Chapter 422 - Chapter 422: Chapter 422: The Person Next Door (1/2)

Chapter 422: Chapter 422: The Person Next Door

The person inside the room stubbornly refused to open the door and didn’t respond anymore.

Zhao Feng turned his head to look at Wang De’an, who had also stepped out of the room, and saw a grave expression on his face.

Clearly, he’d picked up on something being wrong during the brief exchange between Zhao Feng and the man in the room.

They exchanged a glance, didn’t say a word, and went straight to find the service staff on this floor to contact the manager.

Wang De’an showed his credentials to the manager—who, in fact, knew him since the hotel was near the local police station, often serving as the lodging place for visiting colleagues from other regions.

After explaining the situation, Wang De’an and Zhao Feng checked the registry for the adjacent room and examined the hallway’s surveillance footage from that period, confirming that the only person in the room was indeed the registered guest.

The guest was a 37-year-old male from Guangdong Province who, judging by the surveillance footage, seemed somewhat dazed. Since entering the room at noon, he hadn’t come out.

“What do you think?” Wang De’an asked Zhao Feng privately after dismissing the hotel manager.

Zhao Feng frowned thoughtfully before saying, “I still think there’s a problem… Not just from the brief glimpse we got through the window, or the conversation at his door, but also his voice, what he said, all were problematic. Plus, those strange knocking sounds on our window—it wasn’t only ours that was knocked, but also the adjacent room’s, as if someone was deliberately trying to draw our attention towards it. But who’s knocking on the window?”

Instinctively lowering his voice, Wang De’an said, “Is it once again ‘that’… giving us a warning?”

Zhao Feng knew what ‘that’ referred to, and shook his head, “I don’t know, but I think… probably not.”

After some discussion, they decided to enlist the hotel’s help to cut off the power to that room and then send someone under the guise of maintenance to check inside.

But, unexpectedly, there was no response from within the room after the power cut-off.

Could it be that the person has really fallen asleep?

So they asked the service staff to knock on the door, but even after some knocking, there was no answer.

At that moment, Wang De’an and Zhao Feng suddenly heard the sound of a heavy object falling to the floor within the room.

Reacting quickly, Wang De’an blurted out to the service staff, “Open the door, quickly!”

After the room’s door was opened, they immediately saw a man seated on the ground, his face covered in tears, his body smeared with blood, attempting to cut his own throat with a knife.

Wang De’an and Zhao Feng rushed in together, held the man down, and took away his knife.

The hotel manager who’d followed them in hurriedly used his walkie-talkie to instruct the hotel’s staff to restore power to the room. Once the lights were on, they discovered several gashes on the man’s neck and also some injuries on his wrists. His blood was everywhere.

However, perhaps because the knife was too blunt, or because the man had not been forceful enough when cutting himself, the wounds weren’t deep and, fortunately, no arteries had been damaged.

On the nearby floor was an air-conditioning vent cover, torn off by a piece of rope, and not far from there was a toppled chair.

Anyone could understand upon seeing this scene—the man was attempting suicide!

And it looked like he’d first attempted to slit his wrists, then tried to hang himself, and after failing at that, tried to cut his throat.

The thought of what had just taken place brought a sense of dread to the hotel manager, who, upon Wang De’an’s prompt, hurriedly dialed for an ambulance.

Wang De’an promptly made a call to report the incident to his department, and Zhao Feng asked the hotel service staff to fetch clean towels from the bathroom to cover the man’s wounds.

“Mentioning your troubles might help alleviate your pain. What’s bothering you so much that you want to end your life?” Zhao Feng attempted to divert the man’s attention.

“I deserve to die, don’t bother with me, let me die. I’m useless, a burden to others; just let me die…”

From the man’s sobbing and disjointed, incoherent words, Zhao Feng and Wang De’an learned that the man had become addicted to online gambling and had borrowed money to keep playing. He’d even mortgaged his house to continue gambling but ended up losing everything. He was now drowning in debt and in a state of despair. He bought a knife and rope, wanting to commit suicide in the hotel, but unexpectedly failed multiple times.

When the man found out that Zhao Feng and Wang De’an were police officers, he immediately clutched their legs sobbing, “I’ll provide evidence and testify against those running the online gambling. They must have cheated. They’re breaking the law. Please, help me get my money back…”

“Calm down. Don’t get too worked up. We’ll follow up with you about this matter once your wounds are treated,” Wang De’an reassured him.

However, he knew, tracking down these online gambling rings is highly challenging. With the servers and key criminals often offshore, and the rapid speed of money transfers, apprehending culprits and recovering money were both difficult tasks.