Chapter 33: Virtual Reality

Let’s set aside the origin of this loan for now. The key was to figure out who borrowed money from Li Yiyuan. Without a doubt, the person who borrowed the money was the most likely suspect for the murder.

Li Yiyuan left Li Weimin’s place after playing cards and got into a car accident. The killer’s goal was definitely to hit him, retrieve the loan note, and erase all traces of this large loan from the world.

If we reasoned from the killer’s perspective, wanting a large loan to disappear without a trace required several conditions.

First, the loan note had to be newly written, and the killer had to act quickly before the other party could hide the note. Second, besides the two parties involved in the loan, no third person could know about it. Lastly, transferring such a large sum of money couldn’t attract the police’s attention afterward.

Meeting all these conditions at once was quite difficult, especially for a loan of over twenty million.

If Li Yiyuan had withdrawn over twenty million from his account and lent it to someone, the police would have found clues by checking the changes in the deceased’s account around those days.

The problem was, Sister Mei didn’t believe Li Yiyuan had that much money. From what she said, Li Yiyuan’s wedding planning shop didn’t have the ability to earn that much.

So there was only one possibility: Li Yiyuan obtained the money temporarily.

Lottery? Gambling? Overseas inheritance?

Gambling was unlikely; Li Yiyuan probably didn’t have that much money to gamble with. Overseas inheritance was also unlikely. With such a large amount involved and the car accident, the police would have easily uncovered it with a little investigation.

The lottery was a strong possibility. It could have been a winning ticket bought jointly with the killer that hadn’t been claimed yet. The large sum hadn’t entered Li Yiyuan’s account, Sister Mei didn’t know about it, and there was no way to investigate.

The killer tempted Li Yiyuan with a 20% monthly interest rate, making him decide to tell Sister Mei the good news about winning the lottery only after receiving the interest. Moreover, the killer and Li Yiyuan must have had a very close relationship; he was someone Li Yiyuan trusted a lot. Otherwise, given Li Yiyuan’s financial situation at the time, he wouldn’t have lent such a large amount no matter how high the interest was.

Lü Yang was now trapped in this Mysterious Domain, unable to leave the Qingyuan Residential Area, let alone report to the police or investigate anything. Thinking so much and in such detail was pointless. If the Main Quest given by the Mysterious Domain wasn’t an unsolvable task, all clues should be related to this residential area.

Since Li Yiyuan got into the accident after leaving Li Weimin’s place, Li Weimin was now the prime suspect in Li Yiyuan’s murder.

Since Li Weimin used to live in this residential area, it was better to check his home. Maybe there were new clues there. Earlier, the Black Cat seemed to want to lead Lü Yang toward the apartment building where Li Weimin lived.

“You go to the Security Booth and look. I remember they often kept a four-wheeled flat cart there. Lift me onto that cart,” Lü Yang said to Sister Mei after thinking for a moment.

“Right, how could I forget?” Sister Mei quickly ran to the residential area’s Security Booth. Sure enough, there was a four-wheeled flat cart inside. She dragged the cart out and pushed it next to Lü Yang.

Enduring the piercing pain, Lü Yang, with the help of Sister Mei and Xia Yan, struggled to climb onto the four-wheeled flat cart. Then he asked Sister Mei and Xia Yan to push him to the apartment building where Li Weimin lived.

Looking at Lü Yang’s pale face, Sister Mei started crying again. She knew very well that without prompt treatment, Lü Yang’s legs would be ruined. Especially since Xia Yan had just used a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, which would cut off fresh blood supply to his lower limbs for a long time, causing rapid muscle necrosis and ultimately leading to amputation.

Urged by Lü Yang, Sister Mei and Xia Yan pushed the four-wheeled flat cart toward Li Weimin’s apartment building with great effort.

“Was my husband killed by Li Weimin?” Sister Mei muttered softly as they walked.

Lü Yang didn’t answer Sister Mei. He didn’t know when he might pass out again. He concentrated all his energy thinking about the Mysterious Domain. The Main Quest was clear: find the mastermind behind Li Yiyuan’s murder case. For Lü Yang, whether to end this Mysterious Domain or to seek justice for Sister Mei, he had to complete this task. Otherwise, the suffering of almost having his manhood cut off and his legs shattered would be for nothing.

The two women exerted great effort to push Lü Yang to Li Weimin’s apartment building. Fortunately, Li Weimin’s former home was on the first floor, and, surprisingly, the iron gate of the building was wide open.

Insisting on his plan, Lü Yang had the two women support him by his arms, one on each side. They dragged him off the cart, into the building, and up to the iron gate of Li Weimin’s home.

The pain from dragging his broken legs on the ground was unbearable for most people, but Lü Yang had to grit his teeth and endure it. If he didn’t end this Mysterious Domain quickly, his legs wouldn’t receive timely treatment. Then it wouldn’t just be amputation; his life might be in danger.

If the Mysterious Domain didn’t end, Sister Mei and Xia Yan couldn’t return to the normal world either. He still didn’t know where Yi Yi and Yi Ya were now. So, no matter how he looked at it, he had to find a way to complete the Main Quest of this Mysterious Domain as soon as possible and end it.

The iron gate of Li Weimin’s home was tightly shut. Sister Mei and Xia Yan knocked on the gate as Lü Yang instructed, but there was no response. Just then, a man in a black jacket, carrying a helmet, walked towards them with his head down. The three noticed him too late and watched helplessly as the man quickly approached the gate and stepped right through Lü Yang’s body.

The two women gasped in surprise, but the man in the black jacket was just a phantom. He passed directly through Lü Yang’s body to the door and seemed completely unaware of the three of them.

Lü Yang recognized him immediately. This was the same man in the black jacket who had snatched the loan note scrap from his hand earlier. Now he was actually at Li Weimin’s home. It seemed this murder case was indeed connected to Li Weimin, and the Mysterious Domain seemed to be recreating everything that happened two years ago in a virtual reality.

“Sister Mei, is he Li Weimin?” Lü Yang, now sure the man was just a phantom, quickly asked Sister Mei.

“No,” Sister Mei shook her head.

“He is the driver of the old truck that hit your husband’s car,” Lü Yang then told Sister Mei.

“It’s him!?” Sister Mei seemed unable to process this immediately.

The man in the black jacket didn’t knock on the door right away. Instead, he took out his mobile phone from his waist and tapped the screen a few times. Lü Yang was directly below him. When the man lifted his black jacket to get the phone, Lü Yang noticed he had three mobile phones hanging from his waist.

“Xia Yan, quick, see what he’s doing!” Lü Yang shouted urgently. Sitting on the ground, he had to rely on the two women for help.

“He turned on the recording function on his mobile phone,” Xia Yan replied after looking at the man’s phone screen.

“Xiao Lü, you said he’s the one who hit and killed my husband?” Sister Mei’s voice trembled with emotion and anger.

“Sister Mei, don’t get too agitated. I suspect he’s just a pawn. The real mastermind is Li Weimin…”