Thinking Forest Mansion (3)

The dining table was covered with a spotless white tablecloth, with an array of carefully prepared dishes neatly arranged on top.

There was golden roast chicken that made their mouths water, all kinds of fluffy, crisp-crusted bread, and beef braised in red wine and foie gras that had clearly been made with expensive ingredients.

Most thoughtfully of all, the butler had placed a small trolley beside each person's seat, stocked with various fruits to cut through the richness and aid digestion after the meal. The players could pick whatever they liked.

"It's nice being rich." Tang Cha pursed his lips. "I'm starting to resent the wealthy."

The butler brought out the cream of mushroom soup the cook had just made, and a rich aroma immediately filled the dining room.

The players seated at the table kept salivating. One of them asked tentatively, "So, do we eat or not?"

The veteran players exchanged glances. Gu Rui suddenly asked Wan Mingfei, who was in a rather poor mental state, "What else did you see in the kitchen earlier? Were the ingredients the cook used normal?"

Wan Mingfei's nerves were stretched to the limit, and his tone was rather sharp. "Didn't you all see for yourselves? Why do you have to ask me?"

They had all rushed in after hearing the scream and seen the ingredients piled in the kitchen. Nothing had seemed unusual.

Perhaps this food was safe to eat?

A player named Deng Tianyu, sitting to Gu Rui's left, pondered for a moment before saying, "The game wouldn't set up an unavoidable death. Since the cook won't let us eat anything else, the food he makes can't be poisoned."

Hearing this reassured the players.

Indeed, if they could eat neither other food nor the cook's meals, wouldn't they starve to death over the next five days?

The players had all been through various strange instances and knew that animals could become vengeful spirits in some of them.

To be safe, one bold player avoided the roast chicken and beef on the table and tentatively tasted a small spoonful of cream of mushroom soup.

"How is it?" The others nervously watched his expression.

The player's eyes widened. "It's delicious!"

The rich taste of cream combined with the savory mushrooms was so fragrant it practically knocked his eyebrows off.

Seeing that he was perfectly fine, the other players began eating without worry.

Tang Cha was just about to pick up his knife and fork when Ji Xun stopped him.

"Ji Xun, what's wrong?" The aroma had stirred up every craving in Tang Cha's stomach, and his voice sounded a little impatient.

"Don't eat. Let's go for a walk."

Hearing this, Fang Rui and Lu Jiancheng exchanged a glance and put down their knives and forks at the same time.

Although Tang Cha desperately wanted to eat, seeing all three of them stand up left him no choice. He cast a reluctant glance at the delicious feast, then followed them out of the dining room.

"Cowards! We already said the food was fine." A player sneered behind them. "How are you supposed to keep your strength up without eating? If you ask me, useless cowards who only know how to coast on other people's victories should all be thrown into the same instance, so they stop dragging us down!"

"Exactly. I'd say we should just stop taking along anyone who never contributes. Why should they get to share the fruits of our work?"

"Hahaha, to be fair, this cook really knows his stuff!"

"Come on, eat up. We still need to look for clues this afternoon."

They left the mansion and entered its front courtyard.

Tang Cha was so furious at the players' snide remarks that he was ready to explode.

Fang Rui asked, "Ji Xun, do you think there's something wrong with the food?"

"I can't say for sure yet, but it's best not to eat it." Ji Xun smiled at the fuming Tang Cha. "Don't be mad. I'll catch you a pheasant in a bit."

The Witch Forest rarely saw visitors, and many animals roamed its woods.

Tang Cha asked hesitantly, "Will a pheasant ghost come peck at my stomach in the middle of the night?"

Fang Rui said, "You're not afraid of it when it's alive, but you're afraid once it's dead?"

Tang Cha thought about it. "Fair point."

In the nearby woods, Lu Jiancheng and Fang Rui built a fire while Ji Xun sat in a tree, holding a handful of pebbles and repeatedly taking aim and throwing.

Below him, Tang Cha happily gathered the birds.

By afternoon, the four of them were leaning against trees, resting lazily.

"I'm so stuffed." Tang Cha patted his stomach. Their roast pheasants were a little burnt and had no seasoning, nowhere near as good as the cook's feast, yet he thought they were the best things he had ever eaten.

When the four returned to the mansion after eating their fill, the players had already begun searching everywhere for clues.

At the sight of Ji Xun's group, they all looked wary, afraid someone would get a free look at the clues they had just found.

In the other players' eyes, Ji Xun and his three companions were already marked for death after eating other food.

Tang Cha rolled his eyes, lifted his chin, and planted his hands on his hips, refusing to lose to them in attitude.

The first floor contained the entrance hall, living room, kitchen, dining room, and the rooms where the butler and the others rested.

The dead maid had also lived on the first floor.

The other players focused their investigation on the master bedroom on the third floor, where the owners lived. After a cursory inspection of the first floor, they all headed upstairs to the third.

The mansion covered an enormous area. If they searched every inch of it, even five days would probably be nowhere near enough.

Unlike the other players, Ji Xun's group decided to start with the maid's room.

The maid's room was to the left of the first-floor staircase, farther in past the living room.

As they approached the stairs, Ji Xun suddenly turned and walked toward the two iron soldiers.

Tang Cha asked in confusion, "What's wrong?"

Ji Xun reached out and scraped at a gap in an iron soldier's armor, leaving a dark red bloodstain on his finger.

"There seems to be something in there," Ji Xun murmured to himself.

He entered the dining room. The butler had already cleared away the players' leftovers and laid out fresh plates and cutlery.

Ji Xun took a table knife and pried hard at the gap in the armor.

An oval object fell out.

Fang Rui wiped it clean. It was a lustrous gemstone.

"When the maid died, her blood probably kept running down the gaps in the armor. Once it dried, it covered the gemstone that happened to be lodged there," Fang Rui explained.

"The gemstone probably hasn't been stuck here for long. Look." Ji Xun scraped the blood clean from the gap in the armor.

The spot where the gemstone had been lodged was just as rusted as the surrounding areas.

Tang Cha said, "This gemstone looks expensive. Could it belong to the mistress?"

Fang Rui pointed to the photograph of the owners. "It looks like the mistress's earring."

The mistress was also wearing a gemstone earring in the photograph, though its color differed from this one.

Ji Xun asked Fang Rui to put the gemstone away, then they went to the maid's room.

The maid's room was opposite the butler's and the cook's rooms. When they pushed the door open, a strong perfume scent hit them.

Tang Cha sneezed at the overpowering smell and frowned. "This stinks. Was someone murdered in here? Why spray so much perfume?"

Compared with the rooms they were staying in, the maid's room was very plain.

The wardrobe held several maid uniforms, mostly in black and white.

It was clear the maid was usually very busy. There was almost nothing for leisure or entertainment in the room, which was as bare as a model room.

But Fang Rui keenly noticed that, in a corner of the wardrobe, a piece of "clothing" Ji Xun found extremely strange was wrapped inside the folded maid uniforms.

Lu Jiancheng quickly covered Tang Cha's eyes, but Tang Cha had already seen it. The corner of his mouth twitched. "This... I really don't know what to say."

Ji Xun asked in puzzlement, "What is that?"

Fang Rui flushed slightly and said flatly, "Lingerie. It looks like the maid had a lover in this mansion."