"Nowhere to Escape"
To everyone's surprise, the expected vicious killer did not appear from behind the door. Instead, a small triangular head appeared in front of everyone's eyes, it was the cat brought by Ye Shu.
"Damn it! Scared the shit out of me. Where did this little animal come from?" Chen Jun cursed loudly.
"Mr. Xu, why is there a cat here?" Liang Fang stepped back, covering her mouth and nose, her eyebrows furrowed.
"I... I'm not sure. It should be a stray cat." Xu Xin picked up the cat from the ground and rubbed its belly. But in a moment, the cat wriggled out of his arms and ran to Ye Shu's feet.
"This cat is mine. It's not safe for it to stay at home alone." Ye Shu squatted down and held it in her arms, apologizing slightly.
"You're so concerned about the life and death of that little animal even when you're in danger yourself." Chen Jun snorted coldly, displeased with Ye Shu's behavior.
"It's not just a little animal, it's my cat!" Ye Shu argued.
"You... " Chen Jun straightened up, his anger about to erupt.
Seeing the tense atmosphere, Xu Xin quickly intervened between the two, "Calm down, calm down. We're all fine after four o'clock. Could it be that the killer has stopped?"
"If we go by the initial pattern, it's possible that the killer has indeed stopped. But at three o'clock, Director Qin and Teacher Qiu disappeared together, so we can't be sure..." Zhang Jing pondered.
Then he looked at the glasses and jade bracelet. His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of the clock, and now there seemed to be nothing unusual. He wanted to continue searching for clues. But to his surprise, the glasses and jade bracelet that were just on the bed were nowhere to be found.
"What's going on?" Zhang Jing exclaimed, immediately attracting everyone's attention.
"Could it be that we've encountered a ghost?" After listening to Zhang Jing's account, Ye Shu connected it with the previous incidents of the severed hand and the missing pregnancy report. "But we were all in the room just now, how could we not feel anything?"
"Nonsense, can you see ghosts?" Chen Jun said disdainfully, but his voice had a hint of trembling.
"This is too strange..." Zhang Jing shook his head slightly, puzzled.
"Maybe we should search their rooms? After all, those things fell from their bodies, maybe there are some clues." Ye Shu put the cat down and walked to Zhang Jing's side.
"At this point, we can't just sit and wait. We must find something." Zhang Jing clenched his fist. "And we must stick together to ensure our safety."
"You can go if you want, but I don't want to die." Chen Jun said contemptuously, the first one to express his opposition. Zhang Jing looked at Liang Fang, but she also gave a negative answer. He then looked at Xu Xin, who lowered his head and stammered to Zhang Jing, "I... I'll stay here."
Zhang Jing sighed lightly and left with Ye Shu.
"Hmm?" Ye Shu felt like someone was staring at her and turned her head to take a look, but didn't find anything. "Am I just too nervous?" Ye Shu slapped her face and caught up with Zhang Jing's footsteps.
Since Yu Hang's room had already been searched, the two went straight to Liu Wenying's room.
"This is my first time entering a girl's room, feels a bit like a hooligan." Ye Shu joked.
Zhang Jing didn't answer, he turned the doorknob and opened the door to Liu Wenying's room. There was nothing unusual in Liu Wenying's room, some cosmetics were placed on the dressing table. The suitcase was not closed, and a notebook was placed on top. Ye Shu picked up the notebook and flipped through it casually.
"May 15th... so it's a diary." Ye Shu muttered to herself. But after reading it for a while, Ye Shu's face changed slightly, obviously she had discovered something. Zhang Jing noticed something was wrong and walked over to ask.
"I just found out that she has depression, and it seems to be quite serious. And the child she is pregnant with doesn't seem to belong to Yu Hang or Qin Wenguang." Ye Shu's face became serious, with a hint of surprise in her tone.
Liu Wenying's diary revealed a lot of information. The reason she chose to be kept was largely due to her family: her parents divorced when she was young, and she followed her mother, living a difficult life. But fortunately, she worked hard in her studies and got into graduate school. Her childhood experiences also made her obsessed with money, but as an ordinary girl, she naturally didn't have a way to get rich overnight, so she started exchanging her body for wealth. Gradually, she became the "little one" that Liang Fang mentioned. Although she knew that the men she encountered were only after her body, she couldn't prevent some people with twisted minds from doing unspeakable things to her. This kind of life caused her to have major psychological problems, and what really made her desperate was the child in her belly. The reason why Ye Shu said the child didn't belong to either Yu Hang or Qin Wenguang was because in the diary, Liu Wenying didn't know who the father of the child was, so she couldn't find someone to take responsibility for her. After that, she developed severe depression. After getting to know Yu Hang, he took advantage of his status to harass Liu Wenying, and even made a move on her one night. Liu Wenying told Qin Wenguang about this, but instead of helping her, Qin Wenguang told her to use this matter to extort money from Yu Hang.
