Ch32 Brother Jie, Did You Catch That Guy?
"Brother Jie, wh-what should we do?!"
Seeing Liu Jie emerge, Li Xiaoya-her hair disheveled-panickedly grabbed his arm, her eyes filled with helplessness.
Liu Jie had never encountered this situation before either. He swallowed hard. "It's okay. I'll go check on her first."
Zhang Lu sat slumped against the wall, eyes tightly shut, her limp arms hanging down. Not a sound came from her.
Just above her head, a vivid crimson stain stood out starkly.
Liu Jie tremblingly extended a finger, hovering it near Zhang Lu's nose.
"Brother Jie, how is she?"
Liu Jie stumbled backward, collapsing to the floor as he pushed himself up with his hands.
"She... she's not breathing."
Li Xiaoya collapsed too, staring at her own hands.
"Brother Jie, I... I killed her! I killed her!"
Her face drained of color as she trembled, fixated on her hands.
She hadn't meant to kill!
But who asked her to snatch her rice and slap her face?
Li Xiaoya sat on the ground, clutching her head.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!"
Meng Ci hadn't expected that by watching them fight amongst themselves, he could vent his frustration over the sudden disappearance of the space.
He never imagined witnessing such a spectacle.
Well, so be it!
Let these people who needed revenge be killed off one by one by others. As for his hands, they would remain clean.
On the surveillance feed, Liu Jie and Li Xiaoya had recovered and were now discussing their next move.
Li Xiaoya's mind was consumed by the act of murder, leaving her unable to think clearly.
The guilt of killing her own mother grew heavier by the moment.
Liu Jie, however, was ruthless. He suggested that with the heavy rain outside, they could simply toss Zhang Lu into the floodwaters.
That way, the rain would wash away all evidence.
Li Xiaoya buried her face in her hands, paralyzed with indecision.
Zhang Lu was her mother. If swept away by the flood, not
even her remains would be left.
Once the rain stopped, how could she ever be laid to rest?
Seeing her hesitation, Liu Jie snapped, "If you don't dump her in the water, you'll go to jail!"
"You better think this through."
"Your fingerprints are all over her body. There'll be no way to defend yourself."
At the thought of prison, Li Xiaoya instantly agreed to Liu Jie's plan.
She was still so young-how could she go to jail over this?
If she really went to prison, her future would be ruined!
No prison. Absolutely not.
Holding onto this thought, Li Xiaoya gradually calmed down.
She believed her mother, if she were still alive, would forgive her!
After eating instant noodles, the two sat silently in the living room.
Not until after 11 p.m., when the lights downstairs began to flicker out one by one, did Liu Jie carry the body while Li Xiaoya scouted ahead. Together, they made their way in the dark to the third floor.
The third-floor residents, fearing the rising floodwaters would eventually reach their homes, had long since evacuated to other floors.
Now, deep into the night, only the sounds of rain and water echoed through the silence.
Guilt-ridden, Li Xiaoya kept glancing around nervously, terrified someone might suddenly appear and discover what she was doing.
The floodwaters had completely submerged the second floor. The two of them gripped Zhang Lu's arms and slowly lowered her into the water.
Then they let go.
Plop. It didn't even make a big splash.
Silently, Zhang Lu's body was quickly swept away by the floodwaters.
Then, it vanished from sight.
The torrential rain and floodwaters would conceal all traces of this accidental killing.
"Brother Jie, are you sure this is okay?"
Outside, pitch blackness obscured everything. Li Xiaoya stared blankly into the darkness.
"Don't worry. No one will ever find out," Liu Jie assured her.
"Click!"
The moment he finished speaking, the shutter sound of a camera echoed in their ears, its white flash piercing the darkness.
"Who's there!"
Liu Jie sensed something was wrong and rushed to the hallway, but found nothing.
"Brother Jie, did you catch them?" Li Xiaoya came running over barefoot, panting heavily.
Liu Jie shook his head, his expression grave.
"No."
"Then what do we do?"
The thought of someone discovering her role in the murder and disposal of the body filled Li Xiaoya with dread.
Murder alone was a capital offense. Now, disposing of the body added another layer of guilt.
If they were truly caught, her future would be utterly ruined.
"It's fine. It's so dark, he couldn't have captured anything."
The stairwell was pitch-black, and the person was far away-there was no way they could capture anything clearly!
Besides, with the sky so dark, any photos taken would surely come out completely black.
"Even if they did get something, I'll testify for you later. I'll say it was self-defense. There won't be any problem."
Liu Jie's words were full of holes. Setting aside the murder itself, disposing of the body alone was enough to land both of them in prison.
Yet Li Xiaoya trusted Liu Jie implicitly now and believed his words.
After Liu Jie calmed her down, the two slowly made their way back to the fifth floor.
Lying in bed, Liu Jie couldn't fall asleep. How had that person left so quickly without making a single sound?
Had they misjudged the situation?
Or was it Zhang Lu's restless spirit, haunting them?
The more Liu Jie thought about it, the more terrified he became, clutching Li Xiaoya tightly in his arms.
"Auntie, I'm sorry. Your death had nothing to do with me."
"If you seek revenge, don't come after me!"
"If you must blame someone, blame Xiaoya!"
With his eyes closed, Liu Jie silently chanted for the demons to leave, shifting all blame onto Li Xiaoya.
Of course, it couldn't be a ghost!
It was Meng Ci.
When Liu Jie and the others were about to dump the body, Meng Ci had already slipped down to the third floor. He hid in the darkness, watching them dispose of the corpse.
Then, he deliberately turned on his phone's flashlight and sound before raising it to take a photo -all to scare them.
When discovered, Meng Ci had intended to dart into a nearby building.
But then he remembered it was past midnight-perhaps the space would be accessible now. He tried entering it.
To his astonishment, he actually entered the space.
When Meng Ci reappeared inside, his excitement was beyond words.
He explored every corner, finding nothing missing!
He even grabbed a cup of milk tea to ease his nerves.
Still, he needed to figure out why he'd been kicked out of the space.
Otherwise, if danger struck and he tried to hide inside, only to get mysteriously ejected again, how was he supposed to survive?
Finding no clues outside, Meng Ci returned to the house within the space.
He searched floor by floor, finally discovering the answer he sought on the third-floor open balcony.
Several lines of text were scrawled on the wall.
Since the space's activation, for every twenty-four hours in the outside world, one hour of cumulative living time is granted within the space.
Time is cumulative.
The moment Meng Ci read these lines, they vanished without a trace.
Wait, what? What does this even mean? It didn't even give me a chance to process it.
Fortunately, Meng Ci had a decent memory and retained the gist of the message.
Could this mean that for every twenty-four hours in the outside world, the space grants one hour of survival time inside? Meng Ci had possessed the space for forty days, meaning he could stay inside for roughly forty hours.
Early on, he'd occasionally enter the space to check for missing items, likely wasting some time.
Plus, that time spent searching for supplies and hiding from others had taken over two hours.
Shooting practice had consumed nearly five hours. Once the accumulated time ran out, the space kicked him out.
It seemed he needed to conserve time in the early stages to ensure he could retreat to the space when danger arose later.