Chapter 44: Escape

Qiong Cang closed the game prompt box. As the surrounding mist dispersed, she gradually regained control of her body.

She shifted her eyes, her gaze slowly sweeping over her surroundings as she analyzed her situation.

Based on the information, she was currently indoors, located in an area near the suburbs of A City. This apartment belonged to Fan Huai… Ning Dongdong’s younger sister.

Qiong Cang lowered her gaze. When she saw a female corpse lying on the floor in front of her, her pupils contracted involuntarily.

The victim had likely just died. There was a large amount of blood, and the wound was located in the upper left abdomen, possibly piercing the heart. There was obvious physical trauma on her body, her front teeth were missing, and she had been beaten before death.

Qiong Cang then turned to her right. About two meters away, an adult male lay face-up on the floor, a painful expression frozen on his face. He wore no jacket, no shoes or socks, and no belt. There were multiple stab wounds on his abdomen, and his eyes were stretched wide in an unnatural stare. He, too, was presumed dead.

Two dead bodies in a single living room.

Qiong Cang tightened her fingers and raised the object in her hand. She was holding a Western-style chef’s knife. The blood on it had not yet dried, slowly trickling down the blade. It felt heavy in her hand. The edge of the blade was slightly chipped and curled, indicating it was likely the murder weapon.

Qiong Cang turned around to look behind her.

There were bloodstains on the doorknob, suggesting the door had been opened from the inside. Through the crack of the half-open door, she could catch a glimpse of a partial blue figure, presumably a neighbor going up or down the stairs who had heard the commotion and come to investigate.

Disregarding all other information, from the perspective of the person outside, this room looked exactly like a crime scene where Ning Dongdong had just killed two people.

Two gruesomely murdered corpses, bloody footprints she had accidentally stepped in, and the murder weapon clutched in her hand – all this evidence left her with no way to explain herself. Perhaps she would also have to factor in his criminal record and status as a key suspect in a serial murder case.

Of the three-minute countdown, only two minutes and thirty seconds remained.

Under such pressing conditions, the three-minute time limit seemed a bit too harsh. A highly visually shocking scene would immediately grab a person’s attention, thereby clouding their judgment.

And thirty seconds was not even enough time for people to recover from the shock of a double homicide, let alone find the best escape route within their limited field of vision.

Just as the netizens’ thoughts were being derailed, and they began to heatedly debate the true cause of death of the two victims before they could even type out complete sentences, Qiong Cang moved.

She lifted her foot. At the same moment, the sound effect announcing the official start of the game rang out in the background.

The cold, mechanical voice was like the pulled pin of a grenade, instantly tightening everyone’s nerves.

This was a critical moment. Everyone held their breath, and the comment section fell quiet.

To everyone’s surprise, Qiong Cang did not flee toward the balcony. Instead, she rushed toward the door with lightning speed.

Moving nimbly, she pressed herself against the crack of the door. Just as the person outside was tentatively pushing open the security door with their line of sight blocked, she clamped one hand over the visitor’s mouth, grabbed their arm with the other, dragged them into the room, and kicked the door shut with her toe.

The person she dragged in was a short, plump, middle-aged woman who smelled of cooking oil. After stumbling forward, the woman saw the corpses on the floor. Forgetting her own situation in an instant, she opened her mouth to scream.

Fortunately, Qiong Cang kept her mouth tightly covered. Taking advantage of the woman’s panic, she locked her arm around the woman’s neck from behind.

Intense fear drove the hostage to struggle desperately, but Ning Dongdong’s character build was that of a tall, well-built adult male. Qiong Cang only needed to exert a little force to completely suppress her movements.

Feeling the threatening pain, the woman finally quieted down.

“Don’t move,” Qiong Cang said, pressing the blade against her neck. Her voice was low and raspy. “If you don’t want to die, keep quiet.”

Muffled, painful whimpers escaped the middle-aged woman’s throat. Tears streamed down her face as she nodded, trembling all over, completely stripped of the courage to resist.

Qiong Cang ordered the hostage to move with her. Walking over to the sofa, she bent down, picked up a rag from the floor, and stuffed it into the woman’s mouth. Then she moved to a corner, unplugged a power strip, and used the cord to bind the woman’s hands.

This rather unfortunate middle-aged woman had been drained of all her strength by the fright. Her body went completely limp like wet clay, and the moment she lost Qiong Cang’s support, she slid straight to the floor.

She looked up, her tear-filled eyes staring at Qiong Cang with utter pleading and submissiveness.

Qiong Cang said in a flat tone, “Get up.”

The woman shook her head, but she didn’t dare disobey. She struggled to kneel and sit up on the floor, but tumbled over several times due to her lack of agility. By the time she finally managed to scramble up, Qiong Cang had already returned from the kitchen with a wooden chair.

She placed the chair in front of the French window and calmly instructed, “Sit.”

The woman obediently sat down.

