Chapter 452: Something Wrong with the Room

"Yanyan, how's your cold?"

"Yanyan, the teacher asked why you didn't go to the lab today. You should call her."

"Yanyan, wake up..."

...

Whispers kept echoing in Cheng Yan's ears, disturbing her until she groggily opened her eyes.

"...I'm not at school, I took a leave."

Cheng Yan instinctively murmured, 

but as soon as she opened her eyes, she saw her five roommates standing in a row by her bed, staring at her expressionlessly.

"Yanyan, go back to school..."

"Go back to school..."

The voices of her five roommates chanted like a mantra, one after another.

At first, it sounded like whispers, but the voices grew louder and louder, like a chant repeating in her ears, sending chills down her spine.

"Panpan!"

She suddenly opened her eyes, and the five roommates by her bed instantly disappeared.

"Phew... it was just a dream!"

Cheng Yan lay in bed, panting heavily from fright.

"Yanyan, what happened to you just now?" Han Panpan's voice came from above.

A strand of hair dangled down, 

and Cheng Yan looked up to see Han Panpan's head hanging down from the top bunk, peering at her.

Seeing Han Panpan, Cheng Yan felt much more at ease and said, "It's nothing, I just had a bad dream."

"That wasn't a dream," Han Panpan's upside-down head stared straight at Cheng Yan. "It was real."

What?!

This sentence nearly made Cheng Yan jump out of her skin.

As soon as the words were spoken, the five roommates who had just disappeared somehow reappeared by her bed, surrounding it in a circle, silently smiling at her with eerie expressions.

Cheng Yan's heart almost stopped.

She wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

She wanted to move, but her body felt tightly controlled, unable to even twitch a finger.

"I'm done for, I'm being haunted..."

...

Cheng Yan was on the verge of a breakdown.

Now, the only part of her body she could move was her eyelids. She struggled to open them slightly, 

and in the golden sunset glow, the medieval noblewoman's room emitted a soft light. Perhaps because there was no TV in the room, and all the furniture was made of solid wood, the room was incredibly sound-absorbing.

The entire room was eerily quiet, and apart from her own breathing, she could hear nothing.

But as soon as she closed her eyes, the five roommates were back by her bed, staring at her intently.

"Wake up, wake up!"

Cheng Yan desperately tried to move her eyeballs and twitch her fingers, hoping to wake from the nightmare.

But whether it was because of the room or her cold, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't wake up today.

"Knock, knock, knock..."

Amid her struggles, a knocking sound came from outside.

It was soft, as if trying not to startle anyone inside.

"Yanyan, open the door for me, I forgot my key."

Han Panpan's voice faintly echoed from the hallway.

At first, Cheng Yan was too disoriented to tell if it was a hallucination or if Han Panpan had really returned, 

but as the knocking grew louder and more urgent, it shattered her drowsiness.

"Yanyan, Yanyan!"

Han Panpan in the hallway was getting scared.

She had been knocking for almost 10 minutes, but there was no response from inside the room, as if no one was there.

"Could something have happened to Yanyan?!"

Han Panpan was startled by her own thought and decided that if no one opened the door, she would go to the front desk for help. 

Just as she was about to knock again, 

finally, there was a "click" as the door lock was opened from inside.

Cheng Yan could barely stand, her neck damp, unsure if it was from the sweat caused by the medicine or the cold sweat from her nightmare. Her face looked terrible.

"Why did it take so long to open the door? I thought something happened to you," Han Panpan said anxiously.

"I'm fine, I just didn't sleep well and had a nightmare. It took me a while to get up and open the door."

Cheng Yan didn't dare mention that she had just experienced sleep paralysis. After all, they were staying in a castle hotel, and bringing up such a topic could easily scare Han Panpan.

Hearing that her friend was fine, Han Panpan finally relaxed. As she entered the room, she chatted with Cheng Yan about the hotel's garden and decorations. With Han Panpan around, the room felt more lively, dispelling some of the horror from the nightmare.

Since their hotel room included a buffet dinner at the Knight's Crest Restaurant, around 6 p.m., the two walked back to the hotel's main building and enjoyed a hearty meal in the restaurant on the right side of the lobby. After dinner, they strolled around the garden before returning to their room early to rest.

