CHAPTER 360: CHAPTER 343: MENG TRICKS HIS WAY BY - MEIREN CHU_1

In the darkness, Li Yibai beside 007 turned to look at Chu Changge.

007, for her part, seemed calm. As she looked at the staircase steps beneath her, she began to speak, "I don’t know what floor I was on. I found two doors there, one at each end, connected to two staircases, but they were all locked. I was completely trapped. I wanted to call for help, but I was afraid that making too much noise would attract the ghost. So, I pressed myself against one of the doors, listening for any movement outside, hoping to shout for help if someone passed by."

However, no one had heard 007’s cries for help. From the moment she disappeared to when she reappeared, she had been alone.

Gu Mian stroked his chin.

If what 007 said was true, then she must have been trapped on some floor of this building. He had already thoroughly inspected the building across the street and found no locked floors.

In the darkness, Chu Changge continued questioning 007, "So, you didn’t see anyone pass by the door?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yibai seemed slightly displeased. Since he and Lin Qi were on good terms, he appeared to dislike others interrogating 007.

007 paused, frowning, causing the others descending the stairs to stop and look at her.

"No," she said, looking a bit hesitant. "Someone did pass by the door. After a long wait, I finally heard a sound. At first, I heard the hurried footsteps of two people running up the stairs. They seemed to be fleeing, so I didn’t make a sound, fearing a ghost might be chasing them..."

Pan Yue widened her eyes. "That must have been Keke and me."

At that time, the two of them had seen Li Wentao on the verge of death and were fleeing frantically.

Keke, too, was watching 007 intently. "What happened next? Did you hear anything else?"

At the front, Gu Mian resumed his descent, and the others who had paused earlier followed suit.

"It was strange," 007 said as she continued walking. "After you two ran upstairs, a while later, sure enough, I heard another sound... It was a very faint sound of someone climbing the stairs in your direction. If it hadn’t been so quiet, I almost wouldn’t have heard it."

There was something else she didn’t mention: because she had invested almost all of her Attribute Points into her spiritual power, her sight and hearing had improved significantly. She wasn’t sure if someone with lower spiritual power would have been able to hear that incredibly faint climbing sound.

"Right," Pan Yue said, her expression tense. "That must have been Li Wentao following us!"

At this, 007’s expression turned peculiar.

"What’s wrong?" Li Yibai quickly asked. "Are you okay?"

007 was a little uncomfortable with Li Yibai’s solicitous concern, but she couldn’t outwardly reject it.

"Something strange happened," she said. "After those extremely faint footsteps went upstairs, I heard a sound from upstairs. Someone yelled, ’Run!’..."

"Yes," Pan Yue nodded. "I was the one who shouted."

Although they had told 007 about Li Wentao, they hadn’t gone into great detail, so 007 shouldn’t have known that someone had shouted ’Run!’

"But a while after that person shouted, I heard those very faint footsteps again. They were going downstairs!" 007’s voice rose slightly.

Keke also widened her eyes. "What?"

Li Wentao had chased them and then gone back downstairs? That was impossible! They had seen Li Wentao reappear in the building opposite, with Gu Mian. How could he have had time to go downstairs?

Chu Changge suddenly looked at 007. "Are you sure you heard footsteps going downstairs again after that?"

007 looked up at Chu Changge and stated with certainty, "I’m sure."

Chu Changge fell silent for a few seconds before saying, "Continue."

007 shook her head. "No, after those footsteps went downstairs, I didn’t hear any other sounds. I just kept waiting behind the door until I suddenly met up with you all."

This meant that during this period, no one could prove 007 hadn’t committed murder; she had ample time. Although tonight’s victim hadn’t appeared yet, their body might have already turned up in some corner.

Pan Yue and Keke exchanged glances, apparently unsure whether to believe her. Li Yibai, however, seemed completely unconcerned about this; his only worry was whether 007 had been frightened.

"Alright," Gu Mian, who was leading the way, spoke up. "As we go downstairs, we’ll check if any floors are locked. This can, to some extent, verify what Lin Qi said."

At this point, Chu Changge glanced at his wristwatch, "2:49. Eleven minutes left. Hurry."

As they descended, Gu Mian began, "I’ll go next. I was the one who disappeared after Lin Qi. Since time is short, I’ll be brief. I didn’t encounter anything particularly strange, so my experience can be summed up in a few sentences."

"After I disappeared, I was actually transported to the opposite building. I continued downstairs there and made it to the ground floor. I discovered there are two identical gray buildings here. Because an electric fence blocked the way, I couldn’t cross over, so I had to go back up in the opposite building to observe."

"Oh, and I briefly checked the floors over there but found nothing special. I just got a sense of the layout. The layout here should be the same as over there: ten floors in total, east-west oriented buildings, each with a staircase at both the east and west ends. After that, I saw Pan Yue and you all over here."

Gu Mian omitted the fact that he had seen Chu Changge standing by a window. Chu Changge showed no reaction, and Gu Mian wasn’t sure if Chu Changge had seen him at the time.

Although no one could prove Gu Mian hadn’t committed murder, Pan Yue and the others weren’t particularly interested in him. Their attention was now solely on the terrifying Li Wentao.

No one raised any objections. Chu Changge promptly continued, "I disappeared after Gu Mian. I was transported to the top floor. Since going downstairs might have made me disappear again, I just stayed up there..."

Gu Mian slightly raised his eyebrows.

When he had seen Chu Changge, Chu Changge had already separated from Keke. At that time, Chu Changge was on the fifth or sixth floor, not staying put on the top floor as he claimed.

However, Gu Mian remained silent, continuing to listen as Chu Changge said, "When Keke and the others came up, I was on the other side of the rooftop looking for clues. I only came over to find you after hearing sounds."

This period was also an alibi-less blank, completely uncorroborated. Gu Mian could even have called him out on his lie.

Keke said softly, "Oh, no wonder it took you so long to appear, even though we’d been on the rooftop for a while."

Hearing this, Pan Yue looked at Chu Changge with a somewhat puzzled expression but said nothing.

Then it was Keke’s turn. "I don’t need to say much. I was with everyone from the start, then met up with Pan Yue. I had no opportunity to be alone at all."

Pan Yue nodded and continued, "After I was transported here, I couldn’t see my surroundings clearly, so I didn’t dare move around much. I pretty much stayed put and waited for a while until I heard Keke and the others. I followed the sound of their voices, and I’ve been with Keke ever since."

Before meeting Keke and Chu Changge, Pan Yue also had a period where she was alone.

The last to speak was Li Yibai. "After I inexplicably ended up here, it was too dark, so I moved very slowly. It took me a long time to find the stairs... Just as I was debating whether to go down, I saw Pan Yue and Keke running up as if fleeing for their lives, and I joined up with them after that."

Li Yibai, too, had a period when he was alone.

The critical point was that during tonight’s events, everyone except Keke had spent time alone.

The people present, ranked from the most to the least unaccounted-for time, were:

007, Gu Mian, Chu Changge, Li Yibai, and Pan Yue; Keke had no opportunity to be alone.

But by this point, almost everyone’s suspicions had shifted to Li Wentao—a man who had seemed on the verge of death yet was now able to move around so actively.

Just as the six of them were each harboring their own suspicions, Gu Mian suddenly stopped walking.

It seemed they had reached the floor where 007 had been trapped.