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Ch5 - Three People Become Ghosts
Inside the bus, several suspicious gazes mixed with scrutiny focused on Liu Rongrui’s body, sharply stabbing at his soul. Liu Rongrui’s face was pale but his cheeks red as he forced out a smile. “Wait a minute, why did it suddenly come around to me?”
Jiang Fang put down the completely malfunctioning dashcam in his hand. “It is because you are very contradictory.”
“Where am I contradictory?!”
Jiang Fang immediately asked, “You don’t want to live?”
Liu Rongrui was forced to speak faster due to Jiang Fang’s suddenly accelerated speech rhythm. “Bullshit!”
“Aren’t you afraid of death?”
“Fuck you—”
“Don’t you care about who the ghost is?”
“I care!”
“Do you already know who the ghosts are among us?”
“Nonsense, I don’t know! What are you asking—”
“Don’t you care about what was recorded on here?”
“I care! However, you said that it didn’t record anything!”
As Liu Rongrui was tense and waiting for Jiang Fang’s next question, the bus was unexpectedly quiet. Jiang Fang didn’t ask anything else. He smiled while pointing in Liu Rongrui’s direction. “This is why I said that Mr Liu is really contradictory.”
It took some time for Liu Rongrui to understand what Jiang Fang wanted to express. Then he realized and started sweating. He was induced by this person. He firmly controlled his mood swings and kept his thoughts to a minimum. There were naturally no loopholes in his words.
As a ‘person’, he should be afraid of death, he should care about who the ghost was and he should immediately gather together when a reliable clue was grasped. The paradox was that he, who should’ve been extremely nervous, was sitting in his seat without moving. The others had all left their seats and moved closer to take a look at the dashcam.
Once a lie was at risk of being debunked, many people actually chose to avoid it at first instead of witnessing it with their own eyes. Liu Rongrui felt like thousands of thorns were stabbing his thighs, making Liu Rongrui unable to sit still. He gritted his teeth and stood up, retorting, “Who knows if this dashcam is good or bad? I just didn’t want to feel happy in vain. Besides, everyone has different personalities. I don’t like to squeeze forward. What’s wrong with that?”
“…Ah.” Jiang Fang seemed to be persuaded by him. “Is that so?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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“Aren’t you the only one saying it?” Liu Rongrui was extremely disdainful. “Apart from you, who else saw it?”
“Do you have any evidence?”
He was absolutely confident. It didn’t matter if Jiang Fang really was watching him at that time. Everyone’s attention should’ve been drawn by the dashcam. It was impossible for anyone else to notice him. Wanting to show off the micro-expression knowledge learned from American TV dramas? As long as there was no conclusive evidence then—
Jiang Fang lowered his head like he could do nothing.
Liu Rongrui only had time to rejoice for half a second. It was because Jiang Fang soon raised his scorpion braid and placed a hand on his own shoulder.
…It was only then that everyone discovered he used his choker to hold a mobile phone around his neck. Most of the phone was hidden under his thin white sweater while the other half was covered by his hair. Only the black hole of the camera was faintly exposed.
Jiang Fang lowered his head, held the phone with one hand and opened the silver buckle of the choker on the other side of his neck with the other. Once the choker was released, Nan Zhou standing next to him noticed that there seemed to be a strange pattern on the skin under the choker. Before he could see clearly, Jiang Fang used his fingers to tighten the loose buckle again.
This was Li Yinhang’s mobile phone. Jiang Fang had previously borrowed it from her. There might be no signal but the basic functions were still available. He paused and saved the recording that was still in progress. Then he turned the screen over and showed it to Liu Rongrui.
In the video, Jiang Fang intentionally got up from his seat and walked all the way to the front of the carriage. He chose a relatively high position. The lens shook slightly but the wide-angle lens was enough to film the expression changes of everyone behind him.
Jiang Fang faced the front of the bus, his back to the crowd as he pointed upwards and said gently, “That thing seems to be a dashcam.”
The camera recorded everyone’s expressions of shock, excitement and sudden realization. Among them, only Liu Rongrui showed a hideous expression when Jiang Fang said, “A dashcam shouldn’t be affected by the signal jammer.”
Jiang Fang handed the phone back to Li Yinhang who was on one side and listening silently. Then he took a step toward the pale-faced Liu Rongrui.
