Chapter 46

Zhao Ziming curiously leaned in, and his eyes also went wide when he saw the person in it. He couldn’t help but look at Jiang Liu strangely and tease her, “Even if you want to collect Sister Yang’s photo, you don’t need one this big, do you?”

Who wants to collect Yang Caisi’s photo!

At his words, Jiang Liu’s hand trembled, nearly dropping the framed photo. She whipped her head around and shot him a glare so chilling that Zhao Ziming immediately threw his hands up in surrender. He couldn’t help but grumble to himself. Wasn’t he just joking? Did Jiang Liu have to react so strongly? Could it be that he had hit a nerve?

At this possibility, his heart skipped a beat. He secretly followed Jiang Liu with his eyes, and the more he looked, the more he felt something was off. Could it be that Sister Yang’s unrequited love was finally being reciprocated by Jiang Liu? If that was the case, and he latched onto this powerful connection, wouldn’t clearing instances be a breeze from now on?

Lost in his beautiful dream, Zhao Ziming wore a knowing, aunt-like smile that gave Zhang Xiaochen goosebumps. He couldn’t stand it anymore and slapped him. “What are you thinking about, you brat?” The look on his face was getting weirder and weirder!

His dream was ruthlessly shattered. Zhao Ziming clicked his tongue, too lazy to explain to this idiot, and stroked his chin thoughtfully. Zhou Yuan’s attitude in the afternoon had been very clear. He was so repulsed by this photo studio that he would never make a special trip back just for a photo. So, who put this picture here?

While he was pondering, Jiang Liu frowned slightly, her gaze sweeping across the small shop. Everything was just as it had been in the afternoon, except—behind the sofa where Zhou Yuan had been sitting, there was a small window, generally used for ventilation. But this place was already cool enough, and staying in the room for too long even made one feel a bit cold, so the window had become a mere decoration.

Jiang Liu walked over to the window in a few steps and immediately noticed the smudged dust on the windowsill. Someone had climbed in through the window and hadn’t bothered to clean up the traces. Were they careless, or did they leave them intentionally? She pressed her lips together and pushed the window open with a forceful shove. The rusty frame let out a piercing creak, which was quite startling in the dead of night.

Zhang Xiaochen, who had been ignored by Zhao Ziming and was staring blankly at the photos on the wall, suddenly felt a cold draft on his back. He spun around with a jolt, nearly jumping out of his skin. Only after seeing what Jiang Liu was doing did he pat his chest and complain, “Sister! Can you give a heads-up next time you make a noise like that? It’s scary.”

Jiang Liu hummed in acknowledgment but paid him no mind, her gaze probing the outside of the window. It faced the inside of the residential complex. The windows of every household were dark, with only a few flickering with light. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

“Could it be that Zhou Yuan’s uncle came back?” Xu Meng ventured a guess.

This idea was immediately shot down by Zhao Ziming. “This is his shop, right? Why would he climb through a window instead of using the front door? What’s wrong with him?”

Jiang Liu leaned against the wall, calculating the person’s route, and suddenly interjected, “Who knows.”

Zhao Ziming coughed, looking at her in disbelief. “No way, you really think he came back?”

Jiang Liu shrugged noncommittally and changed the subject. “What he said isn’t necessarily trustworthy. We need to figure it out for ourselves.”

Hearing this, Xu Meng glanced at her with surprise, biting her lip with a complicated expression. Did Sister Jiang mean that NPCs couldn’t be trusted either? But before… she was the first to wholeheartedly believe what Chen Si and Xiao Si said!

Jiang Liu sensed something from her hesitation and added an explanation, “Advanced Instances are bound to be different from before. It’s always good to be cautious.”

The System had said the owner disappeared a week ago, but Zhou Yuan insisted he had only been gone since last night. The conflicting accounts were Zhou Yuan’s biggest red flag. Just as she was speaking, Zhu Yan, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly cried out, “Sister! There’s a door here!”

His voice came from a corner. Zhu Yan poked his head out from behind a curtain, pointing excitedly behind him. “You can get to the second floor from here.”

He knew it. A photo studio couldn’t possibly be this small. It turned out the staircase was hidden by the building’s structure, and a curtain was draped over the corner, which was why they hadn’t noticed it at first. Jiang Liu raised an eyebrow, a dark glint flashing in her eyes. She closed the window and patted Xu Meng’s shoulder. “Let’s go up and see.”

It wasn’t apparent from downstairs, but now that they were up here, they realized the second floor was a whole new world. The upstairs had been connected to the adjacent unit, making the entire space much more spacious. Straight ahead was a small reception area, decorated with a vintage charm that was a far cry from the cold, commercialized interiors of today, giving it a unique warmth.

A few magazines were casually placed on the coffee table. Jiang Liu picked one up and flipped through it, pleasantly surprised by the owner’s good taste. To the left was the area for photo shoots and backdrops. It looked a bit deserted, likely unused for some time, but it was not at all messy. As for the right… Zhang Xiaochen pointed at the half-open door, his arms crossed, his expression complicated.

“Is this… a bedroom?”

