Chapter 146: “Yes, this is the first truth you have recovered.”

Chu Zu did not know this person.

He was certain that, whether in delusion or reality, he did not know this ferocious-looking madman.

“Damn it, it’s all because you, this bastard, jumped out to meddle. Feels good to be a hero, doesn't it, damn it, you really think I’m some weakling you can mess with?”

The madman roared and charged at Chu Zu.

Chu Zu subconsciously looked at Gentleman, who was still two meters away with his back to him.

Gentleman under the light had no shadow, nor did he speak, standing quietly on the spot.

“Chu Zu——”

Tong Qinzhen cried out.

Chu Zu snapped back to his senses, a cold glint flashing before his eyes.

He subconsciously wanted to retreat, but his body couldn't keep up with his reaction.

He was half a beat too late, and a sharp pain shot across his face.

The pain unlocked sealed memories.

Countless images flashed before his eyes, like a slow-motion sequence in a movie.

Chu Zu seemed to see a young man with a face full of anger, fighting with him in a cramped little room, but he was the one holding the knife, and he was even more vicious.

Then, the scene changed.

He was pierced by a steel rebar.

It was extremely painful, so painful that Chu Zu was about to suffocate.

Finally, there was a huge fire.

He sat in the blaze, staring at the terrified face of a man in the distance.

——Have I died like this before?

Chu Zu wasn't sure, but the pain triggered an abhorrence for death.

He had never understood his feelings about death so clearly.

The helplessness and hatred of having one's most basic right stripped away swept over his entire body like a tidal wave of anger.

“I don't know you, but you also want me to die.”

Chu Zu said softly.

“On what grounds?”

He met the man’s venomous gaze, which instead made the assailant pause.

The tall young man seemed to have suddenly changed into a different person.

His expression was still calm.

The cut on his cheek was near his eye, and blood was now seeping out, slowly trickling down, as if he was crying red tears from one eye.

Chu Zu smiled faintly: “On what grounds?”

Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu couldn't react at all.

They had already been traumatized tonight, their nerves stretched so taut they were numb.

The moment they saw the knife-wielding thug, a chill shot through their bodies.

Then Chu Zu, who was walking in front, made his move.

It was hard for the naked eye to follow Chu Zu’s figure.

The tall man had long arms and legs.

When he bent his body slightly, he was like a cheetah with tensed muscles.

His movements were astonishingly fast, almost completely disappearing from view.

By the time they reacted, the thug’s neck was already being choked from behind, his knife-wielding hand clamped tight.

Chu Zu used the man's hand and mercilessly stabbed the knife into his abdomen.

The man howled in pain, his grip loosened, and the knife was snatched away.

He quickly turned around, but couldn't see Chu Zu's figure.

The knife stabbed into his thigh with vicious force, the intense pain making him unable to stand steadily.

The next second, the man was kicked into the air and sent flying, smashing into a marble pillar.

Only then did Chu Zu slowly straighten up.

He didn't look at the man struggling to get up, but lowered his eyes to gaze at the short knife in his palm.

A strange yet familiar feeling.

He didn't like to move.

He would either lie in bed chatting with Gentleman, go to the library to read, or just daze off.

Chu Zu had also tried, as the doctor instructed, to exercise on the lawn with fellow patients.

But his physical fitness was too poor.

Just a little movement could make his heart rate soar to 180.

Because he lacked muscle, he had no point of leverage.

If he tried to exert force, his whole body would tremble.

Chu Zu also disliked the exhaustion after exercise, accompanied by body aches, like being held in a giant monster's mouth, chewed, and then spat out.

It was nauseating.

But now he felt nothing.

His body was very light, and he could easily perform his intended actions without any burden.

While he was lost in thought, the thug spat out bloody saliva, his expression cold as he fled towards the fire escape.

Chu Zu didn't chase.

He turned back and met two pairs of shocked eyes.

He thought for a moment, then threw the knife away.

Yang Mangshu swallowed hard, pointing at Chu Zu: “You... your face...”

Chu Zu touched his face, feeling warmth and moisture on his dry cheek.

He looked.

There was blood, probably from the cut he received at the beginning.

He raised an eyebrow, not particularly concerned, but the two university students were very concerned.

Both of them were the pampered type.

Usually, even a small cut on their hand would warrant deploying all measures, as if a major artery was bleeding, and they would die on the spot if it wasn't bandaged up tightly.

