Returning from the abyss

Chapter 251 Before Sunset
The RV was driving on a fairly flat dirt road.

"I didn't expect that we would actually enter the same scene."

"The distribution of personnel in the distribution center will not be strictly in accordance with the time sequence." Fujii Xueyin did not look at Lu Ning, but lowered her head and held a notepad to think about something carefully.Lu Ning didn't care, and continued to chat casually.

"You have something to do this morning, don't you? So do you have any clue about the current situation?"

"Have."

"There are many strange things hidden in the town that people take for granted. I think the key points of your investigation are here. However, there is still no specific information on what the devils are, and their relationship with the witches is also unknown. Still not clear." Lu Ning said, "Now we don't even have a clear concept of the hunting target."

"Really?" Fujii Xueyin finally raised her head, "Lu Ning, do you think so?"

"If you talk about the secrets you know personally, I won't say too much." The corners of Lu Ning's lips curled up slightly, "Just like you."

"You are definitely not an ordinary doctor." Fujii Xueyin leaned back on the seat, her eyes squinted, "This evaluation is applicable to any tourist. There is no coincidence, everyone has a certain purpose 'Come to this town, and this purpose is included as a secret among the tasks we have to complete."

"I'm equally sure of that."

"So, this is not a hunting-based scene, the secret is the dominant, and there may even be an element of confrontation hidden in it. I almost smell the smell of murder."

"Detective instinct?"

"You may think so."

After two o'clock in the afternoon, everyone arrived at Baisha Lake.

Of course, the name came from the rare white sandy beach surrounding the lake. Lu Ning parked the car near the beach and got down to grab a handful of sand.These sand grains are extremely fine, and there are no rough particles in them. Even if you hold it in your hand, the sand will still flow slowly along the fingers.

"What?" Fujii Xueyin then got out of the car and asked when she saw Lu Ning standing on the beach.

"It can hardly be called sand anymore, it's closer to soil." Lu Ning shook off the white sand in her hand and clapped her hands, "This lake alone is very weird."

And in the backyard of the lakeside hut, Carl has already set up a grill, Feng Hui and Peng Morong are breaking down the meat they bought from the town in the early morning into small pieces suitable for barbecue, Sally, Luo Nan and Qiu Yiyun When arranging decorations, tableware and other objects in the dining room and living room, Yiluo and Robert hung bells near the doors and windows, and kept checking the angles. Things are unloaded from the car.

"Are you really here for an outing?" Lu Ning could only shake her head when she saw the appearance of preparing for a barbecue party inside.

"Anyway, it's going to be a night. It's a night when you're nervous, and it's a night when you're relaxed and happy." Zhu You grinned, "Don't worry, everyone's weapons are always with you."

"Welcome! The last member has arrived!" Sally was also very happy to see Lu Ning and the others, "How about I take you to see the hot spring?"

"I don't think it's necessary to pursue enjoyment in this environment..."

Before Fujii Yukine finished speaking, she was interrupted by Sugiyama Riso and Inawara Ayano, who happily followed Sally to the other corner of the room, and they didn't seem worried at all.

"right here!"

Sally proudly opened a sliding door. The heat inside suddenly made Lu Ning's vision a little blurred, but after getting used to it, she could see the situation inside clearly.

This is an indoor hot spring, or the builder of the villa built a house and enclosed a hot spring in the house.The room is very large, with a curtain separating the two sides, and there is a door on each side. Behind the door is the men's and women's changing rooms. The temperature of the hot spring water is a bit high, and the slight sulfur smell diffuses with the water vapor. Sometimes it has to be opened. The windows are ventilated to dissipate the heat inside.

Sugiyama and Inawara were visibly delighted to see this.

"I suggest that we soak for a while before the barbecue at night. Anyway, it won't waste any time. It may be safer during the day!" Sally suggested excitedly.

"I object." Fujii Xueyin glanced at the surroundings, "The environment here is too closed. Once we lose the most basic means of defense, we won't even have any countermeasures when we encounter danger."

