The Witch's Time Cabin

The three people gathered around a claw machine in the empty area, staring intently at the movement of the metal claw.

Before Wang Jue arrived, Zhao Yijiu had tried twice more, neither succeeding, so Wang Jue became the village's last hope.

"Awesome!" Yu Xing watched as the second-to-last coin was inserted, and Wang Jue expertly manipulated the buttons, grabbed a human-head doll, and sent it toward the chute.

Wang Jue's arrival brought a lifeline to the stalled amusement attraction, and two heads had already emerged in the tunnel below, which Yu Xing picked up and placed on top of the claw machine.

Now they were fishing for the third one.

"This is not difficult at all; it's fixed in place, and shaking it down isn't even that hard. It's much easier to catch than outside claw machines," Wang Jue muttered, unable to imagine how Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu had managed to fail to lift a single head with five coins, while Zhao Yijiu remained silent and Yu Xing just chimed in with agreement from the side.

Soon, the third head, resembling an old person, was hooked out.

"Good thing we have you, or this attraction would've been ruined by us," Yu Xing sighed.

"Hehe, no problem." Wang Jue took the third head out from the chute, looked left and right at its wrinkled face, and asked, "Where's the clue?"

The indicator sign said three heads would yield a clue, but it didn't mention where the clue was. Yu Xing spread his hands and reached out casually to touch the head placed on top of the machine, only to grab empty air.

He raised an eyebrow, turned his head, and saw that the first two heads placed earlier had vanished—where did my head go?

Such huge heads that I literally just placed right here, where did they go?

Before he had a chance to think, a chill hit the back of Yu Xing's neck as something fluffy and dense wrapped tightly around it.

He reached out to touch it, and the thing around his neck instantly tightened, bringing a wave of suffocation.

It was hair!

Aside from the hair, there seemed to be something pressing against the back of his neck, giggling softly.

That must have been a face.

The movements of these two heads were truly silent; Yu Xing hadn't even heard the sound of them disappearing when they were so close.

His gaze turned cold, and amidst the tightening hair, he spared a glance at the other two.

The three heads were distributed quite evenly indeed. One of them was rolling around on the ground, then bounced up like a rubber ball, leaving a few pieces of shredded meat in place every time it pushed off the ground, looking quite disgusting.

As it bounced, it was impaled through the crown by Zhao Yijiu's knife. Half of it was mechanical, and the metal knife collided with it, emitting a faint buzzing sound.

"Woah!" Before Wang Jue even had time to take in the sudden change, the head in his hand suddenly opened its eyes, bared a bloody mouth, and lunged to bite his wrist.

Being this close, he could clearly see the bloody, rotting flesh inside the head's mouth and the teeth, which were unusually sharp for some reason.

If that bite landed, his hand would be ruined!

Without a moment's hesitation, Wang Jue summoned a yellow talisman at his fingertips out of thin air, slapping it rapidly onto the head's mouth.

Upon touching the head, the talisman paper burst forth with a chilling gust of air. The head opened its mouth in agony, carved with deep gashes by invisible blades; the human half of it suffered quite a bit of damage, while the mechanical half only retained shallow white scratches.

Fortunately, once Wang Jue was on guard, the head couldn't bite him for the time being.

Seeing that all three of them had been attacked, the Alice-headed giant doll on the claw machine finally spoke: "The clue is inside the mouth of one of the heads."

Wang Jue snapped back to reality, looking with complicated feelings at the head that was screaming in agony from the yellow talisman, though it actually hadn't suffered any real harm: It's only inside one of the heads? Then it definitely isn't this one in my hand, right?

As for that oral cavity, he had no desire to look any closer at it.

"Not with me," Zhao Yijiu said in a deep voice, skewering a head like a shish kebab and prying open its mouth.

Then the clue could only be inside the mouth of the long-haired head that was currently entangling Yu Xing.

The two of them turned together to look at Yu Xing, whose neck was still wrapped in hair and who seemed unable to breathe.

Wang Jue thought Yu Xing was a decent young man, cheerful and polite, but right now his face was completely pale, looking as if there was no blood beneath his skin. He couldn't help feeling an urge to help: "Quick, see if you can pry it off! If you can't, I—"

"I can." Hearing this, Yu Xing raised his hand and yanked the hair outward forcefully, instantly recovering his breathing capability. "I was just checking out its hair volume. After tangling for so long, it's just a tiny clump, can't even cover the mouth and nose—it's bald!"

Wang Jue: "..."

Zhao Yijiu: "..."

