You're Here!

You had to know, Zhao Yijiu had become wary of Yu Xing, whose behavior was far too unpredictable. He took half a step back.

"What's the condition?"

Seeing Zhao Yijiu's little move, Yu Xing found it rather amusing. He didn't care how filthy the broken machine was. He bent one leg and braced the other on the ground, then pointed at the knife in Zhao Yijiu's hand. "This. Let me take a look at it when we're done?"

The dull heart embedded in the knife's hilt seemed to be starting to beat. It was pretty unsettling at first glance.

"This..." Zhao Yijiu lowered his head and looked at it twice, hesitating.

"Don't worry, I'll only look at it for a second. A tiny second." Yu Xing put his hands together and grinned. "I promise I'll give it back exactly as I found it. I'm just curious... It's a sacrifice, right?"

"!" Zhao Yijiu was startled at first, then quickly calmed down.

He'd already guessed Yu Xing knew what was going on. If he knew about the game test, then it stood to reason he might know about sacrifices too.

"Sure." He agreed, then paused and added, "Someone lent it to me. I can't use its power."

"That makes sense. You're not an official Deduction Test participant, so you can't use it." Yu Xing nodded toward him. "Want to bandage your wound?"

The shoulder Tang Li had pierced was a bloody mess. It looked painful.

Zhao Yijiu shook his head. The conditions weren't good, and he had no clean gauze. If he hastily wrapped it in his clothes, it might get infected.

It could stop the bleeding, but... He was only wearing one long-sleeved shirt and didn't particularly want to be left half-dressed.

He'd... just have to endure it. He had a feeling it would be over soon.

Besides, he wasn't afraid of pain. He was used to it.

"Mm... You're pretty hard on yourself." Yu Xing sighed, then swung his leg and patted the spot beside him. "Then let me tell you what happened at this Pharmaceutical Factory half a year ago. Sit!"

"You won't sit? All right."

Half a year ago, the owner of Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory hanged himself in his office at the factory, attracting a little attention.

The story was quickly suppressed, and the public was told it was a suicide.

It was an unremarkable case. It failed to stir up the public's appetite for gossip, like a pebble dropped into the sea without making so much as a ripple.

In truth, the police's covert investigation revealed that the pharmaceutical factory sold fake medicine and was also involved in some even larger illicit businesses. Above it was a mysterious raw-material supplier. Investigators discovered that the supplier was the source of materials for many illegal factories.

The owner of Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory had been on the police's radar for a long time. They'd cast their net days ago, hoping to lure out the supplier.

But before they could close the net, something unexpected happened.

Cheng Rui, a top student in Ruibo University's journalism department, had joined an online media company after graduating. Hoping to dig up a major story and boost his performance, he looked into Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory.

There was nothing unusual about that. The factory's crimes were bound to come to light sooner or later. But no one had expected that after photographing the evidence, Cheng Rui wouldn't report it. Instead, he used what was on his camera to blackmail the factory owner.

The factory owner was young, and he wasn't particularly good at handling pressure. He couldn't scheme, stall, or smooth things over like an old hand. After Cheng Rui threatened him, he and his girlfriend, who was also a person in charge of the factory, paid a price in every way imaginable before Cheng Rui agreed to keep quiet.

But people were always greedy.

Cheng Rui wanted more money, and he also wanted to make a name for himself at work. With such a huge story in his hands, it was hard for him to stay content.

So, almost inevitably, he went to the owner again and threatened him.

His camera was his eyes. It was his weapon.

What it contained wasn't just evidence against the pharmaceutical factory. It also held photos of the owner's girlfriend compromising herself to Cheng Rui the first time.

The owner's girlfriend couldn't accept it. She slit her wrists in the bathtub at home, leaving behind a blood-soaked note filled with hatred before she died: You should gouge your own eyes out!

One was followed by another.

His girlfriend's death left the owner utterly devastated. Not long afterward, one day when Cheng Rui came to the factory to threaten him again, the owner hanged himself in his office beforehand.

Ordinary people were driven by profit when they dared to commit crimes. When the profit was gone, their hearts—which had long been fearful and battered—became unbearably fragile.

By the time the police realized something was wrong, most of the leads at Qingyuan Pharmaceutical Factory had gone cold.

The only way to keep tracking down the raw-material supplier was to investigate the reporter who had caused such a mess.

But then another piece of bad news arrived—Cheng Rui had lost control of his car on the highway, gone over the guardrail and into a ditch, and died on the spot.

Was it an accident?

Any police officer with even a little experience knew it was impossible. The conclusion was that the raw-material supplier had tampered with Cheng Rui's car in an attempt to cut off the trail for good.

In short, for different reasons, the owner, his girlfriend, and Cheng Rui had all died because of "evidence."

And that was how this Deduction Test came about.

Listening to Yu Xing lay out the secrets from half a year ago so clearly, Zhao Yijiu was enlightened, but even more confused about Yu Xing's identity.

These were the sort of details only insiders could know, right? Yu Xing seemed pretty young... Who exactly was he?

And... if Tang Li was the owner, then Tang Yuan was actually Tang Li's girlfriend, not his younger sister?

Since he was curious, this was a good opportunity to ask. "Is it just a coincidence that those two had the same surname?"

