After changing her clothes, Chen Meiqian picked up the complete human skin and walked toward the bathroom, which was partitioned off by wooden boards. She casually grabbed a hanger and hung the skin as if it were clothing. Soon, the sound of running water filled the bathroom.
Although Li Zhi couldn’t see what she was doing inside, she could almost imagine the scene.
The human skin hung under the showerhead, being rinsed by the water. Chen Meiqian would patiently lather it with soap, cleaning the skin both inside and out.
Yesterday evening, when she and Chen Meiqian encountered each other in the hallway, she had also heard the sound of running water. At the time, Chen Meiqian said that Chu Guangyan was taking a shower.
Hmm…
He was indeed taking a shower.
No wonder those two burglars had been so frightened that they panicked and fell to their deaths down the stairwell. The sight of a living person shedding their skin was terrifying.
However, Li Zhi suspected that Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi probably hadn’t waited until Chen Meiqian had fully removed her skin before they bolted in fear. After all, according to the curly-haired woman, Chu Guangyan had chased them out shortly afterward.
Chen Meiqian must have just started peeling off her skin when the two ran out, scared out of their wits. That’s why she was able to quickly put the skin back on and chase after them.
Seeing this monster running after them, the two thieves chose to jump in their panic.
The night the players arrived in this instance was the same night that Xiao Bo and Qiang Zi’s spirits returned. The players staying on the first floor had heard the sound of the offering table being knocked over. It was probably those two spirits, bumping into the skinless Chu Guangyan while they were eating the offerings.
That’s why the ghosts were frightened enough to knock over the table.
Come to think of it, those two burglars had a pretty tragic end…
They were scared to death while alive, and even after becoming ghosts, they got scared again while just trying to eat some offerings.
The sound of running water continued. The two people hiding in the wardrobe didn’t move at all. Thanks to the protective masks they had, Chen Meiqian didn’t notice their presence. Soon, hurried footsteps echoed outside the corridor, and someone ran up to the door of room 603 and started knocking.
Chen Meiqian walked out of the bathroom, her expression wary. Meng Yuhan’s voice came from outside: “Uncle Chu? Are you there? Granny Qiu is fighting with the curly-haired woman from your floor! You should go help!”
At the mention of Granny Qiu, Chen Meiqian’s expression immediately changed. Without hesitation, she walked over and opened the door.
Outside, Meng Yuhan wore an anxious look. When she saw Chen Meiqian, she hesitated for a moment, putting on an excellent performance: “Auntie, is Uncle Chu here?”
Chen Meiqian replied, “He’s in the shower. What happened with Granny Qiu? I’ll come with you.”
She quickly locked the door, and the hurried footsteps faded down the corridor. Li Zhi and Xiang Ling removed their masks and swiftly stepped out of the wardrobe.
Xiang Ling shot her an impressed look. “You guessed right—mentioning Granny Qiu worked like a charm.”
A woman who had been abused for years, with neighbors across the hall who turned a blind eye to her suffering, offering only scornful remarks. Others, like the floral shirt woman, found excuses for Chu Guangyan’s abuse, blaming the woman for being childless and saying she deserved to be beaten. Probably only Granny Qiu on the first floor truly saw her pain, showed her concern, and stood up for her.
That’s why, even though Chen Meiqian was disguised as Chu Guangyan, she still faced Granny Qiu’s cold indifference to buy breakfast from her every day. For her, Granny Qiu’s harsh words against Chu Guangyan were a form of comfort.
Her gratitude toward Granny Qiu, her guilt over unintentionally causing the deaths of Granny Qiu’s two grandsons, all of that was enough to draw her away when Granny Qiu was mentioned.
Xiang Ling walked to the door and noticed that Li Zhi hadn’t followed but had instead turned toward the bathroom.
Moments later, Li Zhi emerged from the bathroom, carrying the dripping human skin in her hand.
Xiang Ling: “…”
She felt a bit nauseous.
Li Zhi rolled up Chu Guangyan’s skin like a sheet of dough, then wrapped it in her coat. “Let’s go,” she said.
The two of them left room 603 and followed their prearranged plan, heading to room 104. Room 104 was relatively safe, as it contained the tools Fu Huan had used on the first night she arrived.
As they passed the first floor, Li Zhi glanced down the dark corridor. The lanterns in the first-floor hallway, which hadn’t yet been lit, swayed more than usual even though there was no wind. It seemed as though they were filled with anticipation, waiting for the night to fall.
Xiang Ling sensed it too and whispered, “Looks like we have to clear the game tonight.”
The conditions for death were evolving, and it seemed that tonight, the dead from the cremation rooms would break through the doors directly.
As they reached the first floor, the sound of arguing drifted in from outside. Fu Huan had earlier lured the curly-haired woman downstairs, and during their argument, the woman mocked Chen Meiqian repeatedly. Granny Qiu, unable to bear it, had joined in with her rolling pin.
Whatever Fu Huan had done, the argument was now louder than Li Zhi had anticipated. But with their senior player handling it, Granny Qiu probably wouldn’t come to any real harm.
They knocked on the door of room 104, and the other players, who had been waiting for them, opened it.
Li Zhi tossed the coat-wrapped skin onto the bed and walked to the window, waving toward Li Jianxi in the security booth across the way. From a distance, she saw him nod before stepping out of the booth and heading toward Granny Qiu’s stall.
Not long after, the argument outside finally subsided.
A few minutes later, Fu Huan and Li Feng returned to room 104. Apart from Qiao Junyuan, all the players had now gathered in the small single room.
Fu Huan’s pretty face was flushed from the recent scuffle with the curly-haired woman, but there was excitement in her eyes. “So, did you guys see the truth?”
