Chapter 48

  "That means the murderer has been following us all along, and after learning which cave we chose, he dragged Zhang Yang's body in to let us discover it. If that's really the case, then it means the murderer isn't eager to kill us, but rather wants to play hide-and-seek with us." Su Jiner rubbed her temples, at least this way she could prove that things weren't being done by supernatural forces.

  Chu Fei Fan lowered his head, he had always felt that the murderer was someone familiar to him, but why did he have this feeling?

  "If there really is a passage, I might know where it would be." Su Jin'er thought it was somewhat amusing.

  "I also know, is it near Zhang Yang's body?" Chu Fei Fan looked at Su Jin Er and smiled.

  If their inference is correct, the murderer must have placed the body near one of the adjacent entrances. Following normal thinking, as long as you don't reach the end of the passage, no one will look for an exit halfway and still be far from the exit. So if the exit is sealed, people will go back instead of looking for another exit at the entrance.

  "What are we waiting for? Let's hurry back!" Li Yiqian said urgently.

  Li Yi-qian suddenly spoke up after a long time of silence, which made Su Jin-er feel somewhat strange. She looked at her and said, "En, let's go! The sooner we find the exit, the better."

  Zhang Yang's body was gone, but they found the place based on their own memory. Because of the decay of the body, the mud on the ground was wetter than other places, and the stench of decay was heavier than other places, so it wasn't very difficult to find that place.

  They split up to search on the walls, and Li Yiqian seemed anxious, her flustered expression caught Su Jiner's attention. She deliberately approached Li Yiqian, pretending to be nonchalant as she touched the rough wall. Li Yiqian was panting heavily, looking very frightened, with fine beads of sweat even appearing on her forehead.

  What is she anxious or afraid of?

  Su Jiner's doubts made her suspect Li Yiqian all along, although she wanted to believe that Li was just anxious about finding the cause of her sister's death, but there was fear in her eyes.

  Qianqian!

  Su Jiner tried to call her, but she seemed not to have heard and continued to feel the wall. Su Jiner called out to her several more times, but she didn't respond, even though others had heard, yet Li Yiqian, who was closest to Su Jiner, hadn't heard a thing.

  Su Jiner walked up to her and patted her shoulder, saying: "Qianqian, what's wrong?"

  Li Yi Qian was startled, she turned her head and looked at Su Jin Er in horror, then seemed to think of something and smiled awkwardly: "Sorry, I took it too seriously, have you found the exit?"

  Su Jin'er looked at her and shook her head.

  What is she afraid of?

  "Oh! So that's it! You guys search over there and I'll search over here, whoever finds it first call me." Li Yiqian's smile was inexplicably strange.

  Su Jiner gave a signal to the others, and they deliberately slowed down and moved away from Li Yiqian. However, everyone began to observe Li Yiqian's every move. She kept feeling her way along the left-hand wall as if she knew the exit was on this side, her eyes burning with eagerness.

  Chu Fei Fan said loudly: "I didn't find it on this side."

  When he said this, Li Yi Qian stopped moving, and a smile involuntarily floated up at the corner of her mouth.

  Then Zuo Yi and Ge Yaze also said they couldn't find it, Lin Yuan shook his head at Su Jiner. They did all this while Li Yi Qian was paying attention, she looked at Su Jiner who was still searching seriously, so she felt relieved and continued to search. Finally, her fingers seemed to touch something, she smiled again, secretly glanced at the others, found no one noticing her, then turned around and said: "I couldn't find it either, Jiner, how about your side?"

  "I don't have it either, are our ideas wrong?" Su Jiner furrowed her brow and rubbed her eyebrows.

  "It seems we have to go through the passage on the mountain." Chu Fei Fan sat on the ground with a sigh.

  "It can't be helped."

  "Let's hurry up and leave! It's so dark here, I think it's terrifying!" Li Yiqian's voice trembled.

  They stood up and walked forward without hesitation, while Li Yiqian was walking at the very back. Even Su Jiner didn't deliberately walk with her. Li Yiqian looked at their backs as they turned around the corner, let out a sigh of relief, stopped in her tracks, put her hand on the spot where she had found it earlier and pressed lightly. The wall behind her slowly rotated, revealing a narrow slit that only allowed one person to pass through sideways.

  She smiled comfortably and pressed the button again, and the wall returned to its original state.

  "You're indeed hiding something from us."

  Su Jin'er's voice suddenly sounded beside her, and she turned around in terror to look at her.

  "Brother Jin!"

  "It's come to this, and you still don't want to tell the truth?" Su Jin'er's voice was somewhat icy. She suspected her, but her mother had already accepted her as a goddaughter, and she herself was willing to treat her like a sister. So why did she have to keep deceiving her?

