Free Web NovelChapter 442: Chapter 59: The Mysterious Zhou Zeshui
(Silver Alliance random bonus Chapter progress: 62/100.)
Bai Wu, whose head was still not quite clear from the alcohol, certainly did not wish to visit the victim’s home at this time.
"No wonder you get things done, with that decisive attitude of yours. It’s something I lack, but this might not be the right time... You’ve just finished work, why are you in such a hurry?"
Bai Wu knew that Gu Qingyu was reluctant, but he said:
"Every day we delay, the likelihood of clues being obscured by time grows. We should go now. Don’t you want to hold your head high in front of everyone at the company?"
"Of course I do! I dream about it!" Gu Qingyu’s voice was loud, probably because he had been drinking.
Were he to raise his voice like that at the company, no one would think him timid.
Bai Wu stood up, not caring about the rest:
"Lead the way, no more drinking. Let’s find a car and go directly to the scene."
"Now? Are we really going?"
"Really going, there’s no time to lose."
Seeing Bai Wu so determined, Gu Qingyu clenched his teeth and said:
"Fine, let’s go! If we find some clues, maybe that will secure this month’s performance bonus!"
Bai Wu went straight to the door, and when passing through the living room, Yan Jiu didn’t ask anything; he just watched Bai Wu with an overly joyous smile.
Which gave Bai Wu a somewhat eerie feeling.
Then Ruan Qingyun asked:
"It’s late, where are you two going?"
"To take care of some business," said Gu Qingyu.
"Don’t go. It’s almost evening, what business could you possibly have now? You’ll be back soon."
Ruan Qingyun’s severity immediately made Gu Qingyu feel a bit intimidated.
Seeing this, Bai Wu felt that sense of incongruity again.
Is the team leader another "whipped" husband?
Wait... I’ve brought up the term ’team leader’ again.
Ruan Qingyun, with her head held high, looking up at the tall and thin Gu Qingyu, completely overpowered him in presence.
It was so damned bizarre that Bai Wu just wanted to leave at once:
"Ma’am, I really do have business with him, and you shouldn’t stop us. It’s something good for your husband."
The effect was naturally different when Bai Wu spoke.
Ruan Qingyun paused:
"What ’ma’am’?"
Yeah, what ’ma’am’? Gu Qingyu looked at Bai Wu.
Now Bai Wu was sure...
Once or twice could be a coincidence, but three or four times there had to be a problem. These words almost slipped out automatically, proving these people were important to him, and they have other roles.
I must indeed be missing memories.
"Someday, Gu Qingyu will also be a boss, won’t you be the boss’s wife?"
That made Ruan Qingyun grin:
"No wonder Jiu is so happy every day."
Bai Wu glanced at Yan Jiu, who indeed seemed very happy.
But Bai Wu had already realized that Yan Jiu’s happiness might not be quite normal. How could a normal person smile this long without their facial muscles aching?
"Fine, with Bai Wu here, I’m a bit more at ease. Just don’t come back too late."
"Don’t worry, don’t worry. If you don’t trust me, you can still trust Bai Wu, right?" Gu Qingyu gave Bai Wu the feeling of a middle-aged man afraid of his wife.
After the two successfully left the apartment block, Bai Wu felt as if some deep-seated memory was beginning to awaken.
They arrived at the entrance of the residential complex, stepped out, and were about to call a cab when Bai Wu suddenly said:
"I suddenly have a very familiar feeling."
Gu Qingyu shook her head to sober up:
"What familiar feeling?"
"It seems it’s not the first time you and I are going to investigate something somewhere, I always feel like we’ve been through many such investigations."
"You can’t be serious, Bai Wu, even beer gets you drunk? Hahaha..." Gu Qingyu was a bit drunk herself.
Bai Wu was certainly sober, and when he stood side by side with Gu Qingyu, he even had an inexplicable sense of security.
Both had been drinking, so driving wasn’t a good option, and they had to call a driver.
The taxi arrived quickly.
When he saw the driver’s face, Bai Wu suddenly paused.
"Zheng Yue?"
"What, you know me too? Hahaha, relax, I may be a model driver, a celebrity among drivers, but I charge less."
What is this all about?
Upon seeing Zheng Yue, Bai Wu blurted out the other person’s name, and then that strange sense of discord came again.
How could Zheng Yue possibly be a taxi driver? And a model worker?
It felt like this person should be yawning endlessly, carefree, and possibly suspected of driving while fatigued.
Bai Wu silently calculated some things in his heart:
"If it’s not my brain that has a problem, then it’s the world that has a problem, I must note down all the discordant places, I absolutely cannot get used to them..."
