Chapter 113
Chapter 113
Xia Susu seized the chance to dump every photo of the scene into the main group chat, then fired off messages at top speed.
[Xia Susu: Everyone, be careful. The killer is among us!
Xia Susu: We need to find the killer and make them pay!
Meng Zhenzhen: What happened?
Guo Lan: Who’s the killer?
Lin Xiaoxue: Ah! Why would you post such bloody photos!!!]
“How are you so sure the killer is among us?” Wei Sen stared at Xia Susu with a dark, hostile gaze.
An Order Keeper had died. A normal person’s first reaction would be to suspect an Eerie Entity, yet Xia Susu had declared with absolute certainty that the killer was among them. Something was definitely off!
Xia Susu’s eyes turned vicious. “Because the killer is you! You have the Ghost Axe, and your name has two characters! It all fits!”
Wei Sen sneered. “The wound was made by a heavy chopping weapon. Are you saying an Eerie Entity can’t possess a weapon? And as for the killer’s information left on the ground, it could mean the second floor, it could mean there are two killers, or it could mean the killer has some element related to the number two on them!”
Xia Susu swallowed nervously and argued, “But I saw you meeting with this person last night!”
Xia Susu pointed at the body of the elder sister, Shu Yun, lying on the ground and spoke with certainty.
“Oh? What time? Where?”
“Around ten thirty, at the door to your room!”
“First, I was already asleep at ten thirty. Zhong Lingkun can prove that. Second, my room is on the third floor, and yours is on the second. How would you have seen me at that time?”
After saying that, Wei Sen looked solemnly at Lao Wang. “I’ve said everything I need to say. If you want to investigate the killer, that’s your business. I don’t have time to stand here proving my innocence.”
If not for the fact that Lao Wang was Huang Xinze’s friend, she never would have wasted this much breath here.
Wei Sen was just about to leave when Xia Susu strode forward and blocked her way.
“Stop right there! If you don’t explain this clearly today, don’t even think about running!”
“Move.” Wei Sen looked coldly at Xia Susu.
Wei Sen knew very well that today’s frame-up had to be Xia Susu’s doing. She simply had no time to keep wasting on her.
But Xia Susu only shouted louder and even reached out to grab Wei Sen’s arm. “The killer has to be you! You’re guilty! A murderer has to pay with their life! Don’t think you can just walk away!”
In the struggle, a Ceramic Doll fell from Wei Sen’s pocket with a sharp smack onto the snow.
“Don’t move!” Lao Wang barked. In disbelief, he stepped forward and picked the Ceramic Doll up from the snow. “This is… Shu Yue’s Anomalous Artifact.”
Wei Sen narrowed her eyes at the Anomalous Artifact.
When had that thing gotten on her?
Before going to sleep last night, she had deliberately hung up her clothes. There had been nothing in the pockets then, and this morning she had been in too much of a hurry to check them before going out.
Lin Ze… It was impossible for him to have done something like this while she was asleep.
Wei Sen remembered bumping into Meiya at the stairwell corner when she left. Had it been then?
Or was there some Anomalous Artifact capable of moving objects through thin air, making the Ceramic Doll appear directly in her pocket?
“You’re saying this belonged to the dead?” Xia Susu seized on the key point, glaring at Wei Sen as she shouted, “Well, there it is! The evidence is irrefutable. Are you still going to try to talk your way out of this?!”
Lao Wang’s hands trembled slightly as he held the Ceramic Doll. He struggled to suppress the hatred in his eyes, his cold gaze fixed on Wei Sen. “Please explain to me exactly what is going on here.”
Wei Sen drew in a light breath.
The frame-up was this obvious. What was she supposed to explain?
Wei Sen looked at the man before her, whose reason had been drowned by anger. Huang Xinze had said Lao Wang was a police officer.
If he was a police officer, then as long as he calmed down and thought about it, he would realize the whole thing was full of doubts. There was no need for her to offer pale, useless excuses here.
“I have nothing to say.” With that, Wei Sen turned and walked away, unwilling to waste any more time.
Seeing this, Huang Xinze stepped forward. “Lao Wang, I trust Sister Sen’s character. There must be some misunderstanding. I’ll investigate with you.”
