1TWITF[C Chapter 102

Chapter 102

When the three returned, everyone was shocked.

“Lin Chu, why did Fang Tu die?” Ling Tong couldn’t hold back and was the first to ask.

Everyone’s eyes fell on Lin Chu and Jiang Bai, especially Lin Chu. Lin Chu shrunk back and waved her hands, “It wasn’t me, it was the perpetrator of the bombing.”

“Who… who is this person exactly?”

Everyone knew Qiu Zhi’s character was honest and simple, it would be too difficult for him to lie. With his testimony, Lin Chu and Jiang Bai’s suspicions were immediately cleared considerably.

Only Jiang Yu looked at Lin Chu with a deeper gaze.

Yi Zhenzhen saw Lu Yanli in her dream, and then she died.

Yan Haoyue went to the police station to identify the body, suspecting Lin Chu, and she also died.

Now, Fang Tu is also dead.

Qiu Zhi’s testimony only made Jiang Yu more suspicious of her. What he wanted to know even more was, why would the perpetrator of the bombing help Lin Chu?

Without her saying it, Qiu Zhi also understood why these people would suspect Lin Chu.

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have been able to help but suspect her.

*

On the other side of the town, Lu Yanli leaned against the wall to rest.

If there were no accidents, he, who had just entered the town, would be unable to sleep because there was a ghost in his eyes.

Now he knew that the ghost was also himself, who had died in the future and been replicated by another future version of himself using the jade pendant. That future version of himself went back to the present but brought it along as well.

Moreover, the “replicated body” created by the double fish jade pendant would subconsciously approach the original body.

The future him told himself this information. Of course, he knew what the other party wanted to do. Otherwise, why had he never appeared in front of the original body? Because he couldn’t let that eye see him. Once it did, that ghost would definitely chase him.

The current Lu Yanli hadn’t rested for a long time.

So… he needed to deliberately show his face to the past version of himself, to let his eyes see him.

Lu Yanli, whose face was scarred with burns, closed his eyes — a flash of blood red appeared before him.

Sure enough…

Now, it was his turn to be unable to rest.

He also couldn’t meet with the future version of himself again, because this ghost was, after all, replicated by the future him. The “original body” it wanted to find was the future him.

Once they met, the future him would very likely die!

*

Inside the small building, Lu Yanli was particularly tired. His outward exhaustion wasn’t entirely faked. If he couldn’t get rid of the fierce ghost in his eyes, he would never be able to rest.

Using the pretense of resting to return to his room, he tentatively closed his eyes.

The blood-red figure before his eyes… was gone?

Why? What happened today?

Too much shock dispelled his drowsiness. After thinking about it, Lu Yanli could only attribute this to the fact that he had seen the future version of himself today.

So, now that ghost was on the other party, right?

In any case, the short-term safety made him instantly relax a lot. He fell onto the bed and fell asleep.

After he fell asleep, a figure sneaked into his room.

But no matter how he searched, he couldn’t find that flyer.

How could that be? If the flyer wasn’t on him, where could it have been put?

Noisy footsteps came from outside the door, and he immediately hid in the room’s closet.

The person who came was Ximen Yuan, followed by Lin Chu and a few other task-takers.

“Are you sure you drugged him?”

Lin Chu said timidly, “I’m sure, I saw him drink it with my own eyes.”

“Very good, don’t play any tricks.” Ximen Yuan praised her and walked into the room.

Lu Yanli, hiding in the closet, gripped the axe on his back tightly.

These kinds of people were all very vigilant. He didn’t peek through the crack in the door, but focused on listening intently.

Ximen Yuan’s reason for coming was very simple. He had checked the surveillance footage and found that he had come out of the library, and there must be a reason why he went to the library. Perhaps he had gained something.

It was a picture book. The cover of the picture book also had the library’s logo. Ximen Yuan flipped through it roughly but couldn’t see anything.

Lin Chu’s heart trembled violently.

