Giggler

By Logan Roberts

Under the coercion of that faceless bastard, the Old Gods, the Reincarnationists struggle to survive or enjoy the myriad of worlds with their strange rules. Survival in the world of reincarnation, competing forces, breaking free of desires, searching for the essence of the world, and slaying a few obtrusive gods, and so on. This is a third-rate

• Language: English
• Publisher: Manuel Lopez
• Release date: Jan 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869325822

Book preview

Chapter II: Processing

    The deceased's name is Lu Tao. Wearing a school uniform, obviously a student.

    Zhang Yiqi think he and Lu Tao may be classmates, so again into the chat software, in their own sophomore class group to check the group member information. Unsurprisingly, Lu Tao is among them.

    Subsequently, Zhang Yichang downloaded the satellite map app and searched for the location of their school, and found that this middle school was just across the street from his current neighborhood. This also proved once again that the speculation that this house was rented by him for the purpose of traveling to and from school was correct.

    May 6, was a Saturday.

    Since they were all students, they would all have to obediently go to school on Monday. This was a troublesome point, the mysterious force had given him the task of sticking around for seven days, and if he had to go to school the day after tomorrow, then Lu Tao's matter might soon be exposed.

    But this matter was still too far away comparatively, and he decided to focus all his energies on the present and solve the immediate problems one by one first.

    There was a large patch of blood on the floor and varying degrees of spatter on the coffee table and white walls. And before the traces of the scene could be cleaned up, the body had to be put to rest. Zhang Yizhi looked at the tricky corpse and walked into the small bedroom where the miscellaneous items were kept, hoping to find some objects that could help him.

    A few minutes later, he returned to the living room with two rolls of plastic wrap. One roll of the plastic wrap was opened and the other unopened, the unopened roll had a width of forty-five centimeters and a length of one hundred and twenty meters written on it, and Zhang Yizhi planned to wrap Lu Tao's body up with this stuff. Although there is a volume used some, but how to add up to more than two hundred meters, enough.

    It is now 7:50, Lu Tao died about five and a half hours, the body has begun to gradually become stiff, and because of the blood coagulation skin black.

    Zhang Yiqi a head of sweat, he wiped, from the closet took out a long-sleeved, set up after the first to his upper body wrapped a layer of plastic wrap, which squatted down to try to help Lu Tao upper body up. This is not easy, Zhang Yizhi force will Lu Tao's upper body lifted about forty-five degrees, followed by a knee on Lu Tao's back, began to wrap Lu Tao's upper body with plastic wrap.

    The temperature of the corpse did not actually seem that cold yet, but Zhang Yichang still felt a strong sense of alienation. Currently, to him, the difference between the living and the dead was reflected to a greater extent psychologically. His hands trembled slightly as he wrapped it quickly with a rough technique. After wrapping a few times, Lu Tao's face was slightly deformed due to being squeezed. Seeing this, Zhang Yizhi pulled more than ten pieces of tissue paper to cover Lu Tao's face, and wrapped dozens of circles, now Lu Tao's upper body has been wrapped very tightly, he also can't see Lu Tao's appearance at all, which reduces the psychological pressure to a certain extent.

    Upper half of the body wrapped, Zhang Yiqi dragged the body away from the pool of blood, and then began to wrap the lower half of the body, winding from Lu Tao's pockets turned out his cell phone, put the phone aside, Zhang Yiqi continued to be busy, and ultimately the two rolls of plastic wrap used up, and Lu Tao was wrapped up into a mummy.

    Whew, Zhang Yizhi stood up and took a long breath.

    This was both physical work and a test of mental endurance, so in less than twenty minutes of work, he was already exhausted and sweating profusely. After resting for a few minutes, Zhang Yizhi walked into the bathroom and found two rags and a foot wash basin, ready to clean up the blood.

    The time is close to six o'clock, the sky is a little dark, Zhang Yiqi will turn on the living room lights, began to dip into the water with a rag to wipe the blood on the floor, basin after basin of sewage was poured into the toilet. After about half an hour of cleaning with various cleaning fluids, the blood on the tiled floor and coffee table was cleaned up at least with the naked eye could not be seen.

    Zhang Yichang had read the criminal investigation class when he worked in the library, and he knew that there was a kind of reagent called Luminol that could detect very small amounts of blood, even if he washed it clean. But if there really was the day when direct evidence was extracted by the reagent test, there must be a premise that existed, that is, the police already suspected him of murder. As long as he can do without being suspected of murder by the police, then the police will not have a motive to search his home for traces for no reason.

    Throwing both the rag that had wiped the blood and the fruit knife that had killed Lu Tao into the basin, Zhang Yiqi's body sat down on the sofa and began to rest. At this time, the living room on the right side of the mummified Lu Tao's body, the bathroom door piled up the tools he used to clean up the scene. Everything else was restored as before, and it was impossible for a normal person to tell that there had been a murder here a few hours ago.

    Only the blood spattered on the walls could not be cleaned off.

    The walls of this rented house had only been scraped with putty powder, and the location of the blood spatter was rather unusual; it was at the corner of the living room to the kitchen, and was on the high side. Putting up wallpaper to cover it up was not justified, after all, no one would put up wallpaper in this location, putting it up instead would make it more noticeable. But if you put wallpaper all over the house, this is another huge project, and buying a large amount of wallpaper at this sensitive time is also likely to be noticed by the police in the days afterward.

