Chapter 13: The Returner on a Snowy Night (7)
Clack!
A silver dinner knife suddenly lodged into the wooden floor in front of Li Yingjun. The blade vibrated with a humming sound, halting his footsteps.
The familiar sight made everyone turn to look at Jin Cheng. The man sat lazily in an armchair, propping his cheek on his hand as if he had just woken up. Tang Cuo, sitting opposite him, stood up. His lips were still pale, but his expression was cold and stern. “Everyone stay where you are. Don’t move.”
Being woken up at five or six in the morning two days in a row was hardly a pleasant experience.
“Ah, ah.” Li Yingjun pointed to the firewood on his back, giving a simple, honest smile as if puzzled by why he was being stopped.
The others were equally baffled.
Tang Cuo looked toward Jin Cheng. Only then did Jin Cheng straighten up slightly and stomp his foot on the floor. With a dull thud, the floor trembled, kicking up clouds of fine powder that settled back down, glowing with a faint blue luminescence.
Qian Wei’s eyes widened. “What is this?”
Jin Cheng smiled. “Ever played online games? It’s called Dust of Appearance.”
Qian Wei looked at Peng Mingfan, who merely shook his head.
Zhang Zhiqiu’s eyes suddenly widened because he thought of something else: Witch’s Ashes. Jin Cheng was clearly joking; what he called Dust of Appearance was likely those ashes. But that was not something obtainable in low-tier Zone F instances. Just what kind of background did this man have?
“Look, there are footprints on the floor!” An Ning’s pleasantly surprised voice interrupted his train of thought. Everyone looked down to see a trail of footprints embedded in the pale blue glowing powder.
Strictly speaking, there were three sets of footprints. One trailed from where Li Shuangshuang had sat last night straight into the corridor; another emerged from the corridor and led all the way to the back door. The final set followed Xiao Yuan, clearly left behind when she came downstairs just moments ago.
“This was scattered last night after everyone went to sleep,” Tang Cuo said.
Peng Mingfan instantly grasped his meaning. “These footprints belong to Li Shuangshuang?!”
Qian Wei clicked his tongue. “No way, right? She walked out on her own?”
“The two sets of footprints are the same size, so they should belong to the same person.” An Ning remained where she was without stepping forward, crouching to inspect the prints closely. “After night fell, we automatically fell asleep just like the night before. Aside from these two matching sets of prints, nothing else was left behind. Is there any other explanation besides Li Shuangshuang walking out on her own?”
Zhao Ping looked grim. “Then did the same thing happen with Qu Li yesterday?”
Peng Mingfan nodded. “Most likely.”
“Zhao Ping, Zhang Zhiqiu, Qian Wei: stay behind and watch Li Yingjun and Xiao Yuan. The rest of you, come with me to the linen closet.” Tang Cuo quickly made a call. “Be careful not to damage the footprints.”
The others nodded in agreement, finding nothing wrong with Tang Cuo taking charge. As for Jin Cheng, he was an untouchable wanderer, so nobody bothered trying to direct him.
Hugging the wall along the footprints, they soon reached the linen closet. Unsurprisingly, the corpse inside was gone. Li Shuangshuang’s footprints reached this point, quickly doubled back, and headed toward the back door.
Peng Mingfan crouched to examine them carefully. “The prints are the same size, but the outgoing ones are deeper than the incoming ones. Does that mean Li Shuangshuang carried the corpse out of the lodge? Why? If she was leaving, why take the body with her?”
Tang Cuo said nothing. Deep in thought, he followed the trail to the back door. Opening it, he found footprints on the steps outside, but the courtyard snow had piled up layer upon layer, burying everything else beneath it.
He turned to ask Jin Cheng, “Does this powder have a limited range?”
Jin Cheng: “No.”
No range limit meant that as long as powder remained on the soles of Li Shuangshuang’s shoes, and as long as any spot she stepped on had not been buried by snow, there was still a chance of finding her.
Having formed an idea, Tang Cuo was not in a hurry to search outside. Returning to the lobby, he swept his gaze across the room and stopped on Qian Wei. “Please take off Li Yingjun’s shoes.”
Qian Wei: “Take off his shoes???”
Peng Mingfan: “You want to check if there’s powder on the soles of his shoes?”
Everyone saw it clearly: the small patch right by the front door had not been dusted with powder, and Jin Cheng’s dining knife had stopped Li Yingjun precisely within that powder-free zone.
Understanding, Qian Wei rolled up his sleeves right away. Zhao Ping stepped up to help. One held Li Yingjun while the other tugged at his footwear, swiftly stripping the shoes off in no time.
Li Yingjun stood there barefoot, weak, pitiful, and helpless, making agitated “ah, ah, ah” sounds with a visible hole in his sock. Xiao Yuan had not been able to stop them in time and stood by in utter confusion, caught between stepping forward or pulling back.
