Awakening abruptly from a deep sleep, Liang Fei looked in terror at Han Cheng.
She was sitting straight up in bed, cold sweat sliding down her pale cheeks.
Was this woman having a nightmare?
"Are you alright?"
Liang Fei asked with concern.
The terrifying Mission and those horrifying ghostly "things" had left their minds battered and bruised.
"I... I dreamed of Chen Lan..."
Han Cheng's voice was choked with heavy sobs.
Faced with this situation, not only was Liang Fei helpless, but the others who had been awakened were equally powerless.
"How about I accompany Han Cheng to keep an eye on Huang Xu today?"
"Don't get me wrong, everyone..."
Seeing the strange looks cast upon him, Lu Ming's face flushed, and he hurriedly explained:
"I just want to find out as soon as possible what other clues that little brat can give us today."
To be honest, Han Cheng was very attractive, both in looks and figure.
It was only natural for Lu Ming to feel a protective urge... After all, he was a man!
However, the real reason Lu Ming said this was because of an inexplicable sense of emptiness in his heart.
Although he hadn't been very close to the fashionable woman who had been eaten, nor to Chen Lan, seeing them die such miserable deaths right before his eyes inevitably evoked a sense of shared sorrow, as lips feel the chill when teeth are gone.
After all, over the past two days, he too had brushed shoulders with death.
Had it not been for his good luck in submitting his clues later in the order, he would probably be thoroughly dead by now.
As for Qin Kai, without Liang Fei, his end would most likely have been the same as Chen Lan's.
"Alright."
With Lu Ming accompanying her, Han Cheng's emotions stabilized considerably.
Soon it was noon. Neither Liang Fei, Zhou Yue, nor the others remained cooped up in the self-built house waiting for opportunities to drop into their laps.
Instead, they went together to the foreman's house, so that the moment any news about Huang Xu came in, they could respond immediately.
Of course, compared to the composure of Liang Fei and Qin Kai, the passage of time felt to Zhou Yue.
Like a death warrant, leaving him sitting on pins and needles.
"Why is there still no news... Brother... Do we still have to wait for the foreman?"
Zhou Yue spoke with some hesitation, wanting to question Liang Fei, yet afraid of displeasing him.
Liang Fei was also feeling rather irritable; of course he didn't want Zhou Yue to be eaten.
Bang, bang...
"There's news..."
Lu Ming's urgent voice suddenly came from outside the door.
"Quick... tell us."
Zhou Yue instantly grew anxious and flung the door open.
"The little brat just said that before his parents were murdered, there was also an older brother who used to keep him company and chat with him."
Lu Ming panted heavily, swallowed hard, and spoke in a dry, raspy voice.
An older brother?
Sure enough, someone had been left out. This clue was simply too crucial.
"Brother, could the killer be this older brother?"
As Liang Fei was deep in thought, cold sweat broke out on Zhou Yue's forehead as he anxiously asked.
"Very likely."
Liang Fei pondered for a moment and nodded.
"That's great... Then let's hurry and find him!"
"But Huang Xu doesn't even know his name, and we haven't found any information about this person after searching for days. How are we supposed to find him?"
Qin Kai's words were like a basin of cold water, chilling Zhou Yue to the bone.
That's right!
They only knew now that such a person existed.
Xiaoshan Village wasn't huge, but it wasn't tiny either. Trying to blindly search for someone like this probably wouldn't be easy.
At the thought of that wildly savage ghostly "thing," Zhou Yue shuddered all over again.
The clue that the killer was a man had already been provided; now they needed some specific direction regarding this person.
Things like physical features or a name were necessary to push the clues further.
Of course, all of this was merely Liang Fei's conjecture. What if he was wrong?
"Since this person appeared recently, he should have some connection to the decoration crew."
Liang Fei twisted his stiff body, slowly stood up, and looked at Qin Kai as he said:
"Go find Wang's neighbor, and have him make a trip to the neighboring village. Tell him we have an urgent matter and need Wang San to come back immediately."
"Then what about me?"
Zhou Yue asked anxiously.
"You stay here and wait with us."
Soon... Qin Kai went and returned.
He didn't come back alone; Wang San was walking alongside him.
Seeing everyone waiting, Wang San asked anxiously:
"Did you find the murderer?"
He spoke up first, equally haunted by the killer of the married couple.
Liang Fei's eyes flickered, and without standing on ceremony, he asked:
"Master Wang, when you were working in the village, did you also bring along a young man?"
"A young man?"
Wang San frowned, not answering immediately.
A moment later, his eyes widened, and with a complex expression, he said:
"During the last two days of finishing work, my apprentice came to help out, but he went back that very night and didn't come the next day."
From his perspective, his apprentice had only had a single day of contact with that couple.
Surely he wouldn't commit murder over that?
"What is his name?"
For Zhou Yue, this was a life-saving clue.
"Master Wang, we have a few questions, just like you, and we want to talk to him about them."
Liang Fei's voice was equally emotional. As long as such a person existed, his guess would be very close to the truth.
But if their direction was wrong, everything would be over.
"His name is Xu Ce, and he lives at the eastern end of the neighboring village..."
Wang San was silent for a moment, then sighed and said:
"He hasn't been back these past few days... I heard... I heard he went to the county town for work."
This was something he couldn't hide.
However, upon hearing that Xu Ce hadn't been back these past few days, Liang Fei's heart tightened.
"Master Wang, the killer Huang Xu saw that night is very likely your apprentice... You must understand that if you shield him..."
After a round of coercion and inducement, they finally learned from Wang San's own mouth that.
Xu Ce was a lazy good-for-nothing with a gambling addiction; going to the county town for work was pure nonsense.
"The killer is definitely him, no doubt about it. It's completely normal for a gambler like that to kill someone for a bit of money. Brother... we can directly name the killer now!"
Stepping out of Wang San's house, the gloom on Zhou Yue's face was completely swept away, replaced by the joy of surviving a disaster.
Liang Fei did not give him a definitive response. Feeling the cold wind blowing past his ears, his mood was, for once, unusually calm.
"The probability that this person is the killer is extremely high, but since he's not in the village, we have no way to find him."
"Now, though, there is a way."