    The option of removing the blood spatter with a spatula or knife was also quickly ruled out. The blood was quite deep, and if the blood was removed in its entirety, it would have left a very distinctive mark.

    The blood on the wall had no solution for the time being, it could only be that before Zhang Yizhi found a way, he must not let anyone into the house, otherwise he would be exposed at the first opportunity.

    A little headache Zhang Yichang gave up thinking about the wall problem, he picked up Lu Tao's cell phone, wanting to query some useful information from Lu Tao's cell phone. Unfortunately, Lu Tao's cell phone has a password, did not get what he wanted.

    After a short period of adjusting his state, Zhang Yichang organized the things that Lu Tao had left in his house.

    Separately: a pair of high-count glasses, a book bag full of books, and a cell phone with a password.

    These things also had to be disposed of at some point. As for Lu Tao's body, even if it was wrapped up in a ball, it was still the trickiest. Put it at home? Although the logic of saying that the most dangerous place is the safest place is not wrong, would it be too risky to put it at home? If the police were to take a look at his house, Lu Tao's body would easily be discovered, after all, there was nothing good in his house to hide.

    Throw it outside? He didn't really understand what was going on out there, but he had only seen an overhead view from a satellite map app. And with the slow update cycle of satellite maps, what he was looking at now couldn't be said to have been taken years ago.

    Zhang Yichang took a shower and washed the blood as well as sweat that had stained his body, then changed into fresh clothes, poured a cup of water to drink, and planned to take a trip out later to check out the terrain.

    After all, the blood spattered on the wall could not be resolved for the time being, and it was relatively too early for Monday's lesson, so now understanding the terrain to transport Lu Tao's body out became the primary issue.

    As long as he could arrange this matter properly, Zhang Yizhi's pressure would be relieved by a large margin.

    Ding-dong, ding-dong.

    Just as he was making the next step in his planning, the doorbell suddenly rang.

    Someone's coming!

    Panic flashed across Zhang Yizhi's face as he looked around, the blood on the walls that couldn't be cleaned up, the bodies in the living room that hadn't been hidden yet

    Whoever was coming, he must not be allowed in, or the matter would inevitably be exposed!

    Zhang Yichang's heartbeat instantly accelerated and his mind spun rapidly. He stood up and walked slowly towards the door.

Chapter 3: Turnaround

    He tried to look through the cat's eye to see who was coming.

    Hello, Express. A voice came from the door.

    Zhang Yichang breathed a sigh of relief, glad that it wasn't some acquaintance who came looking for him. Since it was a courier, it would be better to simply pretend that he was not at home. The door definitely couldn't be opened because the location of the bloodstains was too conspicuous. He also wasn't going to try to get the courier to leave the delivery at the door, in case the other party had to sign face to face, or leave some other abnormal impression, it would not be worth the loss.

    After deciding so, Zhang Yichang sat motionless on the sofa and waited for the courier to leave on his own. However, in a few dozen seconds, the doorbell stopped, but he still did not hear the sound of the courier coming downstairs, and thus did not act rashly.

    Suddenly, a purely musical cell phone ringtone rang! Turns out the courier thought he really wasn't home, so he called!

    Zhang Yichang hurriedly went to get the cell phone on the coffee table, he subconsciously wanted to hang up the phone, but immediately controlled himself.

    He had faked the illusion that he was not at home, and although the ringing of the phone would surely be heard by the courier outside the door, the fact that the phone was ringing was not evidence that he was at home. Instead, once he hangs up the phone, the illusion of not being at home will be unmistakable.

    After careful deliberation in his mind, Zhang Yichang put his cell phone down and stared at the screen.

    For another ten seconds or so, the phone had not been picked up, so the courier hung up, and called again after a few seconds, and still no one picked up. Soon, Zhang Yichang heard the sound of the courier coming downstairs.

    Phew, breathing a long sigh of relief, Zhang Yizhi got up and went to the small bedroom where the clutter was kept, standing sideways on one side of the window and looking down.

    Not long after, the courier walked out from the door of the unit, scratching his head in confusion and looking towards the sixth floor where Zhang Yichang was. Worried about being seen by the courier, Zhang Yichang shrunk his head back, and at the same time, he saw the living room that was brightly illuminated by the lamp.

    No wonder the courier was puzzled! It turned out that he had forgotten to turn off the lights! Cell phone ringing in the room, the living room lights are still on, there is too much to say. Zhang Yizhi made a snap decision and took out his cell phone to call the courier back.

    Hello? Zhang Yichang said as he walked towards the living room and found the keys in his pocket.

    Is this Mr. Zhang? I just came to your house to deliver a courier to you, why didn't anyone open the door? The courier said suspiciously.

    Zhang Yizhi walked to the door and started to change his shoes, I just went to sleep and just woke up to see the missed call. Did you go far?

    No, I just came downstairs.

    Cheng, wait for me, I'll go downstairs to get it. Zhang Yizhi put on his shoes and opened the door to go downstairs.

    The courier hurriedly said, No, no, I'll just go up again. Saying that, the courier walked into the building again.

    Naturally, Zhang Yichang wasn't really being polite, he intentionally went out just to keep his family's secret.

    Soon, the two met in the hallway. The courier handed the signing slip to Zhang Yiqi, who signed his name, took the packet of courier, and went upstairs.

    When he entered the house, Zhang Yizhi opened the delivery, it was a new pair of shoes. He opened the shoe cabinet and prepared to put the shoes in, but the shoe cabinet was already full.