“Brother Tang, look!” Qian Wei held up the shoe to claim credit, as delighted as if he were hoisting an Olympic trophy.
Tang Cuo took it and turned the rubber sole upward. The others crowded around to see. The shoe had a rubber sole, and because Li Yingjun had walked through snow the whole way, the bottom was relatively clean. Even if it had picked up any mud, the snow had scrubbed it off along the walk.
“There’s nothing here,” Qian Wei said with obvious disappointment.
“Did you think it would be that simple?” An Ning spread her hands and turned to speak with Xiao Yuan. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?”
Xiao Yuan scratched her head. “What happened yesterday?”
An Ning: “Li Shuangshuang committed murder.”
“Heavens!” Xiao Yuan covered her mouth in shock.
“We tied her up yesterday, but she vanished today. Did you see her?” An Ning pressed.
“No. When I came downstairs, I saw all of you here. Did she run away? How terrifying.”
“Indeed.”
Xiao Yuan’s reaction was just like yesterday: she had forgotten all about Li Yingjun’s death and knew nothing about Li Shuangshuang’s whereabouts. Having coaxed out nothing useful, An Ning curled her lips and turned back toward Tang Cuo.
Tang Cuo was still inspecting the shoe. After studying it for a moment, he walked over to Li Yingjun and pulled out the dining knife lodged in the floorboards. Li Yingjun seemed frightened by him, gesticulating wildly with frantic “ah, ah, ah” sounds. Tang Cuo did not even glance at him, digging the tip of the knife into the rubber sole. After prying at it a few times, he popped out a pebble smaller than a pea.
An Ning had sharp eyes. “There’s glowing residue on the pebble!”
Qian Wei gasped alongside her. “Isn’t that the Dust of Appearance?!”
The tiny pebble had wedged deep into the rubber sole. Being so small and deeply embedded, it had left only an inconspicuous little puncture on the surface. Tang Cuo sliced open the rubber tread, revealing traces of black soil lingering inside the crevice.
Jin Cheng smiled. “You actually found it.”
Tang Cuo turned back. “How do you think this pebble got stuck inside?”
“The rubber sole is stiff, yet it’s wedged that deep.” Jin Cheng leaned against the tea table with arms crossed. “Chopping wood. When swinging an axe, one naturally puts immense force into the soles of the feet.”
Tang Cuo shared the same thought. There were no footprints from Li Yingjun’s corpse on the floor, so the powder had to have been carried outside by Li Shuangshuang. As she walked, she left powder along her trail, which adhered to small pebbles that Li Yingjun happened to step on. When he went to chop wood, the constant exertion forced the pebble deep into his sole.
Handing the shoe back to Li Yingjun, Tang Cuo dismissed the two on the pretext of preparing breakfast.
Watching them leave, Qian Wei was still a bit dazed. “What about Li Shuangshuang, then? Even if we cleared that up, what happened to her?”
No one answered. Peng Mingfan, An Ning, and Zhao Ping were all lost in thought. Qian Wei turned his gaze onto Zhang Zhiqiu, who had been quiet since earlier, wondering what trick he was planning now. “Hey, old man, don’t you have any opinions today?”
His tone sounded a bit aggressive, coming off as somewhat provocative the moment it left his mouth. Yet Zhang Zhiqiu did not seem to care at all, casting a slightly disdainful look toward Qian Wei.
Qian Wei’s temper flared instantly. Was he really supposed to be looked down upon just because he was not as smart as the others? Just as he was about to speak, he remembered what Zhang Zhiqiu had said yesterday, and a sudden flash of inspiration struck him.
“Maybe we’ve all been wrong!”
Peng Mingfan was startled. “Wrong about what?”
Qian Wei said, “The condition to clear this game is to kill Yingjun, right? Li Shuangshuang killed Yingjun, left with his corpse, and then Yingjun came back!”
“And then???”
Peng Mingfan was not the only one puzzled; everyone turned to look at him.
Qian Wei took a deep breath. “She cleared the instance! That’s why she didn’t come back! Killing Yingjun: she did it, so she cleared it. We were forced to sleep, while she was the only one who could move freely. Li Yingjun coming back to life is essentially a reset because we haven’t cleared the instance yet, so the boss respawned! We overcomplicated things before. Maybe the game is just playing word games with us, and the true clear condition is really that simple!”
Using the simplest logic to reconstruct the story was indeed very much in Qian Wei’s character.
Peng Mingfan paused in surprise, while Zhang Zhiqiu appeared thoughtful. An Ning quickly waved her hands. “Wait, let me sort this out. What about Qu Li?”
Zhao Ping added, “Right, what about Qu Li?”
