Chapter 16: The Returner on a Snowy Night (10)
Close to six in the morning, without the sound of Li Yingjun banging on the door, the group woke up one after another. Just after waking, Qian Wei let out a loud sneeze. Turning his head and seeing the extinguished campfire, he shivered as he tried to rekindle it, only to find himself completely stiff from the cold. It took him quite a while to regain feeling.
Zhao Ping was closest to the campfire and managed to light it. Once warmth descended upon them once more, everyone felt considerably better.
Tang Cuo, however, was not doing well.
His hands and feet were icy cold, not purely from the freezing temperature, but also due to his own physical constitution. Barely managing to sit up, he fished out chocolate beans, popped two into his mouth, and treated the remaining half bottle of potion like water, chewing and swallowing the chocolates as if taking medicine.
Two beans followed by two more, until sweetness filled his mouth and his Health recovered to above 10%. Only then did Tang Cuo’s expression ease slightly, though the sickly pallor between his brows had grown heavier.
“Can you still walk?” Jin Cheng asked, kneeling on one knee beside him with a frown.
“Won’t die,” Tang Cuo replied flatly. Pausing for a beat, he fished the hand warmer from his coat and gave it a small shake. “Thanks.”
Jin Cheng said nothing further, turning to toss a few pieces of jerky to Peng Mingfan. “Go make some meat soup. We’ll head back once we’re fed.”
Their preparations this time had been fairly thorough. Not only had they brought jerky, but also pots, bowls, and seasonings. While the resulting meal could hardly be called delicious, drinking a bowl of hot soup in this bone-chilling weather was already an immense luxury.
By now, it was the morning of the next day. Li Yingjun had likely finished chopping wood and returned to the lodge long ago, and Zhang Zhiqiu was already missing. Consequently, the group was in no rush, sipping the hot soup while inquiring about why Tang Cuo had been in such a hurry to head back the previous night.
“Why did we need to go back for Zhang Zhiqiu? Did you find a way to stop him from disappearing?” Peng Mingfan asked. Qian Wei and the others also looked at him hopefully. This was not out of concern for Zhang Zhiqiu, but because when the lips are gone, the teeth are cold.
Tang Cuo said, “That wasn’t Zhang Zhiqiu.”
Qian Wei: “Huh?”
An Ning asked anxiously, “What do you mean?”
“It means,” Jin Cheng drew out his tone teasingly, then smiled abruptly, “Li Yingjun never died. He hasn’t died even once, and that’s why the game hasn’t been cleared.”
Wait, what on earth are you two talking about?
Qian Wei, An Ning, and Zhao Ping were struck dumb with confusion, and even Peng Mingfan’s brow furrowed tightly.
Jin Cheng smiled. “It’s actually quite simple.”
Tang Cuo, clutching his bowl of soup and huddled inside his military coat, automatically entered energy-saving mode. “You explain.”
Jin Cheng raised an eyebrow. “Why is it on me again?”
Tang Cuo: “Can’t you see I’m on the verge of dying?”
Please, just spit it out already!
Perhaps because the onlookers’ stares were far too eager, Jin Cheng cleared his throat and finally returned to the point. “Li Yingjun’s pattern of movement is very straightforward: every morning at six, he returns to the lodge, kills a player, swaps identities with that player, and then uses that stolen identity to personally murder the ‘Li Yingjun’ disguised from the player, pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. Once night falls and everyone goes to sleep, he carries the corpse out to destroy the evidence.”
Wait, what did you just say?
Qian Wei’s eyes widened, his tongue tying itself in knots. “S-Swapping identities? Who’s killing who exactly?”
“Tsk.” The corners of Jin Cheng’s mouth pulled down, the visible half of his face dripping with impatience. “Was I not clear enough? Which word did you fail to understand?”
I know every single word, but putting them together makes no sense, Big Boss!
Qian Wei desperately wanted to shout that at the top of his lungs, but the man before him looked as if he would beat anyone to death who dared speak another syllable, forcing Qian Wei to swallow his words.
