Thinking Forest Mansion (12)

With that, Ji Xun drew his blade and slashed at Deng Tianyu.

The man had malicious intentions. Who knew how many lives he had taken? Letting him live would only invite trouble down the line.

Deng Tianyu dodged clumsily. Ji Xun's blade struck the wall behind him, leaving a deep gash.

"How about we cooperate? I'll tell you everything I know." Deng Tianyu raised his hands in surrender, trying to persuade Ji Xun.

Ji Xun smiled faintly and gave a single-word answer: "No."

He twisted his wrist. Just as Deng Tianyu was about to take a slash he could no longer dodge, he shouted, his voice cracking slightly: "The killer is the Male Host!"

[Ding-dong-]

[Player Deng Tianyu has successfully cleared the instance]

A moment before he vanished from the tunnel, Deng Tianyu spat at Ji Xun, "Just you wait."

"Tsk." Ji Xun regretfully sheathed his blade.

It was his own fault for slacking off lately. Without work, he had barely handled his blade. Otherwise, he could have cut down ten men like Deng Tianyu.

Ji Xun earnestly reflected on his failings, then continued along the tunnel.

After he passed through the pitch-black tunnel, the space suddenly opened up.

Then Ji Xun caught an awful stench, like rotting corpses mixed with human waste.

It nearly knocked him off his feet, and he hurriedly held his breath.

With no air circulation underground, bodies would also decompose more slowly.

The two corpses locked in the underground cell were a case in point.

One was less decomposed, and he could make out a young woman with a voluptuous figure. The other had been there much longer and had already begun to skeletonize, but its skeletal features suggested a tall, well-built man.

Judging by the extent of decomposition, these were probably the bodies of the Maid and Mr. Lin.

"Strange."

Putting aside why the Maid's body was here, had Mr. Lin, a fabulously wealthy man and the mistress's late husband, not even been given a grave after dying of illness?

Black mushrooms grew thickly around the two bodies. There was no telling how many corpses had nourished them.

A palm-sized notebook lay beside the Maid's body, its cover thoroughly fouled by fluids from the decomposing corpse. Ji Xun's face scrunched up. With a sigh, he resigned himself to picking the foul-smelling notebook up off the ground.

Before leaving the hidden chamber, Ji Xun suddenly remembered something. He returned to the two corpses and abruptly drew his blade-

When Tang Cha received Ji Xun's message, he was sitting at the dining table with the grim resolve of a man facing death. What lay before him seemed less like a fragrant bowl of chicken and mushroom soup than a hellish witch's brew that could send him to meet his maker at any moment.

Keeping Gu Rui's warning firmly in mind, the players only dared touch dishes without mushrooms, but they were clearly eating less than they had in the previous days.

The Butler frowned slightly. "Are our guests dissatisfied with the Cook's skills?"

The players' hands froze. Everyone stopped eating, but no one dared answer.

Lu Jiancheng exchanged a glance with Fang Rui, then slapped the table. "That's right. What kind of food is this?"

The Butler smiled, seemingly mocking him for courting death.

He returned to the kitchen. A moment later, the Cook stormed out, cleaver in hand.

He slammed the cleaver onto the table and stared coldly at Lu Jiancheng. "You're saying my food tastes bad?"

The Cook looked fierce, but Lu Jiancheng looked even fiercer.

Lu Jiancheng lifted his chin slightly and gave the Cook a contemptuous smile. "One look tells me you're a frog in a well who's never tasted anything good. Little Cha, tell him the best way to cook chicken."

"Hmm... huh?" Tang Cha had been nervously stealing glances toward the kitchen. Caught off guard by being called on, he could only steel himself under the Cook's look of "Go on, let's see what you've got" and say, "How do you make chicken taste good? How do you... oh! Of course, the finest ingredients often call for the simplest cooking methods-"

Tang Cha swore he had never worked this hard at making things up, not even for his college entrance exam essay. Just as he was running out of words and about to start spouting nonsense about chicken sashimi, Ji Xun finally descended like a god.

"Ji Xun!"

Tang Cha looked deeply aggrieved, as though he had suffered terribly.

Ji Xun narrowed his eyes slightly and said disdainfully, "Why are you out here fooling around again? Have you finished cooking? Is everyone satisfied?"

The Cook swallowed his anger and returned to the kitchen with his cleaver.

The Butler forced a smile. "Where did you go just now?"

Ji Xun said, "Just wandering around. Your mansion has some lovely scenery."

The Butler said, "Tomorrow is the deadline. Have you discovered who killed my mistress?"

All the players looked expectantly at Ji Xun. They had heard the announcement that Deng Tianyu had cleared the instance.

Those two must have discovered some clue earlier.

"What's the rush? We still have another day, don't we?" Ji Xun no longer bothered going to the trouble of catching wild chickens. He sat down at the dining table and leisurely began eating dinner.

His movements were as elegant as those of a medieval nobleman, a pleasure to watch.

If not for the mushrooms' side effects, the Cook's culinary skills were actually quite good.

After dinner, the players waited anxiously in the living room for Ji Xun to reveal the answer.

Ji Xun thought for a moment, then pointed to the portrait of the master and mistress on the first floor. "The man is the one who killed the mistress. Anyone who wants to leave can submit the answer."

The players exchanged glances. They wanted to leave, but what if Ji Xun had given them the wrong answer?

Although the humanity covenant stipulated that players could not kill one another in instances other than faction-versus-faction ones, no rule forbade scheming to harm others.

Never trusting NPCs completely and guarding against teammates' backstabbing were principles practically etched into every player's bones.

Seeing that the players still hesitated, Ji Xun remained unhurried.

Liu Jincheng gritted his teeth and said, "Ji Xun, I owe you my life this time. I hope we'll meet again someday. The killer is the Male Host."

[Player Liu Jincheng has successfully cleared the instance]

Once they saw that he had really cleared the instance safely, the other players stopped hesitating and began giving the correct answer.

Just then, someone stood up, his face flushed and his gaze evasive. "Um... what exactly did you all see last night?"

Another man stood beside him, looking equally embarrassed.

Gu Rui coughed lightly and answered with an equally evasive gaze. "It was so dark last night that we didn't see anything. Besides, I kept my eyes closed the whole time I was knocking you out. Don't worry."

The young couple looked utterly mortified. On the verge of tears, they said, "Thank you."

Only the five of them remained in the living room. Ji Xun asked Gu Rui, "You're not leaving?"

Gu Rui looked earnest. "I want to team up with you."

Not just for this instance, but for future ones as well.

Ji Xun neither agreed nor refused. He merely said, "Let's go back to the room first."

As soon as they returned to the room, he took a small notebook from his pocket and tossed it to Tang Cha.

Tang Cha caught it instinctively, then nearly departed this beautiful world.

Tang Cha cried, "Help! It's a biological weapon! Get it away! Get it away!"