Li Zhi nodded. “We basically pieced it together.”
Fu Huan reached for the bundle on the bed. “Is this what you brought from 603? What is it?”
Xiang Ling hesitated, then said, “I wouldn’t recommend—”
Before she could finish, Fu Huan had already pulled out the human skin.
“What is this…?” she started, then immediately gagged.
Realizing what she was holding, her fingers recoiled at the strange and smooth texture, and she nearly vomited. Screaming, she threw the skin back onto the bed.
Xiang Ling sighed. “Told you not to touch it.”
Fu Huan’s face, which had been rosy a moment ago, turned as white as a sheet. “Ugh, that’s disgusting!”
The others were equally horrified, their faces full of revulsion. Only Li Feng approached, picking up the skin to examine it. He eventually found a wound on the neck.
“Is this where she started peeling it off?”
Li Zhi nodded. “Yes, that wound is probably the fatal blow she used to kill Chu Guangyan.”
Li Feng thought for a moment. “Looks like a stab wound from a sharp object. Maybe during one of the domestic violence incidents, Chen Meiqian used something sharp to stab him in the neck, killing him.”
Fu Huan, hugging her arms to ward off the goosebumps, muttered, “I understand why she’d kill her abuser, but why would she peel his skin off and wear it every day, pretending to be him?”
Xiang Ling spoke up, “You’d be scared too if you killed someone, right?”
Fu Huan paused, caught off guard by the question.
As a government agent, Xiang Ling had seen many cases like this. “When victims become perpetrators, their first reaction is usually fear. Given Chen Meiqian’s personality, her instinct would have been to avoid facing society’s judgment. She didn’t want to go to prison for killing a scumbag like him. She was terrified of being found out, so she decided to impersonate her husband to cover up the fact that he was dead.”
Chen Meiqian had succeeded. Granny Qiu had said that it had been months since she heard Chu Guangyan’s abusive behavior. During those months, no one had realized that Chu Guangyan was already dead.
“But that doesn’t make sense…” Fu Huan furrowed her brows.
“What I mean is, according to the setting of this instance, Chen Meiqian is just an ordinary person, right? How could an ordinary person skin someone and wear it, then actually transform into another person? That’s something only a monster could do. But Chen Meiqian is supposed to be just an ordinary person.”
If she were a monster, she wouldn’t have endured domestic violence for so long.
The instance follows logic; it wouldn’t have such a glaring inconsistency.
There could only be one explanation…
“Because someone helped her.” Li Zhi looked at the human skin lying on the bed. “Someone taught her how to do this, or rather, how to perform such dark magic.”
Everyone simultaneously thought of one name: “Qu Rong?”
Li Zhi nodded. “Chu Guangyan, after being skinned, dared not go to the sixth floor because his wife, who had killed and skinned him, was there. But he also didn’t dare to go to the third floor. Is there something on the third floor that’s even scarier than his wife?”
Fu Huan pieced the logic together. “So, it was Qu Rong who helped her. That’s why Chen Meiqian, disguised as Chu Guangyan, was so close to her and constantly looked after her.”
A player asked, “Then who is Qu Rong? Why does she know this kind of dark magic?”
Yes, who is Qu Rong?
Li Zhi glanced at the darkening sky outside the window and lowered her voice. “Chen Meiqian has gone back by now, and she’ll soon realize the skin is missing. If my guess is right, she’ll go looking for Qu Rong. This is our best chance to clear the instance.”
…
After waiting for a few minutes in the washroom on the third floor, they finally heard hurried footsteps from above. The steps rushed straight toward room 304.
After a few knocks, the sound of the door opening came, followed quickly by the door closing.
Li Zhi stepped out of the washroom and calmly knocked on the door of room 304.
Inside, everything went silent for a moment. Li Zhi’s voice was cheerful, “Qu Rong, I know you’re in there, and so is Miss Chen. I think we should talk face-to-face.”
After a few seconds, the door was opened from the inside. Qu Rong stood at the threshold, frowning, her eyes filled with annoyance as she stared at Li Zhi. “What do you want?”
Li Zhi raised both hands. “I mean no harm. I’m on your side.” She spoke sincerely, “I think Chu Guangyan deserved to die.”
Qu Rong sneered. “So, you were the one who stole the skin.”
Li Zhi looked at Qu Rong with her intense, sincere gaze—the same look she used when she adored her dog. “I really mean no harm. I can return the skin to you, but all I need is the truth.”
Qu Rong gave her a sideways glance. “It’s just the skin of a filthy man. Why should I care if you take it?”
“Are you sure you don’t want it?” Li Zhi smiled. “Then I’ll just have them burn it.”
“Hey!!”
From behind the wardrobe, Chen Meiqian couldn’t hold back and made a sound. Li Zhi looked past Qu Rong and saw Chen Meiqian step out from behind the wardrobe. Her slender, frail body trembled slightly, her eyes filled with panic, and her lips pale. She pleaded, “Don’t burn it…”
She couldn’t live without that skin.
She didn’t want to become a murderer; she didn’t want to be judged by others. She didn’t want to lose the peaceful life she had now because of a man who wasn’t even worth her resentment.
Li Zhi withdrew her gaze from Chen Meiqian and looked back at Qu Rong. “If Chu Guangyan’s skin is burned, can’t you lend her another one?”
Qu Rong froze. “What?”
Li Zhi smiled and looked directly at her. “For example, Ke’s skin, or the skin of that middle-aged woman I ran into this morning.”
Qu Rong stared at her coldly. After a long pause, she revealed a twisted smile as if she had given up pretending. “So, you figured it all out, huh?”