Tang Cuo shot Jin Cheng a suspicious glance. That familiar vocal tic, that familiar tone, and even that familiar explanatory rhythm inevitably reminded him of someone.
Speaking of which, Tang Cuo was sometimes fond of saying “tsk” as well, a lingering habit picked up during his rebellious youth.
With that thought, Tang Cuo pulled his gaze away from Jin Cheng and looked at Peng Mingfan. “This is indeed a deduction instance. There is no setting where killing Li Yingjun makes you disappear, nor is there any death loop. While the identity-swapping trick defies common sense and requires some ability or illusion to execute, it still leaves flaws behind. What we must do is rely on these flaws to uncover the truth behind Li Yingjun’s crimes.”
Peng Mingfan’s mouth opened slightly.
If what Jin Cheng said was true, then Li Yingjun’s murder scheme was practically flawless. He had successfully led all the players to believe that their side had killed him, but in reality?
It was Li Yingjun slaughtering the players one by one.
Tang Cuo continued, “So far, there are three victims in total: Qu Li, Li Shuangshuang, and Zhang Zhiqiu. First, regarding Qu Li, she is merely a decoy. As an NPC, she cannot die at all. The reason Li Yingjun used her to set this trap, letting us see his horrific death right from the beginning, only to resurrect the next morning, was to implant a preconceived notion in our minds.”
Preconceived notions were terrifying things; they directly warped judgment and obscured the truth.
“As for Li Shuangshuang and Zhang Zhiqiu, both were alone before ‘killing’ Yingjun. Li Yingjun likely seized those moments to swap places with them. Then, brazenly wearing their faces, he paraded before us and silenced the victim. The reason we didn’t notice any flaws was that Li Yingjun is mute; ‘he’ never uttered a single word right up until the moment he was killed.”
Hearing this, An Ning recalled going to the restroom to find Li Shuangshuang yesterday, and sudden enlightenment struck her like a bolt from the blue.
“I remember now! Back then, when Li Shuangshuang went to the bathroom, I went looking for her because she was taking so long. When I passed the linen closet and looked through the small window on the door, Li Yingjun was crying out in panic, his eyes completely terrified. Thinking back, when we tied Li Yingjun up earlier, he didn’t seem all that frantic. At that point… at that point, the person inside was already Li Shuangshuang?!”
The moment she finished speaking, a cold numbness crept across everyone’s scalps.
Then An Ning remembered something else. “And the ventilation fan in the bathroom stall! That vent connects to the linen closet! The reason Li Shuangshuang didn’t notice anything or scream for help might be that Li Yingjun slipped into the stall through that vent and subdued her silently from behind!”
By now, Li Shuangshuang’s death was essentially clear. Whether her mouth was covered from behind or she was directly muted, she had been unable to call for help.
Li Yingjun disguised her as himself and tossed her into the linen closet. She had pleaded to An Ning for help, but An Ning failed to recognize her. Afterward, Li Yingjun doubled back and stabbed her to death with a broom handle.
“Now, regarding Zhang Zhiqiu.” Tang Cuo set down his soup bowl and sat up straight. “When we found him in the kitchen, he was asleep. Waking up to find he couldn’t speak, he was terrified as well. The poison he ingested was probably nothing other than something to silence his throat. Later, when all of you rushed into the kitchen and he lunged wildly toward you, he wasn’t lunging at anyone else; he was charging straight at Li Yingjun standing among the crowd.”
Peng Mingfan sucked in a breath of cold air. “Exactly. Even if he didn’t realize he had been turned into Li Yingjun, seeing another version of himself in the crowd would make him understand something. But he couldn’t speak, and at that very moment…”
The fake Zhang Zhiqiu charged forward and stabbed him to death.
Zhao Ping muttered, “No wonder… No wonder both of them acted like completely different people before and after…”
As he spoke, he couldn’t help asking, “But how can we be sure it’s an identity swap based on just that?”
“Because of the powder, and because of Qu Li,” Tang Cuo said.
