Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 138 Stand up
Under the detached gaze of the messenger.

Jin Ping'an suppressed his smugness and silently began to recall the note.

He slowly closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered a bizarre tunnel.

Jin Pingan floated in the tunnel for a while, and when the tunnel disappeared, he arrived in a strange space where rooms floated everywhere.

In each room, a clip from the past is playing on a loop.

In the farthest room, you can even see the paper mill machines running.

The closer one is to Jin Ping'an's consciousness, the closer one is to the nearest point in time; conversely, the farther away one is, the longer the time has passed.

Therefore, Jin Ping'an focused his attention on the room next to him.

Soon, he spotted the tattooed man in a dimly lit room.

Jin Ping'an hurriedly floated over, immersing his consciousness in it.

…………

Is this... a 1LDK rental apartment?
Jin Pingan looked around at the room, which looked somewhat dark and dilapidated, with some corners showing signs of peeling paint and mold.

The room layout is very simple. There is a bathroom in the entryway, and the master bedroom is furnished with a single bed, a desk and chair, and a wardrobe. That is all the furniture.

The room was simple, but not clean.

The trash cans by the door were almost overflowing, filled with disposable food containers.

The pristine white bedside table was covered in unidentified yellowish-brown stains and soot.

The blankets on the bed were piled up in a ball, the room owner too lazy to fold them, and there were a few pieces of clothes left at the foot of the bed.

It's clear that the tattooed man isn't a clean person, or rather, people like him generally aren't clean.

Click, the sound of a key turning came from the entryway.

The man with the tattooed scorpion face has returned.

The vast majority of Jin Ping'an's retrospectives are silent films, with only a very small number featuring sound.

Fortunately, the retrospective space we entered this time was one of those very few.

The tattooed man, carrying a bag of beer, slowly changed into slippers and came to the bedside, pulling open the drawer under the bed.

Jin Ping'an went closer. Inside the drawer was a small bottle and a handkerchief sealed in a bag. The bottle had a white label on it that read "Sepoflurane".

This must be the tool used in the crime.

The tattooed man held the bottle to his ear and shook it, muttering, "Tsk, anesthetic can be sold in installments...what a hassle."

After shaking the bottle, the tattooed man put it back in the drawer and closed it with his foot.

He sat on the bed, opened a bottle of beer, and took out his phone to make a call.

This scene invigorated Jin Ping'an, and he quickly moved closer to the tattooed man, trying to see the number on the phone.

But the tattooed man was very quick; before the numbers could even scroll down, he had already dialed the number.

'0901743... Damn it, the rest hasn't come out yet.'

Because the phone number was not displayed, Jin Ping'an lost an important clue.

Even if you write it down, it probably won't be of much use. Even the tattooed man changes his phone number every few days, so it's even less likely that the mastermind behind it would use his own number to contact people.

"Hello? Brother Jun... Yes, I understand... Okay, I'll go buy some more medicine tonight... Yes, I'll be careful."

The call ended quickly. Apart from mentioning "Brother Jun," the tattooed man didn't reveal any information, clearly indicating it was a routine contact.

The tattooed man sat on the bed, chugging bottle after bottle of alcohol, making Jin Ping'an scratch his head in frustration.

His regression is time-limited; once the time is up, he must exit the regression. Forcing him to stay will cause great mental harm.

The worst time he was unconscious was for two whole days and two nights.

Time passed slowly, and during this time, Jin Ping'an thoroughly searched the room.

After downing three bottles of beer, the tattooed man finally got up. He drew back the curtains to let the sunlight into the room, then removed his SIM card and took out a new one from his desk.

Jin Ping'an, who could only watch and not interfere with the affairs of the room, finally had the opportunity to explore the outside world.

He rushed to the window and, like a silly goose, craned his neck to look out. But what he saw outside stunned him; across the street was another rental building.

Jin Ping'an felt as furious as if he were eating instant noodles and finding no fork in the cup, or drinking yogurt and finding no straw.

Left with no other option, he could only refocus his attention on the interior of the room, hoping to find some useful clues.

The room's structure is becoming increasingly unstable and will soon collapse.

The tattooed man had already written the note, stuffed it into his pocket, and was about to leave.

Jin Ping'an was as anxious as a grasshopper scalded by hot oil, hopping around and running about in all directions.

Each medium can only trigger a backtracking once. To return to this place, one must find another medium, which is why he is so anxious.

The room had begun to crumble from the window, and the area that Jin Pingan could explore was getting smaller and smaller. By the time the tattooed man started changing his shoes, only the small area by the door remained of the room.

As he bent down to change his shoes, the tattooed man noticed a sour smell. He frowned and looked at the trash can next to him.

The tattooed man picked up the garbage bag with a hint of disdain, and it was then that Jin Ping'an noticed the packaging on the disposable tableware.

'Beef noodle soup...'

Jin Ping'an only had time to see those few words before he was flung away by a force and returned to the void.

Before him, the last corner of the room completely collapsed.

"Beef noodle soup!"

Jin Ping'an woke up with a shout, grabbed his sketchbook and started doodling. This time, he spent a full half hour sketching.

Because he drew more than one this time.

Jin Ping'an showed the room from all angles, sometimes even giving close-ups of the desk and piles of clothes.

Especially the last trash can containing disposable tableware.

Jin Ping'an knew very well that his observation skills were terrible, and he couldn't grasp the key points at all.

This panoramic painting method was suggested by Lao Tian. Jin Ping'an only needs to recreate the scene from all angles, and the police can handle the task of finding clues.

This is the same principle as school exams. If you can't grasp the key points, then you have to memorize all the knowledge points by rote.

It's okay if you can't find it; we'll help you find it slowly by reconstructing the painting from the scene.

Even a master sketcher like Jin Ping'an would be exhausted from completing so many sketches at such a high speed and with such high quality in one go.

His hands were trembling slightly, as if he were finishing a whole set of Chinese exam papers on the last day of summer vacation.

"It is certain that the tattooed man lives in a 1LDK rental apartment, and there is a beef noodle soup restaurant nearby."

Jin Ping'an shook his aching right hand and recounted the important intelligence he had discovered.

His local background finally came in handy: "Qianhua's beef noodle soup is all handmade. Since we can get it to go, it means it's not too far from the rental apartment. Otherwise, the beef noodles would turn into a bowl of mush by the time we get home."

"Although there are many 1LDK rental apartments in Qianhua, 1LDK rental apartments with only a bathroom and no kitchen are only available in the suburbs."

"Following the clue of the beef noodle soup restaurant, we'll soon be able to locate the tattooed man!"

(End of this chapter)