Chapter 67: Secret Chamber

  Su Yin suddenly turned her head and looked around, feeling a sense of unease in her heart, but couldn't quite put her finger on what it was. Lin Ming went down the stairs, about ten or so steps, into a narrow space with a bookshelf on one side that had been pulled away from the wall, its books scattered on the floor, leaving scratch marks on the ground. It seemed that the bookshelf had originally been tightly pressed against the back wall and had been dragged out many times. At this moment, Lin Ming pushed against the wall and suddenly opened a small door, just large enough for an adult to squeeze through with their body bent. Su Yin was shocked, realizing that the little door was the same color as the wall and wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't looked closely.

  Lin Ming sidled up to her, shaking his head: "Let's go, follow me." As soon as he finished speaking, he led the way in. Su Yin followed closely behind, the secret passage was very narrow and steep, by Su Yin's standards, it was only about one shoulder wide, for Lin Ming, he had to bow his head, while Su Yin could just stand upright, her scalp brushing against the top of the passageway.

  She had walked down about seven or eight flights when the stairs suddenly turned at a right angle of ninety degrees and continued downward. At this point, the steps under her feet became wooden, with a wooden handrail on the left side. In the darkness, Su Yun couldn't see anything, she stretched out her hands but couldn't even see her fingers, staring blankly into the darkness in front of her, her eyes wide open.

  Ke Lin Ming, however, was like a person entering a deserted land, walking down leisurely with smooth movements without any hesitation. Just as she thought so, suddenly at the turning point, the stairs became even steeper and more precipitous than before, and she didn't notice it in time. She secretly thought "this is bad", her feet were empty, her body lost balance, and she fell forward.

  A dull thud, "peng dong", Lin Ming's back was slammed into, and in the extremely short time it took for him to fall to the ground, he managed to twist his body around, embracing Su Yin, before crashing into the wall. Su Yin leaned against his chest, listening to the sound of his heartbeat, steady and powerful. She hadn't yet recovered from the sudden situation, still dazed. Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the darkness, with a warm, rough sensation brushing against her cheek. She lifted her head, unable to see anything, but she felt as though Lin Ming was staring at her, through his sunglasses, through the darkness.

  It wasn't long before Lin Ming approached her, whispering in her ear, "Are you really her?" Su Yin was taken aback, not understanding who he was referring to. Before she could react, Lin Ming swiftly got up and pulled her up with him. In the darkness, there was another rustling sound, followed by Lin Ming taking a few steps to the side, and then a loud "slap" sound, after which the area in front of them was bathed in light.

  Su Yun narrowed her eyes to adapt, the light was dim yellow, not too dazzling. Lin Ming had already walked in, looking around at something, Su Yun found that he had put on a pair of white gloves on his hands at some point. She roughly scanned the room, the entire secret room was about five or six square meters, compared to the whole house, this secret room was quite rough, at least the four walls were still covered with cement, and the floor was also uneven and not very regular.

  Taking the stairs entrance as a reference, on the left-hand wall is a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf filled with books. In the corner, there's a desk cluttered with many sheets of paper in disarray. In the middle of the room, a large easel stands, holding a canvas over two meters long, while paint buckets and brushes of various sizes are scattered all over the floor. Behind the canvas, on the right-hand wall, canvases of different sizes are stacked up. Between the canvases and the canvas, lines drawn with chalk on the ground form a rough human shape.

  Su Yun subconsciously associated the dead man in the photo, and slowly walked forward, wanting to see what was on the canvas. It should be a lawn, with a very fresh color tone, a pavilion on the lawn, white arched top, elegant European style, the sky is pure blue, with wind blowing leaves, petals flying. But in the lower left corner of the painting, all colors mixed into a grayish-black mass, destroying the tranquility of the entire picture.

  Lin Ming stood behind her, also staring at the canvas, saying: "I've seen this painting too. It's not intentionally covering anything up, it was just painted that way." Su Yin looked puzzled and nodded slowly. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she walked around the canvas to look at the painting board on the right wall. She took a rough glance but didn't touch anything. The content on the painting board was very artistic, and she couldn't quite understand it.

  At this time, she turned her head and looked towards the desk in front of the stairs. The secret room was not very big, and the desk was actually close to the painting board. She walked forward, and on the ground were scattered papers mixed with broken cement blocks. She took a closer look, they were all sketches, but the lines were too messy, like ghostly symbols. Turning her head, she found that someone had dug a hole in the corner of the wall, about the size of a dog hole, which was now sealed up.

