The Colleague

Translator: Cinder Translations

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Chen Xiaomeng's face was gloomy, her gaze slightly cold. The left sleeve of her coat revealed half of a sharp wooden hairpin.

Jiang Cheng remained silent for a few seconds, then suddenly whispered, "I was just joking with you, I saw that you were quite nervous earlier." He lifted his head, speaking with righteousness, "I'll go out first."

Chen Xiaomeng said nothing, retracting the wooden hairpin and stepping aside to let him pass.

Jiang Cheng quietly moved behind the door, peering through the crack for a long time. Finally, under Chen Xiaomeng's pressure, he slowly opened the door, waited a moment, and then stepped out.

The entire hotel was eerily quiet, as though there were no living souls inside.

They didn't head straight upstairs but decided to first check the first floor thoroughly.

After all, if someone was lying in ambush, rushing upstairs could result in being trapped on the upper floor.

Chen Xiaomeng followed Jiang Cheng at a distance of about 2 meters, determined that if an ambush occurred, she would abandon Jiang Cheng without hesitation and rush up to the third floor to catch Qian Jianxiu.

She only hoped Jiang Cheng could buy her more time to ensure her own escape.

They first entered the bathroom to check. After all, this was where Jiang Cheng was spawned, and it held a special significance for him.

Due to the lighting, the room was dim. The low ceiling was covered with cobwebs, and there were faint brownish-yellow stains along the walls, accompanied by an unpleasant odor.

They opened all the bathroom stalls, but found no one inside.

The two exchanged glances and quietly withdrew.

Next, they arrived in front of the kitchen door, the last unexplored area on this floor. If there was nothing here, it would mean the village chief and his group hadn't arrived yet.

This was good news for them, but neither of them showed any signs of joy.

Because it also meant that the "colleague" had already succeeded.

Perhaps they had already left this world through the door.

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and pushed open the kitchen door. The sharp "creak" of the door sounded like a pair of scissors, cutting through their nerves.

Chen Xiaomeng glared at Jiang Cheng, seemingly blaming him for being so careless and making such a loud noise.

But Jiang Cheng knew this wasn't his fault. He hadn't exerted any force; the door had been tampered with.

Since the situation was as it was, Chen Xiaomeng no longer complained. They quickly entered the kitchen, Jiang Cheng holding a sharp metal piece, and Chen Xiaomeng gripping a wooden hairpin.

More than ten seconds passed, but the kitchen remained unchanged.

Now it was Chen Xiaomeng's turn to be puzzled.

Jiang Cheng seemed to have realized something. He took a step into the kitchen, and Chen Xiaomeng turned to close the kitchen door, keeping a relatively safe distance from him.

The kitchen was larger than they had imagined. After passing a row of black iron pots on the stove, there was a semi-enclosed room used to store firewood.

The firewood was piled everywhere, neatly stacked in bundles.

Chen Xiaomeng's face suddenly darkened as she caught an unsettling smell.

The smell of blood.

When Jiang Cheng moved aside a bundle of firewood near the wall, Chen Xiaomeng's gaze changed sharply. From her position, she could just see a pair of feet sticking out.

Jiang Cheng slowly crouched down and removed the pale blue floral apron covering the dead person's face. Sure enough, the dead person was the innkeeper, Qian Jianhe.

His body was curled up, his arms bound with hemp rope, a rag stuffed in his mouth, his eyes wide open, and his face twisted in a grotesque expression. His body was covered in large patches of blood, making the scene quite horrifying.

Chen Xiaomeng noticed two other bodies in a secluded corner.

One was the pregnant woman they had seen earlier, Qian Jianhe's wife, the innkeeper's wife.

The other was a young man, probably just an adult. They hadn't seen him before, but his clothes suggested he was a service staff at the inn.

All three had their throats slit with clean precision, a single stroke to sever the neck.

Jiang Cheng stood up and walked over to a bamboo mat-covered window, ripping the bamboo mat away.

The room became much brighter.

They carefully examined the three dead bodies and found that, besides the fatal throat wound, Qian Jianhe also had several irregular injuries on his body.

Combined with his bound hands and the rag in his mouth, it wasn't hard to guess that he had been tortured before dying.

It was their missing "colleague" who had done this.

The torture was not the goal; the goal was to extract information from him.

As the room brightened, they noticed faint blood footprints on the greasy floor, leading outside.

Following the footprints, they came to a corner of the kitchen.

This area was very hidden, with several bamboo brooms stacked here and a dark green water jar beside them.

The footprints disappeared here.

Chen Xiaomeng immediately became alert.

She suspected the person might be lying in ambush. Unexpectedly, Jiang Cheng walked straight up to the spot and, through the gap between the brooms and the water jar, discovered a low, secret door.

The door was so low that only an adult could crawl through it, with a copper ring fastening it shut.

Jiang Cheng held his breath. The moment he tugged on the copper ring, he quickly moved behind the water jar to hide.

Fortunately, nothing suddenly emerged to attack them.

After a while, he cautiously peeked out.

Light leaked from inside the secret door, and in the corner, a delicate candlestick stood with a candle burning faintly, about the size of a baby's arm.

A small wooden staircase appeared in their sight.

The blood footprints continued up the stairs.

Jiang Cheng silently retreated a few steps and came to Chen Xiaomeng's side. He suddenly asked, "When we met at the abandoned Qian residence, how did you get in?"

Chen Xiaomeng initially didn't want to answer his question, but Jiang Cheng's expression was different from before. He even gave off a subtle sense of threat.

She couldn't understand the purpose of his question but instinctively answered, "I entered through the second floor, using the rope."

"You didn't go to the first floor?"

"No, after searching the second floor, I sensed someone had entered, then you guys disturbed the ghost, and after that..." Chen Xiaomeng didn't continue.

Jiang Cheng already knew what had happened afterward. He squinted his eyes slightly, and after a pause, said, "It was Li Lu."

Chen Xiaomeng blinked in surprise. "It was her?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng replied. "On the stairs of the Qian residence, I found several strange footprints that looked like they belonged to a woman." He looked at Chen Xiaomeng and slowly said, "I initially thought it was you."

Suddenly, Chen Xiaomeng's mind flashed with realization.

Li Lu had previously claimed her leg was injured and stayed behind alone at the Qian family's old house.

Of everyone, only she had enough time to explore the abandoned Qian residence and avoid the others' notice.

(End of the Chapter)

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Translated 4 Series, 1.5K+ Chapters and 1.78M+ Words.