Since it was already done, Xie Qi had no choice but to make other plans.
Fortunately, the side quest only required him to prepare ingredients. It didn't say he had to kill them himself, so his quest progress had reached 2/7.
Although he'd gotten points without lifting a finger, Xie Qi couldn't bring himself to be happy.
A development with no drama at all wasn't what the viewers wanted to see.
He rested a hand against his chin and stared at the wealthy businessman's corpse, thinking.
The businessman was fat and had bled a lot. Now his blood covered the floor.
That made the scene harder for Xie Qi to clean up.
He had originally told the businessman to come to the kitchen at ten tonight because it would have been easier to deal with the body there, without blood getting everywhere and being discovered.
But the guest room was already in this state, and it would be almost impossible to cover it up and pretend nothing had happened.
So what should he do?
Xie Qi rubbed a fingertip against the corner of his mouth, pulling it upward as the sharp fangs in his mouth pressed into his lip.
Feeling the sharp pain, Xie Qi let out a low laugh.
"All right, time to move the gift someone gave me."
He lowered his hand as he finished speaking and found blood on his fingertip.
Apparently, his movement just now had caused his teeth to bite through his lip. Since this body had no sense of taste, he hadn't noticed.
It felt like a waste, so he brought his fingertip to his mouth and licked it. Only when he saw that it was clean did Xie Qi contentedly wipe it with the handkerchief in his pocket.
Then Xie Qi turned and locked the door from the inside first, so no little cutie would happen to see it while he was away.
He first returned to his room to put away his clothes and knife, then went downstairs to the kitchen to get a clean body bag. To keep the floor from getting dirty as it had yesterday, he brought a few extras just in case. A few more layers should keep the blood from leaking.
The viewers watched as Xie Qi worked like a diligent laborer, dragging the businessman into the body bag in the room while taking care not to get blood on the bag.
Then he clapped his hands, took another pen from his pocket, and pulled a sheet of paper from the desk.
A line of elaborate English lettering appeared on the blank page.
The viewers who saw what it said marveled at the chef's twisted sense of humor.
They all began talking at once about how the chef's mind worked differently from ordinary people's.
After finishing the note, Xie Qi hoisted the bag onto his shoulder with a heave.
He couldn't help it. Although this body was very strong, carrying a fat man who weighed nearly three hundred jin all that way was still tiring.
So he could only let his image suffer a little.
By now, it was almost the early hours of the next day.
Xie Qi deftly dealt with the ingredients and tidied the kitchen while he was at it, so Nikalos wouldn't complain when he started work tomorrow.
Praising himself for being so considerate, Xie Qi straightened his sleeves while continuing to think about tomorrow's game.
He had originally wanted to keep playing cards with the guests, but he was afraid the viewers would get tired of it.
And to make things more interesting, Xie Qi came up with a good idea.
The idea hadn't come out of nowhere. He had observed everyone closely during the day and keenly realized that they must have known one another before and even knew a fair bit about each other, yet they had pretended to be strangers when they first arrived at the villa.
Now that was worth digging into.
What would make a group of people fleeing for their lives pretend to be strangers?
Xie Qi stroked his chin and smiled silently in the dark corridor.
Haha, let me help them along.
Second by second, time passed into the next day.
The sun rose in the east, but just as it began to show itself, a high-decibel voice nearly frightened it back down.
Xie Qi was woken by the noise yet again. Although he'd been prepared today, he'd gone to bed late, so dark circles still stubbornly hung under his eyes.
This time the sound was close to him, coming from the second floor.
Before long, a jumble of footsteps sounded in the corridor. The guests had probably all been called out of their rooms by the noise and come to see what had happened.
When everyone came out, they saw Bailey lying on the floor, his body trembling uncontrollably. He pointed at the businessman's room and cried, "Blood! There's blood everywhere! Someone's dead!"
Hearing this, Officer Saul frowned and hurriedly pulled the people in front of him aside, wanting to enter the room and investigate.
The others all knew what he did for a living and made way for him.
Inside the room, which was much like theirs, large pools of blood had congealed on the floor. Since some time had passed, the red had darkened to black in places.
With that much blood, if it had all come from one person, that person was definitely dead.
Saul realized this immediately. He also saw an overturned chair nearby, which looked as though someone had knocked it over.
He first stepped back out and asked everyone whether anyone had heard anything last night.
The others all shook their heads, saying they'd gone to bed early and hadn't heard a thing.
But Song Nan, standing by the door, seemed to notice something. She raised an eyebrow and pointed at a note on the desk. "Look, what's that? Is it a letter?"
Following the direction she pointed, the others saw the paper too.
Saul hadn't looked there just now and hadn't noticed anything else, so he went back into the room, carefully avoided the bloodstains, and picked up the paper from the desk.
The ornate lettering caught his eye. He studied it carefully and finally made out what it said:
[It's your turn ~ ❤]
Leaving the message aside, the writing alone was pleasing to the eye, with a heart drawn in an ornate style at the end.
But Saul was in no mood to admire it. When he remained silent, the people outside called for him to come out quickly.
"What are you looking at? What does it say?"
Brussels was a straightforward man. When Saul came out with the note, he snatched it right out of his hand.
When he made out the words, his dark face turned ashen.
He flung the paper down as if it had burned him, then wiped his hand on his clothes.
Seeing such a strong reaction from him, no one else dared touch the note.
Only Phil looked disdainful. With one hand in a pocket, Phil bent down and picked it up with the other.
"Wh-what's wrong? Why are you too..."
Annie asked quietly, keeping to one side.
Phil's face wasn't as pale as Brussels's, but Phil still wore a complicated expression and passed the note to Annie.
Song Nan moved close to Annie, and the two read the note together.
In the end, only Bailey was left lying on the floor, ignored by everyone. He looked terrified, his earlier composure completely gone.
Saul had recovered from the shock of the note. He turned to look at the people present and couldn't help asking Brussels, "Where's Sofina? Why hasn't she come out?"
Brussels was still clenching his jaw, clearly not yet recovered from the shock.
But when he heard the question, a knowing smile appeared on his face despite himself. "She was too tired last night, so I let her rest a little longer."
"I really didn't expect you to still have that on your mind at a time like this."
Phil leaned against the wall with arms folded and spoke mockingly.