Translator: Cinder Translations
--------
After examining the corpse, the three of them exited the bathroom. Facing such an eerie body, no one felt comfortable inside.
"The time of death was probably within three hours," the burly man said affirmatively as he looked at the pocket watch in his hand. "That means it was around 2 AM to 5 AM."
"How can you be sure of the time?"
The burly man glanced at the girl who asked the question, told her their assigned night watch schedule, and handed her the pocket watch, which showed that the timer had just reached seven hours.
The next shift was a middle-aged man, and the one after him, a fat man, had been woken up by a pressing need to urinate. He found the dead middle-aged man when he went to relieve himself.
At this moment, the fat man tremblingly got up and asked why the middle-aged man had died. The burly man sighed, pulled the bathroom door shut, and the group returned to the vicinity of the sofa by the fireplace.
As a newcomer, Jiang Cheng had hardly spoken. He was mostly listening, analyzing, and the points raised mostly came from the experienced burly man and the woman with a beauty mark on her lips.
Through the information revealed in their discussion, Jiang Cheng understood that in this world, there generally wasn't a situation where someone was killed for no reason; the victim must have touched upon certain taboos.
These so-called taboos might be the key clues to solving their task.
"What exactly did he do that we haven't?" The male clerk huddled between Jiang Cheng and the girl, clearly terrified; he didn't want to die like the middle-aged man without understanding why.
The girl furrowed her beautiful brows and said, "Could it be because he went to the bathroom on the first floor? That might be the hidden taboo in this task—those who have been there must die?"
"Really?" The fat man squatted down, hands on his knees, and murmured, "But I went to the bathroom too, just yesterday while searching the living room."
Jiang Cheng turned to the fat man and after a moment said, "Then you should be careful. Even though your neck is thick, it could still be broken with enough force."
Hearing this, the fat man nearly cried.
The burly man seemed a bit displeased with Jiang Cheng's attitude but said nothing, just shaking his head and saying it shouldn't be a problem. They had all been to the bathroom on the first floor; if something were to happen, it shouldn't have only been the middle-aged man.
"Maybe it's about the order?" the woman with the beauty mark said. "You should understand that ghosts rarely kill people consecutively in a short time."
The burly man looked at the woman but surprisingly didn't refute her.
"Do those things really exist?"
Jiang Cheng's long-held speculation was confirmed; the door that appeared in his dreams undoubtedly belonged to the realm of the supernatural, and it seemed reasonable for ghosts to appear in supernatural events.
"So what we need to fight against in this world isn't humans, but ghosts?!" The male clerk turned pale with fear.
Given his earlier behavior, no one was willing to respond to him.
"Since someone has died, it means this villa is indeed our destination. The so-called journey doesn't exist; the appearance of that vehicle was just to bring us here," the girl looked around and continued, "The problem lies with this villa."
"What problem could the villa have?"
The girl stared at the fat man who had asked the question and after a moment said, "For example, some malignant events might have happened here in the past."
The villa looked quite luxurious, and there were no signs of damage; it had been abandoned for an unclear reason, which was indeed suspicious. Jiang Cheng found the girl's words fairly credible.
The burly man walked to the front door, grasped the doorknob, and pulled hard, but the door didn't budge.
"It's locked," the burly man turned and said. "It seems this is definitely the task location. We can't leave until we uncover what happened in this villa."
"Since we've confirmed the task location, let's split up and look for clues. It's already bright outside, so it should be a bit safer."
Despite this, the middle-aged man's death rang alarm bells for everyone, especially for Jiang Cheng, the fat man, and the male clerk—three newcomers.
To improve efficiency, they voluntarily formed groups, with one veteran leading one newcomer.
The fat man followed the burly man, the male clerk followed the woman with the beauty mark, and Jiang Cheng teamed up with the girl.
For safety's sake, their search range was temporarily fixed on the first floor of the villa.
The burly man's group was responsible for the living room and near the door, while the woman's group handled the remote storeroom. Jiang Cheng and the girl headed to the kitchen and dining room.
They were all within line of sight of each other, so if anything happened, they could look out for one another.
With previous experience, they searched more thoroughly and carefully this time.
Half an hour later, they reconvened in front of the fireplace, and it was fully bright outside.
"This is what we found in the storeroom," the woman with the beauty mark took out a thick rope made of hemp, with a section stained with black and red marks.
The burly man took it, rubbed it a couple of times, then held it to his nose and said, "It's blood." He looked up at the woman.
The woman nodded. "I found this nearby, behind a stack of firewood."
She opened her right hand to reveal a light green brooch in the shape of a maple leaf.
Could it be that a girl had once been tied up and left there?
"What did you find?" The woman tilted her head to look at the burly man.
"Come and see," the burly man said as he walked towards the door, and the others followed him.
Standing by the door, the burly man felt around and pressed a spot on the wall. Jiang Cheng, whose eyesight was excellent, saw that it was a light blue button.
The button was embedded in the oil painting on the doorframe, blending seamlessly with the sky-blue background; it was hard to notice unless one looked closely.
As the button was pressed, a crack opened up in the right wall of the door, which then slowly swung open, revealing a well-hidden built-in shoe cabinet.
The shoe cabinet had three shelves, and apart from the third shelf, which was relatively intact, the partitions between the first and second shelves had broken, with various shoes mixed together.
After categorizing them, they found two pairs of men's dress shoes, one pair of red high heels, and three pairs of women's casual shoes in front of them.
The woman with the beauty mark picked out one of the casual shoes and placed it next to the red high heels. "These two pairs should belong to the same person."
The remaining two pairs of casual shoes clearly belonged to a younger girl, and the sizes matched perfectly.
On the third shelf was a pair of men's sports shoes, which, when compared, differed significantly in size from the men's dress shoes.
"From what we can see, this villa once housed a family of four: a male owner, a female owner, and a girl and a boy," the girl said, looking up. "This also aligns with the layout of the bedrooms on the second floor, which includes a master bedroom for the male and female owners, a bedroom for the girl, and one for the boy."
(End of the Chapter)
---
What happened Next?
Read ahead on Patreon.
Currently up to 65 as of 26Sep24.
Just visit my p atreon: Pa treon.com/CinderTL
If you are content with the free chapters, you can show your appreciation by joining me for as low as $1. You can read this and other series (more coming in the future) on my Pa treon.
AND PLEASE LEAVE SOME REVIEWS, NEED MORE REVIEWS