After a quick wash and changing into pajamas, the two set their alarms and lay in bed, planning to browse their phones before sleeping.

"Wow! My Tingting is joining a new project!" Han Panpan suddenly exclaimed excitedly while looking at her phone.

Cheng Yan curiously leaned over to look, 

and on the phone screen, Zhu Tingting was wearing a denim outfit and a black baseball cap, bowing and offering incense in front of a large incense burner. A red cloth next to him read: "The Silent Sea Premiere Ceremony."

"When I first followed him, he was just a small celebrity with 120,000 fans. Who would have thought his fan count would grow to 3.12 million now?"

Han Panpan scrolled through Zhu Tingting's fan posts and forums, her voice filled with pride.

Over the past two years, Zhu Tingting's career in the entertainment industry had skyrocketed. He landed one great project after another, and despite not being professionally trained, his acting skills seemed innate, earning him an astonishingly high popularity.

A few days ago, he had just finished filming "Romantic Summer Dream" and immediately joined the cast of "The Silent Sea," with the female lead being another popular young actress. His dedication to his career was a great comfort to his fans.

After browsing their phones for a while, Han Panpan and Cheng Yan turned off the lights and went to sleep.

Perhaps still shaken by the sleep paralysis nightmare earlier, Cheng Yan secretly reached out a finger and poked Han Panpan's arm. This way, she wouldn't disturb her friend but could still feel someone nearby, easing her fear.

With the lights off, the room was pitch black.

The castle didn't seem to have many guests, and the hallway was completely silent, adding to the eeriness.

Han Panpan, feeling scared, moved closer to Cheng Yan and whispered, "Yanyan, did you really see two black swans kissing today?"

"Yes, it was magical. But in the blink of an eye, they disappeared."

"That's so fun... I want to go to Emerald Lake tomorrow to see for myself."

Han Panpan's voice grew softer, and her eyelids grew heavy as she drifted off to sleep.

...

In her dream, Han Panpan seemed to return to the apartment she rented during her senior year of high school.

It was an old-style apartment building with narrow paths and dim lights. She was walking home with her backpack, but strangely, there was no one around.

Yet, for some reason, she felt like a ghost was following her! 

She could even hear the ghost's footsteps and heavy breathing. She ran frantically, but the ghost followed her like a shadow.

Finally, when she reached the apartment building and rushed up to the fifth floor to her door, she fumbled with her keys, her hands shaking so badly she couldn't align the key with the lock.

And then! 

The ghost that had been chasing her grabbed her feet and yanked her down! 

The icy, bone-chilling sensation on her ankles felt so real that it jolted Han Panpan awake. 

She was drenched in cold sweat, utterly terrified.

Phew...

That dream was too scary.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Han Panpan was about to turn over and go back to sleep when she suddenly felt a chill, especially on her feet, as if someone was blowing air on her soles.

"Huh? Where's my blanket?"

Han Panpan had a habit of kicking off her blanket while sleeping. Thinking she had kicked it away, she instinctively looked toward the foot of the bed to pull it back up.

But what she saw horrified her.

Cheng Yan's face appeared at the foot of the bed, staring at her with an eerie expression, and softly said:

"That wasn't a dream, it was real."

After saying this, Cheng Yan suddenly reached out and grabbed Han Panpan's ankle, yanking her toward the edge of the bed.

In that instant, Han Panpan could clearly feel the friction between her back and the bedsheet.

"No, Yanyan!!"

Han Panpan was on the verge of tears, struggling desperately, but Cheng Yan's grip was strong and icy, making it impossible to break free.

Just as she was about to be pulled off the bed, 

she mustered all her strength and kicked the blanket with such force that the entire bed shook.

The shaking jolted Han Panpan fully awake, and she gasped for breath.

The dream was over.

"I'm still in bed?!"

Han Panpan looked around in shock, confirming that the blanket was still on her and that she was still lying in bed, her hand clutching Cheng Yan's arm. She hadn't been pulled off the bed after all.

What she had just experienced was a dream within a dream!

"Panpan, don't scare me."

