Translator: CinderTL
"So," Fatty widened his eyes, "Lin Chen's corpse just walked out by itself?"
Hua Luo paused, "Lin Chen?"
"Yes," Jiang Cheng nodded, "We just found out that the woman living in room 808 is named Lin Chen, and she was Li Maoshen's girlfriend."
After a moment of thought, before Hua Luo could speak, Jiang Cheng's expression changed as he looked at his phone screen, "Huh?"
"What's wrong?" Fatty snapped back to reality and looked at the Doctor.
Jiang Cheng took the phone and slowly dragged the progress bar backward, seemingly having discovered something, but soon, a hand reached out and blocked the screen.
"Let me do it," Hua Luo, who seemed to know something, dragged the progress bar directly to a specific position and then showed it to everyone.
In the frozen frame, everyone saw that Lin Chen, wearing a raincoat, didn't seem to be alone. There was a black shadow standing beside her.
Because it was raining heavily and the light was dim, no one had noticed it at first, but now everyone could see that it seemed to be the outline of a person.
However... Chu Jiu narrowed her small eyes and leaned closer.
It was a person dressed entirely in black, quite tall, a full head taller than Lin Chen beside him. He walked beside her, his steps completely in sync with hers.
To Jiang Cheng and the others, it felt like... Lin Chen's shadow.
Unfortunately, his face was unclear.
Seeing this, Banana Wolf, who had just calmed down, began to tremble uncontrollably again. After a moment, he said, "Is it him?"
His tone suggested that he already knew the identity of this black-clad man.
"Who?" Hua Luo immediately looked at him, "Speak clearly."
"I... I don't know who he is, but Sister Qing once told me that before Lin Chen, who lived in room 808, fell to her death, Li Maoshen had once complained to her."
Weng Qing was well aware of the relationship between Li Maoshen and Lin Chen. This twisted romance was one of the triggers that later led to Weng Qing's suicide.
"Once, Li Maoshen came to Weng Qing after drinking and told her that he had just slapped Lin Chen twice because someone told him that Lin Chen had been seeing another man behind his back and had even brought that man home while he was away."
"But Weng Qing didn't believe this. Strangely enough, even though they both loved the same man, Weng Qing couldn't bring herself to hate Lin Chen. She just felt that Lin Chen was quite pitiful, a young girl who had come from the countryside to the city to make a living, with no relatives around, and Li Maoshen wasn't very good to her. She often stayed at home alone, feeling very lonely."
"But Lin Chen was very honest and introverted, rarely speaking much. It was impossible for her to be seeing another man outside."
"Weng Qing always thought Li Maoshen was just being paranoid, as he often suspected women of being unfaithful to him. Perhaps he had a guilty conscience himself, so he thought others did too."
"But later, when Weng Qing went to collect rent in another room in Building 3, she happened to pass by room 808 and suddenly heard a loud argument inside."
"A man and a woman, seemingly arguing fiercely. The woman was naturally Lin Chen, but the man's voice..." Banana Wolf swallowed and lowered his voice, "It wasn't Li Maoshen."
"Not him? Then who was it?"
"Weng Qing was also very curious at the time. She wasn't planning to get involved in such a matter, but unexpectedly, Li Maoshen came back in a rage, probably because some gossipy neighbor had secretly informed him."
"Without knocking, Li Maoshen took out his key and barged in, but only Lin Chen was at home."
"Li Maoshen immediately kicked Lin Chen, followed by several slaps, knocking her to the ground, and demanded to know where she had hidden the other man."
"If it weren't for Weng Qing pulling him away, Lin Chen would have suffered more. But Lin Chen insisted that there was no one else, that she was alone at home, and that he could search if he didn't believe her."
"Needless to say, Li Maoshen closed the door, found a stick, and began searching every room. The apartment wasn't big, so he quickly finished searching, but there was no one."
"He even looked out the window, but there was no one. Li Maoshen was baffled and even questioned whether the other man had fled upon hearing the commotion."
"Finally, it was Weng Qing who intervened, and Lin Chen didn't get beaten further. But after this incident, Weng Qing felt more and more uneasy because she had clearly heard a man's voice and footsteps inside. It couldn't have been a phone call or a TV show because it was too real."
"There was someone in the room at that time!"
"A man!" Banana Wolf affirmed.
Jiang Cheng signaled him to calm down and then continued to ask, "What happened next? Did Weng Qing discover more clues?"
At this point, Banana Wolf's expression became strange, but he still said, "That's what I asked, but Sister Qing's memory seemed to stop there. I could sense that she must have discovered something afterward, but she insisted that she couldn't remember."
A few seconds later, Banana Wolf spoke again, "I don't think Sister Qing didn't want to say it; she really couldn't remember."
"Her memory was interfered with by something," Hua Luo stroked his chin and analyzed, "Or it was erased by some kind of eerie force."
His analysis sounded quite plausible, and everyone felt the same way.
"The rules?" Chu Jiu asked softly, tentatively.
Jiang Cheng thought for a moment and shook his head, "It doesn't seem like it. If it were the rules, she shouldn't be feeling this vague sense of confusion. She should have completely forgotten what happened, and she wouldn't even remember the entire incident."
The people in the room were experienced, and they immediately knew this made sense. The rules that delineate life and death in the Nightmare definitely had such an overbearing power.
"Then what could it be?" Fatty blinked and asked, "Could it be..."
"It's that black-clad man!" Hua Luo bit his lip and said firmly, "He's the one who interfered with Weng Qing's memory, and he's also the man in room 808. He even went to the police station and took away Lin Chen's..."
At this point, he paused because he wasn't sure what term to use to describe Lin Chen's state at that time.
If you called her a ghost, she did have a physical form, but if you called her a corpse, it didn't seem quite appropriate.
In any case, all of this should be related to this so-called black-clad man.
Moreover, according to the autopsy report, Lin Chen had already died a month ago. So how did she survive in the month before she jumped to her death?
Undoubtedly, it was also related to this black-clad man.
Now, all the doubts pointed to this black-clad man who had appeared in room 808 and had an unusual relationship with Lin Chen.
Find him.
This mission should be considered complete.
Since the black-clad man knew Lin Chen, they would have to start with the circle of people Lin Chen could have come into contact with. Lin Chen led a simple life, so this should be relatively easy to investigate.
"By the way," Jiang Cheng looked at Banana Wolf, "What did Lin Chen do for a living?"
After all, someone like Li Maoshen wouldn't keep a girlfriend who just stayed at home and didn't earn any money.
"She was said to be involved in creative work," Banana Wolf recalled, "I think... I think she was some kind of illustrator. Sister Qing mentioned seeing a large easel in room 808."
(End of the Chapter)
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