Chapter 102
After breakfast the next day, no new incidents occurred. Ranlong abided by the agreement and asked Xinlong to take the lead in searching Qiu An's room.
Ranlong didn't help, nor did he search other people's rooms. He followed Xinlong with his hands folded to prevent her from searching too far and messing up Qiu An's personal belongings.
"I found it!" Ten minutes later, Xinlong shouted while holding Qiu An's handbag.
Ranlong looked carefully and found that she didn't recognize this handbag.
Everyone gathered around and watched Xinlong take out two prop ID cards from her bag, one with "Xiao An" written on it and the other with "Xiao Qiu" written on it.
Ranlong stared blankly at the handbag and the fake ID card that didn't belong to Qiu An, and asked in confusion, "Ah? Are you really the murderer?"
It turns out that searching Qiu An's room is really necessary to advance the plot. Although I thought about it, I was still shocked when the evidence was placed in front of me.
She had previously tried every possible means to obstruct Xinlong, but now she was the one making unreasonable demands...
"Who is 'Xiao Qiu'?" Ranlong asked Qiu An, but Qiu An kept silent and ignored her question while looking at the ceiling.
Why are you still acting?... That's why when I yelled at Auntie Crazy in the hospital and watched her and Xinlong quarrel for a long time without saying a word, I was also acting...
Qiu An is such an...why does he even include her in the role?
"There's something else inside!" Xinlong pulled out a cell phone from the compartment. "You need to enter the password."
Ranlong bluntly exposed: "I know, it's 1101!"
Xinlong entered the password, the password was correct, and the screen was unlocked.
"How do you know it's this?"
"Ahaha, I searched for 'Xiao An' before, and today was the day she had a car accident."
Xinlong yelled, "I told you that you were protecting her!"
Based on the emails in Qiu An's mobile phone, Ran Long tried to restore the full picture of the matter: Xiao An herself died in a car accident last year, but in order to continue to make money with the identity of "Xiao An", the agency asked Xiao Qiu, a stuntman who was similar to her in body shape and appearance, to replace Xiao An and make a comeback.
Xiao Qiu and Xiao An met because of a play and were also good friends in private. Xiao An's departure made Xiao Qiu very sad. She rejected the company's request many times, but finally could not resist the temptation of money and changed her face to become Xiao An.
However, as the days passed, Xiao Qiu soon got tired of the superficial life in the world of fame and fortune. She couldn't help but think of Xiao An and the days when she and her friends opened their hearts to each other by candlelight. After failing to expose herself many times, she wanted to destroy herself.
Before she committed suicide, she remembered that she still had an unfulfilled wish.
Xiao Qiu was from the foot of Fengbo Mountain. The crazy woman who was burned in the hospital was her mother.
Many years ago, a group of young people, led by the village chief's son, were racing in town and hit and killed her sister. The village chief gave Xiao Qiu's mother some money to settle the matter peacefully. Xiao Qiu thought her mother would fight the village chief with all her might, but her mother just accepted the money silently and promised not to mention the matter again.
Xiao Qiu was extremely sad and hated her mother at the same time. Not long after, she stole some money and left Fengbo Mountain far away.
So the fire was Xiao Qiu's revenge on the village chief's son and his group of cronies.
It is said that Xiao Qiu's mother became mentally ill shortly after Xiao Qiu left, and often chased the group of young people, saying that she wanted revenge. On the night of the fire, Xiao Qiu's mother happened to be present and was affected and was admitted to the hospital with them.
After finishing the story, Xinlong sighed, "The criminals will definitely return to the scene."
Ranlong recalled that night and said helplessly, "I actually watched the scene hand in hand with the criminal..."
Or interlocking fingers...
The case seemed to have come to an end here. Following the instructions of the program team, everyone called the police, locked Qiu An in the room, and returned to the living room on the first floor to prepare for a review.
Just as Ranlong sat down on the sofa, two more explosions were heard outside the house.
"What's going on?!"
They looked at each other for a while, and Ranlong was the first to run to the second floor. The heart-stealing girl followed her and went upstairs together.
When I opened Qiu An's door, I saw the windows wide open, the cold wind howling in, the curtains flying high, and the room was already empty.
"Qiu An?!" Ran Long shouted, leaned over to the window and looked out, but there was no sign of Qiu An anywhere.
Xinlong kindly reminded her: "You called the wrong name."
"Everyone is gone, and you're still arguing with me about this?"
“……?” Xinlong rolled her eyes like Ranlong did.
Everyone suspected that Xiao Qiu was responsible for the second explosion, and Xiao Qiu's enemies were all in the hospital, so they immediately got up and rushed towards the hospital.
On the way, the village chief's wife was organizing the villagers to evacuate. She said that there were frequent explosions in the village and the fire was still spreading, and it might not be safe to stay here.
Everyone found that there was no fire in the hospital and didn't know where to go, so they had to evacuate with the crowd.
Ranlong couldn't find Qiu An anywhere and was sweating with anxiety. Xinlong kept comforting her, saying, "We are recording a program, Qiu An will definitely be fine." Only then did she feel a little relieved.
During the evacuation, we happened to meet a few people who looked panicked and were walking against the crowd.
Suspicious, they followed them. They saw these people walking towards a small house, and one by one, they disappeared from sight along the downward steps.
