She Was Dead

The sun was shining brightly, and even the Fengdu so cold anymore. Yu Xing was in a very good mood—if you ignored the Boss Hua she had found.

He knew that after meeting him in real life "last night," someone like Hua Subai would no longer remain silent and would definitely start popping into his life.

Hua Subai was downstairs in the apartment building, seemed to notice his gaze. He looked up and smiled. Yu Xing felt a momentary dizziness, and then Hua Subai disappeared.

"Since you're already here, won't you invite me to sit down?"

The next second, a cheerful voice sounded from behind him.

Well, my plan to close the window and pretend I didn't see it is ruined.

Yu Xing turned around, looked at the uninvited guest, and said sternly, "You're trespassing. I can call security to kick you out."

"You wouldn't do that, would you? You wouldn't want me to give the security guards flowers when they come, would you?" Hua Subai placed a bunch of black roses on the coffee table, her tone gentle but clearly a blatant threat.

"What, after all this careful consideration, you're now ready to play hardball with me?" Yu Xing glanced at Rose and sneered, "If it were you, I'd rather drag a few innocent bystanders into it than let you feel so good about yourself."

Hua Subai was heartbroken.

He didn't approach, but instead took a few steps back and sat on the living room sofa. He casually glanced at the coffee table, noticing the bouquet of black roses he had just placed there, a plate of fruit, a light gold metal-carved napkin box, and an elegant light-colored tablecloth.

Hua Subai pointed at these things, looking rather incredulous. "You have a girlfriend?"

Instead of answering, Yu Xing asked, "What brilliant idea do you have?"

"These things are clearly geared towards girls' tastes. I'm telling you, A Xing, you can't hold these young girls back. If you're still like this when she's old, she'll be old enough to be her son."

"That's fine too, just consider it as my girlfriend eventually becoming a rich woman." Yu Xing couldn't really drive Hua Subai away, so he sat down opposite Hua Subai, did nothing, and just stared coldly at the florist who had lost his smile.

"Are you serious?! You found a rich woman!" Hua Subai seemed startled, and only after Yu Xing didn't continue answering did he realize, "Oh... you're just kidding me."

Yu Xing: "..." I don't know how to put it, but Boss Hua is usually so smart, yet he's always easily fooled in unexpected ways.

"Don't look at me like that. I just think... you're capable of anything." Boss Hua picked up an apple from the table, took a bite to calm herself down, "Who knows if you've lost your mind and actually hurt yourself? I still remember how listless and half-dead you used to be."

"I'm not that indiscriminate." Yu Xing frowned. "What you're talking about is almost fifty years ago. Don't think that reminiscing will make me less wary of you. It won't work."

More than fifty years ago, when Yu Xing had not yet found a way to enter the realm of deduction, he did not know what he should do. For a period of time, he was very confused and also very negative.

In truth, it was still Hua Subai who helped him.

Seeing that Hua Subai Yu Xing's words were useless, but his attitude had actually softened, for example, his body was no longer in a tense posture as if he was about to see the guest off, he began to bring up other topics.

"Huh, you just leave your dagger lying around like that?" His gaze fell on the [Sheqing Dreamscape] on the carpet at his feet. The azure mist spreading from it made no attempt to avoid him. A hint of interest rose in his eyes, and he bent down to pick it up and take a look.

Yu Xing's brow twitched, sensing that Yi Qing was about to burst out mocking someone, so she took the first step to retract the Sheqing Dreamscape into her Persona Mask panel.

Hua Subai got nothing, and he sighed, "There seems to be someone in the dagger... the one who held the Lingren back for a while when you were live-streaming 'Death Parallel Line'?"

"You seem quite interested." Yu Xing didn't want to waste words with him. "What are you doing here? If you have something to say, just say so. If you don't want to fight with me, then you'd better take your flowers and leave."

"Something's up, something's up~" Boss Hua could tell that Yu Xing really disliked him. He also knew that he had done some excessive things when Yu Xing trusted him before, and it wouldn't be easy to get close to her again now. He could only pin his hopes on something important. "It's just... last night, you saw me give a yellow rose to a little girl, right?"

"What?" Yu Xing certainly remembered; it was that girl, who looked like a college student in her early twenties, who made him linger and miss the best opportunity to quietly slip past the flower shop. "Didn't you curse her?"