Perhaps her kicking had been too violent, as it woke Cheng Yan up too.

Cheng Yan's voice trembled with fear, as if she had also just woken from a nightmare, clearly shaken.

In the darkness, neither of the girls dared to move.

After a long while, Han Panpan whispered, "Yanyan, I'm scared. I want to turn on a nightlight."

Cheng Yan's voice also trembled, "I'm scared too. I want to turn on a nightlight."

Silence filled the room again.

In the darkness, the two frightened girls were too scared to reach out from under the blankets to turn on the light.

Finally, the brave medieval noblewoman Han Panpan reached out and pressed some button, managing to turn on a small light, bringing a faint glow to the room.

"Yanyan, I just had a dream, and you were in it," Han Panpan said, still shaken, as she pulled the blanket up and whispered.

Cheng Yan quietly moved closer to the center of the bed and said, "Me too, I dreamed about you too."

And it was the second time.

"Can we sleep with the light on? I'm a little scared," Han Panpan suggested.

"Sure!"

Perhaps because the beds at Lion Lake Castle were too comfortable, or because the two were exhausted from the day and hadn't slept well earlier, 

it didn't take long before 

Han Panpan and Cheng Yan fell into a deep sleep again.

Shortly after closing her eyes, Cheng Yan seemed to continue dreaming, her brows furrowed, and her breathing became rapid.

Han Panpan soon followed, and the two were once again trapped in nightmares.

Meanwhile, in a room far away, 

Chen Jianhai sat cross-legged on his bed, happily looking at the word "Victory" on his phone screen, and smugly praised himself:

"I'm so awesome~~"

Since the debuff from the parrot leaving the hotel had worn off, Chen Jianhai felt like a god in his games! 

He won 8 out of 10 matches, his luck was through the roof, and his win rate was astonishing.

In just one week, he had become the strongest Wang Zhaojun in Cream Road, unbeatable! 

Turning off the lights, Chen Jianhai lay in bed contentedly.

"I wonder what kind of wonderful experience the system will give those two girls... I wish I could experience it too."

Just as he was drifting off to sleep, 

a sharp phone ring shattered the silence.

Answering the call, the front desk clerk's anxious voice came through:

"Boss, something's happened."

"A guest said there's something wrong with their room. They're in the lobby now and refuse to go back..."

"Can you come down and take a look?"

Ten minutes later, when Chen Jianhai hurriedly arrived at the hotel lobby, six or seven employees were gathered around a sofa, comforting the frightened guests.

"What's going on?" Chen Jianhai asked urgently. "What's wrong with the room?"

"Boss, they said the room is haunted," the front desk clerk whispered, her face showing a hint of panic.

Haunted?

Chen Jianhai instinctively glanced at the people on the sofa, his first thought being that they were trying to scam the hotel.

After all, in a big forest, you find all kinds of birds.

He had heard of guests who, after staying at a hotel, would come up with all sorts of bizarre reasons to demand refunds or even extort money from the hotel.

If the hotel refused, they would make a scene until either the hotel gave in or they gave up.

Claims of a hotel being haunted, having problematic rooms, or feeling eerie were definitely within the range of such excuses.

If it were any other castle hotel claiming to be haunted, he might have believed it or at least listened, but this was Chen Jianhai's own hotel! 

You can say my hotel has magic, 

but haunted?

That's just blatant nonsense!

Whether there are ghosts in this hotel, don't I know best?!

Chen Jianhai had already categorized the night's events as a "scam," so his expression wasn't exactly friendly.

He walked over to the sofa, ready to handle the situation.

If the other party was reasonable and easy to talk to, he'd let it slide.

But if they insisted the hotel was haunted, Chen Jianhai wouldn't mind showing them what a real ghost looked like!!! 

As Chen Jianhai approached the sofa, the "guest's" account reached his ears:

"Whenever we're in that room, we both have nightmares, and they're the kind that happen within dreams..."

"Even sleeping with the lights on doesn't help."

"The scariest part is that we ended up dreaming the same thing..."

"There's definitely something wrong with that room. You should check it out."

Chen Jianhai scoffed inwardly: "Yeah, right, as if it's real."