Rose Manor (IV): A Four-Line Poem

The doors of the old castle were fitted with the simplest mechanical locks, the kind that could be dealt with using a single piece of wire.

Qi Si unlocked the door with a key and entered the room first.

The yellowed wallpaper was stained with watermarks and mildew. Black ulcers speckled the rotting ceiling, while shoots breaking through the earth resembled worms writhing in sores, liable to drip down with pus at any moment.

The room had only an oil lamp on the bedside table for light. A bed large enough for two stood in the center, and an antique desk sat to the right, piled with books and notes.

Drawing on his limited experience playing horror games, Qi Si guessed there should be clues hidden among them.

He walked over, his pale fingertips brushing across the yellowed Papyrus covers. As he picked up a page, he seemed to think of something and paused in midair.

After several breaths, his fingers twitched slightly, but he ultimately only flipped casually through the notebook on top rather than reading or investigating further.

Just now, he had noticed that there was no clock in the room, nor anything else that could indicate the exact time.

—Something would most likely happen tonight.

Qi Si took several steps back and stood by the window, looking outside.

The sky was already half-dark. Through the dusty floor-to-ceiling window, he could vaguely make out the sea of Rose flowers in the garden.

The dense clusters of plants were tangled together, flowers and leaves concealing one another. Fine shadows like eyes stared coldly at Qi Si through the window.

Fortunately, the room had curtains. Qi Si pulled them shut without hesitation, out of sight, out of mind.

Considering how horror movies often had scenes where a sinister wind blew the curtains open, he dragged over a chair from beside the desk and pressed it against them.

After that, he checked the crack beneath the door and confirmed that once it was locked, there was no mechanism that could open it from outside.

Time was limited, so Qi Si reluctantly gave up on conducting a more thorough inspection and returned to the bed.

At first glance, the bed was perfectly neat, with nothing unusual about it.

He lowered his gaze and watched it for a while. Feeling something, he abruptly lifted the bedsheet.

A bright red European court gown lay flat atop the yellowed white mattress. Its elaborate trim and strings of beads had been pressed into a single plane, clearly having been there for a long time.

Qi Si picked up the gown and shook it, but unfortunately, nothing extra fell out.

Boring. If it were him, he would have put some body parts inside to give people a scare.

Lin Chen had entered the room behind Qi Si.

He had never played horror games. The games he played most often were tower defense and open-world games.

But he did not want to seem useless, so he could only begin at the corner of the wall and carefully feel his way along inch by inch, treating it like cleaning a dorm room.

The rustling of cloth came from behind him, accompanied by Qi Si's sinister voice. "Lin Chen, tell me, if someone killed a person in order to possess them, would that count as love?"

Lin Chen jolted upright. The moment he turned around, he saw something bizarre.

The black-haired young man stood smiling as he held the standard, old-fashioned red dress. It was clearly an entirely normal action, yet it gave off the feeling of a deranged serial killer displaying a victim's clothes.

Lin Chen pointed at the dress, his tongue tying itself in knots. "Brother Qi, wh... what is going on?"

"This?" Qi Si lowered his head, his expression in the shadows obscure. "I fell in love with someone..."

"Huh?"

"She was so wonderful that none of the most beautiful words in the world could describe her beauty." Qi Si's voice was calm, but his words reeked of madness. "I humbly, fervently, and shamefully wanted to possess her. Yet this love, unacceptable to the world, was destined to remain unspoken..."

Lin Chen suddenly realized that he did not actually know Qi Si at all.

This person was the only one who had come in from outside the castle, and there was still blood on his clothes. Was it possible that he had already been replaced by a ghost?

His offer to share a room might not have been well-intentioned. Perhaps he had merely set his sights on Lin Chen as some deranged serial killer and wanted to make a move against him regardless of the consequences...

"What are you thinking about?"

Qi Si folded the dress in his hands and tossed it onto a nearby chair. With a soft click of his tongue, he said, "I found this dress under the mattress. Everything I said was just my speculation about this instance's backstory. It might not be right."

Lin Chen let out a breath of relief. "I thought..."

"What did you think? If I were a pervert, there is no way you would still be standing here unharmed. You either would never wake up again, or you would wake up in some rather unpleasant form."

Qi Si loved using words to repeatedly stir up other people's emotions, weakening their vigilance and making deception easier.

He looked at Lin Chen with a faint smile, as though he had merely made an insignificant joke.

Lin Chen swallowed awkwardly, feeling that he was being far too suspicious. How could there be so many deranged serial killers in the world, and how could he just happen to run into one?

Then the young man changed the subject and drawled, "But you, Lin Chen... are you really a newcomer entering an instance for the first time? What did you do in the real world, and how did you enter the game?"

People who had not undergone counter-interrogation training found it difficult to handle such sudden questioning. Lin Chen immediately recalled everything that had happened to him from birth until now.

His father was a worker, his mother was unemployed, and his family owed the Federal Foundation enormous loans. Through his own efforts, he had gotten into a prestigious university and received a scholarship...

Not long ago, he had gone out to tutor someone. On his way back, he heard someone crying for help in a deep alley. When he rushed over, he found a group of punks harassing a girl...

In a moment of hot-bloodedness, he stepped forward and rebuked them. They swarmed him, punching and kicking him until his consciousness gradually faded into darkness...

Lin Chen said whatever came to mind, pouring out all his past experiences like beans from a bamboo tube.

"Mm-hm. Not a bad story. At least it sounds flawless."

