Chapter 192
Chapter 192
The group arrived at the villa district.
Jian Fan walked at the very front.
His gaze fell on the two large doors at the villa entrance. One was swaying gently back and forth in the wind, creaking as it moved. The other hung crookedly from above; whenever the wind blew, it looked as though it might drop to the ground at any second.
Jian Fan avoided that door and chose to push open the other one to enter.
The rest followed behind him.
The villa was more or less as Jian Fan had seen it before, except now it had thoroughly fallen into ruin. It looked abandoned. Cobwebs hung everywhere, the furniture lay toppled in all directions, and a thick layer of dust had collected on the floor. As the group walked through, they left behind a clear line of footprints.
“Let’s split up and search,” Jian Fan said.
The others nodded.
The villa district was large. To keep anyone from wandering off and running into danger alone, they started their search for clues in the main hall. Each person was responsible for one area, but they kept close enough that if anyone encountered danger, the others would be able to step in and help right away.
The structure of the main hall was roughly as follows: one side was a TV wall. Beside the TV wall were several irregular shelves that matched the TV cabinet, and on those shelves sat two framed photographs. Opposite the TV wall was a row of Chinese-style red solid-wood chairs. Behind the chairs was an enormous floor-to-ceiling window. At the moment, the curtains in front of it were drawn. There were two layers of curtains: one layer of white gauze and another of heavy, high-end fabric in a pinkish purple.
Apart from those two sides, another side was a wall. In front of that wall stood a row of red solid-wood Chinese-style cabinets in the same color scheme as the chairs, with ceramic ornaments and the like placed on top. Near one end, there was a door.
That door was open now. A glance inside showed what seemed to be a reception room.
On the other side of the main hall stood a large folding screen. Beyond the screen was another, slightly smaller living room. Past that living room were the dining room, the Kitchen, two guest rooms, and a bathroom.
In addition, the first floor also had a laundry room, two servants’ rooms, and a storage room filled with things like red wine.
That was the conclusion Jian Fan had reached after making a circuit earlier.
For now, however, they were still in the main hall.
Qin Nan walked over to the TV wall and picked up the framed photographs on top.
One photo was a large group shot: an extremely good-looking couple with a little girl in a princess dress standing between them. The other frame held a solo photo of a girl. She wore a white gown, her hair fully pinned up, and a crown on her head. She was smiling brightly at the camera.
Qin Nan compared the two photographs.
The girl in the solo photo was probably the little girl from the group shot.
After a brief look, Qin Nan put the photos back.
Then he began searching around the TV wall.
There was a row of cabinets beneath the TV wall, and Qin Nan did find quite a few things inside: game controllers, various models of game consoles, even a dance mat and similar items.
After looking through them, Qin Nan had only one thought.
Rich people really were rich people.
Other than that, however, he did not seem to discover anything.
He walked a few steps forward and stopped beside the large coffee table in the middle.
A tea set had been placed on the coffee table. The other side was piled high with snacks, though those snacks had clearly expired. By now, they were covered in dust. Beside the snacks was a tablet.
Qin Nan picked up the tablet.
It seemed to have already shut down. Qin Nan pressed the power button purely out of reflex, never expecting the startup screen to appear almost immediately.
Qin Nan understood now.
In abandoned places like this, any electronic device they found was bound to work.
But then another thought popped into his mind. For an appliance that had truly been abandoned for so many years, even if it still had power, could it really turn on and function after all that time?
Could this still be an illusion?
But very quickly, Qin Nan dismissed the idea.
They had already broken through one illusion. If this was still an illusion, then what was it-an illusion within an illusion? Besides, the dormitory building in their previous world hadn’t been an illusion, but it had been an illusory space created by Zhao Yingguo, something similar in nature. Surely this world wouldn’t pull the same trick too, right?
The Realm of Death shouldn’t create such similar setups in two consecutive worlds.
The tablet had finished booting up.
Qin Nan pushed aside all those messy thoughts and focused on the tablet.
The home screen was filled with apps. Qin Nan swiped through a few pages and got a general idea.
There were common social apps on it-WeChat, QQ, Weibo, and the like-as well as a few reading apps. Other than that, the majority were games.
Huh. The owner of this place was probably a gaming enthusiast.
There were all kinds of games on the tablet: games like Honor of Kings, dress-up games similar to Love Nikki, and of course, card-collecting character games like the one that matched their current story setting. There were also some harem games that had become popular in recent years, along with casual games like match-three puzzle games.
With just a quick glance, Qin Nan estimated that there were at least twenty gaming apps on it.
Huh. This person must have spent all day playing games.
Qin Nan tapped into WeChat first.
As soon as it opened, WeChat showed that it was already logged in. There were still some chat records saved on it. The most recent message was timestamped 9:35. Qin Nan froze, then looked at the time displayed on the tablet. It was currently 9:36.
A message someone had just sent?
And right at that moment, another WeChat notification popped up.
Qin Nan tapped it open instinctively.
The profile picture was a selfie of a girl, and the WeChat nickname was “Little Princess.” On the chat window Qin Nan had opened, there was a brand-new message from the other party.
When Qin Nan saw what it said, he nearly threw the tablet away.
Displayed on the tablet was a single sentence-
“You finally came.”
Forcing down his fear, Qin Nan tapped open the other party’s profile picture. Once the image enlarged, he froze. Then he abruptly turned to look toward the TV wall.
Fuck!
Wasn’t the girl in this profile picture the same girl from the photograph he had just seen?
“Jian Fan!” Qin Nan quickly snapped back to his senses and shouted to Jian Fan.
Jian Fan was standing in front of that cabinet.
It was filled with all kinds of decorative objects. Although he wasn’t an expert in this field, he knew a thing or two. Leaving aside whether the items in the cabinet were genuine or fake, they were probably all worth quite a lot.
That was baffling.
Why would these things be left here?
Even if the entire family had met with an accident, did they really not have any relatives or friends? And even if they didn’t, were there no thieves?
Just as Jian Fan was puzzling over it, he suddenly heard Qin Nan call his name.
Jian Fan immediately turned around and walked toward Qin Nan.