Free Web NovelChapter 142: Chapter 135: Surveillance
Luo Zhaoqing’s accident was not unexpected, but how come someone in the film crew is also missing? Song Yan had already inquired at breakfast, neither Yu Mi nor Xiang Xiaolin received any calls last night and had a peaceful night.
"Song Yan, did Luo Zhaoqing mention on the phone last night that he was with someone from the crew?" Xiang Xiaolin asked, puzzled.
"No, he was by himself, saying that Lu Ji wouldn’t let him return," Song Yan did not conceal this particular point.
At this moment, Yu Mi cautiously spoke up, "Should we... should we give Director Ding a call to find out what exactly happened?"
"Let’s not bother Director Ding with this, things are already chaotic on his end." Xiang Xiaolin borrowed a cellphone from the shop owner and dialed back that number. It connected to a woman from the crew. She intended to ask for Lu Ji’s room phone but the call was outright disconnected without getting through.
Without any source of news, waiting idly was not an option, so they decided to go back to their rooms to rest. After an unknown amount of time, Yang Xiao, half-asleep on the bed, was startled awake by a ringtone. Song Yan answered the phone—it was a call from the crew, asking them to get ready and meet in front of the inn.
It was already noon by then. The vehicle that came to pick them up was still the white van, but the driver had changed. It was another familiar face—Yang Xiao recalled after a moment that this man had once welcomed them to the school with Principal Wu, and he was also a teacher there.
The teacher’s complexion looked awful. After boarding the van, he didn’t waste words on any idle chatter and sped off, taking them straight to the front of a hotel.
The hotel had over ten floors and was undoubtedly considered a luxury establishment in this town, with blue glass panels embedded on the exterior—decorations that gave an impression of age.
Surprisingly, the school bus requisitioned by the crew was also parked in front of the hotel, but one side of the bus’s windows was smashed, and both rearview mirrors were broken off. The body was splashed with red paint; at first glance, it looked as if it were splattered with blood.
"What... what happened here?" Yu Mi exclaimed upon getting off the van, instinctively glancing at the male teacher who had driven them.
However, the male teacher’s expression darkened, "Don’t ask me—I have no idea. It wasn’t us who did it."
Startled by the teacher’s stern reaction, Yu Mi immediately fell silent. The group hadn’t even entered the hotel lobby when they heard arguing inside.
"The bus was parked here; how can you say you’re not responsible?" A crew member was confronting the reception, yelling at the person inside, "I’m telling you, our props and camera equipment were in the bus. Now that it’s like this, delaying our shooting, you must compensate us!"
Seeing that Yang Xiao and the others had arrived, another member of the crew led them to a sofa in the corner. Director Ding was sitting there, incessantly drawing on a cigarette.
"You’re finally here!" Director Ding stubbed out his cigarette forcefully, "How was last night? Any trouble?"
Seeing the worry etched in Director Ding’s face, Yang Xiao knew that much must have happened in the meantime. He exchanged glances with Song Yan and, out of caution, shared the fact that Luo Zhaoqing had called them last night, omitting the part about the ghostly handprints. Unexpectedly, Director Ding slammed the table and stood up abruptly, "I knew it! I knew it was those guys causing trouble!"
"Director Ding, don’t get angry, what exactly happened?" Song Yan tried to soothe him.
"Luo Zhaoqing is missing, and our prop master, Xiao Liu, is nowhere to be found. Last night, Luo Zhaoqing suddenly called me, saying he was outside and noticed someone following him. I told him to come to me and sent Xiao Liu down to meet him and check out the situation. But... but Xiao Liu never came back, doesn’t answer his phone; it’s definitely those people from the school playing tricks! They just don’t want us to shoot. Not only did they smash our bus, but they’ve also kidnapped our people—their audacity is off the charts!" Director Ding was seething with rage.
"Director Ding, don’t sling mud without proof!" A middle-aged woman strode over, presumably a teacher from the school, "Principal Wu said he has already started an investigation, and the results will come out soon. This has nothing to do with us. If you want to report to the police, feel free."
Soon after, three other actors also hurried over. Faced with Song Yan’s questioning, Lu Ji was quite defiant, "Yes, that’s right, I didn’t let Luo Zhaoqing in. What business did he have wandering around in the middle of the night? Director Ding said the town isn’t safe; it’s his own fault for not listening."
Yang Xiao understood that Lu Ji, too, was an old hand at the game, clearly sensing something was off. However, these words couldn’t be openly discussed in front of Director Ding and the crew.
Suddenly, several people walked into the hotel entrance, the one leading them was none other than Principal Wu. Principal Wu carried himself with much more poise than the other teachers—despite the circumstances, he remained composed. He first appeased the people from the crew; then he took out an old model laptop and placed it on the table, "Director Ding, I need to make it clear that we had nothing to do with this. I got the hotel to pull the surveillance footage from last night for you to look at."
