14 Chapter 14 Kneeling Down

He came as expected.

Li Ang's expression did not change as he asked for the address of the other daughter the old man had visited before.

Desheng Road, Ancestor Sky Tower.

Just four streets away from Qianhua Road... Could this be a supernatural event?

Compared to the last mission, the rewards for this one were much less, with no extra experience points or game currency. And based on the literal description, it simply asked to uncover the truth, without any requirements to kill or eliminate a spiritual body.

More geared towards logic and puzzle-solving?

Li Ang watched the middle-aged woman push her father away, then turned to ask Wang Congshan, "Have you had lunch?"

"Ah," Wang Congshan was somewhat startled, "No, not yet."

"Let me treat you to spicy and sour intestines noodles," Li Ang suggested. "That shop has been a well-established brand for over a decade—the intestines are chewy and oily, a true delicacy in Yin City."

Wang Congshan was skeptical. She had known Li Ang for so many years, and the last time he treated her to a meal was back in elementary school, eating a deep red, translucent li zi (plum).

After a quick wipe, the plum went down, and she asked Li Ang where he had picked it, and how it was so sweet. Li Ang grinned proudly, explaining that the tree grew on the way home from school, and received daily nourishment from his urine, naturally making it sweet and delicious.

A not so pleasant memory made Wang Congshan cautious, "Where is this noodle shop with intestines?"

"Just around the corner of the street south of Yin City East General Anal and Intestinal Hospital."

Li Ang added, "You know, the essence of the intestines noodles is in the bubble gut, the very end of the pig's large intestine. That part has a thicker intestinal lining, more lard, and a better chew, making it taste like the problematic area of a patient suffering from vascular colon obstruction.

Last time I went, I could faintly taste Old Zhang from room 07, bed number 4, on the third floor of the second building of the inpatient department of the East General Anal and Intestinal Hospital, who had suffered from hemorrhoids for years."

"..." Wang Congshan's face turned a shade of green, "I suddenly don't feel hungry anymore, you go eat by yourself."

"Eh..." Li Ang said somewhat regretfully, "Then I'll be off first."

Farewell to his childhood confidant, Li Ang hailed a taxi and headed straight to Desheng Road's Ancestor Sky Tower.

This was a somewhat dilapidated old apartment building, with its exterior walls covered in unsophisticated red square ceramic tiles. The gaps between the tiles were filled with black stains left by rain erosion,

The old green glass windows were not transparent, and air conditioner units buzzing with activity were covered in dust, in stark contrast to the modern, brand-new skyscrapers just a few streets away.

Ancestor Sky Tower had twelve floors, split into the left and right sides. Building One on the left was dedicated to resident living, while Building Two on the right served as both residential and was rented to nursing homes and beauty salons.

Both buildings were connected together, separated only by a wall, and doors in the emergency escape corridors allowed passage between Building One and Two.

Li Ang looked up and surveyed the place for a bit before casually tearing down a missing person notice from a lamppost on the roadside.

"Bao Fangtian, female, 51 years old, 1.61 meters tall, long hair, weighing 140 pounds, went missing around 1:30 p.m. on June 17th in the Desheng Road area."

"She was wearing a black short-sleeved knitted top, yellow shorts, and brown sandals at the time she disappeared. She's from the southern suburbs of Yin City, speaks with a local accent, and has a mild mental disorder. If anyone knows of her whereabouts, please contact her family as quickly as possible. A reward is guaranteed."

Next to it, there was a photo of the elderly woman and the contact number of her relatives.

Li Ang glanced over the notice, folded it carefully, and held it in his hand as he walked directly into the duty room of Ancestor Sky Tower.

There were two people inside the duty room, an old man and a young man; the elder was listening to the radio, while the younger was scrolling through TikTok.

"Hello, excuse me," Li Ang knocked on the door of the duty room, brandishing the missing person notice and asked, "I'm a relative of Bao Fangtian. I would like to review the surveillance footage from the past few days..."

"Again?" The younger security guard looked up from his phone, slightly annoyed, and said with a frown, "Didn't we tell you before? We don't have surveillance cameras in the hallways of our community! Plus, with so many people coming and going in the community, we can't remember where this old lady went after she came out of the nursing home."

Pretending to be the family of the missing person to rightfully access surveillance data, Li Ang's brow furrowed slightly upon learning there were no cameras installed inside the building, and he left the duty room.

"I can only methodically check each floor, huh... Tsk."

According to the statement of the middle-aged woman, her sister lived on the seventh floor of Building No. 1 on the left side.

Li Ang walked straight into Building No. 1, inserted Cat's Eye into his eye socket, and began methodically checking each floor, trying to detect any traces of a spiritual body.

Minutes later, he found nothing.

As his spiritual power was about to be depleted and he felt a slight dizziness, Li Ang removed the Cat's Eye and went through the emergency exit door to Building No. 2 to continue the methodical search.

Floors twelve to eight of Building No. 2 were residential floors, the seventh floor was a beauty salon called "Fragrant Beauty," the fifth floor was a nursing home called "New Rehabilitation Home," and the floors below the nursing home were all rented out to various businesses.

Buildings No. 1 and No. 2 originally each had an elevator, but for the convenience of passage, the businesses in Building No. 2 specially built an exclusive elevator on the right side of Building No. 2, which only went to the seventh floor and below.

As for the sixth floor between the seventh and fifth floors, it was sold to a homeowner,

this homeowner was often away, and to prevent vagrants or drug users from squatting on the sixth floor, he specifically sealed the emergency exit to the sixth floor with a rolling shutter door,

he also installed an iron gate outside the exclusive elevator on the sixth floor, and covered it with a black opaque plastic curtain.

Li Ang quickly examined all the floors of Building No. 2 and even used lock-picking tools to open the sealed sixth floor to take a look inside.

Apart from the iron gate covered with a black curtain at the elevator entrance, the sixth floor was empty.

The entire floor's windows were tightly closed, and the ground was covered with dust with no footprints to be found.

No one had been to the sixth floor of Building No. 2.

Still, he found nothing.

Li Ang arrived at the base of Ancestor Sky Tower, looking up at the withered and old floors, beginning to ponder.

The directly connected Building No. 1 and No. 2, the daughter living on the seventh floor of Building No. 1 who was in good physical health yet had lost her wits, the woman with mild mental illness who went missing before, the New Rehabilitation Home on the fifth floor of Building No. 2, the iron gate-sealed sixth floor of Building No. 2...

All the clues came together, weaving the truth.

"So that's how it is."

Li Ang cracked a smile, pushed up his glasses, and entered the elevator on the left side of Building No. 2.

He pressed the button for the sixth floor.

The elevator slowly ascended, and with a ding-dong, the elevator doors slowly opened.

After the doors opened, what came into view was naturally the specially constructed iron gate of the homeowner of the sixth floor, with the iron gate covered by a black plastic curtain, cold and stark.

And in the extremely narrow gap between the iron gate and the elevator doors, stood a person, facing Li Ang.

A middle-aged woman, wearing a black short-sleeved knitted top, yellow knee-length shorts, brown sandals, with long hair.

It was Bao Fangtian, who had been missing for several days.

She had been dead for many days, her body had turned black, her once large waist shrunken from desiccation, her face twisted with agony and terror, staring at Li Ang with those empty, lifeless eyes.

Bao Fangtian in the gap slowly tilted forward, thudding to her knees before Li Ang.

In the elevator, one living, one dead, in silence,

The elevator doors slowly closed, descending.