You Killed Her?

Cats usually extend their claws to scratch people when they get angry.

Bad Luck wanted to do the same, but after snapping back to its senses and realizing it had been played, its fur puffed out all over. It leaped agilely back onto Yu Xing's lap, its paw pads padding twice against his jeans before it kicked forward.

Seeing the black cat nearly bounce into his sensitive areas—ones he could not just let anyone touch—Yu Xing disregarded the gradually intensifying black qi in its eyes and on its body, reaching out to grab Bad Luck by the scruff of its neck. He tossed it unceremoniously toward the Witch: "It's not even afraid of me. But with abilities this fierce, why did it take on such a useless form?"

"I don't know." The Witch caught Bad Luck, inwardly agreeing with Yu Xing's description of the black cat's abilities.

After all, this power was undeniably fierce.

She stroked Bad Luck's fur, her gaze shifting slightly: "Why a cat? Perhaps its owner knows."

"Aren't you its owner?" Yu Xing cast the Witch a lazy glance, practically radiating a sense of complete disregard for her beauty: "Forget it, I don't care either. Three questions, ask away."

"All right, I'll start." The Witch placed her hand on the continually revolving star tracks, fixing her eyes on Yu Xing: "First question."

"Do you remember how many years you've lived?"

The corners of Yu Xing's eyes lifted in a half-smile: "Of course I remember."

The Witch said: "Second question. Thinking back now, can you still feel the despair of being deceived 'back then'?"

"I remember." Yu Xing crossed his legs.

"Third question. From the moment you decided to take revenge until now, how many years have passed?"

Yu Xing tilted his head to think: "It should be... seventy years."

"...Turns out you're an old monster." The Witch said earnestly.

"Yeah, much older than you~" Yu Xing smiled brilliantly: "Come on, call me ancestor and let me hear it~"

The Witch: "Ancestor."

Yu Xing: Is this kid really this honest?

The exchange with the Witch did not last long. Yu Xing lifted his feet and walked out of the inner room, and the Witch followed right along with him.

"You have already completed this project." The Witch nodded to the two people waiting on the sofa: "The clue is: the perpetrator was not at the scene when the body was discovered in reality."

Hearing this, Wang Jue was the happiest.

Because he had already explained that he was right next to the sports equipment room at the time, he definitely counted as a person at the scene.

Just like that, his suspicion as the murderer was at least completely eliminated.

Zhao Yijiu's expression did not change at all; this clue was... completely useless to him.

Yu Xing, on the other hand, felt underwhelmed.

Even as a suspect, his perspective was narrower than a detective's and wider than a murderer's, but with three clues in hand, he was practically close to completing his victory condition.

After releasing the clue, the Witch spoke again: "You all respect time, so I am willing to give you some small gifts in a personal capacity."

Under the gazes of the three, she walked barefooted and leisurely to the display stand, running her fingers along the edge: "You may each choose one item from above."

Perhaps Zhao Yijiu's indifference was too obvious, so the Witch added: "They are not entirely useless."

Hearing this, Yu Xing leaned over and picked up a writing brush from the display stand with a black barrel, engraved with cyan flying birds, and tipped with white wolf-hair at the end.

"I like this." The moment his voice fell, the Witch took the brush from his hand, carefully packed it into a black gift box that appeared from nowhere, and handed it to him with great solemnity—

"Gifts should come in packaging."

"Oh, quite the filial one." Yu Xing muttered.

Zhao Yijiu glanced over at him, making sure he hadn't heard wrong. Did the other person just say "filial"?

He shook his head, casually picking up a plain-looking black pearl. Wang Jue asked for a miniature Big Ben model, and both were properly wrapped up by the Witch as well.

They walked out of Time Cabin carrying their small gifts. After just a few steps, they looked back to find that the entire cabin had disappeared right where it stood.

As if it had never appeared at all.

"So magical, this project was actually this easy." Wang Jue patted his chest after the fact, then brightened up: "We have good luck!"

"Is that so." Yu Xing looked around and yawned: "I lied."

Zhao Yijiu: "?"

"Out of the three questions, I lied on one." Yu Xing said it as a matter of course, which took Wang Jue quite a while to process before he realized Yu Xing meant he was about to be plagued by Bad Luck, not that breakfast was really good.

"Then..."

"So let's go our separate ways. Staying with me might get you implicated. Well... neither of you are the ones I'm looking for, and time is almost up. I'm going to go find those three." Yu Xing stuffed his hands into his pockets, turned, and smiled at Zhao Yijiu and Wang Jue. His tone was an announcement, not a negotiation.