“I scattered Dust of Appearance all over the lodge, so why wasn’t there a single speck of powder on the shoes of Li Shuangshuang’s corpse? Supposedly, ‘she’ carried Li Yingjun’s body out of the lodge. Even if the snow wiped it away along the trail, it wouldn’t be scrubbed so clean that not a single trace remained in the burial pit, while Li Yingjun’s shoes were coated in it.” Jin Cheng finally spoke with reasonable clarity. “There can only be one reason: Li Shuangshuang’s corpse was carried on Li Yingjun’s back, and her feet never touched the ground at all.”
Zhao Ping froze, left speechless.
Peng Mingfan hurriedly pressed, “What about Qu Li then?”
Tang Cuo said, “Do you remember the first sentence she said when we encountered her in the woods yesterday?”
Some had been too far away to hear, but Jin Cheng heard it. She had said: “How are you here!”
“She was surprised to see me, not because I was in the forest, but because I had appeared in this instance. The Qu Li we saw on the first day was not the real Qu Li either. It was Li Yingjun.”
Initially, Tang Cuo truly assumed Qu Li ignored him and didn’t expose his rookie status simply because of her personality. When they first met in the square, Qu Li possessed that exact aloof demeanor, rarely bothering to acknowledge others.
Yet after running into her again in the woods, Tang Cuo sensed something amiss. It was not until last night, when Qu Li reappeared and guided Jin Cheng to Li Shuangshuang’s body, that Tang Cuo confirmed with certainty: the initial Qu Li was an impostor.
She had recognized Tang Cuo in the woods. Perhaps she was unwilling to accept her fate, or perhaps out of some sentiment toward a fellow newcomer, she lent a hand.
Jin Cheng had said that players who died during missions became full NPCs, but looking at it now, Qu Li was still in the middle of that transformation and had not completely lost her free will.
Perhaps once the newcomer’s job training concluded, she would turn into another Xiao Yuan.
Tang Cuo concluded, “This also explains why Li Yingjun, a boss with considerable combat capability, could be killed so easily. Furthermore, he is not mute at all.”
With this, the entire truth surfaced, leaving no room for doubt.
A prolonged silence fell over the cave, particularly weighing on Zhao Ping. Anyone would feel sick to their stomach realizing that a teammate who had spent half the day with them was actually a ‘dead person’ in disguise, playing them like a fiddle.
It brought not only resentment, but also dread.
“Once we head back, we surround and kill Li Yingjun immediately. There is only one rule: no one is allowed to be alone,” Tang Cuo warned gravely. Once someone ended up alone, they could be killed. If they grew careless and failed to notice someone straying, the game would turn into ‘Guess Who.’
Worse still, Tang Cuo feared Li Yingjun had used the system to gain omniscience and already knew they had uncovered the truth.
Because of that all-too-timely ‘forced sleep’ yesterday.
If Li Yingjun knew, he would inevitably discard his previous playbook and enact Plan B. Putting Tang Cuo in Li Yingjun’s shoes, Plan B would be lying in wait to replace a player, blending into their ranks, and executing a counter-kill.
And without question, Li Yingjun was a high-IQ boss.
Half an hour later, having mentally prepared themselves, the group set off on their return journey. Since they had left through the back door, they returned through the front door as usual.
Just like before, Xiao Yuan was alone in the lobby. With no deaths this time, Xiao Yuan was happily humming a tune while wiping tables. Opening the door for them, she said as casually as ever, “You’re back.”
An Ning asked, “You knew we went out?”
Xiao Yuan smiled. “I saw that you weren’t here, so I figured you must have gone out for a walk.”
Hearing this, Qian Wei rolled his eyes hard. In all the missions he had completed, this was his first time encountering such a clueless NPC. But Xiao Yuan was not the priority, so he hurriedly asked, “Where is Li Yingjun? Has he returned from chopping wood?”
“Yes, he has. He went to the back to put the firewood away.” Xiao Yuan looked behind them, puzzled. “Huh, only the three of you came back? Where is everyone else?”
Indeed, only Qian Wei, An Ning, and Peng Mingfan had entered through the door. As for where the others had gone, Peng Mingfan pushed up his glasses and naturally refrained from telling her.
