Chapter 123 The Singer, Oh, Singer 56

"He is able to obtain eerie power because he is imitating Hu Zhengzheng, so he can only appear when Hu Zhengzheng is not present."

"But he is quite cautious. Afraid of being discovered by players or Hu Zhengzheng when he goes out, he used a stolen dress of Hu Zhengzheng's to make a fake substitute to go out at night in his place."

Noticing Hou Yongcheng watching her expression, Lin Xiangjun nodded, indicating that she was quite satisfied with what he had said.

"He and Hu Zhengzheng take turns appearing every night?"

"Yes. According to the rules, Hu Zhengzheng appears for three days, and then Hou Pan appears for one day."

The time to clear the instance is seven days, which means Hou Pan will appear at least once and at most twice.

No, that's not right. Lin Xiangjun thought about it for a moment and understood the reason for this design.

It's a four-day cycle, which means if Hou Pan only appears once, he must appear on the fourth day.

This time is close to the end of the instance. Players should be able to roughly figure out the direction of the story and grasp the clues of the instance, catching Hou Pan's substitute disguised as the Songstress on the fourth night.

If they can't catch it, then one can only say the players are trash. If they haven't figured out the story of the instance and haven't grasped the rule hints by that time, they deserve to die.

"Then where do you say Hou Pan himself is hiding?"

"I really don't know that."

Seeing that Lin Xiangjun was about to bend down to pick up the rag from earlier, Hou Yongcheng hurriedly said, "Big sister, big sister, you are my own big sister! Can you have some patience! Don't think about beating me up just because I speak a little slowly. At least let me finish what I'm saying!"

"I don't know where Hou Pan is hiding, and my mom doesn't know either! That brat didn't tell anyone where he was hiding at all!"

"Neither you nor your mom knows?" Lin Xiangjun rested her elbows on her knees and kicked Hou Yongcheng's twisted, broken lower leg not too lightly and not too heavily, causing him to grimace in pain while forcibly holding back any sound.

"If no one knows where he's hiding and no one can contact him, what was the Old Lady in such a rush to find you for last night? Hm? Did she come to discuss how to collect her grandson's corpse?"

Hearing this, Hou Yongcheng felt a faint sense of relief, thinking, "Just as I thought."

He had guessed it. The lie Lin Xiangjun told yesterday was indeed to bluff the Old Lady; in reality, she wasn't even sure herself.

She had indeed followed them and heard the conversation between the two of them.

However... she might not know it in such detail.

Hou Yongcheng closed his eyes and panted heavily, as if he had run out of options: "I'm afraid of you, my dear lady. We do indeed have a way to contact Hou Pan."

"Hou Pan hides very deeply. Daytime is Hu Zhengzheng's wandering time. She will punish everyone who does not follow the rules. At this time, she wears a black dress. You must already know this."

"Hou Pan only comes out at night, and we only contact him at night—do you have one or two very brightly colored items suddenly appear on you? A pendant, a wallet, a pen, a notebook, anything is fine. Hide that item on your person, walk to the alley entrance, and throw it on the ground. When you walk back afterwards, he will be waiting for us on the first floor of the supermarket."

After Hou Yongcheng finished speaking, he tilted his head back, resting it on the floor, looking like he was saying, "I've said everything I need to say; if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do."

Lin Xiangjun kicked him twice more, landing perfectly on his broken leg, but Hou Yongcheng gritted his teeth and didn't make a sound, clearly not intending to say anything else.

Just then, Zhang Minxian ran down from the second floor with a "thump, thump, thump," her eyes bright and excited as she said, "Miss Lin, they have this in their bedroom!"

Lin Xiangjun looked up. It was a piece of blue, blood-stained fabric.

In an instant, Lin Xiangjun remembered the blue dress Hu Zhengzheng was wearing when she died.

Looking back down, Hou Yongcheng, who was just pretending to be dead, had his eyes wide open, looking incredulous, and performed a real-life version of "suddenly sitting up from a dying state."

"You! Where did you find that?!"

He glared with gritted teeth, like an old turtle fished out of the water and thrown onto the ground, eyes wide and ready to bite someone. He flailed his useless limbs, struggling to flip himself over, and then crawled toward Zhang Minxian as if possessed by a ghost.

Zhang Minxian was startled by his appearance. Lin Xiangjun was quick with her eyes and feet, stepping on Hou Yongcheng's spine.

"What is that?" she asked.

Hou Yongcheng seemed to have gone mad, frantically waving his arms and legs, struggling like a turtle splashing in water, trying to snatch the fabric back from Zhang Minxian's hands. Lin Xiangjun asked twice, but received no response.

Where would Lin Xiangjun have that much patience? She pressed down with her foot.

"Snap!" With a crisp sound, Hou Yongcheng was like a decapitated turtle, a fish with its head smashed, or a scallop with its shell pried open; his limbs twitched violently, and then he stopped moving completely.

A broken human spine has very serious consequences; the most widely known is high-level paraplegia.

A high-level paraplegic is a patient requiring intensive care in a nursing home, and even more so in an instance.

The shock of suddenly going from a "normal person with sound limbs" to a "nursing home patient under intensive observation" was too great. As Hou Yongcheng completely lost control of his limbs, his sanity actually returned a little.

Lin Xiangjun tsked twice. "What's wrong with you two? One doesn't have to be physically disabled to have a strong will. What's the matter, is your idol Helen Keller or Stephen Hawking?"

Hou Yongcheng panted heavily, ignoring Lin Xiangjun's sarcasm, and instead glared fiercely at Zhang Minxian, asking, "Where did you find it?!"

Although Zhang Minxian was startled by his zombie-like posture, her brain was still online, and she knew who was paying her salary, so she looked toward Lin Xiangjun for guidance.

Lin Xiangjun stepped on Hou Yongcheng's turtle shell, her elbows resting on her knees, and reached out to Zhang Minxian. Zhang Minxian, being very perceptive, handed the rag into Lin Xiangjun's hand.

The rag was held by one corner and dangled back and forth in front of Hou Yongcheng, and Hou Yongcheng's eyes followed it back and forth.

He wanted to reach out to grab it, but unfortunately, all his limbs were broken. No matter how angry he was in his mind, wishing he could tear Lin Xiangjun to pieces, his body simply lacked the strength. He could only rage impotently.

"Give it back to me! Haa, haa—give it back to me!"

"How did you find it? How could you find this?! Hurry, hurry up and put it back!!"

This appearance was comparable to a eunuch visiting a brothel, or India versus the rest of the world six to zero.

Unfortunately, the health of one's body does not change according to one's subjective will. Struggling desperately, other than letting Lin Xiangjun humiliate him again, had no effect.

"You might as well start by explaining why you hid Hu Zhengzheng's dress in your house? Tsk, and it's just a fragment of the dress. Where is the rest of it?"