chapter 6
Cheng Miao hurriedly asked, “Did your parents mention anything about the murderer?”
Hu Zi looked at Cheng Miao strangely. “Isn’t the murderer just an old lady? I heard she never got married and became mentally twisted. But she ran away long ago, and no one has found her yet.”
At this point, Hu Zi seemed a bit embarrassed. “I also heard this place was haunted, got curious, and wanted to come see…”
Cheng Miao’s face was expressionless: Serves you right! This brat, now you can’t get out, can you!
Seeing Hu Zi hanging his head, blushing, and fiddling with his fingers, Cheng Miao knew she wouldn’t get any more answers.
According to Hu Zi, the original residents here all considered Aunt Li the murderer. But because of the Illusion in Room 401, Cheng Miao didn’t believe things were that simple.
She searched the outer Clinic Room again, even turning over the examination beds where the children sat, but aside from the medical records, there were still no other clues.
Which made sense. If evidence could be found in a Clinic Room with people coming and going, Doctor Xu might as well quit being a villain and go home.
Cheng Miao took out the missing person notice she had torn from the Corridor and compared it page by page with the medical records. Sure enough, the children on the missing person notice, whether they lived in Building 4 or not, had all come here for treatment.
Worth mentioning was the heart symbol Cheng Miao thought Liu Xue had drawn when signing her name; she found the same mark on the medical records of several other missing children.
It had only been erased with a rubber, leaving faint pencil traces that were impossible to spot unless held up to the light.
Cheng Miao was now more than 80% certain that the child disappearance cases in Minsheng Lane were all related to Doctor Xu, though the motive was still unclear.
“Human Yet Not Human,” Cheng Miao pondered the words in the clue.
The “Human Yet Not Human” mentioned in the clue was likely a metaphor: the so-called good person was not what people thought, and the supposed villain, Aunt Li, was actually innocent.
Having identified the murderer, Cheng Miao perked up. There must be clues yet to be found in the Second Floor Clinic.
Strangely, when Cheng Miao took out the Diary, the Illusion of Doctor Xu did not appear in the outer room.
She didn’t believe the Diary had suddenly lost its power, so the reason must be the location. The Diary could only trigger the most intense emotions or the most useful clues of the room’s owner.
And the most important clue in this Clinic clearly wouldn’t be in the outer Clinic Room.
She told the children to stay in the outer room and not run around, then entered the Bathroom again, this time bringing the Mop from the sink.
She poked around the drain with the mop head for a while and, as expected, pulled out some long, fine, soft hair.
Cheng Miao shuddered in disgust, rubbed her arm, and took out the Diary.
“Swish! Swish!” The sound of a sharp blade slicing through skin and severing tendons.
In the bathroom before Cheng Miao appeared a figure in a white coat. Doctor Xu was squatting on the floor with his back to Cheng Miao, and in front of him lay Liu Xue, her face terrified and skin bluish-purple.
Unexpectedly, in such a cramped space, there was another person: Aunt Li, a jump rope-Liu Xue’s usual companion-tied around her neck, her eyes bulging, dead but not at peace.
It was easy to imagine: Aunt Li, waiting long for Liu Xue, went to the Clinic to look for her, only to stumble upon the scene of Liu Xue’s death.
Who would have thought Liu Xue had told someone she was coming to see Doctor Xu? So, Doctor Xu decided to go all the way and strangled Aunt Li in the bathroom with the jump rope.
Aunt Li had no relatives, and her relationship with the neighbors was poor. Even if she went missing, no one would look for her. In fact, it was precisely because of Aunt Li’s disappearance that the people of Minsheng Lane began to regard her as a Human Trafficker who ran away after abducting children.
Liu Xue, lying on the concrete floor, was still wearing that red dress. There were visible handprints around her neck, pressing out large patches of bruised purple.
Her small body lay in a thick, sticky pool of blood. Her limbs had been cut open by a blade, exposing stark white bones.
From Cheng Miao’s angle, she could only see Doctor Xu’s blood-splattered profile. He seemed to be in a good mood, lips slightly curled as he hummed a tuneless melody.
It seemed that some blood had splashed into his eyes. Doctor Xu clicked his tongue impatiently, raised his hand to wipe his face carelessly, then reached out to tear off Aunt Li’s outer garment, wiped the blood-soaked floor, and tossed it aside.
No wonder Cheng Miao always felt Aunt Li’s clothes looked familiar back in 401; it turned out the so-called rag in the bathroom was the last thing Aunt Li wore.
Cheng Miao retched in disgust. Such a hellish scene assaulted her nerves, and she could almost smell the blood in the air, thick enough to seem tangible.
Unexpectedly, Doctor Xu, who had been focused on dissecting the corpse, suddenly paused when he heard Cheng Miao retching behind him.
A chill ran through Cheng Miao’s heart; every cell in her body screamed danger!
Doctor Xu lowered the hand holding the kitchen knife and slowly turned around.
To be fair, Doctor Xu’s looks were decent-not handsome, but honest and clean, like a student.
But now, the face that would normally seem friendly was smeared with blood, and his eyes glinted with a manic light.
“You… who are you? Why are you in my house?”
Cheng Miao thought, This is bad. She hadn’t expected the Clinic to be different from the illusion on the fourth floor; the Doctor Xu before her felt extremely dangerous, like a real person-visible and… tangible.
There was nowhere to hide in the outer room. If the doctor managed to hack a few children, who knew how many more souls would be lost?
Staring at the blood-stained knife in Doctor Xu’s hand, Cheng Miao retreated toward the Bedroom without showing any emotion. The folding stool she’d used for self-defense was still in the Bedroom.
When facing a maniac wielding a weapon, the folding stool was much more intimidating than the fruit knife she had hidden on her person.
“Enough… No matter who you are, you saw everything just now, didn’t you?” Seeing Cheng Miao remain silent, Doctor Xu grinned, his smile twisted and unnatural.
Would you believe me if I said I didn’t see anything? Cheng Miao cursed inwardly, but kept talking, “What you did to Liu Xue-don’t you believe in retribution?”
“Retribution? Hehehe… If there were such a thing, I should have died long ago.” Doctor Xu seemed to recall something amusing, laughing in a way that sent chills down her spine.
Realizing that Doctor Xu was referring to the missing children meeting the same fate as Liu Xue, Cheng Miao spat in disgust-scum!
As Doctor Xu drew closer, Cheng Miao stopped hesitating. She had thought that since the murderer was here, Liu Xue’s restless spirit would surely appear to fight to the death.
But there wasn’t even a ghostly shadow. Cheng Miao cursed inwardly, confirming that even ghosts fear evil men. Her expression changed dramatically, panic and terror flooding her eyes, making anyone’s hair stand on end.
“You… behind you… the dead Little Girl just stood up!”