Seeking Good Fortune

"Hmm... Ning Zhe? Are you listening?" In the Monitoring Room, gazing at the pitch-black screen before her, Feng Yushu felt a sense of unease.

"I am." Ning Zhe's voice remained as calm as ever; though devoid of emotion, it was strangely reassuring. "Listen, Aunt, I'm going to cut the power now. Leave the Monitoring Room immediately and we'll head to the Second Floor to find Baizhi. I've found my Train of Thought. Just follow my lead in a moment, and we'll kill that ghost."

"Oh? Just like that..." Feng Yushu felt taken aback. She felt as though she hadn't done anything at all, yet Ning Zhe had already unraveled all the mysteries, opting for a speedrun approach.

After a moment of reflection, Feng Yushu ultimately decided to trust him. "Alright, I'm going to find her now. You stay safe, too."

With that, she cut the power to the Monitoring Room and hurried away, holding her umbrella.

Ning Zhe stuffed Old Li the security guard's phone into his pocket. He looked at the well-sealed Transformer Box embedded in the wall, then at Old Li, who lay paralyzed on the ground with his limbs broken, his exhalations growing shallower than his inhalations. He had unearthed some interesting things from Old Li's memories—much like finding a joke book in a long-abandoned school library—which would prove useful later.

Ning Zhe closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"Alright, let the game begin."

In the Changing Room on the first floor of the Castle, Xie Ya'an and Liu Yunzhi waited nervously. Faint light spilled in through the gaps in the curtains—not moonlight, for there was no moon over the shrouded Bishuiwan Manor—but the glow of street lamps from the lawn in the distance. In the corridor outside, the Crystal Lamp cast an ambiguous halo of light.

But soon, even this final glimmer vanished. As the power was cut, the entire castle plunged into a pool of darkness as thick as ink.

"Li Ge really cut the power." Xie Ya'an's voice carried a hint of excitement. Though she didn't understand the specific principles, she knew the most basic rule: hiding in the dark could prevent the ghost from finding them.

Now that the entire manor was pitch black, it was as if Old Li had manually expanded the safe zone to cover the whole castle.

The only thing left was the Outdoor Power Grid, which was Tian Chengyun's responsibility.

"Great, we can get out of here soon..." Xie Ya'an leaned against the wall, clutching her phone to her chest.

Seeing her enthusiasm, Liu Yunzhi couldn't help but frown.

Xie Ya'an wasn't very old; like Tian Chengyun, she was a young person who hadn't found a job after graduating from university. The difference was that Tian Chengyun had taken a security job to drift through life, while Xie Ya'an had been at home studying for civil service exams, though she hadn't passed.

The two had ended up in the same place, both working at Bishuiwan Manor—one as a receptionist, the other as a security guard.

Unlike the young, sheltered Xie Ya'an, Liu Yunzhi, who only had a high school diploma, had worked many jobs. Though they were similar in age, she had broader life experience, a steadier temperament, and a more meticulous mind.

Liu Yunzhi nudged Xie Ya'an's relaxed shoulder and whispered, "Tell me, don't you think this is strange?"

The other girl looked puzzled. "What do you mean?"

Liu Yunzhi shook her head and showed her the phone screen. "Look for yourself. During the time we've been hiding in the Changing Room, I've tried calling my family outside many times. WeChat, QQ, SMS... I've tried every method, but nothing works. The calls won't go through, messages won't send, and there's no internet."

"Maybe the signal is being jammed," Xie Ya'an mused. "I remember there are small Signal Jammers in some of the innermost rooms of the castle. I think the Boss installed them for privacy when discussing business."

Perhaps someone had accidentally turned up the power of the Signal Jammer in their panic? Or perhaps it was intentional.

"That doesn't explain it either," Liu Yunzhi shook her head. "Did you forget you just finished a phone call?"

The expression on Xie Ya'an's face froze instantly. "I guess you're right..."

She had been so panicked earlier that when she saw Li Ge's call, she had only felt excitement. In that excitement, she had ignored the detail.

"Why can't our calls go out, but Li Ge could talk to me?" Xie Ya'an couldn't wrap her head around it.

"Let me call you," Liu Yunzhi said, dialing her number.

A moment later, Xie Ya'an's phone rang.

"It actually works?" Surprised, Xie Ya'an quickly hung up and tried to call her own family outside, but it showed no signal. This left her feeling dejected again. "What's going on? We can make calls and send messages inside the manor, but we can't reach the outside world?"

Combined with that light-seeking, invisible Evil Ghost, the whole world seemed to be tilting toward the supernatural.

Thump, thump—

Suddenly, a crisp knocking sound broke the silence of the Changing Room. Both their nerves tightened simultaneously. Xie Ya'an covered her face with her hands and curled up in the Corner of the Wall, her shoulders trembling slightly. "What was that sound..."

Liu Yunzhi's expression was grave. She turned off her phone screen and, using the faint light filtering through the curtain gaps, looked toward the source of the sound.

It was a wide Mirror Wall; the entire wall was a massive mirror, similar to the ones found in a Ballet Studio.

The sound had come from the direction of the Mirror Wall.

Xie Ya'an crouched on the floor, burying her face between her knees, not daring to move. But Liu Yunzhi knew that avoidance was useless. Just like when they were being hunted by the ghost earlier—if she hadn't followed Tian Chengyun to find this dark safe house and had instead stayed put like a coward, she would have been dead long ago.

But what could she do now? Go out? No... that might lead to a faster death. Tian Chengyun hadn't cut the main switch for the Outdoor Power Grid yet, and the street lamps outside the castle were still on. It might be even more dangerous out there.

Liu Yunzhi tentatively stood halfway up, casting her gaze toward the Mirror Wall. There was nothing there—absolutely nothing—only the blurry reflections of herself and Xie Ya'an on the wall.

Her reflection in the mirror was also crouching on the ground, but for some reason, the blurry figure in this dim environment gave her an indescribable sense of eeriness, as if it were some strange psychological suggestion.

Liu Yunzhi didn't dare look any longer; she already knew what she had to do.

She carefully moved to the window and pulled the curtains, which had been left with a gap, completely shut. Instantly, the Changing Room plunged into total darkness, and the reflection in the mirror vanished along with it.

That eerie feeling melted into the darkness, and she could no longer sense it.

At the same time, on the other side of the Mirror Wall, Ning Zhe silently withdrew his gaze from the one-way mirror.

He was wearing a brand-new men's suit; the fabric was high quality, but the loose cut didn't fit his frame.

Ning Zhe fished a few Red Bills smelling of printer ink from the suit pocket and stuffed them into his trousers, then casually removed a Jade Gold Watch from the suit's owner—a bloated man lying on the ground—and strapped it to his own wrist. The edges of the pure gold watch face were covered in tiny scratches.

"Good luck. Successfully secured a life." Wearing the ill-fitting suit and the gold watch that didn't match his temperament at all, Ning Zhe lightened his footsteps and quickly departed.

The process of stealing Liu Yunzhi's identity had been smooth, fluid, and completed in one go. His luck had never been this good before.

Believing in the Snake God really worked.

Today's Fortune:

[Suitable: Marriage, Groundbreaking, Planting, Buying Clothes, Acquiring Wealth]

[Avoid: Drinking, Starting Fires, Logging, Building Embankments, Constructing Houses]