Her Talent for Courting Death Has Always Been Impressive - Chapter 23 Part 3

“This is closest to the door. When you get a chance, you two escape.” Yang Buqi quickly closed the door, turned to instruct the two behind him, then looked at Xiao Zhang, “By the way, how did you get in just now?”

“I, I have the ability to unlock things.” Xiao Zhang raised a finger, with a thin branch suddenly appearing at its tip, “I was chasing the doll up here, the doll turned into black smoke and slipped in, I didn’t think much and just used my finger to open the door…”

“Ah, that was an oversight.” Xu Turan clicked her tongue and shook her head.

Xiao Zhang: “???”

“If I had known you could grow small branches, I should have asked you to plug up the keyhole earlier,” Xu Turan said. “That way he wouldn’t be able to open the door and come in.”

Xiao Zhang: “…”

“Ah, no, that’s not right.” Before Xiao Zhang could say anything, Xu Turan pointed to her chin, contradicting her own idea, “Even without plugging the keyhole, he might not be able to open the door and come in.”

Xiao Zhang: “?”

“He doesn’t have a key,” Xu Turan said seriously. “Didn’t he ask us if we had seen his key as soon as we met him?”

…It was better when she didn’t mention this. As soon as she did, Xiao Zhang immediately remembered how he almost got his skull chopped off for answering “yes”, and felt like crying.

And in fact, Xu Turan was being a bit presumptuous—shortly after she finished speaking, the sound of a key being inserted into the lock came from outside.

The cramped bathroom suddenly fell silent, everyone holding their breath listening to the sounds outside, their expressions somewhat grave.

The lock turned, the door opened, followed by the sound of someone entering the room. Yang Buqi, closest to the outside, held his breath and focused, a faint green light already appearing in his hand. He was prepared to pounce and fight to the death as soon as the other person entered the bathroom, buying time for the others to escape.

However, after Cha Ruoyu entered, there was no sound of him moving further inside.

Instead, he retreated out again.

Following that, there was a “bang”—the door closed again.

Everyone: ?

The next second, the sound of the key inserting into the lock resonated again.

Everyone: ??

The door was opened again—only to be “bang” shut after about three seconds.

This repeated three or four times, leaving those hiding in the bathroom increasingly puzzled.

Xiao Zhang: “Is he… what’s wrong? Glitching?”

Yang Buqi slowly shook his head, but felt that this scene seemed somewhat familiar. After pondering for a moment, he suddenly turned to Xu Turan: “Did you do this?”

Xu Turan was pondering something else and didn’t catch his question at first. After a moment, she said: “Of course not, what kind of misunderstanding do you have about me?”

Yang Buqi: …

He could tell from Xu Turan’s tone that she wasn’t lying, which made him even more confused. Catching a glimpse of Xu Turan’s slightly furrowed brow, he thought she was upset and apologized softly.

“No, no, no need for that.” She quickly waved her hand, her brain still racing, unconsciously muttering, “It’s really strange… Doesn’t he have his own key?”

Yang Buqi didn’t understand: “What?”

“The key,” Xu Turan said. “When we first saw him, didn’t he immediately ask if we had seen his key? But now it seems the key was on him all along.”

Yang Buqi thought about it carefully and realized it was indeed the case. He pondered for a moment: “Could it be that the key he was referring to isn’t the one he has now?”

Xu Turan: “But this key can open the door?”

Yang Buqi: “…Perhaps what he really wants to open isn’t this door?”

This sounded very strange. Xu Turan couldn’t make heads or tails of it. As they were discussing, the repeated door-opening sounds outside finally stopped. Yang Buqi put his ear to the ventilation window of the bathroom, listened for a moment, then sighed in relief: “He’s gone.”

“He, he just left like that?” Xiao Zhang was surprised, “What did he come here for anyway?”

“If you’re feeling disappointed, you can go call him back,” Xu Turan said nonchalantly, taking the lead in opening the door and walking out. Xiao Zhang thought she was serious and hurriedly shook his hands as he rushed out, only to shiver when he saw the empty and cold living room.

Cha Ruoyu had indeed left. The door he had repeatedly opened and closed was now tightly shut, and the layout of the living room remained unchanged. It seemed he really hadn’t entered the room.

This realization made Yang Buqi secretly sigh in relief. He turned his head, about to call Xu Turan to leave, but when he focused, he saw that she had already leisurely strolled into the master bedroom.

Yang Buqi: …?!!

“Hey!” He hurriedly chased to the master bedroom doorway, “Now is not the time for sightseeing.”

“I know,” Xu Turan turned back and said, “But — we’re already here, you know.”

She spread her hands: “Look, according to what you said earlier, anyone who enters either of the two rooms on the 15th floor has a chance of disappearing. So we’ve actually already been targeted. Since that’s the case, we might as well take the time to explore a bit. Who knows, we might find some way to break through this situation.”

Yang Buqi: …

Although he didn’t want to admit it, his thoughts actually aligned with Xu Turan’s. The only difference was that he had planned to send the other two out and then complete the inspection alone…

Knowing that Xu Turan would absolutely not leave obediently at this point, Yang Buqi finally didn’t say anything more. Instead, he also stepped into the bedroom and started looking around.

The layout of the bedroom was quite similar to the 14th floor, just looking more lifeless. Xu Turan crouched in front of the cabinet and looked, making a curious “eh” sound: “Why are the drawers open?”

Xiao Zhang’s voice floated over from behind: “Um, I opened them earlier when I was looking for the doll…”

Xu Turan looked at him in surprise: “You’re still here?”

She thought this guy would have run away first.

Xiao Zhang mumbled, pitifully hugging the doll in his arms: “I’m too scared to go out alone…”

Outside was the complex staircase maze. What if he accidentally ran into Cha Ruoyu again?

Yang Buqi was speechless and turned his head to continue examining the bedroom. He heard Xu Turan’s voice: “By the way, I heard earlier that he brought the victims’ parts back to his home… Does that mean this house?”

“Where did he hide everything? In the refrigerator?”

“No, they’re in various rooms,” Yang Buqi said. “They’re stored in special containers, placed in different positions according to a certain pattern.”

“Special containers?” Xu Turan turned to look at him.

“They’re glass jars,” Xiao Zhang timidly chimed in. “But there are strange runes drawn in fresh blood on the jars.”

To be precise, they were esoteric runes. Because of this, the incident was classified as an esoteric cult case from the beginning. The ability users firmly believed that Cha Ruoyu must have been bewitched by some powerful abomination at the time, and that the murders and hiding of corpses were all to complete a specific ritual.

Once the ritual was completed, it would generate a corresponding “domain”. The “domain” was the hunting ground for abominations, but until now, they had been unable to find the corresponding “domain”—it was unclear whether this was because the ritual had failed or if it was hidden in some corner they couldn’t reach.