There was clearly nothing in the room, yet Zhang Xianyu could clearly feel “his” presence.
And the other party had clearly sensed Zhang Xianyu as well.
But in reality, this was just a dream.
“He” had come to Room 204 a month ago and murdered the original residents.
A month later, Zhang Xianyu witnessed the events of that night through a dream.
Logically, he should only be an observer.
Everything in the dream had already happened—whether murderer or victim, all were merely projections of memory.
But somehow, the projection of the murderer seemed to come to life.
No, that’s not quite right.
More precisely, for some reason, the projection in the dream became linked to the actual murderer, allowing the murderer to perceive Zhang Xianyu’s presence—and thus expose himself.
In the instant their eyes met, thunder was already gathering in Zhang Xianyu’s palm.
Without giving the other party a chance to react, he thrust his hand forward.
A purple bolt of lightning shot from his palm like a leaping dragon and exploded violently in the master bedroom.
The entire room trembled sharply.
The lurking gaze in the dark vanished.
The surrounding darkness that clung like a shadow was swept away, and the dream itself began to collapse…
Zhang Xianyu glanced around, turned, and walked to the second bedroom door.
This time, the door opened with a gentle push.
Compared to the disordered master bedroom and living room, the second bedroom was much cleaner and tidier.
Recalling what Wu Shui had said on the first day he moved in, Zhang Xianyu walked straight to the built-in wardrobe on the innermost wall.
The white striped wardrobe covered the entire wall.
Zhang Xianyu slowly pushed it open—and a round human head rolled out, leaving a bright red trail on the wooden floor before stopping right at his feet.
Zhang Xianyu calmly looked down and met the gaze of the head.
The face was bluish-green, with youthful features.
The eyes were pitch black, and the wide-open mouth had no teeth—only bare gums.
Judging by appearance, it was likely the child from the murdered family.
“Did you bring me here? What are you trying to tell me?”
The dream was on the verge of collapsing, and Zhang Xianyu didn’t have time to ask much, so he focused on the most important question.
The child didn’t respond.
His bluish lips moved, and he began singing that strange rhyme again: “Lock your doors, shut your windows, pull up your blanket, don’t fall asleep…”
The head rolled twice on the ground.
Its eyes flipped upward, revealing hollow, pupil-less sockets like two black holes as it continued:
“Pull up your blanket, don’t fall asleep…”
Zhang Xianyu wanted to ask more, but the dream abruptly shattered.
Darkness.
He sat up with a jolt, waking from the dream.
Feeling around, he turned on the light and rubbed his face, recalling the eerie lullaby the child kept singing.
“Pull up your blanket, don’t fall asleep…”
The child kept emphasizing not to fall asleep.
But why?
Was it that the killer appeared only when people were asleep?
Or…was the killer inside the dream?
Thinking about the anomaly in the dream, Zhang Xianyu felt the latter was more likely.
The murderer had killed the entire family through the dream.
That’s why the child kept warning him not to fall asleep.
It was a warning—maybe the killer had already noticed him, and could try to kill him in a dream any time.
Zhang Xianyu sighed.
This had gone beyond something an ordinary person could deal with.
He had only wanted to investigate the case to earn a bonus, but now it seemed far from simple.
He’d already clashed with the killer once—
If he didn’t find the murderer soon, it would be like having a venomous snake hiding in the dark, ready to strike at any moment.
He got up to pour himself a glass of water, when suddenly there was a knock at the door: “Knock knock.”
From outside, Lin Wushui asked,
“Zhang Xianyu, are you alright?”
Dragging his slippers to the door, Zhang Xianyu opened it and saw Lin Wushui’s worried expression.
Zhang Xianyu asked, puzzled,
“What’s wrong?”
“I heard you suddenly scream,”
Lin Wushui said, making up an excuse casually after seeing he was fine.
In truth, he had sensed a surge of spiritual energy from Zhang Xianyu’s room and came over to check on him.
Zhang Xianyu wasn’t sure when he had screamed—dreams were unpredictable—so he didn’t dwell on it.
Instead, he walked toward Lin Wushui’s room.
“Have you still been hearing the sound of a child crying these past few days?”
“No,”
Lin Wushui’s expression shifted slightly, his gaze landing on the wardrobe.
Just then, Zhang Xianyu reached out and opened the wardrobe door.
The empty closet was now filled with Lin Wushui’s clothes.
Zhang Xianyu carefully inspected it but found no sign of the child’s spirit.
Behind him, Lin Wushui raised an eyebrow slightly.
That little ghost had been hiding in the wardrobe for the past few days.
Since it wasn’t harmful, he had left it alone.
So why did it vanish the moment Zhang Xianyu came over?
Zhang Xianyu wasn’t surprised he couldn’t find the child’s soul.
He closed the wardrobe door and smiled at Lin Wushui, saying,
“I just had a nightmare and wasn’t feeling at ease, so I came to take a look.”
Lin Wushui was considerate enough not to press further.
