American homeless people, surviving in the city

Lin Qi had barely seen the corpse's appearance when, less than two seconds later, Kayla urged him again:

"Alright, done looking? Now get out of here, don't linger." Her tone was impatient. "I really don't know what's so interesting about a corpse?"

Lin Qi obediently moved his feet toward the car, but on the way back, he kept thinking about one thing.

The deceased was not the security guard he had seen yesterday?

Perhaps it's because this sentry post operates on a night shift? If so, this clue might help narrow down the possible time of death—he must have died after the shift change.

Lynch told Kayla about his discovery, but Kayla just nodded casually and said perfunctorily:

"Hmm, you have a point. I'll talk to the forensic doctor and the investigator in charge of this case. You can go and get to work without worry."

Having said all he could say, Lin Qi could do nothing more. He could only sigh, get back into the car, turn around, and drive towards another road that led into the lakeside area.

The lakeside area isn't very large, so even if you take a detour, it won't take too long.

Not long after, Lin Qi drove into the lakeside area again. Looking towards the roadside, he could see the villa standing in the woods not far away, appearing and disappearing in the distance.

With a turn, the dilapidated car drove onto the gravel path in front of the villa, the wheels making a low, hoarse "squeak" sound as they rolled over it.

Lynch parked the car in the same spot he had parked in yesterday, then got out with a backpack full of cleaning tools on his back.

The villa in front of me was eerily quiet.

But as he glanced around the area in front of the villa, the surrounding scenery seemed no different; it appeared that no one had been there overnight.

Lynch hoped so, so it might be a good thing that the villa remained quiet.

He strode forward, pushed open the door, waited a moment to make sure that the [Rat Sense] did not report any danger, and then stepped inside.

After yesterday's cleaning, the smell of blood in the villa was much fainter than before, but because some large pieces of furniture had not yet been removed, a faint strange smell still lingered in the air.

But instead of immediately cleaning the blood-stained sofas and carpets as planned, Lin Qi took off his backpack, removed all the cleaning tools, and then walked deeper into the villa with the empty backpack on his back.

His target was the secret room behind the hidden door in the corridor.

Although Kayla had just been pretending to urge Lynch to finish his work quickly, the fact that she hadn't given a specific timeframe for the cleaning task meant that she didn't actually care how long it would take Lynch to finish.

Lin Qi himself wasn't in a rush. He still had the boxing match he'd been waiting for three days tonight, and he wanted to conserve his energy today.

Therefore, let's focus on investigating the various traces left in the villa today, searching for clues, and handing them over to Chen Kelei as soon as possible; as for the cleaning work, we can deal with that after the boxing match.

Soon, Lin Qi arrived at the dimly lit corridor without any lights, pushed aside the oil painting, and pressed the button hidden behind it.

Accompanied by the sound of mechanical friction, the hidden door slowly opened.

Even seeing this scene for the second time, Lynch still found it somewhat unbelievable.

Who would have thought that beneath such a luxurious mansion lay a secret room filled with sin?

Even in a typical horror movie, such a locked room should appear in the basement of a cabin in the suburbs, not in the most luxurious upscale neighborhood of the city.

However, no matter how unbelievable it was to Lynch, the reality was right in front of him.

Walking down the stairs to the end, the candlelight still flickered behind the secret room door.

Everything in the secret room remained exactly as Lynch had left it yesterday: the charred desk was piled in the corner, and the statue's smile looked increasingly sinister in the pool.

Without any hesitation, Lin Qi first took down the cult robe hanging on the wall, carefully folded it, and stuffed it into the bottom of his backpack.

Then came the photos scattered on another desk.

Lynch tidied them up, neatly stacked them together, and stuffed them into the small pocket on the side of his backpack.

While sorting through the photos, he also took the opportunity to look at them all and confirmed that there were no photos of himself or any familiar faces among them.

This is at least some good news.

Finally, there was a whole bookshelf full of books.

With so many books, he naturally couldn't possibly read them all carefully. So he simply swept all the handwritten copies and related books into his backpack, filling it to the brim.

After doing all this and confirming that everything that could be taken from the room had been taken, Lin Qi took a deep breath, walked out of the secret room, returned to the surface, and put everything in his backpack into the trunk of the wrecked car.

Taking away all the clues that can be found in the secret room is the first step of today's mission.

The second task was to examine the bloodstains in the villa.

This task is more difficult than the first one, mainly because Lynch had already done a lot of cleaning yesterday, removing a lot of bloodstains.

The bloodstains were mostly found on the large pieces of furniture; apart from that, there were only a few inconspicuous bloodstains scattered throughout the corridor.

Fortunately, Chen Kelei had given him clear instructions, telling him that he only needed to find out where the bloodstains came from.

Therefore, all that is needed is to photograph the bloodstains leading to the living room that can be found, and then give the photos to Chen Kelei for analysis.

Although the task was somewhat troublesome and required a great deal of Lynch's eyesight, he was still able to complete it.

It took Lynch several hours to thoroughly inspect the entire villa.

Apart from the bloodstain that extended from the corridor, there was no other bloodstain anywhere else.

The trail of blood in the corridor, just as Lin Qi had noticed when he discovered the secret room, ended in front of the secret door!

So Lin Qi opened the hidden door again and began to examine the stairs behind it and the floor of the secret room.

Sure enough, at the entrance to the secret room, Lin Qi found the true source of the bloodstains: the very first drop of blood.

...The bloodstains started appearing in the secret room, which may indicate that the struggle between the villa owner and the visitors began in this secret room.

This certainly doesn't seem like a home invasion robbery and murder; it's more like an internal conflict...

The homeowner was indeed a member of the cult, but for some reason, he was brutally murdered and even became part of some kind of "ritual".

Lin Qi took pictures of all the bloodstains he saw and sent all the photos to Chen Kelei.

He has done all he could. The only way to move forward with the case is through the real police officers.

After completing the two tasks, the sun was already high in the sky.

Inspecting the entire villa took far too long.

But precisely because of this, Lin Qi had a general understanding of the overall layout of the villa and what things were noteworthy in each room.

For example, there were some things in the study on the second floor that were quite eye-catching at first glance, but he was focused on investigating the bloodstains and therefore did not pay attention to them.

If he wanted to conduct a more in-depth investigation, he wouldn't waste any more time.

Seeing that it was already afternoon, Lin Qi quickly ate something to fill his stomach and immediately began his third task.

Look for any hidden cameras that may be present in the room.