The room was very neat, the bed clean, and the tabletop spotless. He would have believed it if someone told him no one had ever lived there, but… photo frames of various sizes almost completely covered the white walls. The people in the photos were smiling brightly, their happiest moments frozen in time. There was no sense of artistry; it was purely a matter of cramming photos into every available space. The wall full of people staring directly at the bed made even them feel a little uncomfortable from their angle.

This was a photo wall in the truest sense. Zhang Xiaochen didn’t understand photography and could only comment that the pictures seemed okay, but who would decorate their room like this? Waking up and going to sleep every day with a wall full of different people staring at you—wasn’t that terrifying?

“Could anyone really sleep in here?” Xu Meng couldn’t help but whisper, taking two steps back from the wall of photos and nervously clutching the hem of her clothes.

Jiang Liu’s expression was normal as she stepped forward to examine the photos. Judging by their clarity, the photos spanned a very long period. Some had faded to a dull yellow, and a couple were even in black and white, relics from who knows how many years ago.

“It feels a bit creepy. Who are all these people?” Zhao Ziming hugged his arms and stepped forward, his face also a little pale.

Jiang Liu squinted her eyes, searching among them. After a while, she locked onto a spot the size of a fingernail in the bottom right corner. She squatted down, tapped the wall, and her tone finally carried a hint of relief.

“Remember him?”

The group gathered around to take a look and finally found a two-inch ID photo among the wall of candid shots, inconspicuous among the flamboyant frames. It was a young male student wearing the same No. 16 Middle School uniform, smiling brightly at the camera.

Xu Meng found him familiar but couldn’t quite place where she had seen him. As she wracked her brain, she heard Zhu Yan’s voice. “He Xiang from Grade 3, Class 5, or something? The one with really good grades.” Zhu Yan scratched his head, his tone uncertain.

Jiang Liu snapped her fingers, her eyes crinkling with a smile. “Correct!”

She clapped her hands and stood up, explaining to the others, “He Xiang from Grade 3, Class 5. He took a leave of absence three days ago.”

This person’s grades were excellent, and his name was on almost every award announcement in the school, so Jiang Liu remembered him well. She had even made a point to ask about him when she went to Class 5. Everyone knew that since the system’s mission was to find their suspended friend Xiao Ji, “suspended” was basically equivalent to “missing.” Which meant…

Xu Meng’s eyes widened in disbelief, a chill running down her spine. “Does that mean everyone on this wall…”

Before she could finish, Jiang Liu suddenly covered her mouth.

“Mmph, mmph.” Xu Meng struggled for a moment, confused, and blinked questioningly at Jiang Liu. Jiang Liu didn’t look at her, but instead turned her head warily towards the outside of the room, her lips pressed tightly together. “Shh, someone’s downstairs.”

Her words made everyone hold their breath, frozen in place, not knowing what to do. Zhao Ziming felt a cold sweat, thinking that whoever showed up in this creepy place in the middle of the night couldn’t be good news. He whispered, “What do we do?”

Jiang Liu released Xu Meng and gestured for everyone to tread lightly. After turning off all the lights upstairs, she retreated behind the reception area. This spot was near the staircase, and the conversation that they hadn’t noticed before became faintly audible, intermittent and unclear.

After telling the others to find a place to hide, Jiang Liu held her breath and cautiously descended the stairs. The voices gradually became clearer.

“There’s nothing strange in here.”

Someone seemed to click their tongue, their tone dismissive. “I say we’re just being paranoid. If we want to clear the level, we need to find people.”

The speaker sounded irritable and clearly disagreed with the former, sounding young with a raspy voice somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. Jiang Liu found it vaguely familiar. The sound of rummaging was incessant. It was obvious what the group was doing. After making a ruckus for a while and finding nothing, they began to curse and prepare to leave.

Jiang Liu jumped down the stairs in a few quick steps and, hidden by the curtain in the corner, peeked through the gap. Several figures swaggered out, completely unaware of the hidden second floor. The one being flanked in the center was wearing a loose basketball jersey, his right arm a swath of black—the very tattoo Zhang Xiaochen had mentioned that afternoon.

Jiang He?

Her eyes flickered. After the figures had completely disappeared, she called the others down and bent over to pick up the photo frame that had been kicked over. If there was another team of players, would their mission be the same? Jiang Liu pondered this. As she stood up, she was careless and nearly stepped on something face down under the table. Looking closely, she saw it was the photo that had originally been on the table.

When her eyes fell on the front, Jiang Liu’s pupils constricted. A chill shot from the back of her hand straight to her head. For a rare moment, her emotions fluctuated so much that she forgot she was squatting under the table. She shot up, knocking the table over, and though her head throbbed from the impact, she paid it no mind. The loud thud drew everyone’s attention. When they came downstairs, they saw the overturned table and the shop in a state of disarray, as if it had been robbed. Jiang Liu was staring at the photo as if possessed, not responding no matter how many times they called her.

The smiling and gentle Yang Caisi on it had disappeared, replaced by a pale Ghost Face covered in blood. As if sensing Jiang Liu’s gaze, its scarlet lips slowly curved upwards into a grin. Jiang Liu instinctively threw the photo away, a surge of anger welling up in her heart.

Where did this ugly thing come from? Where was her beautiful Teacher Yang???