Did She Find Out?

Under Lu Xiu's cold and uncompromising gaze.

Viola finally stepped forward and entered the Mansion. As soon as she entered, she saw the dim candlelight.

The interior of the Mansion seemed colder than the outside, with a strong musty smell and a faint stench of blood permeating the air.

Moreover, besides the foyer, there is only one room upon entering.

Viola entered the room, then suddenly stopped. In the center of the room was a very conspicuous pool of blood.

"Blood—there's blood on the ground—"

She pointed to the blood on the carpet in front of her.

Lu Xiu looked in the direction she pointed and saw a pool of blood in the middle. Behind the pool of blood, on the wall, there seemed to be a sign with something written on it.

"I saw it, I'm not blind."

"Shall we go take a look?"

Lu Xiu glanced at her. "Go ahead, go ahead. How old are you? The first thing you should do when you see blood is check it? Didn't your father teach you that?"

"Stay away from danger? Or are you an idiot?"

Viola's face paled instantly.

Lu Xiu ignored her, carefully bypassed the bloodstains, and, enduring the strong smell of blood, arrived at the wall behind the bloodstains, looking at the sign on it.

[Come to the room.]

Next.

Lu Xiu walked straight out of the room, with Viola following closely behind.

really.

The Black Cat was lying by the door, but the room the two had just entered had vanished.

[Hey, this sounds like it'll be interesting. Let me show you around. By the way, where did you guys come from?]

Viola explained what had just happened.

But they noticed that the Black Cat seemed a little distracted.

She was about to ask Lu Xiu, who was beside her, what to do next.

I turned my head and looked.

Where are they?!

Lu Xiu had long since disappeared.

"----?"

Viola was stunned for a moment, then quickly began searching for Lu Xiu through the passageways that suddenly appeared on both sides of the corridor.

Aren't they childhood sweethearts?

Weren't you here to find yourself?

Why did you just abandon me and run away?

The Black Cat licked its forelegs again, gazing intently in the direction where Lu Xiu had just disappeared. A strange, almost human-like glint flashed in its vertical pupils, which glowed with an eerie green light.

On the other side.

Viola, lifting her skirt, pushed open a door deep in the corridor, panting.

Lu Xiu has finally been found.

This was a dimly lit room, with gift boxes of various sizes scattered on the floor.

At that moment, Lu Xiu was squatting in the middle of a pile of gifts, quickly picking something up and stuffing it into her pocket.

"You... why did you run off all by yourself!"

Hearing the noise at the door, he saw Viola coming looking for him.

Lu Xiu casually picked up a small teddy bear plush toy from the side, stood up, and said, "If I don't run away, am I supposed to just stand there and listen to you chatting idly with some random stray cat?"

Viola bit her lower lip. "Didn't you come looking for me? What if you leave me out here alone and I get into danger?!"

"We weren't in any danger, were we? You came looking for us all healthy and intact."

Lu Xiu interrupted her without any politeness, and then went straight out the door.

Viola could only follow.

Actually, the atmosphere of the entire Mansion was quite terrifying.

The period during which the original game was transformed into a copy.

One Architect used almost every psychological suggestion he learned from Resident Evil.

only.

Lu Xiu showed no fear whatsoever, pushing open the door to any room she encountered and entering Don't Look at anything that didn't interest her.

soon.

The two arrived at a new room, in the center of which was a basket containing a large teddy bear.

There's a sign in this room as well, instructing you to put the bear in the basket.

However, the basket containing the large bear had limited gaps, and the small bear in Lu Xiu's hands couldn't fit inside at all.

Viola stood watching from the side, thought for a moment, and said softly, "It won't fit—the bear's hands and feet seem to be in the way. If only we had scissors, should we look for some?"

I don't believe it!

Lu Xiu completely ignored the suggestion to find scissors, stepped forward, forced the lower half of the bear into the gap in the basket, then reached out and pressed the bear's head down, and began to shove it in.

They even kicked it.

"Did they go in? They must have."

She pressed down hard while asking questions, squeezing the teddy bear until it was severely deformed.

With Lu Xiu's rough movements, the already crowded bamboo basket creaked under the strain, and the basket was even slightly deformed. The bear inside the basket seemed to move slightly.

Viola's eyelids twitched.

She rushed forward, grabbed Lu Xiu's arm, and forcefully pulled her away. "Wait! Don't stuff it in!"

Lu Xiu turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

"That's not how it's done at all!"

Viola, fighting off a heart attack, heard the Witch's House's warning and said urgently, "If you force it in like this, you might break the basket and trigger some dangerous mechanism. Let's go find some scissors first! We can only put it in if we cut off the bear's hands and feet."

