Thinking Forest Mansion (7)

Unsurprisingly, Ji Xun and the others were kept awake by the noise all night again.

They heard cabinets opening and closing upstairs, along with something banging against the walls. By the time they got up that morning, Tang Cha looked as haggard as a scholar who had had his yang energy sucked out.

"Human or ghost, could they at least let people sleep? How rude." Tang Cha complained nonstop, radiating so much resentment that even a ghost might have been afraid to approach him.

[Remaining players: 17]

The players were all startled. Another three people had died overnight.

The remaining players gathered in the first-floor living room and found that only Brother Dong and his two lackeys had yet to show up.

There was no question that those three were the ones who had died.

Deng Tianyu's expression was grave. "From now on, no one should go anywhere alone. I'll set up a group chat in a bit. Report anything unusual immediately. I'm sure you've realized by now that this is no ordinary B-rank instance."

They searched throughout the mansion and finally found the bodies of Brother Dong and his two lackeys in the mistress's bedroom.

Their deaths had been exceptionally gruesome.

One lackey sat inside the wardrobe, a pair of fishnet stockings wound tightly around his neck. The other lay on the bed with a bizarre smile on his face, his eyes still wide open.

As for Brother Dong, his body lay in front of the wardrobe, but his head had fallen inside it.

The stench of blood hit Deng Tianyu as he opened the wardrobe. Even these battle-hardened veteran players were startled by the grotesque sight.

"Could it be because Brother Dong disrespected the mistress yesterday?" one of the players asked cautiously.

Those three had searched the wardrobe yesterday, and all the players had witnessed just how rough their actions and how vulgar their words had been.

"For our own safety, we need to be more careful from now on," Deng Tianyu said gravely.

When the Butler saw their bodies, he once again put on a regretful expression and declared that this had been a deeply tragic accident.

The players watched his nonsense coldly. By now, they were just as suspicious of the Butler as they were of the Cook.

"Have time for a chat?" Gu Rui stopped Ji Xun, then added to reassure him, "We can go to your room."

Ji Xun nodded and casually shut the door, cutting off everyone else's curious stares.

Ji Xun sat on the bed with his legs crossed, while the others folded their arms and eyed Gu Rui warily.

It felt rather like a tribunal, making Gu Rui, seated on the sofa, look small, helpless, and pitiful.

Since they were here to talk, the person who had suggested it naturally had to speak first.

"I want to work with you," Gu Rui said earnestly.

Ji Xun gave a soft chuckle. "I can get my teammates through this instance myself. Why should I bring you along?"

If they were negotiating a partnership, he naturally had to squeeze every last bit of value out of the other party.

Gu Rui had thought that, as a veteran player in the top thirty of the Top 100 Ranking, partnering with him would be mutually beneficial. He hadn't expected the other man to dismiss him completely.

Ji Xun: What's a veteran player? Can you eat it?

He didn't even think much of Yuan Ci, let alone Gu Rui.

"I found the key to the Painting Studio." Deflated, Gu Rui revealed his trump card.

"I see." Ji Xun rubbed his chin.

Gu Rui took an old-fashioned key out of his inventory. "I found this under the mattress in the Master Bedroom."

They all talked about sharing information, but everyone had their own agenda.

"Don't you have any teammates?" Fang Rui asked curiously.

Although she was the only woman in this game, Gu Rui didn't dare underestimate her. "I've always been on my own."

With no guild and no teammates, he had fought his way into the Top 100 Ranking single-handedly.

If this instance hadn't made him feel a greater sense of danger than ever before, Gu Rui would never have proposed working with anyone else.

He breathed a sigh of relief when Ji Xun accepted the key. "Did you really hear noises at night?"

Fang Rui nodded, then asked, "You believe us?"

Gu Rui's expression was grave. "I've always been very cautious. There's no way I'd let myself sleep too deeply at night. But these past two nights, it's been like I was drugged. I was barely aware of anything."

Few players in these endless survival games could sleep soundly, yet everyone in this game had been sleeping unusually deeply at night.

Only Ji Xun and his three teammates were exceptions.

Rather than believing Ji Xun and the others were lying, Gu Rui found it more likely that he himself had fallen victim to something.

Ji Xun stood and shook the key in his hand. "Come on. Let's check out the Painting Studio first."

The Painting Studio was at the end of the second-floor corridor. As soon as they pushed the door open, a strong fragrance greeted them.

It was exactly the same scent as in the Maid's Room.

The Painting Studio's windows were shut tight, which might have been why the scent still hadn't dissipated.

"I asked the Butler earlier," Gu Rui said. "The mistress liked to paint, so Mr. Lin had this Painting Studio set up especially for her. After Mr. Lin died, she sealed it off because she was afraid being here would bring back painful memories."

"Clearly, this Painting Studio, lovingly prepared for the mistress, became a place for her husband and the maid to carry on their affair," Fang Rui said with a cold laugh.

"Huh?" Gu Rui looked stunned.

Tang Cha clicked his tongue and filled him in on the mansion's sordid gossip.

"That's awful." Gu Rui was dumbfounded. "Everyone knew, and they only kept the mistress in the dark?"

"No, she found out too." Ji Xun lifted the white cloth covering a framed painting. "Look."

A woman in a long black dress stared ahead with resentment written across her face.

It was a self-portrait of the mistress.

Directly in front of the painting stood a sofa large enough to lie down on.

Tang Cha couldn't suppress a shudder.

When the master and the maid had been tumbling passionately on that sofa, had they ever imagined a pair of eyes like these staring fixedly at them?

Lunch was served right on time.

Gu Rui had intended to follow Ji Xun and the others' lead and skip the dining room too.

But Ji Xun whispered a few words in his ear.

A conflicted look crossed Gu Rui's face before he gritted his teeth. "All right. I'll try."

He went downstairs for lunch looking as though he were marching to his death, while Ji Xun and his three teammates continued searching the Painting Studio for clues.

"Brother Ji, what did you tell him?" Tang Cha asked curiously.

"You'll find out tonight," Ji Xun said mysteriously.

While they were talking, Fang Rui had already picked out several paintings she thought were suspicious.

Each painting depicted two people. Two of them showed the mistress with a man.

Fang Rui guessed that those might be portraits of the mistress with Mr. Lin and with the master.

"Seven portraits," Lu Jiancheng said. "Could they be related to those seven Marriage Contracts?"

"That's possible," Tang Cha chimed in. "Look how much the women in these paintings resemble each other. They're clearly related."

"So the mistress was painting portraits of her elders?"

Ji Xun stared at the portraits for a long time before suddenly saying coldly, "No. The women in these portraits are all the same person."