Be in low spirits

It was just dawn and Li Li had woken up. He washed his face and came to the living room to see her sleeping in a carefree manner, drooling at the corners of her mouth, and her belly covered with the small blanket he had covered her with last night. He moved a stool over, sat beside the sofa and just watched her quietly, wondering in his heart whether she could really help him to the end.

Kong Zhixi was awakened by the smell of cooking in the kitchen. Li Li had prepared breakfast. She walked to the food, nodded, gave a thumbs up and praised, "I didn't expect that the unreasonable boss has such good cooking skills." Then she reached out to grab the buns to eat, but Li Li knocked them down with a chopstick and scolded, "Wash your hands and brush your teeth." The tone of his teaching was exactly the same as when a middle-aged man wanted to be a teacher.

She couldn't stop rolling her eyes, but she finally refrained from saying anything offensive and went to the bathroom to wash her hands and brush her teeth in a huff.

There was a map hanging on the wall, which showed the layout of all the cities in the game. Kong Zhixi ate buns and clicked on the places they had visited yesterday. She found that the place where the jump occurred, the hotel, and the Public Security Bureau seemed to form a triangle, surrounded by a downtown area in the middle. The downtown area seemed to be a mixed bag and densely populated, and the residential area was a rectangular coffin house.

"This residential area... should be home to a lot of low-income people, right?" She felt that the house looked a little weird and couldn't help but ask.

"Well, it's the place with the most people in this service area. Many working-class people live there, and some are unemployed." His tone was flat, but you could also hear his disdain.

"Maybe... her husband is here..." Kong Zhixi put forward her hypothesis.

Li Li was a little surprised, "Did you see anything?" He also walked to the mural, stared at the house and asked.

"The clothes he was wearing. And... Sister Mensao must not want to do such a job. Uh... there must be an incompetent man behind her forcing her to do so." She thought for a long time and expressed her guess about Sister Mensao.

Li Li received a call from Xiao Zhao and confirmed that the man's clothes were the work clothes of a subway maintenance worker.

"Go to the subway company."

Li Li pulled her out the door in a hurry.

The subway staff said that there was indeed such a person, named Meng Ye Fa Cai, but he was fired a year ago and no one knows where he lives now. The reason for the dismissal was that debt collection calls were made to the company, and many people received them, which had a bad impact. At this point, the clue was broken again.

Kong Zhixi thought of the building, so she dragged Li Li to the front of the house and found the management office. She asked directly, "Can we check the water and electricity usage of the residents in the recent period here?" Seeing that Li Li was wearing that uniform, the people in the management office did not dare to refuse to cooperate, but their attitude was reluctant. "Which household are you looking for? There are tens of thousands of households here, how can we check?"

"They just moved in about a year ago. A man lives here with a child." Kong Zhixi didn't care about their attitude.

"Sister, there are thousands of households here. How would I know when others will move in and when they will move out?" The property manager didn't want to find work for himself.

"Let us check it ourselves, just check the information from this week." Kong Zhixi planned to do it herself.

The uncle turned on the water and electricity meter reading system, left his seat, squatted at the door and started smoking.

Kong Zhixi spent more than an hour looking through the water meter statistics for the day of the incident, and there was almost no major abnormality. She opened the statistics for the day before the incident and after looking through them for more than 40 minutes, she finally saw it. Room 16, Building 3002, Area B. She wrote it down on a piece of white paper, tore it up, and ran out to find Area B. Li Li followed her.

When they found Room 3002, the door was ajar. When they pushed the door open, a dog suddenly ran out and barked at them. Fortunately, the two dodged in time, otherwise Li Li would have been bitten. A child came out of the room. He looked the same as the child in the painting, but there was no blood on the corner of his mouth. Kong Zhixi poked Li Li with her hand and whispered, "It's them."

The child did not speak. He looked at them and then went back to the house to comfort the dog. Li Li had no choice but to ask, "Little boy, are your parents home?"

The kid didn't say anything. The moment he pushed the door open, Li Li and Kong Zhixi both gasped. They saw it. The organ of the sultry sister was on the table, soaked in formalin in a glass bottle. No wonder the whole door smelled of alcohol, to cover up the bloody smell.

The man who had just walked up the stairs saw them and ran away. Li Li quickly chased after him.

Kong Zhixi was still in a double shadow, both visually and mentally. Her legs were weak and she sat on the ground. Although she knew she was in a game, she still couldn't imagine that she had to face such a cruel thing so directly. In her eyes, the child also began to become hideous. She wanted to stand up and run away, but her legs were no longer under her control.

After some time, the child also sat beside her, pointing at the glass bottle in the room and calling her "Mom". When Li Li came back, he thought she had convinced the child, so he said, "The man has been caught, let's go back to the police station for trial."

For the first time, Kong Zhixi found herself longing to hear this familiar voice. When she turned her head and saw his face, she couldn't stop crying and said in a trembling voice, "Why... did you come back just now? I... am so scared."

The child may have seen her tears, and may have imitated the adults, wanting to reach out and touch her head to comfort her. But at this moment, in Kong Zhixi's eyes, he looked like a man-eating monster, and the moment he reached out his hand, Kong Zhixi threw herself into Li Li's arms.

Li Li patted her back and tried his best to calm her down. He could feel her fear from her trembling body and unstoppable tears.

The man and the child were handcuffed in the car. Kong Zhixi was still afraid, sitting in the passenger seat, sobbing quietly and wiping her nose with a tissue from time to time. The father and son sitting in the back made her dare not make too much noise.

The man had a strong odor, like the rancid smell of someone who had lived in a damp environment for years and had never seen the light of day. He sat in the interrogation room, not saying a word.

The child was sitting in the office, handcuffed. His face was dirty, as if he hadn't washed it for a long time. He was wearing ill-fitting clothes, and his shoes had a hole in the toe. His eyes were clear and numb. It seemed that the hardships of life had not completely eroded his hope.

The guy sitting in the corner of the office was still typing on the keyboard, without changing his posture. Kong Zhixi guessed that he was probably a programmer, and couldn't count on him to save her. She sat far away and looked at the child, still afraid and uneasy.

She ran to the interrogation room and watched Li Li interrogating her in front of the glass mirror. No matter what Li Li asked, the man remained silent. After nearly an hour of questioning, nothing came out. Li Li walked out of the interrogation room and shook his head at her.

"I'll do it!" Kong Zhixi volunteered and snatched the recorder from Li Li's hand.

It was the first time that she faced a cruel murderer so directly. Even though it was in the game, she was still shaking with fear.

"Don't you want to give an explanation to the child?" She adjusted for a long time and finally asked the first question.

The man across from me shook his head and finally spoke, "It's all over."

"Why?" she wondered.

"I didn't kill her. I loved her so much, how could I kill her? But I really want to end this." His voice was full of fatigue.

"Who killed her?"

"I don't know, she was just lying there, bleeding so much, I don't know who it was, I don't know." He began to feel sad, as if he was regretting it.

"where?"

"In the alley behind the hotel kitchen. She is tired, I am tired, and the child is even more tired." Although he spoke weakly, one could hear a strong resentment towards life in his tone.

Kong Zhixi didn't ask any more questions. She was still very scared. The question just now had already consumed most of her courage.

She took Li Li to the conference room and played the recording of the conversation. After listening to it, Li Li asked, "What did you hear?"

"The alley behind the hotel kitchen was the first crime scene."