"Of course not. Just like how Cheng Rui was called Fang Rui in the test, Tang Li and Tang Yuan must be fake names too. I hadn't paid much attention to the case before, so I didn't remember the owner's and his girlfriend's names. But that doesn't matter." Yu Xing spread his hands and gave a knowing smile. "Calling your partner 'big brother'... That's probably a kind of kink, right?"

Zhao Yijiu kept a straight face. How would he know whether it was a kink or not? He'd been single his whole life. Unlike Yu Xing, who looked like he had plenty of experience.

If Yu Xing could hear him, he'd probably have cried foul—he'd been single his whole life too!

Fortunately, he couldn't hear him.

After grumbling to himself, Zhao Yijiu collected his thoughts. "So the way to end the test early that you mentioned is... taking pictures? Fang... Cheng Rui is already gone?"

"That's right. Say cheese~"

In the events from half a year ago, the tragedy had all stemmed, in a sense, from Fang Rui's—no, Cheng Rui's—camera.

And now they had a camera too.

Assistant Hao had specifically warned them that the recording couldn't be interrupted for more than five minutes. It was both a reminder and a mental trap—since they had to find batteries to keep the camera powered, most people's first thought would be that it had run out of power if the recording stopped.

But in fact, they could stop recording even while the camera still had power, just like when Yu Xing checked the videos on it. They simply couldn't leave it off for more than five minutes.

And then there was the camera's most common use: taking pictures.

The owner and his girlfriend had undoubtedly feared being photographed. It was precisely because of that that they'd met their deaths.

And Cheng Rui had set the events in motion by taking pictures, which eventually led to him being murdered.

Likewise, they all had criminal secrets to hide. So in the test, they disguised themselves as job applicants, waiting for the living to expose them.

That meant the test wasn't difficult at all. As long as they photographed the three ghosts before they disguised themselves as humans, the ghosts would disappear completely.

Now that he knew how to pass, Zhao Yijiu finally relaxed. He hadn't expected his qualification test to become so much easier just because of an unfamiliar teammate.

Then he asked about something else he was curious about. "Did they catch that raw-material supplier?"

"They did. The case was closed a while ago. Otherwise, I couldn't have told you." Yu Xing hopped off the machine and went to Zhao Yijiu's side. "Come on. Ask me anything else on the way. We'll get new batteries. If we waste any more time, I'm worried you'll bleed out. I'm so delicate, I couldn't possibly drag you."

The batteries meant vitality—in every sense of the word.

The logic had to be worked out backward: if taking the batteries was bound to draw out a ghost and scare the living, then... when the living wanted to find a ghost, they could use the batteries too.

The ghosts could be hiding just fine, but once someone picked up the batteries, hey presto—they'd have no choice but to show themselves.

And the ghosts drawn out by someone touching the batteries would appear in their ghost forms. One picture would be enough to send them straight to the afterlife.

Yu Xing thought that was great. It would save him a lot of time.

The two of them were fairly efficient. By now, they could move around without obstruction. When Yu Xing wasn't putting on an act, the darkness wasn't a threat to them at all.

On the way, Yu Xing glanced at the gruesome wound on Zhao Yijiu's shoulder and asked curiously, "You don't get dizzy from losing blood?"

The only answer he got was cold and merciless.

"No. I'm not as delicate as you."

"..." Yu Xing: This was upsetting. I have my reasons!

They chatted about this and that as they walked along the familiar narrow corridor, opened the familiar rusty iron door, and arrived at the familiar Office 02.

Two batteries lay quietly in the cabinet.

"I'll take them. Get ready to snap a picture as soon as I do." Yu Xing raised the camera in his left hand and reached for the batteries with his right, signaling for Zhao Yijiu—who couldn't move one arm easily—to get ready.

"..." Zhao Yijiu, who was used to being the one others had to drag along, got a taste of being looked after. His eyebrow twitched. He wanted to say he wasn't that weak. He wouldn't even flinch if he had to lift something heavy with his injured shoulder.

After thinking it over, he kept quiet.

Truthfully, being looked after felt pretty good.

He raised the camera, stopped the recording, switched to photo mode, and waited for the ghost to appear.

Yu Xing picked up the batteries and looked around.

A cold, eerie presence began to spread. It was obvious the ghost had arrived.

It was just hiding somewhere, too afraid to show itself.

"Let's have a look~ Where are you hiding?" Yu Xing drew out the words, sounding just like a deranged killer in a horror movie about to play hide-and-seek with someone. Of course, he was completely righteous now. Absolutely righteous—

"Here you are!" He sauntered over to the desk, suddenly bent down, and flashed the female ghost hiding underneath it a friendly smile. At the same time, he decisively pressed the shutter. A wrinkled, hideous face twisted in terror was captured in the photo.

The female ghost let out a scream and dissolved into a pool of blood. It quickly congealed and dried, leaving behind only a tiny black stain.

Without even turning his head, Yu Xing tossed the camera onto the ground as casually as if he were throwing away trash. His goal was accomplished. "There's one more, behind the sofa."

Hearing him, Zhao Yijiu had no time to wonder how Yu Xing knew exactly where the ghost was. He immediately moved over.

Sure enough, the long-tongued ghost was hiding behind the back of the sofa. Just as it was about to rush out the door, Zhao Yijiu snapped a picture of it.