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The location for this offline recording was an old school, about half an hour's journey from the hotel, not too far.
Yao Yao and the others arrived on time. The production team and the guests, two large groups, arrived in a formidable procession, leaving the receiving principal somewhat stunned.
"Director Chen, you've brought so many people this time!" The principal's voice was filled with surprise.
He was a man nearing fifty. Perhaps due to overwork, his head was full of white hair, and his face was lined with wrinkles.
At first glance, one might think he was well into his sixties. Some guests initially wondered why someone of his age hadn't retired yet.
When they later learned the truth (about his actual age), they couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed.
"We're a big production, the crew is quite large. We've troubled you, Principal," the director said with an apologetic look.
He reached into his pocket, took out a red envelope, and handed it over. "This is a small token of appreciation from the production team for the school. I hope you won't mind, Principal."
"This... this, Director Chen, you're too kind! How can I accept this!" The principal waved his hands repeatedly upon seeing it.
The production team had already paid a site fee, and it wasn't a small sum. If he were to take more, it would seem insatiably greedy.
The director, however, smiled. "Please, just take it. We'll likely be troubling you a lot with today's recording. Consider it a small token from us."
Seeing him put it that way, the old principal found it hard to refuse any longer. He became even more enthusiastic as he led them to the location.
...
After a while,
Everyone arrived at a teaching block area.
The building before them had a distinct sense of age. The walls had clearly been recently repainted with putty, creating a stark contrast with the overall antiquity of the building.
The smell of paint still lingered in the air, not yet fully dissipated.
The old principal stopped at this point. He pointed to the building behind him and said to the director, "This is it."
"You can record whatever you need to. I've cleared out all the students, so they won't affect you."
"Thank you," the director said with a smile and a nod upon hearing this.
After the principal left, he turned to the twelve assembled guests and slowly said, "It's about time, so let's start the recording directly."
To save time, the production team had already clearly communicated the tasks for this recording session on the way here.
And today's theme was to find information about the student who had committed suicide by jumping from the building some time ago.
Of course, this also included the cause of death.
For everyone, this was a very difficult task because the police had already closed the case, and many clues had led to dead ends.
Furthermore, because there was an official case file to serve as the definitive answer, their final deductions needed to be compared against it.
This completely dashed any hopes of just spouting nonsense and trying to get lucky like a blind cat catching a dead mouse.
The faces of many guests turned grim. The production team was truly testing their abilities. With a lack of evidence, finding useful clues would require extraordinary means.
This also perfectly matched the theme of the variety show â killing two birds with one stone.
Compared to the few who were just coasting, most of those present with actual abilities were not flustered.
Yao Yao tugged at Seventh Brother's sleeve beside her and said, "Seventh Brother, let's go take a look."
Her large eyes sparkled, clearly very interested in this activity of exploring and finding evidence.
"Okay, let's go to the fourth floor first." Gu Yu nodded, trying hard to appear calm.
The fourth floor was precisely the scene where the student had committed suicide.
The building had six floors, just missing the threshold for installing an elevator. When the engineers designed it, the staircase was poorly planned â small, narrow, and dimly lit, requiring careful steps to avoid misstepping, especially when the light was poor.
But for Yao Yao, this was not difficult. She bounded up the stairs, taking two or three steps at a time.
Gu Yu followed closely behind. Perhaps because a death had occurred there, this floor was usually kept empty. The principal had moved students from other floors.
Having been unoccupied for a long time, the doors, windows, and floors were covered in dust.
The sun was now setting in the west, and the rows of tightly closed doors and windows exuded an unsettling, hollow feeling. For some reason, Gu Yu couldn't help but shiver.
After composing himself, he encountered a problem.
"Which classroom was it where the incident happened?"
Perhaps for dramatic effect, the production team had only mentioned the floor where the incident occurred but not the specific classroom.
He had initially thought that only the classroom where the incident happened would be empty, making it easy to distinguish. Who knew this would be the situation?
Gu Yu subconsciously turned to look at his sister, only to find her expertly walking towards the second-to-last classroom in the corridor.
"This one?" Gu Yu quickly followed, a curious look in his eyes. Beside him was the camera operator carrying the equipment.
Because the offline segment was being live-streamed continuously, each guest was accompanied by a camera crew to ensure clear footage.
"Mm-hmm!" Yao Yao nodded. This classroom carried the energy of negative karma, which, to her eyes, was like a firefly in the night.
The classroom door was not locked. She reached out and pushed it open directly. A gust of stale air rushed out, making the cameraman beside her cough.
Only after it had aired out for a while did Yao Yao step into the room. The desks and chairs inside were arranged neatly and orderly. To a normal person, it would be impossible to imagine that a suicide had once occurred in this room.
"It's cleaned up so thoroughly, what the heck are we supposed to investigate!" Gu Yu was usually quite engrossed in detective stories and had accumulated a lot of 'experience' in his mind.
He had wanted to show off his skills, but after looking around, he found that none of it was applicable. His handsome face immediately fell.
"Seventh Brother, leave it to me!" Yao Yao said in her childlike voice upon seeing his expression.
She couldn't see the problem either, but solving this case didn't need to be so complicated for her. She extended her small, chubby hand, her fingers forming a lotus mudra.
