"I'm sorry, but non-hotel guests are not allowed to loiter in the lobby," said Fang Yang.
The man and woman both looked disappointed and reluctant.
"Let's go back outside and wait a bit longer," the man said.
The woman nodded helplessly.
Just then, Gu Wanyin walked in yawning.
She had just been sitting with four other guests at an internet cafe, playing against AI opponents all night.
But since their skill levels weren't very high, they had become engrossed in playing against the computer and lost track of time, staying out so late.
She was utterly exhausted and had come back to sleep.
The man and woman stared at her in surprise, then called out uncertainly, "Gu Wanyin?"
Gu Wanyin had just finished yawning, her eyes still watery. She wiped them and asked politely, "May I help you?"
"Stop pretending!" the woman sneered. "I don't believe you could forget us!"
"Haha, I can't believe you're still alive! You're pretty lucky!" the man said. "I thought you'd have been bitten by zombies long ago!"
Gu Wanyin frowned, glancing at the two of them.
Could they be people the original owner of this body knew?
She began searching through the original owner's memories for these two.
Since crossing over, she hadn't really looked through the original owner's memories much.
After all, apart from cola and hamburgers, none of the people she used to know were around anymore. In this apocalyptic world, who knew if they'd ever meet again? There was no need to deliberately look.
She quickly found the couple in the original owner's memories.
After reviewing the memories, her gaze grew cold.
The man was called Yu Bao, and the woman was Fang Jintao. They were both classmates of the original owner.
The two were a couple, but Yu Bao had taken a liking to the original owner and secretly pursued her.
Of course, the original owner rejected him. She didn't like Yu Bao at all, and she only wanted to study hard and get into university.
But somehow, Fang Jintao found out about Yu Bao pursuing the original owner.
Fang Jintao was convinced that the original owner must have seduced Yu Bao, so she brought several of her girlfriends to bully the original owner. Yu Bao, humiliated by the rejection, joined in tormenting her out of spite.
They did all sorts of cruel things: splashing her with water, putting tacks in her shoes, writing insults on her desk, tearing up her textbooks, dirtying her uniform, putting bugs in her food... Sometimes they would even corner her and beat her up.
The original owner, having grown up in an orphanage, had no one to stand up for her.
She could only endure silently, waiting until graduation to finally escape their torment.
"Hey, Gu Wanyin, you're staying at this hotel? Haha, perfect, hurry up and give us your room!" Fang Jintao snarled. "Otherwise, I'll beat you to death!"
The original owner had been bullied so severely by them before that she would cower like a mouse seeing a cat at the sight of them.
Now, Fang Jintao instinctively felt she could still lord over Gu Wanyin.
Meanwhile, Fang Yang watched from the side, his heart pounding in alarm.
Did these two have any idea what they were doing? What they were saying to the hotel owner!
Gu Wanyin's lips curled into a smile. "Sister, it's the apocalypse now. Who do you think you are?"
Even if she hadn't crossed over and it was still the original owner standing here, who would care about this Fang Jintao in the apocalypse?
Did she still think she could bully people like she did before the world ended?
Thinking of what the original owner had gone through, Gu Wanyin felt enraged.
People who engage in school bullying deserve to die!
Although the original owner had endured until graduation, she had suffered terribly before then! And it had left deep psychological scars!
If the apocalypse hadn't come and the original owner had followed a normal path – university, work – those scars would likely have haunted her for life!
"What did you say? It's been over a year, and you've grown bold!" Fang Jintao fumed.
"Looks like we need to teach you a good lesson today!" Yu Bao said, raising his hand.
At that moment, Fang Yang shouted, "Stop! That's our hotel owner! What are you doing?"
Hearing this, Fang Jintao and Yu Bao froze.
As they processed what Fang Yang had just said, both of them shuddered, their faces turning pale with fear.
"You, you're the hotel owner?" Fang Jintao's eyes widened. "That's impossible, it can't be!"
"How can you be the hotel owner?" Yu Bao was panic-stricken.
How could Gu Wanyin, the girl they had bullied and humiliated at will, have transformed into the owner of Peace Hotel after experiencing the apocalypse?
They had indeed heard before that the hotel owner's surname was Gu, but they never once thought of Gu Wanyin!
If they hadn't encountered Gu Wanyin today, they probably wouldn't have even remembered her existence!
That's right – even though they had deeply hurt someone and caused them immense trauma, to them it was like an insignificant trifle, something they wouldn't even think about!
Gu Wanyin remained silent.
Her silence made Yu Bao and Fang Jintao even more nervous.
If they and Gu Wanyin had just been ordinary classmates, perhaps they could have begged her to let them stay in an empty room or even the lobby, for old times' sake.
But after how they had treated Gu Wanyin...
Was it too late to beg for forgiveness now?
"We, we were wrong!" Yu Bao's legs gave out, and he fell to his knees with a thud. "We were young and foolish back then. Gu, classmate Gu, please don't hold it against us, okay?"
"Yes, yes, we've regretted it so much since graduation!" Fang Jintao said, her face tense with worry.
"Regret? I certainly didn't see any sign of that just now," Gu Wanyin said coldly. "And... it's too late to apologize now."
As soon as she finished speaking, a mechanical voice rang out in the lobby: "Warning: Detecting dangerous behavior towards the hotel owner. Initiating removal and punishment."
Before Yu Bao and Fang Jintao could even react with fear to these words, they instantly vanished from the hotel.
Gu Wanyin felt a sense of vindication.
The system certainly wouldn't transport them anywhere pleasant.
This way, she had exacted some revenge for the original owner.
Yu Bao and Fang Jintao felt a wave of dizziness wash over them.
When they came to their senses, they found themselves in a terrifying forest!
The forest was filled with towering trees that completely blocked out the moonlight, leaving them in pitch darkness.
"What, what do we do? I'm scared!" Fang Jintao clung tightly to Yu Bao's arm.
"I'm scared too! What kind of hellish place is this?" Yu Bao tried to push Fang Jintao away.
The only reason he had stayed with Fang Jintao was that he thought having someone around in the apocalypse was better than being alone.
He had no special abilities, and being on his own made him feel insecure.
Fang Jintao had a fiery temper and was good at petty theft and bullying those weaker than her, occasionally managing to scrounge up some food.
But if they encountered real danger, he wouldn't care about Fang Jintao's fate at all!
Just then, they heard something gradually approaching...
