IWBL: Chapter 192

Shen Chenzhi’s words were simple but if he was really allowed to sleep with Xiao Li, it was probably ‘sleeping’ in another sense. Xiao Li looked at the uncontrollable smile on this man’s face and slammed the door at his nose.

Shen Chenzhi touched the tip of his nose but the smile still remained. There was nothing that made him happier than this. At least he knew that facing him, Xiao Li wasn’t completely indifferent to him. So even if Shen Chenzhi wanted to go in now, hold Xiao Li’s hand, accompany him to sleep, stare at him and kiss him for a long time, Shen Chenzhi still has to forcibly endure it.

The furniture in this house was fairly new. The pillows and bedding were all neatly folded and they could sleep at any time.

Xiao Li closed the door, took off his coat and cloak, put a soft quilt on the bed and fell asleep completely.

In the quiet room, the little yellow book tucked into his cloak pocket started shaking. [Baby, have a good dream.]

Outside this small house, a man in a purple suit squatted in the garden. He reached out to tease the withered flowers and looked at the window of the room Xiao Li entered. He didn’t go in to disturb the two of them. He just remembered the location and walked away leisurely.

***

An hour later, at the agreed-upon meeting location.

Wang Huai placed one hand into his pocket and waited for the others. He had to come. Sherlock had fallen asleep and Shen Chenzhi was someone who didn’t care about others at all. If he didn’t act a little bit then this temporary team would just fall apart.

The town wasn’t big and as long as Wen Wenwen asked a few people passing by, it would be easy to find Sherlock’s place. The senior reincarnators in the instance world had a sense of time. They would only be early, not late.

Five minutes early, the two teams were all there.

“Let’s go.” Wang Huai kept his hand in his pocket as he walked on the road.

Wen Wenwen hurriedly walked behind him. “What did you do?”

Wang Huai didn’t answer at first but became impatient after the other person kept urging him. He said, “Stalk Sherlock.”

Wen Wenwen, “……”

“I didn’t expect you to do this type of sneaky thing. Have you found any secrets?”

Wang Huai smiled. Instead of answering Wen Wenwen’s question directly, he brought out another topic. “There is no hotel here. Sherlock has bought a house.”

“There is no hotel.” Wen Wenwen thought on these words and then told him what they had found. “…There are no maps for sale in the miscellaneous goods store. The border between the town and the outside world is particularly conspicuous. There are clear fences. As a whole, it isn’t too big. If you walk quickly then it will take 40 minutes to make a circle.”

During their chat, they arrived close to the small house. The door wasn’t closed but was hidden. It seemed like that person was afraid that some people’s knocks would disturb Xiao Li in the room.

By the time the reincarnators arrived, Xiao Li’s door was closed tightly and Shen Chenzhi wasn’t in the living room. He had chosen the room closest to Xiao Li. Apart from these two rooms, the doors for the other rooms were open for ventilation.

There were many rooms in the small house since it seemed to have been prepared for families with many children. Some rooms had two beds and there were lavender scented candles in each room. There was no need for several people to live together and everyone had their own room.

A few people simply cleaned their rooms. Then they moved the tables and other things into the living room and put them together. The group of people gathered around and discussed with each other.

Wen Wenwen used a pen to draw a map on a white paper that he had found. “These are the buildings we have found after going around. We didn’t go in but wrote it down outside.”

The middle of the town had a huge building. It had a dark red dome and a rounded arc. There was no sign at the door. Across from it was a castle with a cross on top, a three-storey black building and residential areas with numerous shops.

“Our guess is that the one with a cross is a church. There are many possibilities for the other two. To be on the safe side, we didn’t go in.” Wen Wenwen introduced it in detail. “That’s it for now.”

He Tian said, “In the introductory CG, they were all children so my guess is that it is some type of group activity organized by the school. There is only one elementary school in this small town. We saw it as we’re walking past it.”

“We used all types of methods but it was useless. The school guard refused to tell us anything and almost called the police. School is over today so if we want to check, we can only go there tomorrow.” Jin Handong added.

“This is option one which is more secure. Option two…”

“……”

Wang Huai went out in the middle and didn’t come back until the evening when it was already close to 9 o’clock. Wen Wenwen asked where he had gone and Wang Huai took out a bag of takeaway.

Since night fell, the fog outside had become thicker. It reduced the visible distance from one metre to half a metre. It was as if monsters were flying around.

Wang Huai thoughtfully looked at the closed door on the first floor. “He hasn’t woken up yet?”

