Beginner Edition · Class Reunion (Twenty

Lawyer Jin had not even heard him out before he shot Professor Lu a furious glare. Sure enough, he still really hated this guy.

But... Professor Lu was right. Lawyer Jin had said all that to Zhen Liu because he wanted to win him over. After all, whether in terms of reliability or intelligence, Zhen Liu was a great choice for a teammate.

But: "Whatever happens between Doctor Zhen and me, what does that have to do with you?"

Lawyer Jin loudly shot back at Professor Lu. He felt Professor Lu was like one of those high school girls in American dramas—sharp-tongued, mean-spirited, full of himself, and always playing inexplicable little mind games. In short, he was utterly detestable.

Zhen Liu said nothing. He treated them equally and thought they were both pretty childish.

Professor Lu did not fight fair either. Instead of arguing with Lawyer Jin, he stole his thunder and said to Zhen Liu, "Corpses rot and stink. It's summer now, and there's no air conditioning or ice in this escape room. The next day was our class reunion. If Second-generation Zhao really planned to keep the body hidden here the whole time, wouldn't he be waiting to get caught at any moment?"

All the signs could only prove that the victim had indeed been hidden here. They could not prove that this had been Second-generation Zhao's plan.

If Second-generation Zhao had confessed voluntarily, he had most likely mixed truth with lies.

Zhen Liu nodded. There had indeed been something off about what Second-generation Zhao had said at the time.

Lawyer Jin was stunned by Professor Lu's move. He had wanted to curse him out for being shameless, but then realized that the harsher he cursed, the more enthusiastically the other man might steal his thunder. So he could only hurriedly add a few points to make his presence known.

"Second-generation Zhao wasn't the only one who knew this escape room existed. The former owners, customers who had played here before, even people who had simply seen its advertisements online—any of them could have known about it.

"Once someone reported Ying De's disappearance to the police, the police would search the escape room immediately. There was no way to keep it hidden."

"In any case, this wasn't a particularly safe place. Anyone smarter than Basketball Qiao wouldn't choose to hide a body here. At most, it could serve as a temporary transit point."

Jin Zhuang still felt that Second-generation Zhao killing the victim had been more likely an impulsive act than premeditated murder.

Zhen Liu agreed. He replied to Lawyer Jin, "If you said they had a complete plan to kill you, I'd believe it." But he found it unlikely that they had a complete plan to kill Ying De. After all, the source of the hatred between those two brothers was quite obvious.

"So our earlier guess during the group discussion was right. Second-generation Zhao was more like the one cleaning up someone else's mess." Lawyer Jin thought he really was a little genius.

Zhen Liu, meanwhile, wondered whether that mess had been made by Basketball Qiao. That was hard to say.

Lawyer Jin continued basking in the tacit understanding between the three of them, feeling that a new alliance was taking shape. After chatting with Zhen Liu for a while longer, he happily went off to find dirt on the brothers.

Professor Lu looked thoroughly displeased and loathed Lawyer Jin's retreating figure.

After watching Lawyer Jin leave, Zhen Liu said to Professor Lu, "The mess Second-generation Zhao cleaned up was one you made while disguised as Basketball Qiao, wasn't it?"

Professor Lu: "!!!"

Zhen Liu had already prepared himself for Professor Lu to ask how he knew, or to deny it to the bitter end.

But Professor Lu was instantly ecstatic, his eyes practically dancing with joy. "You didn't say any of that in front of Lawyer Jin just now because you didn't agree with his alliance, right? Exactly. We're the ones on the same side."

Zhen Liu: "???" Who had just said fierce beasts preferred to travel alone?

Author's note:

Nonsense skit:

Professor Lu: "Baa~"

Newbie Scenario · Class Reunion (Twenty

Real fierce beasts enjoyed solitude. Fake fierce beasts...

Started chattering away on their own, eagerly explaining to the person they liked exactly what they had done the night before, as well as this character's past. He was so loose-lipped it was ridiculous.

Zhen Liu successfully unlocked Professor Lu's character card because of this.

When 333 appeared in Zhen Liu's mind, it was so excited it practically wanted to spin, leap, and do the splits on the spot. [Unlocking character cards can earn you points!] From that tone alone, it was easy to guess that the bonus was probably not small. Although 333 did not reveal the exact number, Zhen Liu had basically figured out that as long as they correctly identified the murderer and did not let the killer gain the base eight escape points, his prize money this time should be secure.

Only then did Zhen Liu look through Professor Lu's character card on the built-in light screen. Although some of the content remained locked, the overall outline of the character biography had appeared. At least Zhen Liu was no longer completely in the dark about Professor Lu.

It was just...

Zhen Liu had always thought Professor Lu was a player who stayed relatively true to his role, but after reading the story from back then on the character card, he realized Professor Lu's performance was nothing like the character at all.

Other than the fact that both were "not talkative," the two Professor Lus had nothing else in common.

Even with the trait of being "reticent," different personalities conveyed completely different impressions. The imposing Professor Lu was quiet and dependable, but the actual character was timid and insecure.

After realizing that he had fallen for the most popular boy in his class, Professor Lu developed an intense self-loathing. For a long time, he rejected those feelings because he felt he was abnormal enough already and could not bear the label of homosexuality as well. It was completely different from Zhen Liu's guess that "Professor Lu had secretly stood up for Doctor Zhen during their student days and reduced the bullying he suffered."

In other words, Zhen Liu still had not found the "hero" from his student days. But at least he could rule out Professor Lu. Back then, Professor Lu had not wanted anything to do with Doctor Zhen at all.

When love arrived suddenly, some people became braver, while others shrank back even more.

It was not that he did not love. It was simply that love was not always as great as literary works made it out to be. At least, Professor Lu was like that. His secret love for Doctor Zhen did not suddenly make him incredibly strong or brilliant, nor did it help him grow mentally. Instead, it made him weaker and less willing to face the world.