Chapter 95.2: Xishan Residential Area (15)

  It seemed as if Yang Tianhao in his memory and the person before him were not the same.

Was the Yang Tianhao behind him really the same person who was alive before?

And was all of this in front of him really a return to the past?

Ruan Qing lowered his gaze, concealing the emotions in his eyes. 

His slender, jade-like fingers lightly clenched the fabric of his clothes. 

At first, he pretended to be surprised, but the next moment, as if he had thought of something, he calmly spoke, “Are you pitying me?”

Yang Tianhao, upon hearing this, widened his eyes and instinctively held the person in his arms closer. 

With a hint of urgency in his voice, he explained, “Of course not, Ah Qing, why would you think that? How could I pity you? Am I that kind of person?”

Ruan Qing made no struggle and showed no joy, only a calm expression as he asked, “But you were unwilling to even hug me before, right?”

Yang Tianhao was left speechless at these words. He couldn’t explain because it was true that he had been unwilling to even hug Ruan Qing before. He had remained completely unaffected even when seeing the other.

Yang Tianhao didn’t understand what had come over him. He was supposed to not love Ah Qing. He had planned to erase his memories and leave after saving him. 

But now, the mere thought of Ah Qing no longer belonging to him filled him with a violent desire to kill everyone and destroy everything, even though keeping Ah Qing close was the most dangerous option. 

Ah Qing hadn’t been taken over by the Yang family or become a part of their world. 

Did he really want to bring Ah Qing back to the hellish Yang family? 

Especially now that Ah Qing knew his true identity. Would he still love him?

Yang Tianhao froze, his thoughts coming to a halt. His true identity? Love him? Did Zhou Qing love Yang Tianhao? Was he Yang Tianhao?

Suddenly, Yang Tianhao’s facial expression became extremely stiff. A hint of redness unexpectedly appeared at the center of his pupils, and then that redness rapidly spread, turning his entire irises scarlet, a terrifying and eerie sight.

He was not Yang Tianhao.

Unfortunately, Ruan Qing, with his back turned to Yang Tianhao, didn’t notice this scene. He directly pushed away Yang Tianhao’s hand as if he had been hurt by his silence. “Ah Hao, you know I don’t need your pity.”

“Let’s both calm down for a moment.”

After saying this, Ruan Qing walked out of the kitchen without looking back, as if he had been deeply wounded by Yang Tianhao.

Ruan Qing went straight to Zhou Qing’s room and closed the bedroom door. He began searching for any clues.

Since Yang Tianhao and Zhou Qing had only recently moved to Xishan Residential Area, there weren’t many things in Zhou Qing’s room. Ruan Qing could easily see what was inside.

He found a photo album and an adoption certificate.

Most of the photos were taken by Zhou Qing and Yang Tianhao. Ruan Qing started flipping from the first page.

As soon as he opened the cover of the album, Ruan Qing felt that the thickness of the cover seemed unusual.

Was it too thick?

As if there was something hidden inside.

Without hesitation, Ruan Qing opened the cover and found a single photo.

It was a solo photo of Zhou Qing.

The photo seemed a bit old, probably taken a long time ago, before he had met Yang Tianhao.

Because the young man in the photo still appeared to be underage, while Zhou Qing met Yang Tianhao when he was eighteen.

Ruan Qing stared at the person in the photo and was suddenly stunned. The teenager in the photo had a gentle and casual smile, but there was a hint of fierceness in his gaze, with a hidden ambition and a sense of ruthlessness in his eyes.

Just a single photo carried an inexplicable sense of pressure.

Could a person like this become a pushover for someone else?

This wasn’t just love making people blind; it was almost like love making people lose their sanity.

Ruan Qing looked at the teenager in the photo and had an instinctual feeling that something must be wrong.

Continuing to flip through the album, he found that the subsequent photos were mostly pictures of the two of them together.

Although there were many photos of them together, each one showed that there was no intimacy between them. Even in the photos, they seemed somewhat distant.

It was more accurate to call them acquaintances than a couple, or perhaps not even as close as regular friends.

Speaking of which, in all the photos, there were only pictures of the two of them together, and there was no trace of a third person.

And in the photo, Zhou Qing seemed to have changed completely.

Although the face was still the same, it gave off a hollow feeling.

As if there’s no soul.

Ruan Qing slipped the single photo back into the cover folder and casually asked in his mind, ‘System, will I lose a lot of points for this instance?’

He shouldn’t be playing the role of a self-deprecating and reclusive NPC at all; he should be an empty, soulless dummy NPC.

The original owner had been like a puppet since meeting Yang Tianhao, his memories had definitely been tampered with.

But unfortunately, he was deceived by the original owner’s false memories and played the role of a self-deprecating person, basically ruining the character from the moment he entered the instance.

From the very beginning, the game seemed to be out to get him, taking away all his points with a useless item, and then capturing his only weakness by withstanding ghost attacks, forcing him to make an exchange.

And this instance even made him blind, rendering useless most of what he excelled at, and even giving him a mix of true and false memories.