There were two videos. Principal Wu opened the first one—it wasn’t very clear, but it was identifiable as footage from the front of an inn. As the video played, a limping man emerged; he left the inn, turned right, and soon disappeared from the camera’s view.
Based on the figure, there was no doubt that the man was the missing Luo Zhaoqing. Yang Xiao noted that the video was recorded at 7:43 PM.
"This was provided by Guest Inn, where your man was staying in room 404. He came down alone at 7:40 PM, approached the front desk to ask for the nearest pharmacy. The reception answered that he should go out, turn right and walk about 400 meters, then take a turn to see it."
"Also, his complexion looked terrible, as if he was in great pain. He even asked the reception for painkillers, but they didn’t have any."
"Noticing that something was wrong, with one leg injured, the receptionist offered help. However, for some reason, he refused."
"All of the above can be confirmed by others, and I stand by every word I said," said Principal Wu seriously.
"This gentleman must have shared a room with the one who disappeared. May I ask, did your friend receive a call before he left?" Principal Wu looked at Lu Ji.
"No," Lu Ji answered.
"So, he left on his own because of the pain, having been injured during filming in the daytime. It’s not that we lured him out, is that right?" Principal Wu looked at Director Ding again, without being aggressive, just simply making a logical statement of facts.
Seeing that Director Ding did not respond, Principal Wu opened the second video clip, which had the background of the outside of this hotel, and it was quite clear to distinguish.
It was 9 p.m., when a man hurriedly walked out of the hotel entrance and waited in the night wind for ten minutes. Then a limping man came from across the street. The camera was too far away to capture details, but after the two met and exchanged a few words, the man from the hotel supported the injured man and they left together, eventually disappearing from the surveillance.
Undoubtedly, the injured man was Luo Zhaoqing, and after that, both of these men disappeared without a trace until now.
"Director Ding, the video is all here, please have a look. Does it look like they were coerced? Is there anyone following them nearby?"
"What about the car?" one of the crew members pressed on, "Pull up the video of the car being smashed to see."
"No, there were no cameras on the parking spot," Principal Wu answered frankly.
"Impossible! I saw it myself, it was not far from where we parked!" ƒгeewёbnovel.com
"That camera has been broken for a long time, and the hotel has not repaired it," another teacher accompanying Principal Wu explained.
"Heh, so the cameras capture what’s advantageous to you, but when it’s not, they’re ’broken.’ These cameras really know how to discriminate, how interesting," someone from the crew snickered.
At the suggestion of a teacher, Director Ding took the crew members and Principal Wu’s group outside to inspect the damaged school bus and the loss of the crew’s equipment, while Yang Xiao and the other six were left behind to continue reviewing the surveillance videos.
Earlier, with so many people around, they couldn’t watch carefully. Now that only the seven of them, all game players, remained, they gathered together to watch the video bit by bit.
They indeed did not spot anyone strange in the vicinity in the video. Unlike Principal Wu and Director Ding, these veteran players were aware of the horrors of this game world. While Director Ding suspected a disappearance, these veteran players believed that Luo Zhaoqing and that unlucky crew member were most likely dead.
"Disappearance is the trickiest; even just finding a body would be something," Lu Ji complained. If they could find a body, they might discover some key clues, such as the ghost’s habits, preferences, and ways of killing, which are crucial for those who want to survive.
Compared to the first video, the second one was much blurrier due to the long filming distance. Luo Zhaoqing was only recognizable by his general outline. From the moment Luo Zhaoqing appeared to when the two left together, it took less than two minutes. Yang Xiao calculated that the conversation between the two lasted less than 20 seconds.
In such a short time, they couldn’t have exchanged much information, so Yang Xiao deduced that Luo Zhaoqing most likely asked the crew member for help to buy medicine or to be taken to the hospital.
Watching that vague figure move bit by bit, Yang Xiao felt that something was not right. He leaned his face closer to the screen, focusing more intensely, and after a moment, as the figure turned and walked towards the street, Yang Xiao paused, realizing something terrible.
"What the fuck!"
"What’s wrong?" Song Yan was startled by Yang Xiao’s sudden outburst.
"This person is not Luo Zhaoqing!"
"Huh? What do you mean?" Pei Qiuyu also focused on the screen, but she didn’t notice anything strange, just that the whole video exuded a weird atmosphere. freewebnσvel.cøm
Yang Xiao straightened the screen and opened the first video. In the video, Luo Zhaoqing was limping on one leg. Yang Xiao pointed at that injured leg.
Then he opened the second video and paused it as Luo Zhaoqing turned around to leave with a crew member. The image froze there.
"Look!" Yang Xiao pointed at the unclear back view of Luo Zhaoqing.
After a moment, the few people present were taken aback, then a chill uncontrollably spread from the soles of their feet. In the first video, Luo Zhaoqing’s right leg was injured, but in the second video, that vague figure was limping on the left leg.
