Chapter 62: Utterly Out of Luck

Lu Li paused in the middle of picking up his chopsticks, looking slightly astonished. "All dead?"

"All dead, and quite tragically at that."

Fang Yuebai began to explain, "The task assigned to me from above was to investigate her family situation and the legal issues concerning her inheritance. To be exact, the community committee informed us about her family's situation, and I was sent to verify it.

"If the news turned out to be true, we planned to temporarily place her under the care of a female police officer at the local precinct, then investigate her family situation and help her reclaim her house and inheritance.

"Afterward, once she turns eighteen, we would hand over the inheritance left behind by her parents for her to manage herself. It totals seventy thousand in savings, an old apartment of a little over fifty square meters, and car accident compensation amounting to over 1.6 million.

"My trip to her aunt and uncle's house today was intended to observe the situation. Even if they had hidden things well, any underlying issues would still show."

She shrugged. "As it turned out, when I got there, no one answered the door, and their phones were all turned off. But when I went to the residential compound's property management office to check the surveillance cameras, I discovered that the family of four had returned home one after another starting around six o'clock last evening and never came out again.

"Then I called the police, and the local precinct contacted a locksmith to open the door. Once we went inside... the family of four were all dead."

Taking a sip of water, Fang Yuebai's already fair cheeks turned even paler. It was evident that she was still haunted by the scene she had witnessed that morning.

"The family of four—one was electrocuted, one had their throat pierced by a sharp blade, one had their eye and brain pierced by a pen, and another had their chest pierced by a sharp blade."

At this point, she paused, her expression turning somewhat strange. "Afterward, the police department's detective division and the forensic doctors came to inspect the scene, and they said..."

Lu Li grew anxious. "If they said something, spit it out!"

Cutting her story off halfway right when it was getting suspenseful—she was leaving him hanging just like a professional storyteller!

Fang Yuebai rolled her eyes. She had just gotten into the zone, and the atmosphere had been building up nicely, only for Lu Li to completely ruin it with a single sentence. No wonder, despite being quite handsome and coming from a decent family background, he had remained single ever since graduation. Every time she felt a tiny flutter in her heart, Brother Li would always slap that burgeoning emotion away with a single remark.

She said feebly, "The forensic doctors and the identification division said that the family of four all died in accidents."

"All died in accidents?" Lu Li dropped his jaw. "Like *Final Destination*?"

"Pretty much, except without the omnipresent Death from the movie. Everything really was just a coincidence. They even reconstructed the sequence of events."

Fang Yuebai shrugged. "The female homeowner was taking a bath in the bathroom, and the electric water heater leaked, electrocuting her to death.

"The male homeowner was probably cutting vegetables in the kitchen, but perhaps he used too much force, causing a corner of the cleaver blade to snap off. That flying shard happened to strike and shatter his throat bone while severing his trachea.

"The elder daughter was probably peeling an apple in the living room and accidentally knocked over a cup of water on the table. When she stood up to get a mop from the bathroom, she accidentally slipped on the water on the floor, and the knife in her hand happened to pierce straight through her chest and heart.

"The younger daughter was doing her homework in her bedroom, likely hearing the commotion from her older sister outside. She stood up to go take a look, but her foot tripped over a chair leg and she fell. As she fell, she instinctively grabbed at the desk, sweeping a pen off the edge. At the very moment the pen hit the ground, while it was still standing point-up, she happened to fall right onto it, and the tip pierced her eye and entered her brain.

"The family of four just like that, all died. And..."

Fang Yuebai took another sip of water and lowered her voice further. "According to the forensic doctor's assessment, the times of death for the four family members were extremely close, with no more than a minute difference between them."

In other words, the family of four had accidents in four "separate" locations—the bedroom, living room, bathroom, and kitchen—at roughly the same time, resulting in all of their deaths.

Lu Li was dumbfounded just listening to this. "Could there really be that many coincidences?"

"Yet they are precisely that coincidental. We are materialists; although it sounds absurd, that is the only explanation." Fang Yuebai propped her chin in her hand. "The problem now is where that girl has gone. According to surveillance footage and her school teachers, she never went back home after school yesterday.

"However, this completely cleared her of suspicion. We were only looking for her to continue discussing her parents' inheritance and..."

Fang Yuebai twitched the corner of her mouth. "And inheriting her aunt and uncle's property."

Lu Li: "..."

That was absurdity opening the door for absurdity—absurdity at its absolute peak!

Lu Li felt as though his eyes had truly been opened today!

