Chapter 922: Returning to the Hotel

"It seems we have no choice but to seal off the entire mountain, but I'm not sure if we'll make it in time."

"By the way, Village Chief, regarding this killer, do you have any theories about his identity?"

The middle-aged police officer in charge asked in a deep voice.

The Village Chief looked utterly innocent, slapping his right thigh with his right hand.

"I have no idea! I really have no idea!"

"I don't have the slightest clue!"

The middle-aged officer said, "Hmm... Think along the lines of enemies, disputes over interests, entanglements of the heart—those kinds of conflicts?"

The Village Chief genuinely thought hard for quite a long while.

But in the end, he still shook his head in bewilderment.

"Even if there were grudges, how could someone hold grudges against this many people at once?"

The middle-aged officer found it strange too. Normally, when people talked about grudges, they meant personal vendettas against one person, or at most a handful of people.

Why would so many people die all at once?

Or... was the Village Chief in front of him not telling the truth? Had they collectively done something wicked in the past that provoked the killer?

So the killer slaughtered so many people as revenge?

The middle-aged officer furrowed his brows tightly, thinking to himself, "As long as we catch the killer, everything will fall into place. But if we can't, this case is going to be a nightmare."

"Especially since this village doesn't have a single surveillance camera."

This middle-aged officer had handled quite a few cases in his career, but a vicious crime of this magnitude—he'd only encountered it a handful of times.

...

Since something like this had happened in the village, the members of that small construction crew asked Gao Yang whether they should continue the road work.

Gao Yang naturally said they should.

If they didn't finish, how would they shoot videos?

For some reason, despite everything that had happened, Gao Yang was extremely excited.

So excited, in fact, that even the police officer questioning him noticed something was off, suspected he might have some hidden connection to the case, and gave him a particularly thorough interrogation.

Of course, by now they'd also gathered just about enough video footage for the day.

Zhang Xue, Gao Yang, and the others asked the police whether they were allowed to leave.

The police agreed.

So the group headed back to the village entrance.

Looking down the mountain path, they spotted their white SUV by the roadside—and beside it, Jiang Ran was crouching with a face like a bitter melon.

"Jiang Ran! What are you doing?!"

Wang Qingzhao waved at Jiang Ran from a distance.

Every wave sent her long black hair swaying with the motion, wisps of fragrance dispersing into the air, only to be dissolved by it.

As the group drew closer, Jiang Ran clutched his head in frustration.

"Don't even mention it! Didn't I come back to get water?"

"Well, I saw some kid from this village acting all sneaky around our car."

"The moment I came over, he ran off."

"So I got curious, wanted to check if something was wrong with our car—and guess what? Several of our tires had been slashed."

Gao Yang hadn't reacted much to the beginning of the story, but at the end he completely exploded. "What?! The tires were slashed?!"

He immediately forgot everything else, tossed his camera to Zhang Xue, and rushed over to inspect.

As he checked, filthy curses poured out of his mouth nonstop.

After making a full round of inspection, sure enough, several tires had been slashed.

"Damn it! Damn it all!"

"That little brat—he's freaking dead!!"

Gao Yang couldn't hold back his torrent of profanity.

The others didn't curse as colorfully as he did, but their faces were equally grim, simmering with anger.

"The adults are bad, and the kids are bad too. This village is beyond saving."

Zhao Yiwan said.

"Tell me about it."

Qin Chuan added.

"Should we go confront them?"

Gao Yang asked the others for their opinion.

Zhang Xue said, "Do you think they'd admit to it?"

Gao Yang had no choice but to swallow the bitter pill and pay for roadside assistance.

"Jiang Ran, did you know something happened in the village?"

At that moment, Wang Qingzhao asked.

Jiang Ran said, "I did see a bunch of police cars driving into the village, but I have no idea what actually happened."

Wang Qingzhao then recounted the events that had taken place in the village.

Jiang Ran put on a shocked expression. "Oh my god! How could this happen?! How did a psychopathic killer suddenly appear out of nowhere? And he didn't even spare the elderly or children?"

Gao Yang sneered. "Good riddance! It serves them right—there's not a single decent person in that village. They deserved to die."

"Damn, why didn't the killer off those villagers who swindled my money too?"

Jiang Ran said, "You could always do it yourself."

Gao Yang shot Jiang Ran a glance. "Murder is against the law. And besides, I don't have the guts to kill anyone."

The group waited impatiently for roadside assistance, some inside the car, some outside.

While waiting, they watched the constant coming and going at the village entrance.

For instance, another new police car arrived at the village gate.

When roadside assistance finally arrived, they smoothly replaced the tires on the white SUV.

With that, the vehicle was back in working order.

So the group drove away from the small mountain village.

Inside the car.

Wang Qingzhao kept staring at Jiang Ran, who was sitting right beside her.

He glanced at her, then noticed she was typing something on her phone.

After finishing, she held it up for him to see.

"Why does your outfit look different from when you went to get the water?"

Jiang Ran's left hand resting on his thigh—his index finger fiercely pinched his own left thumb.

He took the phone and typed back: "You must be misremembering."

Wang Qingzhao squinted with a smile and typed: "I suppose I must be."

Jiang Ran turned his head away, letting out a long, silent breath of relief.

...

Back at the hotel.

In his hotel room.

Jiang Ran—no, Air Jiang Ran—let out a long sigh of relief.

He walked to the center of the room.

Then closed his eyes, recalling everything from the moment he had taken over the body until now.

The things he had done. The people he had killed.

And including the final destruction of the evidence against himself—all of it. He reviewed every step for any oversight.

Only after confirming there were no loose ends did he open his eyes and say inwardly, "My task is complete. You can send me back now."

One minute later, he collapsed onto the cold floor.

Five minutes later, the main personality with kind memories—Jiang Ran—woke up.

"Huh... wasn't I supposed to go get water? Why am I back at the hotel?"

"Could it be... that the alternate personality took control of the body again?"

"That shouldn't be the case. How could I have run into danger just by fetching water?"

Jiang Ran muttered to himself. Because the alternate personality had controlled the body, his memories only went up to the point where he went to get water—everything after that was a complete blank.

And this was precisely the calculation he had made earlier when he agreed to let the alternate personality come out to clean things up.

He knew that when the alternate personality took control of the body, his memories would recede for a period of time.

Therefore, after he agreed,

when he woke up again, he wouldn't remember that he had chosen to summon the alternate personality in order to deal with the gaunt middle-aged man and his group—even though he was fully aware at the time of the alternate personality's most likely method of resolution.

And that method was killing.

But doing it this way at least meant he wouldn't have any psychological burden afterward, because he simply remembered nothing at all.

The main personality with kind memories was slowly being twisted in a way he himself had never anticipated.