"Alright----"

Lu Xiu followed her out of the room with the framed box and the big bear, and explored the room on the other side of the corridor.

The corridor of the Witch's House was even more gloomy than when they entered. The door that had been open a moment ago had quietly closed halfway. The candlelight on the wall lamps flickered, casting long, thin shadows of the two people on the mottled wall.

But Lu Xiu continued to stride forward.

Turn the corner down the corridor to the other side and push open the door to a new room.

Sure enough, on an old workbench with peeling paint, a large, rusty pair of scissors was firmly chained to the surface. The blade was covered with a thin layer of dust, but the edge still gleamed coldly.

"The scissors! Found them!"

Viola stood in the doorway and pointed to the pair of scissors. "Look, this is what I was talking about. We just need to cut off the bear's hands and feet—"

"Okay, go ahead."

Lu Xiu nodded as she casually stuffed the slightly deformed teddy bear she had squeezed into Viola's arms.

"Huh?" Viola, holding the bear, froze on the spot.

Lu Xiu took a half step back. "This is what you said about cutting off the bear's hands and feet, it has nothing to do with me."

Viola looked at the teddy bear in her arms, then at the rusty scissors on the workbench, and finally at Lu Xiu, who was shirking responsibility. She almost choked on her own breath.

But in the end, she still carried the teddy bear over.

After all, this kind of thing is not difficult.

"Click."

With a metallic clanging sound, the plush arm snapped and fell onto the table.

However.

However, the expected white cotton was not revealed at the break.

Instead, a thick, warm stream of blood gushed out from the gap in the fabric, splashing onto Viola's snow-white hand with a soft "plop."

The strong smell of blood instantly dispelled the musty odor in the room.

Tick-tock----

Blood slowly dripped from the scissors onto the wooden floor, following a specific path.

Not only that.

The bear cub with its arm cut off twitched eerily in Viola's hand.

At the same time, it seemed to emit a faint whimper.

"Ah!"

Viola seemed startled by this sudden and terrifying phenomenon.

She abruptly released her grip, letting the still-bleeding, half-crippled bear fall onto the workbench, and shrank back several steps.

She turned her head and looked at Lu Xiu.

However.

"How cruel."

Lu Xiu retreated to a safe distance from the doorway, looking at Viola whose hands were covered in blood. "How could you do such a cruel thing to such a cute little bear? It's like dismembering her. Little bear, little bear, this has nothing to do with me."

Viola: "???"

She seemed about to break down.

Isn't this a requirement?!

I was just scared, weren't you going to ask me anything?!

And just now in the next room—who on earth kicked that little bear's head like a ball?!

Viola took a deep breath and struggled to suppress the urge to speak.

She turned away and continued cutting off the bear's limbs.

She closed the scissors for the second time.

The blood that had just splattered on the back of his hand disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.

The little bear turned back into a worn-out plush toy, quiet and unperturbed, as if the horrifying scene of splattering blood had just been an illusion.

However, some bloodstains remained on the workbench.

What are you spacing out for?

Lu Xiu stood at the door, urging in a matter-of-fact tone, "There are still two legs left, are you going to cut them or not? If not, we're going back, and I'll keep trying to stuff them in."

Viola gritted her teeth and could only swallow her anger.

She picked up the scissors again, turned her back to Lu Xiu, and with a dull snip, expressionlessly ripped off the remaining legs of the bear.

Carrying the bear cub, now dismembered and reduced to a bare torso, the two returned to the room where the large bear was kept.

This time, without its hands and feet getting in the way, the bear's remains were easily stuffed into the gaps in the bamboo basket.

The cub finally nestled into the big bear's arms.

Click.

A crisp metallic spring sound echoed through the quiet depths of the Mansion, as if a previously locked door had been opened.

The puzzle is solved.

"I managed to stuff it in! I'm so good at this!"

Lu Xiu patted non-existent dust off her hands, her face full of nonchalance.

Viola followed behind, her lips twitching slightly.

You're amazing—you just said it had nothing to do with you, didn't you?!

Lu Xiu ignored her, and after stuffing the teddy bear into her hands, she turned and left without looking back, seemingly to check which locked door had been opened.

Viola took a deep breath and followed suit.

The two had just stepped out of the room and returned to the dimly lit corridor.

Sudden.

The candlelight in front of them flickered suddenly.

On the wooden table in the corridor, the vase that had been sitting quietly suddenly moved on its own without warning.

Next.

With a bang.

The vase fell straight to the ground and shattered into pieces.

This is like a signal.

