Alice's Hell (19) - The Way to the Sculpture Yard

Yu Xing currently has no clue where that bottomless black hole leads.

He was more inclined to believe that there was a Side Quest involved, and that he and Zeng Lai had opened a certain link in the quest before they even got to it, which led to Zeng Lai's tragic descent, leaving him with no way to follow.

So Yu Xing had no choice but to go down to the first floor and glance at the time on the golden clock.

It is currently 20:10, nearly two hours before 10 p. m.

His original plan was to go back to his room and exchange information with Zeng Lai to analyze their situation. Who would have thought that Zeng Lai, that gambler, would have bad luck today and ruin his own life.

As he walked back to the third floor and stood outside his bedroom, Yi Qing, who was experiencing life on the ground, asked while fanning himself, "So? What do you want to do now?"

"Let's take a look at the props first."

Yu Xing opened the door and observed the layout of the room.

This bedroom belongs to him, but it shows that someone has entered it. Apparently, the person who first went up to the third floor for dinner took advantage of the fact that none of their bedrooms had locks and occupied what should have been the safest place.

He was checking his bedroom to see if it had been ransacked.

At first glance, the person occupying the room seemed to have done nothing wrong, not rummaging through his room. But when Yu Xing glanced at the bookshelf, he discovered that the books he had deliberately placed had been moved.

That spot was where he placed the small wooden box containing the props in front of Zeng Lai. Before having Yi Qing deliver the small wooden box to Zeng Lai's room next door, he arranged the books at a subtle angle to ensure that he would notice if anyone had touched them.

Not only the bookshelves, but he also marked the desk, bedside lamp, and other places, such as the angle of the decorations and a certain crease in the bed sheet, but none of these markings have been changed.

In other words, it's unclear whether it was the person who occupied the room or someone else who entered later. Their target was clear: they didn't touch anything else except the place where they hid the box.

Of course, the box wasn't there, so the man had to leave empty-handed. But this incident itself demonstrated one fact—someone knew he had left the box there!

Only Zeng Lai knew the hiding place, but Zeng Lai had no reason to do so, and the unfortunate child had been with him the whole time. Huai and Huang Bai knew about the small wooden box, but neither Yu Xing nor Zeng Lai had told them the specific location of the box, so the two of them couldn't have gone straight to the bookshelf.

Aside from the deceased White Face, there are only three people with the strongest motive to enter his room to look for things: Han Xinyi, Han Zhiyong, and Ye.

After closing the door, Yu Xing sat calmly on the edge of the bed. "Yi Qing, could you help me bring back the small wooden box?"

He bet there was a 90% chance the box that had been placed in Zeng Lai's room as a precaution hadn't been stolen.

Yi Qing didn't mind Yu Xing's orders; this Sheqing Ghost was usually quite good-tempered. He turned into a wisp of green smoke and drifted past the window, quickly returning with a small wooden box.

Yu Xing took the small wooden box, took out the key, and unlocked it. He said, "Sure enough, the person who came to my room got his information from Zeng Lai, so he only 'saw' the box was with me. He had no way of knowing things that even Zeng Lai herself didn't know."

"Oh?" Yi Qing sat down in the chair and tidied her long hair that fell to her front. "Judging from your tone... do you think someone has planted an eye on Zeng Lai?"

That's right, Yu Xing didn't think Zeng Lai would tell anyone such an important thing behind his back.

The only possible reason why others know this information is that they have placed a spying or eavesdropping device on him or Zeng Lai, and judging from the current situation, it is clearly on Zeng Lai.

Click.

With a soft click, the lock on the small wooden box snapped open.

Yu Xing did not answer Yi Qing for the time being. He opened the lid and looked at the contents of the box.

It's a seashell bracelet.

[Heart Bracelet: A bracelet that sparked everything]

[Corresponds to Goblin 3: The Headless Man]

[Wearing this will cause the Headless Man to mistake you for one of their own, thus ignoring you and exposing you to Headless Man line of sight.]

[Source of the evil: Once upon a time, there was a handsome young man who gave a girl a handmade bracelet, vowing eternal love. Later, he held someone else's hand and told the girl, "Don't be so naive, vows are all fake." The girl smiled sweetly at him and asked, "Was our three-year relationship also fake?" The young man impatiently replied, "Even the real one is gone now. Let's part amicably, I'm tired of it." One rainy night, the girl trembled as she slit the young man's throat with a knife. After a long silence, she suddenly felt a surge of pleasure.]

"What a coincidence?" Yu Xing somewhat surprised, not expecting that the small wooden box contained props for the ghost that was targeting Han Xinyi.

The prop's description itself hinted at the source of its evil. Yu Xing thought for a moment, and realized that this must be the original reason why Han Xinyi was obsessed with slitting throats and killing people.

The reason why Han Xinyi always targeted good-looking young people has also become clear.

