manynovel The number of people in Chapter 60... seems off!
The number of people in Chapter 60... seems off!
"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... The number of people seems wrong!"
He heard a voice counting people, repeating the count over and over. He saw a face turn around!
Cheng Tan's mouth gaped in astonishment, only managing to utter a single word: astonishment.
"you……"
His right hand gestured upwards, but like an eyelid, it didn't actually lift.
His last sensation was a rusty key pressing under his buttocks.
This delayed his brain.
He shoved the key hard under his buttocks.
With a vague stinging pain, Cheng Tan fell into a deep sleep.
A figure appeared in the room, but he was no longer visible...
They were all out of sight...
……
Cheng Tan was awakened by a series of urgent knocks on the door.
He opened his eyes, and a blinding light pierced straight into his chaotic mind.
He then realized that he was lying in bed.
The half-drawn curtains let in the sunlight. "Li Kai? Shadow? You guys..."
Upon hearing these names, he suddenly opened his mouth in astonishment, unable to close it...
I'm at home!
How did I end up in my own home? Wasn't I trapped in room 403?
What on earth happened?! Am I dreaming?!
He pinched his thigh hard...it hurt!
This doesn't feel like a dream!
"Knock knock knock, knock knock knock," he heard a series of urgent knocks on the door.
Outside the door.
Is Cheng Tan home? Excuse me, is Cheng Tan home?
A woman's voice, a hurried voice, a loud voice.
"Knock knock knock..." This time the sound was louder, not like knocking on the door, but more like a fist pounding on the door.
Cheng Tan sat up abruptly.
He felt a slight stinging sensation in his buttocks.
But he couldn't care less now. He staggered out of bed, slipped on his slippers, walked over, and flung the door open.
With a "whoosh," a figure stumbled in and bumped into Cheng Tan.
The force was immense; he couldn't stop in time, and the person who crashed into him knocked Cheng Tan down, pinning him hard to the ground.
It's right on the floor by the door.
"You...I!" came an angry woman's voice. "Why did you cooperate and pull the door open when I was banging it down?"
"I opened the door for you! Ouch... Can you get up now!" Cheng Tan was also extremely annoyed. Who was this person? A robber? He came in and knocked her down, and then asked her such a question.
Fortunately, the other person quickly turned to the side and reached out to pull Cheng Tan back.
Cheng Tan then realized that the other person was a policewoman, about thirty years old, with her uniform wrinkled and sleeves rolled up, and she smelled strongly of cigarettes.
"You're actually home! You dare to be home! Cheng Tan!" The policewoman was not polite at all. She came in, sat down on the sofa, and stared at him as if he were a monster.
Cheng Tan felt a chill run down his spine!
"I don't know why I was at home... I opened my eyes... and there you were knocking on the door!" Cheng Tan had even more questions in his mind, and hearing the policeman ask him this made him even more eager to find the answers.
Where were you last night?
Where was I last night?
The two of them asked the same question almost at the same time.
"I wanted to ask you that too!"
Two voices collided almost simultaneously in the cramped space of the foyer, both carrying the same confusion and urgency.
Cheng Tan plopped down on the ground, the dull ache still lingering in his back from the impact with the cold tiles, but none of that mattered now. He stared wide-eyed at the sharp-looking policewoman reeking of cigarette smoke.
What did she just say?
"You're actually home! You dare to stay home?!"
What does that mean? Is it as if he shouldn't be home? Or... that her finding this place was unexpected in itself?
The policewoman was Cheng Jing, and this was the first time she had observed Cheng Tan up close.
Cheng Tan looked disheveled, his hair was messy, his face was as pale as paper, his eyes were sunken, his lips were chapped, he was wearing a wrinkled nightgown and slippers, and he looked weak and bewildered as if he had just struggled out of a long nightmare.
Most importantly, his eyes showed shock and confusion, which didn't seem fake.
Cheng Jing's heart sank.
"Get up first." Cheng Jing reached out and pulled Cheng Tan, who was still sitting on the floor, up with considerable force. She then glanced around the small, messy studio apartment: the curtains were half-open, the light was blinding, the blankets on the bed were in disarray, the desk was piled with clutter and a computer, and there were a few books and empty drink cans scattered on the floor... Everything looked like the owner had just gotten up, or... the chaotic state of someone who hadn't slept all night.
But it's too "normal".
It's strangely normal.
"My name is Cheng Jing, from the Municipal Criminal Investigation Division." Cheng Jing flashed her badge, her tone slightly softening. "Cheng Tan, I need you to answer my questions truthfully. When did you get back here? How did you get back? Last night, from 10 PM until this morning, where were you? What were you doing?"
Cheng Tan was somewhat dazed by the barrage of questions. He leaned against the wall to steady himself, feeling as if his brain was a churned mess of memories, with fragments floating and sinking, yet difficult to piece together.
"I...I don't know," he murmured, his voice hoarse. "I opened my eyes, right there in bed, the sunlight blinding, and then...you knocked on the door. Last night..." He struggled to recall, fragmented, horrific, bloody, and suspicious images assaulting his senses: the murder weapon in room 403, Li Kai, Shadow, Lin Qian, Wu Wenbin, Lynx, A Zhe, Xiao Fei...Liu Li's hanged body, the chipped die, the hidden compartment in the wall, the sweet, pungent smell, Li Kai's frantic confession, the collective dizziness and hallucinations of poisoning...
"Anping Lane... Building 7... Room 403..." Cheng Tan said haltingly, "We... eight people, were trapped there... live broadcast... Liu Li is dead... no, it seems she's not dead... Li Kai said he's the murderer... there was a sleeping potion... I passed out..."
His narrative was disjointed and illogical, but the key locations and names matched up.
As Cheng Jing listened, her brows furrowed even more deeply.
"You mean, your last memory is of being in room 402, unconscious from inhaling some unknown gas?" Cheng Jing pressed. "And then you woke up in your own home? You have absolutely no recollection of what happened in between?"
"No." Cheng Tan shook his head painfully, "It's like... a blackout. A complete blank in the middle."
Cheng Jing walked to the window and looked outside.
This is the old-style residential building where Cheng Tan rents a place. It's an old building from the Republican era. Below is an ordinary street; the morning sun is shining brightly, and pedestrians and vehicles are passing by as usual. The straight-line distance from Anpingli to here is over five kilometers. How could a person in a coma be moved so far away and sent back to their own home so quietly without being discovered by anyone?
Unless... there's an inside man? Or perhaps the other party's abilities far exceed our expectations?
"Have you checked yourself? Are you injured? Or... is there anything extra that doesn't belong to you?" Cheng Jing turned around, her gaze piercing.
Cheng Tan subconsciously touched his body. His pajamas were intact, with no obvious marks. But he immediately recalled the last feeling he had before losing consciousness—it felt like something hard was pressing down on his buttocks, causing a stinging sensation…
key!