Two days later, it seemed both the message and A9's words had come true. Uniformed personnel armed with firearms suddenly began coming and going downstairs.
Before A9 could scream, “You've been discovered, the Security Bureau is here to arrest you!”, Lin Mo learned the news of Chen Xijian's younger brother going missing.
...
“—He's in a wheelchair, how could he possibly have run away from home! He can't even stand up! Are you making fun of me? You had better check the nearby surveillance right now and find my brother!
—No, absolutely impossible! He has no other family in Lengjing besides me. My mother is sick in the hospital, how could she take him away?
—I beg of you, this isn't a false alarm! Please look for him! He really vanished! My brother's body is very weak, and he's disabled. Even a little exertion will make him fall ill. Something bad could easily happen to him... I'm so scared, so worried...”
A9 dutifully relayed the conversation taking place in the room next door.
Soon after, staff from the Security Bureau knocked on the door.
After asking a couple of simple questions, Lin Mo stated she had only lived here for about a week and had never seen the boy next door, after which they left.
【How is the Security Bureau in Lengjing so incompetent too? It feels like the chances of finding him are microscopic.】
Chen Xijian seemed to realize the local security was unreliable as well. They didn't take her brother's disappearance seriously, and her emotions almost collapsed.
Intermittent weeping echoed from the hallway. Although she tried her best to suppress the sounds from her mouth, she couldn't hide the pain and sorrow within.
【This doesn't feel like a simple case anymore, but I haven't seen any familiar criminals around either,】 A9 said, stroking its chin as it reasoned carefully.
Seeing Lin Mo packing her things to get ready for work, the muscles on its face twitched uncontrollably, distorting its furry countenance.
【Even though I know you're cold-blooded, I didn't expect you to be this cold-blooded! She was the first person to show you goodwill! Her brother is missing, at least comfort her a bit! Is work really that important?!】
...
Arriving at her workplace.
The bakery owner stood at the shop entrance. Spotting Lin Mo walking over, she raised her chin and glanced sideways at the somewhat messy old building, prying for news.
“What happened? Why did people from the Security Bureau show up? It's not some criminal case, is it? So annoying... can I even run my shop properly these few days?”
“I don't know,” Lin Mo said, putting on her work uniform.
“How can you know nothing at all? It's making everyone anxious.” The boss wiped flour off her hands and walked toward the back kitchen. “Fine then, hurry up and put on a mask to stand at the cash register so you don't scare customers. Also, when is that wound on your face going to heal?”
Before they could enter a working rhythm, a vehicle of a special model parked at the shop entrance.
Lin Mo exchanged a glance with the boss, and both turned to look toward the doorway. The car door opened, and a man in a uniform stepped out.
He strode into the shop, showed them his badge, and spoke with a cold, stern expression. “My apologies, but you both need to come with me to the Security Bureau to cooperate with an investigation.”
The boss furrowed her brows. “My shop is miles away from that building! What's there to investigate? Why aren't you looking for the residents downstairs instead of coming to me? Are you kidding me? I still have a shop to run—are you going to compensate me for my lost money?”
But the officer's eyes were ice-cold, his attitude meticulous and uncompromising, showing no sign that he could be reasoned with.
The boss's voice grew quieter. Though she hadn't done anything wrong and even the kitchen inside her shop was spotless, she suddenly felt a bit guilty. “If there's a problem, can't you just ask here in the shop? We're not criminals, why must we go to the Security Bureau?”
The Security Bureau officer had a clear purpose. He didn't waste a single word from beginning to end. Seeing the citizens uncooperative with the investigation, the corner of his mouth merely twitched into a cold sneer, perfectly fitting the Security Bureau's style of doing things.
The Security Bureau couldn't possibly come to arrest people without any leads.
A9 hesitated and glanced over. 【It couldn't be that you knocked out her brother while I wasn't looking, right...】
Lin Mo remained silent the whole time, obediently taking off her apron and following behind the boss into the car.
【What about your identity issue? If you go to the Security Bureau, an investigation might expose you. If the Covenant of the Scales notices you by then, you'll be completely doomed—all that running for nothing.】
The car started moving. This specific vehicle model was issued exclusively to the Security Bureau, so it held special privileges on the road. The car drove very fast, and the scenery outside flickered past in a blur.
The boss sat beside her in the back seat. Once inside the car, the boss stopped complaining about armed agencies falsely accusing honest folks and instead began rummaging through her phone.
A9 remarked that she was cramming at the last minute, searching online: "Something happened near my shop and I was taken to the Security Bureau, will I be okay?"
As the boss swiped across her screen, she caught sight of Lin Mo leaning slightly forward out of the corner of her eye.
Just as the car slammed on its brakes, she added, “Sit properly and fasten your seatbelt! You're so thin, you'll go flying out in a moment.”
To her utter shock, as soon as the words left her mouth, Lin Mo actually rushed forward.
The boss was dumbfounded, but Lin Mo didn't fly forward due to inertia. Stepping onto the partition, she locked her arm around the neck of the driver in the front seat.
Standing so close, and with Lin Mo wearing short sleeves, the boss could clearly see her muscles instantly tensing, along with her face rendered gruesome by burns.
A creaking sound like snapping bones came from the front. A chill shot straight from the soles of her feet to her scalp, and her pupils contracted sharply.
She let out a scream, “What are you doing?!”
“H-Help... help...”
Intermittent cries for help came from the driver's seat. He was still alive, and the snapping sound she heard had likely been an illusion; his cervical spine hadn't been broken.