When I got closer, I saw that the stairs led to the basement of the cabin.
Ranlong grabbed a person who was rushing to the basement and persuaded him that "the village is filled with thick smoke and there is a risk of suffocation in the basement. We should evacuate to an open area." However, the person pushed Ranlong away and told her not to meddle in other people's business.
Most of the villagers who entered were wearing headscarves and masks, so they found the same clothes and blended in.
When they walked in, they found that there was a different world in the basement. They were all tricked by the program crew. It turned out that the main storyline officially unfolded here.
Walking further in, one will see a series of plantations for growing raw materials for contraband. It turns out that there are unspeakable secrets hidden underground in this village.
They passed levels and solved puzzles along the way, taking photos and collecting evidence with their mobile phones. When they were almost done with the investigation and were about to evacuate, several people led by the village chief suddenly appeared and blocked their way.
The villagers kidnapped Qiu An and demanded that they exchange the cell phone used for evidence for the hostage.
Ranlong threw his phone out without thinking. Seeing Xinlong still hesitating, he sighed, snatched her phone, and threw them to the villagers.
Ranlong took Qiu An out of the villagers' sight. She gently peeled off the tape covering Qiu An's mouth and looked at the slightly red skin around her lips, feeling very distressed.
At this time, Xinlong asked, "Hey, you say, those villagers just let us go like that. Aren't they afraid that we'll leak the secret? Even if there's no evidence, we still know the location of this plantation."
Qiu An said, "Because the village chief didn't want us to leave at all."
"What's the meaning?"
Qiu An told them that although she had set the hotel fire, she had not set the explosives. When the first explosion occurred, she mistakenly thought it was caused by the fire. But the second and third explosions were unjustifiable.
On her way to escape from the guesthouse, she encountered an explosion. Suspicious, she went to investigate alone and indeed found bomb remnants. Suddenly, her vision went black, and when she woke up again, she found that she had been kidnapped and brought to this underground plantation base.
"Our village is poor, but the village chief's family is very wealthy. I originally thought he was corrupt, but only today did I realize that it was this underground contraband business that enriched his coffers."
"So what does this have to do with the explosion?" Ranlong asked.
"Do you know what the village chief's son and his gang of cronies were doing in the restaurant that night?"
Ranlong shook his head.
"They were smoking this stuff." Qiu An pointed to the plantation behind him. "The village chief was busy with his underground business. By the time he realized the children had gone astray, it was too late. His daughter-in-law was 30 weeks pregnant and gave birth to a deformed baby prematurely."
"ah……"
"The village chief then began to reflect, realizing he had led too many young people astray, and he wanted to put an end to this tragedy. Meanwhile, the village's economy, boosted by the development of Fengbo Ancient Town, was steadily improving. The village chief knew that if things continued like this, their activities would eventually be discovered. He didn't want the burgeoning tourism industry to be affected by this underground stain, so he planned to raze the area to the ground with explosives, allowing the innocent villagers and their descendants to start anew."
"Uh..." What a stupid person! Ranlong didn't know where to start complaining.
"He convinced a few of his closest associates to support his plan. They've planted large quantities of explosives throughout the village and underground. Explosives are unstable, and both the explosion in the restaurant and today's explosion were accidents. The village chief knew they couldn't wait any longer, so he gathered everyone involved in the planting base here and sealed the exits, intending to put an end to everything today."
Ranlong couldn't help but say, "Well, who would dare to travel to this place now?"
Xinlong grasped the key point: "So are we going to start escaping the secret room now?"
Qiu An nodded, Ran Long sighed, and immersed himself in the endless puzzle solving...
Fortunately, Qiu An and Xinlong were very smart and they quickly found the exit and opened the door to the basement.
Everyone filed out, Ranlong was the last one. As she stepped onto the stairs, she suddenly looked back.
There are less than ten minutes left until the explosion, and they must evacuate to a safe place before the explosion.
Time was running out, Qiu An reached out to Ran Long and called her, "Xiao Ran."
Ranlong took Qiu An's hand and asked, "Are you not going to save any of the people inside?"
Xinlong's eyes widened in disbelief, "Are you crazy? You want to save these people? Besides, how can we save them? We only have ten minutes left. It's hard to say whether we can escape or not. It's definitely too late!"
"But……"
While these people were undoubtedly guilty of heinous crimes, Ranlong glanced through the crowd and spotted some young teenagers. Their eyes were filled with confusion, unaware that death awaited them. They might not have known what kind of work they were doing or what they were planting. Perhaps they were simply trapped by poverty, or perhaps they were being threatened and pressured...
Ranlong wanted to explain, but found that Qiu An's face looked unhappy.
She immediately reflected on herself, thinking that she was indeed a bit too compassionate, so she shrugged and said, "It doesn't matter. These people will be sentenced to death or life imprisonment anyway. Let them do whatever they want."
Just as she was about to leave, Qiu An held her hand tightly and said, "Let's think of another way. Saving people is our job, and the conviction and sentencing will be left to the law."
Ran Long's eyebrows blossomed like flowers. She held Qiu An's hand and said to Xin Long, "Little sister, you take the elder and second sisters and go first. If they don't wait for us, then goodbye!"
After saying that, she and Qiu An went back into the dim basement.
"Ahhhh, you two are so cunning!" Xinlong was furious for a moment, then followed with her eldest and second sisters.
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