"In the past, when I heard that I could make money, I would be very excited. But at that moment, I felt that money was so disgusting." Liu Wenying wrote this sentence in her diary on that day.
"She is a pitiful person, but she also brought it upon herself." Ye Shu closed the diary and sighed. Zhang Jing, on the other hand, remained silent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. The two continued to search for clues in the room.
On the other hand, in Yu Hang's room.
"Who took this thing away?" Liang Fang pointed at Ye Shu's cat, disgusted.
"Oh? Professor Liang is afraid of cats too? Are you also like this in the laboratory?" Chen Jun said, his tone full of mockery.
"I'm just allergic to cat hair." Liang Fang covered her mouth and nose, responding coldly.
"Unfortunately, I'm also allergic. It's a pity I can't help." Chen Jun put on a look of regret, but he was actually quite pleased.
"I'll do it. I actually quite like this little guy." Xu Xin picked up the cat, but the cat jumped out of his arms after a while, leaving him helpless.
"By the way, there are some medicine in the villa. Applying it might make you feel better. I'll take the cat out and bring the medicine for you." Xu Xin looked at Liang Fang.
"That would be best, thank you." Liang Fang responded coldly.
"Did you find anything, Professor?" Ye Shu asked.
"Nothing, everything seems normal. Let's go to Teacher Qiu's room and take a look." Zhang Jing shook his head.
After searching for a while, the two still found nothing. The first hour had passed, and there were only a few rays of light coming in through the window. Zhang Jing looked at his watch and his face changed. He called Ye Shu and the two rushed back to Yu Hang's room. Just as they arrived at the door, the clock struck, it was six o'clock. A very bad premonition surged in their hearts. Zhang Jing opened the door and saw Xu Xin lying on the ground, blood flowing from his nose, unconscious. Liang Fang and Chen Jun were nowhere to be seen. Zhang Jing quickly went over to help Xu Xin up, while Ye Shu searched for the whereabouts of the other two.
"What did you find, Professor?" Ye Shu asked.
"Nothing, everything is normal. We still have four people left, and there are only two sins left in the seven deadly sins. It doesn't match no matter how you think about it." Zhang Jing also felt puzzled.
Just then, Liang Fang appeared at the door, looking at the scene inside, she exclaimed.
"The situation is like this, and then I saw him fall to the ground. He... he's not dead, right?" Liang Fang pointed at Xu Xin on the ground, her voice trembling.
"Apparently, you took the medicine and went back to your room. Why didn't you apply it here?" Ye Shu asked in return.
"Well..." Liang Fang's eyes dodged, but quickly returned to normal, her tone tinged with annoyance, "Why do you have so many questions?"
"But if there's no valid reason, then you are the prime suspect." Ye Shu didn't back down.
"I... I have something I can't say, but I didn't do it. How could I, at my age, deal with two men?" Liang Fang seemed impatient and sat down on a nearby chair.
Ye Shu thought it made sense, so she didn't ask any further and helped Zhang Jing wake up Xu Xin. Ye Shu looked at Zhang Jing, hoping to get some answers.
"The best explanation I can think of is that the person who was supposed to die at four o'clock was killed early at three o'clock. And..." Zhang Jing circled a word, "Rage, I still haven't figured out who matches this trait, but our time is running out." Zhang Jing glanced at his watch again, there were only a few minutes left until six o'clock.
"I'll go get Liang Fang back, she's too dangerous on her own." Ye Shu was about to get up, but was stopped by Xu Xin, "Let me go, you and Professor Zhang continue to investigate."
Ye Shu narrowed her eyes, hesitated to speak.
"You also think he's strange, right?" Zhang Jing suddenly asked.
"I don't know, I feel like there are many suspicious points about him, like a smiling tiger." Ye Shu shook her head, "We can only wait and see."
Not long after, Xu Xin hurriedly ran back, "Something's wrong, Liang Fang is missing."
"What!" Zhang Jing and Ye Shu quickly got up, following Xu Xin to Liang Fang's room. There was nothing unusual in the room, only an open tube of ointment was thrown on the floor.