Wen Wenwen replied, “No, he never came out.”

“Even if he fell asleep, shouldn’t he get up by now? This is an instance world?” Kesia was very interested in Xiao Li. She closed the takeaway box and spoke thoughtfully. “It’s just that this is Sherlock. I can’t say for sure.”

Wen Wenwen said, “Still, thinking carefully, there is another possibility. it is that during the time we thought he was absolutely safe, the ghost has already started to kill.”

The fairly relaxed atmosphere suddenly became tense. According to common sense, it was just the beginning and this was an instance with no time limit. It was impossible for the killing to start before the introductory CG was even decrypted. However, who could say this was accurate? There were a few bigshots who met with unexpected failure.

Bruce got up from his chair, came to the closed door and knocked three times. “Sherlock?”

No one answered. He knocked hard five more times. This time, the person who would be awakened no matter how deeply they were sleeping. However, there were still no movements from the room.

Bruce frowned. He turned to look at Wen Wenwen before pulling down the doorknob and opening it a gap. The door was unlocked and Bruce pushed it open easily. The quilt on the bed was messy. There were traces of someone lying on the bed but no signs of the person who should be in the bed.

Bruce measured the temperature of the mattress with his hands. It was a few degrees cooler than normal room temperature and there was no body temperature left.

He looked around and came to the window. He found that the room Xiao Li chose was facing the side door exit of the garden. He just needed to open the window and step out the window and his toes could reach the ground. This was faster than taking a detour through the main entrance.

Bruce reached out to close the opened window and spoke towards the door. “Sherlock is gone.”

“There are two possibilities. One is that he was captured by a ghost. However, this ghost could capture Sherlock peacefully without any noise. We don’t have to struggle when we meet it and should just give up. “The other possibility is… he walked by himself. Based on the open window, it should be the latter.”

“So what did he do?”

“Who knows? According to his deeds on the forum, I would believe it if he said he was hungry and went out to find food.”

After all, the level of a bigshot’s thinking wasn’t the same as mortals.

They went to Shen Chenzhi’s room and found that even he had disappeared. Just then, Wen Wenwen offered a guess. “Did they go on a date?”

The reincarnators returned to the living room to discuss the previous plan and the way to live.

Just 10 minutes after they sat down, there was the sound of footsteps getting closer to the door. Then there was the sound of the door opening.

Everyone stood up reflexively and looked at the door defensively. They saw Xiao Li coming in from the outside with the cloak on his shoulders. His skin colour was like snow. He saw their nervousness and asked in a daze, “…What are you all doing?”

Wen Wenwen wondered, “Are you alone?”

Xiao Li walked in and closed the door. “Otherwise, can I be a ghost? Half a person?”

Wang Huai laughed from the side. He didn’t look like he was in an instance. He looked like he had come to freeload even more than Xiao Li.

Wen Wenwen glared at Wang Huai. “Sherlock, what did you do?”

Xiao Li waved away the water marks on his cloak left by the poor temperature and poured himself a cup of hot water. “I went to look for that little boy.”

Wen Wenwen, “???”

He Tian asked excitedly, “Do you know where he is?”

“…Almost but his mother didn’t let me in.” Xiao Li drank half a glass of water in one breath.

“How did you know?” He Tian didn’t want to ask this question in his heart but he couldn’t help it.

Xiao Li didn’t quite understand the question. “The introductory CG. Isn’t it obvious?”

“…What is obvious?!”

“The little boy had calluses on his fingers and black stains on his fingernails. His trousers were rolled up, out of fear of catching something and the same marks are on the edge of his shoes. It shouldn’t be from playing. The right side of his sleeve was stained with the black oil mark of a bicycle tire. The shape is regular. It is likely that his family is engaged in work related to oil, such as a garage.”

“So when I woke up, I went to a person and asked them. There is only one repair shop here.” Xiao Li recalled the scene at the time and felt regretful. “I went looking for him but his mother wouldn’t let me in. Then I went into the backyard and knocked on his window. After waiting a few minutes, no one opened the window so I came back.”

The others, “……”

They had to say that if someone knocked on the window, they wouldn’t open the window casually!

It depended on the floor the little boy lived on. If it was a tall building, even if it was the second floor, the sound of someone knocking on the window in the foggy night… was even more terrifying, okay!


Proofreader: Tofu

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flabbergasted
flabbergasted
6 months ago

omg now I feel bad for that poor boy!