Liu Qingzhu was casually wandering around the men’s bathhouse with a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
He first circled the large pool, his steps steady and even, finding nothing suspicious enough to slow him down.
Only when he stepped into the private stalls did he finally stop.
He crouched down and carefully examined the partition boards—these were like the dividers between squat toilets in a public restroom.
He ran his finger along the bottom edge of a divider and felt a slight dampness.
Methodically, he checked beneath all nine partitions.
Four of them were slightly wet, indicating someone had used those stalls last night.
Although there were no visible water stains inside the stalls anymore—they had long since dried—the dampness at the bottom of the dividers was harder to completely dry.
Three people?
Four partitions were wet, meaning three stalls had been used.
Could it be that three of the killers were male?
Liu Qingzhu searched for a while longer, not leaving even the top edges of the partitions unchecked.
Unfortunately, there was still no trace of anything—no bloodstains, not even any hair.
In fact, even if he had found hair, it wouldn’t have been conclusive evidence.
Everyone had used these stalls yesterday, so any hair found wouldn’t immediately serve as ironclad proof, though it could help narrow down the killers’ identities.
But alas, not even a single hair was found.
He sighed and exhaled a deep stream of smoke, a hint of worry flickering in his eyes.
Looks like we’ve run into a tricky one.
Seeing no one paying attention, Liu Qingzhu slipped over to the women’s bathhouse.
Like before, he circled the large pool.
Suddenly, he noticed something—a long, thin hair, dark yellowish-brown in color, lying near the pool’s edge.
He thought for a moment: Number 2 had black hair; Number 6 had dyed hair; Number 9 had black hair; and Number 14… this hair must belong to Number 14.
The little girl’s hair was golden yellow, and when wet, it would darken in color.
The only match was Number 14, Yelena.
He pocketed the hair calmly, his face unreadable, thoughts unknown.
Slowly, he entered the private stalls.
As expected, there were no bloodstains.
According to Number 3 Qian Min’s theory, only two people had actually attacked—the two should be male; otherwise, facing Number 15, they wouldn’t gain much advantage.
It seemed many had already noticed the possibility of counterattacking the killers during their assault.
If Number 3’s theory held true, then one person was still outside the door, and one was missing.
The two who hadn’t joined the fight naturally wouldn’t have bloodstains.
It made sense there were no bloodstains in the women’s bathhouse stalls.
Wait…
One of the killers was smart.
Could they have swapped bathhouses? For example, the women going to the men’s side, and the men to the women’s side…
But that didn’t add up either. If three of the killers were female, how could they possibly match Number 15?
Numbers 14 and 9 aside, even the strongest seeming women—Number 2 and Number 6—might not be able to take down Number 15…
Zhou Wei! Right, Zhou Wei! Besides Number 15, the strongest should be Number 1 Zhou Wei. If one was Zhou Wei and the other woman was Zhang Huiran, maybe the two of them could really kill Number 15.
So the theory that there were three female killers and one male killer stood firm.
Liu Qingzhu flicked the ash off his cigarette and checked under the nine partition boards again.
This time, only two had a slight dampness.
But the tactile sensation was off… yes, there was a subtle difference.
Something seemed to flash through his mind; his eyes suddenly sharpened.
Using his left hand’s index finger and thumb, he pinched out the burning cigarette and placed the half-smoked remainder into the case.
He continued to feel the partition board in one of the stalls.
Yes!
The sensation was indeed different—there was a slight slickness.
Without a trace of emotion, he quietly exited the large bathhouse…
Number 3 Qian Min was in the kitchen at this time.
He first inspected the knives—two blades hung inside the knife box, nothing missing.
Inside were a fruit knife and a regular stainless steel kitchen knife.
The box had four slots but only two held knives.
It felt like two knives were missing, but when everyone inspected the kitchen yesterday, only these two had been seen, so there were no omissions.
He took out the fruit knife, which was about 3 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters long, single-edged, so it wasn’t the murder weapon.
The other stainless steel kitchen knife was less than 1 centimeter thick, so it wasn’t the weapon either.
With a serious attitude, he carefully examined the knife box again—no bloodstains.
A bit disappointed, he wandered around casually.
The floor was clean, without any footprints.
Or rather, it was hard to find any mud here—so much so that getting a footprint was almost impossible unless the foot was stained.
Suddenly, he saw Number 10 Liu Qingzhu come in.
This time, Liu wasn’t smoking and was searching the kitchen.
He quickly focused on the apron hanging on the wall, inspecting the plain apron and running his right hand over it several times.
After the man left, Qian Min walked over and took down the apron for inspection.
It was just a very ordinary apron, seemingly nothing wrong.
Next to him, Xu Kesi was extremely tense.
He knew the apron was suspicious.
After all, this apron had been used last night as a mop to wipe away the blood traces along the floor.
He didn’t know what consequences would follow if someone found out about the apron’s abnormality.
His mind wasn’t as sharp as Hua Ru’s, and subconsciously, he didn’t want anyone discovering his crime scene or the tools he’d used.
Did that man just detect something?
Xu Kesi tried to act calm and left the kitchen to look for him.
Soon, he saw Number 10 Liu Qingzhu chatting quietly in a corner with Number 8 Huang Waikai.
This felt very ominous!
His gaze scanned the room again.
Hua Ru’s figure wasn’t very noticeable; she was sitting in her chair, head bowed in thought. Number 14 Yelena sat beside her, and the two seemed to be talking.
Xu Kesi couldn’t approach Hua Ru to warn her at this moment, so he returned to the kitchen and resumed watching Number 3.
….
As time passed, the house grew restless.
A shadow of death slowly spread, poisoning everyone’s thoughts.
Whether it was the four killers or the other eleven people, all could sense this aura of death.
Everyone began scheming to survive by trying to kill others.
There were only four killers, but now it felt as if there were fifteen.
Most people weren’t trying to find the killers; instead, they were just trying to save themselves.
Under the glow of the lights, everyone in their clothes looked normal, but no one could tell whether the person beneath the skin was black or red at heart.