"I'll go along with you." Dou Yaohui was the first to speak up.
Fan Xiaodan was a little surprised. She hadn't expected Dou Yaohui, who had seemed so difficult earlier, to suddenly become so cooperative.
She instinctively looked at Zhao Xun, questioning him with her eyes.
Zhao Xun shrugged without explaining.
Fan Xiaodan didn't pursue it. Instead, she said, "Every room needs a thorough search, without overlooking a single corner. We'll be going through your belongings, and we can't guarantee we won't intrude on your privacy. Does anyone object?"
Everyone exchanged glances, looking reluctant.
But in the end, no one objected.
"Then Zhao Xun and I will split up and lead one group each," Fan Xiaodan continued. "I'll handle the second floor, and Zhao Xun will handle the third."
"No problem," Zhao Xun readily agreed.
Then he added, "To avoid any suspicion, no one should search their own room. So I suggest that those staying on the second floor come upstairs with me, while those staying on the third floor search the second floor with Fan Xiaodan."
"That makes sense." Fan Xiaodan looked at her mother and Gu Xiaoyun, then at Liu Mei and Dou Yaohui. "But that would leave me with five people and you with only three."
Everyone she had looked at, including herself, stayed on the third floor.
She shared the largest room with her mother and Gu Xiaoyun, while Liu Mei and Dou Yaohui each occupied one of the other two rooms.
With three people in her room, the third floor had already had one more resident than the second.
Now that Grandpa Feng, who had stayed on the second floor, was dead, that floor had even fewer people.
If they divided the groups this way, Zhao Xun would only have Jiang Shuai and Grandma Wang