"When I knocked on the door, there was no response, so I opened it and... "
"Ding... ding... ding... ding... ding... ding..." The sound of the clock rang out at this moment.
"Damn it, I should have known it was you." Zhang Jing looked at Xu Xin and suddenly laughed. "Corresponding to rage, it's you, isn't it? To cover up, you took away another person at three o'clock, filling the gap at four o'clock. You really are meticulous."
"Zhang, what are you talking about?" Xu Xin looked at Zhang Jing in confusion. Zhang Jing didn't answer, he continued, "Those things left behind were just to mislead us." He picked up a few strands of hair from Xu Xin's sleeve and twisted them between his fingers. "And you know she's allergic to cat hair, right?"
Xu Xin was stunned for a moment, then sneered twice, "You're wrong, those things are actually clues. It's just that you're slow-witted and only realized it now. But since you've discovered it, neither of you will survive." Xu Xin kicked towards Zhang Jing, but Zhang Jing was prepared and dodged to the side. But at that moment, Xu Xin suddenly pulled out a dagger and stabbed towards Zhang Jing's heart.
"Run!" Zhang Jing turned to Ye Shu and shouted hysterically.
...
Two figures fell to the ground, Zhang Jing's shirt stained red, and blood sprayed from Xu Xin's back. Ye Shu watched the two fall, his hand holding the knife trembling, his breathing becoming rapid. Xu Xin's hand moved, and Ye Shu stabbed the knife at Xu Xin again. After a muffled groan, both of them fell silent. Ye Shu was terrified, he fell to the ground and ran towards the stairs, at this moment he just wanted to escape from this haunted place. Ye Shu's mind was on the verge of collapse, his legs seemed to be out of control, and when he was going downstairs, he stepped on empty space, then everything went black and he lost consciousness.
...
"Mr. Ye, Mr. Ye..." Ye Shu felt someone calling him, he slowly opened his eyes and saw a man wearing glasses.
"Mr. Ye, hello, I'm Li Yuan from the Sixth Hospital. I know you're in an unstable state right now, but what I'm about to say is very important, please listen patiently."
"Six... Sixth Hospital, isn't that a mental hospital?" Ye Shu said weakly.
"Yes, your true self is a rare case of dissociative identity disorder, with nine personalities inside you. Your body was once occupied by a personality named Xu Xin, who committed a murder and dismemberment case. The victim was the wife of one of the personalities in this body. If Xu Xin takes over your personality again, your true self will be sentenced to death. You can only prove to the police that the current personality in your body is you in order to temporarily save your true self's life."
"Why me?"
"Based on our research over the past few months, only you have a perfect personality. The other personalities have all done illegal things to varying degrees."
"What about Zhang Jing? Where is Zhang Jing?" Ye Shu asked anxiously.
"We haven't observed his appearance for a long time, and even thought that this personality had disappeared."
Ye Shu's eyes dimmed a bit, "He did disappear... What do I do next?"
"Enter your consciousness and eliminate Xu Xin's personality." Li Yuan said slowly.
Ye Shu closed his eyes again, and when he woke up again, he found himself lying at the stairwell, as if he had fallen down. He stood up and returned to the place where Zhang Jing and Xu Xin were fighting, only to find that the bodies had disappeared.
"It seems that he has really been eliminated." Ye Shu shook his head, feeling a little relieved, but the sadness of Zhang Jing's disappearance surged up again. He walked back to the stairs and saw a dead cat's body, appearing where he had woken up earlier.
...
"Mr. Ye..." Li Yuan called softly.
Ye Shu opened his eyes and gave a forced smile, "He and the other personalities have disappeared. The true self should be stable now."
Li Yuan let out a long breath and began to negotiate with the police. After a few hours, Ye Shu walked out of the police station. He stretched his stiff neck and felt the sunlight outside was particularly comfortable.
"Mr. Ye, you still need to stay in the hospital for a while. When your condition stabilizes, the case here can continue, but I believe the death penalty won't be executed." Li Yuan patted Ye Shu's shoulder.
"Thank you so much, doctor. By the way, what should I call you?"
"Me? I'm Li Yuan, I told you before." Li Yuan was a little puzzled, but considering Ye Shu's mental state, he didn't think too much about it.
"I have a forgetful mind, I need to rest for a few more days." Ye Shu rubbed his chin and said somewhat embarrassedly.
The two were about to get on the ambulance to the hospital when a cat approached. Ye Shu had a thought and squatted down to pick up the cat, but after a while, the cat jumped off him. He was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered, shook his head, and said to Li Yuan, "Let's go."
(End)