Ke Xue: I picked up a bottle of sherry at the beginning.

"Yeah." Bai Quanyi nodded.

At 10:15 pm, Bai Quanyi and eleven other people were passing through the exhaust pipe on the inside of the ceiling.

They stopped at the junction of several exhaust pipes. Since it was spacious, everyone turned on their flashlights and discussed their next course of action.

Bai Quanyi believed that they could not escape at this moment, and asked everyone to return to the exhaust pipe for the time being.

However, Mitsui thought that considering Shuichiro's physical condition, he could not stay here for a long time and should find a place to stay as soon as possible.

In addition, in order to prevent Yurie from encountering an accident, she must be rescued from the terrorists as soon as possible.

Although some people advocated escaping first, Baiquanyi was very worried about the "black reef" mentioned by Origi. He was afraid that escaping downstairs would really cause a fatal explosion, but staying here was not safe either.

Shiraizumi Masu said with determination: "If we want to save Yurie, we can't all go straight ahead."

Bai Ma Tan said, "Then, Bai Quanyi and I will go, and the others will stay here and wait. It will be inconvenient to move with too many people."

Akita Reiko said, "I want to go too. I don't want to be separated from Baiquan Yi."

"I'm coming too!" Fujishima said with a determined look. "This hotel was designed by the architectural firm I used to work for. Although I wasn't directly involved, I'm so familiar with the design drawings that I can recite them by heart. I also know the structure of the exhaust pipe and the rooms it leads to. I think I can help, and..."

Without waiting for Baiquanyi and Hakuba Tan's consent, Fujishima Gen snatched the flashlight from Hakuba Tan's hand and crawled out first.

Then Hakuba Tan, Shiraizumi Masushi, and Akiba Reiko followed, continuing to advance through the exhaust pipe.

254. The channel shrinks sharply

Checking all the hotel rooms was a huge undertaking. Yurie might have met with misfortune in one of the rooms while they were checking.

Furthermore, other terrorists might discover that the escaping hostages were hiding in the exhaust duct and would soon discover Reiko and the others. Therefore, Fujishima suggested checking the enemy's situation from the ventilation vents in the corridor.

There is a ventilation vent every twenty meters in the corridor, and all of them are connected to the exhaust pipe.

This way, they could observe the terrorists' movements through the corridor without having to remove the lid, and if they were lucky, they might even discover the room they used as their base.

Under Fujishima's leadership, they easily found Yurie's location, which made Shiraizumi Masu begin to doubt Fujishima.

"Could it be that Fujishima knew from the beginning that Yurie was here?"

Coming down from the exhaust pipe, we came to a corridor.

The corridor was eerily quiet, as if no one had ever walked in it. The new wallpaper and floors were so clean that it felt unreal.

This is the guest room area, and the floor is covered with plush carpet, so footsteps are almost inaudible.

The white-horse detective arrived at the door first. After making sure that there was no one around, he secretly looked inside. Somehow, he froze in place when he saw it.

"Baima Tan, what's wrong with you?"

Bai Quanyi leaned over from the side of Bai Ma Tan to look into the room, and suddenly his whole body became unable to move.

A white tablecloth was spread in the middle of the room, with dozens of candles arranged on it in the shape of a horizontal number "8", and the candles were still lit.

The entire room was illuminated by the light of burning candles. At the intersection of the candles, there was a red and black, fist-sized block.

In a corner far back in the room, arranged like an altar, sat a table. When Shiraizumi's eyes shifted to the fully nude female body, resembling a doll, on the table, he immediately understood what the red, blocky object was.

That's right! That's a human heart!

The pale woman had a hole in her chest that was cut by a knife, and the hole was covered with black and red flesh.

Just now, terrorists held a cult ritual in this room.

"Izumi Yi--" Reiko Akita retched and hugged Bai Quanyi's arm in fear.

Bai Ma Tan said, "Miss Qiu Ting, I told you not to come, but you insisted on following me!"

"This group of terrorists is so vicious!" Fujishima was extremely angry.

Bai Quanyi comforted Akiba Reiko for a while, and then 840 quickly examined the female corpse.

There was a small hole on the female corpse's forehead, which was the mark left by a pistol shot.

