Chapter 88.1: Xishan Residential Area (8)

The sky had already turned dark. The entire Xishan Residential Area was brightly lit, with lights also present in the corridors.

At this moment, two men stand facing each other in the corridor. One of the men was holding a young man, while the other man wore a black hat with a frozen expression, creating an extremely awkward atmosphere.

The air seemed to have solidified in this moment. The corridor became silent, so quiet that one could almost hear the conversations and footsteps of residents from other floors.

The murderer looked at his wife being held by a stranger, and there’s a hint of bewilderment on his face.

Why was his beautiful wife being held by someone else?

And did that man just use his voice?

No, that man used the voice of ‘Yang Tianhao’?

Ruan Qing naturally heared the sound of the elevator opening. After the elevator opened, the man holding him stopped, and his body seemed to become somewhat stiff.

Clearly, someone had come out of the elevator.

And it’s this person that’s making the man nervous and uneasy.

Was this someone the man knew or someone related to Zhou Qing?

Or was it the murderer returning?

Because the person who came out of the elevator didn’t speak and wasn’t particularly close, Ruan Qing found it difficult to determine who it was.

There’s only one way to find out.

Ruan Qing acted as though unaware of the situation, without the slightest hesitation. He continued to struggle to get down, his delicate face showing anger. He coldly spoke, “Yang Tianhao! Put me down. I’m not leaving.”

Murderer: “!!!” Damn it/Your mother!!!

The murderer’s expression instantly turned fierce, and he quickly understood the current situation.

Yang Tianhao was the name of the male owner. The male owner had already been killed by him. When he left, this man imitated his method and disguised himself as the male owner.

At this moment, the other was stealing his beautiful wife!!!

In the eyes of the murderer, there was a hint of killing intent, as if he’s about to pull out a knife in the next second and chop the man in front of him into pieces. It’s not ‘as if’. The murderer truly wanted to do this. He took out a fruit knife and approached the man step by step.

Daring to steal his wife while he’s away, the other must be prepared to be chopped into pieces.

Regarding the act of stealing someone’s wife, the man didn’t show the slightest hint of guilt. His stiffness arose from the fact that once the murderer returned, he wouldn’t be able to simply take the neighbor away.

Moreover, it’s highly likely that the other would expose the fact that they were posing as the husband.

At that point, no one would benefit.

The beautiful neighbor was still struggling in anger, but in this current situation, the man couldn’t comfort the neighbor first.

The man met the murderer’s fierce gaze, shook his head slightly, and nodded at the murderer. Then he looked at the struggling neighbor in his arms.

The murderer who was originally about to take action suddenly stopped. He wasn’t very skilled at reading people’s expressions, but this time, he strangely understood the man’s intention.

If he acted now, everything would be exposed.

This included his act of pretending to be the male owner, as well as the fact that he killed the male owner.

By that time, let alone living happily with his wife, the other might even commit suicide upon learning of his husband’s death.

After all, the wife was so fragile, he’s likely to do something like that.

And even if the wife didn’t commit suicide, he probably would constantly think about avenging the male owner by wanting to kill him.

The murderer’s footsteps come to a halt, stopping not far from the two of them.

Seeing the murderer stop, the man let out a slight sigh of relief. Then, facing the murderous gaze of the murderer, he soothed the angry neighbor in his arms with the warm voice of the male owner, “Alright, alright, we won’t leave. We’ll do whatever Ah Qing says.”

“So let’s go back home now. When Ah Qing wants to leave, we’ll leave.”

Seeing this, the killing intent in the murderer’s eyes was almost turning into reality. If it weren’t for him considering the wife in the man’s arms, the murderer probably would have already stabbed the man with the knife.

The man, however, didn’t pay much attention to the murderer’s gloomy gaze. He held onto Ruan Qing and walked back, returning to the apartment room.

The murderer followed them to the doorway, staring at the two with an intense gaze, as if ready to act immediately if the situation turned awry.

Inside, the room was the same as when they had just left, and the man gently placed Ruan Qing on the sofa. “Ah Qing, please have a seat for a moment. I need to attend to something urgent.”

After saying that, the man turned and walked out of the apartment, softly closing the door behind him, creating a barrier between the inside and outside.

Meanwhile, the murderer waiting at the door wasted no time. As soon as the man emerged, he ruthlessly lunged with a knife, completely disregarding the fact that they were in a corridor where they could easily be seen.

Ruan Qing sat on the sofa, feeling a bit bewildered.

Wasn’t that person the murderer?

If that was the case, he shouldn’t have been so composed when he called out Yang Tianhao’s name, right?

