86 – Trapped Together

Episode 86: Trapped Together

The liquid in the tank was not perfectly transparent. However, the moment Xie Qingcheng stepped closer, he realized that the mannequin immersed in that pale pink fluid was no fake.

It was a man—or rather, a man’s corpse.

The hair of the man submerged in the culture tank fluttered silently in vertical lines. Skin that had begun to bloat, eyes wide open and devoid of focus. It was certain that he was already dead.

Yet, the Hello Kitty tattoo etched onto his arm smiled innocently atop the swollen skin.

This was Hu Yi.

Perhaps it was a blessing that the two of them were experienced in having gone through similar ordeals. Moreover, both tended to be calmer in crisis situations than the average person. Anyone else would have fainted on the spot upon seeing this corpse.

He Yu and Xie Qingcheng stood there for a moment with grim expressions. Once he regained his composure, Xie Qingcheng muttered, “Fuck,” and immediately checked the other culture tanks.

After looking around, he found that everything in the remaining glass tanks were fake mannequins. There were no other corpses.

“…I need to go to the [unauthorized copy]other rooms and find those two right now,” unauthorized copyXie Qingcheng said in a chilling voice.

Hu Yi’s status had been very special. He was a man with abundant social authority and political connections. He was a brilliant talent born to influential parents. To a murderer who had killed such a person, two young women would be nothing.

The man in the tank was already dead. No matter how heartbreaking, taking him out now would not bring the dead back to life. The key was the people who might still be alive.

The two immediately rushed to the other rooms, searching through them one by one and calling out for the producers. However, there were neither corpses nor living people.

Whether they had ascended to heaven or descended into the earth, the two young women had vanished in the blink of an eye.

“They’re not here.”

“They weren’t in the room I just checked either.”

Having reported to each other, the two looked together at the room located deepest within the studio.

That large room had a space in front of the door, similar to a decompression chamber on a spacecraft. Since it was a studio frequently rented for scenes featuring cargo ship cabins or vaults, it had been built according to actual airtight warehouse design standards. The door alone was an electronic alloy door about as thick as two adult fists combined.

As they stepped inside, the noise they had heard from outside grew louder. It seemed to be coming from within this area.

“What is that sound?”

At He Yu’s question, Xie Qingcheng shook his head.

“I don’t know. Let’s find the people first. I’ll search here thoroughly, so you go into the inner room.”

Following Xie Qingcheng’s words, He Yu headed straight through the door.

The moment he entered, his expression stiffened.

Water.

That rushing noise was, unexpectedly, water.

Whether a water pipe in the studio had burst, tap water was pouring out of a thick pipe.

He Yu stood frozen, staring at the scene. The studio floor was relatively low and the room was so large that the water wasn’t overflowing yet, but at this rate, it was only a matter of time before the room filled up.

Shortly after, Xie Qingcheng also entered the alloy door.

“There’s nothing outside. Here is…”

Of course, he too fell silent upon discovering the water pouring out like crazy.

He Yu’s voice was cold.

“…If those two are trapped inside, they might have drowned.”

Xie Qingcheng shone his phone’s flashlight on the floor. In the clear, rising water, not even a shadow of the two people could be seen.

They had clearly entered the studio; had they simply evaporated inside? Every single room had been searched thoroughly. It was certain that the two were not here.

“Let’s go. Let’s get out for now.”

Having grasped the situation, He Yu pulled Xie Qingcheng. The moment they turned together, sensing the ominous situation—

Thump.

With a heavy sound, the airtight alloy door slammed down. It moved with such speed that the thick door had already closed halfway before the two could even reach it.

“…”

He Yu rushed to the machine controller right next to him. The controller embedded in the wall was powered off. Someone had manipulated the master controller located in the outer corridor.

“Xie Qingcheng, hurry! The door is closing!”

But it was already too late. The door struck the floor with a terrifying sound.

Bang—

The dull roar of the door closing completely.

At the same time, the single sliver of light from the outside was swallowed instantly.

Unexpectedly, the two were trapped in this studio space.