She had seen similar drawings in her previous task, in Shangxian Village, in the underground tomb, and… and in the painting in the village chief’s house.

Could it be that these tasks were all connected?

Who exactly was buried in the ancient tomb?

“Jiang Bai’s identity is very suspicious. He took this book out of the library. He must have some purpose,” Ximen Yuan said, taking the book away.

Fortunately, Lu Yanli had prepared for this. He had burned all his documents in a fire long ago. These people searched for a long time but couldn’t find anything.

One person walked closer to the closet, seemingly about to check it.

Lu Yanli pressed against the closet wall, his whole body tensed, ready.

One step.

Two steps.

He heard that person’s voice exchanging words with his companion.

“Maybe there’s nothing in the closet either?”

“Let’s still take a look, better safe than sorry. This Jiang Bai is suspicious.”

That person walked to the closet and reached out to place his hand on the door.

“Ouch!” Lin Chu cried out, drawing that person’s attention. “Lin Chu, what are you doing again?”

“Nothing, I just wasn’t paying attention and twisted my ankle, sorry.”

Before Lin Chu could finish speaking, the person standing in front of the closet was forcefully pushed open, and with a bang, flew to the opposite wall and rolled down.

He saw… saw a person walking out of the closet! That person was none other than the man on the wanted order, the man with the scarred face!

“What’s wrong?”

The others outside the room rushed in at the loud noise, only to see a figure escaping out the window. Tan Xu and Qiu Zhi jumped out the window without hesitation and chased after him.

Ximen Yuan slowly walked into the room.

“What happened?” He lowered his head and asked the task-taker who was on the ground.

That person was named Guan Zhihua. He pointed blankly at the window, “Mr. Ximen, that wanted man, he was hiding in the closet. I saw it with my own eyes, it was him! No mistake.”

“Is that so?” Ximen Yuan said in a low voice, but instead asked about another unrelated matter, “Did he have any interaction with Lin Chu?”

“Lin Chu?” Guan Zhihua asked in confusion, “No, it really didn’t seem like they had any relationship.”

Lin Chu sobbed, “I told you I really don’t have anything to do with him…”

Lin Chu covered her mouth in horror.

After a round of inspection, they didn’t find anything except for a book. This made Ximen Yuan somewhat unwilling.

At this rate, when would they be able to find the missing people?

That’s not right!

Since he was a painter, where were his painting tools? Why didn’t he even have a piece of white paper in his room?

What did he use to paint?

Seeing the increasingly sinister look in his eyes as he looked at Lu Yanli, Lin Chu didn’t care. She stood aside with a look as if she was about to cry but wasn’t, not caring in her heart.

She felt that the other party was definitely pretending to be asleep at this time, so she didn’t say much.

Ximen Yuan stared at the other party for a long time and finally made a decision.

“When Tan Xu and Qiu Zhi come back, take him to the cultural festival venue.”

Cultural festival…

That flyer was particularly strange, and they couldn’t destroy it no matter what method they used. They were originally going to the plaza where the cultural festival was being held during the day, but an accident happened.

It was almost as if… he was deliberately not allowed to go to the cultural festival in advance.

Ximen Yuan felt very uneasy. He knew that his decision might be a bit rash. But… almost half of the people in the team had died, and they still didn’t have any clues. If they didn’t make some changes, perhaps by the time all the task-takers were dead, they still wouldn’t be able to find Lu Yanli and the missing people!

After a while, Tan Xu and Qiu Zhi returned.

Tan Xu’s expression was as calm as ever, and Qiu Zhi’s face was even darker, “Didn’t catch up, he escaped very quickly. It feels like he’s very familiar with this area.”

“I understand.” Ximen Yuan didn’t say anything but instead issued another order.

He definitely wouldn’t be willing to let Qiu Zhi kill someone directly. But now, it was just carrying the unconscious Jiang Bai to another place, a place that he himself had mentioned going to. Qiu Zhi agreed and turned to carry Jiang Bai on his back.

Was he really asleep, or was he pretending?

Wouldn’t he?

