Chapter 5

“Where did she run off to?” Mu Qin looked around the corridor but couldn’t even find the shadow of the female teacher. He could not stop himself and asked Cheng Guoxu and Qi Zijia who were standing beside him, “You guys didn’t see what direction she walked towards?”

“God knows where she went. I didn’t see even her shadow when I came out.” Qiu Zijia was both depressed and furious, “What’s wrong with this woman. She agreed to keep a lookout at the door and not randomly walk around. Did everything we discussed go in one ear and come out the other?”

“Is it possible she was kidnapped by someone?” Mu Qin looked at Cheng Guoxu as he spoke. When they were searching the room, Cheng Guoxu was the closest to the door and should have been able to see what Han Li was doing.

Cheng Guoxu understood Mu Qin’s look and replied with a shake of his head, “I didn’t see where she went. It felt like she was here one second and then gone in the next.”

“Then this is troublesome.” What he said caused Mu Qin to awkwardly wrinkle his brows.

Yet Qiu Zijia interjected, “Don’t worry about her. Since she ditched the group, that means she’s courting death on her own initiative.”

“What I want to figure out is whether she left by herself or was taken away by someone. If it’s the former then it’s still okay, and we don’t have to care about it at all. But if it’s the latter…” Mu Qin sighed, “then there’s a big problem.”

Qiu Zijia said, “Do you think that woman would walk off by herself?”

“I don’t know.” Mu Qin shook his head.

His words had just been spoken when everyone suddenly heard the sound of a piercing shriek from the stairs at the end of the corridor.

The sound of this cry was distinctly female, and Mu Qin and the others instantly recognized Han Li’s voice. The looked at each other. Qiu Zijia was still a bit hesitant, but Mu Qin was already walking towards the origin of the sound.

“Hold on a second!” Qiu Zijia reached out and intentionally blocked Mu Qin, not letting him proceed. At the same time, he said, “Don’t go over. What if it happens to be a trap?”

Mu Qin turned to look at Qiu Zijia, “So you don’t want to go save her, right?”

Qiu Zijia was a bit embarrassed and did not answer. He indeed did not want to go save Han Li. Frankly speaking, he was not some kind of righteous person. When faced with a situation where he might encounter unknown dangers, he only wanted to protect himself.

Mu Qin no longer spoke. He used his pitch-black, bottomless pupils to stare at Qiu Zijia. His calm stare caused Qiu Zijia to feel uncontrollable horror.

He discovered that Mu Qin seemed too calm. From previously, when they first met until now, there were never many emotional fluctuations on Mu Qin’s face all along. Regardless of whether it was a smile or anger, or even surprise, they were all faint, and his tone was also cold.

Mu Qin spoke, “This is the second floor. This residential building has a total of five levels. Only the right end of the corridor has stairs to go up and down. Unless we jump out from the windows in the hallway, regardless of whether we want to go upstairs or go downstairs, we must pass through that staircase.

“Uier, Ljc Ol’r rbecv pera cbk mjwf ogbw atf rajlgmjrf. Rb wjaafg ktja, lo kf vbc’a kjca ab yf yibmxfv ab vfjat tfgf, kf cffv ab ub bnfg.” Ze Hlc rqbxf jr tf ibbxfv ja atf fcv bo atf tjiikjs. Ktf iluta lc atja jgfj jqqfjgfv ab tjnf rbwf qgbyifwr, oilmxfglcu yfakffc iluta jcv vjgx.

After Han Li let out a scream, she did not make any other noises. The orphanage’s whole living complex sank into a death-like silence.

Mu Qin took the initiative and conveniently broke off a section of steel pipe from the heating system next to the corridor’s windows to use as a weapon. This steel pipe was severely rusted, so breaking it off was very easy.

Cheng Guoxu and Qiu Zijia followed behind him. They softly and quietly speed-walked towards the stairwell and found the light around the corner had been turned off by somebody. Clearly, they should have had turned on all of the lights when they came upstairs.

“Han Li!?” Mu Qin yelled towards the staircase that was so dark he couldn’t see his own fingers. His voice echoed in the narrow corridor, but no response could be heard.

If only there was a flashlight.

Mu Qin thought so internally but could only grasp the rusty steel bar in his tightly, press his back sideways against the wall, and head down the stairs.

Behind him, Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu stood hesitantly at the foot of the staircase before finally catching up on tippy toes.

Mu Qin took a step down with his back pressed against the wall and felt the stairwell’s light switch. At that moment, he caught a whiff of a bewildering fishy smell. He was somewhat familiar with this scent and prepared himself. Consequently, he pressed the light switch, illuminating this tiny space.

“Oh my god!” The lights turned on. Qiu Zijia was immediately alarmed and cried out. He leapt a meter into the air and pasted his whole person uncontrollably behind Mu Qin.

In front of them, a person who’s life or death was unknown lay on the half landing of the stairs. This person’s body was completely covered in blood. Bloodstains were splattered drop by drop onto the walls. He had an enormous wound on his back, clearly wounded by someone with some sort of sharp weapon.

This person probably struggled for a long time before he died. Bloody handprints were left on the wall next to him.

“He… is he dead?” In the 28 years he had been alive, Qiu Zijia had not seen much blood. His family’s circumstances were quite good, and both parents spoiled him to death. They never let him experience any hardships. He has never even killed a single chicken, not to mention suddenly seeing a dead person still dripping with blood.

