Chapter 317: Room 1029

Chapter 317: Room 1029

Jiang Hongguang could feel his own heartbeat picking up speed.

Most people went their whole lives without ever being threatened over something that could get them killed. This was Jiang Hongguang’s first time. As the saying went, a man who had done nothing wrong feared no ghost knocking at his door. Jiang Hongguang had done more than his share of things worth fearing.

He sent the message.

A minute passed with no reply.

A minute was not long, but to him it stretched out endlessly. He did not know who the sender was or what they wanted from him. It was the not knowing that frightened him most.

Who could say whether Ding Ruilong might suddenly be told about all this? If that happened, Jiang Hongguang knew he would not live out the day.

Unable to stand it, he started typing again. He wrote a line, deleted it, thought it over, and tapped the number instead.

The screen switched to the dialer.

Jiang Hongguang decided to call outright and see whether the other party picked up.

The call went through.

He put the phone to his ear, his pulse climbing again as he listened to the slow ringing tone. Uneasy, he even turned to glance at the restroom door.

He was terrified someone might walk in.

Five full seconds passed before the call was finally answered. No one spoke. Jiang Hongguang pulled the phone away and checked the screen to be sure the call had truly connected and the timer had started.

“Who are you? Say something!”

“The cleaning staff carry keycards. Take the stairs. Tenth floor, Room 1029.” The voice on the line was badly hoarse, an unnatural rasp, plainly disguised.

“You—” Jiang Hongguang had barely begun.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The line went dead.

His face changed and his unease deepened. It was not the destination that troubled him. Of course he wanted to face whoever was threatening him. Only in person could he read the situation and find a way out.

That was not the problem.

The problem was that they had told him to go upstairs.

Which meant they knew exactly where he was standing at this very moment.

Which meant whoever was threatening him might be inside Crown Entertainment right now, watching him.

He thought for two seconds, then called again.

This time it did not connect. The other party rejected it at once.

He tried twice more. The same.

Soon Jiang Hongguang left the restroom and stepped into the corridor, glancing instinctively in both directions. A moment later he walked out to the mouth of the restroom corridor and looked into the main hall.

Tables filled the room. There were guests, though not many.

He scanned the hall, trying to pick out anyone suspicious. Nothing.

He hesitated.

He had two choices. He could return to the corridor diagonally across the hall, where the private rooms were. That was where he had come from.

Or he could go out through the main entrance. Beyond it ran the corridor to the elevator lobby, and beside the elevators stood the stairwell.

Jiang Hongguang did not want to be threatened.

But he knew that if he simply went back and ignored this, it could destroy him. He needed to talk to whoever this was. He did not even know what they wanted.

He weighed it for a long while.

Then he moved toward the main entrance.

He crossed the hall diagonally, stepped outside, and stopped again. He looked left and right, and glanced up at the surveillance cameras mounted in the corners of the corridor. He knew there were no cameras inside the card hall, but every corridor beyond it was monitored.

There was no avoiding being recorded entirely.

He headed for the stairwell.

And climbed.

One thing about Crown Entertainment was worth noting. Every floor below the ninth was open to ordinary guests. The ninth and tenth were reserved for important ones.

The ninth floor was for cards, with small lounges for resting and taking tea. The tenth consisted of luxury suites prepared for the guests using the ninth.

The eleventh floor was not open to club guests at all. Only those Li Ruotai personally received went up there.

Because of that arrangement, the ninth and tenth floors formed a relatively self-contained VIP zone. The elevators required a card; guests needed a VIP card or an escort. The stairs gave no access from below.

The stairwell between the eighth and ninth floors was locked.

So was the one between the tenth and eleventh. Even a guest holding a VIP card for the ninth and tenth could not reach the eleventh.

Only someone already on the ninth floor could take the stairs up to the tenth.

The stairwell was broad, red carpet covering every step.

Jiang Hongguang climbed to the tenth floor. The corridor there was lavish. Not only was it fully carpeted, oil paintings in gilded frames hung along the walls.

Taken as a whole, it could only be described as dazzlingly opulent.

He walked farther in and soon passed Room 1029. He did not stop. The door needed a keycard, and he had none. He had come only to find the room and see whether anyone was nearby.

After making a circuit of the floor, he went back down.

On the ninth floor he took out his phone, pretended to be on a call, and wandered about as naturally as he could. At last he found a cleaner who ought to be carrying a card, at a bend in the corridor outside one of the small lounges, her cart of cleaning supplies and replacement items beside her.

At Crown Entertainment, even the room attendants were pretty young women.

“Excuse me, sorry to bother you. Could you tell me where the restroom is?” Jiang Hongguang approached her looking thoroughly rushed.

The young cleaner pointed the way.

He did seem genuinely in a hurry. As he went he bumped her shoulder, then turned back at once to apologize.

“Sorry about that.”

One minute later.

Jiang Hongguang stood outside Room 1029 on the tenth floor again.

He took a card from his pocket.

The cleaner’s card. He had just “taken” it.

Generally speaking, cleaning staff carried master keycards. And since she worked the VIP zone, hers should at least open every guest room there and operate the elevators.

He was about to swipe when caution stopped him.

He had begun to wonder whether they meant for him to steal something. And he had no idea whether the room was occupied.

Was someone inside?

Knock, knock.

He rapped on the door.

No answer.

Only then did he swipe. The lock clicked open. He pushed the door in, stepped through, and shut it behind him at once.

The room was extravagantly appointed.

Standing in the entryway, Jiang Hongguang looked and listened before moving farther in. He searched it cautiously, and gradually relaxed.

He was certain no guest was staying here.

There was no one at all.

Was this only the meeting place, then?

Had they not arrived yet?

Strange.

He could not make sense of it.

Thinking it over, he took out his phone and dialed the number again.