    It seems like the predecessor was a great shoe lover. Zhang Yichang thought, and then organized the shoe cabinet again, making room to stuff these shoes in. Then again, Zhang Yichang came back to the small bedroom and stood by the window to survey the below.

    He had been busy earlier, and it was only now that he finally had time to take a good look at the situation outside.

    This was an old-fashioned neighborhood where each residential building was seven stories high, and each building had six units respectively. There was a special parking area in front of the building, and in one corner of the parking area, a camera was set up, which was angled just enough to monitor all six unit doors.

    Shit, Zhang Yiqi was like falling into an ice cellar.

    Everything had just gone relatively smoothly, so smoothly that he had a little bit of thinking to do. He hadn't realized that there would actually be security cameras in this neighborhood! Having cameras meant that the police could easily find out that Lu Tao came to his house and didn't go out, and having cameras meant that he couldn't transport Lu Tao's body out of the house.

    If the bloodstains on the walls, were a nuisance, then the security cameras almost directly declared the end of Zhang Yizhi! He simply couldn't figure out how to neutralize the several fatal points that the surveillance camera had created for him!

    Zhang Yichang returned to the living room with a gloomy face and sat down. The series of events that had occurred had caused him to suffer constant shocks, and he realized that the difficulty of the task that the mysterious force had given him was beyond what he was capable of managing, and that he would not be able to cope with this kind of scene.

    The discomfort of all the sensations blended together made Zhang Yizhi feel even more uncomfortable than facing death.

    After adjusting himself once again, Zhang Yichang took his cell phone and keys and went out the door.

    Since it is clear that difficulties do not disappear automatically, it is better not to hesitate or waste time, but to meet them head on.

    The moment Zhang Yizhi closed the door to his home, a sense of unease arose that he was out of his comfort zone. He took a deep breath and turned around to survey the household directly opposite his home, which seemed to be uninhabited, and the security door was not even fitted with a cat's eye.

    Through the hole in the door ready to install a cat's eye, Zhang Yizhi saw that the neighbor's living room had just finished laying tiles and was still a messy mess, seemingly under renovation.

    Generally renovators would not work until too late, because renovations usually moved a lot, and working until too late would affect the rest of the surrounding tenants. Now it's already more than 8:10, it is estimated that the renovator has finished work before seven o'clock. And I woke up after seven o'clock, so I didn't hear any big noise outside.

    Zhang Yichang recalled the scene in which he killed Lu Tao, and there was not only his roar and Lu Tao's screams, but also the sound of the electric drill. Originally he couldn't understand why there was the sound of the drill, but now he knows that when he killed Lu Tao, the opposite side of the house was probably under renovation. It was also fortunate that the sound of the electric drill covered up everything that was happening in their house, and did not make this terrible scene exposed early.

    After a brief analysis, Zhang Yichang tiptoed up to the top seven floors, above the two security doors are placed in front of the sundries and cobblers, should be occupied. On the other side, there is a steel ladder leading to the rooftop, but unfortunately the door to the rooftop is locked.

    He then began to descend the stairs, checking to see if there were any residents on each floor in the meantime. After grasping this information that he could not utilize as of now, Zhang Yichang exited the door of the unit. Acting as casual as possible, he began to walk towards one side.

    As he walked, he pretended to be bored and looked left and right, but in reality, he was quietly checking out the cameras. When he walked to the main entrance of the neighborhood, Zhang Yichang was a bit disappointed because he found that there were cameras in front of every building, which caused him to avoid the cameras in front of their buildings even if he could think of every possible way, but he would still be monitored by the other ones.

    This huge surveillance network made of cameras turned into a cloud hanging over his mind, becoming the most urgent problem he wanted to solve now.

    To the main entrance to the neighborhood side of the front room supermarket to buy some noodles, Zhang Yichang carrying plastic bags plan to continue to explore some towards the periphery.

    The cameras in the neighborhood are confined to the inside only, and the only cameras out of the neighborhood are the ones that appear at intervals on the sidewalks along the highway.

    Zhang Yiqi climbed onto the footbridge and arrived at the square opposite the neighborhood. Although it was close to 8:30, the place was still very crowded and lively, and there were already grandparents piling up to dance in the square.

    Feeling that there was no more point in exploring this route, he walked towards the other side, skirting the square along the sidewalk and coming near another neighborhood called Yonghe. To the east of the Yonghe neighborhood was the square, and to the west was a narrow patch of woods, what was behind the woods Zhang Yichang didn't know, he only walked to the edge of the Yonghe neighborhood and then didn't explore further.

    Zhang Yizhi returned from the north side of his neighborhood with the purpose of taking another look at his middle school.

    After mapping out several important buildings around him, he entered the neighborhood. When he arrived in front of the residential building he was in and entered the door of the unit, Zhang Yichang suddenly stopped in his tracks.

    He realized that there was actually a door in the hallway! This door happened to be located in the blind spot of his field of vision when he came out, and was ignored because his attention was fully focused on the camera when he came out!

Chapter 4: Settlement

    Zhang Yichang's heart was beating wildly, and a feeling of clarity exploded in his head as he felt that things might have taken a turn for the better. Taking a slightly stiff step, he walked into the hallway and pressed his hand down on the door's handrail.

    The door was locked.

    But this didn't hit Zhang Yichang at all, and he guessed that this should be the entrance to the basement used for storage by the residents of each unit.

    If this guess was right, then he should also have a key that could open the basement. He placed the plastic bag with instant noodles on the floor, pulled out the keychain, and started trying them one by one.

