Nightmare Assault

“Why did you wake up this morning?”

Fatty answered easily, “I was woken up by the girl in the pyjama’s scream. She was shouting so loudly.”

“Yes. What did you see when you left our room?”

“Everyone was surrounding a door. There was a large pool of blood on the ground…” He explained as he tried to remember.

“What about the girl in the pyjama?”

“She…” Fatty thought about it seriously. “She was slumped on the ground, shellshocked. She kept screaming until she was slapped by the man with the cap.”

“Do you remember where she was at the time?”

“Yes.” Fatty was still confused, but he answered, “She was at the back of the crowd.” He very clearly described the situation back then. “Is that a problem with that?”

“Of course.” Jiang Cheng said evenly, “Her location was wrong. The room where the woman was found had no room number, but based on the arrangement, it should be Room 414. In other words, of all our four rooms, Room 407 was closest to it. The sun was already up then. Normally speaking, the girl should have seen the pool of blood once she left her room. Why didn’t she scream instantly at the door of her room? Why did she wait to start screaming when she was at the door of Room 414 and slump down there?” Jiang Cheng looked at Fatty, “She’s not blind.”

Fatty widened his eyes in disbelief. That was indeed suspicious.

“That was only the first point.” Jiang Cheng didn’t give Fatty a chance to speak. He continued, “Secondly, as a newbie, this should be her first night, and her roommate was gone. Who gave her the courage to leave her room on her own? Wasn’t she afraid?” Jiang Cheng elaborated, “If I were her, I wouldn’t dare do that.”

“What about the third?”

Jiang Cheng paused for a few seconds before adding, “Someone has touched the victim’s body before we were there.”

Fatty thought about it and raised his head. As he opened his mouth, he heard Jiang Cheng say, “I know what you’re trying to say. The ghosts could have done something to the body, right?” Fatty nodded. In the last mission, Sister Nuan’s body was dragged away by the ghosts and strung upside down on a cross. Xie Yu was wrapped in a blanket and then tortured to death.

“But strangely enough, the woman only has one wound on her body, and that is her broken jaw.” Jiang Cheng continued, “However, the location of the buttons around her neck changed.”

“Buttons?” Fatty frowned.

“Yes.” Jiang Cheng nodded. “The woman had on a qipao that had three buttons around her neck. When we first met her, she only had the top two buttons buttoned up. When the people in Room 404 were scared out of their room, and she came out, she also had two buttons buttoned up. But all three buttons were buttoned up on her dead body. I do not think the ghost would be so kind to button up her dress after they killed her.” He glanced in the direction of the hostel. “Therefore, the most logical explanation is someone has examined her body carefully after she died. But as the culprit tried to remove her trace, she missed this detail.”

“Doctor,” Fatty interrupted him, “I agree with most of what you said, but this one button…” He paused, “Couldn’t the woman in the qipao have buttoned it herself?”

“No.” Jiang Cheng replied affirmatively.

“Why?”

Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and then cupped his chest. “Simple. Because if she buttoned up all the buttons, she would have difficulty breathing.”

Fatty’s eyes brightened as he thought about the woman’s amazing proportions. Then, Fatty nodded vehemently. “Doctor, you are so right! I fully agree with you!”

“If these things are just logical hypotheses, then this last point is the final nail in the coffin for the girl in the pyjama.” Fatty suddenly felt like Jiang Cheng was like a God. He listened to him attentively. “There are traces of blood on the bottom of her shoes. I noticed that when she collapsed on the ground.”

“I get it now,” Fatty said excitedly. “From her persona, she wouldn’t have dared to step on the blood. Therefore, she has to be the one who has tempered with the body behind our back. She is acting before us!”

“No.” Jiang Cheng shook his head. “The blood on the bottom of her shoes is not important. She could have accidentally stepped on the pool of blood. That is not concrete evidence.”

Fatty wilted because he got it wrong, “Then, what is?”

“There’s blood on the bottom of her shoes but not on the sides.” Jiang Cheng worked his stiff neck. Helping Fatty was more troublesome than solving the case himself. “The sides of her shoes are so clean, like they have been wiped.”

Fatty thought about it, and then everything was clarified for him. Jiang Cheng was right. He and Jiang Cheng probably had blood on the sides of their shoes. He lowered his head. There was indeed blood on the sides of both his and Jiang Cheng’s shoes.

Everyone who had entered the room would have it. After all, the woman’s blood had splashed everywhere. If the girl was not guilty, why would she purposely clean up her shoes?

However, a new problem surfaced, “Doctor,” Fatty asked, “Why would the girl do this?” Killing a teammate was disadvantageous.

“Fatty,” Jiang Cheng said darkly, “Don’t you think the girl in the pyjama resembles someone we know?”

“Who?” As Fatty said that, an image appeared in his mind. He said tremblingly, “Do you mean the innocent girl?!”

“Yes.” Jiang Cheng glanced at him, “She said her name was Chen Xiaomeng, but I think that’s a fake name.”

Fatty seemed to realise something. His lips trembled unnaturally, “Then…”

Jiang Cheng nodded. His expression became unnatural. He twisted open the bottle of water. He took a sip but didn’t drink it.

“The girl in the pyjama is transformed by Chen Xiaomeng!” Fatty shouted.

Jiang Cheng accidentally swallowed the water in his mouth and started to cough violently.