However, compared against this, it seemed that the girl in the hotel might genuinely be the missing niece/sister of the deceased family from this incident. After all, Lu Li first saw her last night around 12:30 AM.

Right at that moment, the hot pot base was served, along with the meats and vegetables they had ordered and the ones gifted by the owner.

"Oh right, do you have a photo of that girl?" Lu Li handed a pair of chopsticks to Fang Yuebai. "If you do, would you mind letting me see it? I want to confirm if it's really her."

"I do, hold on a second, Brother Li."

Fang Yuebai put down the slice of mutton held by her chopsticks, slipped the chopsticks into her mouth to suck off the soup broth, and then laid them down. Afterward, she turned around, pulled her phone out of her bag, unlocked the photo album, and turned the screen toward him. "Take a look, Brother Li, is this her?"

Lu Li narrowed his eyes.

The girl on the phone screen had shoulder-length hair and wore a baggy, crumpled green-and-white school uniform that looked like sportswear. Her delicate little face wore a pitiful expression that easily stirred one's protective instincts.

"It's her," Lu Li said with absolute certainty. "This girl sat outside my front door for the entire night last night. I suspect she might know something, otherwise there's no reason she suddenly wouldn't go home after school yesterday."

"Are you sure it's her?"

"Positive!"

"Great, then let's eat quickly! Once we're done, I'll go with you to the hotel to find her!"

Hearing this, Lu Li felt a weight lift off his chest. He was a reasonably kind-hearted person; if he hadn't seen her, it would be one thing, but having seen her and choosing to do nothing would have left a lingering unease in his heart. Besides, it wouldn't impact him negatively anyway. If she could be handed over to the authorities to handle now, it would put an end to this matter.

His chopsticks flew back and forth as he and Fang Yuebai raced to finish the hot pot while devouring the food. Then, with arms around each other's shoulders, using toothpicks with one hand and holding their aching bellies with the other, they strolled out of the hot pot restaurant.

Without bothering about the broken car window, Lu Li directly drove Fang Yuebai straight to the hotel.

"Welcome—"

As soon as they stepped into the lobby, the front desk receptionist froze.

Wasn't this the same man who had brought a female student here to open a room just this morning? Why was he bringing another woman now? And that female student was still upstairs!

This, this, this...

The receptionist's mind was in utter turmoil, left with only the thought that this playboy really knew how to live it up, accompanied by a look of utter disdain.

Lu Li: "..."

What the hell is that look supposed to mean?!

He defiantly glared right back. His conscience was clear! He stood tall and proud!

Dragging Fang Yuebai along with her head held high, he strode into the elevator and went upstairs.

However, upon opening the door to the room, both of their expressions fell.

The girl was no longer inside.

Gone along with her were her backpack and the two hundred yuan Lu Li had left for her.

Lu Li stopped a cleaning lady working not far outside the room. "Auntie, do you know where the girl in my room went?"

"I don't know," the cleaning lady shook her head. "When I went in to clean half an hour ago, there was nobody there."

Lu Li was out of ideas.

Fang Yuebai patted his shoulder. "Forget it, Brother Li. Leave the matter of finding people to the police station; don't stress yourself out too much over it."

"I know," Lu Li clicked his tongue. "By the way, what's that girl's name?"

"Ji Mo. 'Ji' as in epoch, 'Mo' as in ink."

"Ji Mo... Alright, I've got it."

The rest of the trip was spent in silence. After dropping her off at the courthouse, Lu Li went to work at his studio. When he got off work in the evening, he drove his car to a 4S shop for repairs and took a taxi home.

Arriving downstairs, he hesitated for a moment before pressing the elevator button.

Thinking about it now, he found it quite amusing that he had actually half-expected the girl named Ji Mo to be waiting outside his door again.

This wasn't some manga plot.

Chuckling at his own folly, Lu Li stepped into the elevator.

When the elevator reached his floor and the doors slid open, he stepped out, turned the corner, and instinctively reached into his pocket for the spare house key he kept at the office.

Then, he froze.

The girl named Ji Mo was sitting outside his front door with her knees hugged to her chest, exactly as she had been yesterday.

Like a pitiful little stray cat waiting for him to come home.

*(Author's Note: Out-of-town trip diary: Heading out to another city this afternoon to meet up with some senior online friends. I hope my steel codpiece can protect my daisy. By the way, please throw me some recommendation tickets and monthly votes! At least let me know how many people are reading this...)*

*(End of Chapter)*