Chapter 14 "So..."

"So..." Fatty's eyes widened. "It was Lin Chen's corpse that ran out on its own?"

Hua Luo's eyes flickered. "Lin Chen?"

"Yes." Jiang Cheng nodded. "We just found out that the woman living in room 808 is called Lin Chen, and she's Li Maoshen's girlfriend."

After thinking for a while, before Hua Luo could speak, Jiang Cheng looked at the phone screen, his expression gradually changing. "Huh?"

"What's wrong?" Fatty snapped back to reality, looking at the doctor.

Jiang Cheng took the phone and slowly dragged the progress bar backward, seemingly discovering something. But quickly, the screen was blocked by an outstretched hand.

"Let me do it." Hua Luo seemed to know something. He dragged the progress bar, directly locating a position, and then showed it to everyone.

In the frozen frame, everyone saw that the Lin Chen in the raincoat didn't seem to be alone. Beside her... there was also a black shadow standing.

Because the rain was heavy and the light was dim, no one had noticed it at first. But now, everyone saw that it seemed to be the silhouette of a person.

However... Chu Jiu squinted her small eyes, getting closer.

It was a person wearing all black, quite tall, a whole head taller than Lin Chen beside him. He walked beside Lin Chen, his pace completely in sync with hers.

To Jiang Cheng and the others, it felt like... Lin Chen's shadow.

It was a pity they couldn't see his face.

Seeing this, Jiao Tai Lang, who had already calmed down, began to tremble uncontrollably again. After a moment, "It's him?"

His tone suggested that he already knew the identity of this man in black.

"Who is it?" Hua Luo immediately looked at him. "Explain yourself."

"I... I don't know who he is, but Sister Qing told me before that before Lin Chen, who lived in room 808, fell from the building, Li Maoshen had once complained to her."

Weng Qing knew about the relationship between Li Maoshen and Lin Chen. This twisted relationship was also one of the triggers for Weng Qing's later suicide.

"Once, Li Maoshen drank some wine and went to find Weng Qing. He told Weng Qing that he had just slapped Lin Chen twice because someone had told him that Lin Chen had another man behind his back and had even brought that man home while he was away."

"But Weng Qing didn't believe this. Strangely, even though they both loved the same man, Weng Qing couldn't feel any hatred towards Lin Chen. She just felt that Lin Chen was also quite pitiful, a small girl from the countryside who had come to the city to work, with no relatives or friends. Moreover, Li Maoshen wasn't very good to her. She was often alone at home, very lonely."

"But Lin Chen was very honest and introverted. She rarely spoke, so she couldn't have found another man outside."

"Weng Qing always treated it as Li Maoshen being crazy, because he often suspected women of being unfaithful to him. Maybe he just had a guilty conscience, so he thought everyone else was guilty too."

"But later, one time Weng Qing went to collect rent from another room in Building 3 and happened to pass by room 808. Suddenly, she heard a quarrel inside."

"A man and a woman seemed to be arguing fiercely. The woman was naturally Lin Chen, but the man's voice..." Jiao Tai Lang swallowed, lowering his voice and saying, "Wasn't Li Maoshen."

"If it wasn't him, then who was it?"

"At the time, Weng Qing was also very curious. She hadn't planned to interfere in such matters, but unexpectedly, Li Maoshen returned aggressively, probably because some gossipy neighbor had secretly told him."

"As a result, Li Maoshen didn't even knock on the door. He took out his key and rushed in without saying a word, but Lin Chen was the only one at home."

"Li Maoshen went up and kicked Lin Chen, followed by several slaps, knocking Lin Chen to the ground, and demanding to know where she had hidden that wild man."

"If Weng Qing hadn't been there to pull him away, Lin Chen probably would have suffered even more. But Lin Chen insisted that there was no one else, that she was the only one at home, and he could search if he didn't believe her."

"Needless to say, Li Maoshen closed the door, found a stick, and then began to search the rooms one by one. The room wasn't big, so he quickly searched it, but there was no one there."

"He even looked out the window, but there was no one. Li Maoshen was stunned at the time and even asked if that wild man had run away after hearing the news?"

"In the end, Weng Qing pleaded for her, and Lin Chen wasn't beaten any further. But after this incident, the more Weng Qing thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong, because she clearly heard a man's voice inside, as well as the sound of walking. It couldn't have been the sound from a phone or a TV, because it was too real."

"At that time, there was someone in the room!"

"A man!" Jiao Tai Lang said with certainty.

Jiang Cheng signaled him to calm down and then continued to ask, "Later, did Weng Qing discover any more clues?"

Speaking of this, Jiao Tai Lang's eyes flickered strangely, but he still said, "That's what I asked, but Sister Qing's memory seemed to stop there. I could feel that she must have discovered something afterward, but she just insisted that she couldn't remember."

After a few seconds, Jiao Tai Lang said, "I don't think Sister Qing didn't want to say it. I think she really couldn't remember."

"Her memory has been interfered with by something." Hua Luo stroked his chin, analyzing, "Or it has been erased by some kind of eerie force."

His analysis sounded more reliable, and everyone felt the same way.

"The rules?" Chu Jiu asked softly, tentatively.

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment and shook his head. "It doesn't seem like it. If it were the rules, then she shouldn't be showing this vague feeling. Instead, she shouldn't be able to remember what happened at all. She wouldn't even remember the whole incident."

The people in the room were experienced and knew that this made sense. As the rules that defined life and death in the Nightmare Assault, they definitely had such overbearing power.

"Then what could it be?" Fatty blinked and asked, "Could it be..."

"It's the man in black!" Hua Luo bit his lip, firmly saying, "He's the one who influenced Weng Qing's memory, and he's also the man in room 808. He even went to the police station and took away Lin Chen's..."

Speaking of this, he paused, because he didn't know what kind of term to use to describe Lin Chen's state at the time.

If he said she was a ghost, she did have a physical body. If he said she was a corpse, it didn't seem quite appropriate.

In short, all of this should be related to this so-called man in black.

Moreover... according to the autopsy report, this Lin Chen had died a month ago. So how did she survive in the month before she committed suicide by jumping off the building?

Undoubtedly, it was also related to this man in black.

Now, all the suspicions pointed to this man in black who had appeared in room 808, who clearly had an unusual relationship with Lin Chen.

Find him.

This task should be considered complete.

Since the man in black knew Lin Chen, then they had to start with the circles that Lin Chen could come into contact with. Lin Chen had a simple life, so this should be easier to investigate.

"By the way." Jiang Cheng looked at Jiao Tai Lang. "What did Lin Chen do for work?"

After all, a person like Li Maoshen wouldn't be able to support a girlfriend who just stayed at home and didn't make money.

"It's said she was a creative person." Jiao Tai Lang said while recalling, "It seems... it seems she was an illustrator or something. Sister Qing said she saw a large easel in room 808."