothes from the wardrobe, grabbed her underwear, and went into the bathroom to shower. She turned on the faucet, rinsed off, and bent down to grab the shower gel at her feet. But just as her hand was about to touch it, she noticed something unusual out of the corner of her eye—someone seemed to be standing outside the bathroom, as if trying to peek at her while she showered. Because of the experience with the wardrobe, Ah Mei didn't feel too strange about it and continued with her shower. As she was washing, she suddenly heard a "creak" sound from outside. It was very sharp and clear, and instantly, Ah Mei recognized it as the sound of a door opening... Wait, something wasn't right! Ah Mei's heart grew cold. There was only her in the room, so how could the door open? Could it be that Gao Hong and Xu Hua had returned? But that couldn't be, they wouldn't be able to open the door without a room key. Could it be a hotel employee? Even more impossible! The hotel had strict rules—no staff was allowed into a room without the guest’s permission. The more Ah Mei thought, the more terrified she became. She quickly washed off the shower gel, wrapped herself in a towel, and rushed out of the bathroom. There was no one in the room, and the door was still shut tight. "Sigh! I must really be sick," Ah Mei muttered to herself. After getting dressed, she decided to call Gao Hong and the others to see if they had returned. Instead of using her mobile phone, she used the hotel’s landline to call their room. The phone quickly connected, but no one answered, only heavy breathing was heard on the other end. "They probably haven’t come back yet," Ah Mei mumbled to herself, looking at the phone which remained silent. Since they hadn’t returned, she decided to watch TV for a while to pass the time before going to bed. She turned on the TV with the remote. The program was boring, and soon, Ah Mei started dozing off. She rubbed her eyes and checked her phone. It was already 11:30 PM. Since they were visiting another site the next morning, Ah Mei decided to go to bed early. She turned off the TV, undressed, and went to bed. Perhaps due to being tired from the day's activities, Ah Mei quickly fell into a deep sleep. But not long after, a loud and disturbing noise woke her up. She opened her eyes to find that the noise was coming from the TV opposite her bed. "That's strange!" Ah Mei said in confusion, "Didn’t I turn off the TV with the remote before going to sleep? Why is it on again?" She intended to get up and investigate why the TV had turned on by itself, but as soon as she moved, sleepiness overwhelmed her. She found a reasonable excuse to comfort herself: "Maybe I was too tired and didn’t turn it off properly, thinking I had." She grabbed the remote by her bedside, turned off the TV, and tried to sleep again. However, just as she closed her eyes, the noisy sound came again. The TV had turned on by itself once more. This time, Ah Mei couldn't convince herself that it was simply due to being too tired. Staring at the flashing images on the TV screen, Ah Mei began to feel afraid. She wanted to call Gao Hong for company, but when she looked at her phone, it was already 2 AM. At this hour, Gao Hong was probably already asleep. "Forget it, I’ll endure it," Ah Mei told herself. She reached for the bedside table to grab the remote to turn off the TV, but she couldn’t find it. "Strange! Didn’t I leave the remote here?" She turned on the light, got out of bed, and searched everywhere for the remote. After a long search, she gave up and went to the TV, directly turning it off. After turning off the TV, Ah Mei intended to turn off the room lights, but as she walked to the light switch, she noticed something strange out of the corner of her eye—there seemed to be someone hiding behind the curtains by the window. Ah Mei swallowed hard, slowly approached the window, and suddenly pulled the curtain open. Just like the previous two times, there was no one there. "Enough is enough!" Ah Mei said to herself. "If this goes on, I’ll have a mental breakdown. I need to sleep! I need a good rest!" She quickly turned off the lights, jumped into bed, and covered her face with the blanket, determined to ignore whatever was happening in the room. But she still underestimated the situation. The TV turned on for the third time, and this time, it seemed to know that Ah Mei was trying to sleep. The volume kept rising, preventing her from resting. Ah Mei endured for a while, but finally couldn’t take it anymore. She threw off the blanket, got out of bed, and was about to go turn off the TV, but as she glanced at the window, her soul nearly left her body. The glass of the window faced her bed, so the reflection in the glass clearly showed everything on her bed. Ah Mei saw, in the reflection, a woman in a red dress standing at the foot of her bed. It was the same woman she had seen in the hallway, glaring at her. The woman was staring intently at the TV, as if completely absorbed. At that moment, even Ah Mei, with all her courage, completely broke down. She screamed, "Ghost!" and hurriedly opened the door, running out into the hallway. She knocked on Gao Hong's door and stammered as she told Xu Hua everything she had experienced that day. "I knew it!" Xu Hua said after hearing the story. "I told you, if you're staying in a hotel alone, you should knock on the door first, especially if there's an open Bible in the room. That’s a warning sign that the room might be haunted." "What should I do now?" Ah Mei asked, with a sad face. "It’s simple," Xu Hua replied. "You’ll sleep here with me tonight, and tomorrow we’ll go to the hotel manager to report what happened." The next day, they told the manager about Ah Mei's experience. After listening, the manager apologized, admitting that Ah Mei had indeed encountered a ghost. The ghost had committed suicide in that room and often lingered there, refusing to leave.