Global Collapse-Chapter 657 - 625: Wandering Car_1

Of course, Gu Mian was only trying to scare Coach Che.

Once his value in this instance is squeezed dry, who would care where he goes in the next instance?

Seeing the panic on Coach Che's face, Gu Mian leaned back against his seat in good humor.

Seeing the smile on Gu Mian's face, Coach Che realized he had been tricked.

But so what if he tricked me? Can I actually hit him with my already clenched fists? No, Coach Che didn't dare.

He could only clench his fists tightly and cower in the corner of the backseat, already planning his next clandestine job.

As he thought about it, Coach Che suddenly felt a wave of sadness.

I probably won't be able to find another job, he worried.

My three adorable little Spirit Cars are still at the auto repair shop, crying out for attention…

Just then, Gu Mian's voice suddenly sounded from the side, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you something."

What? Coach Che looked at Gu Mian cautiously, hesitating for a moment before asking, "Good news or bad news?"

Gu Mian raised an eyebrow. "One good, one bad."

Coach Che hesitated, wondering whether to hear the good news or the bad news first.

But Gu Mian didn't give him a choice, announcing directly, "The good news is you don't have to keep working to repair your cars."

Hearing this, Coach Che looked up, stunned. Could it be that the instance had taken pity on him and repaired his cars? Could he go back to being an NPC in his special instance?

At this thought, he grew excited, a blissful expression spreading across his face.

Then, Gu Mian announced the bad news: "Because they've all been sent to the junkyard. You can continue to wander."

Coach Che's eyes rolled back, and he fainted.

Keke, sitting in the front passenger seat, felt a little guilty. So the ambulance she scavenged in the junkyard belonged to this poor NPC...

She remembered seeing a note on the windshields of those vehicles: "I've temporarily left these cars at this repair shop. I'll come back to fix them once I have the money. Please don't tow them away. —Coach Che"

But in the end, all three vehicles had ended up in the junkyard.

Just looking at those few lines, one could tell it was a tragic story.

The taxi passed through the traffic lights and slowly pulled over to the side of the road.

"Dianxin Hospital, we're here," the driver said, turning to look at the unconscious Coach Che. "Um... you've arrived. You can wake him up now."

In the end, Coach Che was dragged out of the car by Gu Mian.

When the hospital doctors saw Gu Mian, dressed in a white coat, carrying a person into the hospital, they assumed this doctor had picked up a patient who had suffered sudden cardiac death on the street.

With Keke and Bai Lu's help, Gu Mian and the others quickly found Li Shu's hospital room.

His room was at the far west end of the ninth floor, opposite the stairwell.

It was clear that the people in this city were quite healthy; there weren't many people in the hospital, and Li Shu occupied an entire room by himself.

Probably for ventilation, most of the ward doors were open.

When Gu Mian reached the doorway, he saw a young man quietly leaning against the bed in the middle of the room, head lowered as he read a book in his hands. The midday sun was intense and bright, practically engulfing the entire ward. Sunlight poured onto the book in the young man's hands, making the pages glaringly white. The young man, slightly uncomfortable, shifted his gaze from the book and then noticed the group standing at the door.

"Who are you?" The young man stroked the pages of his book, his gaze sweeping over Gu Mian's white coat. This person doesn't look like a hospital doctor, he thought. His eyes then landed on the unconscious Coach Che.

Seeing Coach Che, Li Shu seemed to understand. "From the court? A judge?"

It seemed Li Shu had been to court after the incident and had met Coach Che.

Gu Mian nodded. "Indeed, that is I."

This world sure is interesting, Gu Mian thought.

From Li Shu's reaction, it seemed it wasn't unusual for a judge to visit a victim privately.

On Earth, judges and victims rarely have private contact.

Li Shu offered them a polite smile. "The court informed me that someone might come to investigate. I will cooperate with you."

As he spoke, he closed the book in his hands and placed it on the beige bedside table. Gu Mian glanced at the cover. The title was *The Disappearing Murderer*.

The others also noticed the book's title.

Bai Lu quietly approached Gu Mian and lowered her voice, "Although I haven't read this book, it looks like a guide on how to help a murderer get away with their crime. He couldn't really be the actual culprit, could he?"

Bai Lu had previously hypothesized that Li Shu might be the actual culprit.

Now that they had come and found him reading something called *The Disappearing Murderer*, it was highly suspicious. But if he really were the murderer, would he be so blatant as to leave the book out in front of a judge?

Noticing Bai Lu's scrutinizing gaze, Li Shu pushed the book slightly in their direction. "It's just quite boring here, so I found a book to read."

His expression was so frank that Bai Lu became unsure of her suspicions.

Gu Mian glanced at the book Li Shu had pushed towards them, then looked away. He then casually tossed the unconscious Coach Che onto the vacant bed nearby.

Because it was a casual toss, Coach Che let out an unconscious groan when he hit the bed.

