2:06 AM.
Lin Qiye's phone vibrated slightly. He frowned and took the phone out of his pocket.
It wasn't a phone call, but an unread message from an unfamiliar phone number.
—Take a look at this video.
Upon seeing these words, a hint of doubt flashed in Lin Qiye's eyes, followed by a sudden realization and a touch of curiosity.
Aside from a very few people, very few knew Lin Qiye's phone number. In addition, the Night Watchman had installed software on his phone that could block all spam and harassing messages, so there was only one person who could send him a message in this tone...
An Qingyu.
The next moment, a message popped up.
This was a video. Lin Qiye clicked on it directly, and his brows furrowed immediately upon seeing the scene in the video.
This is a video shot with a mobile phone, and the surrounding environment is the interior of a bar. The camera is placed on the bar counter, facing the back door from the side. Both the shot and the angle are almost identical to those in the video.
The tavern was pitch black, with only a faint natural light filtering through the backyard, making the scene somewhat blurry from a distance.
Immediately afterwards, a figure appeared in the frame. The person was standing in the backyard when suddenly, as if gripped by an invisible hand, they were violently slammed against the wall, their feet dangling in the air, and slowly lifted into the air...
From his figure and clothes, Lin Qiye could recognize that the figure was An Qingyu.
A nail floated up from the ground on its own and pierced the figure's palm at an odd angle!
Then came the second, the third, the fourth... Once all four nails were driven into the limbs, the figure's fingers, as if being gnawed by something, disappeared little by little in a bizarre manner!
Just like in the video!
When all ten fingers disappeared down to the base of the fingers, the last iron nail floated up and pierced An Qingyu's chest!
The image disappears here.
At this moment, Lin Qiye's heart was filled with doubts. He knew that An Qingyu could not have really been killed, but since the other party sent him this video, it meant that he had completely figured out the secret in it!
Lin Qiye picked up his phone and started typing. Halfway through, he shook his head and directly dialed the number back.
The call was answered quickly.
"What did you discover?" Lin Qiye went straight to the point.
An Qingyu's voice sounded somewhat surprised, "I thought your first question would be, 'Are you alright?' Didn't that video just now make you even a little worried?"
"What are you worried about? Worried you'll be murdered?" Lin Qiye asked calmly. "I don't believe a dead person would remember my phone number."
"Well, this is really boring." An Qingyu's voice sounded somewhat regretful.
"How did you film that video?"
Up to now, all of Lin Qiye's reasoning has hit a bottleneck, and that strange video is the root cause of this bottleneck.
The amount of bleeding after the finger was severed and the direction of the wound—these two suspicious points indicate that this case is far more complicated than it seems. Yet, this bizarre video makes everything seem... ridiculously simple.
"As you said, the content in that video is true," An Qingyu's voice came from the other end of the phone, "but it was processed in the simplest of ways, and this processing led all the reasoning in the wrong direction."
"That is... playing it in reverse!"
Upon hearing those two words, Lin Qiye's body trembled, as if he had thought of something, and a glint appeared in his eyes.
"You mean…"
"That video doesn't depict the process of someone being mysteriously murdered, but rather... the process of a person whose ten fingers were severed and quickly healed. I'll send you another video; you'll understand after watching it."
An Qingyu hung up the phone, and the next second, another video was sent.
Lin Qiye clicked on it instantly.
In the video, An Qingyu's limbs are nailed to the wall and her ten fingers are cut off, but no blood flows out.
Immediately afterwards, the muscles in his chest contracted, squeezing out an iron nail, which was then propelled by the pressure of the muscle tissue to the ground a short distance away.
Then, under the effect of super-fast regeneration, An Qingyu's fingers grew back quickly, and within seconds, they were back to normal.
The second nail was squeezed out of his body and bounced to the ground, then the third, the fourth...
After the last nail hit the ground, An Qingyu lost his footing and fell to the ground. He then took a step forward, making a terrified gesture!
The scene ends.
Lin Qiye slowly closed his eyes and took a deep breath...
He understood.
No wonder the angle at which each nail pierced the body seemed somewhat eerie! No wonder the fingers in the video weren't severed all at once, but rather gradually eroded away! No wonder the victim's body in the video was first pushed against the wall, and then lifted into the air as if being pulled up!
All of this... is playing in reverse!
The nails were deflected by the pressure of muscle tissue, not pierced by an invisible person or a telekinetic ability; the fingers grew gradually, not by being eaten away; the body fell to the ground first, then deliberately moved forward a step...
Lin Qiye quickly dialed the number back.
"So, in other words, there was never any mystery to 'invisibility,' 'object manipulation,' 'finger cutting,' or 'interference with electronic signals' from the very beginning. Everything in the video was actually a scene directed and acted by a person with the ability to regenerate at supersonic speed?" Lin Qiye asked, frowning.
"That's right."
"But why would he do that?" Lin Qiye's voice was full of confusion. "Why would he go to such lengths to record this video? Why create the illusion of a mysterious crime?"
"Before considering this question, I think we should think about who did all this," An Qingyu said calmly.
"It's the person in the video." Lin Qiye's eyes narrowed slightly. "That person directed and acted in this whole thing, which means Sun Xiao was nailed to the wall by the real culprit only after the video recording ended... Now there's still one question: was Sun Xiao already dead, or still alive, when he was nailed to the wall?"
Then, Lin Qiye shook his head again, "No, actually the answer to this question has already been found. Judging from Sun Xiao's body, the directions of the wounds are inconsistent, so he must have had his fingers severed first before being nailed to the wall. The reduced amount of bleeding also proves this point."
"If the ritual is to be completed, he would be killed within ten seconds of his finger being severed; that is, he would already be a corpse when he was nailed to the wall."
"This means... there must be a primary crime scene near that tavern where Sun Xiao was killed!"
"No, that's not right!"
"There's a security camera at the street corner outside the tavern, so the body couldn't have been killed in another building and then brought into the tavern, as that would have been captured on camera. So... the primary crime scene must be inside the tavern!"
"And there can only be one person who could do all this without anyone noticing in the tavern…"