It was like two conflicting forces, Bai Wu suddenly thought, he appeared in a familiar environment right from the start, even the taxi driver he encountered, the case Gu Qingyu talked about... they might all be acquaintances from "another world".
Is this some kind of stimulus?
Some force trying to make him continually come into contact with familiar people, using weird feelings of discord to make himself realize... the current situation.
This is definitely not a safe, comfortable situation.
[Every four hours, your memory will undergo a distortion, but if you find a key item, you can counter this distortion, and even regain some of your original memory and abilities.]
The strange dialogue box appeared in his mind again.
Bai Wu remained impassive and quickly got into Zheng Yue’s car with Gu Qingyu.
Zheng Yue was very talkative during the ride, endlessly narrating how he went from being a spirited young man to a model driver.
Bai Wu noticed that he hadn’t blinked the whole way and mentioned that he had been driving for fourteen hours straight but was still full of energy.
Bai Wu had to admire him for living up to the title of model worker, such a handsome young man who was overly diligent.
Chatting non-stop in the car, Bai Wu encountered another source of discord.
The car radio mentioned the contemporary poet and city cultural ambassador Lin Wurou.
When Bai Wu heard "cultural ambassador", he didn’t react; when he heard Lin Wurou, he just felt it familiar...
But when Lin Wurou was linked with a cultural ambassador, Bai Wu felt so discordant that he wanted to stick his head out the car window and get hit by a truck.
A contemporary poet, a cultural ambassador, and a songwriter, a person who spoke the beautiful language of Sheng Country, never swore, and dressed with an air of masculine vigor, sporting a goatee.
Although people once thought that if he shaved off his beard, he would be a pretty boy, Lin Wurou never did that.
He always faced the public with the image of a big-bearded face, an artist’s image.
This time, Lin Wurou seemed to have written some Sheng Country-style lyrics for a famous singer, which exploded in popularity across various media once again.
Bai Wu just felt his skin crawl.
What came to his mind was not a city cultural ambassador, but a Swearing valedictorian of arts.
The various feelings of discord only deepened Bai Wu’s suspicion of this world to the point that he had already determined that he might be in some kind of illusion, or that is to say — he had gone mad.
But the former certainly seemed more fun, even if he had really lost his mind, the game still seemed very interesting to him.
"I want to see what else will happen next."
Zhou Zeshui’s home was quickly reached.
It was also a multi-unit building.
The community was called Sky District, with house types ranging from ninety to one hundred thirty square meters.
Zhou Zeshui lived on the fourth floor; his wife and daughter had already left, moving back to her parents’ house. As for Zhou Zeshui’s funeral... it seemed there was no need to handle it anymore.
At first, Bai Wu and Gu Qingyu worried about how to get into the apartment, but when they arrived at the doorstep, they found the door was open.
"Someone has already been here. Most likely from the Police Station. Did you bring your work ID?" Bai Wu asked.
"Brought it, always have it on me." Gu Qingyu didn’t let him down this time.
Bai Wu nodded and then walked into the apartment.
Inside, there truly were two members of the Police Station; hearing footsteps, they both came out.
"Who are you?"
One was a timid officer, appearing somewhat inferior, following behind a Chief Inspector who looked arrogant and brash.
The slightly inferior officer was named Yan Zizai. The one who appeared wild and unrestrained was Shang Xiaoyi.
Bai Wu recognized the two of them, a feeling of contradiction and discomfort surged within him because these two were the ones who had detained his "cosplay prop" not long ago.
"Gentlemen, we meet again. I am Bai Wu, and this is my colleague, named Gu Qingyu," he said.
With a cigarette dangling from his mouth, Shang Xiaoyi responded arrogantly,
"Oh, kid, what are you here for?"
Bai Wu glanced at Yan Zizai, who was somewhat uneasy, and that feeling that gave Bai Wu goosebumps emerged again:
"We are from the insurance company; since Mr. Zhou Zeshui bought a large accidental insurance policy from our company shortly before his death, there are some issues related to the claim that we must verify."
The Police Station personnel were familiar with this; Shang Xiaoyi nodded and said,
"Okay, go ahead."
"By the way, gentlemen, what brings you here?" Bai Wu inquired.
Shang Xiaoyi’s eyebrows furrowed, his presence commanding respect without anger. Bai Wu stood his ground, calmly looking at Shang Xiaoyi.
Gu Qingyu and Yan Zizai each took a step back, overwhelmed by their commanding presence.
"You are asking about things you shouldn’t know about."
