Xie Ze's face went blank. After a long moment, he realized this guy had mistaken him for the murderer!
"Don't get the wrong idea. I'm not that deranged—my girlfriend wants to leave, so I kill her? Am I even human?" he retorted irritably, not at all flustered by the baseless accusation.
"Is that so?" Yu Xing looked unconvinced.
"Of course. If you want to accuse me, you need evidence." Xie Ze smiled, then froze. "How did you know the person who died in reality was a woman?"
Yu Xing blinked. "I was just guessing. How did you know only one person died in reality?"
That was starting to sound like pure sophistry. Xie Ze was speechless, and the couple in the other cup also turned to look over.
"That kind of speculation isn't very good, Yu Xing," Ling Heng reminded him.
Yu Xing immediately sat up straight, as though he had just snapped out of a dream. His face filled with apology. "Sorry, I didn't mean it. Zhao Yijiu and I got cursed when we rode the drop tower. Our emotions get amplified, and we can't control it. I just... well... I'm suspicious of everyone."
It cost nothing to make things up, so he spun the lie without hesitation.
The young couple exchanged a glance.
"Forget it, it's fine... I understand." Xie Ze patted Yu Xing on the shoulder, but the next second, he sensed something was wrong.
So hot.
The walls of the cup were beginning to heat up.
Yu Xing's expression changed, and he looked panicked. "It's starting. Damn, it's so hot. Is this cup an oven?"
Calling it an oven was not quite accurate. At the very least, the cup still left them a huge opening above.
"Fuck." Xie Ze shot to his feet. In that short time, the cup had become hot enough to fry eggs.
Yu Xing felt an unstoppable wave of heat travel from the soles of his shoes to his feet and butt. At this temperature, if they did not take action, every part of his body touching the Coffee Chair would be ruined by the time the game ended.
He had no choice but to stand as well.
"Ahhh..." Chen Jiu was shouting too, standing and hopping around inside the cup. "So hot, so hot! What kind of damn deduction is this? Every event is torture for the body. Are they trying to turn us into roast suckling pigs now!?"
"Only you're a pig." Even in this situation, Ling Heng did not panic. He stood up and carefully avoided Chen Jiu's injured arm. "Come on, I'll carry you."
"Bullshit. If you carry me, what are you going to do?" Chen Jiu spoke especially bluntly. She roughly rejected her boyfriend's kindness. "I was wrong. I take back what I said about this being a company-paid vacation. This is too hard, ahhh!"
Ling Heng shook his head. Taking advantage of the cramped space inside the Coffee Chair cup, he turned around, braced himself, and forcibly lifted Chen Jiu onto his back.
"Did you forget I have a sacrifice that blocks non-physical attacks?" He smiled. A special chill appeared around him, and in an instant, the heat rising from beneath and around them faded considerably.
Xie Ze looked over enviously.
"How long can it last?" Chen Jiu gripped Ling Heng's shoulders and asked worriedly.
"Which part do you mean? If you mean the sacrifice, it can cover two people for five minutes without a problem. As for me, I'd be fine carrying you for a whole day." Ling Heng's words were immensely reassuring. Chen Jiu let out a relieved breath, while Xie Ze's eyes filled with tears.
Well then, that had completely crushed his hopes of hitching a ride under the sacrifice's protection.
He did not have any sacrifices suited for insulation either. This really was... huh? Why was it suddenly chilly beside him?
A burst of cold suddenly struck amid the scorching heat. Xie Ze instinctively looked to the side and saw an exquisite Chinese lantern appear in Yu Xing's hand.
The candle inside the lantern had already been lit. Under the artificial light orb on the dome, it was not conspicuous, and he could barely make out the pearly white candle through the gaps.
Meanwhile, Yu Xing, who held the lantern, was gradually undergoing a terrifying transformation.
A bluish-gray tint slowly emerged on his handsome face, while his eye sockets darkened.
An eerie sheen gradually rose over the skin not covered by his clothes. His hair grew inch by inch, and his entire aura became sinister.
The transformation lasted for more than ten seconds. By the time Xie Ze was drenched in sweat, his face twisted as he felt like he was about to be cooked, Yu Xing finally stopped changing.
He had become a zombie.
His hair had grown to his shoulders. His handsome face looked stiff, the dark circles beneath his eyes rivaled a panda's, and his eyes were completely black, radiating ghostly energy. Even his exposed nails had turned black, sharp as little blades, making him look highly aggressive.
"What is this!?" Before Xie Ze could recover from his shock, Yu Xing had already hoisted him onto his back.
Yu Xing slowly said, his voice mostly unchanged except for being deeper, "A sacrifice. It changes my form. I'm helping you out."
He had figured that this pseudo-Ghostification form should be able to withstand a fair amount of heat and make him more comfortable.
And while he was at it, he could give Xie Ze a hand too.
"Impressive." Xie Ze's feet finally escaped their suffering. He was not very tall, so riding on the back of someone as tall as Yu Xing took no effort at all.
"Ghostification?" Ling Heng muttered in the other cup.
Chen Jiu noticed her boyfriend staring at someone else. "Hey, Ling Heng, don't you—"
"Did you see that? It's Ghostification! Ghostification of a living person! I've never seen a sacrifice like this before!" Ling Heng carried Chen Jiu on his back, but his gaze remained fixed on Yu Xing, unable to move away. Suspicious fervor surfaced on his gentle face, and his voice became excited. "Yu Xing, is this an ability granted by a sacrifice?"
"Yes..." Yu Xing noticed Ling Heng's abnormal reaction and looked over during a gap in the cup's rotation.
He spoke very slowly. After pausing, he continued, "After Ghostification, my thoughts... become much more rigid."