Yu Xing was also quite vicious. The head had divided its hair into two strands to strangle him from behind, so he grabbed one strand in each hand and hauled outward with such force that he almost ripped the head's hair out along with its scalp.

The head had long stopped giggling; following the sharp pain in its scalp, it let out a miserable howl.

It sounded rather pitiful.

"This head is exceptionally strong, and you were able to rip it off barehanded?" After a brief moment of speechlessness, Wang Jue suddenly realized something was amiss.

"Yeah, you're stronger than I thought," Zhao Yijiu added, a flash of vigilance in his eyes. "Though this is our first time entering a deduction game together, I couldn't tell you had this side to you during regular work at all. You're very good at hiding things."

Wang Jue looked between the two of them, deep in thought.

These two were supposedly colleagues in reality, but judging by this tone, Zhao Yijiu didn't quite trust Yu Xing? Meaning, in Zhao Yijiu's mind, Yu Xing had the potential to be the killer?

He observed Yu Xing and noticed that upon hearing Zhao Yijiu's words, the other's hand paused, the expression on his face looking awkward for a split second before being instantly masked: "Ahahaha, no way. Which deductioner isn't good at hiding things?"

"Perhaps." Zhao Yijiu glanced coldly at Yu Xing, his gaze landing on the head gripped in Yu Xing's hand. "Get the clue."

Yu Xing dropped the nonsense and handed the head over.

The long-haired head was at its last gasp, its eyeballs rolling around frantically. Zhao Yijiu took it and forcefully pried open its mouth, spotting a piece of white paper behind two rows of even teeth.

With evident disgust, he pulled the paper out and saw a sentence written on it: "The detective has not traveled together with the killer so far."

After reading it aloud, he displayed the paper to the other two, then shoved it back into the head's mouth in disgust.

With a flick of his hand, the head fled like a refugee from the chute back into the claw machine, obediently filling the vacant spot.

This...

What kind of clue was this?

After Zhao Yijiu read the clue, Wang Jue's expression cracked a little.

Still, this clue... actually seemed somewhat helpful for reasoning.

"Wang Jue, weren't you acting together with Xie Ze earlier? Why did you suddenly come looking for us?" Yu Xing asked curiously, as if suddenly remembering.

"Xie Ze and I were riding the merry-go-round just now, and suddenly Xie Ze said he wasn't at ease with two people traveling together—meaning he didn't trust me—and right after seeing that couple on the Ferris wheel, he insisted on going over there to find them," Wang Jue said glumly. "I originally followed along, but then they planned to play the spinning chair ride next, which had a limit of three people, so they ditched me. Ling Heng told me they saw you two heading to the claw machine area from the Ferris wheel, so he told me to come find you."

I see.

Yu Xing nodded thoughtfully.

The killer was bound to approach others to figure out who resembled the victim more, while the detective could contact the victims to protect them, or stay away from them so the killer couldn't figure out who the victim was.

Everyone was secretly observing everyone else. Beyond the explicit clues, everyone's actions and behavioral intents were enough to expose a lot of things.

The three of them each harbored their own thoughts as they walked toward the next attraction, while the indicator sign at the claw machine area changed to read [This attraction is temporarily closed].

They had originally wanted to play the haunted house.

However, Wang Jue wailed that he was afraid of ghosts and didn't want to be scared by ghosts in a non-supernatural deduction game, stubbornly refusing to step foot near the haunted house entrance.

So Yu Xing exerted the tiny shred of human warmth within him, patting Wang Jue's shoulder with great tolerance and pity, and changed their destination from the haunted house to other indoor attractions.

After walking for a long time, they finally discovered a rather peculiar facility tucked away in a corner of the park. It was a wooden house that didn't look very large from the outside, with gears covering the walls and a steam pipe protruding from somewhere, puffing white vapor outward.

Alice's head was fashioned into a sign hanging above the door, with Gothic lettering written underneath—The Witch's Time Cabin.

When the door was pushed open, the ethereal chime of a bell rang out. Yu Xing's footsteps paused for a fraction of a second as he looked around, slightly stunned.

This place... was very special.

So special that the moment the three of them stepped inside, they fell silent in unison.

Upon entering the room, one could sense how this place differed from the others. While it featured the same steampunk decor, it possessed a visible sense of antiquity missing everywhere else.

The overall color tone here was a hazy moonlight gold, which, under the illumination of the lighting, inexplicably emanated a few wisps of dim gray amidst its warmth.

It was as if time, which should have marched forward normally... had rusted.

Time was originally an abstract concept, yet Yu Xing grasped this thought in an instant.

In his eyes, time...

was such a helpless thing.

