"Could the bride be a man?"

They carried their freshly filled buckets back to the Village Chief's house.

Creak-

Qian Xin pulled open the door to the Village Chief's house. One glance inside made him flinch so hard he nearly spilled the water he had just fetched.

At some point, the Village Chief had appeared inside, dragging Li Hongqiang's corpse.

He gripped Li Hongqiang's ankles tightly and dragged him toward the door. The corpse lay faceup, a long smear of blood trailing from its head.

He stopped, raised his head, and gave them an eerie smile.

"Who wants to give me a hand?"

Li Xian walked steadily over to the corpse, stopped, and lifted Li Hongqiang's shoulders.

"I will."

Qian Xin and Xu Yao barely dared to breathe as they watched Li Xian and the Village Chief each lift one end of the corpse. Both men's clothes were stained with blood, especially Li Xian's white shirt, where the red stood out starkly.

But he seemed completely unconcerned about the blood on his clothes and hands. His expression was even calmer than the Village Chief's as he followed him out of the house with steady steps.

"...The younger generation really is something." Qian Xin wiped the cold sweat from his temple.

Zhao Fengyi stared after Li Xian until he disappeared from view. Only then did he turn around and notice Song Qingzhang staring absently at something.

He followed the other man's gaze and saw a bright red wedding dress hanging on the living room wall.

Was that the bride's wedding dress? Why was it here?

Zhao Fengyi approached and patted Song Qingzhang on the shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"The bride I saw that day was wearing this exact wedding dress."

Xu Yao came closer. Not daring to touch it, she merely held out her hands to gauge its size and asked in confusion, "Isn't this dress rather big?"

At the very least, it would have been too large to fit her properly.

So far, they had not seen a single young person in the village. The remaining elderly people were stooped, few of the middle-aged men stood over a hundred and seventy-odd centimeters tall, and the women were even shorter. Why was the bride so tall?

The word "size" caught Zhao Fengyi's attention. Song Qingzhang had said that the bride, Li Xiaojuan, was tall, almost as tall as Li Xian. Looking at this wedding dress now, he really had been right.

The wedding dress was damaged in several places, which puzzled Xu Yao. "Where did they find this? Why is it so torn up?"

"The Village Chief fished it out of the river yesterday."

"Huh?" Xu Yao froze. "Then...could the bride have drowned in the river? Are we supposed to dredge her body up from the bottom?"

They had gone to look at the village's river yesterday too, but only dared to watch from a distance. Aside from the water they had to drink, no one wanted to touch any water source in this instance.

Their expressions grew grave.

Song Qingzhang moved a few steps closer and began examining the dress carefully. Suddenly, he noticed something seemingly tangled around the decoration on its cuff.

Meanwhile, Li Xian was halfway there with the Village Chief. Although he did not know where they were taking the corpse, judging by their direction, it was probably the river.

They encountered several villagers while carrying the corpse to the river, but not one showed any panic or fear. They simply nodded to the Village Chief and walked past him, as though they could not see the corpse in his hands.

That absurd scene was even eerier than the corpse he was holding.

"Oh!"

Li Xian gave a soft cry, and his hands slipped off the corpse's shoulders. Li Hongqiang's head dropped to the ground.

Under the Village Chief's gaze, Li Xian rubbed his palms. "My palms got sweaty and slipped...It's pretty scary having to keep looking at his face. Let's switch ends."

"..."

The Village Chief said nothing, but walked over to Li Xian's end and lifted Li Hongqiang's head. Li Xian went to lift his feet instead.

They set off again and carried the corpse all the way to the river.

A few steps from the bank, the Village Chief signaled for Li Xian to put the corpse down.

"Help me throw him into the river."

Li Xian glanced at the Village Chief. Instead of using his hands, he slipped his foot beneath the corpse and kicked it hard toward the water.

The corpse rolled over once and fell into the river, its outline gradually disappearing beneath the surface.

Rather than drifting downstream, the corpse sank straight to the bottom.

It was exactly like the scene he had secretly witnessed that night. He had not been mistaken after all.

Having confirmed that, Li Xian was about to move away from the bank when the Village Chief suddenly asked:

"Do you know how many bodies are in this river?"

Li Xian instinctively turned to look into the river, and the Village Chief seized the opening to reach out and shove his back-

"Why don't you go down and see for yourself?"

As he looked toward the water, he happened to lean a step forward, taking much of the force out of the Village Chief's shove. But he was too close to the bank, and he still stumbled toward the river.

Li Xian swung his hand through the air, seemingly trying to grab the Village Chief to steady himself. He failed, his palm merely brushing past the hem of the Village Chief's clothes.

"Village Chief-someone's looking for you at the Ancestral Hall."

Just then, a villager called out from nearby.

The Village Chief glanced back. When he turned his eyes forward again, Li Xian had somehow already regained his balance.

His toes were only a few centimeters from the water.