“Who said you could leave?!” Xia Susu refused to let it go. She rushed forward and grabbed Wei Sen by the wrist again.
Wei Sen’s brows drew together slightly, her black eyes cold and dark. Her voice carried a restrained anger. “Let go.”
“Not a chance! I’m going to make sure everyone sees you for the murderer you are!” Xia Susu’s grip tightened.
The next second, Wei Sen seized Xia Susu’s hair with her other hand and yanked her entire scalp upward, pulling her neat Korean-style straight brows into sharply arched ones.
“Ah!” Xia Susu screamed and let go of Wei Sen’s hand, tears bursting from her eyes from the pain.
Huang Xinze and Lao Wang froze in shock.
Sure enough, people who usually didn’t talk much were terrifyingly ruthless once they did make a move!
“Let go! You murderer! Let go!” Xia Susu shouted through her sobs, but the moment she moved, Wei Sen’s grip tightened another notch.
Wei Sen forced Xia Susu to raise her head and meet her eyes. Leaning in slowly, her gaze turned especially sinister. “If I really killed someone to steal their Anomalous Artifact, then my next target… would be you!”
With that, Wei Sen flung Xia Susu’s head aside.
“Ah!” Xia Susu stumbled back several steps. Her foot accidentally came down on the corpse’s wrist, and she lost her balance, falling into the hot spring pool with a splash.
Xia Susu thrashed desperately in the water, looking utterly wretched. “Wei Sen! This isn’t over between us!”
Wei Sen gave a cold snort, flicked away the strands of hair caught between her fingers, and strode off.
Huang Xinze glared at Xia Susu, who had just crawled ashore and was trembling all over. There was no trace of pity left in his eyes. “Xia Susu, you’re the one who should explain why you happened to be here at exactly the right time!”
…
Wei Sen had just returned to the front hall through the back courtyard door when she saw Meiya hurrying over with an anxious expression.
“Were you the one who put that thing there?” Wei Sen stepped in to block her path.
Meiya looked at her in confusion. “What thing are you talking about?”
Wei Sen studied Meiya’s microexpressions. She did not look like she was lying.
“I’m sorry, but I have to go deal with the situation in the back courtyard right now, or the innkeeper will be angry!” Meiya said, then rushed urgently toward the back courtyard.
Wei Sen glanced at the time. It was 6:32.
If Meiya had not placed it there, had Xia Susu really used some kind of Anomalous Artifact?
But if Xia Susu had done this out of revenge and even deliberately spent an Anomalous Artifact on it, the cost far outweighed the gain.
As Wei Sen was thinking, she suddenly noticed a trail of footprints on the floor. They led from outside the inn’s main entrance all the way toward the back courtyard. Meiya had left them just now!
But when Wei Sen had run into Meiya on the stairs before 6:30, there had clearly been no footprints.
In those ten-odd minutes, had Meiya left the fourth floor, gone outside, and then come back again?
Wei Sen looked in the direction Meiya had gone, the suspicion in her eyes deepening.
Wei Sen sat down in the dining room.
Before long, Lin Ze came downstairs.
“How does it feel?” He sat down directly across from Wei Sen.
“How does what feel?”
“Being framed.”
Lin Ze had seen the photos and text Xia Susu had posted in the main group chat.
Wei Sen folded her arms and looked at Lin Ze opposite her. He had been with her all night, and when she went out just now, she had not brought any Anomalous Artifact with her. So he knew for certain that she could not be the murderer.
“Does Legend Lin also have a hobby of mocking people?”
When Lin Ze saw the messages in the group, he had been very curious about how Wei Sen would react, so he had specifically come downstairs to take a look at her.
To his surprise, she was so calm it was as if nothing had happened at all.
A moment later, after Meiya finished dealing with the corpse in the back courtyard, she carried a bucket and rag upstairs again. From the look of it, she was going to clean up the bloodstains Lili had left on the second and third floors last night.
Wei Sen continued observing Meiya’s actions without letting anything show.
Seeing this, Lin Ze understood something as well. “You got up this early to investigate her?”
Wei Sen did not deny it.
As the only employee of Aurora Inn, Meiya had to be a breakthrough point.
But Meiya had refused to speak for too long. Wei Sen could not keep waiting. She had no choice but to take the initiative!