Newbie Scenario: Class Reunion (18)

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

Zhen Liu said nothing, only trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. He truly had no interest in participating in an elementary-schoolers' war.

Once this round of group discussion ended, it was completely dark outside. Everyone once again began the journey of cooking and eating. Basketball Qiao and Second-generation Zhao became enthusiastic again; they would rather die than let Lawyer Jin touch anything that went into anyone's mouth. Likewise, Lawyer Jin did not trust the brothers not to keep targeting him. In the end, everyone made their own food, and no one touched anyone else's.

Even while eating, they sat in clearly divided camps.

Only Professor Lu made portions for both himself and Zhen Liu: curry rice perfectly suited to Zhen Liu's tastes.

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

The second round of evidence gathering began as well. It would still end before lunch, and they had little time left to find evidence and identify the culprit.

Everyone sprang into action.

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

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

"That guess that the person who drugged us did it to alter the time was wrong. It'd 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 seemed genuinely muddled, yet somehow, even while confused, he always arrived at precise, correct conclusions. It was like he had gotten the answers beforehand but had none of the working-out process.

Another question followed. Veteran players like Jin Zhuang could not possibly fail to notice the problem with Basketball Qiao's deduction, so why had he gone along with it?

"Let's wait and see what happens first, and find out what they're actually planning. A fox's tail will always show eventually." Professor Lu offered his advice. Remaining still was always better than making a move, and he had plenty of patience. "Speaking of phones, though, I have a method that may not be accurate, but might let us determine what time they acted."

"Hm?"

"Phone usage time."

Most phones on the market now had functions that recorded screen time. Some even tracked how long it took on average to unlock them, or how long each app had been opened throughout the day. During daytime, it was hard to say what someone had been doing, but nighttime was much clearer: they were either lying down and using their phone, or they should have locked it and gone to sleep. If there was unusual usage during that period, they could roughly infer that person's timeline of movements.

The only problem was how they were supposed to obtain those records. Everyone was careful with their phones now, and they did not know anyone else's passcode.

Professor Lu did not say what he intended 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."

Zhen Liu thought about it, then refused. "Let's look at someone else's first."

It was not that he did not trust Professor Lu. Rather, Zhen Liu simply did not want anyone looking through his phone yet. But for fairness's sake, once he had looked at Professor Lu's phone, he felt he ought to let Professor Lu look at his as well, so as to reinforce their alliance. After all, it was only Professor Lu who liked Doctor Zhen, not the player behind Professor Lu who liked him. He could not be too ruthless.

Professor Lu and Zhen Liu, who had been bound together since the game began, rarely split up to act separately this time. Professor Lu went to investigate everyone's phone usage time, 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 the 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 had run into each other head-on, trading barbs.

One said, "Just admit it sooner. It'll save everyone the trouble."

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

It had quite the... rival-male energy.

Chapter 18: Newbie Scenario—Class Reunion (18)

Faced with the passionate quarrel between elementary-schoolers, Zhen Liu moved through the scene as if no one else were there. As each second passed, he only wanted to find the secret room as quickly as possible. 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 at a loss for words.

There really was no talking feelings with Pineapple Head.

While using a measuring-tape 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 them in 3D software to see exactly where the villa's layout was wrong.

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

Basketball Qiao suddenly appeared from nowhere and invited Zhen Liu to talk alone 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, he had always acted like someone incapable of keeping 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 persuade Professor Lu, I'll tell you where the secret room is."

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

Although "there is a secret room in the villa" was practically a settled hypothesis, until Basketball Qiao spoke, Zhen Liu had not dared to be certain that this deduction was completely correct.