"No, I’m only making sure the officers haven’t taken anything important. After all, you wouldn’t want to get tangled in a lawsuit from the insurance company, right? We, this bunch, will sue for anything to avoid paying out," Bai Wu said.
Gu Qingyu was shocked; was this a threat to the police officers?
After a few seconds of silence, Shang Xiaoyi said,
"We haven’t taken anything. We’ve practically closed this case; we came to make sure nothing was overlooked. We’re leaving."
The two policemen left.
Several minutes after they had gone, Bai Wu finally said,
"Let’s start looking for clues."
Gu Qingyu said,
"How do we look for clues? This case looks like an accident no matter how you slice it..."
"Forget about the case itself, look for any information about Zhou Zeshui." Bai Wu closed the door, ready to start rummaging through things.
Gu Qingyu didn’t understand,
"Is this person important?"
"Very important... I guess. But just listen to me, I wouldn’t screw over my team leader."
"Why are you calling me team leader again?"
As Bai Wu found an album in the TV cabinet and started flipping through it, he answered Gu Qingyu,
"Have you ever considered that you might actually be a sports genius, and there is no one in the world who can surpass you in athletic ability?"
"Are you still drunk?"
"Thinking doesn’t break any laws. Our actions, our understanding of the world, all come from the stimuli we receive from the outside. When the outside world treats us well, we think the world is true, good, and beautiful. When it treats us badly, we think the world is fake, ugly, and evil."
"Stimuli turn into memories, so memories might make us... different."
"What do you mean?"
"I’m not sure either, there are still many doubts I haven’t clarified."
Gu Qingyu, his memory distorted, had become a weakling in sports, which Bai Wu could understand, but could memory distortion also change a person’s height?
Bai Wu had always felt that this person was strong, reliable, and always trustworthy... but not tall.
Combining this point, Bai Wu guessed... could it be possible that all of these were false, his own distorted memories, and he was the only one who was truly alive?
Bai Wu had no evidence, at least the Gu Qingyu in front of his eyes, was still his good friend, an incredibly real and vivid existence. freēwēbnovel.com
"The photo album of their family of three looks very warm."
Bai Wu did not respond to the earlier strange comment.
Gu Qingyu leaned over to take a look:
"Photos are like that, you can’t exactly look disgusted when you’re taking them, right?"
That certainly made sense.
Because the death was basically determined to be an accident, ruling out murder, the visit from the two officers that just occurred was considered wrapping things up.
But that also led to many areas not being thoroughly investigated.
Gu Qingyu had also concluded that the case was an accident, so he didn’t investigate thoroughly either.
Bai Wu looked closely at the photo album, his attention drawn to Zhou Zeshui’s eyes.
In photos from earlier years, Zhou Zeshui’s eyes looked much like a normal person’s, but a bit later, something about Zhou Zeshui’s eyes changed.
As if they held some kind of elusive dark energy.
It was hard to see in the photos, but Bai Wu felt he could perceive it, as if his vision could detect very fine details.
Moving on, Zhou Zeshui’s photos seemed to always appear a bit dimmer...
During the day, yes, and at night as well.
As if the environment were becoming gloomy centered around this person.
Yet nothing conclusive could be seen from the photos.
But Bai Wu’s intuition could feel... there was something wrong with Zhou Zeshui, as if there was something inside him that was gradually awakening.
However, to confirm, Bai Wu called Gu Qingyu over and showed him the photos as well:
"Do you see any problems?"
"I can’t see any problems..."
"Really? Don’t you think it’s very dark here, and there?"
"I don’t think so... Isn’t it the same as the previous photos?"
Gu Qingyu did not seem to be lying.
Bai Wu once again confirmed, there must be something wrong with either me or this world.
"Let’s go, let’s have a look at something else. What about that diary you mentioned earlier?"
"I’ve already found it."
Gu Qingyu handed the diary to Bai Wu.
The fact that the police department hadn’t taken away such an important item indicated that the case was indeed very simple, everything was just like what people saw—it was an accident with almost no doubts.
Bai Wu didn’t care whether it was an accident or not.
He just really wanted to know what was wrong with Zhou Zeshui, because his intuition told him—
Zhou Zeshui... there was definitely something wrong with him.
Instead of looking directly at the back like Gu Qingyu did, Bai Wu started from the very beginning.
And the first page that the diary revealed directly confirmed Bai Wu’s previous thoughts:
"August 4th, I suspect I am ill. Since yesterday, I have started to have nightmares, but when I wake up, the nightmares don’t end. In my head, there is a voice. It speaks to me—"
"Distortion is coming, my child."
