Doubt

Doubt

Beyond the nausea, a powerful fear surged up from the depths of Xu Zhi'an's heart!

This woman was far too strange. Was she a ghost?

If she was... should he run now?

Or was he overthinking it? Was Ms. Zhang merely mentally unwell, just as the other attendants had said?

No... things should not be as bad as he imagined. Feng Xinghan had not moved from where he stood at all. He must have noticed something!

Xu Zhi'an felt slightly relieved.

After all, Feng Xinghan was a veteran who had experienced multiple Mist Gathering missions. His sense for danger was extremely sharp.

Huh?

Xu Zhi'an glanced slightly toward Feng Xinghan. When his gaze inadvertently swept over Feng Xinghan's feet, he froze. Feng Xinghan was indeed still standing beside him, but... why was he standing on tiptoe?

Come to think of it... they had agreed to split up, yet Feng Xinghan had still come to find him as a partner.

The more Xu Zhi'an thought about it, the stranger it seemed.

Because he suddenly realized that he could not remember when Feng Xinghan had appeared beside him...

At that moment, Xu Zhi'an suddenly shuddered...

No... Feng Xinghan really had separated from him...

He seemed to have said earlier that he was going to the newspaper office to ask around for information...

Feng Xinghan was not in the inn at all!

Then... who was this "person"?

As Xu Zhi'an thought, he glanced at Feng Xinghan beside him.

A chill rose from his back to his brain, and dense goosebumps erupted across his arms.

Without realizing it, he gradually backed away until his back pressed against the door.

Suddenly!

Standing on tiptoe, Feng Xinghan's body did not move in the slightest, yet his head twisted around in an eerie manner as he stared at Xu Zhi'an and said:

"What's wrong?"

A ghost!

"Feng Xinghan" was a real ghost!

Xu Zhi'an's mind went blank. He yanked open the door and fled outside as though his life depended on it.

Yet a voice sounded behind him, clinging to him like a parasite on bone.

"What's wrong?"

The top floor of Ruyi Hotel.

Li Yuejun stood by the window, looking around from time to time as she watched Jiang Li search through the documents in the office.

Many people had gotten one thing wrong.

Jiang Li was not a man. Although not only her appearance but even her voice resembled that of a clear-voiced young man, she was indeed a girl.

The two had been in this office for nearly an hour, yet they still had not found anything of value.

"Looks like Mr. Ding Lei is very dissatisfied with his family..."

Jiang Li tossed a stack of documents onto the desk and sat unceremoniously in Boss Ding Lei's chair.

This office was most likely the personal office of Ding Lei, the owner of Ruyi Inn.

Of course, it had been tightly locked when they arrived, but even Li Yuejun could not be stopped by this kind of lock, much less Jiang Li.

"What did you find?"

It had to be said that if Li Yuejun's tone had been gentle rather than commanding—or if she did not resemble an inflated sea urchin—she would have been much more popular.

Jiang Li did not even glance at her. Hugging her head as she gently swayed from side to side in the chair, looking nothing like a girl, she said:

"Didn't you notice that Boss Ding Lei's office doesn't have a single photograph?"

"Photographs?"

Li Yuejun did not understand. What did photographs have to do with anything?

"Oh, right. I forgot that you're only a low-level employee in real life. From what I've observed, whether it's my father or his businessman friends, they always keep one or two photographs of their children or wives on their desks. Whether they genuinely mean it or are just putting on a show, it's practically become a rule. Although this is a parallel spacetime, I think... the chances of families displaying photographs in this era should be even higher."

Li Yuejun thought about it carefully and felt that Jiang Li did seem to be right.

Then... what change had occurred in Boss Ding Lei's family?

"Look at this."

Jiang Li casually tossed something over, and a thin sheet of paper flew toward her.

Li Yuejun hurriedly caught it. It was covered in densely packed writing.

This was... a letter?

No... this was a love letter!

"A love letter from Zhang Wen to Ding Lei? Who is Zhang Wen? Isn't his wife called Li Yuhua?"

Li Yuejun asked instinctively.

"I don't know. Didn't we agree to meet them in the first-floor lobby at eleven? We can ask them then." Jiang Li did not care much about this question—or rather, she had something she cared about more.

Marital trouble.

Could this be a murder case caused by a broken marriage? Was the victim Ding Lei's first wife, Li Yuhua?

Then... was Li Yuhua the ghost this time?

To find a ghost's weakness, the first priority was figuring out who it had been while alive and what exactly had happened.

The cause of death, the murder weapon, and... the thing it had feared most in life.

Those three things were the key to ending this damned joke early.

"Let's go. I don't want to stay in one place for too long."

Although Jiang Li did not seem like a girl, she did possess a girl's inexplicable sixth sense.

Ever since a moment ago, she had felt that the air around them seemed to have grown much colder.

Li Yuejun had noticed it as well. The two exchanged a glance. Not only did they have no intention of tidying the ransacked office, they even deliberately knocked over two chairs before shutting the door and leaving quickly.

"Hello, do you know who she is?"

With his upright bearing, gentle smile, profound eyes, and mysterious air, Bai Yanliang met no refusal from the young female attendant when he produced a sketch and asked.

He was skilled at acting. Though there was not the slightest hint of amusement in his heart, that did not stop him from smiling brilliantly.

As for the sketch, Bai Yanliang had drawn it himself just moments ago. It was not difficult, and Ye City Psychiatric Hospital did not prohibit patients from engaging in artistic activities.

"Oh, isn't this the boss's younger sister-in-law?"

"Younger sister-in-law?"

"Mm! She came here some days ago. Her name seemed to be... Zhang Qiao?" The young attendant furrowed her brow as she thought. "Right! Her name was Zhang Qiao!"

Bai Yanliang paused, then continued thoughtfully, "Then do you know what she came here for?"

"I do. We all know," the female attendant said sweetly. "She and the boss's younger brother came here for their honeymoon. They stayed here for a few days, then left."

She had not left... she had... remained here for the rest of her life.

"Mm, thank you."

Bai Yanliang nodded and thanked her sincerely.

"Y-You're welcome." The young woman's voice was tiny as she replied in a mosquito-like murmur.

Yet she failed to notice that Bai Yanliang's pace had grown increasingly hurried. He soon disappeared into the corridor.

Bai Yanliang could not help but hurry. The attendant recognized the woman in the drawing, but she had no idea what Bai Yanliang had based the sketch on.

The woman in the sketch was the face of the ghost beneath the bed, drawn from Bai Yanliang's memory just moments ago!

According to the attendant, she was not Li Yuhua, Ding Lei's missing wife, but his younger sister-in-law, Zhang Qiao!

Then... where was Ding Lei's missing wife?

And where was Zhang Qiao's husband, Ding Lei's younger brother?