The eighth floor of the hotel (1) (mystery novel translation)

During my business trip in Chicago, Illinois, I stayed in a hotel and planned to spend the whole weekend there. This is a hotel with a long history. When entering the room, it still uses a small key instead of a room card.

I don't care about that. It is a good thing to escape the fierce attack of technology. When I checked in, the hotel was almost full. A bad storm struck, flights were cancelled and many passengers were stranded.

There are no vacant rooms in the hotel, and many tourists are rejected because of lack of housing. When I approached the front desk to check in, I found that the room keys on the eighth floor were hanging on the wall, a lot!

It seems strange that the whole floor would rather be empty than refuse so many guests to check in.

I saw that the hotel receptionist seemed overworked and upset, and was about to give up her registration and turn around and go home. Therefore, I tried to ease his mood:

"A little strange, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" The waiter asked.

"Why are all the people on the eighth floor gone?"

The clerk stared at me with strange eyes, pale and asked in a serious tone:

"What do you know about the eighth floor?"

"What? Oh! I don't know anything! " I answered truthfully, and the atmosphere was awkward for a while ... I wanted to enliven the atmosphere, but it backfired.

"I just noticed that the keys on the eighth floor are hanging on the wall behind the service desk."

"Oh, yes, I understand now." The clerk's face turned slightly red and tried to laugh it off. He came back to help me check in and handed me the key to the ninth floor: "Enjoy your stay!" " "

"I will ... thank you!" Embarrassed, I took my keys, my luggage and walked to the elevator.

Like the lounge, it is crowded with people. It is not easy to crowd with many strangers, let alone get in and out of such a small car.

I struggled to reach out and press the elevator button on the ninth floor, but I couldn't get through the crowd to the elevator switch panel at the moment. I finally got to the front, only to find that the button seems to be missing a layer: 8 layers.

"It's so strange." I can't help thinking, "It's strange that there are no buttons on the eighth floor."

However, no one in the elevator responded. They either don't care at all, or they are so preoccupied that no one seems to notice what I said.