    Tut!

    I didn't realize that when I tried the third key, the key actually opened this door!

    Zhang Yichang revealed a smile after a long time, he gently pulled open the door, it was pitch black inside, and he could only see a staircase stretching downward through a little light from outside.

    He turned on his phone's flashlight and shone downwards, the stairs ended at a wall, and the left and right sides looked like narrow corridors. After hesitating in place for a few seconds, Zhang Yichang looked around for a while to make sure it was safe, lifted the plastic bag and walked into it, closing the door behind him in the process.

    By the light of his cell phone flashlight he made his way to the end of the stairs, and to his left and right were narrow corridors, and on either side of the corridors were arranged doors.

    The scale of this basement was beyond Zhang Yichang's imagination, and roughly estimated that there were at least hundreds of storage rooms. He pressed the light switch on the wall, and the basement suddenly brightened up.

    Turning off the flashlight of his cell phone, Zhang Yichang began to check the specific situation. Some of the doors of the storage room are open and some are closed, and it is estimated that the locked ones have been used by the residents to place sundries.

    Zhang Yizhi walked towards the depths of the corridor thoughtfully, and after walking about ten meters or so, he noticed that another upward staircase appeared on the side of the corridor.

    It made him a little confused as to why any stairs existed, was it possible that more than just the one he had taken could lead to the basement? He ascended the stairs and attempted to open the door, but found that it was also locked.

    Frowning, he pulled out the key that opened the basement door he had just opened and tried the door, not realizing that it actually opened!

    The door opened to reveal another hallway!

    Zhang Yichang was a bit stunned as he slowly walked out of the basement and looked at this hallway, realizing the most special part of the basement. But he didn't dare to jump to this conclusion easily yet, he retreated back into the basement to lock this door again, and walked down the stairs to walk quickly towards the deeper part of the basement corridor.

    So he found staircase after staircase leading up!

    So that's how it is. Zhang Yichang couldn't help but mutter to himself.

    No wonder the basement was so big, it turned out that it was shared by the residents of six units in the whole residential building! The six staircases leading to the top corresponded to the hallways of each of the six units. In other words, the residents of all six units in this building can come here through the basement door of their unit's floor.

    As for why the key to the basement door of the fourth unit he was in could open the basement door of the third unit, Zhang Yichang felt that this could be easily explained. After all, the occupants of all six units could all come to the same basement, so there was no point in changing their door locks to different ones.

    With a windfall, Zhang Yichang always felt that this could help him in some way, and he took his things back to the hallway of the fourth unit, locked the basement door, and went upstairs to his home.

    Entering the home and directly throwing the plastic bag on one side of the sofa, Zhang Yichang flipped out the paper and pen and began to write and draw on the coffee table.

    Occupying more than half of the paper is a rough map, with the neighborhood where Zhang Yichang lives on the far right, the adjacent school directly above that neighborhood, and to the left of the neighborhood, in order, a footbridge, a plaza, the Yonghe neighborhood, and a long grove of small trees.

    After drawing the map, he immediately made a list of the two main problems he was currently facing on the side of the map.

    How do you clean blood off the walls?

    Where is Lu Tao's body going to be hidden?

    Around these two cores, Zhang Yichang writes down a variety of information that he encounters along the way out. The neighbor across the street was renovating, there was a ladder to the rooftop on the sixth floor, but it was locked, and the basement connected to all six units in the building.

    Eventually, Zhang Yizhi wired some of this information into two questions.

    Night.

    Around one o'clock in the morning.

    Zhang Yichang sat on the sofa in the living room, he didn't turn on the lights, so the room was pitch black. Feeling that he had reached a point where it was almost safe enough, Zhang Yizhi got up and ripped open the curtains of the window to look outside.

    There were only a few lights still on in every residential building within his sight.

    After standing by the window in silence for about a few minutes, Zhang Yichang walked towards Lu Tao, who was wrapped in plastic wrap, and he reached his hands under Lu Tao's body and slowly lifted them up.

    Lu Tao's physique was about the same as his, and under normal circumstances lifting it up wasn't particularly laborious, but now Lu Tao was dead heavy, which made him unable to help but let out a low grunt, and gritted his teeth as he managed to pick up Lu Tao.

    Carrying it was naturally relatively less labor intensive, but Lu Tao was wrapped up in a ball, and carrying it instead became inconvenient.

    Carrying Lu Tao's body to the door, Zhang Yichang gently pressed the door handle and the security door opened.

    The lights in the hallway were sound-activated, and Zhang Yichang was unwilling to make a big commotion, so he could only descend the stairs with the help of the faint moonlight that was projected in.

    Holding the body step by step and slowly descending the stairs, Zhang Yichang exhaled and exhaled on Lu Tao's cold body. Sweat quickly drenched his clothes, and he didn't know if it was an illusion or if he really smelled a trace of an odor that tickled his stomach a bit.

    It took three minutes to carry Lu Tao from the sixth floor down to the first floor with great difficulty. These three minutes were almost the longest period of time in his life.

    When he reached the basement door, Zhang Yichang held Lu Tao's body with one hand and took out the key to open the basement door with the other. It was early in the morning, and almost no one would go out, so Zhang Yichang didn't free his hand to close the door. He carried Lu Tao down before coming back up to close the basement door.

    The object color of a pile of a lot of miscellaneous items looks like a long time no one has come to the storage room, Zhang Yiqi Lu Tao's body into the corner, with other things covered up to cover up.

