Deep in the Living
Chapter 87 - 81 Dream

Chapter 87: Chapter 81 Dream

In the studio apartment

The back wall of the sofa, which had just been freshly painted, was now plastered with various colored tags, all containing various pieces of information written down by Luo Di while watching videos.

Information about the four missing youths was organized into four regions: "up, down, left, right," and the related information among them was connected by lines.

As for the young males, commonalities such as age were already known and need not be emphasized again.

The only shared information was the following three items:

1. Evenly proportioned and above-average looks.

2. Habit of morning running.

3. No nightlife, always home on time at night.

According to the videos from the 24 hours before they went missing, there indeed was no unusual behavior,

no fixed contact with anyone,

no meals eaten at the same restaurant,

no lengthy conversations with strangers,

and they didn’t even live in the same residential areas,

not even their preferred morning running routes were completely the same,

Luo Di even began to suspect whether Mingwang City’s supervision over Physical Corner was not adequate, leading to the four people disappearing through Physical Corner. However, he quickly rejected this assumption.

Since the Investigation Bureau couldn’t find anything overtly, the culprit behind the youths’ disappearance must possess extremely sophisticated methods.

However, Luo Di always felt that although these four videos appeared detailed, they actually lacked something.

Thud~

A knock on the door,

"Sir, your delivery is here."

Marco Rubio, with curly black hair, visited wearing the standard delivery outfit, and it was also nighttime. In his hand, he carried a delivery pizza, seemingly guessing that Luo Di hadn’t had dinner yet.

"This is my personal favorite, the Margherita pizza. I specifically went and stood in line for ten minutes to get it, hope you like it.

I’ll be taking the body now~ just a reminder again, be careful not to let the brain pituitary leak out."

After securing the body in a special black garbage bag, Marco casually asked:

"Any leads on the case yet?"

"I’ll start morning running tomorrow."

"Bravo! (Great Job!)"

After giving a thumbs up, Marco then turned and left.

As he walked out of the studio apartment, he also rubbed his nose and mouth with his index finger. He seemed to have smelled two different kinds of corpse smells, but the other was very faint, almost non-existent.

After checking the situation between the body bags again, he shook his head and quickly disappeared from the area.

...

In the quiet of the night,

Though the street lights maintained the lighting condition of daytime, most people had fallen into deep sleep.

Luo Di had just completed two hundred single-arm push-ups and five hundred double-arm push-ups, fully adapting to the temporary bionic arm attached to him.

After washing off the sweat from his body, he also took out a temporarily purchased identical notebook to detail the day’s events, planning to later paste the pages back into his original diary when he returned home.

Having done all that, Luo Di didn’t sleep in the big bed but returned to the sofa, sitting next to the "class monitor" and fell asleep seated.

It was unknown how much time had passed when a familiar voice woke him up.

"Luo Di, get up quickly, your classmates are here."

Opening his eyes,

What met his eyes was a familiar bedroom, and the mask sketch designed by himself pasted next to the study desk.

The alarm clock on the bedside was about to reach noon, it was his first time sleeping until this time.

Pushing open the door,

The sister from the next room just happened to come out, seemingly aware that guests would be visiting today, hence she put on a beautiful long dress.

Parents were busy cooking in the kitchen, with many exquisite dishes already on the dining table, and fresh coconut juice and orange juice just bought from outside.

Wearing an apron, his mother took a moment to come out from the kitchen to open the door,

"Come in, the house isn’t big, feel free to sit anywhere."

Class monitor Wu Wen, leading Gao Yuxuan and Anna, and followed by the very shy Xiao Ying,

"Thank you, auntie, this is a gift for you, and also for uncle and sister."

The class monitor, acting familiar, immediately put a necklace on Luo Di’s mother upon entering, then handed a tie gift box to the father busy in the kitchen, before moving to the living room.

Her gaze also looked towards Luo Di for the first time,

"Luo Di! Happy Birthday, your gift will be a bit late... This must be the sister you always talk about, she’s so beautiful!"

The class monitor quickly went up, held hands with the sister, and handed over a specially prepared set of lipsticks, behaving like a long-lost distant relative.

Gao Yuxuan also entered, habitually adjusting his glasses, then patted Luo Di’s back with his metal prosthetic arm, "Happy Birthday."

