Chapter 6

Qiu Zijia spoke, “Let’s not stay here anymore. What are we going to do if the killer finishes dealing with the female teacher and returns!”

Mu Qin also realized they should not stay here for too long. He observed the arm in his grasp for half a day. The other’s body had already started to feel cold, and he couldn’t be deader than dead.

Mu Qin was finally convinced that the movement was indeed only a neurological response of the corpse, so he stood up and said to Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu, “The killer’s footprints come from the courtyard. While he’s caught up with the female teacher, let’s go search the chapel. “

Just then, the always quiet Cheng Guoxu spoke, his voice inexplicably trembling, “Not caring about that woman anymore?”

Qiu Zijia anxiously replied, “Care about nonsense! We can’t even guarantee our own lives, how could we have time to care about others!”

Seeing death but not helping, this kind of behavior, was ruthless, but from the onset, Qiu Zijia’s response was already very heartless. Besides, Mu Qin was never a kindhearted person.

When Mu Qin was serving in the army, his instructor trained him to act calm and collected, to observe the situation before acting. Even if his closest comrade was tortured and killed in front of him, he would also wait calmly. He would consider his own abilities and analyze whether he could save others. He absolutely must not, because of a moment of impulse, lose his ability to judge the situation.

Mu Qin regarded this teaching as the truth, and he had continued following it ever since leaving the army.

So after pondering for a moment, Mu Qin said, “The risk of saving Han Li is too great. We don’t have any weapons. Other than me, none of you guys have any fighting power. Plus… we can already deduce that the killer is Xu Fu. After all, all three of us are here, and we haven’t done anything extra. The remaining person who hadn’t shown up is now dead. Han Li was captured, so only Xu Fu is left.”

As he spoke, he recalled, “Xu Fu’s physique is the best among us. I think he’s about 1.89 meters tall and probably weighs around 85 kilograms. He may have a short knife around thirty centimeters long. His reflexes and strength are likely outstanding.”

“Xu Fu used to be a murder convict, and he has more experience than us in this game. His mental strength is definitely not weak, and he won’t be easily tricked by talking or traps. We have no possibility of defeating him. Recklessly attempting a rescue will only get us all caught.”

Mu Qin’s analysis gave Qiu Zijia a lot of pressure. He sucked in a cold breath of air and spoke, “I knew it was that murderer! A single glance, and I saw his ferociousness.”

Mu Qin did not speak, and he kept frowning. He always felt something was fishy.

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Mu Qin could not figure it out, so he decided to give up these complicated thoughts temporarily and to act according to the situation. He led Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu towards the church across from the living complex.

It was beginning to rain harder. The bloodstains left by the deceased in the courtyard were quickly being washed away by the rain. This storm arrived at an inopportune time.

Walking across the courtyard to the steps of the church caused Mu Qin’s clothing to be completely soaked by the rain. The temperature in the orphanage was very low. He felt the temperature outside was probably only about ten degrees celsius. They were all wearing thin grey shirts and pants, which not only did not keep them warm but also became colder due to being wet.

The cold made Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu shiver nonstop. Mu Qin was more resistant to the cold. After all, he had served as a soldier. During his five years of service, he had a memory of training outdoors wearing only thin clothing in subzero temperatures.

However, looking at Qiu Zijia and Cheng Guoxu, who had almost frozen into popsicles, Mu Qin said, “Hurry into the church. You guys can’t get rained on anymore.”

Finished speaking, the few people hurriedly opened the doors of the church… They were the rosewood doors carved with a snake coiling around a cross with colorful diamond-shaped glass pieces.

The set of doors was huge, and Mu Qin was glad that it wasn’t locked and could be opened slowly with a hard push. However, the bad thing was the doors made a loud noise while being pushed open. Although, in the pitter-pattering of the rainy night, any kind of noise could be covered by the sound of rain beating against the ground.

Mu Qin only pushed the door open wide enough for one person to pass through, and then he motioned for Qiu Zijia and the others to pass through one by one.

After they entered the church in the orphanage, Mu Qin and the group began to observe the interior.

Because it was only a small church, the inside of the church did not have a lot of space, but it clearly imitated western style. There were rows and rows of long benches for churchgoers to rest. There was a small stage, and on the wall behind the stage hung a giant sculpture of the crucifixion of Jesus. There were also colored glass decorations to the side.

On the ceiling hung an enormous and luxurious silver chandelier. It was a European, candle-style chandelier. In the center was a sharp, inverted triangle shaped structural support. It was surrounded by a ring of small lamps that extended outwards like branches. Candles could be placed into the lamps. The chandelier could be lowered and hung on an iron chain. The clergymen could lower the chandelier, place pure white candles in the lamps, and light them up before raising the chandelier back up.

In the past, when electric lamps still had not been invented in Europe, everyone used this kind of candle lamp. A candle was placed on a simple candlestick, and a transparent cover was occasionally placed around it to prevent the wind from blowing it out. When there were more, candlesticks would not even be used, and the candles would be placed directly on the table.