"Miss Detective, cleaning is an essential thing for girls~" Sally raised her eyebrows and smiled.

"If you persuade everyone to use the hot springs like this, I will suspect that you have some schemes. In addition, cleaning such things is completely unnecessary for me, even if these fourteen days are not at all..."

"Miss Fujii! Please don't say such horrible words!" Inawara Ayano hurriedly stopped Fujii Yukine's words.

"I'll come back later, you can continue the debate." Lu Ning made an excuse to leave the bath while laughing, and came out to familiarize herself with the environment in the entire villa.

The lake house clearly doesn't fit the definition of "small".It is an "F" shaped structure as a whole. Although there is only one floor, there is a basement at the side yard.After entering through the door, you can see people preparing for barbecue in the front yard through the corridor. At the end of the first right-turn intersection is the restaurant, and on the north side of the corridor leading to the restaurant is a row of four smaller rooms. In the big room, there are living room, auxiliary bedroom, master bedroom and study in order, followed by a small bathroom.There are three large floor-to-ceiling windows on the south side of this corridor, and a door is opened in the middle of the front two, which is convenient for people in the front yard to return to the room.

And if you don’t make a turn, the end of this corridor is the back door. On the left hand side is a row of guest rooms. The middle of the four rooms is separated by a laundry room. One of the two doors of the laundry room connects the corridor, and the other leads to the side. There is also a toilet here, but it must be accessed from the laundry room.

The corridor leading to the hot spring is slightly opposite to the corridor in the front yard. There are three larger guest rooms on the south side, a door leading to the backyard through the bathroom, and three sets of floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side. The courtyard wall, the dense forest behind the house can be seen from above the wall.

In addition to the main building part, there is a storage room in the backyard for essential items such as food and fuel.There is also a tool room in the side yard, which is full of maintenance tools and carpenter's tools. The basement goes down from there. At present, there are only sundries such as wood and iron sheets piled up, and there is nothing special about it.

After shopping around, Lu Ning returned to the front yard.By this time Carl had roasted some meat for lunch, and everyone here was clearly happy.

Lu Ning took a simple hamburger made of barbecue, lettuce and bread from Carl, and was slightly surprised: "I didn't expect you to have this kind of craftsmanship."

"You don't doubt that a cowboy can't grill, do you?" Carl raised his hat triumphantly and continued to look after the grill.Lu Ning walked around the spacious front yard, and found that there was actually a small swimming pool in the corner of the yard.

"The owner here really enjoys it, right?" Robert walked over, "In this day and age, it takes a lot of effort to take care of a swimming pool in this place, but..."

The water in the swimming pool was already muddy, and the cleaning task here obviously did not include this, and the people who came here to clean it did not clean it, but even so, it was easy for Lu Ning to see the strangeness.

"Just muddy."

"That's right, there is no moss growing, and there are no disgusting aquatic organisms. The water here is even so clean that it will become clear after a period of time." Robert walked to the corner of the swimming pool and picked up a glass bottle, which contained the water that had been separated and cleared. Muddy two layers of water.

"But we already knew something was wrong here."

Lu Ning reached out and swiped twice in the swimming pool, stirring up a small vortex. The turbidity in the water soon spread to the surroundings along with the vortex. Overall, it seemed to be stagnant in the water.

"Then why doesn't sedimentation occur in this pool?"

At this moment, there was a burst of laughter from the direction of the hot spring in a backyard. It was probably Sally who persuaded more people, and it sounded very lively there now.

But Fujii Xueyin quickly walked out from the door from the dining room to the yard, obviously not getting involved with them, and judging by the time, she probably also went around the whole house.

"Fujii, you can try Karl's barbecue, it tastes pretty good." Kiyotaro Asayama tried to persuade her.

"No, I have to do some preparations, and I've already eaten." Fujii glanced at the people in the front yard, "Have you people who came here in advance decided on the room to live in?"