Moreover, they had just witnessed Jiang Ran's death, followed by the man charging at them to kill, and this building, and Chu Zu...

“Wait a minute.”

Yang Mangshu gritted her teeth and looked around.

The first floor looked like a high-end residential building.

The lobby had a high ceiling.

Straight ahead were two elevators, with a notice board hanging beside them, posted with a lot of information.

On the left and right walls were the residents' aluminum mailboxes.

Yang Mangshu found the wall-mounted indoor fire hydrant next to the mailboxes.

Inside, there was a fire hose, a nozzle, and an emergency medical kit.

Yang Mangshu hurried over, retrieved the emergency medical kit, and found alcohol and medical bandages inside.

“Lower your head, please.”

As she cleaned the blood from Chu Zu’s face and body, Yang Mangshu could clearly feel her hands shaking.

The young man’s killing intent had faded——“killing intent” was a word that cute types like Tong Qinzhen often used.

When he was late for class, he’d say the teacher’s eyes were full of killing intent.

After failing an exam, he felt that every textbook condensed the killing intent of generations of students who had failed...

Tong Qinzhen had also complained to Yang Mangshu, saying Jiang Ran’s eyes always had killing intent.

The literature department was just different, a disciple of Zhou Shuren.

Zhou Shuren's pen was as precise and sharp as a scalpel.

Jiang Ran was gentle and mild.

It was hard to understand when he got angry.

By the time you realized it, it was already escalating to the punishment stage.

At that time, Yang Mangshu had a guilty conscience and didn't dare to respond, not knowing that one of her boyfriends had gotten together with her other boyfriend.

She thought they were just a senior and junior with a good relationship because of their club.

However, she quite agreed with Tong Qinzhen's assessment.

Now she seemed to understand what this “killing intent,” so full of melodramatic flavor, that this group of guys talked about really meant.

A subtle danger.

You knew the other person would erupt at some point, but you couldn't be sure of the timing.

You tried to figure out the reason and unconsciously imagined the worst outcome.

Chu Zu gave people this feeling.

He seemed to still be in the afterglow of extreme anger.

A layer of white ash was scattered over the anger, making people mistakenly think he was calm.

He was even stranger than this building.

But he held no malice towards her, nor towards Tong Qinzhen.

Chu Zu bent down, his eyes half-closed.

The alcohol stung a little as it wiped his face, but it was a safe kind of pain, which made him relax, as if suddenly waking from a dream.

He realized belatedly that he had just finished a strange “battle.”

Before, even walking quickly would tire him, but now his face wasn't red, his heart wasn't pounding, and he wasn't out of breath.

Yang Mangshu cleaned the small wound and put a band-aid on it.

When her skin touched his cheek, Chu Zu noticed she was trembling badly——she was scared.

His gaze went past Yang Mangshu and found Tong Qinzhen.

He was even more scared than his girlfriend, his body shaking like a sieve.

“You didn't want to kill him. He attacked you. It was self-defense——Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu both think so.”

Gentleman spoke at this moment, “You are a very self-centered person. There's no need to change. So don't pretend to be guilty or uneasy just because you want to deliberately act like a normal person for them.”

Chu Zu made an “en” sound.

Seeing the host was fine, Little yellow chicken breathed a sigh of relief.

Superior was still very calm and went back to his own business.

Little yellow chicken felt a bit of regret.

If it had reminded Superior that it could unpack props and insert its own code, maybe when Superior stuffed in 「Master Wang」, it could have slipped in too.

——Superior should have known.

It had disassembled one in 《Death by Entertainment》, and it was recorded in the log.

It was just that Superior hadn't mentioned it at all when talking to the host earlier.

Superior seemed to have forgotten to hold a grudge about it.

But it was too late to regret now.

With 「Master Wang」, the host could solve most troubles.

Brute force really was king.

Superior probably felt that the current level of crisis wasn't as severe as before.

If it reminded Superior, Superior might turn his gun around and deal with Little yellow chicken first.

Little yellow chicken held its breath and continued to read the main text.

Chu Zu had only let the murderer run away because he was distracted.

He had no intention of letting the other party go.

Following the blood trail, Chu Zu went up to the third floor via the stairwell.

The third floor was completely different from the first-floor lobby.

The brick-and-mortar corridor was half-lit, half-dark.