Using the scarf the female victim had left hanging on the back of the sofa, Qiong Cang tied the woman’s legs to the chair so she couldn’t move. She double-checked to ensure the knots on her hands and feet were secure, then went to the bathroom to fetch a clean towel.

A bubble of snot popped from the woman’s nose, making it hard for her to breathe. Watching Qiong Cang approach again, she failed to understand Qiong Cang’s goodwill and struggled to make whatever sounds she could to vent her emotions.

“Screaming won’t do you any good. I know they’ll find you here soon. It’s fine, I don’t want to kill you right now. If you behave, you’ll have a chance to get out of here alive.” Qiong Cang swapped the rag for the clean towel, and the woman indeed did not take the opportunity to scream. Qiong Cang pinched her chin and said, “If you bite down too hard, you’ll dislocate your jaw. Don’t waste your energy.”

Tears streaming down her face, the woman made a few muffled sounds, roughly asking: Why?

Qiong Cang cast an emotionless glance at her and turned away.

The scene seemed to contain a lot of chaotic information, but the situation was actually very clear.

At that moment, the only obvious option available to her was to escape.

The first was to escape from the balcony. The apartment was on the second floor, and with an awning to cushion the fall, jumping out of the window wouldn’t easily cause injury. However, the eyewitness was already standing at the door. The person would enter the room immediately, spotting the two corpses and Qiong Cang’s retreating back.

There was a police station not far from this neighborhood, and the response time would likely be under five minutes. If Qiong Cang fled without any preparation, she would find herself at a massive disadvantage.

The second option was to escape through the front door. This was probably even worse. Two people were already dead in the apartment, and judging by the scene, a fierce struggle had taken place before they died. The residents of the building were very likely paying attention to the commotion on the second floor, just like this hostage. If she tried to break out from the front, Qiong Cang feared she wouldn’t even make it out of the neighborhood.

Qiong Cang rejected both options immediately. Clearly, running away blindly in a crisis was not a good choice.

Time. She needed all kinds of misleading information to buy crucial time.

·

The netizens in the Live Stream Room were stunned by her.

“?? How did this turn into a kidnapping incident?”

“Am I watching a kidnapping in an escape live stream?”

“I thought she ran, and was thinking that a 96-point expert indeed makes prompt decisions. I didn’t expect her to come back and turn the crime scene into a locked room. 【Inhaling oxygen】”

“I know, this must be to silence the witness. It fits what a wanted criminal would do, and fits the role.”

“This tells us not to join in the fun alone. You need friends to gossip. Remember to go in groups next time.”

·

Having settled the hostage, Qiong Cang began to carefully search for the two victims’ phones.

Ning Dongdong did not have a phone on him. He had been monitored by the police for a long time, and to avoid police tracking, he had not brought any communication devices.

The crime scene had already been disturbed to some extent, and Ning Dongdong’s traces would inevitably be left behind. He was currently the most suspicious person, which was unavoidable. When someone saw their sister on the verge of death, their first thought would certainly not be how to keep the scene clean to prove their innocence, but rather trying to save their sister’s life.

Fortunately, the area around the male victim was relatively clean. As Qiong Cang walked around, she actively avoided that spot to avoid making the forensic investigation more difficult.

Before long, Qiong Cang found a phone with a shattered screen under the dining table. Just as she pressed the home button, a rough pounding sound came from the door. The knocking was urgent and loud, less than half a meter away from her. It vibrated her eardrums and startled the viewers in the Live Stream Room.

“Hey? Xiao Zhou, are you guys okay?” someone outside shouted. “Xiao Zhou, have you seen your Auntie Sun? She came up just now saying she wanted to check on you. How did she suddenly disappear?”

The hostage nearby was affected, and the panic she had just managed to calm down instantly flared up again. She gathered all her strength and kept rocking her body, trying to use the scraping and clattering sound of the chair on the floor to attract the attention of the person outside.

With both sounds ringing in her ears, Qiong Cang dashed over, grabbed the remote, turned on the TV, and cranked the volume to the maximum, drowning out the other noises.

The person outside noticed the change inside and raised his voice to shout, “Xiao Zhou! Xiao Zhou, can you open the door? What are you doing in there? I know you can hear me, answer me first! Xiao Zhou!”

Unmoved, Qiong Cang crouched beside the female victim, wiped her finger clean, and pressed it against the unlock sensor.

Within three hours of death, it was still possible to unlock a phone with fingerprints. Neither of them had been dead for long, and Qiong Cang successfully unlocked the screen using the woman’s finger.

Receiving no response, the middle-aged man continued to pound on the door, his actions becoming increasingly aggressive, almost as if he were going to smash a hole in it.

The rapid, accelerating thuds of his knocking sounded like the Grim Reaper’s summons. Even the viewers watching from a third-person perspective couldn’t help but grow tense. Yet Qiong Cang, who was right there at the crime scene, still had the leisure to crouch on the floor and change the phone’s passcode.

