After returning to the bathroom, Chu Tian squatted down, holding a wrench, and repeatedly pressed the flush button on the toilet. Finally, he closed the toilet lid and fanned the air with his hand: “That should have flushed it clean.”
“Wait, so what exactly did you do to that female ghost?!”
“That’s not the point,” Chu Tian said. “The point is, there are still three people waiting for us to save them. Yu Fu, the Scene Kid, and Ni Xiao.”
“Huh?”
Ye Keke looked utterly confused. Chu Tian then explained, “Haven’t you figured it out yet? The way to survive this game.”
“What… way to survive?”
Chu Tian pulled a red piece of paper from his shirt pocket. Under the light, the words “Seven-Day No-Reason Return Policy” shone brightly.
Shangjin Villa, second floor, the room at the end of the corridor.
On the mirror placed on the dressing table, spiderweb-like veins began to spread out from the center. Black flames, like molten lava, surged out through the cracks.
In the next moment, silvery mirror fragments shot out in all directions!
Along with the fragments, two figures emerged from the mirror. One was dressed in a long red gown, a casual smile playing on her lips. The other, dressed in white, was unconscious.
Casually tossing Ni Xiao onto the bed, Lin Huai lightly pressed his index finger to his forehead and drew a cross-shaped mark counterclockwise. As the mark appeared, his red gown gradually returned to its original color, starting from the bottom.
He was in a good mood, even whistling “La Vie en Rose.” But from the bed came a trembling voice.
“Who… who are you?”
Lin Huai turned around. Ni Xiao was clinging to the headboard, looking utterly terrified.
He glanced down at the only remaining red collar on his outfit and spoke sincerely, “The successor of socialism.”
Ni Xiao: …
“Since you’ve discovered my secret,” Lin Huai slowly walked toward her, “I can’t let you stay.”
Ni Xiao wanted to escape, but Lin Huai’s finger was already pressed against her forehead.
Facing the overwhelming pressure, Ni Xiao resignedly closed her eyes, only to hear the man’s cold, merciless voice.
“My foolish little brother.”
Ni Xiao: …
Once again, Lin Huai erased the memory of the person he had saved, leaving no trace of his good deed. He looked down at his collar and felt that the red scarf on his chest had become even more vibrant.
Thinking this, he casually grabbed the door handle, intending to open the door.
In the next moment, Lin Huai’s smile froze on his face.
Before entering the room to help Ni Xiao earlier, he had locked the door as a precaution.
And now, the key to the door… was lost inside the mirror.
The mighty Red-Clothed Vicious Ghost stared at the door lock, a product of human ingenuity, and fell silent.
Between violently smashing the door open and seeking help from others, Lin Huai, confident in his DPS, ultimately chose teamwork.
He messed up his hair, cleared his throat, and began banging on the door, screaming, “Help! Help! There’s a ghost in here!”
The desperate cries for help came from the third room. Chu Tian was startled and, without waiting for the rest of his teammates, grabbed the wrench and rushed toward the source of the sound.
Despite his lingering suspicions about Lin Huai, he suddenly remembered that the man was just a 179cm tall kid.
And…
If his guess was correct…
The 179cm tall kid continued to bang on the door with one hand at a high frequency while using the other hand to hold the door handle, ensuring the door wouldn’t open from his knocking.
From outside came Chu Tian’s voice: “Lin Huai! Is that you?”
Lin Huai replied, “It’s me! Big brother!”
Chu Tian said, “Hold on! I’ll be right there…”
As soon as he finished speaking, Chu Tian clenched his teeth, focused his energy, and smashed the entire door lock with the wrench. Lin Huai, ever the opportunist, let go of the door and collapsed to the ground, pretending to be a fragile little flower.
“Just now, a ghost appeared in the mirror,” Lin Huai said, pale-faced and clutching a pillow after escaping the perilous situation he had created for himself. “I heard Ni Xiao scream and ran over… Who knows how the room got locked from the inside?”
Chu Tian glanced at the unconscious Ni Xiao on the bed and then at Lin Huai, who was holding a pillow on the sofa, and asked, “Then what? How did you get out?”
Lin Huai said, “Ni Xiao initiated the fight first, attracting the Mirror Ghost’s aggro with a scream, locking in the target. I sent out a team fight signal, but our teammates were still out in the wild picking mushrooms…”
“Then what?”
“Then,” Lin Huai pointed at the mirror, “the Mirror Ghost got stuck in the mirror while trying to crawl out because of her overly generous waistline. Poor thing, she couldn’t get out even after the entire mirror shattered into pieces.”
“Then what?”
“Then, she clutched her neck and said, ‘Who killed me? And who did I kill?'” Lin Huai clutched his own neck and stuck out his tongue. “Then she said…”
“…I killed myself?”
“Correct,” Lin Huai extended a hand toward Chu Tian, who had answered correctly. “Your turn.”
Zhang Lu said, “…You think I’d believe your nonsense?”
The terrifying strength of the Dou Zong powerhouse allowed him to see through Lin Huai’s true identity at a glance. But after examining the mirror, Chu Tian actually stroked his chin and said, “The trajectory of the mirror fragments does indeed indicate they were shot outward in a radial pattern. It seems the mirror was indeed broken from the inside out.”
“Lin Huai is telling the truth,” he concluded.
Lin Huai, having received the approval of the great detective, felt even more emboldened. He covered his face, whimpered dramatically, and delivered a classic Werewolf line: “Wuwuwu, I’m just a poor, helpless, and timid villager.”
After dragging Ye Keke and Ni Xiao into a room, the three of them continued toward the third floor. Before they even entered the corridor, they heard the rapid sound of someone dribbling a basketball.
The Scene Kid’s head was nodding against the ground, as if he were being controlled by an invisible ghost. He was bouncing in rhythm with the basketball.
Chu Tian rushed forward with the wrench and casually smashed the basketball.
The basketball split open like a watermelon, and what spilled out was a pinkish-white brain matter. The Scene Kid fell to the ground, his face pale, and he vomited at the sight of it.
Lin Huai looked at the mosaic-like mess on the ground, unable to decide whether the pink or yellow parts were more disgusting.
The trio expanded to four as they left Yu Fu, who was rhythmically typing on a keyboard in the third-floor room, and took the unconscious Tang Wen with them.
Meanwhile, downstairs, Ye Xian, who had inexplicably fallen into a deep sleep, woke up from his dream.
Perhaps due to the wind, the curtains billowed open, revealing a bright full moon. Ye Xian got out of bed and reached for his shoes.
His two roommates hadn’t returned yet, and the third floor was bustling with the lively and joyful atmosphere of a monster hunt. He put on his shoes and was about to grab his glasses when the “Heartbeat Memories” card he had kept in his pocket suddenly felt warm.
He looked up. Directly below the full moon, between the two curtains, stood a figure in a blood-red gown, neither red nor white.
Its body was twisting and morphing, as if mimicking the shape of something.
He swallowed hard, but his heels involuntarily rubbed against the floor, preparing to make a run for it.
Yet, there was an inexplicable allure emanating from the figure, drawing him in, making him want to approach.
“By the way…” Tang Wen asked Chu Tian as they walked downstairs, “What kind of thing might Ye Xian encounter?”
Lin Huai said, “Thanks for asking. Probably a low-level 伥Gui, capable of transforming into the thing people desire most, luring them into obsession.”
When they pushed open Ye Xian’s door, they found him pressed against the wall, letting out endless wails.
Facing him was a three-dimensional version of a pink 100-yuan bill.
