Card Room

Chapter 510 - Ghost Town at Night

The sun was about to set and Qingfeng Town was shrouded in the glow of the sunset. Xiao Lou pushed open the window and looked outside. The people on the street were hurrying home. The lively and peaceful town during the day would become an empty town once the sun set.

Xiao Lou looked at the empty alley and said softly, “If we continue to stay in the town, we will be teleported to the ghost town. This time, I don’t know how many hunters will be waiting for us there.”

Yu Hanjiang walked over to him and gently wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “If we leave Qingfeng Town after dark, will we be teleported to another timeline like Chief Shao and Brother Jiu last time?”

Last time, their team split into three groups. Chief Shao and Ye Qi waited at the gate of the town and were teleported 20 years into the past. Brother Jiu’s group of four went into the forest and as a result, they went back three years.

In other words, people who stayed within the limits of the town after dark would continue to stay in the ‘original timeline’. Challengers who left the town would be teleported to other points in time. It wasn’t clear how the teleportation was arranged but they wouldn’t be able to clear the secret room if they were also teleported 20 years in the past.

Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang. “We must stay in the original timeline. Not only do we have no clues about the murderer in the lake drowning case yet, but the key figure in the ghost killing case, Zhou Xiaoyun hasn’t been found yet as well. Qi Ran and Han Ningshuang, the two murderers also haven’t been found.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Yes, we can only stay here. There are still too few clues in the lake drowning case. The certain thing is that the bride who killed herself at the wedding and the groom who drowned in the river shortly afterwards are key figures in the case. As long as it isn’t an impulsive random killing, the first person he kills must be closely related to his motive. However, the people killed later might be a similar target chosen to satisfy his own psychologically distorted pleasure.”

Based on the information that Qu Wanyue and Liu Qiao had inquired about in town, two years ago on the eighth day of march, the third young master of the Long family, Long Yan, married the oldest lady of the Lin family, Lin Wanqing. Since the Long and Lin families were both big families in Qingfeng Town, the marriage of the two people could be regarded as fated. Many guests were invited.

The murderer must’ve entered the wedding scene as a guest and killed the bride secretly. However, it had been two years since the wedding banquet and it was difficult to completely check everyone who attended the banquet on that day.

Seeing that it was becoming dark, Xiao Lou had to say helplessly, “It seems that we have to wait until tomorrow to continue to investigate the lake drowning case. I don’t know if we can get other clues this time in the ghost town after dark.”

Yu Hanjiang was silent for a moment. Then he pressed on the earpiece and told his teammates, “It is almost dark. Everyone, come to the Heaven room and join me and Xiao Lou, so as to not be attacked by hunters like last time.”

The four people heard this and immediately came to Xiao Lou’s room.

The woman with hair that could grow indefinitely and the woman with the ghost doll makeup and red oil paper umbrella were both powerful hunters. This time, the hunters seemed to be confined to the labyrinth of the ghost town at night and no one interfered with them during the day. It wasn’t known if the hunters had restrictions on their identities during this secret room.

In short, the ghost town at night was extremely dangerous and everyone had to be fully prepared.

After a while, it was finally dark.

Qingfeng Town outside the window was shrouded in soft moonlight. The black shadows of the trees were constantly shaking on the ground and were like demons with teeth and claws. Not even the sounds of any animals could be heard around them. It was eerily quiet as if the six of them had been abandoned by the entire world.

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang looked at each other, opened the window and went outside with their teammates.

This time, the alley wasn’t as straight and endless as before. It was curved and the moon in the sky was clearly visible. Old Mo immediately said, “The alley is normal. We weren’t pulled into that domain by the hunter.”

Liu Qiao looked around for a moment and asked in a low voice, “She didn’t come this time? Or does she not want to use the same means a second time?”

Xiao Lou listened carefully. There didn’t seem to be the sound of hunters around them but Xiao Lou still didn’t dare to let down his guard. He whispered to his teammates, “Everyone, be careful. I will open the way with Hanjiang. Long Seng and Qu Wanyue will follow with the Chameleon card. If there is a sneak attack, stop them first with Elsa’s ice storm.”

The six of them quickly stood in formation.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou walked in front while Long Sen and Qu Wanyue hid their figures with the chameleon card. Behind Liu Qiao, Old Mo took out the labyrinth map on the cloth to show everyone the direction. They quickly walked out of the alley behind the inn and saw the lake in the middle of Qingfeng Town.

The familiar Drunken Moon Lake was covered with the fragments of moonlight. Old Mo crouched down and carefully observed the fragments on the lake. “Tonight’s labyrinth is still rotating. It turns 30 degrees in one hour and it will take 12 hours to return to the origin. If we want to leave this labyrinth, we need to stay here for 12 hours to wait for the labyrinth to return to its original point. Then we can go out from the previous exit.”

Yu Hanjiang lowered his voice, “These 12 hours will definitely be a survival mode. I don’t know where the hunters are hiding.”

Xiao Lou took a deep breath before saying calmly, “Let’s go. Be careful.”

They walked along the lake for a short distance when they suddenly heard the sound of firecrackers. Liu Qiao, who was walking at the end, immediately stopped and turned to look in the direction of the firecrackers. “Firecrackers are released in the middle of the night. Is the plot of Zhao Zean’s marriage being repeated?”

The first time they came to the ghost town, they saw Zhao Zean getting married. Was it the same today?

Old Mo looked at the alley where the firecrackers went off. “It shouldn’t be the Zhao family. This alley isn’t quite right.”

