Funeral (9) - Rumors

Despite her complaints, Zhao Ruru still diligently completed the task of collecting the ashes, and while she was at it, she ran to the nearest safe house and grabbed a relatively clean piece of cloth.

She quickly wiped the stone table clean, and the collected gray and white wall plaster was piled up together. Zhao Yijiu pinched a little of it and took it over.

Yu Xing pointed to the gate. "Let's start drawing from here."

In fact, this requirement is somewhat demanding. It's already good enough if you can remember a road you've only walked once, let alone remember the surrounding environment. Very few people can do that.

But since Zhao Yijiu himself said it was okay, Yu Xing felt no qualms about ordering him around. Brother Jiu is no ordinary person; he's incredibly powerful!

Perhaps it's her extraordinary combat talent and sensitivity to darkness that allows Zhao Yijiu to quickly adapt to any environment, ensuring her safety. So, when she starts drawing maps, besides...

Aside from the slightly ugly lines, the accuracy is actually quite good.

Gradually, a roughly rectangular house plan appeared on the stone table, with gray-white powder evenly applied. Fortunately, the wind wasn't strong enough to blow the lines away.

"It looks like a large mansion with five courtyards and five entrances," Yu Xing exclaimed.

He was very familiar with this place. Although he had lived in the newly built villa in his family home since returning from studying abroad, he would still occasionally visit the old courtyard of the Yu family.

That courtyard... well, it's even bigger than the five-courtyard compound.

In ancient times, the size of a courtyard was related to the official's rank. As time went on, some families declined, but their houses remained and were passed down from generation to generation.

During the Republic of China era, after the chaos of war, these rules became increasingly lax, losing their initial strictness.

The Yu family was a large business family. They built a Western-style house, the kind of house that wealthy families would build at the time, and the courtyard was abandoned, with only a few servants left to take care of it.

"Hmm." Zhao Yijiu responded, quickening her movements, while Zhao Ruru explained from the side.

"Look, we're in the first courtyard now. There should have been a screen wall here, but it's so decayed that you can't see anything anymore. After passing through that small arched gate, you'll reach the second courtyard. That's where I found Brother Jiu... Brother Jiu." She pointed to the drawn section and then to the area behind it.

"Behind the second courtyard is the third. There's a door on the right leading to the garden inside the yin house. There are fewer people in white there. I walked through the garden's corridor. Although I didn't encounter any danger, I didn't get any clues either." Zhao Ruru then pointed to a mound that Zhao Yijiu had casually made to represent the artificial hill. "The well is next to the artificial hill. The abacus ghost was there from the beginning, but it disappeared after giving us the clues."

Zhao Yijiu had finished sprinkling all the gray powder and the painting was almost done.

A complete courtyard was revealed, eliciting a burst of amazement from the viewers in the live chat.

[Cold Wine? That's impressive! Such a good memory?]

[I'm so envious! These three are all so reliable. I want teammates like them too!]

[The drawing is quite good; it has a kindergarten kid's doodle feel to it.]

[Hahaha, isn't it normal for someone who uses a knife to not be able to draw?]

[I admire it, but it's also hilarious]

Zhao Yijiu pointed to the room on the west side of the third courtyard. "This is the steward's room, and the surrounding area is the servants' quarters. The fourth courtyard has the woodshed, kitchen, and other similar places."

"Every time we entered the courtyard, there were those white-clad mourners who locked themselves in their rooms, so there were several rooms we couldn't get into." Zhao Ruru poked a hole in the gray powder that made up the rooms we couldn't enter, making it clear.

"I see..." Yu Xing had a general understanding of the situation of the haunted house, and also had a reasonable outline of the plot.

If he wasn't mistaken, this phase of the task wouldn't be long; it would already be in its second half when the three deducers gathered, and it wouldn't be long before it ended.

He only needs to confirm a few more details before he can begin planning the next steps.

Perhaps sensing his relaxed expression, Zhao Yijiu and Zhao Ruru breathed a sigh of relief. Zhao Ruru asked, "Is there anything else you need to know?"

Yu Xing still remembered what Brother Jiu had said earlier, that he had found peanuts and dates on the bed, so he must have accidentally wandered into the wedding room.

He asked, "Brother Jiu woke up in the main room of the first courtyard, right?"

"How did you know?" Zhao Yijiu looked at him, her eyes filled with confusion.

