Luo Yingbai slipped out of Xia Xianning’s bedroom, went up another floor, found Xia Zheng’s study door locked, and entered the adjacent study through the window.
Luo Yingbai closed Xia Zheng’s bookshelf, pulled open the desk drawer, which was empty. Although Xia Xianning was on lookout, he was still somewhat nervous, occasionally looking back.
Fortunately, the house was very quiet, with no footsteps in the hallway. Luo Yingbai quickly searched the study and finally found a red velvet box in the pencil holder, which contained a delicate ladies’ watch.
The watch’s hands were still moving. Luo Yingbai examined it briefly and could tell it was well-crafted and certainly valuable, likely the watch the female ghost mentioned.
He carefully checked it from top to bottom. The watch was old, with the case well-preserved and the leather strap slightly worn, faintly exuding a trace of blood. Otherwise, there was nothing unusual.
Luo Yingbai thought for a moment, quickly ran downstairs, and returned to Xia Xianning’s bedroom. Xia Xianning was holding a tablet, looked up and raised an eyebrow slightly.
Luo Yingbai, not noticing his expression, asked anxiously: “Any situation?”
Xia Xianning said: “Zhu Linya and Cheng Guangchen have left. Xia Zheng is alone in his room, nothing happening for now.”
Luo Yingbai hurriedly took out the watch: “Look, this is it!”
Wearing gloves, Luo Yingbai held the watch for Xia Xianning to examine. Xia Xianning said: “It looks like it has blood on it.”
Luo Yingbai replied: “I thought so too, but the watch is so old and has changed hands several times, so it’s hard to tell where the blood is from.”
The strap was dark, and they sensed the blood rather than seeing it. Xia Xianning said: “Let’s put it back to avoid alerting Xia Zheng. We’ll decide what to do after getting the pawn shop records.”
Luo Yingbai scraped a layer of powder from the watch strap with a blade, wrapped it in clean paper, and was about to leave when a door suddenly sounded next door.
Luo Yingbai said: “Oh no, Xia Zheng is coming out!”
Xia Xianning said: “I’ll distract him. You escape through the window and return the watch!”