    After doing so, Zhang Yichang went upstairs again and put Lu Tao's school bag, glasses, as well as his blood-stained clothes, murder weapon, and tools used to clean up the scene.

    After carefully checking once and confirming that there were no mistakes or omissions, Zhang Yichang closed the door to the storage room and made his way back home without leaving any traces. Shutting the door behind him, his body instantly sagged and leaned against the door.

    He was nearly out of it, his entire body drenched in sweat. It was a long time before he did his best to walk into the bathroom, to the sink, turned on the faucet, and, after filling the sink with water, dove in headfirst

Chapter 5: Disguise

    The following day, Sunday, May 7

    Ten o'clock in the morning.

    Master Chen and his colleagues are working feverishly to scrape putty powder to this family's renovated house, laying the foundation for the next step of painting the walls. Suddenly, the door of the house across the street opened. A young man came over and greeted them politely, asking them: My house wall splattered a little ink, a few masters can come to help brush it? The splash is not much and won't take up too much of your time.

    Hearing that he was trying to help, Master Chen gave a cold snort in his heart. These days it is not easy for them to work, the average working time is more than ten hours, there was not much rest time, where would they like to help others for no reason.

    But the next second, the young man walked in, pulled out a few hundred-dollar bills in denominations, and scattered one to each of the three masters of the construction.

    Master Chen immediately decided, while the head of the household is not in, he sneaked to earn an extra buck.

    Hi! What's with the politeness! Master Chen said as he took the money.

    It's not easy for everyone, it's only right to give some money. The young man said, and with that, he led Master Chen into his home, pointing to the wall at the corner of the living room and kitchen, where there was a patch of dark green ink, This is it, please.

    Master Chen thought it was the wall after painting the wall, that is a little trouble to deal with. This kind of wall just after scraping putty powder, two or three can be resolved, and also to ensure that you can not see the traces of new paint.

    Of course, Master Chen just thought about it in his heart and didn't say anything. This young man seems to know nothing about these things, so simple a matter of giving them a hundred each, really earn a lot.

    OK, it's not hard to handle. Master Chen went back to get the brush.

    The young man followed over and asked, Master, is it easy for people to see that we've finished painting this wall?

    Don't worry, when it's dry you won't be able to tell any difference. Master Chen waved his hand to reassure the young man, then picked up the brush and carried a small bucket containing putty powder back the same way.

    The young man found a few pieces of paper pads on the floor, Master Chen put the brush into the bucket and turned it, then lifted it a little, paused for about ten seconds, and directly began to brush the wall with ink.

    A few brushes and the walls were white again, except that there was now some difference in color between the newly painted spots and the rest of the house.

    OK, that's done, when it dries you won't be able to tell the difference. Master Chen said.

    Thank you. The young man thanked.

    It's all a small problem, then I'll go over and work on it if there's nothing else. Master Chen smiled and said.

    The young man helped Master Chen lift the bucket containing the putty powder: OK, I won't waste your time, I'll help you carry it back.

    Aiya no need no, just a few steps said the young man has helped Master Chen to move the bucket back, Master Chen a smile, feeling that this young man is quite understanding.

    The young man finished lifting the bucket and thanked him before returning home. Master Chen and the two workers looked at each other and smiled, happy for today's easily earned extra money, and then also continue to start their work.

    Closing the security door behind him, Zhang Yichang, who had just been all smiles, regained his composure. He came to the wall that was originally splattered with blood, and scrutinized the situation after this fresh paint job.

    Feeling mostly fine, he then sat back down on the couch, closing his eyes and rubbing the bridge of his nose as he contemplated something.

    It was about eleven forty that night.

    Zhang Yichang returned to the basement for another trip, took Lu Tao's school bag, glasses and shoes back home, knocked out the lenses of Lu Tao's high-count glasses, and brushed the shoes that had blood stains stuck to them, and then changed into his own school uniform and wore the glasses that had already had their lenses knocked out.

    Lu Tao's shoe size is a little smaller than his, he took out the insoles padded inside, so that wearing barely not so cramped.

    He stood in the bathroom, looked at himself in the mirror, felt a little dissatisfied, and rummaged for another ducktail to put on.

    Glancing at the time, which was now eleven fifty, Zhang Yichang returned to the bedroom and rummaged through the closet to find a pair of black pants and a top with a hood.

    Putting these two pieces of clothing as well as a pair of shoes and a bag into his school bag, Zhang Yichang did one last thing, and that was to turn Lu Tao's cell phone off only now and pull out the cell phone card.

    Time passed by minute by minute, gradually approaching twelve o'clock sharp. Zhang Yichang didn't take Lu Tao's cell phone, but just changed into Lu Tao's school bag, shoes, and glasses and went out the door.

    As he descended the stairs he took deep breaths from time to time to adjust himself, trying to look normal.

    After exiting the door of the unit, Zhang Yichang was exposed to the camera. He slightly lowered his head, and the brim of his duck-tongue cap was enough to cover his face. He began to follow the route he had taken yesterday, going out from the main gate of the cell, ascending the footbridge, going around the square, passing by the main gate of the Yonghe Cell, and entering within the small forest next to the Yonghe Cell.

    Entering the grove, Zhang Yiqi first vigilant and immobile looked around, to make sure that no one, immediately took off the duck-tongue cap, opened the schoolbag, took out the civilian clothes to change, the school uniform, duck-tongue cap, Lu Tao's shoes, glasses stuffed into the bag.

