Beginner Instance: Class Reunion (18

Everyone was back at the starting line together! Who was afraid of whom?!

Zhen Liu said nothing, merely doing his best to minimize his presence. He truly had no interest in taking part in the war between elementary school kids.

After this round of focused discussion ended, it had become completely dark outside. Everyone began the journey of cooking and eating once more. Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao became proactive again, determined not to let Lawyer Jin touch anything that would go into anyone's mouth. Likewise, Lawyer Jin did not trust the two brothers not to keep targeting him. In the end, everyone cooked their own food, and no one touched anyone else's.

Even at mealtime, they sat in clearly divided groups.

Only Professor Lu prepared two portions, one for himself and one for Zhen Liu: curry rice perfectly suited to Zhen Liu's tastes.

After dinner, bedtime was skipped entirely. Everyone closed their eyes and opened them again, and it was already the next morning. The sun rose anew, while sparrows chirped ceaselessly atop the utility pole outside the house.

The second round of evidence gathering began as well. It would still end before lunch, and they did not have much time left to find evidence and expose the culprit.

Everyone sprang into action.

Only Zhen Liu wanted to say something, but it was already too late. Everyone had scattered. He could only say to Professor Lu beside him, "What Basketball Qiao said earlier was wrong."

Professor Lu patiently stayed by Zhen Liu's side. "What was wrong?"

"That guess about the person who drugged everyone doing it to alter the time is wrong. It would be too difficult to pull off. Every one of us has a phone." The clocks in the villa could be adjusted, but how could the time on their phones be changed? That was no small undertaking.

Why had everyone gone along with Basketball Qiao's train of thought so easily?

Basketball Qiao's thinking genuinely seemed muddled, yet somehow, even while confused, he always managed to reach precise and correct conclusions. It was as though he had gotten the answers in advance but did not have the steps to solve the problems.

Another question followed. Veteran players like Jin Zhuang could not possibly have failed to notice the flaws in Basketball Qiao's speculation, so why was he speaking along the same lines as Basketball Qiao?

"Let's wait and see what happens first. We'll see what they're actually trying to do. A fox's tail will show sooner or later." Professor Lu offered his suggestion. Stillness was always better than action; he had plenty of patience. "Speaking of phones, I have a method that may not be accurate, but might help us figure out what time they acted."

"Hmm?"

"Phone usage time."

Most phones on the market now had functions that recorded screen time. Some even kept detailed records, such as the average time between unlocks and how long each app had been opened during the day. During the daytime, it was hard to say what someone was doing, but at night it was quite clear: they were either lying down and using their phone, or they should have locked the screen and gone to sleep. If there was unusual phone usage during that period, they could roughly infer that person's timeline of movements.

The only problem was how they could obtain those records. Everyone was now very careful with their phones, and they did not know each other's passwords.

Professor Lu did not say what he planned to do about getting hold of other people's phones. He merely took out his own first and held it out before Zhen Liu. "You can look at mine first."

After thinking it over, Zhen Liu still refused. "Let's look at someone else's first."

It was not that he did not trust Professor Lu. Zhen Liu simply did not want to let anyone see his own phone for the time being. But to show fairness, after looking at Professor Lu's phone, he felt that he ought to show Professor Lu his own as well, so as to strengthen their alliance. After all, it was Doctor Zhen that Professor Lu liked, not the player behind Professor Lu. He could not be too ruthless in how he handled things.

Professor Lu and Zhen Liu, who had been bound together since the game began, finally split up and acted separately this time. Professor Lu went to investigate everyone's phone usage times, while Zhen Liu began searching for a secret room in the villa.

Even if he could not find the secret room, Zhen Liu at least had to find evidence proving that Second-generation Zhao knew it existed. Once that evidence was presented, Second-generation Zhao would naturally have no choice but to talk.

Zhen Liu had not searched for long before he heard Second-generation Zhao and Lawyer Jin arguing on the third floor.

The two ran into each other head-on, trading barbs.

One said, "Just confess already, and everyone will save themselves some trouble."

The other said, "People whose parents are watching over them from heaven really do speak with confidence."

It had a distinctly... male-rivalry flavor.

Beginner Instance: Class Reunion (18

Faced with the impassioned quarrel between elementary school kids, Zhen Liu passed through as though no one else were there. As each second ticked away, all he wanted was to find the secret room quickly. How could he have time to care whether anyone else was seriously playing the game?

Second-generation Zhao and Lawyer Jin watched Zhen Liu walk straight between them, both finding it hard to put their feelings into words.

There truly was no room for sentiment with Pineapple Head.

While using the measuring app on his phone to measure every room, Zhen Liu refined the villa's floor plan on the light screen. He did not miss a single floor, marking every visible room and the direction each window faced. Then he overlaid everything in 3D software to see exactly where the villa's layout was wrong.

Just as Zhen Liu noticed that part of the wall beside the handrail was unusually thick and prepared to knock on it...

Basketball Qiao suddenly appeared from nowhere and invited Zhen Liu to speak privately in the empty room next door.

"Something wrong?" Zhen Liu asked first, wanting to know why Basketball Qiao had sought him out so mysteriously.

Whether Basketball Qiao was pretending or not, at least the personality he had shown all along was one that could not keep secrets. Since Zhen Liu had asked, he got straight to the point. "If you agree to vote for Lawyer Jin and promise to help us find a way to persuade Professor Lu, I'll tell you where the secret room is."

Okay, got it. There really is a secret room, Zhen Liu thought.

Even though "there is a secret room in the villa" was practically a certainty by now, Zhen Liu had not dared to be completely sure that this deduction was one hundred percent correct until Basketball Qiao spoke.