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墨書 Inktalez
After the two arrived at the balcony, Wang Chao gazed at the distant twinkling lights of the night for a long time without speaking. It wasn't until his cigarette burned down to the end that he turned to Jiang Liu, who was standing beside him, and asked, "Do you really believe what Qian Lin and Zhao Jing said?"
"I don't believe it," Jiang Liu shook his head. "They glossed over many important details, and there's one thing that concerns me."
"Really?"
Flicking the cigarette butt into the distance, Jiang Liu turned to look at Wang Chao. "Do you remember what Qian Lin said earlier? He mentioned seeing Zhao Jing wearing that wedding dress."
"I remember. Zhao Jing tried it on herself," Wang Chao pondered for a moment. "Are you suspecting that they know where the wedding dress is but just don’t want to tell us?"
"No, they probably really don’t know where the wedding dress is."
"Then what are you concerned about?"
Jiang Liu thought for a moment, looking at Wang Chao with a serious expression. "Why did the wedding dress end up on Zhao Jing? We discussed before that the most likely scenario is that the wedding dress belongs to a ghost. Our task is to retrieve it from the ghost, but this raises another question: what roles do Zhao Jing and Qian Lin play in this incident?"
"Wait a minute, I'm getting a bit confused," Wang Chao gestured for Jiang Liu to pause. "I understand what you said earlier, but I don’t get what you mean by the roles of Qian Lin and Zhao Jing."
"You don’t understand?" Jiang Liu looked into the empty darkness as he explained. "Don’t you find it strange? We only learned about the mission today, yet Qian Lin and Zhao Jing had already obtained that wedding dress some time ago. Combining all known information, this incident feels more like something that happened after the fact—like the supernatural world wants us to resolve this issue—rather than generating a mission as usual and sending us to execute it."
"You have a point, but you still haven't answered my previous question."
"Maybe I went off-topic," Jiang Liu pinched his nose. "Since we arrived here, all our experiences have been guided by Zhao Jing and Qian Lin. The Red Phantom in the elevator only appeared after we started looking for them; even the ghostly figure Lin Mei Mei saw happened after we found them. Everything that has occurred today makes me feel like the ghost..."
"Has always been around them," Wang Chao finished Jiang Liu's thought.
"Exactly. We three seem more like innocent bystanders who stumbled into this situation," Jiang Liu nodded in agreement.
"So according to your reasoning, among the five of us, it's not Zhao Jing and Qian Lin who are superfluous; it's actually us three who are intruders on this mission."
After finishing his sentence, Wang Chao's expression suddenly changed as he looked at Jiang Liu in surprise. "Does that mean we are now—!"
Jiang Liu forced a smile. "Did you figure it out?"
"It was so obvious. If I didn't understand, I would have wasted all this time. It's just a bit frustrating that we've squandered a chance at survival like this."
Wang Chao lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, looking at Jiang Liu. "So what do we do now?"
"I don't know," Jiang Liu shook his head and patted Wang Chao on the shoulder. "I'm feeling a bit tired now. You take the first shift, and don't forget to wake me up at three."
Wang Chao said nothing, irritably waving his hand to signal Jiang Liu to go to sleep while he continued to smoke alone on the balcony.
Back on the sofa, Jiang Liu looked at Lin Mei Mei's sleeping face and sighed helplessly.
"Finished talking?"
Lin Mei Mei suddenly murmured softly in her sleep.
Jiang Liu wasn't surprised that Lin Mei Mei hadn't fallen asleep; past experiences had taught him that she held a strong distrust of others. How could someone like her possibly sleep in such an environment?
"Yeah, why aren't you sleeping?" Jiang Liu asked.
"Going to sleep now."
Lin Mei Mei pulled the blanket over her head and ignored Jiang Liu. Seeing this, he could only smile wryly and lie down on the other side of the sofa, preparing to sleep.
Jiang Liu quickly fell asleep on the sofa. Perhaps due to the tension of the day's events, he slept deeply until he was stirred awake by Wang Chao's urgent voice drifting into his ears.
"What happened?" Jiang Liu asked, rubbing his eyes in confusion.
"Lin Mei Mei and Zhao Jing are trapped in the bathroom, and no one inside has responded so far," Wang Chao said urgently, pointing toward the bathroom.
Hearing this, Jiang Liu first glanced in the direction where Lin Mei Mei had been sleeping but saw no sign of her. Then he looked toward the bathroom as indicated by Wang Chao, noticing Qian Lin anxiously twisting the doorknob.
His mind instantly cleared. Jiang Liu jumped up from the sofa and asked Wang Chao, "How did they get trapped in there?"
"After you fell asleep, Zhao Jing came out of her room to use the bathroom. Lin Mei Mei was a bit worried and went in with her. Who knew that no one would respond from inside, and the door won’t open?"
Wang Chao quickly understood the situation.
"How long have they been in there?"
"More than ten minutes already."
Jiang Liu rushed to the bathroom door, pushing aside Qian Lin who was twisting the doorknob, only to find it completely unyielding, as if it had been welded shut.
"What do we do now? My wife is still inside, and she isn't responding to anything!" Qian Lin said, nearly in tears.
"Don't panic. Ten minutes shouldn't be enough time for anything serious to happen. Wang Chao, let's kick the door together."
Upon hearing Jiang Liu's words, Wang Chao immediately prepared himself to try kicking the door open with Jiang Liu.
To their surprise, on their first attempt, they managed to kick open the door that had seemed immovable just moments before, revealing a pitch-black bathroom inside.
"Lin Mei Mei!"
As the door was kicked open, Wang Chao rushed in, calling out Lin Mei Mei's name, with Jiang Liu following closely behind.
Uncertain if it was due to a power outage, the bathroom lights wouldn't turn on, so Jiang Liu had to rely on the light streaming in from outside to observe the space.
The bathroom was not large, only about a dozen square meters, but that small area was filled with thick white mist, as dense as a wall blocking their way. Because of this, neither of them saw Lin Mei Mei and Zhao Jing when they burst through the door.
As soon as they stepped into the bathroom, Jiang Liu felt something unusual underfoot, as if he had stepped on something.
Waving his hand to disperse the mist in front of him, Jiang Liu picked up what he had stepped on and brought it closer to his face. To his shock, it was a shard of mirror, its surface covered with a layer of condensation. On the edge of the mirror, there was a faint trace of blood.
Seeing the bloodstain made Jiang Liu's heart tighten. Before he could think further, he heard Wang Chao's voice.
"Lin Mei Mei is missing."
Looking at the shard in his hand and then at the indistinct figures not far ahead, a sense of foreboding surged within him. He quickly turned to Wang Chao. "Wang Chao, we should get out of here; the bathroom might not be safe."
No sooner had he spoken than his phone began to ring from his pocket. He paused for a moment, wondering who could be calling at such a time.
Despite his confusion, Jiang Liu quickly pulled out his phone. But when he saw the name on the screen, he froze.
The caller ID displayed the three bold characters: Lin Mei Mei!
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