The weapon by the pillow

In episode 38, we discovered... Liu Li!

This is already outside the police cordon!

The three men were quite relaxed. Once all the equipment was set up, the Wrangler's engine started with a low rumble.

The car lights were still off.

Like a shadow blending into the night, it silently slid out of the parking space, turned into a narrower alley, and disappeared.

From the moment they entered the room to the moment they left, it took no more than five minutes.

Inside the room, only the stopped countdown timer and the rapidly dissipating smell of chemicals remained.

There was also a face facing the window, filled with terror and despair!

She was watching a perfect "stage," a precise "curtain call."

"This is the third time!" Downstairs at Building 7, next to the command vehicle, Cheng Jing once again forcefully hung up the phone from the Inspectorate.

Good news came over the walkie-talkie that the bomb disposal team had deactivated the dangerous devices on the first floor.

"SWAT Team A, proceed as planned, stealthily approach the fourth floor via the stairwell! Team B, maintain perimeter security! Sniper Team, keep a close watch on the target room in Building 5. If there is any unusual activity, await my command! Move out!" Cheng Jing's orders were decisive.

Fully armed special police officers surged into the dark corridor of Building 7 like a black tide.

Their steps were light and nimble, the beams of their tactical flashlights cutting through the darkness ahead, and the muzzles of their guns moving warily in line with their gaze.

Cheng Jing stared intently at the monitoring screen on the command vehicle, which displayed real-time footage transmitted from the helmet cameras of the team members.

The stairwell was covered in dust, the walls were mottled, and everything was eerily quiet.

Her heart suddenly clenched.

Years of frontline experience have taught her that the calmest moments often conceal the greatest dangers.

Just then, Chen Ming, carrying a tablet computer and looking extremely grim, strode over.

"Captain Cheng! Breaking news!" He handed the tablet to Cheng Jing, his voice low, unable to hide the disbelief and astonishment on his face. "As per your request, we've done everything we can to find Liu Li. We've checked the household registration system, traffic cameras, communication records… everything we can. This Liu Li is forty-two years old, lives alone, has no stable job, rarely goes out, and has few social connections. But…"

He paused, then pointed to a facial recognition comparison result and a blurry screenshot from a surveillance video on the tablet.

"The facial recognition system showed that at approximately 9:45 PM tonight, less than half an hour before the live stream started, Liu Li appeared in the surveillance footage of the convenience store at the east entrance of the Anpingli neighborhood!"

"She's not dead after all! Have you found her? What is she doing?" Cheng Jing looked closely and indeed it resembled this woman.

"She bought some things. More importantly, there were two other people with her!"

The surveillance screenshots are zoomed in one by one.

Although the image quality is rough, you can make out that it is a woman wearing a dark coat and a hat.

Two men were standing next to her.

Both men deliberately kept their heads down to avoid being filmed from the front. Judging from their physiques, one was taller and thinner, while the other was more stocky.

"Can we confirm the identities of these two men?" Cheng Jing asked urgently.

"We're still comparing them, but based on the initial results... they're not the known suspects." Chen Ming flipped to the next image, which was a screenshot from a street surveillance camera at a greater distance, showing the time as 9:50 AM.

"Look, the three of them entered Anpingli neighborhood together, heading... towards Building 7. After that, they never appeared in any of the exit surveillance footage again."

Cheng Jing's nerves tightened immediately. Just now, that voice...

Is Liu Li not a "dead sacrifice"?

She was near the scene tonight? And she was with two other people?

"That lipstick... 'She's dead too'..." Cheng Jing instantly understood. "It's a misdirection! A smokescreen! Liu Li might not be dead! Or... her 'death' has another meaning! She might even be..."

The voice said that Liu Li had been killed!

He's clearly lying!

One thought after another came to mind: Could Liu Li be one of the masterminds behind this scheme? Or perhaps she was an insider, a participant, who brought people back tonight to "observe" or "participate" in this "ritual"?

If not, then what is Liu Li doing here?

Could it be...? At this thought, Cheng Jing's mind suddenly skipped a beat!

Oh no! Liu Li might not be dead yet?

That might be... their target tonight!

"Team Leader Cheng! SWAT Team A reporting!" A voice came through the walkie-talkie, interrupting her thoughts. "Arrived at Building 7! No abnormalities found! Should we go in and break down the door?"

Cheng Jing glanced at Liu Li's surveillance screenshot on the tablet, then looked up at the dark Building 7.

A tiny sliver of light peeked through the cracks in the wooden planks of the window on the fourth floor.

The people in the room were unaware that Liu Li might be nearby, or even in this building.

Unbeknownst to them, the "director" of Building 5 across the street had quietly left, leaving behind only an empty "stage" and a countdown.

"Don't break down the door yet!" Cheng Jing decisively ordered. "Establish a perimeter outside the door and try to communicate with the people inside! Repeat, don't break down the door yet! Sniper team, report the situation in the target room of Building 5! Those computers..."

"Sniper team report: the curtains in the target room on the third floor of Building 5 are still tightly closed. The video... wait!" The sniper's voice carried a hint of doubt. "The surveillance footage shows... the video signal inside the room... is rapidly weakening! No... not weakening, it's disappearing! It completely vanished in just the last ten seconds!"

"What?!" Cheng Jing's heart skipped a beat. "Disappeared? How did they disappear?"

"I don't know! The signal suddenly disappeared, like... like it was blocked by something, like someone went in and controlled it? Moved it... but the room is sealed..."

Someone went in! Then suddenly disappeared? Moving things? They couldn't just vanish into thin air!

What are all these eyes of ours for?

Cheng Jing's brain was working at lightning speed.

A secret room? A mezzanine? Ventilation ducts? Or... does the other side have more advanced equipment?

"Team B! Immediately seal off all exits of Building 5! Team A, send two people to check the third floor of Building 5! Watch out for traps!" Cheng Jing immediately adjusted the deployment.

Her gaze fell on room 403 again.

Inside the room, there are eight people, a die with a missing corner, and the words, "The door will only open when the sum of the numbers is seven."

In the live stream room, more than 600,000 eyes were still frantically scrolling through the comments, speculating about the killer's identity, analyzing the meaning of the dice, and being swayed by the constant influx of online trolls trying to steer the narrative.

All clues, all characters, all forces seemed to have been gathered around the small 403 room in Building 7 of Anpingli by an invisible hand in the early hours of the morning.

Like the final moments of a grand game of chess, where all the pieces are in place.

They were just waiting for the final, decisive step.

Cheng Jing felt a sudden chill, which made her shiver.

She knew that a direct assault might trigger unknown dangers and could kill the people inside.

But if you don't go in, the people inside might kill each other because of suspicion, fear, or the strange rule that "the sum of the points is seven," or be killed by a hidden murderer.

dilemma.

And time was ticking away towards that symbolic moment—3 a.m.

The time of Li Wan's death.

This is also the climax of the "ritual" that the mastermind behind it may have set up.