"So, Andria, could you tell us a little about the recent reported incidents at your hotel?" Standing in front of the camera and speaking without a detailed script, Wu Xiaoming was surprisingly not as nervous as he thought he would be - it was probably thanks to the latent memories and experience from the previous Wu Xiaoming.
Andria, the manager of the Sproutlinger Hotel, smiled at Wu Xiaoming and the camera, before responding: "Yes, that would be - probably just about a week ago. Several guests of ours were staying in one of our rooms - Room 404, and he kept hearing this strange knocking sound in his room. He was quite bothered by it, so he went around and checked, even asked our nightshift staff about it. But none of them could figure out what was going on. So eventually, we comp-ed him an upgraded room.
"The same thing happened a few more times, each time we had to either switch rooms for the guests, or upgrade their rooms. Eventually, some people online caught wind of the news, and these two rooms have become one of our most popular rooms. There are people who come especially asking for it."
"Oh, and did any of those people find anything?" Wu Xiaoming followed up, like his guideline suggested.
"Most of them were unfortunate and found nothing substantial. But a substantial number of them have successfully recorded the knockings. "
"Okay, aside from this one, can you tell me anything else?" Wu Xiaoming asked, like the guidelines instructed.
"There's also 'The Room of Wandering Dream'." Andria nodded, with a well practiced grin and insinuating facial expression: "That would be Room 127. It is another one of our recently famous rooms.
"It started more than a few years ago. More than a decade, even. A guest from overseas came to our hotel and stayed for one night. And in the middle of the night, way before his checkout time, he ran out of here, and was never found or heard from again. We asked law enforcement, and they could not give us any answers. Ever since, many guests have stayed in that room, and many have told us they had the same dream in there.
"In their dreams, they are always trapped in some kind of building with no doors leading to outside, only very small windows they could not go through. There were candles and traditional lanterns in these rooms - from the descriptions of some of the guests who know, those are rooms decorated in a Chinese style. Fujianese - Taiwanese to be exact. They had to keep going and keep searching in their dreams for a way out, but none of them actually did.
"And when these guests actually woke up, they would often be exhausted, sickly, even. Many of them would start having nightmares for weeks, even months after their stay. Needless to say, this room became quite popular as well. But only some of the guests would encounter this dream. For many others, they could not get in the dream, no matter how many times they come and stay."
"That's - a bit of a paranormal lottery, isn't it?" Wu Xiaoming joked.
Andria laughed: "Yeah! Pretty much! Would you like to try?"
"I want to try the rooms with the strange knockings at first, if you don't mind." Wu Xiaoming chuckled: "Because that sounds less - less random and less terrifying. But I've gotta ask - are there some OG haunted stories from the hotel? The Sproutlinger Hotel's reputation of being a paranormal hotspot preceded these incidents, right?"
"You did your homework! I appreciate it!" Andria let out a practiced surprised smile: "And you're absolutely correct! This hotel was first built and owned by Norman Sproutlinger. The very first incident was believed to be a guest from France, whose name we could not recover. But what happened with him was, just a few days into his stay, he jumped off the building and ended his life. No one ever knew his reason. But - ever since that incident, a person would jump off the building every few months. And always from the same place."
"Oh? Which place?"
"It was previously named 'The Queen's Suite'. " Andria deliberately lowered her voice: "It was the most luxurious room in this very hotel. WAS. Because after what happened to the French guest, many other guests had done the same thing in the very suite. Bear in mind, most of the guests DID NOT have keys to the suite. And it remained a mystery till this day how they even got in there, much less jump off the balcony."
"That sounds terrifying. Please tell me the room is no longer there." Wu Xiaoming faked a shiver.
"No - no. It's long gone now." Andria giggled, covering her mouth: "After a while, with too many unfortunate deaths damaging the hotel's reputation, Dorian Sproutlinger, one of Norman Sproutlinger's sons, decided to close the suite. Essentially, it is completely sealed now, even if someone was to have the key, they could not get in."
Wu Xiaoming turned to the camera: "Remind me to never use the key."
Before long, Andria had taken Wu Xiaoming and the rest of the crew to Room 404.
The room was just like a standard room in this very hotel - mostly. The carpet was worn. A bed wide enough for two people laid in one side of the room - Queen Size? Presumably. And facing the foot of the bed was an old long wooden desk with an old TV on top. The screen of the TV even had a few scratches on it.
And in Wu Xiaoming's vision, there was something that, presumably, not visible to everyone else's naked eye: a cloud of black smoke was lingering close to the ground on the left side of the bed, between the bed frame and the wall separating the living space and the bathroom.
"Did something happen here?" Wu Xiaoming pointed at the space and asked.
"Um - not that I recall." Andria was caught off guard, but maintained her smiley and professional demeanor: "Why?"
"Nothing - it's just - " Wu Xiaoming scratched his hair: "- the carpet is a bit darker here."
The cameraman immediately focused on the carpet, then zoomed on Andria's face. Wu Xiaoming suppressed his ability to see paranormal energy and looked again - it turned out he wasn't really off base either: the carpet in the same area covered by the dark smoke was indeed slightly darker, more tarnished in color and slightly more worn in texture.
"Yeah, this is because people tend to use this area a lot." Andria explained, rather calmly with only a very slight hint of unease. "You know, this is where people put their shoes, were they get up during the night - "
"It looked a bit - like a human lying on the floor face down." Wu Xiaoming deliberately chose a joking tone, but kept his eyes on Andria.
"Oh yeah, you're kinda right!" Andria opened her eyes wide and squeezed a smile: "We are going to do some carpeting renovations though. So - don't worry, this part will be cleaned up really soon."
"Alright!" Wu Xiaoming did not want to linger on this question for too long: "So this is the room where the guests have reported hearing about knockings? How did they encounter it, if I may ask?"
"Well, usually it's during the middle of the night." Andria put the practiced professional smile back on: "And from what we've gathered, it's usually when they were very sleepy or had already gone to sleep."
"Wait, what about the room directly below this one?" Wu Xiaoming asked.
"I'm so glad you asked." Andria's smile grew wider: "We also have reports from guests who stayed downstairs, and they heard knocking as well. Not as often and not as loud as it was in here. But the same knocking. "
"Did they hear it at the same time? I mean the guests from here and downstairs?"
"Yes. Not often, but when both rooms had guests, they often heard it during the same night."