Yellow roses have many meanings: luck, lost love, apology, infidelity, jealousy, blessing, heartbreak... both good and bad. But Yu Xing had never seen Hua Subai use the flowers for anything good. Coupled with his own observation of that girl, he easily found the reason why Hua Subai gave him the yellow roses.

--That girl probably represents infidelity and jealousy.

Alone and in a hurry late at night, she had her makeup done perfectly, practically covering herself in designer brands from head to toe. Some of the outfits weren't actually that flattering, but judging from her expression, she didn't seem to care much about whether they looked "good" or not.

This clashes with her makeup.

Taking all the factors into account, and considering that the direction the girl left was directly in front of a large area of decent-star hotels, Yu Xing guessed that the girl was probably in a hurry to see her lover, and that her lover had a strong desire for control and liked to see her wearing clothes he had bought for her when she came to see him.

Of course, this may not be accurate; it's just a conclusion Yu Xing drew from a quick glance, based on his many years of experience in judging people.

Yu Xing hadn't thought much of it at first, since the girl had nothing to do with him, but now that Hua Subai had specifically brought it up...

The Boss Hua defended himself. "Was that a curse? I just felt a little sorry for the boy who was lagging far behind her, so I decided to give the girl a little punishment on his behalf."

Hua Subai didn't say anything, but Yu Xing really didn't know that the girl had been followed by someone last night.

"Is that her boyfriend following her?" Yu Xing asked.

"Yes, it seems her boyfriend found out she was cheating on her with a rich man." Hua Subai shrugged. "I was just trying to be helpful. The curse on the yellow rose wasn't very strong, and she threw it away after walking a distance. Her lover might be a bit paranoid, and she wouldn't dare bring flowers from someone else to see him, so the impact on her won't be too serious. At most, she might break her leg or something because of her mistake—"

Under Yu Xing's raised eyebrow and watchful gaze, Hua Subai added, "He'll recover in two months."

"So, things have gone beyond your expectations?" Yu Xing knew very well that Hua Subai would never have mentioned her if there hadn't been an unexpected incident.

"Yes." Hua Subai leaned back on the soft sofa cushions. "She's dead now."

Half an hour later.

After seeing Hua Subai off, Yu Xing went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of hot water.

On the coffee table was the bouquet of black roses that Yu Xing Hua Subai out carrying hot water, picked up the roses, and threw them into the trash can.

As long as I throw fast enough, the Boss Hua can't control me.

He sat on the sofa, took a sip of warm water, and his hands and feet gradually warmed up in the dead of winter, as if his internal organs had stretched out. Then he went to the bathroom and took a hot shower.

The showerhead divided the water stream. Yu Xing brushed the hair from her forehead and let the hot water wet her face. The thoughts in her mind gradually became clear.

Just now, Hua Subai said that the girl from last night died.

His death was gruesome; he lay nearly naked in an empty alley, his body covered in knife wounds, a scene almost worthy of being described as slow slicing.

The first person to discover her death was not Hua Subai, but a nearby resident. The resident was kept awake at night by the meowing of a black cat in heat in the alley. He opened his window to chase it away and saw a strange, blurry figure next to the trash can under his window.

The resident called out softly a few times, but there was no response. So the resident turned on their phone flashlight and shone it in that direction, which almost sent the resident flying on the spot.

The next step was naturally to call the police. The police came to take a look, maintained order at the scene, and quickly transferred the case to the Municipal Criminal Investigation Detachment. The police worked hard all night and effectively blocked the news, so only now are some rumors starting to circulate in the city, and almost no one knows the specific details of the case.

Hua Subai only found out later; as for how he got the information, he wouldn't say, and Yu Xing couldn't find out either.

Hua Subai's reason for coming to see Yu Xing, in his own words, was. "This case will definitely be made public eventually. The truth will come out eventually. What if you suspect I killed him as soon as you see the victim's identity? I can't take the blame. If you think I killed people randomly, you definitely won't talk to me anymore."

Yu Xing scoffed at this, not caring at all what kind of person Hua Subai was.

What cheered him up was Hua Subai's second reason.

"Hey, did you know that the girl who died was from Ruibo University? I think she was in the same club as the girl you're dating~ Do you think this will affect her?"