"... I guessed. I don't think you'd want to know that you actually slept with the bride. You let it slip, now you know." Seeing Brother Jiu's expression darken instantly, Yu Xing put on an innocent look, refusing to admit that she did it on purpose.

Zhao Yijiu's forehead twitched.

"So, the ghost that created this space really is obsessed with marriage!" Zhao Ruru interjected. "But it seems that in this phase of the mission, funerals far outnumber weddings. Why do you think that is?"

"The main characters are different." Yu Xing silently shifted her position, moving a little further away from Zhao Yijiu. "The main character in a funeral is Boss Liu, while in a wedding, the main character would be the bride or groom. These two characters shouldn't appear at this stage of the mission."

Zhao Yijiu scoffed, "Why are you sitting so far away? Do you think I'm going to kill you?"

Yu Xing: "I want to be warmer."

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

He abandoned his desire to argue with Yu Xing and changed the subject. "With the map, do you have a basis for your speculation?"

"What's the purpose of the fifth courtyard?" Yu Xing raised her chin slightly, indicating the end of the entire yin house, where Zhao Ruru had also poked a hole, signifying that there were also people in white there.

"Oh, I almost forgot, that's where..." Zhao Ruru tried to come up with a word.

Because there was only one main room in the fifth courtyard, which was the room where she and Zhao Yijiu had opened the door a crack and seen many coffins lined up side by side before they went to the main gate to pick up Yu Xing.

Later, she would tell fortunes in the side room to the right of the main room.

"The Zhao Yijiu said.

"The mourning hall?" Yu Xing raised an eyebrow. "Why does Zhao Ruru need to think about the mourning hall for so long?"

The girl was extremely aggrieved. "You could call it a mourning hall, well, there are a lot of coffins inside, and portraits of the deceased, and lots of people in white mourning clothes. But I've never seen a mourning hall set up directly in the backyard..."

"... I see." Yu Xing nodded. "Then I think I understand."

Zhao Ruru and the viewers in the live stream immediately perked up their ears.

[Ghost Alley is one thing, at least he experienced it firsthand, but what about haunted houses? He didn't go anywhere, how could he know just by listening?]

I want to hear what he has to say.

[To be honest, I listened carefully, but I still felt a bit confused.]

[Lu Xiaorong: I guess Boss Liu married his daughter to a wealthy family, but the groom must be a dead man. This space was created by Liu Xue. Because she hated her father, she created Zhou Xue and a paper figure in this supernatural space, one representing someone who wants to enter the ghost house.]

[Lu Xiaorong: Why is there a word limit to this??]

[Go on, expert!! My god, Liu Xue created Zhou Xue and the paper doll?!]

[This is shocking, and terrifying to think about. This matches Xing's analysis: Zhou Xue and the paper doll are on the same side.]

[Lu Xiaorong: Zhou Xue represents the daughter who wants to enter the ancestral home to attend her father's funeral; the paper figure represents the identity of someone who does not allow others to have any goodwill towards Liu Bingxian; at the same time, she also despises the neighbors who only gossip behind Liu Bingxian's back but offer no help.]

[Lu Xiaorong: So, the first phase of the mission was actually just a distorted world formed by Liu Xue's resentment.]

[Awesome!]

[Awesome!]

[Yan Ming: Fatty, what are you smug about? Isn't that obvious to everyone? @Lv Lu Xiaorong]

I am not human.

Why can't I see it?

[Thanks, I feel like I've been subtly insulted.]

[I'm so impressed by this expert's skill!]

[Haha, Yan Zong is online mocking his teammates]

First, let's summarize a few facts that need to be noted.

The chat was filled with laughter, but their attention was finally drawn back after Yu Xing spoke.

Yu Xing extended one finger.

"First, the abacus ghost. It's a rather special being. It seems that among the ghosts we three encountered, it's the only one that can convey messages to the diviner in its full ghost form. The others, including the paper figure, the white-clad figure, and the ghost I encountered at the portrait frame shop, all act according to a set rule: grabbing people, crying, and constantly repeating conversations that have already occurred."

"Secondly, the abacus ghost first appeared in the well, and I have reason to believe it died in the well."

"Third, the note in the butler's room reveals that at the wedding banquet of the bride and groom in the ancestral home, the ancestral home lord treated the bride's relatives and friends with contempt, and even seemed to be targeting them. There must be a reason supporting this phenomenon."

"Fourth, if the hand reaching out from the wardrobe is a woman's, and it's painted with red nail polish, then I guess she's a symbol of the bride in some sense. However, one thing cannot be ignored: the bride's hand is reaching out from the butler's wardrobe."