“I have a few more questions. Mr Liu, you can choose to answer them or not.”
“You said you came up with two volunteers, one old and one young.”
“This was information given by Miss Li Yinhang when she gave her testimony.”
“Then please tell me, what are the genders of these two volunteer?”
“You also said you were hungry for a long time and eventually got onto this bus for food.”
“So why did you only play with your phone after getting on the bus. Why not ask the others for something to eat?”
Liu Rongrui tried his best but he could only squeeze his vocal cords and make a gnat-like sound. “I… didn’t want to disturb anyone. In any case, I could get food when arriving at the cocoon room. So I played with my mobile phone as a distraction…”
“Then unlock it.”
Jiang Fang once again took a step toward him, dealing a fatal blow to his psychological defense. “Unlock the phone in your hand with the password.”
Under the leadership of Jiang Fang, everyone slowly approached the truth. They might not be able to keep up with Jiang Fang’s thinking but they held their breaths and waited for the analysis.
Liu Rongrui’s heart was in his threat and thumped wildly. It was as if he was strangled as he opened his mouth in a trembling manner. “You… what do you mean?”
“I’m sorry, I should’ve been more straightforward.” Jiang Fang continued. “I mean, this mobile phone doesn’t belong to you at all, right?”
Before everyone could react, Nan Zhou had already realized. “Ah—”
His face and voice favored a cool and dignified air. Thus, when he extended the sound and let out a long sigh… there was a type of contrast… cuteness.
Jiang Fang looked back at Nan Zhou. When he spoke again, his tone seemed subtly happy due to the sigh.
“You were the one to search for items with Mr Zhao.”
“You didn’t bring anything except your mobile phone.”
“Of course, some people only brought their phones. This alone doesn’t prove anything.”
“However, you said you came outside searching for food.”
“Since you aren’t a prophet and couldn’t know you would be picked up by a passing rescue vehicle, why didn’t you bring a backpack to store the food when going out?”
“Later, I thought it was strange that you first offered to help Mr Zhao search the bus.”
“Moreover, you seemed to have no resistance to searching the back of the bus.”
As he talked, the huge colorful mushroom in the back of the bus swayed like it was showing its presence. The characteristics of a human being could no longer be seen. It was both beautiful and terrifying. For normal people, it was difficult to imagine who would actively choose to approach it.
“To sum up the above, my guess is…” Jiang Fang declared, “You actually didn’t bring anything at all. To prevent yourself from being too eye-catching and having to tell too many lies, you needed an item to blend in with everyone.”
“So while you were searching, you secretly took the phone off the dead man in the back.”
Jiang Fang took a step closer.
“Of course, it is easy for Mr Liu to clear up this suspicion.”
“Unlock the phone in your hand and let everyone see it.”
In the midst of the murmured discussions around him, Liu Rongrui shook his head. He tightly held the phone he had used as a prop that had always been in a black screen state and thought in a trance, ‘He actually suspected me long ago.’
He always felt he was hiding well. He thought—
Countless thoughts stirred in his mind like boiling magma. Liu Rongrui screamed in a panic. Then he suddenly raised his foot and kicked Jiang Fang’s chest.
Jiang Fang’s beautiful eyes moved slightly. He moved his right foot in a standard dodging style and dodged backwards. However, the moment he completely dodged, he moved a bit differently. His left foot kicked the ground in a panic and his entire body suddenly lost its balance. He fell straight back.
Nan Zhou was standing behind him and watched as a 1.9 meters tall man fell toward him.
Nan Zhou who was dumbfounded and instinctively took a small step to the side, “……”
If this person fell in such a narrow place, he might be injured. After a brief moment of hesitation, Nan Zhou grabbed the man by the waist before he fell to the ground. The waist muscles pressing against his palm were thin and tight. Nan Zhou was sure that his fingers touched back dimples. He was genuine and unreserved.
As the others reacted and forced Liu Rongrui to the back of the bus, Nan Zhou supported Jiang Fang by the waist and helped him up. Jiang Fang sighed with relief and smiled softly at Nan Zhou. “Sorry, I didn’t stand firmly.”
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Jiang Fang: Ah, I’m so weak.jpg