Chapter 776: The Lost Face

This woman was an unconquerable iceberg. I was certain most men would give her a wide berth at the mere sight of her; her presence was simply too overwhelming.

She arrived at our agreed location. Standing on long legs in high heels, she looked around with her arms crossed over her chest. Psychologically speaking, this was a subconscious defensive posture to ward off harm.

"Ninth Master Yan is actually a woman?" I patted the dust off my clothes, shoved my hands into my pockets, and walked toward her with my head slightly lowered. As I passed by her, I whispered, "Try to act natural. Don't make any sudden movements, and follow me."

My hoarse voice made her shoulders twitch slightly, but her mental fortitude was excellent and she didn't overreact. Giving me a faint glance, she didn't say a word and simply followed me into the deserted alley.

After walking a dozen meters inside, I stood with my back to her. I reached up and felt the seam where the Human Skin Mask met my face. Only after confirming there were no flaws did I turn around and face her for the first time.

"What's your relationship with him?" It was already late autumn, and a cold wind swept through the alley. Sunlight couldn't reach this far down, giving the place an eerie chill.

"Where is he?" The woman didn't answer my question. Her hand suddenly slipped into her pocket, as if reaching for something.

"What are you doing?" I narrowed my eyes. At this distance, I had over a dozen ways to subdue her.

"Don't misunderstand. I'm just doing this to put your mind at ease." She withdrew her hand from her pocket, pinching a cell phone and a sharp Number Five Scalpel between her fingertips, and voluntarily set both items by her feet. "He used to be my student. Now can you tell me where he is?"

It was my first time encountering such a decisive, straightforward woman. "He's in the sedan on the west side of the alley. He's severely injured and unconscious. His condition isn't looking too good."

She turned and walked right out of the alley without another word.

I pocketed the Scalpel and picked up her phone, flipping through it quickly. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

Hurrying out of the alley, I saw her already sitting in the driver's seat, about to start the car.

"Wait, where are you taking him?" I grabbed the car window, activating my Judging Eye to see through her thoughts, but I found absolutely nothing.

"You're the one who treated the wounds on his back and abdomen, right? Good technique, but it won't save him. A tree branch pierced through his eye socket into his skull. If we want to save his life, he has to go to a proper hospital." Her expression hadn't noticeably changed, but she somehow felt even more unapproachable now.

"If I could take him to a proper hospital, would I have come looking for you?" I raised my eyebrows, looking at the woman inside the car. "Besides, the passenger seat is where you belong."

"Every second you waste right now brings him one step closer to death..."

I waved a hand, cutting her off before she could finish. "You're the one who cares if he lives or dies. I only saved him because he has something I need. Saving him is a favor, not an obligation. I have no reason to put myself in danger just for the sake of a favor."

"I understand. Get in. We'll go to my place first." She gave me her address and shifted over to the passenger seat.

I wasn't so narcissistic as to think my personal charm had made a strong-willed woman repeatedly back down. The most likely truth was that she was anxious about the young man's life and didn't want to waste any more time arguing with me.

Fifteen minutes later, the car pulled up outside a clinic. It was a small, two-story building in a remote location; there wasn't a single person in sight for dozens of meters around.

The clinic wasn't large. Two heavy locks secured the glass doors, and the storefront was caked in dust. Clearly, it hadn't seen a customer in a very long time.

"This is your place?"

"It's the only inheritance my father left me. It's been sitting empty ever since he passed away. I usually stay in the university's staff apartments and rarely come back." She spoke rapidly as she stepped out and opened the rear door. "Come on, give me a hand."

I hoisted the young man onto my back and carried him out of the car, following the woman inside the clinic.

A quick glance around told me that she was lying. The interior layout had absolutely nothing to do with a medical clinic; the walls were plastered with various photos and clue records, and empty food wrappers littered the floor. The second floor, however, was completely different from the first. It was spotless and tidy, and a faint scent of disinfectant lingered in the air.

'The storefront and the first floor are probably just a disguise. This second floor, with all its windows sealed shut, is the real core of this little clinic.'

Before I could observe anything else, the woman stepped in front of me, spreading her hands open. "There are no communication devices here, so you don't need to worry about me calling the police. I need to prep this kid for surgery now. Could you please step outside for a while?"

"He's only useful to me alive. Don't worry, I won't disturb you." My Judging Eye had already scanned the entire room. Aside from some medical equipment whose functions I wasn't too clear on, there was nothing suspicious in the room.

I stepped out of the second-floor room and closed the door behind me. I only did it to put her at ease; with my Judging Eye and Breath Listening, it made no difference to me whether the door was closed or not.

