Transtor: der Transtions
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Xiaomeng's face was gloomy, her gaze slightly cold. The left sleeve of her coat revealed half of a sharp wooden hairpin.
Jiang g remained silent for a few seds, then suddenly whispered, "I was just joking with you, I saw that you were quite nervous earlier." He lifted his head, speaking with righteousness, "I’ll go out first."
Xiaomeng said nothing, retrag the wooden hairpin and stepping aside to let him pass.
Jiang g quietly moved behind the door, peering through the crack for a long time. Finally, under Xiaomeng’s pressure, he slowly opehe door, waited a moment, and then stepped out.
The eel was eerily quiet, as though there were no living souls inside.
They didn’t head straight upstairs but decided to first check the first floor thhly.
After all, if someone was lying in ambush, rushing upstairs could result in being trapped on the upper floor.
Xiaomeng followed Jiang g at a distance of about 2 meters, determihat if an ambush occurred, she would abandon Jiang g without hesitation and rush up to the third floor to catch Qian Jianxiu.
She only hoped Jiang g could buy her more time to ensure her own escape.
They first ehe bathroom to check. After all, this was where Jiang g awned, and it held a special significe for him.
Due to the lighting, the room was dim. The low ceiling was covered with cobwebs, and there were faint brownish-yellow stains along the walls, apanied by an unpleasant odor.
They opened all the bathroom stalls, but found no one inside.
The two exged gnces and quietly withdrew.
, they arrived in front of the kit door, the st unexplored area on this floor. If there was nothing here, it would mean the vilge chief and his group hadn't arrived yet.
This was good news for them, but her of them showed any signs of joy.
Because it also meant that the "colleague" had already succeeded.
Perhaps they had already left this world through the door.
Jiang g took a deep breath and pushed ope door. The sharp "creak" of the door sounded like a pair of scissors, cutting through their nerves.
Xiaomeng gred at Jiang g, seemingly bming him for being so careless and making such a loud noise.
But Jiang g khis wasn’t his fault. He haded any force; the door had been tampered with.
Sihe situation was as it was, Xiaomeng no longer pihey quickly ehe kit, Jiang g holding a sharp metal piece, and Xiaomeng gripping a wooden hairpin.
More than ten seds passed, but the kit remained unged.
Now it was Xiaomeng's turn to be puzzled.
Jiang g seemed to have realized something. He took a step into the kit, and Xiaomeng turo close the kit door, keeping a retively safe distance from him.
The kit was rger than they had imagined. After passing a row of bck iron pots oove, there was a semi-enclosed room used to store firewood.
The firewood iled everywhere, ly stacked in bundles.
Xiaomeng's face suddenly darkened as she caught an uling smell.
The smell of blood.
When Jiang g moved aside a bundle of firewood he wall, Xiaomeng's gaze ged sharply. From her position, she could just see a pair of feet stig out.
Jiang g slowly crouched down and removed the pale blue floral apron c the dead person’s face. Sure enough, the dead person was the innkeeper, Qian Jianhe.
His body was curled up, his arms bound with hemp rope, a rag stuffed in his mouth, his eyes wide open, and his face twisted in a grotesque expression. His body was covered iches of blood, making the se quite horrifying.
Xiaomeng noticed two other bodies in a secluded er.
One was the pregnant woman they had seen earlier, Qian Jianhe’s wife, the innkeeper's wife.
The other was a young man, probably just an adult. They hadn’t seen him before, but his clothes suggested he was a service staff at the inn.
All three had their throats slit with precision, a siroke to sever the neck.
Jiang g stood up and walked over to a bamboo mat-covered window, ripping the bamboo mat away.
The room became much brighter.
They carefully examihe three dead bodies and found that, besides the fatal throat wound, Qian Jianhe also had several irregur injuries on his body.
bined with his bound hands and the rag in his mouth, it wasn’t hard to guess that he had been tortured before dying.
It was their missing "colleague" who had dohis.
The torture was not the goal; the goal was to extraformation from him.
As the rohtehey noticed faint blood footprints on the greasy floor, leading outside.
Following the footprints, they came to a er of the kit.
This area was very hidden, with several bamboo brooms stacked here and a dark green water jar beside them.
The footprints disappeared here.
Xiaomeng immediately became alert.
She suspected the person might be lying in ambush. Uedly, Jiang g walked straight up to the spot and, through the gap between the brooms and the water jar, discovered a low, secret door.
The door was so low that only an adult could crawl through it, with a copper ring fastening it shut.
Jiang g held his breath. The momeugged on the copper ring, he quickly moved behind the water jar to hide.
Fortunately, nothing suddenly emerged to attack them.
After a while, he cautiously peeked out.
Light leaked from ihe secret door, and in the er, a delicate dlestick stood with a dle burning faintly, about the size of a baby’s arm.
A small wooden staircase appeared in their sight.
The blood footprints tinued up the stairs.
Jiang g silently retreated a few steps and came to Xiaomeng’s side. He suddenly asked, "Whe at the abandoned Qian residence, how did you get in?"
Xiaomeng initially didn’t want to answer his question, but Jiang g's expression was different from before. He even gave off a subtle sense of threat.
She couldn’t uand the purpose of his question but instinctively answered, "I ehrough the sed floor, using the rope."
"You didn’t go to the first floor?"
"No, after searg the sed floor, I sensed someone had ehen you guys disturbed the ghost, and after that..." Xiaomeng didn't tinue.
Jiang g already knew what had happened afterward. He squinted his eyes slightly, and after a pause, said, "It was Li Lu."
Xiaomeng blinked in surprise. "It was her?"
"Yes," Jiang g replied. "Oairs of the Qian residence, I found several strange footprints that looked like they beloo a woman." He looked at Xiaomeng and slowly said, "I initially thought it was you."
Suddenly, Xiaomeng’s mind fshed with realization.
Li Lu had previously cimed her leg was injured and stayed behind alo the Qian family’s old house.
Of everyone, only she had enough time to explore the abandoned Qian residend avoid the others' notice.
(End of the Chapter)
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