Chapter 67 Jiang Yingrui's Death
"What do you mean? What do you mean the doctor might not be from the sanatorium?" Feng Yongle didn't understand Ruan Nanzhu's words at all. He asked blankly, "Are you saying the dean is a ghost?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Have you seen the portraits of deceased people placed in the dean's office?"
Feng Yongle nodded.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "That nurse could easily attack the NPCs here. If the director is in the sanatorium, it's almost impossible for him to escape." He paused for a moment. "Of course, there's another possibility. He has a way to avoid the nurses. But we haven't seen him here, so I'm more inclined to the second hypothesis."
Lin Qiushi listened carefully to Ruan Nanzhu's analysis.
"Second guess." Ruan Nanzhu raised his second finger and whispered, "He's not in the sanatorium at all."
Feng Yongle still looked bewildered, but Lin Qiushi had already understood Ruan Nanzhu's meaning—the dean was hiding among the people entering, just like Xu Jin in Sister's drum.
Seeing that Feng Yongle still didn't understand, Ruan Nanzhu could only sigh and explain it carefully again.
After hearing this, Feng Yongle was filled with disbelief: "But how is this possible? Among the people who came in from outside, this is too unfair..."
Ruan Nanzhu: "So what if it's a foul? These worlds don't have fixed rules."
Feng Yongle scratched his head, looking a little confused.
"Of course, this is just speculation right now, and everything remains to be verified," Ruan Nanzhu said. "But now we can be sure that there is a connection between the key and the photos in the dean's office."
Feng Yongle nodded: "By the way, aren't we going to check out the room where the bodies are stored?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Let's have breakfast first."
So the three of them continued to eat slowly.
After breakfast, they rushed to the place where the bodies were stored according to yesterday's plan.
Arriving at the room, Lin Qiushi discovered, as expected, that some of the bodies were missing. Only two-thirds of the body bags that had originally filled the entire room were left. It seemed that some of them had been moved to other places last night.
Ruan Nanzhu looked at the corpses in the room and fell into deep thought.
"These missing bodies must have been moved into the tunnel." Feng Yongle whispered, "Do we have to sneak out at night, but if we meet that nurse on the way..." When he said this, he may have thought of Xue Zhiyun's miserable death, and shuddered all over.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Being killed by the nurses is better than waiting to die. Besides, there are some rules that you don't have to follow."
Indeed, Lin Qiushi still remembered how, back in the world of the Rain Girl, Ruan Nanzhu had disobeyed the housekeeper's instructions and entered the studio, destroying the mistress's paintings before obtaining the key to leave. If every world had obediently listened to the NPCs, they would have died countless times.
Some rules must be followed, while others cannot. Of course, you need to decide where to draw the line; a wrong decision could cost you your life.
It seems that the more doors you go through, the easier it is to summarize some more reliable experience from them. There is a reason why Ruan Nanzhu goes through so many doors, Lin Qiushi thought.
"Then let's sneak out and take a look tonight?" Feng Yongle suggested in a low voice.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "We'll see when the time comes." He turned his gaze and said, "I want to go to the dean's office again."
"Sure, let's go together." Feng Yongle felt that he really had no idea.
So the three of them went to the dean's office again.
When they had come, there was a large lock on the door to the dean's office, but now it had been broken. It seemed another player had tried to get in but didn't have the lock-picking skills, so they resorted to brute force.
But this is convenient. Ruan Nanzhu reached out and opened the door, revealing the scene behind the dean's office.
The room looked much the same as it had when they had last come. The only difference was that the books on the table had been flipped through and left in their place, and the portrait on the wall seemed to have been moved.
Lin Qiushi turned his gaze to the empty photo frame.
That photo frame looked the most special, hanging so abruptly among the portraits, almost like an unfinished scroll, making people want to fill it up as it was out of tune with the surroundings.
Ruan Nanzhu lowered his head and looked at the baby's corpse in the drawer. He was thinking about something and his expression looked extremely serious.
"Tell me." Ruan Nanzhu suddenly said, "How many people have entered this room?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.
Feng Yongle: "There must be quite a few..." he said, "There are so many messy footprints on the floor, I think most people have been in here." The location of the dean's office is not hidden, it is easy to find it and come in to investigate.
Just when the three of them were about to take a closer look, a miserable scream was heard from downstairs. The scream was obviously the voice of a girl in their team.
Feng Yongle's expression was stern: "Something happened?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Let's go down and take a look."
So the three of them ran to the location on the first floor where the screaming came from and soon saw what had happened.
I saw a corner of the corridor on the first floor, which was covered with blood. In the blood, there was a person lying - no, that person could no longer be called a person. All the bones in his body seemed to be broken, and his flesh and blood were pulled out, leaving only a piece of skin. He was lying quietly on the ground.
