Chapter 18 Who Am I 17

Wang Min stood quietly at the door. Beneath her messy long hair, the blue light of an earphone flashed and vanished.

"I'm going in," Lin Xiangjun's voice came through the earphone. "Stall her. Try to hold her for twenty minutes. If you can't hold her any longer, cough twice."

Wang Min tilted her head, looked at the woman squatting on the ground and weeping uncontrollably, and squatted down as well. She asked as concernedly as possible, "What's the matter, Big Sister? Why are you crying so sadly?"

The woman seemed to have found someone to vent to, and her crying became even more miserable. Her hands holding the flowers trembled incessantly. "Jianyuan... these are the flowers Jianyuan pre-ordered for me..."

...

Lin Xiangjun was wearing an Invisibility Cloak and a pair of earphones identical to the ones Wang Min had on.

[Voice Transmission Earphones: Allows both parties wearing the earphones to communicate telepathically. No charging required, no distance limit. Costs 100 underworld currency per hour of use; any usage less than an hour is counted as one hour.]

[Invisibility Cloak: Can conceal one's figure, traces, and human scent. Cannot mask sounds made. Single-use duration is 20 minutes, usable only once per day. Note: Do not make too much noise while using it, or you will still be discovered.]

The Voice Transmission Earphones were a c-rank prop that allowed for the exchange of messages without speaking; the Invisibility Cloak was a b-grade prop, ensuring that no ghost or anomaly would discover her tracks during its duration.

While the woman was squatting and weeping in an emotional breakdown, Lin Xiangjun took the opportunity to sneak inside while invisible.

Her goal was clear: she headed straight for Qin Jianyuan's room. The upper and lower floors had the same layout, so Qin Jianyuan's room was directly above hers.

The door to Qin Jianyuan's house was closed. She had to be careful not to make too much noise when opening it. Fortunately, the woman was immersed in her own pain, clutching Wang Min at the door and crying heart-wrenchingly, so she didn't notice Lin Xiangjun's movements here.

Lin Xiangjun slipped into the room without any mishap.

Qin Jianyuan's room was different from what Lin Xiangjun had imagined. The room had white curtains with cat patterns and light blue bedsheets. The books on the desk were neatly arranged. The window was open, and the curtains fluttered gently in the breeze.

Lin Xiangjun reached out and touched the window frame; it was very clean, without a speck of dust.

Qin Jianyuan's room had a glass wardrobe, allowing a clear view of the clothes inside. The weather was currently only slightly cold, similar to late summer or early autumn, but the wardrobe was filled entirely with thick winter clothes.

Time was limited. Lin Xiangjun only took one look before turning to search the room.

It was very strange. Lin Xiangjun opened Qin Jianyuan's schoolbag and flipped through the textbooks inside.

Mom had said that Qin Jianyuan was her classmate, but she had already looked through her own things this morning. The books in her bag were for the second semester of fourth grade, but the books in Qin Jianyuan's bag were still stuck on the first semester of fourth grade.

Did he take a leave of absence from school?

No, Lin Xiangjun thought of the woman weeping at the door and quickly dismissed this guess.

If the children were roughly the same age, the parents should be of a similar age too. Yet, the ghost mother still looked to be in her thirties or forties, while this mother looked like she was fifty, with half her hair turned white.

If their ages were similar, her appearance suggested she had suddenly undergone an unbearable blow—Qin Jianyuan must have gone missing or died in an accident. Combined with the fact that there were no funeral portraits in either the living room or his bedroom, and his room was deliberately kept exactly as it was...

Qin Jianyuan must have gone missing.

The books on the desk were mostly extracurricular reading. Lin Xiangjun flipped through the bookshelf to no avail and soon realized that important things would likely be hidden in more concealed places.

She shifted her target, focusing her search under the bed, in the drawers, and in the gaps between the cabinets and the wall.

After searching carefully for a long time, she finally found a notebook in a hidden compartment of the desk.

Less than half of the notebook had been written in. A rough flip revealed that every page was marked with the date and weather; it looked like a new diary. Lin Xiangjun wanted to see if there were any older ones, but two coughs suddenly came through the earphone.

Lin Xiangjun made a prompt decision. She stuffed the notebook into her pouch, wrapped herself in the cloak, and quickly slipped out of the room, not forgetting to close the door behind her.

At the entrance, Wang Min and the woman had both stood up. The woman wiped her tears, looking somewhat embarrassed.

"I've made a fool of myself. I just miss my son too much. He... hasn't been home for a long time."

Her appearance was clearly not just a simple case of missing her child, but Wang Min's purpose wasn't to gossip. Her task was only to stall the woman so Lin Xiangjun would have time to search the room. Now that the task was complete, she tactfully refrained from asking more.

"It's alright. Now that the delivery is made, I'll be heading back. Please sign for the flowers so I can report back."

"Okay, okay, let me find a pen..."

The woman returned to the living room holding the flowers and began rummaging through a drawer under the coffee table. "I remember there was a gel pen here... wait a moment... found it!"

Lin Xiangjun passed behind her and caught a casual glimpse of the open drawer; her pupils suddenly constricted.

As the woman took out a gel pen to sign, Lin Xiangjun took advantage of her lack of attention and quickly snatched that item from the drawer into her cloak.

"Here, it's signed."

"Great, sorry to trouble you."

"No, it's no trouble. I should be the one saying sorry for taking up so much of your time..."

After leaving 604, Lin Xiangjun took off the cloak in the hallway. Wang Min was about to take off the earphone to return it, but Lin Xiangjun waved her hand. "Keep it on. In case something happens, it'll be convenient for us to communicate."

But this thing costs twenty-four hundred underworld currency a day! Nothing is happening right now, so keeping it on is such a waste. Just as Wang Min was about to say something, she saw Lin Xiangjun stuff the cloak into her pouch.

A storage prop!

The most expensive of all props—a storage prop!

Wang Min silently swallowed her words and put the earphone back on her ear.

What's wrong with a rich person being a bit extravagant? A mere two thousand underworld currency probably wouldn't even buy a single thread of that pouch.

Lin Xiangjun stuffed the cloak into the pouch and looked up to see her paper figure's hesitant expression. She didn't take it to heart, instead organizing her thoughts.

"The rules say it's best not to stay at home during the day. Then let's go for a walk in the garden downstairs. Look for cats, a seesaw, and a seesaw. There might be clues to clear the level near those things."

Lin Xiangjun turned and instructed Wang Min.

"The two of us will look for clues separately. You walk around the complex as a whole to get a feel for the layout, then come back and draw a map for me. I remember paper figures have particularly sharp senses? Pay special attention to where the smell of blood and rot is heavy, and mark them clearly on the map for me."

"Yes, Master."

Wang Min took the assignment and walked away with the 'da-da-da' sound of her small leather shoes.

Lin Xiangjun went down to the fifth floor. Standing at her own door, she ordered two buns and a cup of soy milk for herself. After a simple breakfast, she wiped her mouth and went downstairs.

Breakfast took three minutes. Wang Min had successfully reached the first floor without meeting anyone, so Lin Xiangjun finally felt safe stepping into the stairwell.

"Hey! You, yes you, the woman living on the fifth floor, stop right there!"

Lin Xiangjun took a deep breath. Instead of stopping, she walked even faster.

Bad luck! Wasn't there no one around when Wang Min left? How come she was blocked by this student!

Indeed, the one blocking Wang Min was the student in a school uniform she had seen once yesterday—Lin Xiangjun's teammate, Wang Zixuan.