She weakly made a request, “Can I go too?”

It looked as if she was reluctant to separate from Qiu Zhi because Qiu Zhi had spoken up for her.

They met another group of people when they went out.

Jiang Yu reached out to stop him, “Breakthrough? You better be careful, don’t kill us all!”

A group of people confronted each other in the courtyard.

At this moment, the sun was about to set, and the dim golden light shone on the courtyard. Jiang Bai was still unconscious, unaware of the external conflict.

A change happened again.

“Careful!” Ximen Yuan didn’t react, and Tan Xu lunged over, pushing him away. The knife plunged straight into the brick seam of the floor tiles, one could imagine how great the force was.

“Who?”

Everyone suddenly looked up, but they saw half of a body sticking out from upstairs. That person… that person was the suspect in the bombing!

He was still in this building and hadn’t left! He had even heard their conversation completely.

Now, no one suspected “Jiang Bai” anymore.

Lu Yanli put the axe on his back and climbed back onto the roof to escape.

*

The location of the cultural festival was the gymnasium square in the southeast of the town. Next to the gymnasium square was a school.

Because of the recent bombings, even schools couldn’t avoid it. Therefore, the school had been on vacation for a period of time, allowing students to study on their own at home.

The principal rented out the school’s empty dormitory to a group of people with their belongings.

They were a relatively unknown opera troupe, specially invited by the town to perform operas. Recently, many people had died in the town, and every household held funerals, their business had improved a lot. But since they had agreed to perform operas at the cultural festival from the beginning, the head of the troupe decided to move near the cultural festival square first.

“Why is this school so gloomy?” Huang Li, who always played the role of a female character, rubbed his arms uneasily in the opera troupe.

It was no wonder he was uneasy.

A sudden crow cawing startled him.

“Maybe it’s because there’s no one here recently since school is on vacation, and the students have all gone home?” Huo Gang, who often played a martial role, comforted him.

“Don’t say it!” Huang Li was so scared that he couldn’t stand it, “Otherwise, I’ll beat you!”

As soon as he said that, these people stopped making a fuss and honestly carried their luggage and walked inside.

The dormitory building was at the other end of the school gate. This school was quite large, with good greenery, and there were lush shrubs and trees everywhere. Spring hadn’t arrived yet, but the greenery was still strong.

A cool wind rustled, stirring up fallen leaves and dust.

A little bit of green fireflies lit up, floating and swaying. Jin Cancan, the only girl in the opera troupe, smiled, “Wow! Fireflies!”

She turned her head and asked her father, “Dad, can I catch one?”

The boss threw the cigarette butt on the ground and crushed it with his toe, “What bugs are you catching? Don’t go, just go to the dormitory obediently!”

Jin Cancan said “oh”, obviously not very happy, but didn’t dare to say anything, kicking a small pebble as she walked forward.

Jin Cancan immediately became happy.

The dormitory building had arrived.

“This is too old, right? How long has it been since it was repaired?” Jin Cancan couldn’t help but complain.

It wasn’t her fault for saying that, although the dormitory building in front of her was tall, the outer layer had long been covered with various stains to the point where she couldn’t see whether it was originally white or beige. There was a lot of dust and cobwebs on the iron railing door of the dormitory building.

Before she could even move, a mouse quickly crawled past her feet, startling her to scream and instinctively hide next to Huo Gang.

Jin Yuanbao put away his phone and prepared to move things, taking the opportunity to mock her, “Coward.”

Huo Gang asked in confusion, “Didn’t they say the students all went home, why are the lights still on in the dormitory building?”

Indeed, there were still a few lights on in the whole building, as if someone was living there.

“Dad, what about me?” Jin Cancan asked.

“Okay.” Jin Cancan’s heart settled down. She was timid and a little afraid of living in this haunted house-like dormitory building.

“Who are you?”

Jin Fugui squeezed out a smile, “Hello, little classmates, we are the Fugui Opera Troupe that the school agreed to let stay…”

Another bespectacled, gentle boy interrupted him, “Qiangzi, should we help them move things?”

