If Ouyang Yun could recognize her, naturally Chen Shuhan could too.
But he didn’t want to believe that the person hanging upside down outside the window was Zhou Jing.

To see the woman he loved die in such a humiliating way—
and to be hung right outside his window—
to Chen Shuhan, this was pure provocation.

“Bring her in.”
Just five simple words, but Chen Shuhan said them through gritted teeth.

Soon after, the base’s security personnel came in, tied with safety ropes, and carefully brought down Zhou Jing, who had been hanging outside.

They discovered that the rope had been tied to the abandoned air conditioner railing on the tenth floor.
And Zhou Jing was hanging dead center outside the window because a steel nail had fixed the rope’s direction.

Among the security personnel were experts in criminal investigation, and they immediately began examining the scene.
But to their shock, even after such a complicated and risky crime, the killer hadn’t left a single trace.

It was as if the body had appeared out of thin air, suspended thirty meters above the ground and more than twenty meters below the rooftop—bizarre and horrifying.

When they finally laid Zhou Jing’s body on the ground, Chen Shuhan could see the terrifying knife wounds on her body.

A forensic doctor immediately stepped up to examine her:
“The tongue was cut out. There are eleven stab wounds, all inflicted with an Austrian military knife.
The perpetrator was highly skilled. The stab points were chosen specifically to cause excessive blood loss while dragging out the time of death as long as possible.
Judging from the body’s condition, she was hung out there around eleven o’clock last night.
She was still alive when first suspended… and lasted about half an hour.”

The words made Chen Shuhan’s heart ache painfully.

Ouyang Yun, meanwhile, was overwhelmed with nausea, dry heaving uncontrollably.

“Get out…”
Ouyang Yun’s weak voice of discomfort made Chen Shuhan even more irritable and furious.

He could imagine what Zhou Jing saw in her final moments last night—this must have been exactly what the murderer intended, to make her die in endless pain and despair.

Ouyang Yun hadn’t wanted to stay any longer either; she quickly took the chance to leave the room.

Realizing that this woman had an unusual relationship with Chen Shuhan, all the security personnel immediately grew even more cautious.

Even the hotel manager couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrows nervously.

“Seal off the entire Lán City Base!
Search every single person—I want to know who the hell did this!”
Chen Shuhan practically shouted the order.

Normally calm and reserved, Young Master Chen had gone mad.
Everyone was terrified.

Soon, all movement in and out of the Lán City Base was under tight scrutiny.
Every resident within the base was being questioned, plunging the entire place into a state of fear and unease.

---

At Villa No. 2 in the Lán City Base’s Villa District

When Zhou Ling got up, he immediately received the news from the base hotel.

“Hung upside down outside the hotel? Damn, how deep must that grudge have been?”
Even the arrogant Young Master Zhou was startled.

But then he frowned, sensing something odd:
“Wait… something’s off.
Wouldn’t a situation like this usually be handled by someone lower down?
Why would Young Master Chen himself show up?
Isn’t he supposed to be lofty and untouchable?”

Hearing this, Eyeglasses couldn’t help but feel worried for Zhou Ling.
“Because the dead one is…”

Before he could finish—

“Zhou Ling, where are you?
Get up already! Good timing.
Come with Dad to visit your uncle’s family,” Zhou Gang’s urgent voice sounded from outside.

Zhou Ling was stunned, a little surprised:
“Visit them?”

Their two families had been at odds since their grandfather’s generation—what was there to visit?

“Stop asking. Just go and have a look.”
Thinking of his scholarly, aloof brother’s family—his cousin, cousin-in-law, and even their daughter—Zhou Gang didn’t really want to get involved.
But they were still family after all.
Now that their daughter was dead, it would be too cold-hearted not to show some concern.

Reluctantly, Zhou Ling followed his father, assuming they were going to their house—
but instead, they arrived at the base hotel.

They took the elevator to the ninth floor.

Zhou Ling frowned immediately.
Wasn’t this Chen Shuhan’s reserved floor?

“Zhou Jing?”
Seeing the lifeless body on the stretcher, Zhou Ling was stunned.

The dead person was actually Zhou Jing.

He technically should call her “cousin.”

This woman, who had always looked down on Zhou Ling’s family as greedy and vulgar, was now lying there cold and dead.
Despite everything, Zhou Ling felt a little pang of pity.

“How did you people manage the base’s security, huh?
My Jing’er died such a horrible death right under your noses!
You owe us an explanation!”
Zhou Jing’s mother, who had once been a distinguished biotechnology professor at Lán City University, was now a disheveled, grief-stricken woman.
She pointed angrily at Chen Shuhan and Zhou Gang, as if she could barely restrain herself from attacking them.

Gone were the professional outfits and neatly pinned hair.
All that was left was the devastation and madness of a mother who had lost her daughter.

“Our Zhou family contributed so much to this city, and now we’re treated like this?
Isn’t this too much?”
Zhou Jing’s father also chimed in furiously.

Chen Shuhan tried to patiently calm them down.

Meanwhile, Zhou Gang, who had come in afterward, just frowned and edged further away.
Even now, those two still carried themselves with so much self-importance.

At the very back, Zhou Ling quietly checked the time, then silently slipped out of the room.
It was almost noon—he still had to deliver lunch to a few important people.

Thinking of Nan Muran and the others, and remembering how he had awakened his teleportation ability thanks to those fruits, Zhou Ling couldn’t help feeling ecstatic.
He wasn’t affected at all by Zhou Jing’s death.

The lunch had to be perfect—good-looking, delicious, with a balanced nutrition of meats and vegetables.

Zhou Jing’s death would definitely drive Chen Shuhan insane.
His own father, Zhou Gang, would probably act crazy too—
but how much of that was real emotion was anyone’s guess.

At Zhou’s Restaurant, Zhou Ling ordered a huge amount of good food.
While waiting for the dishes to be prepared, a thought suddenly crossed his mind:

Whoever could kill Zhou Jing so stealthily, using such a terrifying method, had to be one of those bigshots.

---

At noon, on the fifteenth floor of the hotel, everyone naturally gathered in the suite, waiting for Zhou Ling to bring the food.

“The lower floors of the hotel are a mess today.
They said the daughter of some professor died,” Chengcheng said.
Since she was a new face, she often ventured downstairs to gather information, so she knew a bit more than the others.

“A professor?
What kind of professor?” Xiang Xi asked curiously.
Even in the apocalypse, someone still being called by their pre-apocalypse title was quite amusing.

Chengcheng thought for a moment:
“A professor of biotechnology at Lán City University.
Apparently the daughter was a Ph.D. too.”

Fifteen and Han Yingtian, listening to them chat so casually, said nothing, just exchanged a glance.
They seemed like fools… but perhaps that wasn’t a bad thing.

“But seriously, the way she died was way too cruel,”
Xiang Xi couldn’t help but sigh after hearing how the girl had been killed.