"I realized then that sothing was off. How could you coincidentally find soone in your own bathroom?
"I told a friend about this, one of Yuan Haotian's co-workers. After hearing the situation, he beca scared too and advised us to be more cautious. He even suggested reporting it to the police.
"We wanted to avoid causing unnecessary trouble, so we thought we could wait a bit longer. If Yuan Haotian kept this behavior up after so ti, we would then consider reporting it to the police.
"But before we knew it, he had burst into our ho holding a knife, and killed Zhang Shengli and Cao Deren," Li Shu said, his expression sorrowful. "As for how I managed to escape, it's because I had just returned ho from a night shift when the incident happened. The mont I walked through the door, I saw blood everywhere.
"Both of my friends were lying in pools of blood, and Yuan Haotian was standing near them with a knife in his hand.
"Seeing the corpses inside, my legs turned to jelly—I couldn't even muster the strength to run. So I had to crawl to the hallway and scread for help.
"Fortunately, my neighbors hadn't gone to bed yet. As soon as they heard my voice, they ca running and managed to subdue Yuan Haotian."
Despite listening to all of this, Gu Mian still couldn't figure out Yuan Haotian's motive. Keke, who was nearby, also wore an expression of deep thought, apparently trying to analyze Yuan Haotian's motivation.
The only suspicious detail was the conflict during their Wei Mountain outing, but since Li Shu didn't know why Yuan Haotian and Cao Deren had fought, this puzzle remained unsolved.
However, Gu Mian found another clue amid this conversation.
"What's the na of your friend?" Gu Mian stroked his chin. "The one who facilitated your earlier etings with Yuan Haotian."
Upon hearing this question, Li Shu looked up at Gu Mian and, after a few seconds of silence, said, "Chen Yao."
"Where does he live? Where does he work?"
"I only know that he lives in Lvcheng Community, but I don't know his exact apartnt number. He works at Fengqi Business Company, which is also where Yuan Haotian works," Li Shu replied.
"What's your relationship with Zhang Shengli and Cao Deren, and why were you living together?"
"We were roommates who t while renting the apartnt."
I see, Gu Mian nodded, not pursuing this line of questioning any further. Instead, he turned the conversation towards the footage from the cri scene. "There's a cara in your hallway, right?"
Keke was close to Gu Mian, and even closer to Li Shu. She noticed that when Gu Mian ntioned the word "cara," Li Shu's expression stiffened.
"Yes," he nodded.
As if he hadn't noticed Li Shu's stiff expression, Gu Mian continued asking, "Is it broken? Can we still watch the footage?"
Li Shu slightly lowered his head, taking a while before he answered, "Yes."
It seed as if he was sowhat resistant to them viewing the footage.
Even Bai Lu found this peculiar. Is he afraid we'll see the footage? Bai Lu frowned at Li Shu, suspecting that he might have lied in his account of the cri.
At that mont, Gu Mian suddenly stood up. "Alright, I don't have any other questions. Do any of you?"
As he spoke, he looked at the others.
Both Bai Lu and Keke shook their heads. Xie Bi'an made no move, but Gu Mian had grown accustod to his silence and ignored him.
"Let's go back to the cri scene then." After saying this, Gu Mian turned and walked a few steps towards the door.
But after two steps, he suddenly stopped and turned. "Li Shu, could you lend us the keys to your place?"
They didn't necessarily need the keys. Gu Mian had originally intended to saw the lock off.
But that might not go over well.
Li Shu nodded, took a set of keys from the drawer in his bedside table, and gave them to Gu Mian. "You know where my place is, right?"
"Yes." Gu Mian took the keys, turned, and walked towards the door.
When he reached the doorway, he stopped and turned towards the hospital bed. "Alright, stop faking it."
Li Shu subconsciously looked at Gu Mian, only to hear a rustling sound from the bed beside him.
He turned to look and saw that the man in the suit had sohow woken up. He was grudgingly getting out of bed, mumbling sothing like, "What rotten luck."
After leaving the hospital room, Bai Lu finally lowered her voice and said, "This man seems really opposed to us seeing the footage from when the cri occurred."
Why, though?
What exactly was he hiding?
Was Yuan Haotian really the murderer?
Bai Lu pondered.
Gu Mian jingled the keys in his hand as they entered the elevator. "First, let's go to his house. We should be able to view the footage from that night at the property managent office. Once we see the footage, we'll know what he's hiding from us."
Bai Lu nodded and followed the others into the elevator.
But, just as she was stepping into the elevator, she suddenly felt a chill at the back of her head. When she looked back, there was nothing there.
She bit her lip slightly and looked at the others in the elevator. Nearby, Keke also wore a slightly odd expression.
"Did you feel that too?" Bai Lu asked in a hushed voice.
Keke, her face pale, nodded. "It felt like there was sothing behind just now."
There's a ghost here, Bai Lu was almost imdiately certain.