“Xiao Zhou, if you keep this up, I’m calling the police! Why are you afraid to open the door? Did something happen? Come out and we can talk about it. What’s the point of locking yourself in!”

Qiong Cang opened an app, turned on location services, calmly booked a taxi, and bought four or five train tickets. Her every move left the netizens dumbfounded.

“Xiao Zhou!”

The voices outside grew chaotic as different people joined in. Clearly, other neighbors had gathered after seeing that something was wrong, trying to talk to the person inside. At a rough estimate, there were at least three of them.

“Can’t we talk this out? Open the door!”

The netizens in the Live Stream Room thought they were battle-hardened and could remain calm even if the sky fell. But now, under the influence of the various background noises, they also began to grow anxious, feeling a sense of urgency as if they were being surrounded.

When they saw that Qiong Cang, after putting down the phone, still did not choose to run but instead headed to the bedroom to rummage through the wardrobe, they all lost their composure and cried out, spitting at their screens. All their hard-earned composure vanished into thin air before Qiong Cang.

What are you doing, friend? If you don’t run now, are you waiting to go to prison?

No matter how fiercely the netizens complained, Qiong Cang remained detached from the world, always acting at her own pace.

She rummaged through things very quickly, with a clear goal and in an orderly manner.

She took a shirt and trousers, a set of casual clothes from the wardrobe, and found a small amount of cash, cosmetics, and other items from the cabinet. She packed everything into a black bag and walked out. The whole process took no more than two minutes.

During those two minutes, the people outside began to try to break down the security door. Amidst the dull thuds, the door frame and the wall vibrated continuously, sounding extremely terrifying.

If they successfully broke in, they would see that the “Xiao Zhou” they kept calling out for was currently lying in a pool of blood, having long stopped breathing.

However, it could be inferred from their conversation that the people in this building did not know Qiong Cang – Ning Dongdong – had come.

This was good news.

Qiong Cang growled in a low voice, “Get lost!”

Her voice was shrill to the point of hoarseness, losing its natural tone. It was not very distinct, and the people outside did not notice anything wrong.

The neighbors fell silent for two seconds, then began to warn her in an unfriendly manner.

“We’ve already called the police, they’ll be here soon! If you’ve caused trouble, release her quickly. You might still get a lighter sentence for surrendering. We’re all neighbors, don’t make things so ugly. Let her go, quickly!”

“Honey! Honey, are you okay?”

“We’re going to unlock the door!”

Qiong Cang walked over and drew back the curtains of the French windows. The bright light forced the hostage to close her eyes, causing fresh tears to well up in her already damp eyes.

Qiong Cang removed the towel from her mouth. The hostage immediately let out a long-suppressed, piercing shriek. Hearing this, the people outside fell into a brief silence, and Qiong Cang stuffed the towel back in.

The crowd’s emotions erupted instantly:

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Xiao Zhou, don’t do anything foolish! Beating your wife to death won’t get you a heavy sentence, but if you kill two people, you’re finished!”

Qiong Cang went to the study and brought back a laptop, adjusting the camera to face the front door. Then she dismantled the speakers on both sides of the television and connected them to the laptop.

The sudden silencing of the television plunged the room into a vacuum-like silence. This shift affected the crowd outside as well, bringing their arguments to a halt.

Qiong Cang typed a line of text on the screen, and a synthesized male voice read it aloud.

“All of you shut up. Call the police. I want to negotiate with them!”

“Stop banging on the door, or I’ll kill her.”

The crowd replied in panic, “Okay, okay, don’t do anything rash. Let’s talk this through.”

Once she had stabilized the crowd outside, Qiong Cang used a social media app on her phone to connect to the laptop.

Having finished the final task, while the viewers’ hearts pounded wildly, Qiong Cang finally picked up her packed bag, walked into the bathroom, and climbed out of the skylight, using the pipes to slide safely to the ground.

·

Below the bathroom was a relatively secluded path that few people knew about. Since the crowd had been drawn to the front of the building, this area was completely deserted.

As the camera panned across the wide sky and the empty road, the viewers breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Holy crap, she’s finally out!”

“Woman, you are playing with fire¹.”

“So why was I the one getting so nervous?”

“People with weak nerves really can’t play this game. If it were me, I would’ve run away ages ago. That scared the life out of me.”

“Was that gear really that important? Getting the phone was enough, she could’ve just bought the rest outside!”

“Buy them? You’re underestimating the police’s tracking capabilities. I just want to know where she’s heading now.”

However, before the viewers could relax for long, Qiong Cang turned the corner of the path and ran straight into a group of uniformed police officers hurrying toward her.

The police response time was faster than Qiong Cang had anticipated. These Players had been eager to join the game and were practically running.

After all, Ning Dongdong was a familiar face within the police system. If they came face-to-face, he would definitely be recognized. Qiong Cang instinctively turned her back.

It was this very instinctive movement that drew the gaze of the man leading the squad, causing him to look in her direction.

Translator’s Notes