Of course, judging from the timeline, the young man mentioned in the introduction should not be among the victims of the recent Throat Cutting Case in Fuhua City. Otherwise, as the ex-girlfriend of the first victim, Han Xinyi would definitely have come to the attention of the police.

Yu Xing deduced that after killing her ex-boyfriend, Han Xinyi was not caught and subsequently entered the Absurd Deduction Game, becoming a deducer. Later, as her strength grew, she could no longer control her obsession and desire for that incident, and thus began to use her abilities to commit a series of murders.

Whether Han Xinyi already showed signs of Fallen Path before killing her ex-boyfriend is something Yu Xing cannot know at present.

A person's mind can be destroyed in an instant, or it can be slowly eroded by the constant influence of the surrounding environment.

"You're really lucky. Now you have even more ways to kill that little girl, don't you?" Yi Qing laughed from the side. Judging from his tone, no one would guess that he was gloating—or rather, sending out a signal of "black-heartedness."

Then, he didn't forget to mock another one. "If that gambler had been half as lucky as you, he wouldn't have ended up like this..."

At the end, a meaningful note was drawn out, subtly revealing the mischievous side of the Sheqing Ghost.

"Yes, the props came at just the right time. At least it proves that Zeng Lai's bad luck didn't affect the people around her this time." Yu Xing calmly replied, putting on the gaudy seashell bracelet that was obviously meant to fool little girls, and covering it slightly with her sleeve.

Regardless of the cause, Han Xinyi, who has killed several people, is a member of Single Prism and is also trying to kill Yu Jiaming and Gao Chang'an. Any reason given to Yu Xing is that she must die.

A subtle smile played on his lips, sending a chill down Yi Qing's spine.

The Sheqing Ghost asked excitedly, "What are you planning to do now?"

Yu Xing looked down at the large patch of blood that was half-congealed on his abdomen. He wanted to change his clothes again, but unfortunately, it was past the time he could use the bathroom, and there were no clothes left for him to change into.

He sighed imperceptibly, lay down on the bed, and covered his eyes with his forearm to block out the glare from the ceiling light. "Alright, back to our previous topic, regarding Zeng Lai's 'eye,' I personally believe it originated from hysteria."

"Han Xinyi's abilities don't lie in this area. Han Zhiyong does have ghosts that can help him monitor others, but precisely because of this, he's unlikely to have the means to silently possess someone for surveillance. To put it another way, even if these two had such abilities, they should have chosen me, not Zeng Lai."

"Hysteria... I can tell that Zeng Lai dislikes him a lot, and he has indeed done some things that are detrimental to Zeng Lai. I know nothing about his abilities, but I can't rule out the possibility that he has spying skills."

"Originally, without knowing the capabilities of the other predictors, I placed the box elsewhere to test the waters and find out the result."

Yu Xing moved her arm away, squinted at the light, and said to Yi Qing, who was sitting upright, "Now, we can go to the library on the fourth floor and look for the stairs leading to the annex. If I'm not mistaken, the nuns', chefs', and other staff's rooms are in the annex. This deduction clearly has a hidden plot, so it's not wise to focus all our energy on the corresponding ghost of the deducer."

Yi Qing: "Then what would be a wise choice?"

Yu Xing: "I want to provoke the nuns and the others."

Wow, that was so wise.

Thankfully, Zeng Lai isn't here.

Otherwise, he really would have to stage a scene of beating up his teammates.

Yi Qing became interested. "Now?"

Yu Xing sat up and glanced at him. "That was the original plan, but now we need to find someone to help us."

"Let's first confirm whether he put something on Zeng Lai before. If so, then we can use his eyes to find Zeng Lai. Wouldn't that save us a lot of trouble?"

Daring to plant something on Zeng Lai and spy on them from the shadows, shouldn't they pay a price?

Yu Xing stood up, her gaze fixed on Yi Qing.

Yi Qing's expression remained unchanged. "What do you want to do now?"

"I don't have a place to call home. Could you please wander around and help me find someone?"

Yi Qing: "I knew it."

He was used to his status as a tool in Yu Xing, so he didn't say much, "You were in the room before we found him?"

"How could that be? That's too much of a waste of time." Yu Xing shook her head, walked slowly to the window, and glanced at the sculpture area on the first floor. "I want to go down and take a look. So many sculptures might be related to some kind of ghost, and maybe there are even props there."

"But from what I've observed, you haven't found a way down yet." Yi Qing replied, then paused, taken aback by Yu Xing's act of climbing onto the windowsill, and instantly understood Yu Xing's plan.

Yu Xing straddled the windowsill and waved to Yi Qing: "Thank you for your help. Come find me downstairs after you find the hysteriac."

Without hesitation, he leaped into the air.

--If there's no way, then we won't take any way.

Why not just jump?