As spiritual energy circulated, the scene in her eyes began to blur and change; she was tracing back the events of the past.
This mysterious state made the netizens, who had been paying close attention to the live stream, pause for a moment, then quickly start commenting.
[It's starting, it's starting! Let's just say, I'm full of anticipation. I wonder what the Master will be able to tell us?]
[If it's consistent with the file description, that's one thing. But what if it's different?]
[Does that even need to be said? Of course, we believe the Master! But if there's a huge discrepancy, will this case have to be reopened?]
As soon as this was said, the netizens felt as if their minds had been enlightened.
Perhaps in other circumstances, it would be almost impossible, but given the Master's unique qualities, the more impossible something seemed, the more uncertain it became.
As their train of thought opened up, the netizens also became agitated. After all, if it really turned out that way, it would definitely be extremely exciting.
The viewership for the live stream immediately peaked.
Gu Yu, standing to the side, was unaware of all this. Seeing his sister take action, he knew this wave of offline adventure was pretty much over.
Although he was unwilling, there was nothing he could do. The situation was such a mess; effort would be futile.
He pouted. Catching sight of the camera, he subconsciously straightened up, clearly remembering he was a celebrity.
In front of the big screen, one still had to pay some attention to their public image.
Gu Yu didn't know how to handle such cases, but thinking about his sister's abilities, it probably wouldn't take long.
He was just about to wait patiently when Yao Yao, who had her eyes closed, suddenly reacted. She snapped her eyes open, a rare look of gravity on her face.
"What's wrong?"
Gu Yu was startled by her appearance. He might be slow to react, but his brain wasn't slow.
His sister's reaction clearly indicated that something major had happened. For some reason, he suddenly became excited.
Because in his view, things only got interesting when there was excitement!
Hearing his question, Yao Yao said in a heavy tone, "Seventh Brother, that principal is a liar."
"The girl in this classroom didn't commit suicide. She was sacrificed."
In the memories she had just replayed, Yao Yao saw how the victim had died. She was burned to death, but in the vision, her body was intact, not even a patch of skin broken.
Yao Yao pushed her divination further back and quickly caught, from fragmented images, that this girl had played a game of "inviting gods" before the incident!
And the ritual they had set up was not at all the proper procedure for inviting gods; it looked more like summoning malevolent spirits.
As for more details, Yao Yao couldn't trace them back for the time being without a corresponding medium.
But this alone was enough for her to realize that the principal who had received them earlier was lying.
Because the circumstances of the girl's death were too peculiar, it was impossible for him to be completely unaware. Yet, he had insisted it was suicide.
The old Taoist master had said that concealing something must be for the sake of hiding an even bigger secret.
Therefore, there must be something fishy going on. If she wanted to deduce more, the only way was to start with him and obtain other useful items related to the case.
"What the hell, how did it get involved with sacrifices? No way, wait, we need to go find that old man and ask clearly."
Gu Yu felt a sudden chill run down his spine. The word "sacrifice" sounded ominous, and it involved ghosts and gods. It was possible the previous case hadn't been handled properly.
This immediately piqued his interest. He still had his "false eye" open; he might just get to witness something extraordinary.
"Let's go, let's go! We shouldn't delay and let things get complicated. Let's go solve it immediately."
The more Gu Yu thought about it, the more excited he became. Without another word, he pulled his sister and ran towards the teaching building in front. Because he was too excited, he nearly bumped into someone coming from the opposite direction. He quickly said, "Excuse me."
Then, without waiting for the other person's response, he hurriedly pulled his sister downstairs.
The two people left standing there were somewhat stunned. The boy who had almost been bumped into was contestant number one, Liu Heng.
He looked at the figures disappearing at the stairwell, frowned, and said to the person beside him, "Did they find something?"
That anxious and hurried demeanor didn't look normal at all. Yet, he was reluctant to believe it because it had been too fast.
He had only just figured out the location of the classroom where the incident occurred!
Even if they were more capable than him, at best, they would have only reached this step. This could be seen from the fact that the classroom they came out of was the one he was preparing to enter.
But if they had progressed further? That wouldn't be normal. After all, he was still very confident in his own abilities.
"If you really want to know, just follow them," Chen Tao, who was beside him, said with a smile, seeing his inner conflict.
He had refined features, but his face carried an air of pride, which was related to his orthodox Xuanmen background from Longhu Mountain.
Although he was now a disciple who had entered the secular world and had little connection to Longhu Mountain, this past identity still made him proud.
And the reason he was willing to travel with the person before him was also because the other party was also from Xuanmen.
"Who wants to know? I'm just curious, that's all. Besides, I can find the clues myself!"
Perhaps provoked by the other's words, Liu Heng's face flushed red with anger.
He glared fiercely at his companion, then stormed into the classroom, clearly intending to prove himself.
"I was just saying, why get angry? Tsk, tsk, tsk, so petty."
Seeing his demeanor, Chen Tao, who was lagging behind, couldn't help but chuckle. But though he laughed, his steps didn't falter.
After all, he couldn't fall too far behind. If Liu Heng took the evidence, then he would truly be a laughingstock.
However, he didn't know that his casual joke would cause him to miss the chance to learn the truth.