Near the back entrance, Tang Cuo and Zhao Ping crouched behind the storage shed. Although they had approached from the front, circling around to the back door was easy enough. With only Xiao Yuan and Li Yingjun in the lodge, there was no need to be overly cautious.
Listening closely to the sounds near the back entrance, they confirmed Li Yingjun was not in the storage shed either.
Tang Cuo could not help looking up toward the side. Jin Cheng was lithely slipping through a window on the flank of the lodge. Passing through that window led to the second-floor corridor, with stairs to the right.
Six people, splitting into three routes. Maintaining pairs to avoid being alone, they searched for Li Yingjun from various angles.
After waiting five minutes, Jin Cheng poked his head out of the window again, shaking his head at Tang Cuo: Li Yingjun was not on the second floor.
From inside the building came Qian Wei’s loud bellyaching about being hungry, indicating Li Yingjun was not on the first floor either.
Tang Cuo narrowed his eyes slightly.
Splitting into three routes was an exploratory probe to test whether Li Yingjun had altered his murder plan. Being unable to find him now meant he was likely hiding intentionally, waiting for an opportunity to strike from the shadows.
Where could he be hiding?
Tang Cuo pondered, his expression remaining composed.
Zhao Ping crouched quietly, not daring to disturb him, keeping all his attention on their surroundings. He remembered Jin Cheng’s earlier instructions to watch Tang Cuo closely. Fierce as Tang Cuo was, his condition looked poor. Unless necessary, their team should avoid facing Li Yingjun head-on.
A minute later, Xiao Yuan walked into the kitchen, entering their line of sight. From their angle, they could see the kitchen window. Frost rimmed the edges of the frame, but they could still make out the scene inside.
Humming a tune, Xiao Yuan walked over to the refrigerator. She opened it to look inside, retrieved ingredients, washed them clean, and stepped up to the cutting board to prepare food. Everything seemed completely ordinary, with nothing out of the ordinary.
Right then, Xiao Yuan picked up the kitchen knife, testing its weight in her hand by bouncing the handle lightly. That instinctive gesture made Tang Cuo frown immediately, a flash of realization striking his mind:
“Li Yingjun!”
Tang Cuo had seen Xiao Yuan cook before, and she did not possess this subconscious habit. In fact, few young women weighed a kitchen knife to gauge its balance before slicing vegetables.
Grasping this, Tang Cuo immediately looked toward the second-floor window, raised a hand to trace a circle toward Jin Cheng, and pointed toward the kitchen.
Jin Cheng understood, his figure vanishing from the windowsill in an instant.
Out of sight from Zhao Ping and Tang Cuo, Jin Cheng had his hands tucked into his trouser pockets, his tall frame ambling along with relaxed swagger.
Before long, he walked down the stairs, crossing paths with Peng Mingfan’s group of three in the lobby. None of the four spoke. Jin Cheng shot a glance toward the kitchen. Peng Mingfan pushed up his glasses, thought for two seconds, and traced an inquiring circle with his hand.
Jin Cheng nodded: a teachable student.
The three stepped forward, intending to head in together with Jin Cheng. But Jin Cheng shook his head, his gaze sweeping over them before pointing at Peng Mingfan and An Ning. “You two continue searching for Li Yingjun.”
Searching for Li Yingjun meant finding the real Xiao Yuan. To ensure their ultimate goal succeeded, leaving any loose ends unchecked was unacceptable.
The laborer quartet had developed immense trust in Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng, nodding solemn agreement at once. Qian Wei followed Jin Cheng to the kitchen door, feeling a mix of excitement and apprehension, lowering his voice: “Now?”
Jin Cheng acted completely nonchalant, pushing the door open directly.
Creak. The moment the door opened, Xiao Yuan turned around at the sound.
Leaning against the doorframe, Jin Cheng asked with a grin, “What’s on the menu today?”
Xiao Yuan scratched her head. “Beef and potato stew.”
At the same time, the figures of Tang Cuo and Zhao Ping appeared outside the window. Separated by a pane of glass, Tang Cuo and Jin Cheng locked eyes: Strike now?