“…”

“…”

The sound of water flowing continuously could unauthorized copybe heard behind them. [visit our site]The sound, [Read on Read BL Novels]which resembled a funeral dirge, echoed through the sealed space.

It felt as if the blood in their entire bodies had frozen in an instant. He Yu and Xie Qingcheng looked at each other. Who could have expected to suffer such a fate in a studio tonight?

This was clearly not an accident, but a planned murder.

Water is an excellent tool for erasing traces of a crime scene. Especially if there is enough water to submerge the entire studio. If their deduction was correct, the suspect intended to kill Hu Yi by placing him in a movie prop, break the water pipes, and leave the water running all night to turn the studio into a pond.

In the midst of this, the intelligence of the two shone through. Being trapped in a dark, sealed environment made their cognitive circuits run even faster.

Almost simultaneously, they saw the answer in each other’s eyes.

“The last staff member who left.”

“The one carrying the large box…”

There was a high probability that the culprit was that person.

The man who had asked Xie Qingcheng about the phone signal. A stranger they had never seen on site, yet a man who had answered questions about the location with familiarity.

If their guess was correct, that man had come tonight to kill Hu Yi and clean up the crime scene.

After completing all the settings and leaving the studio, he would have waited for the water pouring all night to erase the evidence, never dreaming that two perfectionist producers would bring an advisor to the scene and rearrange the props.

Thirty minutes ago—.

“There’s a hole in the sterile room setting for the operating table. When we film tomorrow, it’s correct for the actor to bring the dressing tray from this position to wash it. I confirmed it with the medical advisor. Right, this waste bin shouldn’t be placed like this, and the scalpel must be replaced with a real one for the close-up. Oh, by the way, where is Mr. Liu? I want to tell him directly.”

The lead producer rambled on, worrying about potential problems the next day. The staff member who had followed her inside was a man wearing a baseball cap and a mask. Seeing as he was a stranger, he seemed to be a part-timer working under Mr. Liu, the head of the set.

The man with the lowered cap spoke.

“Mr. Liu is sick and went to rest first. I’ll remember and relay the message, so please tell me.”

“He’s sick?”

It was frustrating, but there was nothing to be done. Hearing this, the lead producer scratched her head.

“Good grief…”

She had no choice but to give the corrections to the staff member in the cap.

After finishing the conversation, the two producers prepared to leave. The staff member escorted them to the door of the laboratory set, promising repeatedly that he would rearrange the props as requested by tomorrow and that he would take responsibility if any problems arose.

However, just as the two producers were about to leave the lab, the lead producer suddenly stopped and tapped her head.

“Ah, look at my memory.”

Pulling the associate producer back into the lab, she failed to notice the flash of murderous intent in the man’s eyes as she passed by him.

“I almost forgot. This mannequin gets a close-up too. I need to take a photo to show the advisor. I have to check if these tube-like things are plugged in correctly… Mr. Hu is so strict that if he finds a flaw tomorrow, it won’t end with just a tantrum.”

As she spoke, the lead producer took out her phone and began taking photos of the mannequin in the culture tank.

Click, click.

At that moment, behind the two, the man in the baseball cap gripped a thick wooden club and raised it high above his head.

The lead producer, oblivious, moved her phone to the next culture tank.

As the focus locked, a clear image visit our siteappeared on the phone screen. The [visit our site]moment she captured the mannequin in [stolen content]the culture tank within the camera grid—.

Upon confirming the face of that ‘mannequin,’ the lead producer froze, feeling as if her blood had turned to ice. Soon, the phone slipped from her hand and clattered to the floor.

It felt as if a giant, invisible hand was squeezing her throat and lungs. In an instant, the oxygen was completely purged from her lungs. Unable to inhale or exhale, she opened her mouth silently. It felt as if her soul was escaping through that mouth. Her entire body became paralyzed, freezing her in place.

That’s…

Mr. Hu…?

It’s a real human corpse?

Before a scream could pierce through her throat, a dull thud of an impact was heard. Startled, she turned around to see her fellow producer collapsed beside her, the back of her head drenched in blood. The man in the baseball cap smiled grotesquely at her and raised the wooden club once more.