Accompanied by a sudden fright.

In the darkness, a massive silhouette gradually emerged.

Accompanied by a thud that nearly crushed the old wooden floorboards, a dark figure appeared from around the corner of the corridor.

----It's that giant teddy bear from the room earlier.

But at this moment, it no longer resembled a plush toy at all. Its once adorable and enormous body had been completely twisted and swollen, and its fur was soaked in an unknown viscous liquid, sticky and tangled together.

The button eyes, which had previously been dull, now glowed with an eerie red light.

Upon seeing Lu Xiu and the other person, it seemed as if it had seen an enemy; its massive body suddenly moved and charged straight at them.

The chase has officially begun.

Viola, seeing the giant bear charging towards her, suddenly turned her head: "Run—"

But the area around it was empty.

Lu Xiu's figure has vanished.

The slender figure that should have been terrified, or forced to remain calm, stood in front of her, was as expected.

They're long gone.

Viola abruptly looked up and gazed back down the long corridor.

All that could be seen was at the end of the dim candlelight.

The girl in the simple long dress had somehow already darted several meters away!

Lu Xiu's legs moved so fast they almost left Afterimage, her skirt fluttering in the wind as she ran incredibly fast.

She didn't even turn her head.

"She was the one who said she wanted to cut off the bear's arms and legs! The blame lies with the perpetrator, it has nothing to do with me!"

!!!

Viola felt the intense, pungent stench emanating from behind her, threatening to devour her whole. She disregarded everything else, unleashing a burst of energy, and scrambled after Lu Xiu as she ran.

Knock knock knock.

The giant bear relentlessly pursued them, its massive body emitting a dull thud that followed them like a shadow.

Wow, that was fast.

But Lu Xiu seemed to know this Mansion inside and out. Without the slightest hesitation, she navigated the intricate corridors, finally pushing open a door and slipping inside.

Viola followed closely behind, and just as the giant bear was about to pounce on her back, she scrambled into the room and immediately turned around to close the wooden door.

Boom!

A violent tremor came from the wooden door.

But soon...

The chilling, heavy thumping sound suddenly disappeared.

"Whoosh----whoosh----"

Viola leaned against the door, her chest heaving violently, her back soaked in cold sweat.

If she had run even a fraction slower, she would be a pile of minced meat by now!

----My hard-won new body is about to turn into mincemeat!

The Witch's House will remind her how to solve the puzzles!

But the mechanism is now controlled by the residual magic within the Witch's body!

She really will die if she gets infected!

After my racing heartbeat calmed down a little...

Viola abruptly raised her head, looked at Lu Xiu, and finally her eyes flashed with anger.

"Lu Xiu! This is not something a friend should do! A friend shouldn't act like this!"

Viola's face twisted slightly with anger and lingering fear. "Abandoning your friends without hesitation! Shifting all the blame onto them! Even betraying them! You—"

"So you knew."

Lu Xiu turned her head in surprise.

"

Viola leaned against the door, staring at her best friend who was rude, unreasonable, and utterly irrational. She was quicker to run away than a rabbit in the face of danger and quicker to shift blame than anyone else.

A hint of doubt began to creep into my mind.

Has she already discovered something?

But before Viola could continue to ponder,

Lu Xiu patted the dust off her skirt and asked, "In that situation, with such a huge monster charging at us, if I didn't run, would I have stayed there and chatted with it?"

"I came here to take my good friend Viola home, not to go on an adventure to my death. Besides, didn't I shout to warn you when I ran? My voice could be heard throughout the entire Mansion!"

"I ran ahead to scout out your escape route and even opened this life-saving door for you, so what are you complaining about?"

"To be honest, I was originally planning to force the teddy bear inside! But you insisted on dragging me to find some scissors! And you insisted on chopping the teddy bear into eight pieces yourself!"

"You dismembered someone's child, and you dare to blame me? Whose fault is it anyway? Being chased by a giant teddy bear! Whose responsibility is it?!"

"Say!"

Viola:"----

She looked at her childhood friend, who was now turning the tables on her.

Silence fell upon them.

She really couldn't bring herself to tell him about the Witch's House reminding her that she could cut off her hands and feet.

Viola opened her mouth, but her body, which had been tense with guardedness, strangely relaxed after hearing Lu Xiu's last few outrageous accusations.

She genuinely believed that Lu Xiu had seen through her identity as Witch and realized the truth about the soul swap.

But now it seems—she was overthinking it.

The girl in front of me hadn't seen through the truth at all.

No.

wrong.

Further observation is needed.

But what Lu Xiu did next completely baffled Viola.