Of course, this was just the lifestyle of the poor. Luxurious and indulgent European nobles liked to use silver to create gorgeous and exquisite silver candelabra and put candles on them. They turned tools for illumination into decorative pieces with beautiful effects. They felt that putting lights on a table did not illuminate the room enough, so they made the candlesticks bigger and used iron chains to hang them from the ceiling. This was also the origin of candle chandeliers.

A candle chandelier in modern society basically only has the shape of a candle. In actuality, it was just the light bulb that was made into the shape of a flame, and it looked good when placed at home.

However, Mu Qin discovered that chandelier in this church was very traditional, and it was that type where candles had to be lit. Although it was exquisite and beautiful, it was also very inconvenient. Electric lights could be lit instantly in the dark, but this type of traditional candle chandelier could not be.

Fortunately, there are other lights in the church, such as wall lamps. The wall lamps had actual light bulbs, but there were many broken bulbs in them. After Mu Qin fumbled for and found the light switch, only two of the lights turned on. The whole church was incredibly dim.

“It’s too dark.” Qiu Zijia had initially wanted to search through this church carefully, but the darkness obstructed his searching. After tripping on a lifted floorboard for the third time, he said to Mu Qin, “Why can’t we find a way to get flashlights first?”

Mu Qin didn’t answer. He walked to the church’s stage. There were dark red curtains on either side of the stage, and there were some cabinets for storing tools behind the curtains. These cabinets were primarily used to store bibles, crosses, and other props needed during prayers.

After the orphanage was abandoned, the contents of these cabinets were basically emptied out. Mu Qin only found a bible in one of the small cabinets. The bible was cut in half by a sharp weapon and was stained with black marks.

Mu Qin used the dim lighting to flip through the half of a bible. It was actually in English. The densely packed words were arranged before Mu Qin’s eyes, and he could not quite understand them. After flipping through it twice, he tossed it to the side.

Then, Mu Qin continued to search through the cabinet. In the last cabinet, Mu Qin finally found what he needed, a few yellowing candles of different lengths, a used box of matches, plus some candlesticks. They were placed inside the last cabinet.

“Now, we have light.” Mu Qin took out the candlestick and picked a decent looking candle before lighting it with a match.

Since earlier, when he saw the candle chandelier hanging from the ceiling, he had been thinking. Since there was such an ancient thing in this church, accordingly, they would naturally have prepared candles, matches, etc.

Very quickly, the faint light of the candle successfully illuminated Mu Qin’s surroundings. He held it and used it to light up the dark areas of the little church.

The fire’s light in Mu Qin’s hand attracted Cheng Guoxu and Qiu Zijia over. After the two spoke a few words, they also went to the cabinet to find and light candles. Having obtained light, the three people began searching around the small church. Although it was a small church, there were many spots hidden in the dark. First of all… they noticed the church had two floors.

There was a second floor in the church, but for some unknown reason, the stairs leading up had collapsed. The fallen rubble was piled up in the corner of the stairwell. If he wanted to go up, Mu Qin had to find chairs and other objects to make a pile to climb up, but doing so wasted too much time. After thinking about it, they decided to give up this action.

“Quickly come look! There are a lot of bloodstains here!” Soon after, Qiu Zijia discovered a row of completely damaged benches in the center of the church, as if someone violently destroyed them. The whole bench was smashed and scattered. The planks and nails were scattered on the ground. Qiu Zijia noticed a large amount of bloodstains were left on the planks.

Mu Qin went over and glanced at it. These bloodstains were still fresh, but the blood had already started congealing. Quickly, he discovered the bloodstains trailed all the way to the doors of the church. Realizing something, Mu Qin’s voice revealed his uneasiness, “It looks like this is the original scene of the crime.”

Qiu Zijia immediately understood and said in alarm, “So what you’re saying is, the dead person we saw earlier, they were attacked here?”

“It should be like that. He encountered an attack here and then fled out the door.” As Mu Qin spoke, he raised the candle in his grasp and walked to the church’s entrance. When they came in earlier, it was too dark, so they hadn’t noticed. The doors were also covered in blood.

“I have a bad feeling. I think we should leave here as soon as possible?” Qiu Zijia saw how much blood there was on the ground and the doors, and he couldn’t help but shake from head to toe.

Mu Qin replied, “No rush, this is a good chance. We should take the time while the killer hasn’t come back to search through here quickly.”

Qiu Zijia said, “But dealing with that female teacher should not take too long. What if he comes back soon?”

“He doesn’t necessarily know we are here.” Mu Qin glanced out through the window next to him and judged, “It’s still raining outside. The sound of rain and the rainwater will erase our traces. This will interfere with the killer’s ability to judge, and it will give us more time to search.”

BunnyGod: I’m still alive… turns out I actually caught the flu, and it was a lot worse than I thought…  sorry for the delay