Qi Si had achieved his goal: learning Lin Chen's background while trapping him in the pitfall of proving his own innocence.

He calmly leaned back. "It is getting late. Time to sleep."

Lin Chen still wanted to say something, but Qi Si had already closed his eyes.

Huh? He was just going to sleep? He was not even going to look for clues first?

Questions filled Lin Chen's mind, but he ultimately did not dare offend an "old Player," so he awkwardly kept quiet.

There was no clock in the room, so there was no way to know the exact time. The safest way to avoid breaking The Rules was to sleep straight through until dawn.

Seeing that Qi Si occupied only half the bed and had left plenty of space, Lin Chen cautiously took off his shoes and climbed onto it.

From beginning to end, he deliberately kept his distance from Qi Si, as though afraid that any bump or brush might cause displeasure.

Qi Si noticed this and saw straight through Lin Chen's thoughts.

He was a simple person who had not experienced much of society's malice. Having been thrown into the Eerie Game without warning, it was only natural for him to feel lost.

And at a time like this, Qi Si, the only person who had stepped forward to show him kindness, would undoubtedly be treated as a lifeline—someone Lin Chen had to follow and please.

It was somewhat similar to the psychological "Suspension Bridge Effect," a pathological form of self-gaslighting.

Qi Si was not a psychologist and had no intention of correcting Lin Chen's weak mentality.

On the contrary, things were progressing exactly as he had expected.

He narrowed his eyes and smiled slyly. "Lin Chen, there is actually a reason I chose to share a room with you."

Lin Chen froze. "What reason?"

"Probably because your name sounds like that of a novel protagonist. I figured investing in you would not be a loss."

It was a joke, but against the pale, cold backdrop of the Eerie Game, it felt a little too warm.

Lin Chen had been plagued by the unease of not being trusted. Hearing Qi Si's implied meaning now, he understood that Qi Si had clearly put aside his suspicions and considered him one of his own.

He stood there blankly for two seconds before replying awkwardly, "Uh... really? Haha, both my parents love fantasy novels. They probably named me after something they read...

"Ah, I am their only child. When they get old, they will still need me to take care of them... I cannot die yet. I have to survive..."

Some inconsequential small talk helped close the psychological distance and reduce the barriers between strangers; too much conversation would seem deliberate.

Qi Si turned over, pulled the blanket over himself, and said, "Lin Chen, you died because of 'kindness.' The Eerie Game has given you a chance at a new life, perhaps as a reward for your good deed. I have a feeling you will survive.

"But it is already late. If you want to survive, go to sleep quickly so you do not break The Rules."

It had been many years since he had done something as foolish as treating kindness as praise, but those words were perfect for fooling a clear-eyed, foolish college student.

Encouraged, Lin Chen nodded repeatedly. "Mm-hm! Thank you, Brother Qi. I will sleep right away!"

After his roommate lay down, Qi Si propped himself up on one elbow and blew out the oil lamp by the bed.

The tiny flame flickered twice before vanishing, leaving behind an impenetrable darkness.

In the darkness that linked every object with fear, Lin Chen's trembling voice soon rang out. "B-Brother Qi, I am a little scared. I cannot sleep..."

"There is nothing to be afraid of." Qi Si spoke with his eyes closed. "I did not say it at the dinner table because I do not trust them. But I can tell you now. I tested it earlier—Miss Anna is alive. Do you remember Rule Seven?"

"Uh... only ghosts can kill humans, so Miss Anna cannot do anything to us?"

"Mm. So sleep peacefully."

Ten minutes later.

Lin Chen mumbled pitifully, "Brother Qi, I still cannot sleep... I would usually still be in evening class at this time. I am not sleepy at all..."

Qi Si replied coolly, "Count sheep to one thousand. If you do not want to die, go to sleep already."

Lin Chen said, "Mm-hm!"

Half an hour later.

Lin Chen let out another mosquito-like whimper. "B-Brother Qi, I am sorry..."

Feeling the tool's fear burning as vividly as a lamp flame, Qi Si opened his eyes in the darkness and let out a long sigh.

He stroked the bracelet on his right wrist. Small tools such as blades, wire, and silver needles shifted between his fingers until they finally became a blunt awl.

He ordered, "Turn your back."

"Oh." Lin Chen did not understand why, but he did as told.

The next second, Qi Si drove the awl into his Fengchi Point.

Watching this guy, who looked like an obvious bottom at a glance, finally pass out successfully, Qi Si viciously withdrew his instrument of crime and closed his eyes again.

In the pitch-black silence, only soft breathing could be heard.

Within the ocean of Qi Si's thoughts, four lines of blood-red text slowly formed, taking root in his memory as though alive.

[My chest is rotten]

[Flesh spreads across the ground]

[Rose dwells here]

[Tomorrow shall endure with me]

Earlier, Qi Si had casually flipped through the notebook on the desk and seen only those four lines of poetry copied onto the title page.

At the time, he had habitually recited the words in his mind. Suddenly, he heard the hallucinated rustling of plants growing beside his ears, and the fingertips touching the page began to itch, as though something were about to seep through his skin and burrow into his blood vessels.

He immediately abandoned any thought of investigating further and pretended nothing had happened.

Something that looked this dangerous was better examined during the day, with a tool to research it first.

Mm, first trick Lin Chen into making contact and test it out. If that yielded no result, then lure other Players into stepping on the mine. If no one took the bait, resort to moral blackmail...

With such ill intentions running through his mind, Qi Si gradually fell into a deep sleep without realizing it.