Chapter 350: Identical Handwriting

The girl wore casual clothes and looked much more haggard. It was as if she held a thousand unspoken grievances in her heart. After pulling me into her room, she sat alone on the edge of the bed.

Ever since I accepted her commission, I hadn't actively sought her out. In her eyes, I had probably already given up on her request.

I could understand the feeling. She had bet all her hopes on this, only to receive nothing in return.

I sat beside her. The light pink bedsheets were neatly smoothed out, and a faint, girlish scent lingered on the soft mattress.

I shifted over to where Xia Qingzhi sat, stopping only when our shoulders brushed. I turned to look at her.

She was 1.65 meters tall, yet much thinner than I had imagined. Her shoulders trembled instinctively at the close presence of the opposite sex. She wanted to pull away but felt she had no reason to, leaving her caught in an indescribable contradiction.

"Actually, I had been planning to come see you," I said. I stared at Xia Qingzhi's pale face. Aside from me, she was the only person who knew about the existence of the Underworld Live Show. She could even be called my guide; without her, I never would have become an Underworld Live Show Streamer. I'd probably still be nothing more than an Adult Shop owner, idling my life away.

Xia Qingzhi's shoulders trembled harder as she tried her best to maintain her composure.

"I read your diary. You should know that I go out late at night every so often, right?" I sighed. "You've seen me in a wretched state. You've seen me so exhausted I'm about to collapse. You've seen me covered in wounds, my clothes soaked red with blood. Beneath my feet is mud mixed with flesh and gore, and behind me are ferocious, bizarre spirits. Sometimes, I can't even trust my own shadow. I can only look up at the crescent moon and feel the bone-deep pain to assure myself that I'm still alive."

"I have no choice but to struggle for my life. Your brother went missing, but there are still people who remember him. If one day I vanish, there won't be a single trace of me left in this world."

I was surprised at myself for saying these things to her. Perhaps keeping the secrets of the Underworld Live Show inside had weighed on me for too long, and I just wanted someone to confide in.

The girl seemed to understand something. The room fell into a sudden silence. A minute or so passed before her shoulders finally stopped trembling. She leaned steadily against me, and I could faintly hear heavily suppressed sobbing.

"I saw your wanted poster on the news that day, and it terrified me," she whispered. "There was thunder and lightning outside, and police cars everywhere..."

From her words, I could hear her worry and fear, and I fully understood how she felt.

I had people I could trust by my side—Blind Liu, Er Gou, Tie Ningxiang, and others. But for her, the only person who believed her was me.

"It's fine, all of that is in the past now. After a month of investigating, I've made some new progress regarding your brother." I glanced back at the bedroom door. Guessing that her parents were probably eavesdropping right outside, I gestured for her to stay quiet. I grabbed a pen and paper from the desk and wrote: "Your brother shouldn't be dead. I found a piece of information about him in a very special place."

I dug the piece of joss paper out of my breast pocket. I didn't let Xia Qingzhi touch it, afraid she might be tainted by something unclean. "Look at the sentence on the back. Can you recognize whose handwriting this is?"

"Save me Xia Chi save me."

The words on the back of the joss paper didn't have a single punctuation mark between them. Depending on where you paused, the sentence could take on entirely different meanings.

This sentence could have been written by Xia Chi to someone else, or by someone else to Xia Chi. But no matter how it was interpreted, it proved one thing at the very least—this joss paper was related to Xia Chi.

Xia Qingzhi stared at the crooked, jagged words on the joss paper, which looked as though they had been written with closed eyes. A long moment passed before she finally looked up. Her expression was bizarre, making me a little nervous. "You recognize the handwriting? Quick, tell me, who wrote this!"

Xia Qingzhi took the pen from my hand and started writing something in a textbook with her left hand.

I leaned in closer to look. I thought she was going to write down a specific person's name, but to my surprise, she wrote out the exact phrase from the joss paper all over again.

"Save me Xia Chi save me."

The exact same words. The exact same handwriting!

"You wrote this?!" I couldn't believe it. The handwriting on the joss paper and Xia Qingzhi's own handwriting were a perfect match.

