Lighting Candles

"Hmm?" Yu Xing squinted, holding the note, and glanced subtly behind him.

No one passed by.

Did this killer's notes update in real-time?

That's interesting. It seems this is a supernatural deduction game.

But do you think I care about this little bit of food you're offering? My own cooking is better... tsk.

Yu Xing tucked the note back into the vegetables, closed the refrigerator door with a normal expression, and then bent down to open the freezer.

"If I'm not mistaken... something strange is going to appear here to scare me, right?" he muttered softly, pulling open the icy drawers from the bottom layer, expectantly.

Empty.

A section of large intestine.

A heart.

Yu Xing: "The reserve rations are not up to par..."

Besides the bottom drawer, the middle and top drawers contained two types of organs. The top one seemed to have had water poured on it initially, and was tightly encased in ice.

Yu Xing took them out and looked at them for a moment. Both were inanimate objects. The moment he touched the large intestine, the ice cracked and shattered, falling down with a clatter.

"Heh, putting these things in the refrigerator, thinking you can interfere with my judgment." He restored them to their original positions with good humor, closed the drawers, and shut the refrigerator door again. He reached out and rinsed his hands under the faucet.

Listening to the sound of water rushing through his fingers and the gurgling of the nearby kettle, Yu Xing added another point to his profile of the killer: The building where the killer is located should be absolutely safe; there's no need to hide corpses in a refrigerator.

Looking at the jars on the wall in the dissection room, like treasures, and the vegetables and meat on the upper shelf of the refrigerator, it was clear that the killer's attitude towards corpses was "collection," not "consumption."

Therefore, these two items in the freezer were likely placed there intentionally to make him mistakenly believe the killer ate them, thus instilling fear deep within him.

This is because humans have an instinctive fear of things beyond their comprehension. Coincidentally, humans are also creatures that like to associate things; with just a little hint, matters can spread like a spiderweb, achieving the desired effect.

So the conclusion is, this killer, rather than directly killing the "Doctor," seems to prefer to crush the "Doctor" mentally.

Yu Xing wiped his hands and planned to search other cabinets in the kitchen for clues to the password lock, while his mind was still working:

The killer has a desire to conquer the Doctor... His personality isn't particularly calm, but he has cultivated a habit of restraint because he fears being exposed as not normal in reality. Once an opportunity arises, he will act, mixed with a competitive spirit, vanity, and even a little fear of the Doctor.

"Sigh~" Yu Xing sighed inexplicably.

The killer has too many personality weaknesses.

He only used simple profiling, inferring the killer's psychological state from his behavior to analyze his personality. This method isn't difficult, it's just unfortunate for the killer; each "warning" and scare is like him sending clues.

Since he didn't know if the killer was constantly spying on him in the form of a ghostly creature, Yu Xing decided not to voice this discovery. Otherwise, what if the killer got upset and stopped coming?

He was now more curious about what his Doctor character had done to the killer before being tied up.

"Ding--"

When he opened the cupboard for bowls and chopsticks, Yu Xing made a slightly larger movement, and the crisp sound of several metal chopsticks colliding made him stop his mockery... analysis of the killer and focus on finding clues.

The cupboard contained common kitchen items: oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar, but salt was missing. Pots, pans, and bowls were all there.

After rummaging through it with little interest, Yu Xing finally saw "the hope of the entire kitchen" in front of the microwave.

"What is this?"

The microwave was plugged in, and its interior was lit, faintly revealing a small key.

At the same time, a note was pressed down by a bottle of soy sauce.

Yu Xing pulled out the note and saw the first line written:

[The microwave is fake. I never need to eat leftover food, after all, I have so many "fresh" ingredients here~]

"Poor thing, still hinting that he eats corpses... Yu Xing felt a moment of pity for the killer in his heart, and silently mourned the killer's method of creating scares out of thin air.

He continued to read.

[This is actually a safe. The password is three digits, and you only need to turn the duration and temperature knobs to open it. Inside is the key to the toilet tank. I've left you a surprise~]

[The puzzle is: We in the morgue cast happy glances at you. We can sleep for many more days, yet you can't sleep under our gaze. We don't know what you're counting, are you counting sheep? "One, two, three..."]

[Oh dear, I forgot to mention, you only have three chances. If you fail three times, this key will melt from the high temperature, and you'll have no chance to escape, hahahahahaha]

"Oh? A puzzle?" Yu Xing's gaze landed on the given puzzle, completely ignoring the killer's gloating in the last paragraph.

Two seconds later, he leaned closer to look at the microwave's two knobs. The knobs were much thinner than normal, and the markings were very precise. One full rotation was exactly one hundred markings, with numbers only marked at 0, 45, 90, and 135.

"Hmm... morgue... counting sheep?" Yu Xing straightened up, a hint of a smile appearing at the corner of his slightly upturned eyes. "A word puzzle like this, giving three chances is too merciful."