This guy really doesn't say anything worthwhile. He just questioned Yu Xing's taste in coffee table and put on such a realistic show of shock, but now he's inadvertently revealing that he already knew about Zhu Yan's existence.

Yu Xing didn't dwell on this point. He understood. Hua Subai knew Zhu Yan's identity as a police informant and knew that Zhu Yan would definitely be involved in the investigation of a case so close to her, which was why he came over and gave him such a long talk.

Isn't the goal simply to get him to pay attention to the case and then leak the investigation results to Hua Subai?

Boss Hua, being arrogant and proud, must be very curious to know who intercepted his curse target and even caught him off guard.

Yu Xing was taking a shower when he guessed that Zhu Yan would send him a WeChat message soon.

"Tsk, I just got back from Fuhua City and another heinous crime has happened... Am I starting to have the aura of death now?" He muttered to himself, temporarily putting aside the fact that Hua Subai had come to see him.

It's not too late to think about it after Zhu Yan contacts him.

Now, he still has something else to do, which is system settlement.

Hua Subai delayed him for more than half an hour, causing him to not be able to properly look at the settlement results. Due to Shen's interference with the deduction, this settlement contained much more information than in the past.

First, there's the "follow-up" plot deduced by the investigators. Just like the one in Coffin Village, it tells the story of what happened to the character San after Yu Xing left.

[You eventually left Heavy Yin Mountain. After this adventure, you felt that your spirit had been somewhat polluted, probably a consequence of looking directly at the Ghost Tree.]

[Upon returning home, you fall seriously ill. The head of the Weird Event Investigation Studio visits you posing as a friend. You report to him the secret of the demon daoist's resurrection that you have uncovered. Overall, the studio is very satisfied and agrees to provide some assistance in resolving the curse and conspiracy in your home.]

[Your Magician friend seems to be more seriously ill than you, announcing he won't be performing magic for two years, much to the dismay of his fans. Only you know that he was forced to kill his counterpart from another timeline at the last minute, and his mental state was terrible afterward.]

[In conclusion, this mission was a success. With a little more preparation, you can now tackle the household problems that have been bothering you for so long.]

The subsequent events were brief; after reading them, Yu Xing focused her attention on the last paragraph.

Clearly, this is almost a blatant warning: when he chooses the Investigator class for his next deduction, he will face the family curse that has been mentioned several times before.

It doesn't matter; what's meant to happen will happen eventually. If it's not exciting, Yu Xing will be disappointed.

He continued looking at the settlement details.

[Hint: The Investigator type deduction game "Temple Ghost Corpse" has ended]

[Case truth restored to 85% (due to interference, increased from 70% to 85% as compensation for interference)]

[Increase in Personality Assimilation Degree: 3%]

[Rating: A]

[Gained Deduction Points: 2600 (Hidden Story) (Interference Compensation) (Score Bonus) (Exploration Bonus) (Deduction Contribution)]

[No offerings received]

Due to Shen's interference, Yu Xing took a shortcut in the final part of the deduction and failed to uncover the whole truth about the demon daoist, as well as the true identity of the hunchback in his previous life.

He didn't even see the ghost corpse in the "temple ghost corpse" story with his own eyes; presumably, Shen intercepted it.

Therefore, Yu Xing received a very low score in terms of completion. However, the deduction system is ultimately a reasonable system. Recognizing its mistake, it proactively increased Yu Xing's score as compensation.

Not only that, perhaps feeling guilty, the system surprisingly treated him generously for once.

[Special Note: The offering "Sheqing Dreamscape" has been unsealed, breaking the rules. The influence of the offering "Prison" has decreased. As compensation for the deduction, you can choose one of the following two options.]

[First, the right to use one offering is restored ahead of schedule.]

[Second, 1000 points compensation]

[Once you accept the compensation, you will not be allowed to leak any information from the "Temple Ghost Corpse" deduction.]

Yu Xing looked at the compensation terms and laughed out loud.

What is the system worried about?

If the anomaly investigation team within the Persona Mask template knew about the system's actions, they would definitely want to dismantle the system. They painstakingly collected intelligence, but the system tried every means to prevent the experiencer's information from being leaked.

However, this compensation was exactly what Yu Xing needed right now. He smiled and said softly, "Then... let's restore the right to use the rose mask."