Perpetrators, Witnesses, and the Silent

"Then what do we do now? The initiative is in their hands; are we just going to do whatever they want?"

The thought of her fate being held by someone else sent a chill down Yukino's spine, inevitably reminding her of her own family situation.

"Hold on, let me think this through."

Bai Yuze's brain raced; he felt there was something fishy about all of this.

Just then, he caught sight of the wound on his own wrist, and subconsciously recalled the bruises and burn marks Yukino had mentioned...

Suddenly, it clicked for Bai Yuze, and he hurriedly asked the entity outside the door.

"Hey, kid, can you turn into someone else's appearance?"

"I can, why?"

Bai Yuze flashed a mysterious smile.

"Do you want to get out of here?"

"Are you sure that dialing a random string of numbers will actually reach the front desk?"

Yukino knew Bai Yuze wouldn't do something without a plan, but claiming a random string of numbers was the front desk's phone number... how was that any different from winning the lottery?

"It's a sure thing. Remember the rule that said if water from the ceiling floods the entire hallway, you should call for help? The only person in this Minzhai who can help us is that guy living in Room 108. Therefore, no matter what numbers I input, it will only ever connect to that guy in Room 108."

"I remember the prerequisite was the water on the first floor... does that mean the note Yuigahama and I saw was half true and half false?"

"Exactly, but we only need to remember this one rule for now; the others are either wrong or we don't have time to verify them."

"So you've thought of a way to deal with that guy?"

Yukino looked at the dog beside her... that's right, this dog was what the entity had transformed into.

During her time with Bai Yuze, Yukino's way of thinking had been forcibly elevated. She highly suspected that Bai Yuze wanted the entity to catch that guy off guard and stab him in the gallbladder; otherwise, why turn into a dog for no reason? Could it be just to annoy her?

"I have, I've prepared a good show for him."

Bai Yuze chuckled, then pressed the call button.

The phone rang for a while before it was answered.

"Hello?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Bai Yuze cleared his throat and said solemnly.

"True false true false, false false true true, guess who I am?"

"Speak if you have something to say, or get lost! You got the words wrong anyway."

"Front desk, help us out—the water in this basement is almost up to our chests, and both we and your dog are about to die down here."

"Up to your chests? Shouldn't you be dead already?"

"Just play along, will you? I'm fighting an entity right now, come save me quickly."

"How exactly do you want me to play along?"

"Don't bring any useless tools—just come down as fast as you can and fish us and your dog out."

"How am I supposed to save you without tools?"

"It's to prevent the dog from getting scared and running around—this is for your own good, too."

"Alright, I understand."

The call was disconnected.

"Well? Will he come down?"

Yukino was worried, but Bai Yuze didn't give a clear answer, instead praying in his heart that his plea would be answered.

Upstairs, after hanging up the phone, the front desk attendant first lit a candle, though strangely, the lights in his room were already on.

Even more magically, the flame of that candle burned blue! As the candle burned, a natural barrier formed within Room 108.

After doing this, the front desk attendant took out a piece of paper, a marker, and a photograph.

He first wrote the eight characters Bai Yuze had said, "True false true false, false false true true," at the very top.

Then he began to slowly recall what Bai Yuze had said.

"Every sentence had a pause... does that mean they are separators? If so..."

The front desk attendant wrote down exactly what Bai Yuze had said, drew lines where the pauses were, and combined them with the true... false... true... false... false... false... true... true... intervals to distinguish them, resulting in...

[Front desk help us out, play along, prevent the dog from getting scared and running around, this is for your own good.] (True)

"My dog doesn't get scared and run around, so does this refer to someone else?"

The front desk attendant looked at the false statements and interpreted them in reverse.

"Is the current situation safe? Since he told me not to bring those so-called 'useless' tools... does that mean he wants me to bring 'spirit weapons'? And that I should drag out the pace as much as possible? This kid is quite interesting."

The front desk attendant laughed out loud. At this moment, he wasn't wearing those strange clothes. As the camera pulled back, it revealed a sturdy human. This human was holding a photograph, and the person in the photo had a familiar silhouette...

"Yang Peng... I think I'm about to find you..."

Bai Yuze kept his eyes tightly shut, constantly reviewing his plan in his mind to see if there were any loopholes.

All this time, Yang Peng had been guiding the three of them in the role of a "veteran," and the hints he provided had helped them overcome one obstacle after another.

This kindness had filled the three of them with trust in Yang Peng, but now, that trust was about to crumble...

Because Bai Yuze had discovered a secret: Yang Peng's "hints" contained a mistake.

If one only looked at the first half of the sentence, "Please defy the front desk," there wouldn't be any problem, but the key lay in the second half: "You have the wrong person."

Bai Yuze hadn't reacted at first, but once he realized it later, he broke out in a cold sweat.

How did Yang Peng know he had the wrong person? If he had only said "Please defy the front desk," it would at least imply that the front desk was his adversary, but Yang Peng's addition of "You have the wrong person" revealed another meaning: there were good front desk staff and bad front desk staff.

So, how could someone who had already left... or died, know that he had the wrong person?

This meant that Yang Peng was still inside this Minzhai, and if he was here, why wasn't he traveling with the three of them to find a way out?

It wasn't until Bai Yuze saw the wound on his own wrist and recalled the scars Yukino had mentioned that he finally understood why Yang Peng wouldn't meet them.

Yukino and Yuigahama Yui were the victims, and Bai Yuze was the one who committed suicide; for this script to be complete, it required three more roles.

The perpetrator, the silent one, and the witness. Since there were two victims, there were also two witnesses, except one of the witnesses had become the silent one.

The silent one was the male corpse in Room 102; after all, only a corpse could remain silent forever.

And the other witness was the front desk clerk who had been helping them all along, so the identity of the "perpetrator" naturally fell upon Yang Peng.

This was the reason why Yang Peng would not meet with them.

The witness and the suicide combined would become the exposer. Since he, as the suicide, could enter the loop, Yang Peng had painstakingly left behind many notes, all to build the three's trust in him step by step, and his ultimate goal was to make them trust him completely so they would help him kill the witness...