My ass.
He was perfectly fine. His thoughts were as lively and bouncy as a rabbit's.
But in front of these three, he decided to put on an act.
Ling Heng said nothing else, but the fervor on his face did not fade in the slightest. Instead, as he seemed to think of something, it grew even more intense.
For nearly four more minutes, Yu Xing endured that stare. By the third minute, an aggrieved glare from Chen Jiu joined it.
Yu Xing: "..."
When the event ended, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The Coffee Chair cooled rapidly, and a white slip of paper appeared at the bottom.
"The deceased is among you."
Yu Xing's stiff ghostly face revealed no change, but he keenly sensed a flicker in Xie Ze's pupils when he set him down.
"Yu Xing, how did you get into this state...?" The moment they left the ride, Ling Heng ran to Yu Xing's side and looked his corrupted body up and down. "A ghost item! It's a ghost item!"
"Mm..." Yu Xing let him inspect him.
"So are you human or a ghost right now?" Ling Heng grew excited and fervently grabbed Yu Xing's forearm. "Can I ask you some things?"
"Huh?" Yu Xing gave him a confused look, perfectly acting out the appearance of someone whose thoughts could not keep up. Two seconds later, he nodded. "Ask away."
"How long can this state last?"
Yu Xing thought about it. "Thirty minutes."
"That long! Let's go over there—I want to ask you privately!" Ling Heng pointed toward Alice's Central Plaza. "Let's go to the middle, the safest place. Okay?"
"Sigh, here he goes again." Chen Jiu looked at the two of them helplessly, and her gaze at Yu Xing in particular held pity.
"Your boyfriend is...?" Seeing Ling Heng like this, Xie Ze was astonished. He seemed like a completely different person from the gentle man before.
"He's a biologist. Ever since becoming a Deductor, he's been researching certain... um, things between humans and ghosts. I can't explain it. Anyway, it's all kinds of weird stuff."
Chen Jiu watched her boyfriend get dragged away with distress. "Don't let his usual normal behavior fool you. The moment research comes up, he turns into a complete mad scientist. He spends entire days soaking in the lab. So I wasn't joking about the company-paid vacation... He rarely gets time off to spend with me. He finally got another break and came home last night, so I wanted to spend more time with him. Anywhere would have been fine." She adjusted the bangs poking her eyes and watched Yu Xing slowly nod before Ling Heng dragged him away.
It was not easy for Yu Xing either, getting chased down by her research-obsessed boyfriend for questions.
She muttered fiercely, "That dog... if there's work in his eyes, there's no girlfriend."
Xie Ze laughed.
Since Ling Heng wanted to question Yu Xing for research purposes, Xie Ze and Chen Jiu did not feel it was appropriate to follow. They found a small round table in the rest area beside the Coffee Chair and sat down casually.
All four clues had been gathered. Other than the detective, no one needed to ride another attraction unless they had too few clues to confidently deduce the two identities of the suspects.
Ling Heng and Yu Xing gradually disappeared into the distance. Only after they were out of sight did Xie Ze clutch his uncomfortable stomach, stretch his legs that had been tormented by the heat, and enter conversation mode. He asked Chen Jiu, who had been talking about her boyfriend's research achievements, "You care about him so much. You must love him a lot, right?"
Chen Jiu paused, then nodded. "Of course. Hmph, I was the one who chased him in the beginning. His personality is just like that—indifferent about everything. I could tell he liked me too, but if I expected him to take the initiative and confess, I'd be dreaming."
"Hahaha, that's pretty interesting too." Xie Ze laughed a few times, then asked, "If—just if—he got so busy with research that he neglected you and failed to keep several dates he promised, would you get angry?"
"Of course I would! What job is more important than your girlfriend? And if you make a promise, you should keep it." Chen Jiu rolled her eyes in the direction Ling Heng had left.
The look in Xie Ze's eyes deepened. "Would you fight with him over that? Would you break up with him!?"
Chen Jiu froze.
After being asked so many questions, she suddenly caught on.
Why was Xie Ze so concerned about this kind of question?
Suspicion rose in Chen Jiu's heart, and she could not help looking at Xie Ze.
She and Xie Ze were sitting face-to-face now, with a round table between them. In a way, the angle resembled how Yu Xing and Xie Ze had sat in the Coffee Chair.
She saw that after he sat down, the collar of Xie Ze's suit had been pulled open slightly, revealing part of the lining that had not been visible while he was standing.
And with a casual glance, she noticed a thumb-sized dark red stain resting quietly on the part of the collar usually hidden by his suit.
What was that?
Chen Jiu wondered.
"Come on, tell me. Would you break up with your boyfriend over that?" Xie Ze did not notice her gaze. Instead, he stared at Chen Jiu's lips, waiting for the answer that mouth was about to give.
A faint perfume scent drifted from Xie Ze into Chen Jiu's nose.
It was women's perfume. Because it was somewhat cheap, the fragrance was not elegant at all, but rather a little pungent.
Chen Jiu thought that scent might have been left on Xie Ze by his girlfriend.
But hadn't Xie Ze said his girlfriend was breaking up with him? For even that trace of scent to have remained until now, it meant Xie Ze had seen his girlfriend shortly before entering the game.
Well, it was not impossible that it belonged to another woman... but judging by Xie Ze's suit, his company should be decent. Would female colleagues wear such cheap perfume?
She looked again at the dark red mark on Xie Ze's lining.
It was blood, wasn't it?
An idea surfaced in Chen Jiu's mind. Her gaze shifted as she recalled the question Yu Xing had asked Xie Ze in the Coffee Chair.
Because your girlfriend wanted to break up with you, and you couldn't make her stay.
"Did you kill her?"
Before you continue