Electric bikes, bicycles, and other unused old furniture were placed in the corners.

The steps and corridor floor were mostly paved with cement or red bricks, their edges worn smooth by time.

Peeling paint could occasionally be seen in the corners of the walls, revealing the gray or red brick base underneath.

Various notices or small advertisements were posted on every household's door, and the low walls were painted with illegible red slogans.

The blood trail disappeared outside a door at the end of the corridor.

Chu Zu thought for a moment, then reached out and gripped the doorknob.

Tong Qinzhen didn't react in time.

Yang Mangshu hurriedly shouted: “Don’t touch the door——!”

Chu Zu looked back: “I touched it.”

Yang Mangshu: “...”

Chu Zu: “And I wasn't dragged in.”

Yang Mangshu: “...”

Only then did Tong Qinzhen belatedly realize: “Oh right, Chu Brother wasn’t dragged in.”

Chu Zu turned the doorknob.

The door wasn't locked and could be easily pushed open.

Just as he pushed it open a crack, something heavy smashed straight towards the doorway.

With a “thud,” a chair hit the doorframe.

Chu Zu avoided it expressionlessly, seeing the man he had stabbed sitting on the floor, clutching his bleeding wounds and gasping for breath, still trying to reach for other things beside him.

Chu Zu turned his head and nodded to the two university students: “It’s a safe room.”

The indoor area was very small, one room and one bathroom, with no distinction between the living room, dining room, and bedroom.

A bed was against the wall, and the only other thing was a table in the center.

Chu Zu mulled over the university students’ psychological tolerance, stepped forward, grabbed the man by the neck, and lifted him up for a closer look.

“I don't know you. Do you know me?”

His strength was extremely precise.

The man had trouble breathing but wasn't suffocating, like a dying stray dog, still bleeding.

The man stared at him with bloodshot eyes.

Desperadoes seemed to be particularly polarized.

Either they were jittery, trembling at the slightest thing, or they were like him, having already walked down a dead-end road, unable to turn back, and unwilling to turn back.

Chu Zu wasn't very surprised.

He dragged the man to the bathroom and casually threw him onto the tiled floor.

The bathroom was very “crowded,” 4 square meters at most.

It contained a squat toilet, a washbasin, a shower... and even a washing machine was stuffed inside.

The square window was shut tight.

The humidity and odor were noticeable, and now there was an added smell of blood.

The man moved his body.

Chu Zu squatted down in front of him, pressing his hand on the wound above his abdomen: “I didn't tell you to move.”

“You're a f*cking dead pervert!”

The man's teeth chattered, as if he had been greatly insulted.

Chu Zu continued to apply pressure: “I'm helping you stop the bleeding.”

He said, “Of course, if you don't answer my questions, I can also break your ribs——I seem to be quite strong.”

“Bones break easily. For example, when doctors perform emergency CPR, the incidence of rib fractures caused by chest compressions is about 30% to 60%.”

“You might develop a pneumothorax, or hemopneumothorax, pulmonary contusion, liver or spleen damage, but you won't die right away.”

Chu Zu looked at him faintly, “When a patient has severe chest trauma, the emergency room will perform a thoracotomy, and in urgent cases, directly massage the heart.”

“I'm not a doctor, but I can still copy it. After all, it's something I've experienced, the memory is deep. I should remember how to do it. Want to try?”

The man looked at Chu Zu in terror, not doubting the truthfulness of his words in the slightest.

Only now did the man realize he had mistaken the person... He had definitely mistaken the person.

The young man who had lured him into the room and the madman in front of him had identical faces, truly identical.

Height, features, the cold and sharp gaze when looking at people, and that faint, absent-minded look.

But that person was more posturing.

He had deceived everyone with the posture of a weakling, sending them to their deaths one by one, only revealing a satisfied, wild laugh at the end, emotionally expressing his gratitude for their cooperation and help.

The man shivered violently, realizing he had kicked an iron plate.

The young man he had mistaken him for had no intention of playing games.

His viciousness was in his actions, not his motives.

The man closed his eyes: “What do you want to ask?”

“Who did you mistake me for?”

Chu Zu asked.

The man was silent for a moment, then answered hoarsely: “He said his name was Chu Shiju.”

Chu Zu had vaguely heard this name before, but couldn't recall it.

“Second question.”