“Didn’t we talk about this yesterday? Qu Li was a newbie too, so she must have acted recklessly.” Qian Wei grew more excited as he spoke. “The first time Li Yingjun was beaten to death by the bronze statue, maybe she was the one who did it. Killing Yingjun, right? That’s why she vanished! Whoever kills Li Yingjun disappears, and disappearing could mean clearing the instance. Am I wrong?”
The group exchanged glances, forced to admit that Qian Wei’s deduction was tempting and not entirely baseless. But the risk was far too great; no one could prove whether it was correct.
Their gazes focused back on Tang Cuo.
Tang Cuo was feeling irritable and gloomy because his hypoglycemia had flared up again. With the stark contrast in his dark and light eyes, staring at someone often gave off an immense, oppressive aura.
The crowd fell silent instinctively. Only Jin Cheng frowned while studying his pale complexion.
Right at that moment, Xiao Yuan brought out breakfast. Today’s meal was oatmeal with milk, boiled eggs, and toasted bread. Simple as it was, it smelled appetizing.
Tang Cuo’s attention was hooked instantly. He said decisively, “Breakfast first.”
With that, Tang Cuo sat down and began eating with intense concentration, oblivious to everyone around him. The others looked at one another and sat down as well. Food came first, so eating before anything else made total sense.
After downing a bowl of oatmeal, Tang Cuo felt much better. He reached out to peel an egg, only to find that not a single egg in the bowl had a shell. Every one of them was smooth and tender.
The eggs were divided into three bowls placed in different spots. Tang Cuo looked at the other two bowls, where the eggs clearly still had their shells.
The culprit: Jin Cheng.
“Do you enjoy peeling things that much?” Tang Cuo couldn’t help asking.
“Pretty much.” Jin Cheng was currently peeling another one. After finishing it, he did not even eat it, dropping it back into the bowl while spreading jam on toast instead. Tang Cuo could not understand what was wrong with him: peeling tomatoes, peeling eggs, as if he had too much time on his hands.
Tang Cuo would never bother with such tedious chores.
Having someone peel them for him was quite nice, though.
Without the slightest psychological burden, Tang Cuo pulled the bowl of peeled eggs in front of himself, poured a cup of warm milk, and ate them together. The taste was passable.
“What do you plan to do?” Jin Cheng asked.
“Take another look in the woods.” Swallowing the egg, Tang Cuo asked, “Are you coming?”
“Are you inviting me?”
“There are bears in the woods.”
Very good. Quite honest.
Maintaining his smile, Jin Cheng took the remaining eggs back.
Tang Cuo did not mind. Jin Cheng was the one who peeled them, so eating them was only natural. Not only did he raise no objections, but he also spoke to Jin Cheng with complete righteousness.
“We’ll bring Li Yingjun with us and leave through the back door.”
“Replicating the path Li Shuangshuang took?”
Tang Cuo nodded. “At least part of what Qian Wei said is correct: the first time Li Yingjun was killed was likely Qu Li’s doing. She arrived in Yong Ye City on the same day as me, but I’m not certain whether she entered Yong Ye City alive.”
Jin Cheng: “What do you mean?”
“We triggered an easter egg game.”
The Lucky Wheel had four rounds in total. The third round, the Soul Pendulum, scrambled everyone’s positions. Tang Cuo was certain Qu Li was alive during the first and second rounds, but he could not be sure about the third.
Combining this with the “Karma” Jin Cheng mentioned, Qu Li had very likely died during the easter egg game and was dispatched to the Returner on a Snowy Night instance to replace Xiao Yuan.
In other words, she had arrived earlier than anyone else. The Qu Li that Tang Cuo encountered was already an NPC whose actions were scripted by the system.
Tang Cuo said, “If she was meant as a distraction, the target of that distraction was me. Because I knew her, I assumed she was a real player, which led me to suspect others.”
In reality, Tang Cuo had hesitated between Qu Li and Zhang Zhiqiu. But Zhang Zhiqiu’s behavior was very typical of a player: selfish, shrewd, and skilled at manipulating others with words to achieve his own goals.
Right then, an exclamation rang out: “Where is Zhang Zhiqiu?!”
Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng looked up simultaneously to see Qian Wei looking around, muttering that Zhang Zhiqiu was gone.
Zhao Ping chimed in hastily, “I saw him asking Xiao Yuan for milk earlier and didn’t pay much attention, but he seemed to vanish in the blink of an eye.”
Zhang Zhiqiu was the prime suspect for the non-player among them, so everyone split up to search. Jin Cheng rested his chin on his hand, watching for a moment, before turning to Tang Cuo with a wry smile. “Aren’t you going to explain it to them?”
Tang Cuo countered, “Do I look like a good person?”
Even if Zhang Zhiqiu was not the non-player, his behavior was like a shit-stirrer. Why would Tang Cuo clear his name? He was not bored out of his mind.
