Chapter 81: Terrifying Live Stream (18)
"An entire afternoon has passed, and I'm sure everyone has managed to find some useful clues."
Everyone gathered at the designated meeting spot at the agreed-upon time. It was a room resembling a living room, with a large round table in the center and eight chairs arranged in a circle around it.
The one speaking was Zhi Le. The ordinary-looking boy propped his chin up with one hand, looking every bit the inexperienced youth. "So we can discuss a little about what clues we've each collected, and see if we can piece the whole story together."
"Everyone should have received the notification. After this round ends, the production team will rank everyone based on how complete the cases they construct are, to determine the winners and those who will be punished." Zhi Le's gaze swept across each person. The way his eyes crinkled as he smiled seemed to hide some kind of emotion, as though he was simply interested in this game. "The production team said we can choose whether to share clues, and whether to tell the truth. But since this is only the first discussion, I hope everyone will go easy on me a little, and not leave my head in a complete mess."
After saying this, he rubbed his head with a somewhat troubled expression.
Qi An glanced at Zhi Le and casually chose a seat to sit down.
The moment he sat down, Ke Han, who had been standing with Zhang Zhaoqi, immediately took a large stride forward and sat down at Qi An's right side in one swift motion. Si Chenshao, who was sitting to Qi An's right, suddenly felt a chill seep up from the depths of his marrow. And it was that kind of chemically cold feeling, making him unable to sit still.
He looked up and caught two pairs of pitch-black eyes staring at him. Glancing at Qi An, who sat beside him looking rather ill at ease, Si Chenshao instantly understood the reason.
No, he was innocent. Qi An had sat beside him of his own accord—definitely not because he had any intention of competing with these two people for someone.
Si Chenshao widened his eyes desperately, his eyebrows and eyes twitching nonstop, hoping to explain to the two through his expressive gaze. But the darkness in their eyes not only didn't decrease, it deepened.
"..."
Zhang Zhaoqi ended up sitting directly across from Qi An,刚好和支乐相邻着. just beside Zhi Le.
[An'an, I feel like this Zhi Le is a bit strange.] The ordinary-looking boy seemed to give a light laugh. His gaze was soft and harmless—if it weren't for his overly plain appearance, people would easily develop a favorable impression of him. But precisely because of this, it was also difficult for others to feel a sense of crisis toward him.
[He just seemed to be advising us not to tell false clues, but in reality he was提示我们要去用。] Qi An replied in his mind. [As for now...]
From the fact that Zhi Le and Zhang Zhaoqi knew each other, Zhi Le should be the final transmigrator.
Although he seemed very mild-mannered now, Qi An could sense the interest gleaming in the other's eyes when they looked at him. It was like discovering a rather interesting toy, naturally sparking curiosity and fascination toward him.
Even though Zhang Zhaoqi had warned him, this emotion in the other person not only didn't diminish, it intensified instead.
This kind of gaze—not treating him as a person, but rather as a fun toy—was deeply uncomfortable.
"I'll go first." Si Chenshao collected the three phones and placed them in different corners, allowing the livestream viewers to see each of them. "Zhang Zhaoqi and I were together before. The first place we entered was like a mental asylum."
"This place was built within that building." Si Chenshao walked to the window and pointed to a structure. "The production team had us go there first. This building is so close to our current room—one for living, one for a treatment facility—why would they be in the same courtyard? Naturally, the production team built it specially. So I'm certain there must be important clues inside."
"Then we went through a lot of materials and such. This facility had quite a reputation and status in the industry, and its facilities were相当的好。嗯。] Zhi Le returned to his seat. [In speaking more practically, it was the kind of place only wealthy people could afford to send someone to.] "Then we discovered that the patients in one row of adjacent rooms were very..."
He paused, as if unsure how to precisely describe his feelings. "They were all murderers—you should understand. If one has a mental illness, harming others doesn't carry legal responsibility. But our show focuses on criminal cases, and it definitely has something to do with harming people, so Zhang Zhaoqi and I paid close attention to this point. We checked the database, went through medical records, case histories, and so on."
