Chapter 357: 3:00 AM

When leaving Yueya Mountain, Lv Dandan looked back at the ruins of the villa.

"I will come again next year. I believe Professor Zhong's soul in heaven will surely bless you with recovery." This was the last thing she said to Zhong Kui.

Zhong Kui was expressionless; she was not Zhong Xiaoyu and could not empathize with Lv Dandan's words.

Lv Dandan turned her head in disappointment, her face hidden in the twilight.

The five of them went down the mountain together and checked into a hotel in Baicheng. The next day, Lv Dandan would part ways with them.

Qi Fei lay on the hotel bed, unable to sleep no matter what. Closing his eyes, he felt he could see that monster, overlapping with Xi He's face. He couldn't understand the twisted love between Xi He and Zhong Xiaoyu. When everything couldn't be judged by common sense, he had no way to start thinking.

The phone screen lit up in the darkness, and a message popped up.

Qi Fei picked it up and saw it was actually from Lv Dandan.

She said she had something to discuss with him and wanted to talk in the hotel lobby on the first floor now.

Qi Fei checked the time—3:00 AM—and couldn't help but feel strange. Just as he was about to call her, the message was suddenly retracted.

This made him even more curious. After waiting for a moment, Lv Dandan didn't send another message.

Qi Fei called her, but the phone kept ringing with no answer.

Perhaps Lv Dandan had sent it to the wrong person.

But at this time, who would she have an appointment with in the lobby on the first floor?

Since he had insomnia anyway, Qi Fei decided to go downstairs to take a look.

There was only the duty clerk sitting at the front desk in the lobby; apart from him, there was no one.

Qi Fei asked the clerk and was told that no one else had been seen coming down from the elevator.

His profession as a criminal policeman gave Qi Fei an extra layer of alertness compared to ordinary people. Lv Dandan wouldn't send a message at 3:00 AM for no reason.

He remembered Lv Dandan's room number, so he went back upstairs to knock on her door. He knocked several times, but no one answered.

He called again, and Lv Dandan's phone was actually turned off.

Everything was developing in a direction that worried him. Ignoring etiquette, he called the clerk to swipe open Lv Dandan's room door, and the scene inside was like a nightmare becoming reality.

In the middle of winter, the window in Lv Dandan's room was wide open, and the white curtains were fluttering in the cold wind. Qi Fei walked through the entryway and saw Lv Dandan lying on the bed. She was lying face down, with a bath towel wrapped around her neck, motionless. She was already dead.

The clerk behind Qi Fei screamed and rushed out the door.

Lv Dandan was already dressed in outdoor clothes and shoes, and her phone had fallen to the floor and broken.

It looked like she really was going to go out; that message was true.

There were no signs of a struggle in the room; Lv Dandan had been strangled almost without any resistance.

Everyone who received Qi Fei's message arrived at Lv Dandan's room.

"Zhong Xiaoyu's Dan Jie is dead," Zhong Kui said without feeling.

Qi Fei didn't blame her for being heartless; she had many emotional perceptions blocked by Zhong Xiaoyu, and she couldn't experience Zhong Xiaoyu's pain.

"My God, who would kill her?" Wu Shanqiu said in disbelief, then looked at Qi Fei in confusion, "Fei Ge, how did you think to come to Lv Dandan's room at this hour?"

Qi Fei said: "Because I received a message from her, asking me to meet her in the lobby on the first floor, but she retracted the message very quickly. I was worried something had happened to her, so I came to check, and I didn't expect something really happened."

"Eh?" Wu Shanqiu took out her phone to show Qi Fei, "Come to think of it, my phone also shows that she retracted a message she sent. But I was asleep at that time and didn't see what the content was."

"Hmm? I have one here too." Jiang Tianyi heard this and also took out his phone to confirm.

"I don't have a phone," Zhong Kui said expressionlessly, then she glanced at Qi Fei, "Don't suspect me. I'm in the same room as Shanqiu. When Shanqiu received your message, I was still asleep. We live on a different floor from Lv Dandan; even if Zhong Xiaoyu woke up without my knowledge, there wouldn't be enough time to commit the crime."

"Why is the window in the room open?" she continued to ask.

"I can't figure this out either. When I arrived at the scene, this window was already open," he said.

Wu Shanqiu walked to the window and looked out: "Fei Ge, come and look!"

Qi Fei heard this and immediately leaned over. Wu Shanqiu pointed below. It turned out that Lv Dandan's room was on the fourth floor, and the third floor extended out to the front hall of the hotel lobby, where there was an extended platform, and along the third floor, there was a circle of eaves, just enough for one person to pass through.

"If the murderer jumped down from this window, they could reach the third floor," Qi Fei thought immediately.

"Counting the time for the crime, the murderer must have fled in a hurry," he said, lowering his head to carefully examine the windowsill. Sure enough, he found footprints on it. Judging by the size, they belonged to a male; they definitely weren't Lv Dandan's.

"But the problem is, it's easy to jump down from this place, but without tools, there's no way to climb up," Qi Fei observed, then turned to look at the main door of the room, "It seems we have to check the surveillance on the fourth floor."

The Baicheng police arrived quickly, and the surveillance video was retrieved.

There weren't many people at 3:00 AM, which invisibly facilitated the investigation.

In the empty corridor, the door to the fire escape suddenly opened.

A man's figure appeared on the screen.

When they saw this person, Qi Fei and Zhong Kui leaned toward the screen at the same time.

This person was wearing a mask, and his build was very similar to Qi Fei's, perhaps slightly thinner.

This back view was enough to make Qi Fei's heart tighten.

In the footage, this person walked a few steps toward the direction of Lv Dandan's room, then suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked up at the surveillance camera, as if he could sense Qi Fei watching him through the screen.

This scene was familiar. A few months ago, in the surveillance of the office building in Nancheng, that person had looked at the surveillance camera just like this, staring at Qi Fei across time and space.

In the dim light of the corridor, Qi Fei couldn't see his face clearly, but strangely, he knew this person was smiling—that kind of cold, sinister smile.

Sure enough, the man in the footage took something out of his pocket and held it up to the lens—it was a glass marble.

"Xi He?!" The four people from Nancheng said in unison. No one expected this person to appear in the hotel.

Xi He completed his ritual, continued walking toward Lv Dandan's room, rang the doorbell, and swaggered inside.

Everyone knew that Lv Dandan opening this door was the beginning of her death, but this was already an unchangeable fact.

From then until Qi Fei arrived, this door never opened again.

The murderer was identified so easily, but finding him would be easier said than done.

"Why did Lv Dandan let Xi He in?" Zhong Kui asked, "And why didn't he leave through the main door after killing someone?" ===== CHAPTER 358 =====