Within two minutes, Zhang Zhiqiu returned. Facing everyone’s interrogation, he claimed he had only gone to ask Xiao Yuan for more food and visited the restroom on the way.
Peng Mingfan: “I checked the restroom. You weren’t there at all.”
Zhang Zhiqiu: “I went to the restroom first, then to the kitchen.”
The two sides confronted each other once more, the suspicion in Peng Mingfan’s eyes deepening.
Having no interest in watching the argument, Tang Cuo stood up and tossed out a casual, “I’m going to take another look in the woods,” then walked toward the back door.
Peng Mingfan, Qian Wei, and the others abandoned their confrontation with Zhang Zhiqiu and hurried after him. Qian Wei blurted out loudly, “Brother Tang, why are you going again? There are bears in those woods!”
Without slowing his pace, Tang Cuo went straight to find Li Yingjun. But when he saw Li Yingjun’s back, he frowned. Li Yingjun had fallen asleep, slumped over a small round table in the kitchen with a half-eaten bowl of noodles beside his hand.
Xiao Yuan had vanished somewhere again.
“Wake up.” Tang Cuo kicked his stool.
Li Yingjun snapped awake, gazing around in confusion. When he saw Tang Cuo, his mouth opened to emit an “ah.” Stunned, he hastily let out several more “ah” sounds, then clutched his neck in disbelief, his face filling with terror.
“What’s wrong with him? Poisoned again?” Qian Wei’s eyes widened, instinctively looking toward Zhang Zhiqiu. Could the same trick really be used twice?
Right after the words fell, Li Yingjun erupted into violent coughing, spitting up mouthfuls of blood.
“Fuck!” Qian Wei scrambled backward. Peng Mingfan and the others summoned their weapons, terrified that Li Yingjun would go berserk on the spot. In the next second, Li Yingjun’s eyes turned red, and he lunged toward them like a madman.
The cramped kitchen doorway made dodging nearly impossible, trapping everyone in a tight cluster. An Ning and Zhao Ping at the rear likely had no idea what was happening inside. In a panic, Qian Wei shouted, “Scatter!”
To everyone’s surprise, Zhang Zhiqiu suddenly charged forward, plunging a fruit knife into Li Yingjun’s abdomen before Qian Wei could even blink.
He stabbed once, and then again. Blood soaked his clothes, making him look like a replica of yesterday’s Li Shuangshuang. Only when Li Yingjun went limp and stopped breathing did Zhang Zhiqiu seem to snap out of it, tossing the knife aside in a frenzy.
“What did you do?! Why did you suddenly attack!” Peng Mingfan rushed in, furious enough to kill him on the spot.
Panting, Zhang Zhiqiu did not lose his composure like Li Shuangshuang had. He stared at Peng Mingfan, uttering word by word, “Be-cause-I-want-to-clear-this-game.”
Peng Mingfan choked on his breath.
Zhang Zhiqiu continued, “Killing Li Yingjun might be the way to clear it, isn’t that right? In an instance like this, how could the system be kind enough to let everyone pass smoothly? There has to be a quota. Qu Li and Li Shuangshuang already took two spots. I’m the third.”
“You’re insane! That was just a theory!” Even Qian Wei, the author of the theory, thought Zhang Zhiqiu had lost his mind. Was this his true face: a cold-blooded lunatic hiding behind the mask of a petty, selfish man?
Zhang Zhiqiu merely laughed, as if mocking the stupidity of everyone present.
“Forget about him! If he wants to get himself killed, no one’s stopping him!” Qian Wei fumed again. Glancing toward Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng, he noticed the two big bosses standing by the kitchen window, completely in their own world.
Their looks, naturally, were in a league of their own as well.
“There’s blood splattered all over the doorway. Should we climb out the window?” Jin Cheng proposed in all seriousness.
Tang Cuo was speechless. Why did this man have so many bizarre habits? If it was not peeling food, it was climbing out of windows. But with blood pooling near the door, walking through it was indeed unpleasant, so he gave an indifferent nod.
The two proceeded to climb out the window.
Even as a girl, An Ning did not care about the bloody floor anymore. Stepping over the stains, she ran up, but could not stop them in time. She stuck her head out the window and yelled, “Someone just died, where are you two going?!”
Soon, Qian Wei stuck his head out as well. “Big bosses! Someone died! Come back! What are we supposed to do if you leave?!”
The big boss waved his hand without looking back.
An Ning slapped Qian Wei hurriedly. “Quick, quick, let’s follow them!”
Qian Wei: “But there are bears in those woods!”
An Ning shot a sideways glance at Zhang Zhiqiu. “There’s a murderer right here.”
Qian Wei: “Fair point.”
Qian Wei dragged Peng Mingfan along, while An Ning pulled Zhao Ping, and the group scampered off after them in a flash.