  Li Yi Qian lifted her head and glared fiercely at Su Jin Er, then burst out laughing, laughed so hard she couldn't catch her breath, laughed until tears streamed down her face.

  Finally, she stopped laughing and sat on the ground dejectedly: "Do you think Li Yiqing is a victim? Ha ha, actually, I am the victim. What does Li Yiqing count as a sister? She's not my sister at all, I don't have that kind of sister."

  Li Yiqing was in tears and spoke incoherently.

  "What's going on? Didn't you always want to find out the cause of your sister's death? Why do you hate her now?" Su Jiner looked at her sad expression, feeling a pang of sadness, and squatted in front of Li Yiqian, asking softly.

  "Get away from me!" Li Yi-qian suddenly pulled out a small knife, pointing it at Su Jin-er in front of her, her eyes filled with hatred.

  Su Jiner was startled and looked at the knife in her hand, but she didn't back away. Chu Feifan hastily approached her and said: "She's already crazy, let's just hand her over to the police!"

  He tried to pull her up, but was refused.

  "Tell us what's troubling you and we'll help."

  "Help me? How can you help me? I killed my sister, and the one I loved most. How can you help me? How?" Her voice was hoarse with hatred, but more so with grievance.

  "Is Li Yi Qing the one you killed?" Zuo Yi asked incredulously.

  Li Yi-qian suddenly lifted her head and glared at her fiercely, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets. Her expression was terrifying: "Shut up!"

  Then, she turned her head again to look at Su Jiner: "Jiner, it's great to know you, the time I spent in your home was the happiest moment of my life. Thank you for being willing to be my sister, and thank you Auntie for recognizing me as your goddaughter. However, I know I don't deserve it, I'm a murderer, not worthy of love." She sniffled, then continued: "I'll tell you everything, but there are some things that I still choose to keep silent about. I hope you won't interrupt me."

  They all nodded.

  She tidied up her disheveled hair, and suddenly smiled, a smile that was desolate and desperate: "Actually, my sister and I are twins, we look exactly alike, even our parents often get us mixed up. But even though we're twins, there will be differences between us. As we grew older, my sister's personality became completely different from mine, she was born gentle as water, while I'm more like a boy, I envied my sister, she always smiled gently, spoke gently to people, but I couldn't, because I had to be different from my sister. My sister said she hoped I'd be happy and joyful, so every day I pretended to be happy and joyful, but my parents liked my sister more than me, even Li Ran, who grew up with us, liked my sister, he always looked at her gently, while treating me like a little sister. Heaven knows I loved him just as much as my sister did, maybe even more, but he didn't like me, he said he liked my sister, wanted my sister to be his wife. I once cried for a whole day and night because of this, later they really got engaged, right after Li Ran got into college. My sister was beautiful, excellent in every way, but her grades weren't as good as mine. Our family was poor, couldn't afford two kids in college, so my parents decided to let my sister go to college instead. What's even more ridiculous is that they were afraid my sister wouldn't get into college, so they had me take the exam for her, giving her all the opportunities that originally belonged to me. On the day she received her acceptance letter, she was as happy as an angel, while I could only hide in a corner and cry. She just said thank you to me, without any guilt or apology in her heart. I gave up Li Ran to her, gave up the opportunity to go to college to her, but she didn't know how to be grateful, only knew how to use her gentle appearance to deceive people. Not long after she started college, she broke up with Li Ran because she fell in love with someone else. I hated her, hated that she took away everything that belonged to me, so I killed her, I killed her."

  By the time she finished speaking, she was sobbing uncontrollably, helplessly hugging her knees as tears rolled down her face in large drops.

  Su Jiner cried and hugged her trembling body, she knew that Li Yi Qian actually loved her own sister very much, she was just temporarily lost herself, so she made a big mistake.

  "Don't pity me, I killed my own sister, caused my parents' death, and also killed Li Ran. But I don't regret it, not even a bit. Jing Er, please stop investigating further. All of this is my doing, so I beg you to stop. This way, no one else will get hurt. And, Zhang Yang was also killed by me, not Du Xiao Nan."

  "No, you're lying. I can believe anything else from you, but Zhang Yang wasn't killed by you."

  "Right, you didn't have time to kill him, because it was me and Zuo Yi who personally sent you onto the bus, how could you have had time to kill Zhang Yang?"

  Li Yi Qian gently pushed Su Jin Er, lowering her head and not speaking. After a while, she raised her head and said: "Zhang Yang didn't know any hypnosis techniques, he wasn't a pervert, and he didn't insult me. Everything was my fault for forcing him to do it because he said he liked me and was willing to do anything for me, so I took advantage of him, but ended up killing him." Li Yi Qian's tears fell continuously, her body trembling like a kite broken in the wind.

  Fans of Jin Er's books can join the group: 227369011. Here you can communicate directly with Jin Er, share your thoughts and make friends with her!