Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Kneeling DownEditor: Atlas Studios
He ca as expected.
Li Ang’s expression did not change as he asked for the address of the other daughter the old man had visited.
Desheng Road, Ancestor Sky Tower.
Just four streets away from Qianhua Road... Could this be a supernatural event?
Compared to the last mission, the rewards for this one were much less, with no extra Experience Points or Ga Currency. And based on the literal description, it simply asked to uncover the truth, without any requirents to kill or eliminate a Spiritual Body.
More geared towards logic and puzzle-solving?
Li Ang watched the middle-aged woman push her father away, then turned to ask Wang Congshan, "Have you had lunch?"
"Ah," Wang Congshan was sowhat startled. "No, not yet."
"Let
treat you to spicy and sour intestine noodles," Li Ang suggested. "That shop has been a well-established brand for over a decade—the intestines are chewy and oily, a true delicacy in Yin City."
Wang Congshan was skeptical. She had known Li Ang for so many years, and the last ti he treated her to anything was back in elentary school: a deep red, translucent Li Zi.
After a quick wipe, the Li Zi went down. She asked Li Ang where he had picked it and why it was so sweet. Li Ang grinned proudly, explaining that the tree grew on his way ho from school and received daily nourishnt from his urine, naturally making it sweet and delicious.
That unpleasant mory made Wang Congshan cautious. "Where is this intestine noodle shop?"
"Just around the corner of the street south of Yin City East General Anal and Intestinal Hospital."
Li Ang added, "You know, the essence of the intestine noodles is in what they call the ’knotted end’—it’s the very end of the pig’s large intestine. That part has a thicker intestinal lining, more lard, and a better chew. It tastes like the problematic area of a patient suffering from vascular colon obstruction. Last ti I went, I could faintly taste Old Zhang. He’s the patient in Room 07, Bed 4, on the third floor of Building Two of the inpatient departnt at the Yin City East General Anal and Intestinal Hospital—the one who’s suffered from hemorrhoids for years."
"..." Wang Congshan’s face turned a shade of green. "I suddenly don’t feel hungry anymore. You go eat by yourself."
"Eh..." Li Ang said, sowhat regretfully, "Then I’ll be off."
Saying farewell to his childhood confidant, Li Ang hailed a taxi and headed straight to Desheng Road’s Ancestor Sky Tower.
This was a sowhat dilapidated old apartnt building, its exterior walls covered in unsophisticated red square ceramic tiles. The gaps between the tiles were filled with black stains left by rain erosion. The old green glass windows were not transparent. Air conditioner units, buzzing with activity, were covered in dust. This was in stark contrast to the modern, brand-new skyscrapers just a few streets away.
Ancestor Sky Tower had twelve floors, split into left and right sides. Building One, on the left, was dedicated to residential living, while Building Two, on the right, served as both residential space and was also rented out to a nursing ho and a beauty salon.
The two buildings were connected, separated only by a wall, with doors in the ergency escape corridors allowing passage between Building One and Building Two.
Li Ang looked up and surveyed the place for a bit before casually tearing down a missing person notice from a lamppost on the roadside.
"Bao Fangtian, female, 51 years old, 1.61 ters tall, long hair, weighing 70 kilograms, went missing around 1:30 p.m. on June 17th in the Desheng Road area."
"She was wearing a black short-sleeved knitted top, yellow knee-length shorts, and brown sandals at the ti she disappeared. She’s from the Yin City Southern Suburbs, speaks with a local accent, and has a mild ntal disorder. If anyone knows of her whereabouts, please contact her family as quickly as possible. A reward is guaranteed."
Next to it was a photo of the woman taken around the ti she went missing and her family’s contact number.
Li Ang glanced over the notice, folded it carefully, and held it in his hand as he walked directly into the duty room of Ancestor Sky Tower.
There were two people inside the duty room, one old and one young; the elder was listening to the radio, while the younger was scrolling through TikTok.
"Hello, excuse ." Li Ang knocked on the door of the duty room, brandishing the missing person notice. "I’m a relative of Bao Fangtian. I would like to review the surveillance footage from the past few days..."
"Again?" The younger security guard looked up from his phone, slightly annoyed, and said with a frown, "Didn’t we tell you before? We don’t have surveillance caras in the hallways of our complex! Plus, with so many people coming and going, we can’t rember where this old lady went after she ca out of the nursing ho."
Li Ang had pretended to be a relative of the missing person to rightfully access surveillance data. Upon learning there were no caras installed inside the building, his brow furrowed slightly, and he left the duty room.
I can only thodically check each floor, huh... Tsk.
According to the middle-aged woman, her sister lived on the seventh floor of Building One.
Li Ang walked straight into Building One, inserted the Cat’s Eye into his eye socket, and began thodically checking each floor, trying to detect any traces of a Spiritual Body.
Minutes later, he had found nothing.
As his spiritual power was about to be depleted and he felt a slight dizziness, Li Ang removed the Cat’s Eye and went through the ergency exit door to Building Two to continue the thodical search.
Floors twelve to eight of Building Two were residential. The seventh floor housed a beauty salon called Fragrant Beauty, and the fifth floor was a nursing ho called New Rehabilitation Ho. The floors below the nursing ho were all rented out to various businesses.
Building One and Building Two originally each had an elevator. However, for convenience, the businesses in Building Two had specially built an exclusive elevator on its right side. This elevator only went to the seventh floor and below.
As for the sixth floor, located between the seventh and fifth floors, it had been sold to a hoowner. This hoowner was often away. To prevent vagrants or drug users from squatting on the sixth floor, he had specifically sealed its ergency exit with a rolling shutter door. He had also installed an iron gate outside the exclusive elevator entrance on the sixth floor and covered it with a black, opaque plastic curtain.
Li Ang quickly examined all the floors of Building Two, even using lock-picking tools to open the sealed sixth floor to take a look inside.
Apart from the iron gate covered with a black curtain at the elevator entrance, the sixth floor was empty.
The entire floor’s windows were tightly closed, and the ground was covered with dust, with no footprints to be found.
No one had been to the sixth floor of Building Two.
Still, he found nothing.
Li Ang arrived at the base of Ancestor Sky Tower, looking up at the dilapidated old building, and began to ponder.
Consider the facts: Buildings One and Two, connected by only one door; the daughter living on the seventh floor of Building One; the old man, physically healthy yet ntally lost; the woman with a mild ntal disorder who had previously gone missing; the New Rehabilitation Ho on the fifth floor of Building Two; and the iron-gate-sealed sixth floor of Building Two.
All these clues converged, weaving together the truth.
"So that’s how it is."
Li Ang cracked a smile, pushed up his glasses, and entered the elevator on the left side of Building Two.
He pressed the button for the sixth floor.
The elevator slowly ascended. With a DING-DONG, the elevator doors slowly opened.
After the doors opened, what ca into view was, naturally, the iron gate specially constructed by the sixth-floor hoowner, covered by a black plastic curtain—cold and stark.
And in the extrely narrow gap between the iron gate and the elevator doors stood a person, facing Li Ang.
A middle-aged to elderly woman, wearing a black short-sleeved knitted top, yellow knee-length shorts, and brown sandals, with long hair.
It was Bao Fangtian, who had been missing for several days.
She had been dead for many days. Her body had turned black, and her once-large waist had shrunken from desiccation. Her face, twisted with agony and terror, stared at Li Ang with empty, lifeless eyes.
Bao Fangtian, in the gap, slowly tilted forward. With a THUD, she knelt before Li Ang.
In the elevator, one living, one dead, in silence.
The elevator doors slowly closed, descending.
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