"I'm off, bye-bye~"

"Then you're the—!?" Wang Jue stared wide-eyed at his unhesitating back, the rest of his sentence stuck in his throat.

He felt distressed for a moment, but then he noticed Zhao Yijiu was still beside him. Decisively changing targets, he directed a gaze full of a desire for validation at Zhao Yijiu: "Then he must be the detective!"

Zhao Yijiu nodded.

Having received his validation, Wang Jue went on talking to himself: "Among the murderer, the victim, and the detective, only the latter doesn't need to care if others have guessed his identity. If he's the detective, neither of us can be the murderer, but I'm curious, who is the victim?"

His gaze shifted to Zhao Yijiu: "The detective stayed with you from the very beginning. Actually, I don't think you could be the victim card; otherwise, the murderer, knowing the detective's identity, would definitely have noticed you. Yu Xing shouldn't be that foolish."

Zhao Yijiu nodded again.

Out of protection for the victim, the detective wouldn't state the victim's name directly either, because even if everyone knew who the victim was and protected them, the victim's identity would end up known by more than three people, resulting in game failure. Well... our best choice is to figure out the identities of the detective and the murderer. That way, we can punish the murderer without hurting the victim. Wang Jue's eyes shone brightly.

Zhao Yijiu nodded once more.

This young man had arranged all the identities on his own; what else was there for him to say?

"What do we do now then?" Wang Jue asked.

"Since Yu Xing is the detective, him going to find those three carries a certain risk, because if the murderer finds an opportunity to kill him, they can directly obtain the victim's identity. Let's gather the four required clues. If he's not dead by then, we'll go look for him." Zhao Yijiu finally spoke, then walked off in the opposite direction.

What he didn't see was that as he turned away, Wang Jue's expression grew much colder as he glanced in the direction Yu Xing had left.

"Did you really think I'm that easy to fool?" A silent murmur dissipated on Wang Jue's lips as he smiled and followed.

Yu Xing walked toward the direction of the giant turntable, hoping to run into the other three.

Among the information he had obtained so far, the closed projects were—

Drop Tower, with participants himself and Zhao Yijiu.

Claw Machine, with Wang Jue added to the Drop Tower participants.

Time Cabin, same as above.

Merry-go-round, Wang Jue and Xie Ze.

Ferris Wheel, Ling Heng and Chen Jiu.

Giant Turntable, Ling Heng, Chen Jiu, plus Xie Ze.

When they entered Time Cabin, the other three must have entered one more project as well. That meant there should only be five open projects left in the amusement park.

He walked through a small half of the park. Alice's face was practically everywhere, even on the signs for the public restrooms.

Passing through Alice Square in the center, Yu Xing looked up at the time.

One-twenty.

In other words, one hour and twenty minutes had already passed since the game officially entered the four-hour window for finding identities and doing tasks.

He looked thoughtful, completely lacking any sense of urgency as he walked a bit and rested a bit, until he finally ran into Ling Heng, Chen Jiu, and Xie Ze coming down from the roller coaster.

So the roller coaster was now closed too, leaving only the Mirror House, Haunted House, Rotating Coffee Cups, Bumper Cars, and Children's Playground.

However... he raised an eyebrow, those three all seemed to have rather bad complexions~

Watching them stand together with their hands on their hips from a distance, Yu Xing found it amusing and walked over. Realizing someone was approaching, he saw Xie Ze cast a pale-faced glance at Yu Xing before blurting out, "Fucking..."

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow: "Fucking?"

I literally just got here, what bad thing did I do for you to say that to me?

Chen Jiu looked at him too, eager to try: "Fucking..."

Ling Heng frowned and gave a warning cough.

Chen Jiu immediately corrected himself: "Fu... to, tato."

"Tato your head, I'm potato." Ling Heng caught his breath and reached out to tap Chen Jiu's head. Yu Xing could tell his breathing was off, as if one of his internal organs was injured: "Didn't I tell you it's bad to swear."

"I didn't say it, I caught myself." Chen Jiu covered his head with one hand to emphasize, while blood was currently streaming down the arm of his other hand.

Ling Heng shook his head helplessly before turning to Yu Xing with an apologetic expression: "Sorry, are you a bit confused?"

"Yeah, I'm eating dog food while being confused." Yu Xing confirmed with a nod.

Chen Jiu: "Ah, this."

Next, Ling Heng explained to Yu Xing what had actually happened.

