While Su Fan was sizing up the girl in front of him, she was also secretly sizing him up.
The young man stood over six feet tall, with well-proportioned, balanced build.
His broad shoulders gave him an excellent head-to-body ratio, and his facial features were on the softer side—not as sharply angular as most white people, with a distinctly youthful air.
His pair of black eyes was calm and unrippled, as placid as a cool, quiet pool of water.
“Um, if you don’t mind, could you help me contact the front desk of the inn? Something’s wrong with the facilities in my room…”
“You can go downstairs and find her directly.”
The girl wasn’t surprised by Su Fan’s answer and continued explaining with some embarrassment.
“I went down earlier, but the front desk staff wasn’t there. They only left a phone number, and my SIM card happens to have no credit, so…”
Rough luck.
Su Fan looked at the girl in front of him and thought so.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and stepped into the room.
The phone in the inn room was right by the entrance, so if she wanted to make a call, she wouldn’t need to go further in.
It was probably considering this factor that she had mustered the courage to knock on a stranger’s door.
“Thank you.”
After entering the room, the girl dialed the number according to the slip of paper she pulled from her pocket. After a brief exchange, she put down the receiver.
“They said they’ll contact someone to handle it soon and asked me to wait a bit.”
While speaking, the girl once again observed Su Fan’s face as he sat by the floor-to-ceiling window.
A hint of hesitation appeared on her face, but finally her eyes suddenly firmed up, and she asked.
“Forgive me for being presumptuous, but are you Mr. Su Fan?”
Hearing this, Su Fan raised his head.
Someone could recognize him even in such a remote place?
Could this girl be a practitioner in the exorcism line of work?
On the other side, seeing that Su Fan didn’t deny it, a trace of excitement appeared on the girl’s face.
But she quickly thought of something and immediately began explaining.
“Please don’t misunderstand—I’m not following you… I’m interested in antiques and have watched your treasure appraisal program before.”
“Mm. I see.”
Su Fan didn’t show any particular reaction.
He had originally wanted to ask her to leave, but then he heard what seemed like strange noises in the hallway.
After his spiritual sense spread out, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
At that same moment, seeing that Su Fan showed no particular reaction, the girl—after her excitement faded—realized her behavior had been inappropriate.
“I’m so sorry for disturbing your rest. I got too excited. I wish you a wonderful evening.”
With that, she was about to step outside and return to her room.
But just as she turned around, she suddenly heard a voice from behind.
“No need to rush. Isn’t your room just across the hall? You can head over once the maintenance staff arrives.”
The girl was rather surprised and turned to look at Su Fan.
His expression hadn’t changed, but his tone was warm and somewhat approachable.
“If you’d like, feel free to find a seat.”
Hearing Su Fan say this, the enthusiasm that had just been extinguished in the girl was reignited. However, her wariness toward strangers still made her instinctively hesitate for a moment.
But not long after, she still brought over a chair and sat down across from Su Fan.
“Interest is the best teacher. I imagine you have quite a bit of knowledge about antiques.”
“Of course I’m nowhere near as professional as you. I’ve just read a few related books in my spare time and watched treasure appraisal shows at home.”
“Could you tell me what sparked your interest in antiques?”
Su Fan asked with a smile.
“My grandfather used to work at a museum… Under his influence, I became fascinated by old objects that carry deep cultural history.”
As the girl spoke, a hint of nostalgia appeared in her eyes.
Across from her, Su Fan casually picked up a card with the inn’s introduction from the table and gently twirled it in his hand.
This scene looked quite harmonious.
It seemed no one noticed the occasional rustling sounds outside the door.
Before long, a figure pushed a cleaning cart past the doorway.
The cleaner wore a mask, head lowered, movements unhurried—looking quite relaxed.
As they passed the open doorway, however, a pair of eyes swept toward the inside of the room.
And in that one glance, they happened to meet Su Fan’s gaze.
In less than a second, the cleaner lowered their head again and pushed the cart away.
Su Fan returned his gaze to the girl across from him.
“Mr. Su Fan, did you come this time to participate in a radio program?”
The girl asked.
“I saw on TV that they seem to be filming an outdoor survival reality show recently.”
“They said they’d invite people from different professions to come film.”
“No, I’m just here on vacation.”
Su Fan shook his head slightly.
“Are you also here traveling?”
“No.”
The girl denied it.
“Because of some… family reasons, I just moved to this town not long ago.”
“The reason I’m staying at the inn is because a few classmates… they had originally agreed to go camping on the mountain with me, but for various reasons…”
“It got too late, so I came here directly, planning to sleep and then head home.”
“Things have been a bit unsettled in town recently.”
Speaking of this, the girl seemed somewhat frightened and shrugged.
“Tell me more?”
The girl hadn’t expected Su Fan to show interest in what she said.
She hadn’t really wanted to bring these things up—after all, it was scary at night.
But she felt awkward about killing Su Fan’s interest, so she agreed.
“Alright…”
“Recently, people have been going missing in town from time to time.”
“Sometimes there’s a body, sometimes there isn’t…”
“The town sheriff thinks it’s a large wild animal attacking people. They’ve been organizing police forces to search and patrol around the town during this time.”
Hearing this, a slight smile appeared at the corner of Su Fan’s mouth.
“Since there have been wild animal attacks recently, why did you still agree to go hiking and camping with your classmates?”
“The two of them act on impulse—I couldn’t stop them, and I couldn’t feel at ease letting them go alone. But at least I prepared bear spray.”
At this point, the girl let out a breath.
“Compared to a gun, spray is sometimes more useful.”
Su Fan knew the girl was right.
Most people aren’t that accurate with a gun. Without training, the probability of hitting something from ten meters away is extremely small.
But let a bear get within ten meters, and even if you hit it, you’d still get swatted to death by a dying brown bear’s paw.
Spray, however, can use its irritant smell to drive the animal away from a distance.
But the other party had overlooked one point.
“But have you considered the possibility that the deaths weren’t caused by a brown bear at all?”
