ACIFITFDB – Chapter 40

Chapter 40: Death Toll: 3

“She hasn’t been dead long; she’s still in rigor mortis.” Xun Guangfan gently laid the girl’s body down. Her limbs were stiff, and even on the floor, she remained hunched.

The girl had a delicate face, but it was now swollen from drowning. Yu Jie sighed from behind. These children, even if a bit rebellious, should be at their most carefree age, yet they were facing this invasion of the eldritch and became some of the first victims.

“I’ll go call Xun Guangfan up. He studied forensics for a while.”

Upon receiving the message, Xun Guangfan immediately went upstairs, frowning. “The cause of death is definitely drowning. The question is whether it was an accident, suicide, or homicide.”

He carefully examined the girl’s head and limbs. “There are no external injuries to her head, but there are several bruises on her arms, suggesting she may have had a physical struggle with someone. The possibility of accidentally falling into the bathtub and drowning is low; it’s highly likely homicide.”

Yu Jie asked, “What do we do now? Do we need to check who entered her room? That way, we can identify the killer. But these kids don’t interact with us at all; it’s hard to even get them to gather…”

Qin Xian suddenly spoke up, “You just spoke with the students. Don’t they have any WeChat groups?”

Xun Guangfan’s eyes lit up. “Yes! I’m in one. Should I post a notice in the group now? Ask them to assemble?”

Qin Xian: “Getting them to assemble is impossible; they’re too rule-averse.”

Xun Guangfan: “…”

It was true, he recalled from his own school days, disobedient students would indeed try to skip flag ceremonies and group exercises…

“We can’t just send a message saying someone died…”

“Why not? They’ve already witnessed a classmate’s death. Causing a bit of panic now might help control the situation faster.”

Xun Guangfan looked at Qin Xian. Though Qin Xian appeared as a teenager, his expression was mature and indifferent, as if he didn’t care about the students’ mental well-being at all. Moreover… why did he have a faint smell of blood on him?

Seeing Xun Guangfan staring at him, Qin Xian, without any guilt of a murderer, calmly turned and asked, “Why do you keep looking at me? If you don’t send the message, they’ll find out eventually anyway.”

Xun Guangfan shivered under his gaze and instinctively took out his phone to send the message.

Within seconds, messages flooded the small group chat the students had created. Doors on both sides opened, and curious heads poked out.

Indeed, regardless of age, humans possess immense curiosity towards unexpected events, especially something as shocking as a death.

“Hey… someone else died? Who is it? How did they die?”

“Isn’t that the girl from Class 4 who lived here? She stayed in her room since she arrived and never came out…”

“Move aside, move aside, I want to see!”

“Ah, I can’t bear to look… What should we do? Two people have died. Who is killing them? Will it be us next?”

“She probably died because she was secretly hiding in her room to study. As long as we keep playing and having fun, we’ll be fine!”

More and more students gathered, peeking out to see the body. However, Xun Guangfan and the others had already covered the body with a bedsheet and were guarding the doorway, preventing them from getting too close.

Qin Xian listened to their conversation and asked, “Why are you so sure that studying was the cause of death?”

A boy turned to answer, “Because when we were at the villa entrance initially, there were rules written on the door.”

“There were words on the door? Why didn’t any of you mention it before?”

“You didn’t ask.”

Qin Xian paused, wanting to discipline the impudent brat, but ultimately held back.

Xun Guangfan asked in confusion, “You said there were words on the door, but they were gone when we came in?”

“The words disappeared as soon as we opened the door… Anyway, as long as we just play around and don’t think about studying or rules, we’ll be fine… I mean, we already hated studying, school, and home anyway.” The boy’s voice grew softer towards the end, and he turned to leave.

Xun Guangfan immediately stopped him, “Everyone being together now is the only way to ensure your safety!”

The boy immediately retorted, “Gathering together and obeying is just following the rules, right? This place is so eldritch, what if it just wipes us all out?”

With that, he immediately turned and ran off.

Xun Guangfan sighed and decided to chase after him to persuade him.

Qin Xian, however, lacked such a sense of responsibility. He looked at the remaining students and asked, “Did anyone see anyone else enter room 408?”