    Pulling the hood of his top shirt up over his head, Zhang Yichang held the bag containing his school uniform in one hand and Lu Tao's already empty school bag in the other, and continued to walk through the grove of trees, surveying the outer highway from the grove.

    After spending some time to finally find a surveillance blind spot, Zhang Yizhi walked out and threw the schoolbag into the trash can. The trash can should be emptied once a day, and the schoolbag would be taken out of this dangerous zone without leaving a trace.

    Already refreshed, Zhang Yizhi walked quickly on the sidewalk next to the highway, and from time to time threw down some things in the trash cans on the side of the road. Deliberately made a big circle, from another gate back to the neighborhood when Lu Tao's schoolbag, shoes, glasses, duck tongue hat have been thrown away.

    When he came to the front of the seventeenth residential building Zhang Yichang did not enter the fourth unit to go home directly, but entered the first unit.

    After entering the first unit, Zhang Yizhi breathed a sigh of relief. His sense of insecurity was only weakened by so many points when he wasn't being monitored by cameras.

    Taking out the key, Zhang Yichang opened the basement door, walked into it and locked it again. Then from the narrow corridor in the basement, he came to the staircase that led to the hallway of the fourth unit.

    He came out and double-checked that he hadn't left any oversights before striding up to the sixth floor and returning home.

    Whew! Taking a long breath, Zhang Yichang felt somewhat relieved. He put the bag containing his school uniform aside and collapsed himself onto the sofa.

    Without lying down for long, Zhang Yichang sat up again and probed to pick up a notebook from the coffee table; most of his time during the day today had been spent on predicting what would happen next and recording various confessions and compiled new phrases in the notebook.

    The lights weren't on, and he didn't flip open his notebook, just clutched it like this and lay down slowly again, eyes closed, quietly waiting for the dawn to come.

Chapter 6: Schools

    Monday, May 8

    morning

    Zhang Yichang woke up early, went into the bathroom to wash up briefly, and took out the instant noodles he bought the night before when he went out and made a bowl to make up for his stomach.

    At this time, the chat software rang. He put down his chopsticks and picked up his cell phone, which showed that there was a new message from the class group he and Lu Tao were in.

    I don't know if it was his predecessor's personality, but all the chat messages with everyone in the chat program were empty, as if they would be deleted on a regular basis. This prevented him from getting more useful information from the chat program, and he could only reopen the class groups that had been blocked by his predecessor to receive as many new messages as possible.

    There was a message sent out by a person whose note was called Sun Chao in the class group, and this message was a sign-in record. It didn't really matter what the content of the message was, what mattered was that it showed that the person was now online.

    Zhang Yizhi chatted privately with Sun Chao through the class group and sent a direct message asking him to help him buy a bottle of orange juice and put it on the table.

    Not a few seconds, Sun Chao returned the message: no problem brother, the money does not have to give, we who with who ah, count me please you.

    Listen to this tone like and Zhang Yiqi predecessor is very familiar with the appearance, which makes Zhang Yiqi have a little trance, he took a closer look to determine that the two of them are not even chat software friends.

    This kind of small problem Zhang Yiqi did not go deeper, he glanced at the time, it was still early, so he flipped open the notebook, the new wording, forged a new timeline and then carefully stapled up.

    He wants to make sure that he memorizes and remembers the contents of the notebook to death, to the point where he himself subconsciously will think that what's in the notebook is what's really going on these days.

    High school students generally go to school at the same time, even if the difference is not too much. Zhang Yichang estimated that the time was almost up, so he changed into his school uniform and left the house a little later, walking towards the school.

    There weren't too many students on the road now, but there were enough for Zhang Yichang to distinguish. The school uniforms for boys and girls are the same, only that they are black and white for boys and red and white for girls. There is also a third type of school uniform, blue and white, and wear this type of school uniform students are generally not tall face tender.

    Zhang Yichang guessed that those who wore the third type of school uniform should be junior high school students.

    Entering the school gate, he followed some students who were also high school students into a school building. Entering the corridor, he didn't mess up and went straight to the fire escape evacuation schematic posted on the wall.

    This map can be viewed as a planar map of this layer.

    Zhang Yichang didn't see his class class number on it, so he found his way up the stairs to the second floor to continue looking at the map, and soon, he realized that his class was at the end of the corridor on the second floor.

    He adjusted himself to look natural as he walked towards the classroom of the class he was in. As he reached the door to the classroom, his eyes began to dart around and he soon noticed a bottle of orange juice drink sitting on one of the tables at the very back.

    Taking a deep breath, Zhang Yizhi walked over and sat down.

    There were six rows of tables in the class, and every two rows were put together, so every student had a table. Only Zhang Yichang sat at the very back, and one side was empty without even a table.

    It's normal, in the style of the average teacher, to move the bad students to the end of the line and the most articulate students to their front.

    Zhang Yichang didn't have a backpack because he realized that he didn't have one at home at all. His schoolbag was in the desk cabinet, and he obviously didn't bring it back from his weekend predecessor.

    Great, doing what a standard delinquent student does. This status should allow him to avoid a lot of unnecessary trouble, classmates won't approach him to chat, teachers won't call on him to answer questions in class, just let him be a quiet delinquent student in the back.

    Sitting in his seat, Zhang Yichang was bored, he observed the surrounding again and happened to lock eyes with a fat man wearing glasses. The fat man was sitting in the forward position, and twisting his body to look here should be deliberate.