He nodded and said,
“Mm, it’s late. Get some rest—you have work tomorrow.”
The next day, Zhang Xianyu had a late shift.
Taking advantage of the free morning, he stayed home and looked up news reports about the case, reading through them carefully.
He also searched keywords on local forums and found several high-traffic threads.
To his surprise, aside from this recent incident, there had been four other similar locked-room murder cases in Jiangcheng over the past five years.
All of those cases had been successfully closed.
According to the forum posts and his own Baidu search, in each of the previous cases: Either the husband had a mental illness and killed his wife and daughter during an episode, then committed suicide afterward;
Or family conflicts escalated into a tragedy.
All four households had internal disputes—none were classified as murder by an outsider, which seemed too coincidental.
Moreover, those four cases shared two things in common with the tragedy in Room 204: All the families appeared perfectly happy to outsiders.
The victims died in extremely horrific ways, and the crime scenes were very bloody.
Zhang Xianyu recorded all the clues in his notebook, planning to head downstairs later that night and summon some wandering ghosts to ask around.
The murder had happened late at night—ordinary people might not have noticed anything, but ghosts might’ve seen it.
Just then, Lin Wushui walked over holding a plate of sliced apples and casually asked,
“Why are you suddenly so invested in this case?”
“There’s a reward for providing useful leads,”
Zhang Xianyu replied bluntly, biting into half an apple.
“You short on money?”
Lin Wushui asked, puzzled.
Zhang Xianyu glanced up at him, finished the apple in a few bites, wiped his hands with a tissue, and said: “Yeah, I’m super broke. So, Missy, could you maybe pay some rent and food expenses?”
“You wait,”
Lin Wushui said, pulling out his phone and tapping away.
A moment later, Zhang Xianyu’s phone started ringing repeatedly—ding ding ding—with multiple notifications.
Lin Wushui smiled,
“Alright, go ahead and use that.”
Ever since his assistant had given him a wake-up call, Lin Wushui had stopped acting out, vowing to become a pretty, rich, lovable sugar mama.
That way, Zhang Xianyu wouldn’t keep thinking about kicking him out.
“???”
Zhang Xianyu, confused, picked up his phone—and saw four WeChat transfer messages in a row: Wu Shui: Transferred you ¥50,000.00
Wu Shui: Transferred you ¥50,000.00
Wu Shui: Transferred you ¥50,000.00
Wu Shui: Transferred you ¥50,000.00
Wu Shui: (*￣3￣)
Zhang Xianyu: !!!!!!!!
He looked at the phone, then at Lin Wushui, then back at the phone…then back at Lin Wushui…
After repeating the cycle several times, he finally couldn’t hold back a
“What the hell?!”
He stared in shock at Lin Wushui, who looked perfectly calm, and stammered,
“Why did you transfer me so much money?”
This time it was Lin Wushui who looked confused.
“Didn’t you just say you were short on money? I’m giving it to you to use.”
He added grumbling,
“WeChat only allows 200,000 yuan per day. If that’s not enough, give me your bank card, and I’ll have my assistant send more.”
Zhang Xianyu cursed silently in his heart.
He had an assistant too?!
Had he not picked up a spoiled rich young lady, but a domineering female CEO?
“N-no, that’s not necessary.”
Zhang Xianyu, who had never seen so much money before, was tongue-tied.
Even though he always complained in his mind that Wu Shui was loaded yet didn’t pay rent or food expenses, he’d never actually intended to take advantage of him.
Now, receiving such a large amount of money out of the blue—he couldn’t live with the guilt.
If his father, Zhang Jianguo, knew from the underworld, he’d probably bust out of his urn and beat him senseless.
Zhang Xianyu returned all the money, one transfer at a time.
Just looking at the process made him feel breathless.
Even though it wasn’t his money, it still hurt to send it all back!!!
Once all the funds were returned, Zhang Xianyu finally exhaled in relief.
He made a silent vow: from now on, he would never ask that young miss for rent or food money again.
If she ever dropped another 200,000 yuan on him like this, his heart literally wouldn’t be able to take it.
“Why won’t you accept it?”
Lin Wushui frowned and looked at him, puzzled.
You couldn’t really blame him—he had never been poor.
When alive, he was the eldest young master of the Lin family.
Even after death, the Lin family had hired top experts to stabilize his soul and prolong his afterlife.
He didn’t even have to wander as a ghost—he could live openly among the living.
Zhang Xianyu gave a helpless smile and looked at him like he was a naive rich girl,
“We’re not family. I can’t just take your money like that.”
He added,
“And you shouldn’t just go around sending people large sums of money like that either. It’s fine if the person is kind, but if they’re not, you’ll be in trouble.”
Not caring whether Lin Wushui would actually take that advice to heart, Zhang Xianyu waved his hand, grabbed his small bag, and headed out to work.
He desperately needed some fresh air from the world of normal people.
The world of the rich was just too suffocating.
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