If he could see, he would definitely realize that he should be playing a sophisticated dummy, but unfortunately, he couldn’t see and could only rely on his hearing and memory to judge.

Understanding his weaknesses and strengths, it’s as if the presence behind the game knew him well.

It’s really something.

The system paused for a moment, and its cold voice rang in Ruan Qing’s mind, [You can only find out if points are deducted after the points are settled.]

Ruan Qing chuckled lightly at the words, not saying anything.

He put down the photo album and picked up the adoption materials for Yang Muqing.

Yang Muqing was adopted by Yang Tianhao alone, and there were no relevant memories in the original owner’s memory.

Even if there were, Ruan Qing would not easily believe the original owner’s memories.

Yang Muqing had grown up in an orphanage before, and it was only after Yang Tianhao and Zhou Qing moved to the Xishan Residential Area that they adopted him.

Ruan Qing’s gaze fell on the name of the orphanage.

Xishan Orphanage.

It’s near the Xishan Residential Area again.

Ruan Qing felt somewhat strange; the information in this instance was too chaotic, even difficult to connect, and it seemed like there was some connection between Xiao Xi and Yang Muqing, and even the murderer could be loosely connected.

The key to the entire instance seemed to be that Teacher Xia selected a target child at the Xishan Kindergarten, has the child play the role of ‘Xiao Xi,’ and ultimately hires a hitman to kill the family of the child playing ‘Xiao Xi.’

The exact purpose of this plan was not yet clear.

The fact that Yang Tianhao’s body continued to exist in such a twisted manner after his death made it difficult for Ruan Qing to connect the dots.

Moreover, most of the clues pointed to the Xishan Residential Area, with only Yang Tianhao and Zhou Qing appearing out of place.

Ruan Qing initially speculated that after Yang Tianhao and Zhou Qing’s deaths, they would attract players to investigate the clues, leading to the revelation that playing ‘Xiao Xi’ would result in death.

Wait a moment.

The system once mentioned that if he was not a special NPC, then Zhou Qing would die after opening the door, and every time the instance restarted, he would die again.

The body didn’t come back to life on the first day, which meant that attracting players’ attention to their deaths was inevitable, at least initially.

Perhaps the body came back to life after players trigger the death condition, and maybe the boss that killed the players also played a role.

The question remained whether the body belonged to Yang Tianhao or the real Zhou Qing.

In any case, it’s not the original Zhou Qing who had the problem; it’s this person, Yang Tianhao.

At this point, he had very few clues to work with, possibly even fewer than the players.

Ruan Qing glanced in the direction of the kitchen from the bedroom doorway. The kitchen door wasn’t directly facing this side, but she could hear the sounds of someone working in the kitchen.

Ruan Qing silently walked to Yang Muqing’s room.

At this time, Yang Muqing should still be at the kindergarten, so the room was empty.

However, Ruan Qing didn’t find any useful information in the room, as if it was just an ordinary child’s room.

Yang Tianhao’s bedroom should be the most likely place to find clues.

But his door was locked, and only Yang Tianhao had the key.

Forcefully opening the door would definitely attract Yang Tianhao’s attention, so Ruan Qing had to give up for now.

Ruan Qing seemed to have calmed down, sitting on the living room sofa.

There were also many of Yang Muqing’s things on the sofa, and Ruan Qing picked up a picture book.

But as soon as he opened it, he froze.

‘Xiao Xi’?

Ruan Qing looked at ‘Xiao Xi,’ who was surrounded by a group of people holding knives, lost in thought.

Why did this group of people want to kill ‘Xiao Xi’?

Because the drawing stopped as soon as ‘Xiao Xi’ was surrounded, and it was hard to predict what would happen next.

From what Ruan Qing had seen earlier in the fight, although ‘Xiao Xi’ had some combat ability, it was clear that he couldn’t withstand the siege of these people.

But just because someone couldn’t win a fight didn’t necessarily mean they would die; unexpected events could occur.

Moreover, if these people really killed ‘Xiao Xi,’ to find answers, they would need to identify everyone involved, which seemed almost impossible to accomplish.

Unless there was a student class list like in the First High School instance, otherwise, it would be a long list of names.

Ruan Qing gave up trying to guess the outcome and instead pondered the reason for ‘Xiao Xi’ being besieged.

It was unlikely that so many people would surround one person without a reason.

Was it hatred, jealousy, or for personal gain?

There were quite a few lowlifes, numbering around thirty or forty.

To drive so many lowlifes to besiege one person, it was unlikely due to hatred; Ruan Qing leaned toward the motive being personal gain.

There were still too few clues; it was necessary to find out more about the role-playing game involving ‘Xiao Xi.’

It seemed like the person in the kitchen had finally finished his work, and he slowly walked out.

Ruan Qing looked at Yang Tianhao, whose pupils were bloodshot, and his eyes widened. His pupils contracted, and he instinctively wanted to step back.

Yang Tianhao was completely different from earlier; his current appearance was like a corpse, stiff and expressionless.

Yet, he attempted to smile at Ruan Qing, imitating what he had done earlier.

That expression made him look even more like a corpse.

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