Chapter 3: Clues

In this relatively closed room, Xiao Fen felt a little better. After all, he came from the scorching summer, and the clothes he wore outside were only a pair of thin trousers and a T-shirt, while the outdoor temperature here was at most eight or nine degrees.

If Xiao Fen had not been running alone in the morning since childhood and was used to exercising in thin clothes in even colder environments, he might have lost the ability to act before he ran into this room.

The windows were closed very well, which made the temperature in the house at least 2 degrees Celsius higher than outside. Although it was still in the “cold” range, it at least allowed Xiao Fen to recover slightly.

For now, the order of problems Xiao Fen had to solve first was:

Thermal insulation.

Food.

Safety at night and enough sleep.

This order gave him a trance-like feeling; he was like the protagonist in Robinson Crusoe, having arrived on a desert island. The difference was that Robinson arrived at a deserted island, while Xiao Fen arrived at a desert island amidst a sea of people.

Shaking his head slightly, Xiao Fen put aside these distracting thoughts. He decided to look at the higher floors; perhaps he could find some leftover cloth or the like up there to solve Xiao Fen’s first problem.

The stairs from the second floor to the third floor still made that terrifying creaking sound, but relatively speaking, this sound was much better than the stairs below; it was not that sound caused by dampness and rot, but just the noise caused by disrepair. However, on this staircase, Xiao Fen found some interesting things.

First were bloodstains, five very long bloodstains, extending down along the wall from the third floor, and suddenly disappearing near the place close to the second floor. At first glance, it looked like a person with blood-stained hands grabbed the wall and was dragged down like this until the position where Xiao Fen was currently standing, and stopped for some reason.

This was a bloody and strongly suggestive scene, seemingly telling Xiao Fen that the second floor was enough; continuing upward would only bring him life-threatening danger.

Xiao Fen dipped his hand in those bloodstains; they were slightly sticky, obviously not old marks from years ago, but possibly only a few days away from now. He was not Sherlock Holmes, nor could he put a blood-stained finger in his mouth to suck and draw various conclusions; he only believed that these places would always leave more clues, as long as he observed carefully.

Soon, Xiao Fen saw half a footprint on the other side of the stairs. It was not a human shoe print, but a pure footprint; the big toe and the second toe of the right foot were clearly distinguishable, as if these two toes had used the greatest strength at that time.

In other words, someone’s right foot was a supporting foot here at that time; he or they stayed here in order to move a heavy object away, thus leaving this unobtrusive trace.

Considering the temperature outside, it was hard to imagine that someone would take off their shoes and go upstairs in such cold weather, unless these shoes had other mysteries, and it could not be ruled out that someone simply did not wear shoes at all, but such people were mostly not regarded as normal Humans.

Xiao Fen looked at this footprint, let out a long breath, then suddenly raised his head and rushed up to the third floor without a care for anything else.

Compared to the second floor, the third floor appeared much more messy and disorderly. Much of the wall plaster had already peeled off, and some walls clearly bore traces of impact. It looked as if someone had engaged in a fight here for a period of time, causing a great commotion. The final result was the five blood scratch marks on the wall.

However, these impact traces had not caused destructive damage to the third floor of this house. Several separated small rooms could still be clearly distinguished.

To the left of the stairs should be the master bedroom, while the right side was partitioned into several small rooms. If he guessed correctly, these should be the children’s rooms.

At the end of the passage to the children’s rooms, the shadow of a staircase could still be seen. That was the back staircase of this house. Xiao Fen had seen a part of this staircase from below earlier, and now he saw the other part.

Due to the fighting, some windows on the third floor were already broken, so cold wind was blowing in through these gaps. The temperature here was much colder than on the second floor. However, by the same token, the brightness here was also much better. Xiao Fen lowered his head and checked the traces of the fight.

He was not some trace identification expert who could deduce exactly what happened before just by looking at the traces. What he needed to find were remnants left behind from this fight, such as certain people’s clothes.

A small leather bag was quickly found by Xiao Fen among the shattered rubble. This leather handbag, full of a classical scent, was heavier than Xiao Fen had imagined.

Although the leather bag had been opened and the contents turned into a mess, fortunately, the person who rummaged through it later had no interest in the clothes inside. This allowed Xiao Fen to finally solve his first problem.

A thick jumpsuit, a dark cotton coat, trousers of the same color and material, and two white shirts—this was the entirety of the bag’s contents.

Xiao Fen spent a few minutes stripping himself naked in the cold, then put these clothes back on. The sudden warmth produced after being wrapped in cotton fabric made Xiao Fen almost moan in comfort.

The original owner of these clothes should have had a physique similar to Xiao Fen’s, so these clothes were basically a good fit for him. After he finished wearing all the clothes and felt less cold, a casual action of checking his pockets allowed him to feel a small slip of paper in the trouser pocket.

Xiao Fen paused for a moment, reached out to take out this slip of paper, and glanced at it using the light that had already begun to dim.

“Jleft, Lright.”

“J left, L good”?

Xiao Fen shook his head slightly. This slip of paper, which looked hastily written, probably did not express this meaning, or perhaps it had another layer of meaning.

J left, L right?

Xiao Fen suddenly raised his head and looked left and right. On the left, there was only the window of the master bedroom. As for the right, his eyes jumped slightly. A small serving window made of white iron sheet came into his view.

He took a step forward, lifted the white iron window, and a nauseating fishy stench wafted from the dark, deep hole. In one corner of this small passage, a metal hinge hung quietly there.

Xiao Fen pulled this metal hinge. A clattering sound came from the top of the passage, not from below. After a while, a flat plate slowly lowered. On the flat plate, a thick hardcover book was placed squarely.

If he guessed correctly, the fight that took place here, and the leather bag rummaged into a mess at his feet, had the ultimate goal of obtaining the book on this tray.