Chapter 7: Logic in Disarray Once More

After Captain Yan uttered those words, he suddenly fell silent. For a moment, the atmosphere inside the vehicle was suspended, neither tense nor relaxed.

Chen Yu, who had been on edge, felt his heart settle when he heard the words “innocent.” At least this wasn’t a descent straight into hell—there was still some breathing room left.

Although Yan Zheng’s face remained as calm as still water, his heart was already in turmoil. Moments ago, he’d ordered a colleague in the household registration office to investigate Chen Yu’s background as quickly as possible. The result was unexpected. This kid was almost excessively clean—no stains whatsoever.

Orphaned, with no relatives or connections, he had come alone from a remote mountain village to seek his fortune in the bustling city of River City. Beyond that, there was nothing else to be found.

When Yan Zheng tried to dig deeper into the background of Chen Yu’s parents, he was told that the household registration in that remote village was so backward that no effective records remained.

Now, Yan Zheng truly had no way to deal with him.

Chen Yu stuck to his story: he had drunk too much the night before and woke up with selective amnesia.

“Drank too much” was, in itself, an almost impossible claim to verify. As for “amnesia”... who could prove he really lost his memory? Who could prove he hadn’t? Medical examination? Indeed, excessive alcohol could cause temporary memory loss. Even if a medical assessment yielded nothing, if he decided to play the rogue and insisted he couldn’t remember, the doctors would be powerless.

After all, with current medical knowledge, there’s still no way to precisely determine whether someone has truly lost their memory.

Thinking of this, Yan Zheng’s resentment toward the program team’s reckless antics grew even stronger.

He decided: let’s see first. Let’s see if these so-called “contestants” could really solve the case. If they managed to, then the destroyed “evidence” would be no great loss. But if they failed...

Hmph!

Yan Zheng’s gaze sharpened. Even if it meant offending certain superiors or taking off his uniform, he would stop this ludicrous show!

And as for this troublemaking youth who had “risen from the dead”—let him make a scene! If the case wasn’t solved, he’d make sure this kid caused a real ruckus—on a sewing machine, if need be!

With these thoughts, Captain Yan’s eyes refocused on Chen Yu. His tone was still icy: “You stayed in the locked room for nearly two hours. Did you notice anything?”

At this, Chen Yu frowned slightly and countered, “Before we get to that, could you first tell me—who am I? Where am I? What’s actually going on here?”

He had to first clarify his own situation.

Lin Bing’s lips curled in a mocking smile. “Looks like you’ve really gotten into character, haven’t you?” But despite her words, she smoothly took up the task of explaining the basics of this world to Chen Yu. Naturally, her focus was on this detective variety show.

Chen Yu listened patiently, his mind spinning as he filtered every key piece of information.

This was the country of Xia, River City—a densely populated international metropolis. The people here seemed generally well-off, with little gap between rich and poor. Life moved at a relatively leisurely pace, and the public was enthusiastic about all kinds of entertainment. Thus, the wave of variety shows had swept through River City and the entire nation.

And “Revisiting Old Cases,” this detective program, was currently the hottest show around.

As for himself... He was also named Chen Yu—a last-minute extra hired by the production team for two hundred bucks and a boxed meal, assigned to play the role of the deceased, Luo Xiangdong, in the locked room.

As for what happened after that...

Chen Yu felt his toes curl with embarrassment, as if he could dig out a Barbie Dream House inside his shoes.

When Lin Bing mentioned the nature of the “Luo Xiangdong disappearance case,” Chen Yu was struck by a thought. He had initially believed Luo Xiangdong’s death might have been a simple accident. But he hadn’t expected both the police and the production team to treat it as an unresolved criminal case.

The information he’d gained through his “retrospective” skill clearly couldn’t be presented directly as evidence. Besides, just experiencing the scene of death wasn’t enough to rule out the possibility of homicide.

After all, he hadn’t personally seen the “gust of wind” Luo Xiangdong had mentioned, the one that supposedly slammed the door shut. Nor could he determine whether the iron door had been closed by a freak gust, as Luo Xiangdong believed, or if someone outside had done it deliberately.

He sighed inwardly. “I’ll have to get to the bottom of this.”

At that moment, the door to the control cabin at the front of the broadcast van slid open. A middle-aged man with a beaming smile poked his head out, his gaze landing directly on Chen Yu.

“Hey, young man, your performance today was absolutely explosive! Fantastic!” The director stepped out, his excitement almost tangible—a whiff of greed in the air.

“Keep it up! If your future performances stay this impressive, we’ll make sure you’re well compensated!”

Lin Bing leaned in to whisper, “This is our show’s chief director, Director Wang.”

Chen Yu regarded Director Wang obediently. Strangely, the kindly man who promised him a pay raise seemed oddly familiar, almost as if he were a long-lost father...

Ahem. Chen Yu quickly reined in his wild imagination, his gaze drifting inadvertently into the control cabin.

Inside sat a poised middle-aged woman.

Chen Yu’s gaze sharpened instantly.

This woman... she was truly familiar!

He could almost say her name...

Wait—

She—she was the woman in the photo frame in the locked room!

That’s it! Though she looked a bit more weary than in the photograph, her composed elegance was unmistakable.

“This is Mrs. Liu Hong, the widow of Mr. Luo Xiangdong,” Lin Bing murmured as she noticed Chen Yu’s eyes practically glued to Liu Hong.

At the same moment, Liu Hong was studying Chen Yu with an exceptionally complex expression. Though his features bore no resemblance to her late husband, his clothing and even his slightly disheveled hair were exactly as Luo Xiangdong had worn them all those years ago.

That overwhelming sense of déjà vu left the beautiful widow briefly lost in thought.

Luo Xiangdong’s wife?

A storm surged in Chen Yu’s mind. A clear conclusion surfaced:

The desperate scenes he’d witnessed through his “retrospective” skill weren’t the original host’s at all—they were Luo Xiangdong’s!

The original host had never interacted with the walls, the floor tiles, or even the photo frame in that room. But Luo Xiangdong had. And the intense emotions and residual information all clearly stemmed from the final moments of Luo Xiangdong’s life.

Chen Yu turned politely to Liu Hong and asked, “Excuse me, may I ask how many years you were married to Mr. Luo?”

Liu Hong’s eyes flickered slightly, her voice calm as she replied, “By the year he disappeared, almost ten years.”

“Nearly ten years…”

Chen Yu fell into deep thought once more. Ten years of marriage.

For a man married for ten years to end up in a dilapidated locked room in the wilderness, gazing at a photo of his own wife with an expression bordering on mad infatuation...

Was that reasonable?

No matter how he tried, Chen Yu couldn’t convince himself. It was simply too strange.

Yet another glaring logical inconsistency appeared before him. All the other oddities had been explained once Lin Bing clarified his role as a temporary actor. But this one—how could it be explained?

As Chen Yu’s thoughts whirled—

Creak—

The heavy door of the broadcast truck was suddenly yanked open from the outside!