Chu Zu released his hand, stood up, and went to the washbasin to turn on the faucet.

The washbasin still worked, and the water source looked very clean.

Chu Zu's fingers were long.

The doctors at the mental hospital would regularly trim the patients' nails to prevent them from doing dangerous things.

Dr. Zhang had trimmed his nails round and neat.

After washing off the blood, they were delicate and clean.

“How much do you know about this building?”

Tong Qinzhen sat on the floor resting, head down, hands gripping his pants tightly, breathing deeply again and again.

Yang Mangshu knew at a glance that he was crying.

Tong Qinzhen was usually all bluster, but would start whimpering when he ran into trouble.

She was out of tissues in her bag, but there were some in the room.

She hesitated for a moment, then picked up the tissue box from the table and handed it over.

“Thanks...”

Tong Qinzhen began to wipe his face and blow his nose, “Am I really useless? When there's danger, Ran Bro would save you, but I just cry and wail...”

“If you were useful, your Ran Bro wouldn't have liked you.”

Yang Mangshu said, “That guy had issues. He liked crybabies, especially puppy-eyed crybabies. I can't cry, so he sought you out.”

Tong Qinzhen thought of his “third party” status, feeling both heartbroken and bitter.

“I thought you all were just messing around. My roommates thought so too. You guys...”

“Your roommates treat you like a son.”

Yang Mangshu said, “Do you know what it means to be treated like a son? When a son makes a mistake, it's not a mistake, it's all the fault of other sluts. What's two-timing? It's just a little kid being playful.”

“Don't... I'm the slut...”

Tong Qinzhen looked up at Yang Mangshu, his eyes swollen from crying, “You and Ran Bro are both good people...”

“Jiang Ran and I both like weaker people. That makes us feel comfortable.”

Yang Mangshu said, “We got together back then because we were too similar——I was in my first year of high school, he was in his third. We both started dating early. After meeting you in university, I...”

She paused for a moment, “He didn't want to break up, and neither did I. But this is very unfair to you.”

Tong Qinzhen was about to cry his eyes out.

He wanted to say, Ran Bro is already dead, what's the point of talking about fairness?

In a novel, Ran Bro would be the white moonlight, the cinnabar mole.

The dead can defeat everyone.

Yang Mangshu suddenly patted his head.

She wasn't actually that old, only a freshman this year too.

It was just that she exuded a senior sister vibe, which matched well with Jiang Ran's steady type.

Paired with Tong Qinzhen, they looked more like an older-sister-younger-brother romance.

“Jiang Ran and I came here on our own accord. You were implicated. His death has nothing to do with you. You have to find a way to get out, understand?”

Tong Qinzhen was still trembling a little.

Yang Mangshu had no choice but to hug him, patting his back lightly to comfort him: “It's okay, don't be afraid. It'll be okay after a hug.”

Tong Qinzhen was silent for a long time.

He smelled the burnt smell again, very clearly this time.

It was coming from Yang Mangshu.

Yang Mangshu's smooth, long hair was also very dry, the ends crusted from being scorched——she and Jiang Ran had encountered a fire, and Jiang Ran had saved her.

So even if they encountered inexplicable danger, there was actually a solution.

Jiang Ran could do it.

Tong Qinzhen... knew he couldn't compare to Ran Bro, but he wanted to be able to do it.

He also patted Yang Mangshu's back, looked up at a point in the air, and nodded, “We'll leave together, and then find a way to get someone to bring Ran Bro back too.”

After his emotions stabilized, Tong Qinzhen began to search around the room.

He found many things in a cardboard box under the iron bed, probably belonging to the resident of this unit.

Inside were various receipts and a child's crayon drawing.

The drawing looked very unsettling.

It was drawn mostly with red and yellow.

It depicted a family of three.

A small child stood in the front, with huge parents standing behind, separated by a great distance.

The parents' faces were completely colored black with a black crayon.

The strokes were messy, and the pressure applied was very heavy, almost piercing through the paper.

Turning it over, the back of the drawing read:

【I like mommy daddy.

But mommy daddy don't like me.

It hurts.

I love them.】

Yang Mangshu looked at the drawing: “This kind of situation often appears in cases of divorce disputes and custody battles.”

“Coloring the adults' faces black is a subconscious rejection, fear, or condemnation of violence or indifference. The person who drew this was under a lot of stress but couldn't express it, so they could only use this method.”