His other hand was carrying a specially customized birthday cake, and the birthday candles representing "18."

As all the dishes were served from the kitchen, everyone also gathered to sit down around the dining table.

"Wow! It looks so delicious!" The class president couldn’t help but drool, quickly wiping it away with a napkin, chopsticks in one hand and bowl in the other, ready to eat as if she were setting up for a sprint.

Seeing the class president, his mother also showed a particularly satisfied look, then turned to look at the other classmates.

Eventually, his mother looked at Luo Di in disbelief, completely surprised that her son could find such a good group of friends.

"By the way, Luo Di, there’s also a plate of steamed sausages that we forgot to serve; can you go get them?"

"Okay."

Being the closest to the kitchen, Luo Di got up to go, but after searching every pot in the kitchen, he couldn’t find the so-called sausages,

"Mom! Where did you put the sausages, I can’t find them?"

Luo Di’s question received no response,

Moreover, when Luo Di paused to listen carefully, he discovered that the lively voices had all disappeared, leaving only faint and uncomfortable sounds.

The moment he heard this faint sound, cold sweat had already broken out on his forehead.

When Luo Di anxiously stepped out of the kitchen,

Thwap! He stepped directly onto a warm and sticky liquid,

The entire house, under the refraction of the lights, took on a deep red hue,

Most of the people who had been gathered around the dining table to eat were scattered in different areas of the living room, all with the same characteristic—they were headless.

In the furthest corner by the windowsill,

The class president was squatting there, doing something that seemed very familiar to Luo Di.

In front of her lay Gao Yuxuan’s body, his metallic gleaming bionic arm particularly conspicuous.

As Luo Di stepped through the blood and approached her, just one meter away, the class president suddenly stopped her cutting motion, turned around holding a head, and smilingly stared at him.

"Happy Birthday~ Do you like this gift?"

Click!

A familiar clicking sound echoed from his mouth, and the current scene instantly collapsed.

Sunlight squeezed through the gaps in the curtains into the room, casting light on Luo Di’s face.

The dream ended,

Luo Di, waking up from the couch, instinctively looked beside him; the "class president" was still quietly lying on the tissue, her eyes firmly shut.

Night had passed,

Luo Di showed no expression, glancing down at the time on his wristband.

[06:05]

After handling basic grooming, shaving extra stubble, and cleaning his face as much as possible to ensure his reflection in the mirror did not look much different from before.

This morning he needed to start on the case; morning running was the first thing to do and also a significant commonality among those four missing persons.

However, before starting his morning run, Luo Di had another task,

Any of his actions now needed to involve bringing the "class president," and it was clearly inappropriate to go running with that huge hiking bag.

Now he needed to buy a properly-sized, sports-appropriate backpack for running.

Perhaps due to the innate diligence of Huaxia people, even though it was early, breakfast stores on the streets were open, though clothing stores and supermarkets were still closed.

After eating soy milk and fried dough sticks with his backpack, Luo Di pointed towards a nearby store "Pike Sports."

"Boss, what time does this store open? I’m here visiting and need to buy a smaller backpack."

The middle-aged owner with tanned skin spoke while frying dough sticks, "That’s my wife’s store, but she’s still asleep. You can take the keys and go pick one yourself."

A key to the lock was tossed over.

"Thanks."

Luo Di didn’t say much else, just took the key and went to open the door.

There were quite a few types of sports backpacks in the store,

Even though the class president’s head wasn’t big, comfort still needed to be considered; just as Luo Di was reaching for a lightweight backpack,

Whoosh—a chilling wind from nowhere brushed against his arm, raising goosebumps, drawing Luo Di’s eyes in direction the wind blew.

A smaller, more convenient, and less comfortable trail-running backpack was hanging there,

Luo Di quickly took the backpack down, squatted in a corner out of sight from the outside and the camera, trying to transfer the class president inside,

Surprisingly, the size was just right, and the internal sponge provided good cushioning, perfectly suited for the upcoming morning run.

The only problem was it was too snug, leaving no extra space, which might be too cramped and suffocating for the class president.

While Luo Di was hesitating, a murmuring sound, a whisper in the darkness, reached his ear:

"It doesn’t matter..."

He suddenly opened the backpack and looked at the head,

Unfortunately,

There were only tightly closed eyes and mouth.