Chapter 212
Chapter 212
A married couple. The amusement park. Suicide.
Connected to the female lead.
Jian Fan updated the information in his mind and was about to continue when Qin Nan suddenly exclaimed, “Jian Fan! They’re Little Princess’s parents.”
Everyone turned toward him.
Even Yang Zhen stopped and looked back at Jian Fan in confusion.
Who was Little Princess? The couple’s daughter?
Seeing her turn, Qin Nan immediately said, “The couple who committed suicide were the female lead’s parents.”
Yang Zhen: “???”
Her information had become someone else’s deduction, which was now being used to extract more discoveries from her?
“How can you prove that’s true?” she demanded.
Qin Nan laughed. “How can you prove anything you’ve told us is true?”
Yang Zhen: “…”
“Qin Nan, why do you think they’re Little Princess’s parents?” Qin Weiyi asked. That interested him far more.
Qin Nan looked at him. “Do you remember the photos on Little Princess’s tablet? There were pictures of her with her parents, but none of the photographs on her computer included them.”
No one had paid much attention to that detail.
Now that Qin Nan mentioned it, they thought back. The computer had photographs from after Little Princess began working, pictures of her shopping with close female friends, and intimate photographs with men. But there did seem to be no photos with her parents.
Under what circumstances would someone have no photographs with her parents at all?
Had she lacked the time to take them? Or had Little Princess simply never had another chance to be photographed with her parents?
Qin Nan immediately connected that absence with Yang Zhen’s married couple who had died by suicide. If the amusement park was related to Little Princess and a married couple had killed themselves there, the inference was hardly unreasonable.
Was it true? Who knew?
They were only using the theory to trade for Yang Zhen’s information.
Qin Nan made no effort to hide his reasoning. Yang Zhen wasn’t stupid; she understood his plan perfectly and was furious.
Yet Qin Nan still urged, “Yang Zhen, your turn.”
Your turn, my ass!
Yang Zhen cursed inwardly. To obtain more clues, however, she still had to answer.
After some thought, she said, “A middle-aged man and woman.”
Everyone: “???”
“If they weren’t middle-aged, what were they, children?” Qin Nan asked speechlessly.
Yang Zhen laughed. “All you said was that they’re the female lead’s parents. You never told me how old she is. What if she’s three or four? Then her parents would be young. What if the female lead is middle-aged herself? Then her parents would be elderly.”
Qin Nan: “…”
Both sides exchanged information while doing their best to torment each other.
As they talked, the group finally reached the Ferris wheel.
Walking ahead, Yang Zhen said, “He should still be on it. He was here when I left. I don’t know whether he moved afterward.”
“Why did he get on the Ferris wheel? Was there a clue inside?” Qin Nan asked.
Yang Zhen was silent for a moment. “Probably.”
“Probably?” Jian Fan raised an eyebrow.
Yang Zhen considered what they might learn from their teammate after finding him, then volunteered, “For the record, I honestly wasn’t trying to attack him. I only tried to run up to him. He fled before I reached him and climbed onto the Ferris wheel himself.”
“Oh, so you chased him, but he wasn’t allowed to run?” Qin Nan asked.
Yang Zhen: “…”
She truly hadn’t intended to hurt the man!
Glancing at the Ferris wheel, Yang Zhen smoothly changed the subject. “If he hasn’t left, the wheel has stopped now. He’s probably still stranded in midair.”
“Midair?” Qin Nan looked surprised, then laughed. “How could that be?”
“Why couldn’t it?” Yang Zhen retorted.
Qin Nan answered with another question. “Were you not listening earlier?”
“To what?” Yang Zhen was baffled.
“All of this was an illusion,” Qin Nan said.
“An illusion? So what?” Yang Zhen still didn’t understand.
The illusion had broken, revealing an abandoned amusement park. What did that have to do with Shi Chen riding the Ferris wheel?
Wait–
Yang Zhen finally realized. She looked up at the wheel.
The real amusement park was abandoned. Would the Ferris wheel in an abandoned park function normally?
Of course not!
Therefore, Shi Chen couldn’t possibly be stranded in midair.
Within the illusion, they had seen the Ferris wheel operating, so anyone who boarded would naturally feel themselves changing position as it turned. But in reality?
The wheel had never moved at all.
If Shi Chen was inside a gondola, it had to be the one nearest the ground.
As they spoke, the group entered the Ferris wheel area.
They climbed several steps to the boarding platform and immediately spotted Shi Chen inside a gondola, sitting there helplessly with his arms wrapped tightly around himself.
“Then why doesn’t he come out on his own?” Yang Zhen pointed at him, utterly confused.
She understood why he was there, but now that the illusion was gone, why was he still hiding inside the Ferris wheel like that?
Jian Fan considered it. “Aftereffects?”
Yang Zhen: “…”
As if she’d believe that nonsense.
Qin Nan had already stepped forward.
The gondola could be opened from outside.
He promptly opened it and called, “Shi Chen, time to get down.”
Shi Chen was immersed in his misery when someone suddenly called his name. He looked up.
At the sight of Qin Nan, he froze. “Qin Nan? How are you here?” He began looking around. He was suspended in midair, wasn’t he? How had Qin Nan suddenly appeared in front of him?
Had Qin Nan learned to fly while they were apart?
Shi Chen’s mind filled with bizarre theories. Then he turned his head and froze.
Huh?
Was he on the ground?
“Hurry up and get out,” Qin Nan said.
Still full of questions, Shi Chen saw that Qin Nan was indeed standing on solid ground and that Jian Fan’s group waited nearby. Only then did he cautiously leave the gondola.
When his feet touched the ground, he finally relaxed and regained a sense of reality.
“Finally, I’m down,” Shi Chen sighed.
Qin Nan smiled without commenting. Yang Zhen, however, said coolly, “You were never up there.”
“What?” Shi Chen didn’t understand.
“Everything before was an illusion. The Ferris wheel never moved. Did you fly into the air yourself?” Yang Zhen asked, openly enjoying the joke.
Shi Chen was shocked.
Then realization followed.
An illusion… What he saw now was real, and the Ferris wheel had never operated…
So…
From beginning to end, he had been sitting in the gondola nearest the ground, acting out an entire drama about being trapped in his own head?
No. Shi Chen wanted one last chance to deny it.