A day passed quickly, and the people Qin Feng sent to investigate gradually returned to the town.
However, no one could find the missing persons. So many people from the Zhao and Chen families seemed to have vanished into thin air overnight. The townspeople were all talking about it, and the legend of "vengeful ghosts" grew increasingly bizarre. At night, every household kept their doors tightly shut, as if afraid of encountering another vengeful ghost.
Tang Ci's drone has been kept at the Zhao family's house, but the surveillance footage has not captured any useful clues. The person who set up the mourning hall for the Zhao family has obviously not yet appeared.
After nightfall, Lu Jiuchuan and his three companions secretly infiltrated the Zhao family home, leaving clues in the manner of their elder, Old Gui.
Gui Yuanzhang spread a piece of paper on the table, picked up a calligraphy brush, and asked, "How do I write this?"
Lu Jiuchuan said, "First, let's make it clear that we've arrived in a world three years in the past. Then, write down the suspicious individuals we've identified. Once Xiao Lou and the others find this letter, they can follow the clues and continue their investigation." He looked at Tang Ci and asked, " Xiao Tang, what are some points of suspicion that we need to explain to Xiao Lou and the others?"
Tang Ci frowned and thought for a moment before walking over to Gui Yuanzhang and calmly saying, "First, Zhao Zesui, the youngest daughter of the Zhao family, left the town on the night of the 14th of July after her elder sister got married. She met with a masked man and gave him a purse embroidered with lotus flowers. Second, Chen Yu slipped out of the town to burn paper money for his father after his wife gave birth."
As Gui Yuanzhang listened to him, he quickly took notes on paper.
Tang Ci continued, "Third, Mayor Qin Feng's roster was only written after the incident. Three years ago, there was no secret room or rattle drum in his study. Fourth, those who witnessed the white-clad ghost on the night of the incident included vegetable vendor Old Man Liu, hunter Zhang Chengyu, proprietress Qin Ruolan, butcher Lin Yueran, and tofu seller Second Sister-in-law Xue."
Lu Jiuchuan chuckled and patted Tang Ci on the shoulder, saying, " Xiao Tang is so meticulous. The murderer has been disguising himself as a vengeful ghost and committing crimes all these years, so he must have left some clues. Hopefully, the clues we find will help Xiao Lou and the others with their deductions."
Gui Yuanzhang quickly finished writing the letter; his handwriting was vigorous and powerful, befitting a renowned calligrapher.
After sealing the letter with wax, Gui Yuanzhang asked, "Where should we hide it so that it's not easily found by others, yet Xiao Lou and the others can discover it as soon as possible? After all, Xiao Lou and the others are in a world three years in the future. In those three years, if someone enters the Zhao family and sees this letter, the clues still won't be able to reach Xiao Lou."
Lu Jiuchuan lowered his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly had an idea. He said, "Hide on the roof and leave special marks to guide them to find it." He looked at Chu Huaying: " Huaying, can I borrow your dagger?"
Chu Huaying understood his meaning and handed him the spider dagger.
Lu Jiuchuan leaped into the air and carved a clear spider mark on the roof beam, then hid the letter written by Gui Yuanzhang in a crack in the beam. Even if outsiders looked up and saw the mark, they would assume it was left by a spider, but Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou would immediately recognize it as Chu Huaying's spider dagger.
The mark left by the spider dagger is very deep and will not disappear even after three years. This means that as long as Xiao Lou and his group enter the Zhao family hall again, they will be able to find the clues left on the roof.
However, no one knows what will happen in those three years. Lu Jiuchuan isn't sure if the clues sent across time will even reach Xiao Lou. They can't go back to the world three years in the future; this is the only way they can try to help their teammates complete the game.
***
At the same time, Xiao Lou and his teammates finished their mermaid transformation and swam out of the lake.
Recalling the numerous corpses of girls in red that he had seen at the bottom of the lake, Xiao Lou felt a chill run down his spine and sneezed several times in a row, the night wind blowing against him. Yu Hanjiang asked with concern, "Are you alright? Did you catch a cold?"
Xiao Lou sniffed and shook his head, saying, "It's nothing. I just think the bodies at the bottom of the lake are too strange. This killer was clearly selective in his killings, targeting only girls under 18... Hanjiang, what are your thoughts?"
Yu Hanjiang analyzed in a low voice: "The methods of the crimes are different. One uses a rattle drum as a key tool to lure people to Mass Grave and then kills them; the other drags people to the bottom of the lake, ties them with water plants, and drowns them. The targets are also different. The former directly wipes out the entire family, while the latter only targets girls under the age of 18."
Liu Qiao finally understood. She frowned and asked, " Captain Yu means there are two murderers in Qingfeng Town?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "Yes, the motives, methods, and aftermath are all different. Clearly, we're dealing with two cases happening simultaneously. People have been disappearing frequently in Qingfeng Town in recent years, so this doesn't seem simple."
Long Sen scratched his head and said, "Mr. Tang got the list from Qin Feng's house yesterday, and dozens of people have been marked with a red cross. These are all people who have gone missing in the past three years. That is to say, some of them were lured to Mass Grave by the number one murderer and killed; and some were dragged into the lake and drowned by the number two murderer?"