"Huh!?" Zhao Ruru couldn't help but exclaim.

"..." Zhao Yijiu's expression shifted, clearly indicating that she and Zhao Ruru had thought of the same possibility.

Wait, how did this suddenly turn into a green grassland?

Goodness!

[Major discovery!]

Things started to go wrong.

[Welcome and delight]

Yu Xing could tell at a glance where their thoughts had gone astray, "No, what's going on in your heads? Can't you be a little more innocent?"

Zhao Yijiu silently raised her hands, clasping them together to cover half of her face.

"Huh? Isn't that right?" Zhao Ruru coughed. "Well, go on."

Yu Xing: "Tsk tsk tsk."

"Fifthly, don't glare at me for lying on that bed, Brother Jiu. That bed is for the bride. So, when you woke up, didn't you see two men in white standing with their backs to you? But they didn't know there was an extra person on the bed. This means that the men in white were originally standing here. Who are those people who stand like door gods, not too far from the bed?"

Zhao Ruru: "Guard?"

"That's right, the fact that the bride needs to be guarded means she wants to run away; she doesn't want to get married."

"Ah..." Zhao Ruru admired Yu Xing's method of information extraction. By following the clues through details that ordinary people would likely overlook, a surprisingly large amount of information could be obtained.

In fact, this is Yu Xing's most frequently used reasoning method. He is used to the feeling of Silk Drawing and Unraveling and finally weaving an endless net.

In Fuhua City, he was invited by Gao Chang'an, and he used the same method when interrogating Liu Ping at the police station.

"These five points are established facts, and the information they provide helps us analyze the larger situation. However, ultimately, the theme at this stage should be the funeral, and the speculations about the bride may not be relevant at this stage." Yu Xing smiled. "I believe the biggest mystery lies in the mourning hall."

"You told me, didn't you? There are many coffins lined up side by side in the mourning hall."

He flexed his fingers, his interest growing more intense. "This is Liu Bingxian's funeral. One Liu Bingxian only needs one coffin. So, who owns the remaining coffins?"

"Perhaps what we should be thinking about most now is: how many people died during this phase of the mission, who were they, how did they die, and why... could they be buried in the graveyard?"

"Perhaps, once we figure out the cause of death of Liu Bingxian and the unknown group, we'll naturally know where the door is. Otherwise, that 'calculator'... I believe it is Liu Bingxian, so why should it tell us information? We uncover the truth behind its death, and it tells us the exit—that's a fair exchange."

[Hiss...]

I gasped for breath on the spot.

[Sorry, it's cold]

[This guy is such a detail-oriented freak]

[Yes, besides Boss Liu, who else is lying in the coffin?]

Listening to a handsome guy's reasoning is such a pleasant experience...

[Remember Xing's face; she's a logic freak you shouldn't mess with.]

"... So, so..." Zhao Ruru felt a chill run down her spine. Because of the funeral, she had always thought that only one person had died, not counting the shop owners in Ghost Alley, because no matter what, the shop owners were not qualified to be buried in the haunted house.

"So, that many people died just in the burial site??" She suddenly looked at Zhao Yijiu, "Cold Wine, did you count how many coffins there were?"

Zhao Yijiu frowned. "I didn't have time. I was afraid that if I looked any longer, the people inside would notice."

Yu Xing replied, "It's alright, we'll count them one by one."

It is known that Liu Bingxian dead. The cause of death is unknown.

"By working backward from the outcome, combining the wedding at the burial site with the discussions among the shop owners in the Ghost Alley, I've pieced together this line of reasoning."

"Liu Bingxian was originally one of the shop owners on the funeral parlor in Ghost Alley, seemingly in charge of supplying raw materials, as other shop owners would buy their goods from him. He had a daughter named Liu Xue. One day, with no one else in his family having died, Liu Bingxian ordered a framed portrait from a neighbor's shop. Not long after, a rumor began to circulate that Liu Bingxian, for money, had sold his daughter Liu Xue to a wealthy family nearby who had just lost their son as their daughter-in-law!"

"The implications of this are obvious, so the neighbors all started cursing Liu Bingxian, calling him inhuman and worse than a pig or a dog."

"Later, Liu Xue bought a box cutter at the same shop. Perhaps she had just escaped from the guards at the ancestral grave. After buying the knife, she was caught and taken back to the grave, where she committed suicide."

"Therefore, Liu Xue died; the cause of death was suicide."