When the three of them came down from the giant turntable, both Ling Heng and Xie Ze had acquired some unknown ghosts in their stomachs that interfered with them at random moments.

With their conditions declining, they originally wanted to play the coffee cups, but the coffee cups required four people to start, the haunted house was for two, and they had just sent Wang Jue off to Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu's side, making it impossible to scrape together the numbers no matter what.

Ling Heng and Chen Jiu also felt a bit bad about chasing Xie Ze away—this young couple actually had pretty decent tempers—so the project closest to them became the roller coaster.

And then another problem arose—Xie Ze was afraid of heights.

At that moment, Xie Ze deeply missed Wang Jue. If Wang Jue were here, he wouldn't have to experience this kind of project... So seeing Yu Xing arrive right on the dot after the roller coaster finished, Xie Ze gave up on life, wondering why Yu Xing hadn't arrived a step earlier, and couldn't help letting out a curse.

He wasn't targeting anyone in particular; perhaps... he was targeting himself.

As for why the young couple's complexions were bad, it was because Chen Jiu had been injured on the roller coaster, and his right arm couldn't even be lifted now.

Naturally, the group did not share clues, and they harbored doubts about the reason for Yu Xing's arrival.

Yu Xing forced a smile: "Among the clues I got, there's one about the murderer. I feel like I can't rule out Zhao Yijiu; he's usually very cold and ruthless at work, and I've always been a bit scared of him."

Seeing the shifting expressions of the three, Yu Xing hurriedly added: "Oh, I'm not saying he's the murderer. I just can't eliminate his suspicion and it's making me uneasy, so I wanted to come find you guys and see how things are on your end."

"Sure, since you're here, we can go ride the coffee cups." Xie Ze clutched his stomach, looking like he was about to vomit. He wanted to say something more, but finally waved his hand: "...Sorry, I'm nauseous, I'll go find somewhere to throw up."

With that, he ran off into the flowerbeds.

"He's so pitiful." Chen Jiu sighed.

Ling Heng immediately chimed in: "I have something in my stomach too, am I not pitiful?"

Yu Xing glanced at them.

A minute later, Xie Ze walked back while adjusting his attire, looking significantly weaker than before.

The Rotating Coffee Cups and the Mirror House were close to each other, practically side by side. When the four of them headed toward the coffee cups, none of them mentioned what project they would play next.

It seemed they all wanted to default to disguising themselves as suspects who needed four clues.

The sign for the coffee cups was nothing special, mentioning that groups of two spinning for five minutes would yield a clue, and requiring four people to start.

As a result, during the grouping, Xie Ze grabbed Yu Xing's arm, staring with an exaggerated "darn it, why are there couples in this deduction scenario" expression at Chen Jiu and Ling Heng, who had been glued together the entire time, before looking at Yu Xing with a tragic and indignant face.

"Fine, I get it." Yu Xing willingly got into the same coffee cup as Xie Ze.

The atmosphere by the coffee cups was genuinely romantic. The macaron-colored decorations were the only pure land in the entire amusement park, with Alice's face only printed on the indicator sign.

The coffee cups were shaped like large mugs, and the seats inside had soft cushions added. Yu Xing felt like dozing off the moment he sat down.

Unfortunately, he was destined not to doze off right now. He watched as the facility slowly started up, and the coffee cup began to spin at a comfortable speed.

Danger could arrive at any moment.

"Wow, this is my first time realizing you can be this happy in a deduction game. It feels like a publicly funded trip." But a few seconds later, Chen Jiu's happy voice drifted over from the neighboring cup.

"Be careful, don't get hurt again." Ling Heng advised with concern.

Yu Xing's sharp ears twitched, and the corners of his mouth hooked upward.

Xie Ze was extremely close to Yu Xing. While rubbing his stomach, he sighed.

"What's wrong?" Yu Xing asked cheerfully, "I'm guessing you probably have a girlfriend, you just can't see her for the duration of a deduction, no need to be like this."

Xie Ze scratched his head with a troubled expression: "I used to have one, but not anymore. She complained that my job is too busy and I don't spend time with her, so she's breaking up with me."

Yu Xing: "And you just agreed?"

"Of course I didn't want to agree, we've been together for several years. But she was so persistent, so I..." Xie Ze wore an expression of not wanting to talk about it anymore.

Yet how could Yu Xing be that kind-hearted? Hearing Xie Ze's reply, his smile grew even brighter.

Lowering his voice, he leaned close to Xie Ze's ear, his rising tone laced with an ambiguous danger: "So you killed her?"