A flicker of regret crossed the Village Chief's eyes. Then he walked toward the villager who had called him as though nothing had happened.

Li Xian rubbed the key hidden in his palm and hurried back to the Village Chief's house.

[Huh? What's the streamer holding?]

[He put it in his pocket. Was that a key?]

[A room key?]

[Doesn't look like it. The players' room keys are brass, but the one the streamer pocketed looked silver...]

[Silver? Isn't the key the Village Chief uses to open the iron gate silver?]

[Right...Holy shit, when did the streamer steal it?!]

[Was it when the Village Chief nearly pushed him into the river? I saw his hand brush against the Village Chief's pants then.]

[But how did he know the key was in the Village Chief's pants?]

[...Remember when the streamer lost his grip on the corpse and switched places with the Village Chief?]

[I think he might have felt around for it then.]

[...]

[Didn't expect the streamer to have such a wide-ranging skill set.]

[But I like it!]

[Player *** tipped the streamer 66 points.]

Meanwhile, Song Qingzhang reached out and removed something he had spotted in the wedding dress's sleeve. He pinched it between his fingertips, his expression suddenly turning serious, then concealed it in his palm.

But Qian Xin, standing beside him, noticed.

"What did you find on it?"

Song Qingzhang paused, then quickly shook his head in denial. "Nothing."

"Stop hiding it. I saw you!"

Annoyed by his secrecy, Qian Xin reached out to pry open Song Qingzhang's hand. Zhao Fengyi and Xu Yao noticed their argument too and turned to look.

Realizing he could not hide it, Song Qingzhang had no choice but to open his palm.

"What's this...a hair?" Qian Xin took the strand and asked, baffled, "Why would you hide this?"

"..." Song Qingzhang did not answer.

Xu Yao examined the strand, then took it in her hand and said uncertainly, "This looks like...wig hair?"

"Huh?" Qian Xin exclaimed in surprise. "Was the bride bald or something?"

"That doesn't seem likely. Could she have worn a wig specifically for her wedding hairstyle?"

"That's still a little strange..." Qian Xin felt that something was off, but could not put his finger on it.

Zhao Fengyi remained silent for a long time. He seemed to have sensed that Song Qingzhang was hiding something too, and asked:

"What exactly did you notice?"

Song Qingzhang opened his mouth, but no sound came out, making Qian Xin impatient.

"If you found something, say it! This is an instance. Missing one crucial piece of information could mean we can't clear it!"

Song Qingzhang gritted his teeth. "Nothing! I just thought there was something odd about this hair...I wanted to take it back and examine it..."

Everyone could tell he was lying. Seeing that he had no intention of talking, Qian Xin grew impatient and raised his fist as though he was about to hit him.

Zhao Fengyi stopped Qian Xin and earnestly urged, "Hiding clues doesn't help any of us. You've seen how dangerous this instance is. It's especially hard for newcomers to survive...Only by sharing clues can we work out a solution together."

Under Zhao Fengyi's persuasion, Song Qingzhang finally spoke:

"I was wondering, could the bride be a man?"

[Oh no! Is the streamer's cover about to be blown?!]

[This Song Qingzhang kid usually doesn't look all that bright. How did he figure something like that out?]

[Don't panic yet. Even if he guessed right, it won't matter unless someone believes him. Look at those people. They look like they've seen a ghost...]

[Honestly, if I hadn't witnessed everything myself, I wouldn't believe it either. It's just too bizarre.]

"What? A man? What the hell are you talking about..."

Qian Xin's immediate response was to reject the idea. He thought Song Qingzhang's theory was utterly ridiculous.

Zhao Fengyi and Xu Yao looked equally baffled. The former scratched his head and somewhat reluctantly asked:

"Why do you say that?"

Song Qingzhang said, "I just...randomly thought of it after finding this wig hair. Don't games always have those, you know...guys who look gorgeous dressed as women? Hahaha."

Song Qingzhang gave a couple of awkward laughs, and the atmosphere sank into unspeakable embarrassment along with them.

After a stretch of silence, Qian Xin complained, "Just because of that? Then why did you hide the wig hair and look so serious? And why wouldn't you answer when we asked?"

Song Qingzhang's face was now bright red. "Because saying it out loud...was too embarrassing..."

Zhao Fengyi sighed and patted Song Qingzhang's shoulder with a look of pity. "Ah...It's all right. You're still a newcomer. There's room to improve."

[Pretty cross-dressing guys, my ass. And here I thought he'd actually figured something out.]

[Scared me too...Turns out this kid just has a wild imagination.]

[As long as the streamer's cover is safe.]

Seeing that the conversation had been diverted, Song Qingzhang finally breathed a sigh of relief and patted his burning cheeks.

His tendency to blush whenever he lied had actually come in handy this time.

Just as the subject was about to be dropped, Li Xian suddenly appeared in the doorway, looking at the strangely tense group in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"