    Only to see the fat man with a smile on his face, waving his hand at Zhang Yiqi, his fawning color showing: Brother Chi, drinks are on me, money really doesn't have to be given.

    Zhang Yizhi thought to himself that he had not intended to give, he also intends to continue to maintain the status of bad students, really pay you money is not very down.

    Good. Zhang Yichang still returned a word, then took out his cell phone and casually flipped through it.

    Early in the morning there were a few more messages in the class group, none of them were useful information, but Zhang Yiqi suddenly remembered something, he found the group album, clicked on it, inside there were some photos of the group activities of their class, such as the group photo of the school sports day. He scratched through them one by one, and finally stopped at the top of the midterm exam report card.

    Above in first place is Lu Tao in last place.

    It puzzled him how an absolutely good student got entangled with him, an absolutely bad student. What exactly was the relationship between the two? He vaguely felt that what was going on here was not simple.

    When the bell rang for morning study, the students copying each other's work gradually subsided, and most of them began to consciously take out their textbooks to memorize.

    This atmosphere Zhang Yiqi is still quite nostalgic, he also worked very hard in high school, is hoping to get into a good university, do not let alone pull his mother grew up disappointed. Unfortunately, although he went to a good college, but his mother was not able to see him step by step as he wished to become a man, his own silent fight against the disease for many years, and finally in his junior year of college when he died.

    Hmm, sighing softly, Zhang Yichang quickly skimmed over the unpleasant memories.

    Having lived on his own for four years, his first step to independence was learning to regulate his emotions, his state of being.

    The class bell had only been ringing for a short while as well, when a middle-aged woman walked in, who appeared to be the homeroom teacher, and began to sit there and supervise the students as usual.

    Soon, the homeroom teacher noticed an empty seat in front of her, she got up and came to the heel of the empty seat, bent down and asked the classmate next to her in a low voice, Where's Lu Tao?

    The student shook his head to indicate that he didn't know.

    The homeroom teacher straightened up and clapped her hands to signal everyone to be quiet: Everyone stop for a moment, has anyone bumped into Lu Tao?

    The students all shook their heads and said they didn't know, while Zhang Yiqi pretended to be drawing in his book and didn't brush up his presence early.

    Xu Jin Yan, go to the bathroom and check, he might be using the restroom.

    A tall, skinny boy with glasses immediately got up and walked quickly out of the classroom, and a few minutes later he came back, slightly out of breath, and said, Several bathrooms have been searched, nothing.

    The homeroom teacher frowned, Alright, you guys keep studying.

    It was assumed that most people now just thought that Lu Tao was late, so they didn't show too much of a surprised expression. Zhang Yichang raised an eyebrow and continued to absentmindedly scribble on his books.

    At the end of the morning study hall, the homeroom teacher instructed the students to go to the office and inform her if Lu Tao came before she left.

    Then began the formal classes, math class, English class, two classes to the end of the regular running time, running back to the classroom at the end of the classroom, there is about ten minutes of rest time, the classroom teacher at this time came to the classroom to ask the students whether Lu Tao, get a negative answer, the classroom teacher face obviously show a trace of worry, then she left.

    Zhang Yichang guessed that the homeroom teacher should have felt that something was wrong, after all, if Lu Tao was going to take a leave of absence, then in any case, he should have called to notify earlier, rather than delaying until this point in time.

    Sure enough, in the middle of the fourth period class, the homeroom teacher knocked on the door, opened it and first greeted the teacher who was teaching the class, and then began to count the people, Xu JinYan, Han DongDong, and Zhang YiChi, you three come out.

Chapter 7: Police

    Only when the remaining two got up and walked to the door did Zhang Yichang get up and follow.

    The three of them followed the homeroom teacher to the office. It was now class time and there were very few teachers left in the office. The homeroom teacher sat in her seat and looked at the three, Lu Tao hasn't come to school yet. I just called his mom and she said that he hasn't been back since Friday's vacation, saying that he went to a friend's house to stay. Several of you are Lu Tao's good friends, you should more or less know something about the situation, did Lu Tao go to your house to stay?

    From the class teacher's words, Zhang Yichang got important information, that is, Lu Tao did not go home after vacation on Friday afternoon. Extrapolating from the time, he should have gone directly to Zhang Yizhi's house after school.

    He went to my house. Zhang Yichang said. There was no hiding at this time.

    On Friday?

    Well, it was after eleven last night, don't leave at twelve I think.

    What's he doing at your house for two days?

    Drinking. Zhang Yichang said, the reason for saying so was that he found many beer bottles in his house, and quite a few unopened ones, which looked like they were drunk in the past few days, He was planning to leave on Saturday, but I didn't realize that later on, he drank too much and got a headache, so he slept at my house again.

    Regarding Lu Tao's drinking, the homeroom teacher didn't look surprised, and even had a hint of sympathy: Is it because of that?

    Which one?

    Zhang Yichang didn't know that, and he didn't know how to take it. Just as he was thinking and hesitating, the homeroom teacher spoke to herself, You all know the situation of his family, his father died early, his mother worked hard to raise him to such a big age, but she found out that he has uremia. Lu Tao these months school, hospital back and forth, I look also very heartbroken.

    Teacher, could Lu Tao have run away from home because he was too stressed? Xu Jin Yan put forward the idea.

