American homeless people, surviving in the city

After passing through the iron gate checkpoint, Lynch officially entered the Lakeside District—one of the most luxurious affluent communities in all of Seattle.

The lakeside area has sparse housing, and you can hardly see anyone around.

Following the navigation software, Lin Qi quickly found the target of this cleaning mission: a detached villa mansion standing on a gentle slope of a small hill by the lake, almost completely hidden among various lush vegetation.

This is the original crime scene of the home invasion and murder case that occurred a few days ago.

The fir and maple trees lining the driveway, along with the moss climbing the walls, completely enclose the mansion. From the outside, it appears as if the entire mansion has "grown" out of this gentle slope.

Is this what a rich person's mansion looks like...? It doesn't seem that luxurious at all... Apart from the obviously high-quality building materials, the decor is so simple it looks like an old rural house...

Moreover, the thought that someone had just died here actually made the building, hidden among the dense vegetation, feel somewhat eerie...

Lin Qi mentally grumbled as he parked his beat-up car in the parking space in front of the mansion.

Then, he took out the piece of paper with a brief summary of the case from his pocket.

Before mustering the courage to step into the haunted house, he planned to learn more about the details of the case.

The note still bore Officer Kayla's flamboyant handwriting:

The deceased was identified as Marcus Winchester, a 26-year-old white male who lived alone and moved to his current address in mid-August 2025. He had a simple social network and no significant interaction with the surrounding community.

The victim died three days prior in a home invasion murder case, the cause of death being mechanical asphyxiation. Furthermore, the presence of skin flakes and bloodstains under the victim's fingernails indicates a violent physical confrontation with the attacker prior to death.

When the deceased was discovered, his body was hanging from a beam in the living room. He was completely naked, with no clothing. The skin below the waist had been completely stripped away, exposing the subcutaneous muscle and connective tissue. Extensive pools and splattered bloodstains were found on the floor and surrounding walls, covering a very large area.

The body has been removed, and the forensic department has completed all the investigation and evidence collection at the crime scene. Now, it is necessary to clean up the large amount of blood and remaining signs of struggle at the scene in order to maintain the community atmosphere, restore the basic living environment, and await further action from the deceased's family.

...?

After reading the contents of the note, Lin Qi felt a question mark slowly rising in his mind.

Is it really appropriate to put me in a situation like this for my second job?

The first case I dealt with was a simple suicide scene, so why does the second murder scene I have to deal with look so bizarre?

The skin tissue below the waist was completely peeled off...

Just looking at the few words on the note, Lin Qi could hardly imagine how bloody the scene would be.

It's no wonder that crime scene cleaners are among the professions with the highest incidence of mental illness; it's indeed difficult to guarantee mental health if you constantly see such scenes.

However, no matter how unwilling he was to see this scene, it was still Lynch's job.

After mentally preparing himself before standing in front of the door, Lin Qi took out various cleaning supplies from the trunk, then took out his key and opened the door to the mansion hidden in the dense vegetation.

The room was dark, with no lights on. Instead, a foul stench hit him first, causing Lin Qi to take two steps back.

Fortunately, compared to the stench of blood and medicine that filled the room I was cleaning last time, this time the smell of blood and stench was much easier to get used to.

After a dozen seconds, the fishy smell in the surrounding air gradually dissipated, and Lin Qi gradually got used to the smell.

He roused himself and used [Rat's Sense] to confirm that there were no immediate dangers around him. He then relaxed completely, slowly entered the house, and after groping around on the wall for a while, found the light switch.

After mentally preparing himself, he pressed the light switch button.

The scene inside the room suddenly appeared before his eyes.

Sure enough, the moment the luxurious crystal chandelier overhead cast its soft, pale yellow light into the room, what met Lin Qi's eyes was a sea of ​​blood.

Everywhere was congealed with a striking dark red, the bloodstains splattering in a central, flower-like pattern, centered on the carpet in the center of the living room, spraying onto the sofa, floor, vases, tables, chairs, and even the walls, like a blooming deep red flower.

Fortunately, several days had passed since the incident, and the blood had long since clotted.

Otherwise, if one were to see bright red bloodstains upon entering, the visual impact would likely be even stronger.

Even just looking at the dried bloodstains covering the entire room, Lin Qi felt his heart pounding uncontrollably.

Seeing such a large area of ​​bloodstains in virtual works such as games and movies might not feel so bad, but seeing such a scene in real life is still too frightening.

Even though he had prepared himself mentally, it still took Lin Qi a few more minutes to calm down.

Only then did he notice the various other traces remaining in the room.

The ground was covered with dirty, muddy footprints, some on top of bloodstains, others clearly made from mud from outside. It was unclear which were police footprints and which were left when the incident occurred.

There were also some marks of cutting and collision on the surfaces of the walls and furniture. However, these marks were not numerous, suggesting that the deceased did not offer much effective resistance before being rendered unable to resist and ultimately hanged there.

Subsequently, all the skin below his waist was peeled off.

...Tsk tsk, what a pitiful person.

After making a couple of exclamations, Lin Qi, having calmed down, stopped dwelling on the crime scene and realized a more serious problem:

The workload this time seems to be quite large.

Therefore, there's no time for further overthinking; getting to work as soon as possible is the best thing to do right now.

Lynch quickly found the toilet, unfolded the folding bucket, filled it with water, and then took out cleaning agent, scraper and sponge, and began to clean little by little.

Cleaning such a large and messy site is like playing a puzzle game with many unrelated clues. All he can do is calm down and clean up all the stains he sees little by little.

There are no shortcuts.

Lin Qi calmed down and focused intently on his work.

Time passed slowly, and before we knew it, three hours had gone by.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Qi stood up, rubbed his sore back, and examined his current work results.

By this time, the easily cleanable bloodstains on the floor and walls had been completely wiped clean. Next, there were bloodstains on the carpet and furniture, as well as trash left by the police during their investigation, traces of police tape and duct tape, and signs of a struggle left at the time of the incident that needed to be dealt with.

In short, Lynch has only completed the simplest part of the work so far.

Even so, this part of the work still took him a full three hours and consumed a lot of his energy.

"Ouch... I can't keep going like this. I need to rest and move around a bit. Otherwise, my muscles will definitely be sore tomorrow."

Feeling the soreness all over his body, Lin Qi decided to fish for a while.

Looking at the huge and luxurious villa he was in, a thought naturally popped into Lin Qi's mind:

Since we've come to this affluent area again... it's only natural to use the "Junior Gold Digger" skill to look for treasures, right?