Chapter 779: Beauty Salon

I had seen Liu Xin on the train to the Underworld. Yan Shengnan didn't need to prove anything she said to me, because no one knew about Liu Xin's death better than I did!

Prompted by me back then, Liu Xin had recreated the scene of her death. The crossroads, the light-colored long-sleeved shirt—these details matched perfectly.

I knew Yan Shengnan might be telling the truth, but could such a coincidence really exist in this world?

I had almost forgotten what happened that night on the Double Ninth festival.

"After the car crash, I got the phone back. The screen was shattered, so I just pulled out the SIM card and kept using it, which means the number never changed." Yan Shengnan copied all the numbers onto a piece of paper. "That's the truth. I'm the only eyewitness, so if you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do."

"You still wanted to use a dead person's phone number?" My tone was icy, and my guard was still up.

"I have a background in forensics. Corpses are much more obedient than the living; at least they never question what I say." Yan Shengnan pushed the piece of paper and her phone in front of me. "These numbers are scattered across various districts in Jinghai, but they all share one thing in common. The last two digits are always 5 and 4."

"Fifty-four. A homophone for 'I die'?" I slipped Yan Shengnan's phone into my pocket and clutched the piece of paper in my hand. "If the killer did this on purpose, their job has to be tied to a telecommunications company."

"Leave that part to me." Yan Shengnan glanced back at the second-floor door. "I want to catch that bastard too. If it weren't for him, Kong Ying would still be attending his classes in peace."

"Can a university lecturer really dig up that kind of information?" I was highly suspicious of her motives. She wanted the two of us to split the investigation—one in the light, one in the dark. It was the most efficient approach, but I couldn't trust her yet. Who knew what she might pull behind my back?

"Many of my students are active forensic examiners," Yan Shengnan brushed off the question. Besides, I had no idea what her forensic ethics course even covered.

"You'd better be careful when you investigate. Don't expose anything you shouldn't, or you might draw fire to yourself." Under the oppressive weight of my ghost art, Yan Shengnan's face had gone perfectly pale. She reacted exactly like an ordinary person; there was nothing abnormal about her behavior.

After leaving her with a few more warnings, I grabbed some old clothes in the clinic, threw them on, and left with the slip of paper.

'Only three numbers still connect right now,' I thought. 'There was a fire in the Northern Suburb, and the police suspect arson, so they'll definitely have patrols in the area. If I just show up at the crime scene, I'll be questioned for sure. I need to wait for the heat to die down before heading over there. The second number is Yan Shengnan's phone. I can't read that woman, but she counts as an ally for now. That means the only lead left for me to investigate is the landline number belonging to the beauty salon.'

Yan Shengnan had shown me the location of the beauty salon. It was called the White Rose Beauty and Body Center, supposedly a very high-end women's club.

...

By the time I found the place, it was already nine-thirty at night. I had slept too long at Yan Shengnan's clinic that afternoon and wasted a lot of time.

White Rose was located on the border between Jinghai's Northern Suburb and Southern Suburbs. After nine o'clock at night, very few pedestrians passed through. The streetlights cast a dim yellow glow, and the shops on both sides were already closed. I could vaguely tell that this street had once been bustling.

I pulled my collar tight and headed onto the pedestrian street. White Rose sat right in the middle, incredibly conspicuous.

'There must be a lot of people here during the day.' Trash littered the ground, and the neon signs above the shops were still flashing. I used my Judging Eye to pinpoint the surveillance cameras first, then easily slipped past them.

The color scheme was soft and understated. Just like its name, the beauty salon was as pure as a white rose. The exterior walls were painted in a solid, unblemished color, a stark contrast to the gaudy decorations of most salons. It carried a sort of pastoral charm, and peering through the glass windows gave off a warm, cozy feeling.

'They put a lot of effort into this layout.' Interior design could reflect a person's taste and personality to some extent. Seeing it in person made me realize that the missing owner was probably no ordinary person, either.

'This is prime real estate in the suburbs. Anyone capable of securing such a large plot here is no simple character.' The salon's main entrance was secured by a heavy padlock on the outside and an electronic lock on the inside. Forcing my way in would definitely trigger the alarm.

After circling the building, I locked onto a third-floor window. It sat perfectly in the blind spot of all the security cameras—an ideal opening for me.

The walls were smooth, offering few footholds. If I had come here a few months ago, I would have been completely helpless, but after everything I'd been through, my physical condition had reached an absurd level.

I took a few steps back and broke into a sprint. Imitating the way the Blood Fox had exerted force when it controlled my body, I kicked off the wall, channeling all my strength to launch myself straight up like a carp leaping out of the water.

I threw my arms out and grabbed the edge of the windowsill perfectly.

Pulling myself up to the window, I released the Seductive Ghost to stand guard on the ground level. After a quick scan left and right, I drove my elbow directly into the windowpane, shattering the glass.