The blood flowing from the wound on her forehead stopped near the bottom of her neck. Bai Quanyi speculated that she was stripped naked after being shot.

Judging from this, the reason why the terrorists took Yurie away was definitely not to humiliate her, but to sacrifice her to the devil or god they madly worshipped.

A chill suddenly ran down Bai Quanyi's spine. He really couldn't imagine what kind of ritual human sacrifice was.

Red, Origi, Green, Jero, and the girl Park Bo who he met on the beach... Bai Quanyi's anger towards the five terrorists continued to grow.

The target turned to the culprit who manipulated these five people, "King Dongming".

Who is he? What is the true identity of the elusive demon, the "King of Dongming"?

10:37 pm, staff restroom on the seventh floor.

It is now impossible to rescue Yurie, and Hakuba Tan suggests returning to the other eight people first.

"No, we should first think about how to escape next." Fujishima expressed a different opinion.

"But if we don't hurry up, the terrorists might arrive, and then it will be all over."

"Even if you hide in the exhaust pipe, they will find you, and the result will be the same."

"But, but...Quanyi, what do you think?" Bai Ma looked at Bai Quanyi.

"Let's bring the people from the exhaust pipe down first... If they stay in the exhaust pipe all the time, they will be discovered sooner or later." Bai Quanyi said.

10:40 pm, Sunset Restaurant.

The few minutes that Hakuba Tan and Fujishima took out the eight people left in the exhaust pipe, and the short period of time they took from the staff restroom with the vent cover removed to the corridor and then walked to the Sunset Restaurant seemed several times, dozens of times longer to everyone.

Except for Bai Quanli, everyone was exhausted, with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, like guards on night shift, limp on the ground.

Among them, Shuichiro, who had a bad heart, looked even worse. He pressed his hands on his chest and looked like he would collapse at any time.

"Bai Quanyi, can you explain why you brought us here?"

Aizawa You's small body swayed from side to side due to the numbness of his hands and feet. There was a look of dissatisfaction on his face, as if he was blaming Bai Quanyi for not explaining the whole situation to him, the general manager of (ciac)!

It seems that Bai Ma Tan didn't even want to waste time explaining and just brought them out directly.

In fact, the current situation is also without time, but it seems that Aizawa Yu is not the only one who feels confused because he knows nothing.

"Ok."

Bai Quanyi pulled himself together and slowly stood up. "Let's go to the restaurant's kitchen first! Once there, we can escape while I explain."

So Baiquanyi took the lead and led everyone to the kitchen.

The fluorescent lights in the kitchen were still on. After the incident, the chefs scrambled to escape through the emergency exit, leaving half-cooked pots, bowls, and unprocessed vegetables all lying as they were.

The fire in the stove was completely out. Did they put it out before escaping? Or was it because the gas leak triggered the emergency device that put out the fire?

Bai Quanyi glanced at the situation before him and quickly walked toward the spacious kitchen. He then turned back to look at the group of people following him and said, "My target is the elevator in this kitchen."

He pointed to a tightly closed silver stainless steel door. This was originally an elevator used to transport food from the seventh floor to the eighth floor.

Someone exclaimed "Ah!", and then everyone else looked at each other in confusion.

The kitchen elevator is quite large and can carry one or two people at a time, and there are two other elevators available.

Bai Quanyi pressed the elevator button and said, "Oruiji said the seventh floor was completely sealed off and there was no way we could escape. It seems he was telling the truth, but I guess they definitely didn't notice this elevator. Because from the moment we were held hostage in the restaurant and then moved to other rooms, none of them ever entered the kitchen."

"Hmm...it seems like what you said is correct."

Lan Zeyou nodded in agreement.

Bai Quanyi nodded slightly and said, "Although they once peeked into the kitchen to see if anyone was still there, they certainly didn't anticipate there being an elevator. Furthermore, from the kitchen door, there was a pillar blocking the elevator, making it a blind spot.

They thought they had guns and that the hostages couldn't easily escape, so they stepped up their defenses against the police coming in from the outside, but they didn't anticipate that we would escape from the inside."

At this time, the yellow light on the elevator wall was flashing, and the stainless steel door on the right opened immediately.