He looked back, picked up the knife he had brought from the dissection room, and entered the hall.

The hall was still empty. It was evident that before Yu Xing, or rather, before the Doctor woke up, corpses had lain on these iron beds, the owners of the organs in the dissection room jars.

He wondered where the corpses had gone.

Yu Xing observed carefully this time, using his own steps to measure the area of the hall by eye. The hall was a 20*20 meter square, exactly 400 square meters.

The iron beds were evenly distributed, with a spacing of about three meters. Excluding a few empty spots, there were a total of 23 beds.

After counting, Yu Xing returned to the kitchen and tapped the top of the microwave, producing a faint dull sound.

"Existing knowledge: the standard temperature for a morgue is -8℃."

He muttered softly, turning the [Temperature] knob counterclockwise eight notches with his hand.

"In the puzzle, when I couldn't sleep all night, I wasn't counting sheep, but the number of corpses in the morgue."

Turn the [Duration] knob clockwise 23 notches.

"Click."

The microwave door popped open slightly, and Yu Xing took out the silver water tank key, smaller than a normal key.

Holding the key, Yu Xing didn't waste much time. After leaving the kitchen, he went straight to the toilet.

"Toilet" was a general term; Yu Xing felt it could also be called a "laundry room" or "bathroom."

As soon as he walked in, there were two washing machines placed side-by-side, followed by a small closet.

Inside the closet hung bath towels and hand towels, with shower gel, shampoo, conditioner, and other toiletries placed below. Yu Xing had to admit that if he ignored his current predicament, he would find this place quite nice.

At least the floor was clean, and he could walk around the house barefoot without any issues.

He pulled open the movable glass door and peered inside, revealing the shower room.

The toilet was inside the shower room, and his target, the water tank, was also there.

Jingling the key in his hand, Yu Xing walked over unhurriedly.

It was unnecessary to ponder why the water tank was locked. He inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it gently, and the lid opened smoothly.

The water tank wasn't large. Yu Xing guessed it probably couldn't fit a human head, so he curiously wanted to see what the so-called surprise was.

There was only a note.

"Hmm..." Yu Xing let out a slightly uncertain single syllable, seemingly hesitating whether to complain about why a killer would be so fond of leaving little notes.

How old was he, to still be playing these useless games!

He glanced at the contents of the note.

[The bedroom key is sewn inside a human body. Guess which one? Hahahaha... Go out and enjoy!]

Bedroom? That locked room was the bedroom, so they really lived here...

As Yu Xing was thinking, the bright light above his head suddenly flickered as if disturbed.

He raised an eyebrow. Amidst the "sizzling" sound of the light bulb, he passed the closet, and suddenly, the light went out completely.

His eyes, accustomed to the light, were suddenly enveloped in darkness. Yu Xing closed his eyes to adjust and quickly corrected his vision, looking out into the void.

It wasn't just the toilet that had lost power; the hall was also dark, as if someone had pulled the main switch.

He slowed his pace. When he reached the washing machines, a small patch of red light appeared in the hall.

The red light was trembling, making it easy to identify as a candle.

"Someone's here?"

He squinted. From a distance, the silhouette of a head and arms could be vaguely seen in the red light.

However, the person seemed to be lying down, and judging by the height, they were lying on an iron bed.

That was an iron bed used for corpses.

Before Yu Xing could observe for too long, one by one, red lights lit up in succession. Yu Xing silently counted: 23 spots.

The iron beds, which had been empty moments ago, now each had a person lying on them, or rather, a corpse.

The corpses held red candles in their hands. The light from the candles was also an eerie red, forming a large "candle-lighting" scene in the darkness.

They seemed to be conveying a message to Yu Xing:

Wishing harm upon others, wishing them dead.

Anyone else might have hesitated at this "underworld" scene, but after Yu Xing clearly saw what was happening, he didn't stop. He walked directly towards the nearest iron bed.

Barefoot, he silently stood beside a corpse.

This was the corpse of a young boy. The body lay flat, not significantly rotten. Its hands were clasped in front of its chest, holding a red candle. If one didn't look closely, they might think it was just sleeping.

As Yu Xing leaned down slightly to examine the corpse's condition, the corpse's tightly closed eyes moved. They suddenly opened, and a pair of hollow eyes stared at him without blinking.

With this one as a start, the other corpses also opened their eyes, turning their heads at different angles to fix their gaze on Yu Xing.

Just like in the puzzle, they were watching him.

But what was different was... in the puzzle, the person couldn't sleep all night, yet Yu Xing felt nothing. In fact, the corners of his mouth curved upwards slightly.

The red light reflected on his pale skin and loose patient uniform, adding a hint of妖冶 (bewitching/seductive) and an unreal illusion to his somewhat delicate features, inexplicably causing unease.

Under the gaze of more than twenty corpses, he wore a gentle smile and stroked the hair of the corpse in front of him:

"That's right. I was wondering where you all went. A Corpse Carnival, how could it be complete without you?"