Qiu Zijia, at this moment, was so scared his whole body was trembling. He hid behind Mu Qin and shivered. On the contrary, the nearby Cheng Guoxu was much calmer than him, although his face was also ashen.

Mu Qin slightly stabilized his state of mind. He headed over and squatted down. Reaching out, he felt the other party’s neck for a pulse. There was a bit of warmth transmitted to his palm. The person may have died not too long ago and still maintained some heat, but Mu Qin could not feel a heartbeat.

Mu Qin said gravely, “Looks like he’s dead.”

Qiu Zijia quivered, “This guy isn’t Han Li. The body’s figure looks male.”

“It also isn’t Xu Fu. The build isn’t the same. It should be the sixth player mentioned by Xu Fu, who they never found.” Mu Qin reached out as he spoke, grabbing the corpse’s arm with the intention of flipping it over to look at the face.

“Don’t! His body is all bloody!” Qiu Zijia was afraid and wanted to obstruct Mu Qin once again, but Mu Qin had already flipped the person over. It was just that flipping the body over did absolutely nothing at all because after flipping it over, they all discovered the corpse’s face was also covered in blood. It looked like the face was slashed open with an extra-large bloody gash, from the left eye to the right jaw. The entire face was a mess of flesh and blood, blurring the appearance.

Qiu Zijia shifted closer to take a look at the appalling, destroyed appearance of the corpse and couldn’t keep himself from reaching up to cover his eyes, “God, how inhumane. You can’t even make out what he looks like.”

Mu Qin was not concerned about this. He carefully inspected the build of this corpse. The deceased’s figure was actually really good and should have a large stature of around 1.80 meters. His arms, chest, and abdomen were all extremely well-built. When Mu Qin pulled open the other’s sleeves and lapel, he could see finely packed, sturdy muscles.

This kind of man with impressive height and physique should not have been killed easily. Above all, he unexpectedly did not make a single noise before he died.

Just now, Mu Qin, Qiu Zijia, and the others were all searching on the second floor, yet this man died at the turn of the staircase between the first and second floors.

If he struggled and called out for help, Mu Qin’s group would have been able to hear him.

Unless this stairwell wasn’t the initial scene of death, and someone first killed this guy before dragging his corpse to the bend of the stairs.

However, this action was meaningless, a waste of time as well as a waste of effort. Mu Qin could not think of any reason for the murderer to do that.

The pondering Mu Qin could not restrain himself from grabbing the corpse’s arm and carefully examined the clothing, trying to discover more clues from this body.

After that, Mu Qin discovered that the corpse’s fatal wound should have been the giant, bone-deep gash slashed open on the neck. Maybe it was because his carotid artery was damaged, so there was a large quantity of blood splashed on the scene. On the ground, on the walls, blood was everywhere.

Mu Qin wasn’t a forensic scientist. He could not evaluate how new or old the injury was, but he guessed this person had, unfortunately, run into the so-called “killer” or “ghost” and had his neck slashed open. He held his neck and wanted to run, but the ghost cut open more gashes on his face and back.

Since his neck was cut open, his vocal cords probably suffered damage, and he could not cry out for help. It was probably also the reason why Mu Qin and the others did not hear any sounds from the second floor.

Furthermore…

Mu Qin traced the bloody footprints under the body and looked down the stairs. This person may have come from the courtyard outside. On his way over, he bled and left a lot of bloodstains. They should be able to find where this person had encountered the first attack by following the bloody trail.

Qiu Zijia had finally calmed down a little. He was no longer shivering nonstop. Although his face was still pale, he gathered his courage and squatted beside Mu Qin while covering his mouth and nose.

“That female teacher probably screamed because she saw this corpse.” He told Mu Qin with a muffled voice, “She might have even seen the killer, so she ran.”

Mu Qin did not reply to his conjectures and continued to inspect the corpse.

“There are two sets of footprints.” Mu Qin abruptly spoke.

Qiu Zijia did not manage to react, “What?”

Mu Qin pointed at the bloodstains next to the corpse where distinct footprints were left in the blood.

“One belongs to a female.” He pointed at the footprints the looked smaller, and then he pointed at the visibly larger prints at the side, “These should belong to the killer.”

“The two sets of footprints are close to each other, and the woman’s footprints disappear after a few steps. I’m afraid she may have been caught and carried away by the killer.” Mu Qin depended on the simple marks left behind to infer the circumstances of the scene.

Yet Qiu Zijia looked at Mu Qin in astonishment, “Brother, you’re awesome, ah. Are you sure you actually served as a soldier and not as a detective?”

Mu Qin sighed and replied, “These are basic investigative skills.”

Finished speaking, Mu Qin stood up from beside the corpse, but he was still holding onto the corpse’s arm. At this moment, even he subconsciously wanted to let go. However, just then, unknowing whether or not it was his misperception, Mu Qin felt the corpse’s arm in his grasp suddenly tremble once.

This shocked him. He violently widened his eyes to look down and observe the corpse intently.

But the corpse was still a corpse. This man with a well-shaped physique had already become a piece of rotting flesh on the ground.

Perhaps it was nerve reactions after death that caused the muscles to twitch and react. Mu Qin thought so internally, but still squinted his eyes and gazed attentively at the corpse for half a day.

He stared until Qiu Zijia beside him felt something was amiss and began surveilling the surrounding noises and movements. The sky was already completely dark, and it had started to rain. The air became damp and cold, and they could vaguely hear the sounds of rain dripping onto the cement and mud.

BunnyGod: i caught a cold from my family less updates this week because there’s an exam on saturday