'I haven't seen a single security guard around. As long as I dodge the cameras, I should be fine.' I didn't intend to linger here for long, so I acted without hesitation.

Inside the beauty salon, a faint fragrance lingered in the air. It smelled like a mix of lavender and osmanthus.

The beauty salon had three floors in total, and I was on the top one.

The third floor was lined with private guest rooms, but the doors were all locked tight, making it impossible to get in. I took a quick lap around the floor but didn't spot anything unusual. It seemed like an entirely ordinary beauty salon.

'Did I miss something?'

Why would that live show streamer use these specific phone numbers to leave a hint for Kong Ying?

Were they just random numbers to make up the digits? He couldn't possibly be that bored. Every single one of these phone numbers had to be connected to the Red Building—or more precisely, to the obsession.

I just hadn't figured out the link between them yet.

'The owner of the beauty salon disappeared, and her body still hasn't been found. This location is different from the other crime scenes—it's the only one where the corpse was hidden. Why would the live show streamer hide this specific body? Are there crucial clues on it?'

With no tangible leads, I could only rely on wild speculation.

It was my first time ever setting foot inside a beauty salon. Given how I had lived the past twenty-plus years of my life, I had never had any reason to cross paths with a place like this.

It wasn't until I saw the waterbeds and aromatherapy rooms that I finally understood what went on in a beauty and body center.

It was still early, and I wasn't about to pass up any potential clues. I combed through every room I could access. Around ten o'clock, I actually stumbled onto an unexpected discovery.

At the cashier's desk on the first floor, I spotted a very familiar name on one of the receipts: Bai Ya'er.

She had started coming here a few months ago, and she was remarkably punctual. She visited almost exactly every three days, and she only ever booked the same service: a facial treatment.

I had to admit, Bai Ya'er had an incredibly exquisite face. The very first time I saw her, I had marveled at how flawlessly deceptive it was—an angelic face without a single blemish.

'Even if she was trying to keep Zhu Li happy, she wouldn't need a facial every three days. That's way too frequent.' Where there's abnormality, there's a monster. I gathered all her receipts to compare them and noticed another strange detail.

Normally, once you became a paying member at a beauty salon, the same services would either get cheaper over time or at least stay at a relatively stable price.

But the amount Bai Ya'er was paying kept increasing. Her final bill was nearly twenty times the price of her first visit.

Looking closer, I realized her facial treatments were anything but simple. In the beginning, they were just basic skincare sessions. Later, they escalated into full-package treatments, adding things like aromatherapy and intense pulsed light rejuvenation.

'A love for beauty is just human nature for women.'

The newly added charges were all over the place, but one specific item appeared on every single receipt. The service wasn't clearly named; all I could tell was that it required an exfoliating scrub. It took me a moment to realize what that was for—it was meant to clear away dead skin.

'The amount they used kept increasing. Did Bai Ya'er really have that much dead skin on her face?' I had seen her in person. Her exquisite features instantly made a great impression on anyone who looked at her. 'Removing dead skin... Could her face...'

I had a vague feeling that I had just stumbled onto something crucial, but just as I started to follow that train of thought, a strange noise sounded behind me.

It sounded like bare feet padding across the floor, or perhaps a rat or stray cat scurrying past. A sudden chill crept up my back.

'Someone's here?' The massive beauty salon was pitch black; it definitely wasn't a staff member on night duty. True qi surged through me, and a faint bloody glint surfaced in my eyes. Standing right in the middle of the second floor, appearing out of nowhere, was the silhouette of a woman.

She stood all alone in the center of the service area, head bowed and arms bent unnaturally, her face obscured by the shadows.

'I don't sense any Yin energy. Is she human?' If anyone else had seen a figure like this suddenly appear in the dark, they would have probably screamed in terror and scrambled away in a panic. But to me, this was nothing. I was even calmer than the ghostly silhouette standing before me.

"Since you're here in the beauty salon, are you the missing owner?" I grabbed the handrail and walked down to the second floor step by step. With every step I took, the Yin energy swirling around me grew denser. "I don't care if you're human or a ghost. If you don't want your soul shattered, you'd better answer a few questions honestly."

I had reached the Ghost Art Fifth Layer. My Yin energy surged like a tidal wave, reducing the figure before me to a lone boat tossed in a storm, on the verge of being swallowed up at any moment.

"Not going to speak?" I raised an eyebrow, stepped right up to the figure, and reached out to lift her face.

It felt like my fingers were pressing into wet glue. A sticky sensation clung to my fingertips as I forcefully lifted her head, finally bringing her grotesque face into view.

Her features were completely blurred. Her face looked like a melting wax sculpture, sloughing off layer by layer, as though several different faces had been crudely glued together.