'To think this tiny clinic is hiding the equipment necessary for major surgeries... just what is this woman's background?' In my eyes, her story about an inheritance from her father was nothing but a fabricated excuse. There were simply too many things about this clinic that didn't add up.

Standing on the first floor, I picked up a food wrapper from the ground and checked the production date. They were all from over three months ago.

Walking over to the doorway, I scanned the photos plastered across the walls. Most of the people pictured were Red Building Tenants. I had seen these exact same photos in the young man's room on the top floor of the Red Building.

'The young man lived on the top floor of the Red Building and went out once every three days. Since the photos here match the ones in his room, it seems he spent most of his time outside the Red Building right here in this little clinic.'

'Whether this clinic is her father's inheritance or not, this place is inextricably linked to her. That means she also knows about the Red Building. Could she be the one secretly helping the young man? Is she the live show streamer living in Jinghai?'

Comparing this woman's height and build with that of the live show streamer, my eyes slowly widened. 'A height of 1.79 meters, a slender build... their physical characteristics are incredibly similar!'

'It should just be a coincidence. Even though this woman has a slightly eccentric personality, she's still a far cry from the live show streamer.' I shook off those distracting thoughts and focused on the photos on the wall. Compared to the ones hidden under the bed on the Red Building's top floor, these were much more detailed. All the interpersonal relationships and relevant deductions were mapped out on the wall.

I paid special attention to the photos of Zhu Li and the Faceless Woman. After carefully reading the annotations, I arrived at an answer that made perfect sense, yet still caught me by surprise.

The Faceless Woman I encountered in the Red Building had been Zhu Li's nanny when she was alive.

If the love between Junsheng and that girl was poignant and tragic, then the love between these two was simply morbid and terrifying.

The woman's love for Zhu Li had reached a twisted extreme. She was boundlessly submissive, willingly satisfying his every insane, sickening demand.

She had Zhu Li's proudest artwork tattooed onto her body. Serving as his sole model, she helped create countless repulsive paintings that made one's scalp crawl.

In the beginning, this woman was just like Bai Ya'er. But as Zhu Li demanded more and more from her, she not only failed to resist, but gladly accepted it, believing it was proof of his love.

Zhu Li claimed he wanted them to never be separated, to keep her most beautiful side by his side forever. Taking this as their theme, the two of them created a piece of human art that ordinary people couldn't even begin to imagine.

He carved off the woman's face and sewed it onto his own back. Shortly after this artwork was completed, the woman died from a bacterial infection.

The Faceless Woman had wholeheartedly believed she was sacrificing herself for love, but in reality, to Zhu Li, she was nothing more than an art piece.

It was safe to say the Faceless Woman had given everything to Zhu Li, but he never treated her as his one and only. Not long after her death, he started fooling around with other women.

With her face stitched to his back, he pinned other women beneath him.

Following that, any woman who dated Zhu Li died under bizarre circumstances, right up until Bai Ya'er appeared. According to the timeline the young man had mapped out, if I hadn't come to the Red Building and disrupted everything, Bai Ya'er would have soon met a violent end herself.

'That lost face is right there on Zhu Li. To complete the commission from the Underworld, Zhu Li must die.'

I withdrew my gaze and shook my head. Zhu Li was the very incarnation of obsession; he was an outright demon. A mortal falling in love with a demon could only end in one of two ways: either they died a tragic death, or they became a demon themselves.

After memorizing the crucial information from the photos, I went outside and parked the car behind the building where it wouldn't draw attention. Once that was done, having rushed about for a day and a night, I finally couldn't hold on any longer. I summoned the Filthy Ghost to stand guard at the door and fell asleep leaning back in one of the clinic's chairs.

...

"Hey, wake up. Time to eat." A cold female voice sounded by my ear, and I shot up from the chair.

Once I clearly saw who it was, my expression softened. I rubbed my temples. "How did the surgery go?"

"The first stage of the surgery went smoothly. The branch has been removed." The woman, who was about the same height as me, placed her takeout on a chair. Her face looked as if it was merely rented; it never showed a single unnecessary expression. "Eat it while it's hot. Don't worry about him. The attacker wasn't trying to kill him; they only pierced his eye and his right eardrum."

I glanced outside. It was already dark out; I had slept the entire afternoon away in this little clinic without realizing it. "No suspicious people passed by the area, did they?"

"No," the woman answered concisely. She walked to the other side of the room, opened her takeout, and began to eat.

She ate quickly and silently, as focused as if she were in the middle of an urgent task.

I took a quick look at the food—there was meat and vegetables, and it smelled delicious. Already starving, I didn't think too much and began wolfing it down.

When the woman saw my nearly empty takeout container, a subtle change rippled across her iceberg-like, perpetually frozen expression.

"Was it good?"