    This idea was consistent with the situation that Zhang Yichang wanted to deliberately create, so he began to agree, I think it's very likely. He left quite suddenly last night, I was still sleeping when I heard the sound of the door slamming and when I got up, he was gone. Tried to call at the time to ask him why he was leaving so late, but his cell phone was off.

    Said, Zhang Yiqi also took out his cell phone to show the class teacher call records, there is indeed a record of a call he made to Lu Tao late at night.

    He's not going to do anything out of the ordinary, is he? Han Dongdong's speculation is a bit more exaggerated, His mother is not to do dialysis, recently not a lot of borrowing money from people. Borrowed me more than three hundred points, and now has not yet returned it.

    It's possible. The homeroom teacher nodded, Once her mother became ill, the family was left with no financial resources at all. In fact, I've already reflected this situation with the leadership, and the school side is preparing to mobilize the whole school to make donations to his family recently.

    Han Dongdong said with some concern, Teacher, what should we do? Do we need to call the police?

    It's not that bad, right? Zhang Yichang smiled, but his face was a bit stiff, "Even if we do a full count Lu Tao has only been missing for twelve hours, I reckon it won't be long before he comes back. After all, he's quite filial, no matter how, it's impossible not to consider his mom's current situation.

    You have a point. The homeroom teacher murmured, looking a little dissuaded from calling the police, You guys go back to class, I'll take care of this.

    Zhang Yichang and the remaining two students returned to the class, and so far, nothing major had happened throughout the morning. It was only the remaining two students who spread the news of Lu Tao's disappearance throughout the class, and this matter became the main topic of conversation among the students after class.

    After school at noon, Zhang Yichang returned home and casually made another bag of instant noodles. When the noodles were cooked, he took out his notebook to make wording corrections.

    In the morning he had acquired a number of additional important pieces of intelligence that pointed to things that were somewhat different from the wording he had prepared, so corrections needed to be made in real time to deal with any particular situation that might occur next.

    After lunch, Zhang Yiqi had been focused on stapling and memorizing the pseudo-wordings compiled in his notebook for the weekend.

    At two o'clock, Zhang Yiqi once again left home and headed to school. The class was again filled with students early, and at about two twenty, the homeroom teacher came and directly named Zhang Yichang to go to the office with her.

    Teacher, is there any news? Zhang Yichang pretended to be concerned.

    No, and Lu Tao's mom was so worried about him that she insisted on asking me to call the police. I was also afraid that something would happen to him, so I went to report the case at noon, and I've only just returned. Now the police are waiting in the office, Lu Tao has been staying with you for the past few days, so the police want to ask you some specifics.

    Hearing the homeroom teacher say this, Zhang Yizhi was a bit uneasy, but within seconds he suppressed his emotions, I think it's a bit of a fuss.

    It's a small thing to say, but what if? When something goes wrong, we'll all have to take the responsibility. The homeroom teacher sighed, seemingly helpless as well, after all, as a homeroom teacher would not want to be stumped with this kind of thing, When I went to report the case at noon, people were still not accepting it, saying that disappearance is under the control of the criminal police team, but Lu Tao's case is less than the criteria for filing a case.

    Then why are the police here again? Zhang Yizhi wondered.

    The homeroom teacher said, I told them about Lu Tao's family's situation, and a criminal police officer decided to come over to help look for them after hearing about it. But it hasn't met the criteria for filing a case, so they won't be filing an investigation, and I don't think they're going to put more manpower into it.

    Saying that, the two had arrived at the office, which was a bit busy as classes were approaching. Zhang Yichang followed the homeroom teacher in, and at a glance, he saw the middle-aged man sitting on the sofa with his head down, flipping through his notebook.

    This middle-aged man was sitting upright in civilian clothes. Simple small flat head, hair white mixed with black, his age was estimated to be around fifty years old. He looked out of place with the other teachers, and should be the criminal police officer that the homeroom teacher was talking about.

    The class teacher led Zhang Yichang to the middle-aged man and said, Officer Li, I've brought the person.

    The middle-aged man closed his notebook, got up and looked up at Zhang Yichang, who was half a head taller than himself, and politely said, Hello, my name is Li Rongnian.

    His voice was a little raspy, and he was supposed to be an old smoker.

    Hello, my name is Zhang Yiqi. Zhang Yichang looked at Li Rongnian, and the two of them briefly stared at each other.

    Sit down. Li Rongnian gestured for Zhang Yizhi and the homeroom teacher to sit down.

    After all three of them sat down, Li Rongnian once again flipped open his notebook, holding a fountain pen, and looked at Zhang Yichang for questioning, Tell me more about the whole process of Lu Tao going to your house and then to his departure.

    Good. Zhang Yiqi had already compiled the experiences of the past few days, He went to my house after school on Friday afternoon and wanted to borrow money from me.

    Li Rongnian began to take notes on his notebook, but just as Zhang Yichang finished this sentence, he shouted to stop, Wait a minute, Lu Tao went to your house on Friday to borrow money from you?

    Right. His mother has uremia and dialysis requires a lot of money, but their family no longer has any financial resources, so they can only ask for a loan. Zhang Yichang replied calmly. This statement was something he had just changed at noon today, and after being called to the office by the homeroom teacher for questioning in the morning, he had obtained several important pieces of information.

    Lu Tao's mother has uremia; he is a single parent; he is in great need of money; he has borrowed a lot of money from others.

    He was friends with Lu Tao; he was rich.

    Originally, he prepared a statement that Lu Tao had something on his mind so he sought him out for a drink,