"First, Chairman Shuichiro and Akane, hurry in!"

Baiquanyi instructed.

Akane, Aizawa Yu, and Hoshino supported Shuichiro and entered the narrow kitchen elevator.

"Xiao Qian, hurry in!"

However, Xiao Qian went in and then came out, and Bai Quanyi hurriedly urged her.

Xiao Qian shook her head and said, "I'll go in later. Lianzi, go first. It's all my fault that you got involved in this."

"This...Xiao Qian..."

"Anyone can go in! Hurry up! There's no time!"

Baiquanyi pushed Lianzi into the elevator impatiently.

"Wait a minute! Quan Yi..."

Baiquan Yi stopped Lianzi from speaking any further, but handed her the waist bag wrapped around his waist.

"What is this?"

"Tools and wire. Reiko, once you get to the eighth floor, immediately close the fire door in the stairwell. Then use wire to tie the nearby escape door shut so it can't be opened. Next, stop the elevator from going up or down... I just discussed this with Fujishima, but how should we do this?"

Hearing Shiraizumi mention himself, Fujishima stuck his head into the elevator and said, "There's a stop device on every floor. It's on the left side of the elevator, below the emergency bell..."

"I know this, leave it to me."

Shuichiro answered in the elevator. Although his face was pale and he had lost the momentum he had during the day, his voice was still calm.

Hearing him say this, Bai Quanyi immediately said to the elevator: "Renzi, please, you are responsible for the stairwell and the escape stairs."

"Well, I see."

"Okay, go ahead!"

After Bai Quanyi finished speaking, he pressed the button and the stainless steel door closed.

After confirming that the elevator was operating smoothly, Bai Quanyi breathed a sigh of relief. He was finally able to use the kitchen elevator to get the two of them to the eighth floor smoothly.

"Great, Fujishima, the elevator here really works."

Fujishima happily replied, "Of course! There's a large banquet hall on the eighth floor that can accommodate a hundred guests. How could the kitchen not have an elevator to transport so many dishes?"

"Bai Quanyi, you are amazing. You actually knew there was such an elevator."

Suo Fang said admiringly.

"I don't know! It's just a guess."

"Huh? Really? I thought you already knew..."

Fujishima looked at him in surprise.

Shiraizumi walked to the elevator on the left and let Secretary Hoshino in while saying, "I'm just guessing! I thought there's a luxurious restaurant downstairs. If the kitchen can be shared with the banquet hall upstairs, wouldn't that kill two birds with one stone?"

What's more, the person in charge of building the hotel is General Manager Aizawa Yu, an efficiency expert, so he would be more likely to consider this. Also, if we have to share the kitchen with the upstairs, we'll need a large elevator."

"Well, that's it..."

Lan Zeyou crossed his arms and nodded with a smile on his face.

Shiraizumi checked his watch and looked at everyone with some concern. "This time it's Hoshino and... Akane. Now it's your turn. We don't know when the terrorists will arrive, so let's decide on the next group first."

After confirming the elevator's maximum load capacity, Bai Quanyi looked at Bai Ma Tan and said, "One hundred and fifty kilograms... Bai Ma Tan, how much do you weigh?"

"About sixty kilograms."

"Where are Suho and Mitsui?"

"About 68 kilograms!"

"I weigh about 75 kilograms."

Mitsui answered after Suho.

Before being asked, Akane and Fujishima reported their weights as 42 kilograms and 78 kilograms respectively.

"Then next is Aizawa Yuka..."

At this point, Bai Quanyi opened his mouth in surprise: "Huh? Where's Lan Zegang?"

Bai Quanyi searched every corner of the kitchen, but there was no sign of Lan Zegang. He couldn't help but have an ominous premonition in his mind, and immediately asked Lan Zeyou: "General Manager, where is your brother? I don't think I saw him just now."

Hearing this, Lan Zeyou opened his eyes wide in surprise, thought for a moment, and then said: "By the way, before Mr. Yang and Fujishima came back to find us, he said you were so slow and wanted to go check on you, and then he never came back..."

"Oh my god! It's already this late, and you're still using this kind of plane? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

He looked at Mitsui and Suho, who both shook their heads to indicate they knew nothing.