In the entire apartment, there were not many tenants that were powerful enough to tamper with other neighbour’s memories. The mysterious building manager was one of them, so Han Fei’s suspicion was not unfounded. After a few days of gaming, Han Fei could categorize the tenants into two types, the communicable ones and the ones who were dominated by pain and despair. They shared the same apartment and had some kind of connection between them. Han Fei had not discovered the whole truth yet, he had a feeling more would be revealed once he stepped into the building manager’s house. ‘10th floor, I need to get there as soon as possible.’
After Meng Si’s status stabilized, the exhausted Han Fei left Room 1031. He returned to Room 1044 and closed the anti-theft door. ‘Meng Si on the 3rd floor cares a lot about me and I’m still trying to befriend the Big Sister on the 5th floor. Weep has begun to change his mind about me. Now I only need to help my roommates recover their sanity, then I would have completed the small goal of forming a peaceful, neighbourly relationship.’ After playing the game for some time, Han Fei’s mindset also slowly changed. Initially he investigated the cases for the sake of his survival, but as he dug deeper into them, Han Fei sincerely wanted to unearth the truth, to help bring justice to his neighbours.
‘It’s time to leave, the longer I stay here, the more authentic this gaming world feels.’ Pressing the quit button, the world was swallowed by red and Han Fei’s consciousness flagged.
Removing the gaming helmet, Han Fei laid in bed and refused to move. Compared to physical fatigue, the mental fatigue bogged him down even further. ’I doubt there’s any acting job coming in soon, thankfully I have some savings that can sustain me for a while.’ Han Fei used his phone to log into his bank account. ‘I see two possible ways to earn money in the near future. The first is to wait for Perfect Life to enter OB, but I doubt my collected items will have any sale value in the normal game world. The second method is to claim the reward money from helping the police solve the case.’
Han Fei’s eyes swept to the picture of Meng Changan but what he saw was 50000 RMB stuck on the wall. ‘Well, it is still an honest way to earn money.’
This time Han Fei obtained a crucial clue from the game—Dong Hwa Ice Factory. The most painful memory for Meng Si happened at this place, this was news to Han Fei. He planned to visit the place in person the next day.
…
At 10 am, Han Fei was woken up by his alarm. After a quick breakfast, he pulled out his phone to call Li Xue. “Are you free now? Can you accompany me to investigate a place of interest?” Even though Han Fei was not a detective, he had seen many detective movies. Conducting investigation without backup often led the main character into danger, he did not want that for himself.
“Where is this place?”
“In the frozen body case, the cold chain transport truck’s cargo was most likely not the first crime scene. Meng Si and Chen Chen’s bodies were planted there.”
“We knew about that already.”
“Then do you have any idea where the first crime scene is?”
“Not for now.”
“I’ll bring you there.”
Han Fei did not need too long to convince Li Xue. One hour later, Li Xue arrived at Han Fei’s place. On her bike, they journeyed to Xin Lu’s Northern Countryside together. Xin Lu City was extremely large, the upper class and middle class stayed at the intelligence city. Beyond that was the old city. Low income citizens called this place home, before the citizenry database was constructed, it was a hive of crime. Other than the intelligent city and old city, Xin Lu also had 4 country areas facing the 4 nautical directions. As the technology advanced, the people previously residing in the countryside surged towards the city and Xin Lu outskirts became more and more abandoned. Currently, they were mostly populated by rotting flats and deserted factories.
Dong Hwa Ice Factory was at Xin Lu Northern Countryside, it was a small-scale plant. It was built in the countryside because the utility bills would be cheaper and the lack of surrounding neighbours meant no chance of being complained. After leaving the highway, Han Fei and Li Xue weaved through the squalid flats. It was noon but there was no one around. After about 10 more minutes, Han Fei finally spotted the signboard for the plant at the end of a small alley. The paint of the board was peeling and the words rusted.
“It looks like this place has been shut down for a long time already.” The road that led into the plant was cracked and unkempt.
“Even if this is really the first crime scene, what can we find after 10 years? Any evidence would be gone by now.” When Li Xue first heard the news, she was excited but her mind cleared on the way here, “Also, Han Fei, how did you know this is the first crime scene?”
“By using logical deduction.” Han Fei grumbled a random excuse. He studied the 2 metres tall cement walls. With a running start, he leaped upwards and his hands managed to grab the edge. He groaned as he pulled himself up to the wall. ‘My stamina is indeed better than before, I used to get asthmatic attacks just from climbing a tree.’
“Don’t rush ahead so blindly and do not stay too far away from me, understood?” Li Xue appeared beside him. She was clearly more experienced than Han Fei. Her action was quick and light, she made no sound at all as she flipped over the wall.
“Okay.” The two lowered their voices as they moved along the walls towards the factory building. When they were inside the yard, the duo stopped communicating to make as little noise as possible. Instead they trained their attention on clue-searching. The plant was not big. A set of severely rusted ice-brick maker and ice-crusher sat in the courtyard. The simple sheds built around them had been reclaimed by nature.
“Let’s check out the main factory.” The two entered the dark building. The temperature here appeared to be lower than normal. It had been too long since the original crime was committed, so it was not surprising that they found nothing inside the factory. While Han Fei pondered if he had missed anything, Li Xue wandered about the place.
Her pacing attracted Han Fei’s attention. “What are you doing?”
“An ice factory should have an ice-storage or an ice-cellar to keep the ice bricks but we have not encountered such a place yet.” Li Xue stopped at the north-eastern corner of the building. She kicked away the broken carpet and it revealed a thin metallic slab underneath.
“Let me help you.” Han Fei was about to walk over when Li Xue raised her palm to signal Han Fei to stay where he was. She walked cautiously around the metallic slab and switched on her law enforcement app. Then she pulled out a police baton. By then, Han Fei had noticed the discrepancy as well. Unlike the other objects at the factory, the slab was not covered in a layer of dust. That suggested recent use.
‘There’s someone down there?’
Li Xue made a gesture at Han Fei for him to grab something to arm himself. Then she reached out to grab a corner of the slab and slowly lifted it up. A rustling wind could be heard coming from the underground ice cellar. This cellar appeared to be connected to some other location. Taking out her phone, Li Xue rattled off a series of coordinates to her colleagues. Then she switched on the torchlight function and descended into the cellar alone.
