After spending two seconds pinpointing the direction of that faint sound, Wu Yi's face darkened, and he raised his leg to kick open the door to Room 501.
Gun raised, he scanned left and right as though facing a formidable enemy.
Che Quan looked past Wu Yi's back and saw the open doorway gaping like a pitch-black maw, waiting for them.
Strangely enough, the moment Wu Yi kicked the door open, all sound inside Room 501 vanished, leaving an endlessly eerie silence.
Wu Yi's brows knitted tightly. Not daring to let his guard down for a moment, he approached the doorway step by step.
Just as he was about to enter Room 501.
Suddenly, a cold glint flashed above Wu Yi's head, as though someone had raised an axe high while pressed against the wall beside the doorway, hiding in his blind spot and waiting to kill whoever came in.
Che Quan spotted it and reacted instantly, kicking Wu Yi out of the way.
The axe cleaved through empty air and smashed into the wooden floor inside, sending splinters flying.
Caught completely off guard by that kick, Wu Yi was still dazed as he flew through the air. Then he heard the tremendous crash of a sharp weapon smashing through floorboards behind him. Someone had clearly meant to kill him.
A wave of belated fear washed over Wu Yi, and he cursed furiously, "Motherfucker!"
He did not even have time to wonder how Che Quan, a frail young man who apparently had a congenital heart condition, possessed enough strength in his legs to send a burly, two-hundred-pound man flying with one kick.
After glancing over and confirming that Che Quan was unharmed at the doorway, Wu Yi scrambled to his feet as quickly as possible, tightened his grip on his gun, and turned to look for the suspect.
At the same time, he edged toward the wall, trying to turn on the lights.
But when Wu Yi finally found the light switch and flicked it with a click, the lights did not come on at all.
The suspect had probably sabotaged the power long ago.
Damn it.
Wu Yi spat out another furious curse.
He could not afford to keep playing hide-and-seek with the suspect lurking in the darkness. Staying alive mattered, and so did protecting Che Quan.
Wu Yi rushed out through the door of Room 501 and shouted at Che Quan, who had not moved, "Come on, let's go downstairs and wait for backup. We'll block the entrance. It's not like he can sprout wings and fly away!"
Frantic and terrified that the suspect would come charging over with that enormous axe again, Wu Yi hurried to take Che Quan downstairs with him.
But Che Quan remained perfectly still, staring into the pitch-black, deathly silent interior of Room 501.
Wu Yi was nearly frantic with worry.
Sweat covered his head as he urged, almost in tears, "For the love of God, do you need me to carry you? Did you twist your ankle kicking me just now?"
Instead, Che Quan answered, "Go downstairs without me."
Wu Yi immediately began sweating even harder. "Y-you can't be reckless! This criminal is incredibly strong. Don't even think about taking him head-on!"
The sound of the axe smashing through the floorboards earlier was enough to tell him how solid it was.
Anyone who could lift something that heavy had to possess considerable strength.
So even though the attacker had abandoned the axe and fled into a room, they still could not let their guard down.
Wu Yi looked at Che Quan, his face anxious and bewildered, unable to understand what he intended to do.
But Che Quan had just saved him, and his own sense of duty would not let him abandon Che Quan and retreat.
Then, just at that moment, Wu Yi suddenly heard Che Quan address the interior of Room 501 in a cold voice. "If we leave, we'll be doing exactly what the murderer wants. Isn't that right, Fu Na?"
Wu Yi froze, still poised to retreat down the stairs, utterly dumbfounded. "W-what? What do you mean, Fu Na?"
Che Quan did not answer Wu Yi. His voice remained icy and condescending as he spoke into the apartment. "There's no need to hide. I already know you're the murderer. Hiding won't do you any good, so why don't you come out?"
By this point, Wu Yi's brain had completely short-circuited, and he could not resist quietly asking Che Quan for an explanation. "W-what does that even mean? Why don't I understand any of this?"
But Che Quan had no intention of paying him any attention right then.
The viewers eagerly began firing off comments, speaking on his behalf.
[Classic Wu Yi. Officer Yuan was right to roast him. How did someone with that IQ become a cop?!]
[Am I the only one who thinks Officer Wu is here for comic relief?]
[Can I just quietly say that I want to ask the little beauty too?! How did he figure out it was Fu Na?! I still haven't pieced it together, sob!]
Inside the instance.
When Wu Yi received no answer to his questions, he stopped talking rather than disturb Che Quan.
Moving quietly, he adjusted his stance, stepped back up the stairs, and joined Che Quan in looking into the sinister darkness of Room 501.
After several seconds of silence, footsteps sounded, advancing one by one across the wooden floor.
A slender figure seemed to emerge from the innermost room, slowly revealing her face as she stepped out of the dense darkness.
Fu Na, who had initially looked quiet, reserved, and frightened, was now covered in blood, her smile filled with madness and viciousness.
Fu Na gave a rasping laugh deep in her throat as she looked at the expressionless Che Quan and the utterly incredulous Wu Yi.
"How did you know?"
Fu Na tilted her head slightly, her eyes opened so wide that her eyeballs seemed ready to burst from their sockets, giving her a deranged look.
Che Quan swept his gaze over her. Catching the overpowering stench of blood, he showed a hint of disgust.
Although he was a vampire, he was only interested in delicious, fresh blood. As for any old blood, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with it.
After hearing Fu Na's question, Wu Yi was also eager for Che Quan's explanation, so he turned to look at him.
Of course, Wu Yi had not forgotten to keep a tight grip on his gun, ready at any moment to shoot the young woman before him, whose mental state was clearly unstable and abnormal.
Under their gazes, Che Quan did not immediately explain. Instead, he asked Fu Na, "Who else in the apartment building is still alive?"
Fu Na gave another rasping laugh at that. "Does it matter? They'll all die in the end anyway. You two are no different."
Seeing that she would not cooperate, Che Quan frowned slightly, his gaze growing even colder. He looked as though he no longer intended to explain anything to them.
Only then did Fu Na's face twitch. Resentfully counting on her fingers, she said, "That damned old woman keeps hiding and won't come out. That slut Zha Jia, too. I helped her kill that damned woman, yet she won't repay my kindness by letting me kill her! And that bitch Xuan Shuhui is the same. I told her to go to class, but she won't even leave her apartment. Heh, heh, but it doesn't matter. She'll have to come out eventually.
"And there's... ah, there's that creep, Jin something. When the time comes, I'll hack him to pieces and gouge out his eyes, heh, heh. And... and you two!!!"
As she spoke, Fu Na suddenly turned aggressive, glaring at them with vicious malice. Her eyes were so bloodshot they looked terrifyingly red.
Wu Yi could barely suppress the urge to pull the trigger.
With an intensely conflicted expression, he shouted, "Don't come any closer!"
At that moment, however, Che Quan scoffed, his icy voice extinguishing the blazing, terrifying atmosphere.
"That's not right. There's one more. Someone you planned to use as a scapegoat-"
Before you continue