“Okay.”

One of the tall men carried an unconscious man on his back.

In order to prevent Jiang Bai from waking up and running away midway, Jiang Yu injected him with an extra dose of tranquilizer.

Qiu Zhi was unwilling to steal this, so Tan Xu had to get it from the hospital.

“Let’s go.”

For the time being, nothing would happen.

The group walked towards the dormitory building.

*

Another world.

An Ruo struggled to get out of bed after Chu Xiu left.

More than the pain on his body, he was more confused and at a loss.

Previously, he believed that Lin Chu had killed An Xingyu, so with a breath of air, no matter how difficult it was, he had to find Lin Chu to take revenge. But now, he learned that his son’s death was very likely caused by a ghost, which was not only a subversion of his worldview but also a questioning of his conscience.

Did he still want revenge?

How to take revenge? Who to take revenge on?

An Xingyu… poor child, where was his body?

What must Dad do to take you home?

“My… my son…” An Ruo sat on the hospital bed and suddenly began to cry.

The running around during this time had made his hair almost completely white. The nurse who entered the door couldn’t bear it and gently closed the door after changing his medicine.

A throbbing pain and dizziness reappeared in his mind. Gradually, he seemed to sense something.

A voice was talking to him.

“Task… what is the task?”

An Ruo closed his eyes and listened carefully.

“This Saturday, go… go to the Ocean Park in the city center, and then…”

At the same moment, many people in this world also received new tasks.

Without exception, they were all new people!

Without an old person leading them, new people could easily mistake this for a hallucination and ignore it.

But it didn’t matter, there were many people in this task. Even if some people didn’t believe the prompts from their brains and dreams, it didn’t matter.

Chu Xiu wouldn’t know that a move he made under Lin Chu’s instructions, accidentally, had allowed them to know that a group of pure new task-takers had received tasks that could be completed in this world!

An Ruo didn’t know how big of a shock this would cause. He only thought that this was the task that his son had once done?

What had he experienced?

An Ruo pulled out the needle and walked out of the room.

He found an internet cafe, logged in according to the website address provided by Chu Xiu, patiently registered an account according to the steps, and published this matter in its entirety.

At this time, it was almost midnight. Lin Chu, Jiang Yu, Di Ying, Ximen Yuan, and others from this world were gathering in the location required by the task, preparing to go to another world.

They didn’t log in to the website to take a look. Therefore, they lost a clue that might have helped them decipher the truth of the world.

Chu Xiu was constantly paying attention, he was guarding outside the task location, not entering.

Because this task was: kill Lu Yanli, he didn’t think he could complete it, and for the sake of the final ending, they couldn’t complete it either.

Therefore, he greatly admired Lin Chu’s almost suicidal behavior.

He habitually opened his phone and logged in to the website to browse.

Gradually, his eyes widened…

*

“Okay, okay.”

But at this moment, there was no wind.

The girls didn’t hear it and walked away. Before they even reached the first floor, they smelled a fragrance.

“Bah! I’ll eat it all!”

They both liked the same things, so they often snatched food from each other.

Jin Cancan grabbed a pile of fish tofu and put it in her bowl. Jin Yuanbao was about to snatch it from her, and the two of them made a commotion at the door, almost bumping into a tall man.

Before she could finish speaking, her eyes were attracted by the unconscious man carried on the other person’s back. She stared blankly for a long time.

Tan Xu followed behind him and said, “There isn’t us, only him.” After saying that, he pointed to the unconscious man on Qiu Zhi’s back, “His name is Jiang Bai. He will be staying at the school. Please take care of him.”

Qiu Zhi found an empty seat and put Jiang Bai down. The other party was still unconscious. If it weren’t for his breathing and heartbeat, Qiu Zhi would have almost thought he was dead.

Tan Xu put Jiang Bai’s backpack beside him and nodded to the others, “Sorry for the trouble.”

A group of people inexplicably took over an unconscious man.