  Lin Ming followed behind her, explaining: "This wall is connected to the wine cellar of the neighbor next door. It was when that neighbor was renovating the wine cellar that workers discovered a strange smell and reported it to the police."

  Su Yin nodded, straightened up and looked at Lin Ming, asking: "The place where you found the fingerprint, where is it?" Lin Ming's lips were always hooked up, and now they hooked up a few more times. He moved away from his desk, revealing a gap behind him. The gap was empty. "It's here! Can you tell me what you took from here?"

  "Dong, dong, dong......" A sudden, deep and mysterious sound came from the top of her head, breaking the silence in the room. It was the sound of a clock, but she clearly saw that the clock was broken! Su Yin's face looked gloomy and nervous under the dim light. Lin Ming raised his wrist to look at his watch and exclaimed: "Oh no! It's already this late! Time's up, let's go, we should head back."

  As soon as the words fell, she turned and walked up. Su Yun hurried to follow, to be honest, she didn't want to stay in the secret room for a long time. She had never been here before, but everything in front of her gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

  Standing in the courtyard, the sky had already darkened. In early winter, the temperature difference between day and night was great, and at this time, a faint mist filled the entire yard, damp and hazy. Su Yun shrunk her shoulders, feeling the chill. The car drove for a while, and neither of them spoke again. Su Yun shrank into the chair, watching the sky gradually darken.

  "Do you think it's worth paying the price to have these eyes?" Among the extremely limited information that Qi Xiu had told her, she at least knew that having this kind of ability would require a price to be paid. However, because of this ability, her life had become a mess and was still getting worse. So, she was somewhat perplexed and wanted to hear an answer.

  Lin Ming continued driving, but the smile on his face was gone. He rubbed the corner of his eye with his left hand, and his voice sounded like a sigh: "It's not about whether it's worth it or not, I'm just willing to do it."

  "Why? Don't you regret it?" she asked somewhat unwillingly. Lin Ming smiled: "No, I don't regret it! No matter what time, I will never regret!" She stared at him silently, and once again, she deeply felt that their world was something she would never understand.

  The car slowed down, Su Yin looked out and saw a familiar car parked in front of the door, with a familiar figure standing beside it. Lin Ming stopped the car and said to her, "Ah! You couldn't wait for me to come personally! Su Yin's face is really not ordinary!" For some reason, she felt a little embarrassed, but also grateful and expectant, her restless and helpless heart suddenly calmed down.

  "Can I go now?" she asked cautiously, as a suspect, she seemed to have the possibility of being detained. Lin Ming nodded, with a hint of sarcasm: "I'm afraid it's not up to me." The two got out of the car, Ge Lu and Qi Xiu saw her, she couldn't hide her excitement and wanted to go forward, but was suddenly pulled back and turned into Lin Ming's arms.

  Lin Ming had one hand around her waist and the other on the back of her neck, saying in a low voice: "Think carefully about what I'm saying. You shouldn't be with them! Do you want to know why? I'll tell you, it's for the sake of obtaining a certain qualification!"

  "Su Yin!" Qi Xiu growled, running over and pulling her away, glaring at Lin Ming. Lin Ming held up his hands, laughing. Ge Lu's face didn't look good either, coming over to communicate with Lin Ming, confirming that a specialized lawyer would come to handle the situation. Qi Xiu pulled Su Yin close, seeing that she was just dazed and nothing else was wrong, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, his expression also easing up. This made Su Yin's heart feel inexplicably touched, with a warm feeling.

  After Ge Lu finished communicating, Qi Xiu stuffed Su Yin into the car and gradually drove away. As she looked back, Lin Ming waved at her to signal. Turning around, Su Yin met Qi Xiu's gaze and was startled, feeling a void in her heart. Intentionally avoiding eye contact, she didn't look at Qi Xiu. "What's going on with you this time?"

  Su Yun felt very embarrassed, but still explained the whole thing clearly. However, she herself was also unclear about this matter. The key point was that the person in the video tape was indeed her, so what was she doing there? And what did she take away? If even the person involved couldn't figure it out, then others would be even more baffled.

  "Are you sure you haven't been?" Qi Xiu furrowed his brow, Su Yin shook her head: "I don't remember going, that day I should have been sleeping in the dorm." Qi Xiu asked: "Did you wear the amulet?" She nodded: "Except when taking a bath, I always wear it with me."

  This made even Ge Lu reveal a deep thinking expression, if that person wasn't her, then who could it be? Is there another person in the world with the same fingerprints? If it was her, then how did she do it? Qi Xiu's face didn't look good, if even the protective charm didn't work, then...