Long Sen's description of the first and second murderers is simple and straightforward.
Qu Wanyue then asked, "Two murderers? If the first murderer is related to the famine and human-livestock conflict of twenty years ago, and it was a revenge crime... then why did the second murderer kill so many young girls?"
Yu Hanjiang said, "This is a classic case of paranoid personality disorder. All the girls tied to the bottom of the lake are dressed in red, and their long hair is tied tightly with the seaweed. He's using this method to vent his emotions. Perhaps, there's always a red [symbol] in his heart."
The girl in the dress was either a lover he couldn't forget, or an enemy who had greatly influenced him in the past.
Xiao Lou frowned and said, "Both murderers committed crimes over a long period of time, but the people in the town were brainwashed by the rumors of 'vengeful ghosts,' and they didn't care about the 'disappearance of people.' When they heard that someone had disappeared, they subconsciously thought that the person had been taken away by a vengeful ghost... It's unbelievable that the two murderers used such clumsy methods to cover up their crimes and killed so many people."
Qu Wanyue said helplessly, "People in ancient times were very likely to believe in these ghost and god stories. In addition, the murderer was pretending to be a ghost, so it is normal for the people in the town to be deceived."
Yu Hanjiang glanced down at the moonlight on the lake and said, "Let's figure out how to get out of here first. Old Mo, look at this lake, isn't it different from before?"
Old Mo paused for a moment, then followed Yu Hanjiang's gaze. Suddenly, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed excitedly, "The maze is spinning again! I think I've found the pattern to this maze!"
After saying that, he took out the handkerchief with the maze map drawn on it, spread it out in front of Xiao Lou, and pointed to the Drunken Moon Pavilion at the very center of the map, saying, "Our current position is this pavilion. The pavilion is the center point and it never changes. The outer maze rotates at a certain angle every once in a while, and the reflection of the crescent moon on the lake also rotates accordingly."
For example, just now, Lao Mo saw that the moon's shadow in the lake was located at 30 degrees southeast of the pavilion. Now, after the maze has rotated, the moon's shadow in the lake is due east, indicating that the entire maze is rotating counterclockwise.
Old Mo said, "Judging from the position of the moon's projection on the lake, the maze rotates 30 degrees each time. To return to its original position, it needs to rotate 360 degrees, which is 12 times, which corresponds to the twelve two-hour periods of a day."
Xiao Lou looked at the map and said, "It rotates once every twelve hours. That means we entered the maze at 3 AM last night. There was a path then, but because the maze rotates, the exit is now in an unknown place. To find the exit again, we can only wait until 3 AM the next day to let it rotate back to its original position?"
Old Mo nodded seriously: "That should be the case. After the maze rotates, the path will become chaotic, we won't be able to find the exit, and we'll easily be surrounded and intercepted by the Hunter... Why don't we wait here and wait for the maze to return to its normal position before we go out?"
Xiao Lou said helplessly, "That's the only way."
The maze, after its rotation, has no exit. They can't contact Shao Qingge, Ninth Brother, or the others, so they can't ask their teammates outside to teleport them out. They're trapped in the Ghost City maze and have to find a way out on their own.
Fortunately, Lao Mo finally deduced the pattern of the maze's rotation from the moonlight projection.
Time passed second by second. Ghost City remained dark, making it difficult for them to determine the exact time. They could only rely on the moonlight's reflection on the lake to estimate how many degrees the maze had turned.
After an unknown amount of time, Old Mo suddenly exclaimed with delight, "The angle is right! The maze has returned to its original position!"
Yu Hanjiang immediately took Xiao Lou Lightness Skill activated: "Quick, find the exit!"
The six left Drunken Moon Pavilion and, following Lao Mo's map, found the exit leading out of the town.
Liu Qiao tried to take a step, but as soon as her foot touched the edge of the town, she suddenly disappeared, as if she had been sucked into some kind of space.
Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou exchanged a glance, and without hesitation, crossed the boundary of Qingfeng Town together.
It was midday outside, with the sun high in the sky and the sky clear and blue.
Xiao Lou looked back and saw that Ghost City, which had been pitch black just moments before, had vanished. In its place stood a stone tablet that read " Qingfeng Town " and bustling residents.
Yu Hanjiang whispered, "We're finally out of the maze."
Xiao Lou tried connecting to the team voice chat: " CEO Shao, Ninth Brother, can you hear me?"
The headphones were so quiet you could hear a pin drop; there was no response from any of my teammates.
Xiao Lou immediately flipped through the team's contract book —all twelve names were listed, no teammates had died, but why couldn't they contact them? He looked at Yu Hanjiang and said, "Could it be that Ninth Brother and the others have also been teleported to a separate space like the ' Ghost City Maze'? Because of the spatial isolation, we can't communicate with each other?"
Yu Hanjiang frowned: "Let's go back to town first. We need to investigate how the girls who drowned at the bottom of the lake came to be."