Li Shu looked curiously at the man in the suit lying on the adjacent bed. "What's wrong with him?"

"Motion sickness." Gu Mian didn't want to explain, so he simply made up a concise excuse.

But this excuse was far from convincing. Even Bai Lu, standing to the side, had an expression of disbelief. This was the first time she'd ever seen someone pass out from motion sickness.

Gu Mian had no intention of discussing Coach Che further. He plopped down on Li Shu's bed and began to introduce himself.

"Hello, I'm the top-performing judge in our court. I've presided over at least eighty, if not a hundred, miscarriages of justice. If your case is in my hands, you can rest assured…"

Xie Bi'an, standing to the side, let out a soft chuckle. Li Shu, on the bed, subconsciously glanced at this person who was completely covered up.

Bai Lu stiffly turned her neck. She was terrified this doctor would blurt out, 'You just wash your neck and wait for prison!'

Fortunately, Gu Mian stopped himself in time and didn't say what Bai Lu feared.

These three people—no, these four—are definitely not normal, Bai Lu thought, lumping Chu Changge in with Gu Mian's group.

Investigating a case with such a group, she felt like she wouldn't live much longer.

Li Shu's expression also grew somewhat stiff.

He shifted back slightly, trying to put some distance between himself and this judge who looked like a doctor. Once he felt the distance was safe, he looked at the others, his eyes full of questions, seemingly starting to doubt the authenticity of Gu Mian's identity.

Bai Lu quickly coughed a few times to cover for him, "He really is the most brilliant judge in our court, a genius. Haha, geniuses are always a bit... unconventional. Yes, unconventional..."

As she said this, her smile was extremely stiff, almost failing to hold.

Li Shu hesitated, then nodded, appearing to tentatively accept Bai Lu's explanation. "So that's how it is."

After introducing himself, Gu Mian, still sitting on the bed, conscientiously began his investigation. He remembered he was here to find the truth.

"I came to ask you a few questions," Gu Mian said, recalling the contents of the case file. "I've read the case report. Yuan Haotian rushed into your home and killed your two roommates. What was your relationship with Yuan Haotian? Was there any animosity between you? Why did he kill your two roommates but not you, allowing you the chance to escape and call for help?"

Li Shu lowered his head slightly.

Gu Mian's questioning is a bit insensitive, Bai Lu thought. It's cruel to directly pick at someone's wounds like that. But there's no helping it; they're just players whose lives could end at any moment. They don't have the time or inclination to offer psychological counseling to victims.

"Us and Yuan Haotian…" Li Shu answered softly, his head still lowered. "We'd met several times. A friend of mine worked in the same office as him. We first met him at a dinner party hosted by that friend. The impression Yuan Haotian gave… um, he was very reticent…"

He spoke slowly, as if searching his memories for his few encounters with Yuan Haotian. "He didn't talk much, mostly remaining silent, as if he'd suffered some kind of blow. Later, that friend told us he had recently lost his parents and younger sister in a fire."

As Li Shu said this, Xie Bi'an's black hood twitched, as if he had turned his head.

"At that time, all his relatives had died, leaving him all alone. Our friend told us that his temper had worsened since losing his family, and advised us not to provoke him."

"Of course, we wouldn't go out of our way to provoke him. But things in the world are often coincidental. Later, during the Qingming Festival, that friend's company organized a trip. It was a very affordable price for an out-of-province tour. Some people in their company didn't want to go, so they sold their spots. The three of us happened to be bored during the holiday, so we bought three spots from his colleagues."

"You can guess what happened next. We met Yuan Haotian again. That trip was to climb Wei Mountain, but for some reason, Yuan Haotian and Cao Deren started arguing during the climb…"

Cao Deren is one of the victims in this case, and the other is named Zhang Shengli, Gu Mian noted mentally.

"To this day, I still don't know what they were arguing about back then, but it was just a minor disagreement. Because Yuan Haotian's mental state wasn't quite right at the time, my friend quickly tried to smooth things over and wanted Cao Deren to apologize. But Cao Deren was stubborn too and refused to apologize, so the matter ended inconclusively."

"But I don't know if it was because of that argument, but Yuan Haotian seemed to start fixating on us. After we returned from Wei Mountain, we often ran into him."

"Sometimes, on the way to work, if we suddenly turned around at a certain moment, we'd see him following closely behind."

"Sometimes, when we ordered takeout, upon opening the door to get our food, we'd see a figure flash past in the hallway. It looked a bit like him."

"The most outrageous time was when we were using the toilet. The apartment we lived in was a mid-unit, so the toilet shared a wall with the outside corridor. For ventilation, there was a window installed on the toilet wall, more than two meters high. It could only be opened a crack about two fingers wide. Once, when Zhang Shengli was using the toilet and looked up, he saw Yuan Haotian on the other side of that two-finger gap, eyes wide, staring at him."

Hearing this, Bai Lu shivered.

Keke, very fittingly, shrank closer to Gu Mian.