“Let him go, that's illegal! Don't drag me down with you!” She reached out to shove Lin Mo away.
Though she reacted instinctively, her mind was completely bewildered. What kind of temporary worker had she hired?!
Lin Mo didn't let go. She even used her other hand, leaning her body back with force.
“Help...”
A9 finally reacted, offering a feeble protest: 【You're completely insane! I only said going to the Security Bureau might expose you, I didn't tell you to eliminate the guy!】
Every living creature inside the car except Lin Mo fell into a state of total panic.
Lin Mo choked the driver's neck while the boss tugged at her. Nobody noticed an opening suddenly popping open at the bottom of the car.
Like a small pipe, it instantly sprayed thick white gas, filling every inch of the interior. From the outside, nothing could be seen through the windows except a sea of solid white.
Amid the white mist, the figures ahead were no longer clear. The boss behind her had already collapsed.
Lin Mo's vision flickered black in waves. In the dense mist, blood vessels rapidly burst in her eyes. It was only after confirming that the signs of life in her hands had vanished that she let go.
Fueled by intense unwillingness, she leaned down to pull at the car door, but the vehicle was locked tight, like a cast-iron cage. After enduring for less than half a minute, she lost consciousness.
...
After she passed out, A9 encountered Lin Mo in the subconscious life space.
She was curled up in a blank, empty space, trembling. The panic from right before she lost consciousness had carried over into her subconscious, leaving her deeply unsettled.
Once she truly confirmed that her body was no longer under her control, hallucinations set in, and she felt her life slipping away.
The hallucinations triggered dense, intense pain and itching. In her subconscious, this pain became physical reality, driving her to tear open her own skin and dig through her flesh to find whatever substance was causing the pain.
Faced with fear of the unknown and the powerlessness of being unable to strike back, tears slowly spilled from her eyes.
She was in immense agony.
The chaotic state of her mind mixed black substances into the blank subconscious, causing large swathes of space to warp violently.
A9 watched as the subconscious space underwent a massive transformation. The only part of the life force sharing a room with this lunatic trembled in terror.
Clutching its own furry tail, it spoke cautiously: 【What happened just now? And what's wrong with you?】
Lin Mo: “...There's a problem. The driver had a problem.”
I want to kill him. I can kill him. I killed him.
【How did you figure that out?】
“Will I die? I'm so scared, I'm so scared...” The Lin Mo in her subconscious was completely incapable of holding a conversation.
It was merely a coincidence just now; she hadn't actually answered its question. Within two seconds, Lin Mo fell back into a bizarre loop, unable to break free.
Terrified and lost.
Had her previous successes inflated her arrogance? She had underestimated the threats around her, underestimated the capabilities of others.
Death, death, death!
She would die because of her own carelessness, die because of a single wrong choice.
Death...
Her mind sank into memories. In the dark, her brain recalled a sentence someone had once said to her.
—Those who take the lives of others should have been prepared to have theirs taken long ago.
...Disgusting.
What a disgusting thing to say.
A9 felt it was time to fulfill its duty. It scrambled up, carefully dodging the distorted space, and offered comfort.
【It's fine, I'll keep watch for you on the outside. If there's real danger, I'll attack your subconscious. Though it'll do some damage to your body, it's better than losing your life.】
Lin Mo did not speak, as if about to be swallowed by the warping space.
Helpless, A9 could only continue shivering in fear.
It couldn't let Lin Mo faint next time. It couldn't handle an environment where her subconscious transformed like this—one careless move and it would be shredded by the warping space.
...
Opening her eyes, a wave of exhaustion hit her body. Her muscles felt weak and numb, as if paralyzed. Beneath her was a cold wooden floor covered in a thin layer of dust.
The smell of rot hung in the air. A considerable amount of time must have passed since she fainted. Through the cracks in the sealed window, bright sunlight could be seen outside.
Lin Mo pulled herself up from the floor.
This was a sealed room, vast and almost entirely devoid of furniture. Large, origin-unknown yellowish-brown stains covered the walls, their twisted shapes resembling figures reaching out with open arms.
A kerosene lamp rested on the cabinet. Its glass chimney was yellowed from smoke, containing a leftover half-cup of murky oil with the dried corpses of several long-dead flying insects floating inside.
She examined her surroundings inch by inch, stepping forward on stiff, clumsy legs.
A vanity mirror leaned diagonally against the corner of the wall, its glass dim and hazy. Lin Mo stood before the mirror and lifted her head slightly. The face in the mirror lifted as well, like a cloud of white mist swaying faintly inside the glass.
Looking at her intact, unharmed body, her eyes were unnaturally pitch-black. Her fingertips traced from her fingers up to her forearm, no telling what was going through her mind.
...
A9 had been waiting for her to wake up, intending to share the intelligence it had gathered.
Watching Lin Mo examine herself in the mirror, perhaps after spending too long in that terrifying subconscious realm, it suddenly had a flash of insight, understanding the lunatic's mindset.
—Since she was allowed to live, the one who dies next will have to be someone else.
It shuddered. 【Um, I've been following along the whole time. This is an isolated island. Even if I remembered the route, we couldn't walk out of here. Plus, you're not the only one locked up in this old manor...】
【You must be really curious about who came here with you. This is just too strange.】
It really hadn't expected...
Cities outside Licheng sure played wild.
To actually encounter a Snowbound Manor scenario in Lengjing!
How envious! No wonder its own city had such low popularity—when other cities pulled off plots like this, who would still watch the brain-dead murder cases and gang brawls in little Licheng!
Better hurry up and learn from this!
Rate on N.U.