Lin Qiushi was surprised when he saw this man. Although he couldn't see the man's face, he could recognize from his clothes that the dead man was Jiang Yingrui!
Lin Qiushi glanced at Ruan Nanzhu reflexively, only to see Ruan Nanzhu spread his hands innocently, indicating that the current situation had nothing to do with him.
"How did he die?" Feng Yongle was also surprised. "Wasn't he fine this morning?"
"I don't know—" the girl who found the body said, "I wanted to go look around, but I saw this."
"No one saw what happened? How did he die?" someone asked.
No one answered this question. It seems that no one knows how Jiang Yingrui died.
By this time, everyone in the team had arrived. Excluding the two who had died last night and Jiang Yingrui, there were eleven left. Everyone looked at Jiang Yingrui's body with serious expressions and began to whisper about why he had died so tragically.
Ruan Nanzhu walked to Jiang Yingrui's side and began to examine the body briefly.
He examined it for a while and then stood up.
When others asked him if he had discovered anything, Ruan Nanzhu shook his head and said, "No."
Jiang Yingrui's death was too strange and too sudden. Lin Qiushi was originally thinking about what to do if he tripped them up, but he didn't expect that this man would die so inexplicably.
After examining the body, Ruan Nanzhu stood up and glanced at the crowd.
Lin Qiushi sensed that he was searching for something. However, Ruan Nanzhu probably didn't find what he was looking for, because the next moment, he beckoned Lin Qiushi and Feng Yongle to leave.
After the three of them left, they arrived at a remote location.
After Ruan Nanzhu made sure that no one was around, he slowly took something out of his pocket and said, "I found this in Jiang Yingrui's pocket."
"What?" Lin Qiushi was stunned when he found a small wooden doll in Ruan Nanzhu's pocket. The doll was only the size of a thumb and looked like a child's toy.
"What is this? A toy?" Feng Yongle asked.
Ruan Nanzhu's fingers caressed the wooden doll. Suddenly, with a flick of his finger, the doll split in half, revealing a smaller doll. Only then did Lin Qiushi realize that these were the last two dolls in the Russian nesting doll.
Russian nesting dolls are nested one inside the other, with the largest nesting the smallest. There are only two dolls left in front of me.
"It should be an important prop." Ruan Nanzhu said, "That's why Jiang Yingrui didn't die last night."
He got these two nesting dolls from a special place, and they saved his life.
I don’t know why, he escaped the night but suddenly died during the day.
Feng Yongle: "Then why did he die..."
Ruan Nanzhu sighed: "I want to know too. Can't you stop asking questions and give me some advice?"
Facing Ruan Nanzhu's tone of disappointment, Feng Yongle felt a little embarrassed and chuckled, "Sorry, you're so amazing. I was afraid my analysis would interrupt your train of thought."
Ruan Nanzhu's expression was half-smile: "Qiuqiu, what do you think?"
Lin Qiushi typed: Could the person who killed him be that doctor?
Ruan Nanzhu: "What do you mean?"
Lin Qiushi: I haven't seen that nurse during the day. What did Jiang Yingrui do to trigger the death condition? I think this condition must be very special. And according to your previous speculation, if the doctor is in our team... Could it be that Jiang Yingrui found some key clues in the corridor on the first floor?
Ruan Nanzhu: "That makes sense. Let's go and take a look."
At this time, the corridor on the first floor returned to silence. The crowd that had gathered had dispersed, leaving only Jiang Yingrui's body lying quietly there.
This time, Lin Qiushi squatted down to check it himself. Feng Yongle muttered beside him, "How can you two girls be so brave? Aren't you afraid..."
Lin Qiushi glanced at him without saying anything, while Ruan Nanzhu smiled and said, "What's there to be afraid of? I know my Qiuqiu will protect me."
Feng Yongle hummed with a subtle expression.
Jiang Yingrui's death was strange. There was a large hole in his stomach, and the wound resembled a laceration, as if it had been ripped open. To be honest, Lin Qiushi had always found Jiang Yingrui's sudden death extremely strange. He slowly peeled off Jiang Yingrui's clothes and discovered something else. His eyes widened.
"What's wrong?" Ruan Nanzhu saw Lin Qiushi's expression.
Lin Qiushi waved to Ruan Nanzhu.
Ruan Nanzhu walked up to Lin Qiushi, lowered his head, and saw Jiang Yingrui's body. He saw that the back of Jiang Yingrui's clothes was covered with knife wounds of various sizes. These knife wounds were very deep. Because Jiang Yingrui's body was already very broken and the knife wounds were covered with blood, they were not easy to be discovered.
Ruan Nanzhu hadn't paid much attention to how Jiang Yingrui died before, so he missed these clues. He frowned and looked very serious.