The students shook their heads. Only one person raised their hand and whispered, “Um, I know the girl in this room. It’s Guo Miaomiao from Class 4… She has a conflict with Tao Xiuping from Class 5. Tao Xiuping lives right next to her and hasn’t come out much at all…”

The other students immediately started discussing.

“It’s Tao Xiuping again, he’s killed two people already!”

“I heard he’s been to the police station several times before, apparently for stealing at school and fighting.”

Yu Jie immediately retorted, “Don’t spread rumors. If he’d been to the police station, we would definitely…”

“Definitely what?” a student asked.

Yu Jie faltered. He suddenly remembered that his current appearance and age were the same as theirs. If he revealed his identity as a police officer, some students might become even more resistant.

“Nothing, don’t spread unsubstantiated claims.”

“Hmph, you don’t know what Tao Xiuping is like at school. Anyway, if you’re asking who the prime suspect is, it’s 100% him. He hasn’t come down and doesn’t interact with anyone. But most of us are with our friends, so we have alibis!”

The mention of “alibis” suggested they had consumed plenty of crime-related content.

Qin Xian stood aside and directly asked, “Since you suspect Tao Xiuping so much, has anyone seen him enter Guo Miaomiao’s room?”

The students were silent for a long time, until someone, unwilling to accept this, directly knocked on the adjacent door.

“Let’s confront him directly, shall we? Hey! Tao Xiuping! Open the door!”

But even with banging and kicking, there was no response from inside. Xun Guangfan sensed trouble and shoved the student who was knocking, then forcefully kicked the door. But even after several attempts, his legs and arms went numb, and the door remained unmoving.

“Let me.” Qin Xian stepped forward and placed his hand on the doorknob. Unseen by others, a blue flame ignited within the lock, completely engulfing the latch.

Qin Xian gently pulled, and the door, which had been tightly locked moments ago, swung open.

The students nearby exclaimed, “Holy crap!? Magic? How did you open it?”

Qin Xian ignored them. He entered the room and searched it, finding it empty. The group rushed in and searched everywhere, but there was no sign of anyone.

Qin Xian asked, “Are you sure he really didn’t leave?”

“After he went back to his room on the first day, we saw him come out twice. Both times he brought a lot of food into his room, as if he didn’t plan on coming out again…”

“Let’s look elsewhere. This place isn’t that big; we’ll find him soon.”

Qin Xian remained silent, simply standing by the window and opening it.

The space outside the house was a void. The eerie blue sky and white clouds outside the window stretched to the horizon, with no ground visible. He looked down and said, “No need to look anymore. He’s already dead.”

“What!?”

The people inside exclaimed and rushed to the window to look down. They saw a boy lying strangely at the bottom of the building, sprawled on an unseen ground, with a large pool of blood suspended in mid-air. Although his body was prone, his head was unnaturally tilted upwards, his vacant eyes meeting the gazes of those looking down.

“Ahhhhh!!!”

The more timid students immediately screamed, and several police officers quickly pulled them away from the window to comfort them.

Qin Xian quietly observed the state of the body by the window. “From the looks of it, the girl next door wasn’t murdered by him. He died long ago.”

A student asked, “Then was he… suicidal?”

“No, the window was closed just now.”

An atmosphere of unease began to spread. Some students were on the verge of collapse and were about to cry out, but Qin Xian interrupted them first. “Gather everyone here. It’s not voluntary; we’ll arrest people directly. If you don’t listen, we’ll beat you.”

“You all too. Go downstairs immediately and sit in the living room and wait.” He looked at the students in the room.

Someone immediately argued, “Why should I listen to you!”

Qin Xian punched straight through the nearby cabinet and asked with lowered eyes, “Any more questions?”

The students’ jaws nearly dropped. How could this delicate-looking, long-haired boy smash through a wooden board with his seemingly frail fist? If it were their faces, they’d be left with facial paralysis…

Meanwhile, Xun Guangfan and the others resumed their role-playing, cracking their knuckles menacingly as they stood behind Qin Xian.

The students: “…Fine, we’ll go down.”