Chapter 1161: Thunder in the Dead of Night
Chen Tianlong felt a surge of emotion. He hadn’t expected that after only knowing Du Nong for a few days, he would prove to be such a generous and righteous friend.
"Haha, trusting friends is the right thing to do." With that, Chen Tianlong glanced at Hao Shuai.
At this moment, Hao Shuai pretended not to notice and slightly turned his head to the side.
Lin Wushuang saw this and hurried to relieve the awkward situation: "Haha, let’s all go back and rest then."
"Yes, Miss Chen is right. Only after a good rest can we concentrate better and discover the enemy." Du Nong agreed with Lin Wushuang’s suggestion.
Thus, the six of them returned to the hotel. After dinner, they each went back to their dorms to rest.
In the middle of the night.
Suddenly, there were a few thunderclaps, which then ceased. The entire sky seemed frozen, and the next morning, when they gathered, they found that Du Nong was missing, which reminded Chen Tianlong of the thunder last night.
"Chen Tianlong, where could Brother Du Nong have gone?"
Lin Wushuang said with some concern.
"I think it must be last night’s thunder. Du Nong must have discovered something and chased after it. Let’s wait for him at the hotel. Aimlessly looking for him is not a good plan." Chen Tianlong said.
Hao Shuai glanced at the two of them, feeling a bit bored, so he sat down at the table to the side and began drinking tea.
He was thinking about whether his task was here or not; otherwise, all his efforts would be in vain.
"Something’s wrong, there’s a dead body found on the street!"
A servant rushed into the hotel shouting.
He had just returned from outside and saw a lot of people gathered around a corner making a commotion. When he went over to look, he found a dead body there.
This wasn’t the main issue; the key was that the deceased was the young man from the hotel responsible for reminding everyone to extinguish fires before sleeping, and who also added lamp oil and tea water.
The owner, upon hearing this, immediately asked: "What happened, what happened? Why are you in such a panic?"
"No, sir, that dead body is our hotel’s lamp holder, Zhang Hao." The servant quickly explained.
"Oh? Zhang Hao? How did he end up dead?"
The owner was extremely surprised; having a fatality in his hotel was shocking—potentially risking him being entangled in legal troubles.
"He, he was murdered."
"What! Murdered? What’s going on?"
"I don’t know, you should go out and have a look for yourself. It’s just around the corner, many people are surrounding it."
The servant pointed in the direction just diagonally outside, and the owner saw indeed a crowd gathered. He then tidied his clothes and walked out.
Chen Tianlong watched the scene with curiosity, so he took Lin Wushuang and followed, while Hao Shuai remained indifferent and continued drinking tea.
Soon after, Chen Tianlong arrived at the scene of the deceased. The owner saw it was Zhang Hao, the hotel staff, and was so frightened that his face went white.
Though he had heard about it earlier, seeing an actual corpse lying there was hard to account for. If an investigation ensued, it might frighten away all the customers.
Nonetheless, aside from shouting a few words there, the owner didn’t know what else to do. Quickly, some officials came to take away the body. Chen Tianlong observed for a while and felt there was nothing suspicious; it was just an ordinary case of neck wringing causing death.
But Chen Tianlong was puzzled; who would have a grudge against this lamp holder?
Could it be related to Du Nong’s disappearance? As he was thinking, he saw a group of guards approaching the hotel, and the owner quickly ran back to entertain them.
"Everyone listen up; seal the hotel, and anyone outside should return inside. Later, we’ll search for evidence and prepare to handle the case."
The leading officer was a one-eyed man, possibly injured in a previous arrest.
Chen Tianlong and Lin Wushuang were driven back to the hotel and sat at Hao Shuai’s table. At this moment, Hao Shuai looked at Chen Tianlong mockingly.
"Everyone here is a suspect; later, we’ll verify everyone’s alibi from last night till this morning." The one-eyed officer looked around and continued: "If you know who the culprit is, speak up now, or if we find out later, anyone hiding the truth will be treated as an accomplice."
Chen Tianlong secretly thought this was bad; there was no way Du Nong could be uninvolved now. First, he disappeared, and secondly, there was no information about him yet. Most crucially, now someone had died while he was away.
"Chen Tianlong, could it be..."
Lin Wushuang started to say what Chen Tianlong had already anticipated, so he quickly interrupted.
"No, intuition tells me it cannot be Du Nong. With his divination skill, surely he went to pursue the real criminal last night." Chen Tianlong furrowed his brow and said, "Du Nong must have discovered something."
At this point, Chen Tianlong seemed to understand something, and before the guards set up a blockade, he hurried to Du Nong’s room to see if he could find any clues.
On the side, Hao Shuai felt that his mission’s completion was at stake, with only two or three days left. If something went wrong, it would be disastrous, so he followed Chen Tianlong upstairs.
Soon, the three of them opened Du Nong’s room and went inside. Chen Tianlong examined the room but found nothing new. There was one noticeable oil lamp, which was quite full.
Chen Tianlong found this a bit strange. Everyone uses lamps daily; if they were to replace the oil, it should be all at once, right? He recalled that the lamp oil was delivered together, and everyone had theirs filled the same.
Chen Tianlong’s lamp oil seemed not yet half-empty, while the unknown one was full. And the thunder sounded around one in the morning, and previously, Hao Shuai mentioned visiting him, indicating he left the hotel after the thunder.
Chen Tianlong really couldn’t figure it out, so he continued to observe, finding Du Nong’s desk with a divination book on it. He thought, "Du Nong is studious to be reading in such a critical situation."
Chen Tianlong went over, opened the book, and noted that most of the content was incomprehensible. But after turning a few pages, he suddenly found some words circled with ink.
At this moment, Chen Tianlong seemed to realize something and quickly asked Lin Wushuang for a pen. As he read, he recorded the words on a piece of blank paper until he got eight characters: Night, Three, Half, Careful, More, Candle, Fire.
Chen Tianlong looked at it vertically and horizontally, unable to make out what it was, so he called everyone to take a look. Lin Wushuang curiously walked over, glanced at the eight characters, and instantly recited them as: "In the dead of night, be careful with candles."
This was not their modern world but within someone’s array, so the streets here appeared ancient, and even watchmen still existed.
Now seeing these words, everyone quickly understood.
But what does this sentence mean?
Why was the lamp oil suddenly full? What on earth was Du Nong trying to tell them? Chen Tianlong kept thinking in this direction.
The three of them searched for a while, found nothing else unusual, and left the room. They hadn’t gone far when guards surrounded them and then stormed into Du Nong’s room.
"Yes, this is the room. He was nowhere to be seen this morning."
The owner spoke very courteously, his eyes sweeping over Chen Tianlong and his companions, noting each had a sword, indicating they were not to be trifled with.
Thus, he only explained without mentioning that Chen Tianlong and the others were also friends of Du Nong.
Du Nong did not return all day; Chen Tianlong knew something big was bound to happen tonight. So he lay on the bed, thinking about what he had seen during the day.
Then he looked at his lamp oil, staring blankly, noticing the oil dwindling, almost gone. At this moment, he thought he needed to add some lamp oil, but who should he ask?