Too far away to smell any scent or hear the person’s voice, Ruan Qing couldn’t determine who had come out of the elevator.

Due to the fact that he couldn’t see and that he wasn’t sure what was currently happening, Ruan Qing’s mind remained highly tense, causing discomfort to creep in.

He leaned back slightly on the sofa, adjusting to a more comfortable position, and slowly closed his eyes.

After a while, the sound of scratching came from the direction of the kitchen again, extremely unpleasant.

“Scritch, scritch, scritch—“

As soon as Ruan Qing heard the noise, his mind cleared instantly. He opened his eyes and looked towards the kitchen.

Didn’t the man say he had taken care of the rat?

Could it be not just one rat? Were there several?

Were rats social animals?

This touched upon a gap in Ruan Qing’s knowledge. He took out his phone and navigated through the menus based on his intuition, eventually searching for information and typing in his questions.

The phone’s voice function was already enabled. As Ruan Qing pressed the search button, he heard the mechanical voice from his phone.

[The mouse is a social animal, and they often live together in groups, exhibiting a strong sense of collective honor. When they go out to search for food, they do so in groups, and they have a distinctive trait – their rapid reproductive speed.]

Although it’s established that rats were social animals, there’s an inexplicable and lingering sense of strangeness deep within Ruan Qing’s heart, making him somewhat uncomfortable.

It even caused a somewhat inexplicable sense of panic to well up within him.

After spending just half a day in this instance, Ruan Qing felt a profound sense of powerlessness from the depths of his heart.

Due to his blindness, most of his expertise had been rendered useless, whether it’s observing others’ subtle facial expressions and movements or using hypnotic suggestions in conjunction with the environment.

As if the game intentionally targeted him.

The sound of “scraping” came from the kitchen once again, interrupting Ruan Qing’s thoughts. This time, the sound was even more pronounced than before.

It evoked an uncontrollable feeling of disgust from deep within.

Ruan Qing’s vision was pitch black, unable to see anything, yet his hearing had become even more acute.

After the “scraping” sound stopped, within a few seconds, other sounds emerged, as if something was being pushed aside.

Next came the sound of something being dragged across the floor—very slow but incredibly unpleasant.

Scurrying and scattering, the sound seemed distant yet gradually approaching Ruan Qing, sending shivers down his spine.

In addition to those eerie sounds, Ruan Qing even heard the faint drops of water falling onto the ground.

The sound seemed hollow, particularly conspicuous in the quiet living room, causing an inexplicable tingling sensation on the scalp.

Ruan Qing became increasingly uneasy, and the unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach grew stronger.

Was the presence in the kitchen truly that of a rat?

Ruan Qing clenched his sleeve, his already fair fingers turning even paler from the pressure.

Whether it’s a rat or not, he’s certain that he couldn’t stay in this apartment any longer. If it’s truly just a rat, there shouldn’t be any issues, but if it’s not...

Ruan Qing trusted his instincts.

However, just as Ruan Qing was about to pick up the child on the sofa and stand up, as he was leaving the room, the sound of footsteps came from outside the door.

The footsteps stopped at the entrance, followed by the sound of keys.

It seemed like someone had come back.

As the footsteps sounded outside the door, the scattered sounds in the kitchen also ceased, as if the previous noises Ruan Qing heard were merely his imagination.

The door opened, and someone walked in, approaching Ruan Qing slowly.

However, apart from the footsteps and the rustling of clothes, there were no other sounds, and he couldn’t determine who had come back.

Ruan Qing looked up in the direction where the footsteps had stopped, his beautiful eyes slightly misty, and a trace of doubt appeared on his delicate face. “Is it my husband?”

The gentle voice of ‘Yang Tianhao,’ his husband, sounded not far from his left side. “Yes, I’ve finished dealing with my matters.”

Ruan Qing’s eyes narrowed imperceptibly for a moment. Were there two people coming in?

Ruan Qing hadn’t realized there were two people; instead, he had caught a faint whiff of blood.

From two directions.

One not far from his left side, the other not far from his right side, both of them not too close to him.

Could it be that someone had failed to kill someone else?

As Ruan Qing had suspected, the man and the murderer hadn’t managed to kill each other. Their pride in their combat skills was proven useless at this moment—despite exerting all their efforts, they couldn’t manage to kill each other.

Instead, they had ended up injured and in a sorry state.

Continuing this fight would likely mean neither of them would make it out alive. At that point, it seemed his wife/neighbor would belong to someone else.

Moreover, due to the incident of having their wife/neighbor stolen, they couldn’t trust leaving the young man alone at home.

Who knew if some foolhardy creature might come and steal their wife/neighbor again?

 

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