The labyrinth was continuously rotating and it was difficult to accurately identify the direction. He remembered that the alley in front of the Zhao family’s house didn’t have that many willow trees. At this time, the place where the firecrackers came from had the entire street planted with willow trees. The willow branches and leaves on the side of the street swayed with the wind in the moonlight and looked like a ghost.

Xiao Lou said, “It isn’t the Zhao family… it is the Long family.”

Liu Qiao reacted quickly. “Is it Long Yan and Lin Wanqing who had an accident at their wedding banquet two years ago?”

Yu Hanjiang answered in a low voice, “It is a reenactment. Go and take a look.”

The six people followed the sound of the firecrackers to the street. Sure enough, they saw a circle of big red lanterns in the courtyard and the characters ‘Double Happiness’ stuck to the gate. Several guards stood at the door, their clothes a festive red.

At this point, the gate was open but no guests were coming in or out. The wedding banquet might’ve already begun.

Yu Hanjiang looked at Xiao Lou and asked softly, “Should we wear the invisibility cloak and go straight in? Or fly on the roof and take a look?”

Xiao Lou thought about it for a moment. “It is better for Long Sen and Wangyue to sneak in first to see the situation. We will wait for their news.”

Long Sen and Qu Wanyue had already integrated into the environment using the Chameleon card. Qu Wanyue heard this and her voice came from the ground, “Okay, we will go ahead and explore the way.”

The two of them entered the courtyard. A moment later, Qu Wanyue’s voice came from Xiao Lou’s earpiece. “Professor Xiao, the bride and groom are in the hall and none of the guests seem unusual. It should be a reproduction of the scene from two years ago.”

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou glanced at each other and Xiao Lou nodded. “Go in using the light footwork card.”

After all, the invisibility cloak had a time limit of 30 minutes. It needed to be used sparingly. Yu Hanjiang used the light footwork card and flew to the roof with Xiao Lou. Liu Qiao used Thumbelina to put Old Mo in her pocket before also flying to the roof with the light footwork card.

The four of them chose a dark corner where the lights didn’t reach. They sneaked around on the roof and only stuck out their heads to observe the situation in the yard.

“Worship the heavens and the earth! The two of you, pay respects to your parents!”

“Husband and wife pay respects to each other!”

”The ceremony is completed!”

In the hall, the bride’s face was covered with a veil while the groom’s was full of joy. After paying his respects, he smiled and bowed to the surrounding guests.

The groom’s face was fleshy and his eyes would squint into a line when he smiled. His waist was large and round. His height was less than 1.7 meters while his weight was over 120 kilograms. On the other hand, the bride’s figure was outstanding even if her face couldn’t be seen clearly.

Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou had activated Heart has a Tacit Exchange of Romantic Feelings before entering the ghost town. They saw this scene and spoke through the connection. “This groom’s family is rich, which can be seen from his appearance, but his weight isn’t suitable. He probably weighs more than three times the bride… I don’t know if the bride is willing to marry him?”

Yu Hanjiang wondered, “If the bride was being forced, why did the murderer kill the bride?”

Xiao Lou thought about it. “Let’s assume that the murderer loved the bride deeply and had the idea of killing out of ‘love’. Then if the bride was forced by her family, the murderer wouldn’t kill the bride. He was more likely to kill the groom and the bride’s family before taking the bride.”

Yu Hanjiang closely followed his thoughts. “There are two possibilities. First, the bride and the murderer have a deep relationship. Later, she coveted the Long family’s money so she changed her mind and agreed to her family’s arrangement to marry the fat and ugly third young master of the Long family. The murderer became jealous because of this. He killed the bride on the night of the wedding and the young master shortly afterward. Then he killed many girls of the same age in the town due to psychological distortion. He placed red clothes on them and dragged them into the lake.”

Xiao Lou followed this line of thought. “Secondly, maybe the bride once offended the murderer when she was wearing red. This left a serious psychological shadow on the murderer and the murderer hated the bride deeply, so he took advantage of the wedding banquet to kill her.”

Was his mentality distorted due to love and hate or did he hate her and took revenge at the wedding banquet?

Xiao Lou looked up and saw the bride being helped into the new house by her mother-in-law while the groom and other guests stayed in the courtyard to drink. The entire backyard was lively for a while.

Yu Hanjiang’s eyes swept sharply over the guest seats as he tried to find out if there were any suspicious people.

He saw the faces of many acquaintances.

Qin Feng sat at the table to the far left and next to him were Lin Feng, the head of the Lin family and Lin Wanru, who had been killed not long ago. Two years ago, Lin Wanru was just a 16 year old girl and Lin Wanqing was her cousin. She followed her parents to the wedding banquet.

Yu Hanjiang said, “Judging by their expressions, these guests have no obvious abnormalities. All the seats are filled and no one has sneaked away.”

Who would the murderer be? Was he among the guests?

Yu Hanjiang was feeling confused when he suddenly thought of another possibility. “Quickly, go to the new house to see!”

Qu Wanyue heard this and immediately walked with Long Sen in the direction of the new house.

Just now, they had seen the location of the new house when the mother-in-law took the bride away. The two of them quickly came to the door of the new house. The mother-in-law and maids seemed to have retreated and it was very quiet inside. Qu Wanyue poked a hole in the window made of paper and looked inside.

They saw a woman in red hanging from the beam of the room, her tongue extended out. She had long stopped breathing.

Partially proofread: Paranoid Kitten