His legs seemed broken, too. Lin Qiushi typed rapidly. There were wounds on his back...
Ruan Nanzhu fell into deep thought.
Lin Qiushi: I have a guess.
Ruan Nanzhu looked up and saw Lin Qiushi's dark eyes. He knew that they were both thinking the same thing at this moment: "Did Jiang Yingrui die last night?"
Lin Qiushi nodded heavily.
Ruan Nanzhu: "It is indeed possible."
Thinking about it carefully, Jiang Yingrui's appearance that morning was indeed full of doubts. Since he already suspected Ruan Nanzhu of the murder, if nothing had happened, he would have immediately taken down the 502 on the door as evidence to prove that Ruan Nanzhu was the murderer. But he didn't. Instead, he disappeared for a long time, and only appeared late after everyone else had arrived.
When he came, his face looked extremely bad, but Lin Qiushi didn't pay much attention to it. After all, after what happened that night, it would be strange if he looked good.
But thinking about it carefully, they did seem to have some very subtle details. For example, Jiang Yingrui changed his clothes, and for another example, Jiang Yingrui said a few words after arriving, and after finding that there was no way to prove that Ruan Nanzhu was the one who did it, he left without hesitation.
Not long after that, he died here.
Lin Qiushi thought of the Russian nesting dolls that Ruan Nanzhu took out of his pocket.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Tell me, is he dead or not?" His fingers stroked the ordinary-looking nesting doll.
Lin Qiushi shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.
Ruan Nanzhu: "I don't think so." He laughed, his voice a little low. "Look at his torn wound. Does it look like something is crawling out of it?"
Lin Qiushi: “…” He didn’t feel anything until Ruan Nanzhu said it, but as soon as he said it, he felt a chill down his spine.
It was as if he really saw something struggling from Jiang Yingrui's abdomen, eventually tearing his abdomen and squeezing out from inside.
Lin Qiushi: What was the name of the girl who first discovered the body?
"Her name is Hu Die." Ruan Nanzhu said, "I don't have much impression of her."
Lin Qiushi: Okay, I understand.
The two of them spoke in a silent language, leaving Feng Yongle completely bewildered. Finally, he couldn't help but ask, "What on earth do you mean? What do you mean Jiang Yingrui died last night? But how could he be here after he died?"
Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him and asked, "How did you get to the sixth door?"
Feng Yongle said: "I'm lucky."
Listening to his words, Lin Qiushi inexplicably thought of Cheng Qianli. To some extent, these two people were somewhat similar...
Ruan Nanzhu was the most impatient with questions like "Why?". If this had happened outside, he would have walked away with a cold face. But at least his name was Ruan Baijie, so his attitude improved a bit. He patted Feng Yongle on the shoulder and said, "Since it depends on luck, is it useful for you to know so much?"
Feng Yongle: “…” What you said makes sense, but I still want to refute it.
Lin Qiushi wanted to laugh when watching the interaction between the two. To be honest, he now doubted that the reason why Ruan Nanzhu was so impressed with him was because he did not have a strong curiosity and did not like to ask why.
Because of Jiang Yingrui's death, the three of them began to pay attention to the girl named Hu Die.
Although Hu Die is called Hu Die, she is not very good-looking and her personality is not very sociable. She becomes a partner with another boy, but the two are often separated.
In fact, such people are not special inside the gate, because after all, they are in the world inside the gate. Before they are sure that their partners can be trusted, it is safer to act alone.
Hu Die was like this. Even when she went to a restaurant to eat, she would go alone and leave after she was done eating without any hesitation.
There was nothing unusual about her behavior, and even Lin Qiushi suspected that they were overthinking it, because according to their speculation, the facts were indeed a bit unbelievable.
"We have to work the night shift tonight, so let's eat more." At dinner time, Feng Yongle ate a lot more than usual. He said, "I really hope we can find the tunnel smoothly."
Lin Qiushi nodded, agreeing with Feng Yongle's words.
A lot of things happened today. Three people died in one breath. The final arrival of death made everyone nervous, but also inexplicably relieved - at least if they hadn't found the key to get out, their chances of survival would have been a little greater.
As soon as eight o'clock arrived, the sanatorium became quiet.
Lin Qiushi secretly found an opportunity to give the room number 502 to Ruan Nanzhu and asked him to keep it. No one knew where he hid it.
The three of them lay on the bed waiting for dark, and soon, the familiar sound of high heels hitting the ground was heard in the corridor.
"Are we really going out?" Feng Yongle looked very worried.
"Well, if you are afraid, you can stay in the house." Ruan Nanzhu did not make things difficult for Feng Yongle.
"Forget it, I'd better go with you." Feng Yongle thought about it and felt a little embarrassed. "After all, you two girls...if anything really happens, I can help you."
