Thinking Forest Mansion (5)

Ji Xun had wanted to go out and take a look, but Tang Cha blocked the doorway and refused to let him leave, no matter what he said.

The four of them managed to fall asleep despite the noise. Only after daybreak did they go out to see what had happened the night before.

But the moment they opened the door, Tang Cha got a fright.

Someone lay facedown not far from their door. Although they couldn't see his face, his clothes identified him as one of the players.

He lay on the floor with a large pool of blood beneath his head.

The players on the second and third floors emerged from their rooms one after another, all startled by the sight of the man on the floor.

Gu Rui looked grave as he asked Ji Xun, "What happened here?"

Ji Xun told the others about the conversation they had heard last night, then asked, "You didn't hear it?"

Gu Rui shook his head and looked at Deng Tianyu.

Deng Tianyu was frowning deeply too. "I went to bed pretty early yesterday. I didn't hear anything."

"Is he dead?" one player asked cautiously.

There was really no doubt about it. With all this noise around him, he still hadn't moved a muscle. He couldn't possibly be alive.

Gu Rui turned the man over, and everyone gasped.

His face was covered in blood, and the culprit was a long nail driven between his eyebrows.

"It's Li Hongbo. Wasn't he sharing a room with you?" Brother Dong dragged a player forward, pointed at the corpse on the floor, and barked, "What happened here?"

The player looked terrified and shook his head frantically. "I don't know! I'm a heavy sleeper. I didn't even know when he left the room. When I woke up this morning, both he and Wan Mingfei were gone."

Wan Mingfei!

Ji Xun pushed past the player and ran to the second-floor railing.

There were fresh scratches on the railing. Ji Xun followed them with his gaze and looked down.

"Oh my God! That's Wan Mingfei!"

A man was impaled on the Iron Soldier's spear, his blood running through the gaps in its armor and pooling across the floor.

It was Wan Mingfei, whose left hand had been chopped off yesterday.

[Players remaining: 20]

A heavy mood settled over the players. Death was hardly unusual in the game, but what was strange was that, as far as the other players were concerned, these two had died without a sound.

The players had actually assumed that, if anyone died, it would be Ji Xun and the other three who hadn't eaten the feast. They had never expected it to be Wan Mingfei, who had already been punished.

The butler hurried over and was shocked to see Wan Mingfei on the spear. "Good heavens."

He also looked deeply regretful when he saw Li Hongbo. "He cracked the floorboards in the corridor underfoot. After tripping, he happened to land on a nail beneath the floor. How terribly unfortunate."

The butler shook his head and sighed repeatedly.

As for Wan Mingfei's death, the butler explained that the floor near the railing had been waxed. Perhaps, in his panicked flight, Wan Mingfei had accidentally gone over the railing.

In short, both deaths had been tragic accidents.

The players found his explanation plausible, but extremely far-fetched.

"Wan Mingfei kept shouting that there was a ghost last night," Ji Xun suddenly said.

The butler froze, then gave an awkward smile. "How could that be? How could ghosts exist in this world?"

Ji Xun chuckled softly. "True."

No one knew how the butler had disposed of the bodies, but when the players returned to the first-floor dining room at noon, Wan Mingfei's and Li Hongbo's bodies were gone, and the blood on the floor had been cleaned away.

The players' searches that morning had yielded almost nothing. The butler also appeared at an opportune moment to announce that he would unlock the couple's bedroom that afternoon.

Ji Xun and the other three still planned to provide their own lunch.

As he ate, Tang Cha asked, "Ji Xun, why were we the only ones who heard anything last night?"

Their room was the only one near the stairs, but Wan Mingfei had been howling so loudly that even someone on the first floor should have heard him.

Lu Jiancheng asked, "Could there really be a ghost?"

Ji Xun shook his head. "Mystery-solving instances don't have ghosts or monsters. Besides, I didn't sense any last night."

At the time, Wan Mingfei had sounded as though something was chasing him.

Assuming something really had been chasing him, would Li Hongbo have been bold enough to disregard the butler's warning and leave the room alone to save him?

Ji Xun certainly didn't think those two were close enough to risk their lives for each other.

The butler opened the couple's bedroom.

The room was exquisitely decorated, with curtains draped over the bed and teacups still sitting on the little table by the window.

Warm and bright.

A photograph of the couple hung on the wall, though the mistress was still dressed entirely in black.

Now that they thought about it, perhaps she had been mourning that Mr. Lin.

The butler sighed. "The master treated his wife very well. Look at that dressing table. He made it for her himself. He even polished the mirror bit by bit with his own hands."

Although the dressing table was handmade, there wasn't a single rough edge to the touch. Its maker had clearly finished it with great care.

After speaking, the butler bowed slightly and left the players to search the room on their own.

Brother Dong and his group searched roughly, leaving the mistress's wardrobe in complete disarray.

Fang Rui frowned and looked away.

By contrast, Ji Xun was very careful. He looked through the mistress's jewelry box, then put everything back in its original place.

"Find anything?"

Ji Xun pointed to an earring in the jewelry box.

It was identical to the one they had found in a gap in the armor.

The four exchanged knowing looks. This had to be the other earring.

"This mistress had a naughty side hidden away, huh?" One of Brother Dong's lackeys pulled a crumpled bundle from the wardrobe.

Unfolded, it turned out to be Fishnet Stockings.

"Holy shit! Let me see!" Brother Dong practically shoved his head into the wardrobe, but there was nothing else besides those Fishnet Stockings.

Gu Rui frowned, looking impatient. "Enough. It's a married couple's bedroom fun. What's it to you?"

They had thought they would find something important in the couple's bedroom, but in the end, they still came up empty-handed.

They had also visited the piano room and the art studio, but there was nothing remarkable in either.

The entire mansion was so clean it was as though no one had ever lived there.

"Well? Find anything?"

After they left the master bedroom, Deng Tianyu ran over to talk to Ji Xun.

Ji Xun gave him an odd look and asked in return, "Did you find anything?"

Deng Tianyu shrugged. "No."

"Oh." Ji Xun's face was expressionless. "I did, but I'm not telling you."

Deng Tianyu: ...

Back in their room, Tang Cha eagerly raised his hand to answer first. "That earring belonged to the mistress! Those Fishnet Stockings belonged to the Maid!"

"Good answer. Then why were the Fishnet Stockings in the mistress's wardrobe?" Fang Rui asked.

Tang Cha racked his brains before finally shaking his head. "I don't know."

Lu Jiancheng draped an arm around Tang Cha's shoulders like a kindly older brother and spoke with the air of an experienced man. "Let me explain. There are only two possibilities in a situation like this: either someone put it there deliberately, or someone left it behind by accident. But either way, there's only one reason-a mistress challenging the lawful wife."

Realization dawned on Tang Cha. "So you mean the Maid left those Fishnet Stockings to reveal her affair with the Male Host to the mistress?"

Lu Jiancheng thought, That sounds right, but why does it sound so strange?

Ji Xun agreed with that interpretation too. "The butler is strange as well. He keeps telling us over and over how good the couple's relationship was."

The butler was a perfect example of someone protesting too much.

Perhaps the couple's deaths really were inextricably linked to the Maid.