Translator: CinderTL
"This wasn't done by whoever came to clean up the scene," Shen Mengyun said after pondering the evidence. "There was no need. On the contrary, it would only leave more traces."
Having recovered from his initial shock, Gao Yan had also calmed down. The various clues they had gathered began to intertwine, forming an invisible web.
"If it wasn't the cleanup crew, then who could it be? Surely not the missing girls themselves?"
Gao Yan's seemingly casual remark sparked a new line of thought among the group. Jiang Cheng gazed at the mirror fragment in his hand, paused for a moment, and then said, "Could something have gone wrong during their Urban Legend sharing session that night?"
Sensing a connection, Shen Mengyun turned to him and immediately added, "Remember what Yuan Xiaoyi said about them summoning the Mirror Spirit? Could their disappearance be related to this mirror?"
"Perhaps the mirror underwent some terrifying transformation during the Urban Legend sharing session, forcing them to shatter it in an attempt to halt the ritual."
As soon as this theory was proposed, a strange sense of familiarity washed over the group.
It had to be said, this hypothesis was entirely plausible.
Judging by the current situation, it was clear they had failed. Apart from Yuan Xiaoyi, who remained in a dazed state, the other five girls had vanished.
"That makes sense," Gao Yan said, his expression darkening slightly, his voice taking on an odd tone. "It also explains why Yuan Xiaoyi was the only one unharmed. She told us she was too timid to participate in the mirror spirit summoning ritual."
As the saying goes, you reap what you sow. At the end of the day, these missing girls were just naive college freshmen, inexperienced and unable to comprehend the true horror of such entities—or the utter despair of facing them firsthand.
As the search continued, they gradually uncovered more clues, but these only confirmed that someone had been there, not who it was.
They needed more concrete evidence to break the stalemate.
Shen Mengyun finally broke the deadlock. After moving a heavy wooden crate, her gaze drifted upward and she suddenly spotted a dark shape.
It was at the top of a metal rack nearby.
It appeared to be a black bag, bulging with contents, almost invisible against the dim backdrop of the warehouse.
"What's that?" Shen Mengyun asked, pointing.
The bag immediately drew everyone's attention. Its placement was odd, making it difficult to reach. It gave the impression that whoever had put it there had no intention of taking it down again.
"A black bag?" Gao Yan said hesitantly.
"Let's get it down and take a look," Jiang Cheng said, stepping under the iron rack.
Only then did they realize how precariously high the bag was positioned, nearly three meters above the ground.
They quickly searched the area for a ladder or anything similar, but found nothing.
Testing the rack's stability, Shen Mengyun turned to Jiang Cheng and Gao Yan, whispering, "I can climb up and get it, but I'll need someone to help me."
Jiang Cheng stepped forward without hesitation, adopting a virtuous demeanor. "With me here, Miss Shen, you have nothing to worry about."
Time was of the essence. Every minute spent lingering there increased the danger. Without further hesitation, Shen Mengyun found a good angle, stepped onto the middle rung, and began climbing the iron rack. Just as she was about to reach the black bag, she suddenly felt two hands grasping her waist, starting to slide downward.
"Miss Shen," Jiang Cheng called from below, "you can relax your grip a little. I've got your waist."
After about a minute of struggling, Shen Mengyun finally managed to retrieve the black bag and climb down. Jiang Cheng reluctantly released his hold.
But as Shen Mengyun turned to look at him, Jiang Cheng suddenly started panting heavily, as if he had exerted himself greatly.
Unlike Gao Yan, whose attention was completely fixed on the black bag, the three of them stared at it, no one daring to open it.
Finally, Shen Mengyun gritted her teeth, stepped forward, and untied the knot on the bag. Inside were clothes and shoes.
As they sorted through the items and set them aside, their expressions grew intrigued.
Most of the garments appeared to be women's clothing, but two items in particular caught Jiang Cheng's attention: a pure white lab coat, similar to those worn in hospitals, and a professional-looking swimsuit with goggles tucked inside.
This immediately reminded them of Xiaoting and Xiaoran, two of the five missing girls Yuan Xiaoyi had mentioned. Xiaoting was a medical student, while Xiaoran was on the school's diving team.
It was a perfect match.
"Take a look at this," Gao Yan said, pulling a pair of shoes from the bottom of the bag. Unlike the others they had emptied out, these professional running shoes had steel spikes embedded in the soles, which was why they had snagged on the bag's lining.
Jiang Cheng took the shoes and checked the size: 38.
"They're Xiaolin's," Shen Mengyun said, taking the shoes.
Xiaolin was one of the five missing girls, a student at the Physical Education Institute. She had last been seen at the abandoned sports field on the eastern edge of campus.
Shen Mengyun crouched down and picked up a sharp, arrowhead-shaped tool with a wooden handle. It looked like some kind of sculpting tool. "What's this?"
Jiang Cheng glanced at it dismissively. "A clay sculpting knife. For carving."
Clearly, the tool belonged to Xiaoyu, a student at the Academy of Fine Arts. The story she had been telling before her disappearance had centered on the sculpture hall.
Jiang Cheng's nonchalant attitude only piqued Shen Mengyun's curiosity further. She tilted her head to look at him, seeing only his profile in the dim light.
After a moment's hesitation, she finally asked, "What do you do for a living?"
Jiang Cheng paused. "White-coated angel."
"You're a doctor?" Shen Mengyun asked, her tone tinged with suspicion. A woman's intuition told her this man was more complex than he appeared.
Jiang Cheng hesitated for a moment. When he spoke again, Shen Mengyun's expression abruptly shifted.
"Just think of me as a doctor," Jiang Cheng said without looking at her, setting down his tools. His voice was quiet. "We're just chance acquaintances, destined to remain strangers. Why pry?"
His voice had grown exceptionally cold, a stark contrast to his earlier demeanor. Yet within this icy detachment, Shen Mengyun detected a faint undercurrent of bitterness.
Another pitiable soul, she thought.
She couldn't possibly know that Jiang Cheng had learned about those tools from a client he once served. One day, when the client fell ill, they had asked him to make a house call. But someone unexpectedly returned home, forcing Jiang Cheng to hide in the basement.
The basement was filled with unfinished sculptures, raw materials, and various tools. He spent most of the evening studying them, finding the process surprisingly intriguing.
(End of the Chapter)
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