Chapter 2 The Second Floor

The elevator ran smoothly until it stopped on the 2nd floor.

After the doors opened, everyone was afraid to move.

It was hard to say why; it seemed... they just wanted to minimize their presence and not attract the attention of the guys behind them.

But to Yu Yu's dismay, if they didn't move, neither did the guys behind them.

The two groups just stalled.

The elevator doors remained open, revealing the empty hall on the 2nd floor.

"Let's go," Jiang Cheng finally said.

Although it was Jiang Cheng who spoke, he didn't move. Several people on either side sandwiched him in the middle. The icy chill was like a thin ice blade, cutting across his skin.

Holding his breath, Yu Yu was the first to walk out.

Then came Cao Yang.

Neither of them dared to look back.

Jiang Cheng was the last to exit.

It wasn't until Jiang Cheng stepped out that everyone realized the chill emanating from the elevator behind them.

A few seconds later, a "creak" came from not far away.

Following the sound, the scene before Yu Yu's eyes made him gasp.

In the corridor on the right, the doors of more than a dozen rooms opened in unison, and in front of each door, a figure flashed by with their back to them.

Then, the doors closed.

A gust of wind blew past, and everything was as before.

It was as if nothing had happened.

"Don't look," Jiang Cheng said, withdrawing his gaze. "They're not here for us."

"What's going on?" Yu Yu turned around and looked behind him.

The elevator doors slowly closed, and then the elevator descended, finally stopping on the first basement level in everyone's sight.

"Is it... Wang Changguo?" Cao Yang asked in surprise.

He thought Wang Changguo was completely dead.

Jiang Cheng looked at the elevator's position, "I don't know, but whether it's him or not, we shouldn't wait here. Let's go upstairs and find the others."

"Okay."

...

Not long ago, Huai Yi brought Lin Wan'er to the 9th floor and went straight to room 916.

It seemed like no one had been here for a long time.

The door was closed. They pushed hard, but the door was locked.

Due to its age, the decorations were relatively old. There was a large transparent glass panel above the door frame, probably for lighting.

They hadn't seen anyone when they arrived. Huai Yi slowly retreated, looking like he was planning to crash through the door.

Just a wooden door, it wouldn't be too difficult for him.

But just as he was about to accelerate, Lin Wan'er walked up, took off the hairpin behind her head, and in less than 10 seconds, they heard a crisp click of a spring.

The door opened.

"Don't move!" Just as Lin Wan'er was about to push the door open, Huai Yi stopped her. "Let me do it."

Lin Wan'er glanced back at him and stepped aside.

Huai Yi walked to the door, first putting his ear close to it and listening for a while. Not noticing anything unusual inside, he slowly pushed the door open.

Due to the night, it was very dark inside.

But through the faint light from the corridor, they could still see that the space inside was relatively large, and the air was filled with a damp, musty smell.

It seemed like no one had been here for a long time.

Turning on the flashlight on his phone, Huai Yi walked in, shining the light around. He found that the place was even bigger than he had expected.

It looked like an office layout, with a black long table directly in front.

The table was reflective. Only when they got closer did they realize that it was covered with a piece of glass the same size as the tabletop.

Lin Wan'er walked in behind Huai Yi, looking around and asking, "What is this place?"

Huai Yi looked at the photos pressed under the glass on the table and said, "Zhang Zhaowei's office."

There were no surprises; Lin Wan'er had guessed it too.

She was just confirming.

Unlike Huai Yi, who was rummaging around near the desk, Lin Wan'er was checking around with her phone.

Zhang Zhaowei seemed to be a book lover. In his office, there were several bookshelves placed against the wall, filled with professional books.

A tall, wide iron cabinet was placed slightly behind the desk.

It was dark green, and the paint was peeling off in some places.

There were individual iron compartments on it, each with a number and a recessed, anchor-shaped handle.

Lin Wan'er had only seen similar things 20 years ago.

Generally, large archives would use this kind of iron cabinet to store documents.

Seeming not very interested in the iron cabinet, Lin Wan'er walked around it and came to the space behind the room, where a single bed was placed.

It wasn't a special bed, just the most common iron bed in a hospital.

The same as the ones in their ward.

The iron cabinet separated the office space and the private space, so it seemed that Director Zhang Zhaowei would lie on this bed to rest when he wasn't working.

Before long, Huai Yi walked over with a frown. It seemed he hadn't found what he wanted near the desk, so he turned his attention to the bed.

"What exactly are you looking for?" Lin Wan'er asked, staring at Huai Yi's back.

"I don't know either." Huai Yi shook his head, squatting down. "But I think this director must have left some clues before he died."

"Could it have been taken away by someone?" Lin Wan'er helped him illuminate with her phone.

After a moment of silence, Huai Yi's search still yielded no results. He slowly stood up, sighed, and said, "Maybe."

If it was taken away, then based on the existing clues, Director Qi and Zhao Ru had the greatest suspicion.

The former was to cover up the truth, and the latter... was for revenge.

"Let's go," Huai Yi said in a low voice. "Let's leave here first."

Back in the corridor, after closing the door, Huai Yi's tense nerves relaxed slightly. The light in the corridor shone on his face, making it look even paler.

"What clues did you find?" Lin Wan'er asked.

Obviously, Huai Yi had come back and specifically searched the former director Zhang Zhaowei's office, so he must have investigated some clues.

Leaning his back against the wall behind him, Huai Yi looked very tired, but he still rubbed his face and perked up.

"I found out Xiang Nan's background." Huai Yi said in a low voice, "It's not quite the same as we initially thought..."

"Before marrying Yin Zhenliang, Xiang Nan had been married once," Huai Yi looked at Lin Wan'er, "and had a child."

"But not long after, Xiang Nan's child died, and then her first husband couldn't stand the blow of losing the child and committed suicide."

"Committed suicide..." Lin Wan'er said.

"That's right." Huai Yi licked his chapped lips. "He committed suicide by jumping off a building, jumping from the 27th floor. He was gone instantly."

"How did that child die?"

"He was bitten to death by wild dogs." Huai Yi introduced, "I saw the photos of the scene. The scene was terrible, with shredded meat and pieces of clothing everywhere. His neck was almost bitten off, with only a layer of skin hanging on."

After saying that, Huai Yi seemed to have become a different person, staring at Lin Wan'er with a strange look. After a long while, he asked, "Do you remember Xiang Nan and Yin Zhenliang's child?"

Hearing this, Lin Wan'er's expression changed.

Huai Yi paused and continued, "The report said that he was also bitten to death... by wild dogs."