"Then, we found a very suspicious person." Si Chenshao's voice suddenly drew out long, intentionally dragging out the suspense. "Tell me, should I continue? This is a very important clue."
He even shrugged smugly.
Zhang Zhaoqi gave him a cool glance, then raised his eyes to Qi An. "Among them, one girl was sent in at great expense. The girl was perfectly normal. Her father, in order to help her evade the law, spent a large sum of money to find the director of this mental asylum, obtained a mental illness certificate for her, and had her admitted here."
"Zhang Zhaoqi, how... how could you just casually spill this information?" Si Chenshao stared at him in disbelief. To describe it in the words of the livestream audience: why would you毫不犹豫地打同伴的脸。? just beat your teammate in the face without hesitation to appease your crush?
"Mm." Zhang Zhaoqi淡淡颔首。 nodded lightly, continuing to用墨色的瞳孔看着戚安。 look at Qi An with his inky-colored pupils. "Those patients of theirs were difficult to manage, always discussing ways to harm people. At first the director was worried the girl wouldn't be able to adapt, but出乎意料的。 surprisingly, the girl quickly became one of them."
Qi An seemed somewhat embarrassed as he lowered his head, but a contemplative gleam划过了一抹沉思。 crossed his eyes. Zhang Zhaoqi's voice continued.
"Rationally speaking, things should have ended there. But the girl was finally discharged, successfully discharged due to treatment."
"..." A suspicious point was that the girl had brought a boy into the mental asylum. It was said this was her child, a newborn boy. The girl couldn't bear to leave him, so she brought him along to the mental asylum. When Si Chenshao heard this, who had been愤愤不平的。 indignant, he猛地一怔。 froze, turning to look at the一脸平淡的 Zhang Zhaoqi.
This so-called little boy—he had no knowledge of whatsoever.
There was absolutely no mention of this in the clues they had found.
Was Zhang Zhaoqi... telling a false clue?
Ke Han's brow furrowed, and a mocking smile appeared on his face.
"I see, no wonder when the two of us found those documents about property liquidation, you seemed to have expected it." Zhi Le picked up the thread. "The one who liquidated the property was the owner of this house—should be the girl's father, right?"
"Mm, right. When Zhi Le and I teamed up, I discovered some more documents about property liquidation. The dates on the documents coincided exactly with the time just before the girl entered the mental asylum." Si Chenshao nodded. "So Zhi Le and you... did you find any clues before?"
The asked youth seemed somewhat embarrassed. "No, we didn't find anything at all."
His eyes were格外真诚。 especially sincere, making it impossible to suspect him of lying.
"What about everyone else?" Si Chenshao looked at the others.
The response he received was silence.
"You're kidding me—you really found nothing?" Si Chenshao震惊。 stared in shock.
As Si Chenshao chattered on, Qi An pieced all the clues together.
The things Si Chenshao and Zhang Zhaoqi mentioned could match the case Ke Han had described before. Adding the diary Qi An had seen, the case seemed extremely clear.
The girl fell in love with a male teacher, but the teacher already had a wife. So in a rage, she killed the wife. The girl's father liquidated his assets and sent her to the mental asylum to save her life. Until after the girl was discharged, she was subjected to some kind of刺激。 provocation, leading her to commit a dismemberment case.
Just...
"It's getting dark so fast." Just as Qi An was sorting through the clues, Ke Han seemed to sigh.
Qi An顺势向窗外看去。 looked out the window accordingly, and found the sky had indeed darkened considerably—overcast and oppressive, a sight that naturally filled one with压抑。压抑感压抑。 feeling of suppression.
"Did you find... that person?" After a crisp sound of sharp objects colliding, the locked door was pushed open. The heavily made-up girl, holding a large blade, suddenly grinned wickedly at the people inside. "I told you, I wanted to see him before tonight."