Lin Qiushi glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and thought to himself, this girl is probably much more capable than you.
Ruan Nanzhu didn't know what he was thinking, but he was determined to let Feng Yongle stay. Feng Yongle wanted to continue arguing, but Ruan Nanzhu reached out and pressed his shoulder.
"Just stay here," Ruan Nanzhu told him. "Do you hear me?"
"Hey... hey... I understand. Be gentler." Feng Yongle felt like his shoulder was going to be broken - it was the first time he realized that the girl in front of him was so strong!
"Well." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Let's go."
The two waited for the sound of high heels to fade away, then immediately opened the door and ran to the stairs on the left. After making sure that the thing did not follow them, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Feng Yongle wasn't around at the moment, so Lin Qiushi was finally able to speak. He whispered, "Why don't you let Feng Yongle come with you?"
Ruan Nanzhu said calmly, "I'm afraid he'll hold us back."
Lin Qiushi: “…Just that?” He thought there was something wrong with Feng Yongle.
Ruan Nanzhu was silent for a moment: "He has too many questions."
Lin Qiushi: "..." This is the real reason...
Ruan Nanzhu: "Leave."
Lin Qiushi followed him, and the two of them headed straight for the room where the body was placed.
The room was located at the corner of the third floor. After they arrived, they did not rush in, but observed it from the side for a while.
Lin Qiushi whispered, "No one has come yet."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Wait."
The patients who had once piled up in the corridors had all disappeared, and it seemed as if the sanatorium was left with only a dead silence at night. Beds were densely packed in the corridors, their sheets stained with various stains and emitting a disgusting smell.
Such a place is more like accelerating the death of patients than treating them.
The two stood at the stairs, waiting for any movement from outside. They were right not to bring Feng Yongle; judging by his personality, he didn't seem the type to be patient. Lin Qiushi stood there, playing Sudoku on his phone, while Ruan Nanzhu stood beside him, watching quietly. The atmosphere between them mitigated the slightest bit of fear.
At about ten o'clock, there was a noise in the corridor.
Lin Qiushi's expression froze, and he immediately put away his phone.
Ruan Nanzhu tiptoed to the corner of the stairs and looked towards the corridor.
"How's it going?" Lin Qiushi asked softly, "Have the people collecting the bodies arrived?"
Ruan Nanzhu turned his head with a very strange expression.
Seeing this, Lin Qiushi also walked to the corner and glanced towards where the body was. He instantly understood why Ruan Nanzhu had such an expression. Because the body had indeed begun to move, but no one was moving it; it was moving on its own.
The black body bag jumped out of the room stiffly and headed to the other end of the corridor.
Lin Qiushi: “…” It would really save us both effort and worry if you all died.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Let's go, follow me."
Lin Qiushi nodded.
The two of them were not sure whether the corpses would discover them, so they moved extremely carefully, moving along the wall and trying not to make any noise.
The corpses in the body bags were jumping around in an orderly manner. When Lin Qiushi walked next to them, he couldn't help but hold his breath.
Ruan Nanzhu suddenly held his hand.
Lin Qiushi was stunned and saw Ruan Nanzhu mouthing to him: Don't be nervous.
Lin Qiushi felt a slight sense of relief, feeling less nervous. Honestly, while he'd encountered these things before, this was his first time dealing with them so closely. Following the direction of the corpse's hopping, the two of them slowly descended two flights of stairs to the first-floor lobby.
Soon, they found what they were looking for - a tunnel hidden behind a staircase.
When viewed during the day, the tunnel looks like a small closed iron door. Because it is too small and is cluttered with all kinds of debris, it is difficult for anyone to notice it.
At this time, the small iron door was opened, revealing the dark passage behind it, and the corpses began to move slowly into the passage in a very orderly manner.
Lin Qiushi saw the passage and asked, "Want to go in and take a look?"
Ruan Nanzhu said: "No, since we know where it is, let's go and see it tomorrow morning." Going in under such circumstances would be a very risky move, after all, they didn't know what was inside.
"Are we going back just like that?" Lin Qiushi asked in a low voice.
"Well." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Let's go."
Lin Qiushi agreed with Ruan Nanzhu's opinion. After all, Ruan Nanzhu was a veteran and was definitely more experienced than him in these matters.
So the two of them walked quietly back to their residence along the corridor.
But on the way back, Lin Qiushi suddenly saw something and asked in confusion, "Nanzhu, why does it seem like there's a light on the roof?"
Ruan Nanzhu glanced in that direction and then frowned: "It's the dean's office."
Lin Qiushi was stunned.
Ruan Nanzhu: "There's someone inside."
Lin Qiushi: "Want to go over and take a look?"
Ruan Nanzhu pondered for a moment and nodded.
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