Yang Mangshu was a law student, auditing upper-year professional courses since her freshman year.

Tong Qinzhen listened dumbfounded, just nodding repeatedly.

After thinking, he asked: “So this was drawn by a child who suffered domestic violence?”

Yang Mangshu shook her head: “Not sure, I've just seen similar cases.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the door opened——not the bathroom door, but the main door.

The two were startled and turned to look at the doorway.

Tong Qinzhen jumped up like a rabbit, his whole body tense, blocking Yang Mangshu.

Cold sweat poured out of him.

The door was pushed open, then closed again, and locked from the inside.

Inside the door stood two “giants” at least two meters tall, a man and a woman.

The man wore old-fashioned army-green work clothes and twill coarse-cloth trousers; the woman wore an old round-necked sweater and elastic-waisted cotton pants——such old-fashioned, plain clothes were rarely seen in a modern city.

But that wasn't the point.

The point was, these two tall people... their entire faces were as if they had been hollowed out, completely black, not even their facial features could be seen!

To be more specific, only irregular outlines flickered in the dim yellow light.

No eyes, no nose bridge, only a bottomless blackness that was even creeping down towards their necks.

It was as if their faces weren't covered, but had been forcibly erased, leaving behind a black hole that devoured light.

They bent down, entered the room.

The light hit the edge of that black shadow, and fine cracks could still be seen, as if dry, peeling paint was constantly flaking off, and a tiny tearing sound, like spider silk, could be heard.

“You useless thing, why did you have to go tattling to the teacher about our family's affairs? Don't you know, who can manage our family's business? Stop causing trouble outside!”

The man's and woman's voices overlapped.

“We've just been too good to you, get over here! You get over here!”

Tong Qinzhen and Yang Mangshu gradually realized——this was the very image that had been colored black in the drawing.

But now, it had not only come to life, but it had also cornered them.

A shadow covered the two.

A large, rough hand had already grabbed Tong Qinzhen's arm.

He was being held tightly by Yang Mangshu, which was the only reason he wasn't dragged up.

“Chu Zu——!”

Yang Mangshu shouted the name without thinking.

She subconsciously felt that this name could represent a certain sense of security.

Blocked by the “male giant” and Tong Qinzhen, Yang Mangshu couldn't see the bathroom.

She also didn't see that the black-faced “female giant” had already entered the bathroom, and after she made the sound, had dragged a figure out, leaving a long trail of blood on the floor.

Tong Qinzhen saw clearly.

The one dragged out of the bathroom was that ferocious thug.

And Chu Zu was following leisurely behind the female giant.

He was completely ignored.

In the giants' eyes, there were only three “disobedient, needs-to-be-taught-a-lesson” children.

Tong Qinzhen's hand was about to be crushed, the pain stimulating cold sweat to pour out.

What is going on?!

What on earth is going on?!

Chu Zu lifted his eyelids.

“You were indeed deceived.”

He said to the man who had already fainted from pain, “Chu Shiju told you this room was safe. He was lying.”

“No, Chu Brother, what Chu Shiju, what lying...”

As the grip tightened, Tong Qinzhen let out a scream, “Painful painful painful painful ahhhhhhh——!”

Chu Zu: “Some rooms in this building will continuously repeat past tragedies, like this one.”

He said, “Parents domestically abused their child, leading to the child being beaten to death.”

Tong Qinzhen, Yang Mangshu, and that man were all seen as the parents' children.

But Chu Zu was not.

He remembered the five things Gentleman had said.

——Don't try to remember things you've forgotten.

What you believe is the truth.

Chu Zu had forgotten his parents.

He remembered many people, many things.

He had also deluded the girl who was slapped by her parents after the college entrance exam, and that auntie who watched the sea with him.

But he couldn't remember his parents.

He wanted to have a family.

When watching 《Death by Entertainment》, Wanshu Zu's parents had made him feel a wave of warmth in his heart.

After the warmth ended, closing his eyes on the hospital bed, Chu Zu instead recognized some things clearly.

Only when you lack something do you desire it.

If it were a family that caused him pain, he would remember.

The reverse was also true.

If he couldn't remember anything at all... Chu Zu felt that he simply had no parents.

Gentleman spoke from the corner: “Yes, this is the first truth you have recovered.”

“Chu Zu, you have no parents.”