It was messy but carried a hint of elegance, quickly dashed off in a short amount of time with her left hand.

The pen fell to the floor. Without hesitation, I pulled away from Xia Qingzhi and retreated to the other side of the room, watching her warily.

It wasn't that I was being overly cautious. Anyone with ties to the Underworld Live Show could not be underestimated. This mysterious organization was simply too terrifying.

"Listen to me..." Xia Qingzhi jumped in fright at my reaction. She rubbed her red, swollen eyes. "This handwriting is identical to how I write with my left hand, but I've never written this on joss paper before! I swear!"

Xia Qingzhi spoke with absolute certainty, and she had no reason to deceive me. I narrowed my eyes, even using my Judging Eye to carefully sweep over her body.

Flushed under my piercing gaze, her face turned red, but instead of trying to cover up, she sat a little straighter and puffed out her chest.

'No matter how you look at it, this shy girl doesn't seem like someone from the Underworld Live Show. But why did that person wearing the Paper Doll Mask in Room 443 throw out this joss paper at the very last moment?' I couldn't figure it out, a dozen different speculations racing through my mind.

'Was he Xia Chi, and afraid of being exposed, he used his sister's handwriting?'

'Did the person in the room know Xia Qingzhi and Xia Chi, and deliberately use her handwriting to lure Xia Chi into taking the bait?'

'Or is it possible that the person locked in Room 443 was the real Xia Qingzhi, and the one sitting right in front of me is an impostor?'

...

The deeper I went down the rabbit hole, the heavier the chill on my body grew. It felt as if I were sinking endlessly into the deep sea, the suffocating darkness threatening to drown me.

Sensing that something was wrong, she hurriedly stood up and came to my side. She hesitated for a second before grabbing my wrist. "Although the handwriting on the joss paper is exactly like mine, I definitely wasn't the one who wrote it. If I wanted to trick you, I wouldn't have written the phrase out with my left hand right in front of you."

What she said made sense. If she really wanted to deceive me, she could have just claimed ignorance. There was no reason for her to deliberately show me her handwriting.

I nodded, my tense nerves finally relaxing. "Your brother's situation is extremely complicated, and I'm still investigating. I'll need more time to find the answers. Also, remember this—no matter what happens, never give in to despair, even if one day I happen to vanish too."

After saying that, I tucked the joss paper away, burned the notes she had scribbled on, and prepared to leave. But Xia Qingzhi was still tightly gripping my hand. I tried to pull away, but failed.

"Is there something else?"

She seemed to have finally made a decision. "Can you take me with you the next time you go out? I promise I won't get in your way."

"No." I shook my head firmly. "If I take you along, both of us will likely end up dead."

I pulled her hand away and strode out. The moment I opened the bedroom door, I predictably found Xia Qingzhi's parents standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"Uncle, Auntie, you're just in time. There are some things I think we should all sit down and discuss." I called Xia Qingzhi out, and the four of us sat in the living room. The atmosphere was heavy.

"What's there to discuss? The two of you have an age gap of six or seven years. I absolutely forbid it!" Xia Qingzhi's mother was the first to break the silence. Her words caused Xia Qingzhi's face to flush bright red, making her stomp her feet in frantic embarrassment.

"I'm on the same page as her mother," Father Xia chimed in. "Qingzhi is too young. If she keeps running off to your Adult Shop all the time, what will people think of her? If you two are truly sincere about this, give each other some time. We can talk about it after she graduates from university."

Father Xia had a fairly good temper and was maintaining his rationality.

"You two have completely misunderstood." I looked at the steam rising from my teacup, my gaze turning sharp. "Uncle, Auntie, do you really have no impression of him at all? Haven't you felt that someone is missing from your lives?"

"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to pull a fast one on us after tricking our daughter?" Xia Qingzhi's mother sneered coldly. If Father Xia hadn't held her back, she would have definitely kicked me out of the house.

"I'm not trying to trick you. I just want to help Xia Qingzhi prove something—that there truly was another person who once existed in your family!"