Namora Danadara Yaya Namakal Yaki Barogi Je Saebara…

And back to the present. The man in the baseball cap was expressionlessly driving a cargo truck used for transporting production props with one hand. From the old speakers, the was flowing.

When he took off the baseball cap, the face of a wanted fugitive, fully made up, was revealed.

This man was a psychopathic killer. The most horrific crime Read on Read BL Novelshe had committed was a [Read on Read BL Novels]murder at a [visit our site]high school in Huzhou on a rainy night.

In an era when investigative techniques were not well-developed, this man had worn a raincoat to kill a female student, covered the body with the raincoat to carry her on his back, moved her to the school laboratory, mutilated the corpse, and threw it into the drainage pipe.

Many years had passed since then, and the police had been unable to catch him and bring him before a judge.

During that time, the man’s psyche gradually twisted. He began to feel the pleasure of provoking the police amidst his murders and escapes.

He repeated his crimes, and at every crime scene, he always wore a raincoat and rubber boots.

On the day he first killed someone, it happened to be raining. He had simply prepared the raincoat and boots to handle the evidence well. However, as his abnormal psychology manifested after that day, he made wearing a raincoat while killing his trademark.

In the back of the cargo truck, the raincoat he had just cast off lay rolling around. Earlier, that raincoat had hidden the bloodstains on his body, allowing him to escape without being noticed by Xie Qingcheng and He Yu. Along with the raincoat, a large prop box rolled around in the cargo bed. Inside lay two unconscious women. They were the two missing producers.

“I’ve finished up well,” the man said, answering a call with his other hand.

“There was a slight hitch in the middle.”

Hearing the voice over the phone, the man replied further.

“Yes, some of the production crew came in. Yes. They both seemed like staff. I thought about putting them in the car and dealing with them, but I didn’t feel like it, visit our siteso I gave up. Do you know how hard it is to drag two adult men… Don’t worry. I locked them behind the airtight door at the very back of the studio. Even if the door is broken, I’ve installed a signal [visit our site]jammer, so they can’t even report it to the police. By tomorrow, they’ll all meet as corpses.”

Then, someone over the phone requested something of him.

“Understood.”

Even though there was nothing to be seen, the man habitually checked the cargo bed in the rearview mirror.

“Ah, right. I’ve caught two women here. They suddenly came in, and since they were pretty, I took them both. This time I came to kill the big fish, Hu Yi, but what can I do when small fry follow along? I originally intended to kill girls like this anyway. That’s why I even set up murder scene props in the hotel corridor as bait, but the higher-ups designated Hu Yi, telling me not to catch innocent people and to go for the big fish if I were to kill. Well, I didn’t know these young ladies would come along as accessories.”

Taking a short breath, the man added one more thing.

“Will you deal with them when that person returns, or—.”

Upon hearing the other’s instructions, the man burst into laughter, revealing his yellow teeth.

“Yes, I understand. I know the next plan well without you having to tell me.”

The cargo truck disappeared into the distance, kicking up dust. The mantra flowing from the speakers was buried in the sand dust rising beneath the wheels. It was truly ironic. The Buddha’s mercy provided a small amount of comfort even to a fugitive. As if even such villains were the Buddha’s virtuous disciples.

Meanwhile, inside the airtight steel door.

Water slowly filled the studio. The water shimmered beneath the feet of the two standing right in front of the door.

He Yu held his phone and attempted to hack the signal jammer, but it was all in vain. The signal jammer was a piece of hardware, and it required corresponding mirroring software. Even a top-tier chef cannot cook rice without the rice itself.

This jammer was similar to the device He Yu had prepared to confess his feelings to Xie Xue on the dreamy island. Such signal jammers boast a signal disturbance powerful enough to block even emergency contact numbers. This meant that calling the police or emergency rescue agencies would be useless.

He looked back at Xie Qingcheng, put down his phone, and quietly shook his head while leaning against the cold alloy door.

It was a meaning that could be understood without words.

The two had become trapped in this perilous studio with no way out.