"There are not enough beds here, but every room is carpeted, so I don't care if I want to use the floor." Carl tapped the room inside the glass window with his thumb, "Robert and I sleep in the living room, so we can be more vigilant. As for You should probably ask which one someone else has chosen.”

"Tachikawa and I live in the small guest room closest to the entrance." Asayama Kiyotaro followed up.

"No." Fujii Xueyin said immediately.

"What's the matter?" Xue Fengchun looked at her impatiently, "Don't even talk about breaking up and reorganizing."

"There must be at least three people in each room."

After hearing this, Carl gave an "oh" with great interest.

"Tch, I thought you could have some good idea, just this kind of preventive measures that everyone knows?" Xue Fengchun snorted coldly, "Don't think about it, the four of us must be together."

"It's not just you, everyone, you must ensure at least the same room combination as last night." Fujii Xueyin directly reported the number of people in the room yesterday, "Four people from Qu Siyuan, one from Asayama, one from Lichuan, me and Shanshan and Daoyuan, Sally, Luo Nan, Yu Guiting, Feng Hui, Peng Morong, Carl, Robert, Lu Ning, Yi Luo, Professor Shen and Ye Chuqing, Zhu You One person, Qiu Yiyun alone." She pointed to Xia Xinhe and his wife who had been silent in the corner, "Except for the two of them, none of us were in the same room last night, and we still have to be like this today."

"I understand your worry, but even if sleeping excludes the state of being alone, it will always happen at other times, right?"

"When I say this, everyone will be vigilant. I just minimized the danger. Mr. Carl should also agree with this approach, right?"

Carl smiled: "Of course I don't mind. It is necessary to increase the safety factor. In this case, Asayama and Tachikawa, how about you move to our living room?"

"of course can."

"I have no objection."

Only then did Fujii Xueyin leave the front yard in satisfaction.

"Hmph, what kind of airs are you putting on!" Xue Fengchun couldn't help spitting, "As a detective, she started pointing fingers and looking at each of us suspiciously! Who does she think she is?"

"Okay, okay, second brother, I'm also thinking about safety." Pan Haishu persuaded.

Soon, the girls who had soaked in the hot spring over there talked and laughed and returned to the front yard, continuing to help tidy up the house.Both the bed and the floor need to be re-laid. After the grills were adjusted outside, people quickly returned to the house to help. At this time, Sally and Ronan also replaced the candlesticks in the dining room with brand new candles. , everyone brought flashlights, so lighting shouldn't be much of an issue.

When Lu Ning and Zhu You were setting up a guest room in the hot spring corridor together, they accidentally glanced out of the window.

"It's... a wall outside?"

She walked to the window, and found that the window was indeed facing a wall, and the lighting here was not very good, but when she poked her head out, she happened to be able to see another window diagonally opposite, through which she could see the shallow mountain that was laying the floor in the living room Kiyotaro and Ryo Tachikawa.

"Mr. Asayama." She greeted.

"Oh, Doctor Lu, I didn't expect there to be a gap between the two rooms." Hearing the voice, Kiyotaro Asayama also walked to the window.

Lu Ning looked up again, and there was a narrow "alley" between the two rows of dormitory rooms, which was barely wide enough for two people to pass side by side. The room seemed much gloomy.

"This design is really bad." Lu Ning complained, "I looked out from the window, hoping to see the courtyard or the scenery outside."

"Dr. Lu hasn't lived in an apartment, has he?" Asayama Kiyotaro smiled.

"No, what?"

"In densely populated areas, that's often the case for individual rooms in some apartments."

"But the houses here obviously have nothing to do with the density."

After all, everyone knew that they were always going to stay here for one night, or at most one night.

As the work came to an end, the sun began to slant westward, and countless birds flitted across the sky, making a sound of flapping wings.Carl lit the fire in the grill, rekindling the light in the soon-to-be-darkened lake cabin.

"It's seven o'clock."

Shen Lishu kept an eye on the time with his pocket watch, and everyone watched the sun sink into the forest and the lake with the afterglow, and the relaxed expressions on everyone's faces softened.

The most difficult night is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)