He reined in his thoughts amidst the footsteps of Zhao Yijiu and Wang Jue, continuing to observe.

The hall was carpeted in dark gold. Aside from the brown hardwood sofa and coffee table, there was also a display stand.

The display stand was piled with exquisite artifacts from various eras, including ornaments of the Eiffel Tower and London's Big Ben, notebooks that could serve as gifts, pen holders decorated with small gears, and models of Gothic castles...

Hundreds of items were lavishly piled together; he could only name a little over half of them, and there were even things on this table that he had never seen before.

He picked up a quill pen casually. The pen's weight was unexpected, heavy and solid, crafted from some unknown material.

Thick white threads were wound around the perimeter of the hall, upon which numerous photographs were clipped with iron clips. Some were portraits, some were scenery, and there were also ambiguous, blurry blocks of color alongside unsettlingly horrific imagery.

Looking at these photos, Yu Xing suddenly felt a sense of heavy familiarity.

He put down the quill pen and paused in front of a sepia-toned scenery photo. In the picture, the earthy tone belonged to an old wooden boat washed ashore on a mudflat, with its oars leaning haphazardly against the hull.

Through the small wooden boat, a village in the distance could be vaguely glimpsed.

"So familiar..." Yu Xing muttered, feeling a sense of resonance as he carefully observed the photos.

Everything within the photos seemed to be something he had once experienced... or so he thought.

"Why are you staring at a tree?" Wang Jue sidled over, pointing at the small wooden boat photo. "Speaking of which, this big willow tree looks so familiar to me. Why can't I remember it?"

A tree?

Yu Xing looked at the small wooden boat, then looked at Wang Jue.

Wang Jue's brain shouldn't be malfunctioning.

That meant looking at the exact same photo, what he saw and what Wang Jue saw were different.

He realized in an instant that these photos were likely generated based on everyone's individual memories.

Suddenly, Yu Xing caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye.

His expression instantly turned gloomy. Leaving behind the still-marveling Wang Jue, he walked toward the photo where that flash of red resided.

This photo had some age to it and was already starting to yellow.

In the photo, a handsome, refined man dressed in a light-colored long gown and vest sat upright in a heavily carved wooden chair, his naturally smiling eyes gazing toward Yu Xing outside the photo with an indescribable, piercing intensity.

Dangling from the man's left ear was a distinctive earring, a long, slender piece of colored glaze from which hung a long tassel. That flash of red was precisely the color of the glaze and the tassel itself.

It was an eerie, bloody red.

This man possessed a beauty that transcended gender. Yu Xing stared at him calmly, yet his fingers clenched involuntarily, almost digging into his flesh.

"Lingren..." he murmured silently, and the gentle smile on the man's face in the photo seemed to carry a trace of faint, mocking derision.

Yu Xing hadn't expected this so-called Time Cabin to be able to replicate his memories within these photos.

These pictures dredged up many experiences he had deliberately buried, especially the deep-seated blood feud.

"Welcome."

Suddenly, the door on the inner side of the hall was opened. First came a crisp, smooth greeting sounding like a flowing spring, followed by a woman draped in long hair stepping out from the inner room.

All three people in the hall regained their focus.

Yu Xing withdrew his gaze from the photo, a faint smile floating at the corner of his mouth as he looked toward the master of this room.

He hadn't expected to see an NPC who looked entirely like a normal human being all over here.

The woman wore a black robe, her bare feet stepping upon the dark golden carpet. Her fair skin was delicate and flawless.

Her face was even more stunning—completely bare of makeup, devoid of any adornment, yet more beautiful than any woman Yu Xing had ever seen. In particular, her eyes shone with a dark golden luster, looking half-smiling and half-cold as she gazed over, seemingly capable of plunging someone into antiquity and dragging them down into the whirlpool of time.

For some reason, the woman's gaze lingered on Yu Xing for a bit too long. As they locked eyes with one another, each saw detachment in the other's gaze.

"Hello!" Wang Jue blurted out, his eyes widening. "May I ask who you are!?"

The vibe of this woman was completely wrong, hey.

If one were to use a Cthulhu tabletop RPG as an analogy, this woman's APP (Appearance) score was definitely past the highest human limit, falling squarely into the category of a mythological entity!

I—I can tell at a glance that you're not human!

The woman finally shifted her gaze away from Yu Xing and gave Wang Jue a slight nod: "I am the Witch, working... a part-time job here for a day."

"Meow." A black ball of fur on her shoulder stirred; it turned out to be a small cat blended seamlessly into the black robe.