Of course, Gu Mian didn't feel anything. He was just hoping that the elevator wouldn't suddenly get stuck.
Fortunately, his luck held. The elevator descended to the first floor without stopping.
When it reached the first floor, the elevator doors slowly opened. Gu Mian saw a few people standing outside.
Noticing the elevator opening, a slightly heavyset man wearing glasses waved to a few others not far behind him. "This elevator's down. Quick, over here!"
The others, hearing his voice, gathered around.
Bai Lu darted out as soon as the elevator door opened, seemingly wary of the chill from earlier.
Gu Mian also stepped out.
At that point, the heavyset man quickly walked over to the elevator door, using his hand to stop it from closing.
Just as Gu Mian was passing this man, Keke, who was nearby, suddenly spoke up, "Wait a mont."
As she spoke, she looked at the few people on the first floor waiting for the elevator. "Are you guys... also players?"
Could it be?
Gu Mian didn't have the habit of trying to open other people's status panels upon eting them.
But Keke seed to.
Upon hearing Keke's words, the people waiting also stopped and looked at Gu Mian's group. Their gazes all flickered towards their heads; Gu Mian knew they were marveling at his and Xie Bi'an's premium-looking usernas.
These four waiting for the elevator were the other group of players they had not yet t.
Two n and two won.
One was a middle-aged man in grey long-sleeves, with the userna "Wang Youcai," a very ordinary na.
The other one was the heavyset man with glasses who had held the elevator door, his userna was "Twist off your head," a friend of Yan Shuang Fei and Li Yuan. Gu Mian had even praised this userna before.
The usernas of the two girls were "Grass Aguirre" and "Grass Vivi"; it was impressive how they had racked their brains to co up with these matching nas when the global ga descended.
After observing Gu Mian and his group thoroughly, these four players all had strange expressions.
They wore such expressions, firstly, because of the premium-looking font colors of Gu Mian's and Xie Bi'an's usernas.
Secondly, it was because Xie Bi'an was dressed so eccentrically.
Let alone fellow players, even NPCs in this instance couldn't help but steal a few extra glances at the black cloak.
The middle-aged man, Wang Youcai, wore an expression of wanting to say sothing but holding back. "You guys... uh, you're another group of players, right? Soone in your case is also hospitalized here."
It was clear he wanted to ask about their colorful usernas, but he restrained himself.
Keke, leaning close to Gu Mian, responded, "We have a surviving victim hospitalized here. You too?"
Wang Youcai nodded. "A few high school students from our case are staying here."
High school students? Keke looked at Wang Youcai in surprise.
"The murderer in our case is a man who... well, he'd divorced his wife and was in a terrible mood. He went out drinking late at night, ran into those high school students, and they got into an argunt that turned into a fight," Wang Youcai explained. "Then he smashed a bottle and stabbed several students to death on the spot. The ones who managed to run away faster got injured and were admitted here."
Bai Lu listened to Wang Youcai, her mind racing. "So that's how it is. When we ran into you all here, I thought our cases might be connected sohow."
"Your case is..." Wang Youcai looked to Bai Lu.
Bai Lu then succinctly sumd up their case for him.
After confirming that there really was no connection between the two cases, Wang Youcai bid farewell to Gu Mian and his group, leading his three team mbers onto the elevator.
Bai Lu watched them step into the elevator, looking like she wanted to say sothing but ultimately remained silent.
There was a ghost in the elevator.
She wasn't sure if the ghost had followed them out.
What was the trigger for the ghost to kill in this instance? Why did they suddenly feel its presence in the elevator?
Could it be that the elevator in this instance had so special property, allowing players to sense the ghost's presence?
While Bai Lu was thinking, the elevator door in front of her had already fully closed.
Until the final mont when the elevator door closed, no one inside showed any odd expressions.
Did they not sense the ghost? Or did it follow us out?
Gu Mian had no idea about the slew of thoughts racing through Bai Lu's mind. He was setting the next goal. "Let's go to the cri scene first, Li Shu's ho. We'll watch the video from the night of the incident and also search his house for any clues."
The chill in the elevator had scared Bai Lu. This ti, she didn't want to take separate vehicles, no matter what.
With no other choice, Gu Mian shalessly flagged down a minivan on the street, and they all headed towards Ping'an Apartnt.
It didn't take long before the five of them arrived at their destination.
Perhaps due to the instance's influence, Li Shu's ho hadn't been sealed off by the police.
Gu Mian directly used the key to open the door to his ho.
The room was a ss, clearly indicating a fierce struggle had taken place.
The walls were stained with relatively fresh bloodstains, and the spots where the two victims died were marked with chalk outlines of human figures.
Bai Lu saw Gu Mian, her group's 'judge,' take a particular interest in the two chalk outlines on the ground. He circled them a few tis, then PLOP! He lay down right on one of them.
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