Fearing he might do something foolish, Su Shangting quickly stopped him. "There might be other secrets hidden inside, don't destroy it yet."
Zou Yuxing retorted defiantly, "Am I that stupid?"
Su Shangting remained silent, but his expression had already answered him.
Sparks flew between the two again, almost igniting. Fearing they would start arguing, Wen Feiran reluctantly acted as peacemaker, "Alright, let's discuss it again, brainstorm, maybe we can come up with some new ideas."
Zou Yuxing and Su Shangting exchanged a resentful glance, as if they had seen something dirty. They crossed their arms, snorted coldly, and showed expressions of disgust. However, they still listened to Wen Feiran and did not continue arguing.
Wen Feiran opened the diary again.
I love the sound of bells! My teacher gave me one and told me a story.
[Legend has it that there was an ancient tribe that dried human skin and hung it by the window. When the wind blew, a very clear and crisp sound could be heard. The teacher said it was the most beautiful sound in the world.]
[I really want to hear it too, but unfortunately I don't have a human skin around. My teacher said that as long as I behave well and practice the piano every day, she'll give me a human skin.]
I asked him where the human skin came from, and he said he wanted to play a game with me. Whoever lost would become the human skin. But the sister who used to play "Wooden Man" with me is gone, and I haven't seen anyone else in a long time. What should I do?
His tone was still full of childlike innocence and naivety, as if human skin were just an ordinary thing, but Wen Feiran got goosebumps all over his body, and felt as if there was a huge hole in his heart, and he could hear the wind howling like a howl.
Zou Yuxing, being impatient, said, "The matter is already very clear. The Wooden Man we first encountered was the older sister mentioned in the diary, and the bell that kept chasing us should be the young master who was murdered."
Su Shangting deliberately contradicted him, "Wasn't this child locked in the underground cell? How did he turn into an evil spirit and harm people?"
"You're so stupid," Zou Yuxing said with certainty. "After being imprisoned for a long time and then cruelly murdered, his obsession with bells would drive his ghost."
The others couldn't think of any new angles either, and they all nodded in agreement, deeming this the most reasonable speculation at present.
Song Lindi's face was grim as she glared at Wen Feiran. "This conjecture is correct, but I want to ask Wen Feiran, you've always been in charge of this diary. You should give us a reasonable explanation as to why there's suddenly an extra page?"
Wen Feiran was suddenly targeted, her expression blank, and she didn't react immediately.
"I don't know either." Wen Feiran's gaze swept across the group. "Although the diary was in my room, everyone studied it for a long time before this, and no one had noticed this page."
Zou Yuxing to speak on his behalf, "I can testify that I specifically spent half an hour searching through the entire diary three times from beginning to end, and I didn't find any hidden compartments, let alone this diary."
"If that's the case, then how did this diary suddenly appear?" Song Lindi's tone was aggressive. "Don't you find this strange?"
No one agreed with him.
There are too many strange things to encounter here. The Wooden Man and bells are beyond the explanation of common sense and are supernatural phenomena, not to mention something as trivial as a diary suddenly having an extra page.
Seeing that he wasn't getting the ball rolling, Song Lindi gritted her teeth in frustration, "It doesn't matter if we put this matter on hold for now, there's an even more important issue!"
Wen Feiran held her breath, staring intently at Song Lindi, her heart pounding in her chest.
"Feiran, how are you able to open all the combination locks?"
This sentence drew everyone's attention; no one noticed that Wen Feiran's eyelashes trembled slightly, and her tense body relaxed.
Wen Feiran told the truth, "I deduced all of this based on clues. Weren't you all there?"
"But your success rate is too high." Song Lindi's attitude was forceful, as if interrogating a criminal, "It's as if you've become so accustomed to everything around you, as if you orchestrated it all."
Wen Feiran: "..."
What a strange angle! For a moment, he couldn't think of a rebuttal.
Viewers in the live stream, expecting Song Lindi to offer some valuable reasoning, were speechless upon hearing this.
[The entire process was live-streamed, Wen Feiran deduced the passwords based on clues each time. What's wrong with that?]
Is it really that hard to admit that someone is better or smarter than you? rolls eyes
[This is eye-opening! How could they even doubt this?]
[Feiran did so much for the team, only to be doubted in the end. How heartbroken he must be.]
Song Lindi's fans, however, were very supportive of him, refuting his points one by one, but none of them offered a convincing reason.
Zou Yuxing reacted similarly, assuming there was a misunderstanding between the two, and explained, "Feiran is very smart; it's only natural that he could unlock the combination lock."
Su Shangting wasn't so polite. He looked Song Lindi up and down, his tone mocking, "Otherwise, could you open it if I asked you to?"
"You!"
Song Lindi felt insulted, but didn't want to fall out with Su Shangting in public. She lowered her head slightly, feigning a wronged expression, "I just find it strange, and I'm stating my reasonable guess. I know the three of you are close, and it's understandable that you choose to protect him, but..."
Before Su Shangting's outburst, Song Lindi turned around and looked at Gu Suian with innocent, doe-like eyes, pleading for help, "Brother Gu, what do you think?"
Gu Suian was viewed with a special glow and aura by everyone, and Su Shangting subconsciously swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue, waiting for his reply.
Gu Suian did not speak immediately, his gaze fixed intently on Wen Feiran. Wen Feiran, sensing this, raised her eyes, her eyes clear and pure, like a pool of spring water.