161 humanoid
◎Like water, and like blood◎
The night gradually deepened.
A breeze blew by, stirring the flowers and plants in the yard, making a rustling sound. The lanterns emitting a dim red light swayed in the wind, and the light and shadows were reflected on the doors and windows, shaking.
Li Yiqing lowered his eyes and hugged the person in front of him tightly. The two of them squeezed together on the small bed, hugging each other tightly. "Indeed, Ah Xue's analysis makes sense."
"It seems we have a lot of clues to collect, and we need to pay attention everywhere."
"Hmm." Qi Qiuxue said softly, pausing before continuing, "Besides what you just said, have you discovered any other information?"
"Yes." Li Yiqing said.
Qi Qiuxue: "What?"
Li Yiqing: "Regarding the Third Young Lady, Li Zhinuo."
"She didn't seem to be born blind, because we lived very close to each other, and I accompanied her home after the party."
"She seemed to be stumbling as she walked. Even with the help of a servant, she still had difficulty walking. It was as if she had only recently lost her sight and hadn't fully adapted to life without it."
"I just lost my sight not long ago..." Qi Qiuxue thought thoughtfully, "Did anything happen before this?"
"Yes, after sending her back to her room, I tried to get information from the servants and learned that Li Zhinuo had disappeared not long ago."
"Missing?"
"Well, she'd been missing for about a month. At first, the servants noticed she hadn't returned home all night, so they reported the situation to the mistress and the master. But no one took it seriously at the time, thinking she'd just gone off somewhere on a whim. It wasn't until three days later that they finally noticed something was wrong."
"They were only discovered after being missing for three days?" Qi Qiuxue sneered, "These so-called relatives are really qualified."
"Perhaps the relationship between this family isn't that close at all," Li Yiqing speculated, lowering his eyes. "But if that's the case, why would they care so much about the thousand knots that can keep family members together forever?"
"Is there any need for them to be bound together?"
"This may be the direction of our future investigation." Qi Qiuxue pursed her lips and continued, "After that, how did you find Li Zhinuo?"
"One day a month later, she collapsed at the gate of the mansion," Li Yiqing said. "The servants who were out buying groceries found her, quickly carried her back to her room, and called a doctor to treat her."
"Li Zhinuo had wounds of varying sizes on her face, arms, and legs. She must have been accidentally injured while wandering. She also had signs of a head injury."
"But compared to her eyes, these were only minor injuries. When the doctor lifted her eyelids and tried to check the condition of her eyes, he was shocked to find that her eyeballs had been gouged out by someone."
"Both eyeballs were gone, leaving only two empty black holes beneath their eyelids."
"..." Qi Qiuxue remained silent for a long while before she said, "How much have you learned about the whole story?"
"Very little. The servants said that due to a head injury, Li Zhinuo lost some of his memory. They can only give a brief account of how he disappeared, what happened in the past month, and what he encountered."
Qi Qiuxue: "What about her memories before she disappeared?"
Li Yiqing: "I've forgotten some of it, but I still remember most of it. Fearing to upset her, no one, whether her family or the servants in the mansion, dared to ask too many questions. In the end, the matter had to be left unresolved."
Qi Qiuxue: "There are too many suspicious points about her."
Li Yiqing: "Yes, it just so happens that I live very close to her. In the next few days, I will try to get some more information from her."
"Be careful." Qi Qiuxue subconsciously raised her eyes and looked at her in the dark.
Li Yiqing smiled and rubbed her cheek affectionately: "I know."
"It's getting late, let's go to bed." This was a time-limited dungeon, and the difficulty was S-level, leaving them with little opportunity to relax. Qi Qiuxue interrupted the conversation, leaning into Li Yiqing's arms and gently closing her eyes. "We'll be busy for the next few days."
"Yeah." Li Yiqing didn't say anything else. He just hugged the person in front of him tightly and closed his eyes with her. "Good night."
“…”
Qi Qiuxue fell asleep quickly.
Perhaps because her nerves were always tense, Qi Qiuxue did not sleep very soundly that night. Even though she had fallen asleep, her senses were still sensitive.
She could hear her own breathing and Li Yiqing's. The two different sounds and different frequencies blended together, sounding particularly clear in the quiet night.
But soon, a third voice joined in.
It was still the sound of breathing, but it was not made by any of them. It was a painful, heavy, and extremely clear inhalation sound, intermittent but very clear, and sounded extremely terrifying.
Qi Qiuxue slowly sat up from her sleep.
She looked in the direction of the sound and saw a dark figure lying in a twisted posture in the middle of the room.
Qi Qiuxue couldn't tell its gender or age. The darkness obscured most of its features, leaving only a tiny bit of moonlight to illuminate the area around it.
No, maybe it wasn't moonlight, but the eerie flickering candlelight coming in from the lanterns outside.
A basin of water was placed in front of the human figure.
As if there were countless hands suppressing it from behind, or as if it was doing so willingly, the human figure lowered its head again after panting heavily, completely submerging its face in the water for a long, long time.
It lasted so long that bubbles began to appear in the water, and its body began to twitch unconsciously due to lack of oxygen. The water in the basin overflowed as it struggled, splashing onto the ground, and took on a strange dark color under the candlelight.
Like water, and like blood.
The humanoid repeated this behavior many times. During this period, Qi Qiuxue tried to use the bone knife to protect herself and Li Yiqing, but no matter how hard she tried, she failed. Her body seemed to be fixed and she could not move at all. She could only sit there and stare straight ahead.
Perhaps he finally noticed her gaze.
The humanoid stopped its self-mutilating behavior and slowly turned its head. Its chest heaved violently, its breathing rate became faster and faster, and its voice became louder and louder. It stared at Qi Qiuxue in the darkness, and it was unclear whether it was water or blood that flowed from its blood-red eyes.
Gradually, it temporarily stopped breathing and twitching, as if locking onto a target. Its body strangely spun around and turned into a supine position, but its head remained motionless. It "crawled" over quickly, twitching and panting.
At the critical moment, Qi Qiuxue finally regained her mobility. She drew out the bone knife as quickly as possible and aimed it at the human figure that was getting closer and closer to her.
The human figure looked at her with scarlet eyes, grinning and laughing. The fishy water mixed with something dripped onto the bed. Qi Qiuxue glanced at it out of the corner of her eye and saw that it was a group of lively goldfish.
At the moment she was about to stab with the bone knife, she was awakened by a panicked cry. When she opened her eyes, Li Yiqing was holding her with his hands, his eyes full of worry and anxiety.
The bone knife in her hand was just a little bit away from piercing Li Yiqing's heart.
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Special thanks to Xiaoyu Shenshui, it’s worth the money QAQ, I hug you tight, and thanks to all the treasures who gave me the overlord tickets and nutrient solution, left comments and read, thank you all for your company all the time, love you, muahmuahmuahmuah!
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